Chapter 11:

We stopped to rest only a bit past where the moss ended. It was close enough that the moss’s light reached us but far enough away that we’d see any other light sources coming from the other end of the tunnel. Something we now had to worry about since my companions had their collars removed.

The other slaves might not notice, but it was better to be safe than sorry. And of course, there was always the danger of the bandits coming down. That was even more unlikely, but still a possibility we had to consider. For now, anyway.

Shui Jianfeng sighed in relief once we stopped and leaned against the bare stone tunnel wall. He slid down to the ground with a grunt and just lay there for a moment. Then he coughed again. It was still violent and sounded phlegm-filled. But, thankfully, it was only once.

I eyed him worriedly anyway. Especially since I saw some red on the hand he coughed into. “Are you really going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Shui Jianfeng said with a weak grin. “I breathed in some poisonous dust from a big mushroom. But I should be able to get it out of my system with some cultivating.”

I looked to Ming Lin for confirmation, then winced at the cold look I got before looking away from the young woman. Right… Guess she hadn’t forgotten what I’d done when I… destroyed her disguise?

“Alright, if you're sure,” I said quickly before deciding it was time to test out my new Skill. I’d just have to trust Shui Jianfeng knew what he was doing. And if I had to move a bit further away from Ming Lin to do it safely then… well that was just a benefit. “I’m just gonna move a bit away to test out my new Skill. I think it might be able to do more than just ensure we don’t suffer a cave-in.”

“Why do you need to move away?” Ming Lin asked, making me almost jump in surprise. I didn’t expect her to talk to me.

I turned to face her, but she still had that cold look on her face. “Well, it’s an ability that affects an area around me. It should only affect the earth of the tunnel, but I wanted to test it away just in case.”

“Alright,” Ming Lin said after a moment. “But stay within sight. And come back here if you see any torches or people.”

“Okay, will do,” I said, nodding before quickly walking away. Thankfully, it seemed she was content with glaring at me from time to time and not doing anything else in revenge. Though perhaps she would hold back only until I got us out of here…

I tried not to overthink that too much as I reached what I thought might be 5 yards away. It was probably more, which was fine by me. Better to leave a margin of error.

I crouched down and placed both hands on the ground to activate Earth Claws. It was only after a searing pain came from my right hand did I remember why that was a bad idea. I cursed slightly as the Skill failed and clutched my right hand with my left.

Shit, that hurt. Maybe even more than before.

“What happened?” a voice asked, and I flinched.

I looked up to see Ming Lin looking down at me. I hadn’t noticed her move. Her face was still far from friendly, but her focus was on my hand.

“Um, I’m not sure,” I said sheepishly after a second. “When I was using my Skill—the one to leech Qi—I had to force it to work harder to disrupt the collar. I guess it stressed something in my hand. Now, when I use Qi with my right hand, it hurts. I kinda forgot about it for a second.”

“Let me see,” Ming Lin said, crouching next to me and holding out a hand.

At her expectant gaze, I did as told and held out my right hand. She took it in her hands, which were surprisingly soft. I would have thought, given her weapon of choice and her profession, that they’d be calloused. Maybe it was a cultivator thing.

A soft light glowed from her hands, and I winced a bit as I felt… something. It was a bit odd and hard to describe. Not bad but… very odd.

“You’ve strained the meridians in your hand,” she said after just a moment, and the light faded. She looked up from my hand to stare at me with her strikingly green eyes. “It’s not too bad, but you will need to stop channeling Qi in your right hand for at least a day. Otherwise, you could start to cripple yourself. So don’t forget again unless you you wish to lose this hand.”

I gulped a bit at that and nodded. “Okay. Thank you for checking.”

Ming Lin just nodded at that expressionlessly before getting up. Then she walked away.

I held back a sigh of relief and then got to work on my test. One hand would be enough, so I reached down with my left hand and used Rock Claws again. Then I moved to the walls and carved out several small chunks of stone. I stacked them together against the wall and then deactivated my Skill.

After that, I took out one of my last two small spirit stones—I’d have to spend a little time getting more soon. But then I hesitated. Originally, I was gonna eat it so I had enough Qi for my new Skill, which needed double my current capacity. But would the boost I get cause Qi to flow through my right hand? It seemed to affect my whole body so…

I hesitated for another moment before I came up with better idea. One I wasn't sure would work, but would be better than having to wait a whole day to test this. I put the stone in my left hand, then activated Qi Leech.

In moments, I was full and starting to glow again. So I tried to activate my new Skill, Burrow Reinforcement. I could feel all my Qi concentrate in my chest and weakness washed over me. But a second later, the flow from the spirit stone I was leeching from increased once more, pushing away the fatigue. Then, after another moment of the Skill feeling like it wanted to collapse, it stabilized and a wave of Qi exploded out of me.

Tiredness hit me again right after and again was wiped away after another moment as Qi flooded my system. It seemed that this was another way for me to get over Qi cost requirements. But it was slow and potentially dangerous. Not something to use, unless for limited circumstances like my meridians being messed up.

I let out a sigh of relief and then looked down at my pile of rocks. Then grinned at what it had become. A perfectly smooth and single solid lump fused to the wall. Like it had always been that way. Perfect.

I pushed myself off my feet and made my way back over to the others. Shui Jianfeng was sitting cross-legged now and had his eyes closed. Probably cultivating. So, I quickly explained what I’d discovered and my plan to Ming Lin.

Ming Lin was quick to agree to my plan. Or more like she ordered me to help her do it. Not that I was gonna complain as it would have been a lot harder for me to fill the tunnel with chunks of stone by myself.

With her help, though, we finished very quickly. And after another slight wave of tiredness and another activation of Burrow Reinforcement, we were done.

“Well, at least that’s one problem solved,” I said, admiring the smooth wall that now blocked the way back up.

It cut off any path of retreat upwards but ensured that we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone noticing us now. And hopefully wouldn’t cause any suspicions. Since there was no way any of the other slaves could do this. And I doubted every one of the mining tunnels led to the mossy caverns. Some of them had to be dead ends, and as far as anyone else would know this would be one of them.

However, one thing did make us pause as we were building the wall. That was the possibility of us cutting off our source of fresh air. In the end, though, we figured that it likely wasn’t an issue. Just the parts of the mossy caverns we’ve been to have already been large. And given how far we could see they extended, it seemed unlikely for that to really be an issue.

“Yes,” Ming Lin said as she stared at the wall. “Now we just have one more problem to deal with.”

I frowned at that and couldn’t help but look back at Shui Jianfeng. He’d stopped coughing and looked to be doing better. Yet, Ming Lin seemed to have some kind of medical or healing training, and likely knew better. Was it worse than I thought?

“What problem?” I asked softly, hoping she was referring to something else. I also moved to sit down as I was tired. The fight, carving chunks of stone with just one hand, and using my Skills had drained me quite a bit.

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“Your weakness,” She said bluntly, making me frown up at her. “You’re tired, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” I said with a shrug. “After the serpents, and then digging out all the chunks of rock, is it surprising that I’m tired?”

“No, it’s not. But it is a problem. Just how deep do you think we are right now? Do you think, even with two hands, that you can dig us out of here as you are now? Even with how easily you can dig through stone? Do you think you could do it fast enough if we had an emergency?”

I winced at that. She was right. Going straight down the tunnels, it must have taken us hours to get this deep. Even as fast and easily as I can dig with Rock Claws, and even with the boosts I got from eating spirit stones, I would be lucky to be half as fast digging up as we were walking down.

Then there were all the stops I would need to take to reinforce things and the cooldown for eating spirit stones.

It would already be slow if all we cared about was getting out quickly to save the slaves. But if we had to rush because we needed to get someone to a doctor… Then the consequences would be even worse.

Which meant I needed to improve. Either get stronger to dig faster or get better Skills. Or at least somehow deal with all the cooldowns and lack of Qi. Qi leech would probably help with this, but not completely.

So, I would need to do more hunting and fighting. I wouldn’t be doing most of it, but I would have to be close enough to get the last hit. Not terrible if it was just the moles and small things like that we had to deal with. But I doubted what I could get from those would be enough. And even then, the mossy caverns made hunting those more dangerous, even if it made finding them easier.

Just great…

I looked back at Jianfeng, then looked at Ming Lin. She was still staring at the wall.

“Is it really that bad?” I asked in a whisper.

Ming Lin sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the kind of mushroom that poisoned him. He might be able to deal with it. He might not.“

“Then what should we do?”

Ming Lin looked back down at me. There was no glare this time, she was just looking me over. “We wait for now to see if Jianfeng can deal with it himself. I would go hunting and bring crippled beasts back for you to take from, but I think it's better if I stay for now in case anything happens. And you need the rest anyway. But… there is one thing you can do while resting to improve our chances.”

“What is it?” I asked, not sure how to feel about what she said about hunting alone. I hadn’t considered that. And it would be much safer for me. But… at the same time, it didn’t feel right to let her do that alone, even if it probably made the most sense.

Thankfully, that could be dealt with later.

“Cultivate, of course,” Ming Lin said simply. “You wanted to do it before. Now that we don’t need to go back up to camp, what’s stopping you from doing that?”

“Oh,” I said, perking up. “Right. So, can you teach me?”

“The basics,” Ming Lin said, nodding slowly. “Though how much it helps will depend on your talent. If you are extremely talented, you could reach Early Qi-Gathering in hours. If only talented, than a day or more. If you are neither of those… Well, it would be worth the attempt anyway, since even if you can’t reach Qi-Gathering, you could still improve your strength by cultivating Qi.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding at that before sitting up straight. “So what do I do?”

“Well, first off, do you have any more spirit stones?” Ming Lin asked. When I took out my last one to show to her, she nodded and began explaining things.

It… was both difficult and simple. It was simple because I already had an idea of how cultivation worked. Using some kind of technique—usually breathing—you drew in Qi into your body. Then you tried to move it through your meridians—spiritual pathways in your body—and I guess hope that it sticks and stays inside if you do it enough. And from what Ming Lin described, that was how it seemed to work in this world too.

The problems arose with the details. The breathing pattern was kinda difficult, but I managed it after a bit of practice. It was really just breathing in at certain intervals, breathing out, and occasionally holding my breath occasionally.

The real problem was actually getting the technique—the Imperial Truth, a very compatible cultivation technique spread by the empire—to actually do anything. I sat in silence, breathing in a particular pattern, while reciting a mantra in my mind that was supposed to get me into the right mindset.

Yet nothing happened. I knew that it would take time. I’d never meditated before after all, nor did I think I was all that talented. But the immediate results the System normally gave me made me extra impatient. And I couldn’t help but wonder if I was just untalented or doing it wrong as I felt nothing.

Even with the spirit stone in my hand, even having felt my own Qi before, and even having pulled in Qi from other sources before, I felt nothing at all.

It was super frustrating. And after another long moment of trying to clear my mind while reciting the mantra mentally, I decided I wanted to try something else. So I opened my eyes and let out a sigh.

I was met by a pair of unimpressed striking green eyes. At least they weren’t as cold as before. Just disapproving.

“You were at that for less than half an hour,” she said with her arms crossed. She was now leaning against the wall we’d made, watching both me and her friend. Unwilling to sit down. Probably so she could react faster in case of something sneaking up on us.

“Guess I’m just not talented,” I said with a sigh.

“Or not trying hard enough,” Ming Lin countered, making me wince.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, fighting off another sigh. “But I also have an idea of how to do this faster. Maybe. At the very least, I think I should try to play to my strengths.”

Ming Lin sighed but nodded. “Very well, what’s your idea?”

“I could try and use my ability to absorb Qi I got from the leech and—”

“No,” Ming Lin said as she firmly cut me off.

I frowned at that. “What? Why?”

Ming Lin shook her head. “I don’t know how your ability works. But what I do know is that deviating from cultivation techniques made by masters, even if you were already an experienced cultivator, is dangerous. For a complete novice like yourself, it would be like trying to juggle swords without having even tried with rocks.”

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” I asked, wondering what the risks were. If they weren’t too bad then—

“You could explode your dantian or meridians,” Ming Lin said, cutting off my thoughts. “The best case scenario there would be it leaves you a cripple for the rest of your life. Never able to cultivate again. The worst case is that the damage isn’t isolated, and you bleed out and die.”

“Oh…” I said, feeling stunned. I hadn’t realized that cultivation could be so dangerous. Or I suppose experimenting with cultivation was dangerous. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like it was a bit pointless for me to try and cultivate like this now. I clearly didn’t have some kind of amazing talent, and I had other paths open to me.

One wasn’t available now as… Well, there weren’t any acceptable targets down here. Like evil cultivators I could harvest—god my life is so twisted now. But there were plenty of spirit beasts. Beasts that cultivated in their own way.

“Okay, so no experimenting like that then,” I said with a nod. “I still think it might be a waste of time for me to cultivate like this. And… I might have another way to go about things. Not experimenting or anything. Just… What if I cultivated like a spirit beast?”

“Cultivate like a spirit beast?” Ming Lin asked with an incredulous look on her face.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I can take that ability too. It should just involve eating cores or spirit beast meat or something and eventually developing a core. Though admittedly, I don’t know how fast that would be. But given what I’ve managed to do with my abilities so far, it should be faster than me trying to learn to cultivate from scratch.”

Ming Lin’s confused expression morphed into a deep frown. “That… Well, it's your ability so I can only trust your word that you can do that. But do you understand the potential consequences?”

“Ugh… Well, maybe?” I hedged. I had no idea what it might do to my body, but I had a feeling that wasn’t what she was referring to. “If… If other cultivators notice I have a core like a spirit beast, would that be bad?”

Ming Lin considered that for a long moment before she shook her head. “I don’t know to be honest. But it's definitely possible. Cultivators with a spirit sense would be able to tell from what I understand. Not immediately and not at a glance unless they are very powerful. But unless you get the ability to hide it, it's likely eventually others would notice. And if that happened… I’m uncertain.”

She sighed for a moment and then started to pace slowly back and forth.

“Perhaps there are techniques that emulate spirit beast cultivation and you will just appear to be using a strange and esoteric technique. But if they think you're some kind of strange low-rank humanoid spirit beast… Well, you know my thoughts on the dangers of being unique, potentially useful, and weak. And it might be even worse in this case. Someone could try to claim you are a spirit beast pretending to be a human and use that as justification to attack or detain you.”

That… sounded rather problematic for the future. Which left the question, did I take the risk? Or should I just hope for other Skills and continue to try and cultivate?

“So, do you think I should get that ability?” I asked after a moment. Unable to stop myself, I glance back at Shui Jianfeng again. He looked mostly unchanged except… Was he sweating?

When I turned back to Ming Lin, she was frowning. She’d followed my gaze and was looking at her friend.

“That is something you will have to decide for yourself,” She said finally, though I could see her fists were clenched tightly. “You’ll be the one in danger long term if you choose to go that path. You’ll have to decide if you want to take that risk. And you still have time to think it over. He could still deal with this himself, and I’m not desperate enough to leave the two of you here defenseless while I go hunting for you.”

I frowned and looked back at Shui Jianfeng. Then I sighed and sat upright again before closing my eyes. If he couldn’t deal with this himself, then I would have to decide if I was willing to risk myself so much for someone I only met recently. Even if he did save my life before.

But maybe I could make it not an issue by figuring out how to cultivate.

I hoped so, anyway.