Chapter 16:

The wait for Ming Lin to return was agonizing. It took a lot longer than I thought, though whether it was time feeling slow or because the Marauders had gone further away or diverted their course, I didn’t know. All I could do was constantly worry that something might have gone wrong. That she’d end up captured, or worse, killed. But, despite how my mind kept whirling with more and more possible problems, I did my best to stay focused and prepared.

Because I really didn’t want everything to go right on her end, only for me to fuck it all up at the last moment because I got distracted.

So, when movement entered the edge of my range, I noticed it immediately. I tensed up, and when I felt the person in the lead about to reach our trap, I activated Burrow Creation. I focused on fusing the thin layer of rock and dirt above me into the edges of the pit trap. The Skill effects were almost immediate, and the pit opened up as the ceiling started to dissolve and flow apart.

Looking up, I saw through the shifting liquid-like stone Ming Lin’s long flowing hair. She easily leaped over the pitfall to the other side. Right on her heels were the Marauders, who had barely any time to react.

The first one fell with a yell of shock. I saw his surprised face drop by me, and then he was gone. The next reacted faster. He almost skidded to a stop, but the one behind slammed into him, and the two tumbled down.

Then one of them finally managed to react in time. He leaped over the hole and managed to land on the other side.

I glared at the sight and activated Spirit Stone Devouring’s boost. Power exploded through my body, and I glowed blue. Then the last man appeared right at the edge. He had much more time to stop, and his eyes quickly locked onto mine. He glared daggers down at me and started to unsheathe his sword.

I reacted faster and used Earth Spear three times. Arm-sized spears of rock shot out from the wall behind me towards him. He cursed, deflected one, then was forced to throw himself to the side to dodge the others.

I used that opportunity to flee back down the tunnel. Ming Lin would take care of the two up top since they would still be at full strength. My job was down below.

There was one more branch of the escape tunnel leading down to where the bottom of the pit was. I was supposed to make sure that any who fell were truly out of commission. And given the screams and cursing I could hear coming up from the pit, it was clear I still had work to do.

Once I reached the branching path, I touched the tunnel walls and activated Rock Claws. This time, I shaped them into two short swords attached to my hand as there wasn’t going to be much room to fight in the pit. Then I rushed in.

It took me only three strides to reach the pit and the men there. I just moved so fast with my new cultivation and boosted abilities. So I barely had time to think before I had to react.

One of the men was already on his feet, standing up amongst broken spikes. There was one lodged in his shoulder and a big wound on his leg. Despite that, he spun to face me with sword in hand.

But he was injured, and I had a lot of raw speed and strength. So I thrust out my sword and managed to catch him in the throat before he could even try to retaliate. And just like that, I took another human life. On purpose this time.

But I didn't have time to think about that. There was still one more Marauder alive down here. He was worse off with a spike sticking out straight through his thigh and another through his arm. Yet he somehow had ripped himself out of the ground. He was also a big man and looked pissed as all hell.

I tried to rush him and finish him off. But right after I took one step, he did something. There was no visible light, but I could feel the Qi emanating from him grow with my Earth Sense. Then he moved.

My instincts screamed at me, and I leaped back, crossing my two swords in front of my chest. Despite all my increased strength and speed, it was only barely enough to save my life. Even then, his saber, now glowing with a silver light, slashed out in a flicker and cut both my blades apart like they weren’t even there.

In what felt like slow motion, I saw him turn his blade, ready to bring it back up in a reverse slash. My heart beat hard in my chest, and I tried to do anything to stop it. But there was nothing I could do. My swords were broken and far too weak. And despite all his injuries, he was still far stronger and faster than I expected.

Damn it.

Another heartbeat passed, and I wondered if this would be it. Then he stumbled, flinching as his injured leg gave way.

And just like that everything seemed to go back to normal speed.

That small stumble let me just barely evade the second swing of his saber. I felt a shallow cut on my cheek but that was it. Then I fell on my ass, off balance by my desperate attempt to dodge.

Shit.

I backpedaled as the man glared at me hatefully and started limping towards me with his saber at the ready. The metallic silver glow on it returned, and each step sent terror up my spine. He was too fast for me to handle, and my weapons wouldn’t match him. I also couldn’t get away from him in these cramped tunnels underground—

My thoughts came to a halt as a realization hit me. The terror disappeared, and I leaned back. I activated Earth Wader.

The ground gave way as my back hit the earth, and it enveloped me as I sank in. I had just a second to hear the man curse and try to rush over to me before I was swallowed by darkness. Submerged, I rushed to delve deeper in case the man tried to break through the ground toward me.

Then, when I felt safe enough, I took a moment to consider my next move.

In the heat of combat, I’d forgotten one of my Skills. I didn’t want to do that again, but I also couldn’t waste too much time. The guy was injured and slowed, but he may still get back up the tunnel. And as strong as Ming Lin was, I didn’t want to make things any harder on her by making her deal with another bandit. Especially not with her injuries. They didn’t bleed and didn’t seem to affect her movements anymore, but I doubted she was back to 100%. She was also only armed with a pick.

Two ideas came to mind right away, both emulating how the lizards had fought.

I dismissed the first one quickly, however. That idea involved appearing just behind the guy and trying to drag him into the ground with me. It might just work, even if re-emerging from the earth slowed me down a bit, if I was careful enough. That would give me enough time to get a weapon and stab him while he was trapped in the ground. But, with how fast he’d already shown himself to be with his saber, I didn’t want to risk losing a hand making the attempt.

Thankfully, the second idea didn’t have that issue.

So I swam back up towards the pit, behind where the marauder was headed. Then I used Earth Spear. From within the ground, I couldn’t fully grasp where his whole body was, just the parts of his body that contacted the earth. But I could guess, and I planned to send enough spears to ensure I got a hit. All from the safety of the ground.

Or, at least, that had been the plan.

Unfortunately, instead of a spear forming from the earth and piercing into the man’s back, nothing happened. My Qi tried to reach out to the earth around me but failed to do anything. The Qi couldn’t mold and shape the earth around me for some reason.

It took me a second to realize why that was the case. It was Earth Wader. The two Skills couldn’t be used in concert for some reason. Which explained why those lizards had fought the way they had instead of doing what I tried to do.

I would have cursed if I wasn’t still immersed in the earth. Instead, I rushed to emerge from the ground before the man could get away. I didn’t emerge fully, though, just enough to get my upper torso and arms out, leaving me the opportunity to escape faster in case he turned to attack me again.

Then I tried to use Earth Spear once more. This time my QI reached out beyond the earth closest to me affected by Earth Wader. A spear of rock formed from the ground and shot towards the man’s back. I grinned in triumph and thanked the System for how automatic these Skills were, even as I launched several more spears back to back.

Yet despite my sneak attack, the man somehow sensed it and spun around. He cursed as he strained his damaged leg, but still managed to cut three of them apart with such force that the halves flew by him and did no damage. But I still had Qi, and his movements were even more fucked than before.

So I just kept launching them as I drained my reserves. Over and over again, the earth around me rose into condensed arm-length spears of rock. They shot out toward the man rapidly, and then he chopped them away.

But after the sixth one, the man started to slow down. He chopped one apart, but not as powerfully as before. Its fragments cut into him as they went by. Then it happened again and again, making him bleed over different parts of his body, even as he tried to move forward.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Yet the few steps he took towards me meant that the spears reached him just a bit faster. And eventually, he failed to stop one of them, and it hit him in the stomach. He shouted in pain, and then another spear sank into his chest. Another sank in right after that before one more went into his throat, and it was finally enough.

Blood gurgled out of the big man’s mouth. His body was tense and hate burned in his eyes. His saber was still held tightly in his hand. But he was done. After another moment, his body started to slacken. The fire in his eyes went out, and he fell to the ground, dead.

A blue halo appeared around his body.

I almost relaxed at that. But I remembered Ming Lin’s words and sank back down into the ground. When nothing happened, I had a second to wonder what to do. Before I decided to go help Ming Lin. She should have won her fight, but better to be safe than sorry.

Though before I rushed up, I reemerged in the pit again for a moment. I grabbed the sword of the first man I killed. Earth Spear was pretty powerful, but was Qi intensive to use a lot. And a real metal sword would be much better than the ones I could make from rock. So better armed, I dove back into the walls and swam up.

When I reached the surface, I didn’t sense anything in my range. I moved around for a moment and found nothing, causing me to worry even more. So I finally just emerged with my head out of the ground.

Immediately, I heard the sound of a shout in the distance and then the earth shook. I pulled myself out of the ground quickly and rushed over, leaping over a fallen tree to see what was happening. After pushing past some smashed-apart underbrush, I found myself in a rocky clearing where I found Ming Lin.

To my relief, she’d won.

One of the men she’d been fighting was slumped against a cracked boulder, his chest caved in. The other one was at Ming Lin’s feet. She was rising from a crouch, blood dripping from the fist that had smashed the man’s head in. Her hair swayed in the wind, and she looked exhausted. Her eyes were lidded, and her breathing was heavy. She had a new wound on her cheek and another gash on her other arm, but aside from that she seemed to be okay.

And despite appearances, she didn’t let down her guard at all. When I took another step towards her, her head snapped up, and her gaze locked onto me. But when she saw it was just me, relief filled her eyes.

“Are they all dead?” she asked, moving to loot an axe from the man at her feet.

“Yeah,” I said. “All dead.”

Ming Lin’s face scrunched at that as her breathing calmed. “Well, so much for interrogating them. Go back and search them for any pills or ointments. I’ll search these ones and return in a moment. Then we moved out just in case.”

“Alright,” I said, nodding quickly at the reminder of why we took this risk in the first place.

I rushed back towards the pit and the other tunnel entrance. As fast as I could, I made my way back to the three corpses and started to dig through their clothes. At another time, I might have been disgusted. But I didn’t want all of this to be for nothing, so I bore with it and searched.

The first man, the one with the sword, only had a small pouch with some coins, spirit stones, and a gourd. I cursed and quickly moved on to the next, the man who had actually died in the fall and to the spikes. Again, there were no pills, and I cursed.

Finally, I searched the big man’s body. I saved him for last because of his size, though I quickly realized that wasn’t as big of an issue as I thought. My newfound strength made it simple to move him around and search him.

Like the others, the big man had a pouch of coins and food on him. But as I patted him down, I found another pouch. Eagerly, I pulled it from where it was tied to his belt and opened it up. And inside was a jade bottle!

Gently shaking it and hearing something small rattling around inside confirmed my suspicions, and I shouted in excitement. Then I started rushing back down to where we left Shui Jianfeng. As I ran, I heard Ming Lin coming down behind, me and we both reached the small alcove where he lay together.

He was still lying on the ground, his skin deathly pale and his chest barely moving. My fist clenched at the sight, and I turned to Ming Lin and held out the bottle.

“Are these healing pills?” I asked hurriedly.

She quickly grabbed the bottle from my hand, and I noticed she had her own as well. Good. Double our chances. She poured the two bottles into her hand and examined them closely. Then she nodded and rushed to kneel by Shui Jianfeng.

She lifted his head into her arms and held one of the pills to his lips. She pushed it into his mouth, then massaged his neck to get him to swallow. Once he did, the two of us watched with bated breath.

Several moments passed like this.

Then Ming Lin slumped.

A cold numbness filled me at that. Was it not enough? Could we feed him the other pills? Maybe I could—

“He’s going to be okay,” Ming Lin said, her voice soft and relieved.

It caused my whirling thoughts to freeze.

“He is?” I asked after a second, staring at Shui Jianfeng and trying to see what she saw. He… still looked about the same. Though maybe his breathing was a little better? Maybe?

“Yes, his breathing is getting better slowly,” she said, just holding onto her friend for a moment. “I can also vaguely sense the poison being expelled little by little from his body. I don’t want to disrupt his efforts by trying to make sure, but he should be okay for now.”

“For now?” I couldn’t help but ask. I was really hoping for more.

“Yes,” she said, moving to stand up, and she laid him back down. “The pill you found was a healing one. Mine were only cultivation pills. It will give him time, but he still needs a healer to make sure he makes it. But we have time to get him to one now. And I have a map.”

She pulled out a folded-up piece of parchment from the sash around her waist and unfolded it. It was a rough-looking thing but had a lot of markings and landmarks on it.

“We should be here,” she said after a moment and pointed to the spot on the map. Then she drew her finger to the southwest. “This is the most direct way to Everlake City. But there are several marks for dangers, I believe. Spirit beast habitats that we will want to avoid. It would take several days for us to get to the city from here. Maybe less if we rushed, but we are in no shape to try that and potentially run head-first into danger.“

That… I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Did we have several days now thanks to the pills?

“Is there nothing closer?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“There might be…” Ming Lin said slowly, carefully studying the map. Then she pointed at something to the east of us. This is a town, I think. It’s not clearly marked, but I think I’ve been there before. There should be a local doctor there that can help. We should be able to make it there in a day without running head-first into danger.“

“What are our chances of encountering any help before then?” I asked, remembering Shui Jianfeng mentioning their friends possibly looking for them. “Shui Jianfeng mentioned that your friends in the city would have been looking for you two. Or at the very least, is there any chance we might run into more friendly people that might have more pills for us to borrow?”

Ming Lin took a moment to consider it. “It's possible that our friends might be searching for us out here. But there’s no way to know if they’ve tracked us down to this place. As for any other people in the Amberwood… It’s probably best if we stay away from them. Some might be kind. But more likely they will see our state of weakness as an opportunity. In fact…”

As she trailed off, Ming Lin moved to put away her map. Then she retrieved one of the non-healing pills she’d recovered from the Marauders. “I’m going to reapply my disguise technique. Just to prevent any unsavory attention if we do run into anyone.”

Right… I suppose two men would be less tempting of a target for potentially unsavory people as opposed to a man and a woman. It was an unpleasant thought but understandable given how this world seemed to be.

“Alright, you do that then,“ I said. “I’ll harvest the corpses in the meantime, and then we can leave.”

Ming Lin's head snapped towards me at that. I looked at her alarmed, then around us for any sign of danger, but there wasn’t anything. What was she…

Oh… I guess I never mentioned I could use my System on people before. Crap.

“You can use your ability on dead people as well?” Ming Lin asked slowly.

I winced but nodded. “Yeah…”

There was a long silence between us before she sighed. “You’ve saved both me and Jianfeng. So I will take this secret with me to the grave. But please do not reveal this to anyone else, and be cautious of observers in the future if you have to use it on people. Spirit beasts are one thing. But if you can take techniques from the dead, then every major faction in the city will either want you dead or as their slave. They guard their central techniques jealously, as they can make or break a clan or even sect.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said slowly, filing away this worry for later. I hadn’t thought of how people might react to me harvesting Skills from humans. At least not in that context. I’d mainly thought people would be disgusted by my desecrating of the dead. But in hindsight, given what I knew about cultivation and the importance of special techniques and stuff, it was obvious there was a much bigger concern. “Thank you then for telling me… I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” Ming Lin said before she popped the cultivation pill into her mouth. “I just need a moment to reapply my technique. I’ll meet you on the surface with Jianfeng, and we’ll move out. Remember to grab any food and water you find on the bodies. We will need it.”

I nodded at that and left Ming Lin to reapply her technique. I headed back to the pit, where I wondered for a moment if I should physically loot the bodies first before harvesting them. But then I remembered the man I’d taken the Swordsmanship Skill from. His body had disappeared, but his clothing and the items on him had remained.

So to make things easier on myself, I decided to harvest them first. Though before I did, I realized something that I hadn’t noticed while I’d been in a rush. All three bodies had blue halos around them. Which meant that even the one that I didn’t directly finish off was available to be harvested. Whether or not that was because the System considered the trap me killing the guy, or because environmental deaths were free harvests for me, I wasn’t sure.

But that was something I would have to explore later.

Instead, I focused on each of them and quickly read through all the Skills available to me. Then I made my selections, getting three more new Skills.

Metallic Razor Slash (D-Rank)

Minor Cultivation Talent (D-Rank)

Burst Step (D-Rank)

Once I made my choices, I needed a moment to deal with the rush of information from the Skills. The worst was the cultivation talent, as while it didn’t give me much information, it made me far more aware of the Qi running through me and the wisps of it in the air when I breathed it in. But this only lasted a moment, and once I was good, I started to head back up to the surface.

From there, Ming Lin—now back to looking like an effeminate man again—and I began our journey, finally leaving the tunnels and mines behind.