The village held a feast to celebrate Yu Quan despite his adamant protests. He learned that the village was called Bùtè Village and was a collective of mortals who were mostly born and raised there for generations. They numbered about a hundred people and mostly made money through trade. It was just a regular village of mortals.
…
“What!” Hei Guoliang yelled at the six men kneeling before him. “How could six late Bone Tempering stage cultivators not take out one measly Skin Tempering cultivator?”
Without looking up, one softly replied, “He’s much stronger than he seems. He took out four of us in one hit each. He threw these weird qi objects that looked almost solid; we couldn-”
Hei Guoliang, without his previous anger, cut off the man who was speaking. “Stop. What did you just say?”
“H-he created objects out of qi; they were solid.”
Hei Yongnian chimed in. “That’s right, Elder! The punches he threw weren’t like regular qi; they were almost completely solid.”
“Hmm… seems I found who intercepted the bandits from a few months ago… If this is really true, I’m not surprised you guys were dispatched so easily. Go! The family will handle this from here.”
…
The next day, Yu Quan was standing at the edge of the village, waving to the people of Bùtè Village. He had had fun eating, drinking, and telling stories with them, but now it was time for him to continue on his journey. He continued walking through plains, hills, forests, and any other terrain he encountered on his way. He ran into a few monster beasts but quickly scared them off with his killing intent. After another few days, Yu Quan finally reached the Laiyuandao region. The reason he could tell is that as he walked further into the region, he could feel the quality of the qi. It was rich in qi and had high purity.
“If there was qi of such quality when I was first cultivating…”
Yu Quan realized that the cultivators of the Laiyuandao region likely cultivated much quicker than the region he woke up in. He would take advantage of it now, but it still would’ve saved a lot of time. He decided to send a group of disciples here. Maybe even set up a branch once they expanded more.
Yu Quan waved away such thoughts, as they weren’t important now. He had to find the death-dealing damas. He went into the things he brought with him and took out a jade tablet he had gotten on Death-Dealing Damas. Reading into it, he cross-referenced their known locations with his map, hoping to be able to go straight there. When he found his general path, he immediately went on his way. He didn’t want to waste any more time.
…
After half a day, Yu Quan was now in one of the vast plains in the Laiyuandao region. The region was much larger than the one he was from, which meant the people there could afford to move to areas further from each other. If this were his region, it would be home to one or two forces. According to Yu Quan’s information, death-dealing damas frequented all the plains areas of the region, but with some input from Yan Liqin and some hearsay from the customers in the cult’s businesses, he was able to find specific areas they were more likely to be in. Although they could be wrong, it still narrowed down his search. He had spent the better part of an hour checking these spots. Having passed through two with no luck, he wasn’t expecting much from this next one.
He made his way over the hill he was currently walking on and quickly hopped back down as something caught his eye. He slowly peered his head over the hill to see an entire pack of beasts. They stood on four slim legs with a slightly wider body. Connected to the body was a tall, slender neck that held up a head topped with two sharp antlers curving in opposite directions.
“Isn’t that just a gazelle? Wait… damas?”
Yu Quan hadn’t realized until that moment that the name “dama” was similar to dama gazelles from his world. They looked very similar, except they were only one color, a deep, ash gray with beady red eyes. They were a lot more intimidating than the gazelles he was used to on Earth. These dama were in a pack of eight, all grazing and watching their surroundings. Yu Quan luckily made it back behind the hill quickly enough; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had enough time to make a plan. He tried to study them, but he couldn’t gauge their strength, and even then, there were eight of them.
“I guess I can only try my hand.”
Yu Quan stepped out from behind the hill and began heading over to the damas. He could blitz one of them, but he didn’t feel that was the safest move. One less dama was great, but what if he lost his life in the process? He just didn’t think it was smart. As he got closer, the damas began taking notice of him one by one. Once all eight of them were watching him come close, he felt an enormous wave of pressure hit him.
“Is this what killing intent feels like?”
It was horrible. Yu Quan almost couldn’t think. He didn’t believe one dama could affect him so much, so it had to be because of their numbers. Yu Quan winced a bit but was able to make it into a defensive stance. Seeing this, the dama didn’t look at each other, believing it was a sign of weakness, and all charged in. The pressure was intense, but not so intense that he couldn’t act. Yu Quan waited for them and used the [Yellow Qilin Dance] to strafe to the side.
B-Boom!
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Yu Quan heard two loud impacts as he moved out of the way. When he stopped strafing, he looked back to where he was standing and saw that each hoof of the dama closest to hit struck the ground, leaving two craters right next to each other.
“That’s… not good…”
Yu Quan couldn’t believe the strength of these beasts. Although he wasn’t the one to fight it, he was sure it was much stronger than the five-finned boar. Sure, he was stronger now, but there were also eight of these things attacking him. Even his current line of thinking was risky, as the damas were already getting into position again. After the first charge didn’t work, it seemed they were going to resort to swarm tactics. Keeping up their killing intent, they surrounded Yu Quan and were going to charge him from different angles, likely at random intervals. As bad as it was, there was little Yu Quan could do under such pressure from their collective killing intent. He remembered that the [Yellow Qilin Dance] could turn into an actual dance using the different steps, which would make it easy to move around all the damas and their attacks while still strengthening his attacks and defending himself if he made a mistake. But, this involved comprehension. He was able to perform some level of it in the tournament, but not to the extent the technique said was possible. Leveling up the skill just wouldn’t help with that. He needed to understand the ability.
“If I had to estimate, I’ve comprehended about half of the true potential of the skill… I guess I know why I’m doing this fight.”
The damas had finished getting into position, and as Yu Quan predicted, the damas charged at different times. There was one in front of him, one behind him, and then two from the right. It was like a constant barrage since the ones who were already charged would reset while Yu Quan was distracted by the ones who were currently charging. While this was happening, Yu Quan was trying to comprehend the [Yellow Qilin Dance]. It was hard to control the power in his steps. When he wanted to strafe then quickly attack, he should use the side step into a forward step, but when he did either, the momentum was so strong he couldn’t help but do more steps. This was usually fine in battle, but in this case, where he needed good timing and control, it was causing him to make mistakes. He would usually make up for his mistakes by strafing more or by jumping back for the defensive stance of the technique, but he was still taking a hit here or there. Fortunately, the horns were only grazing him. But he felt that if he were to be hit dead on, it wouldn’t be something he could take lightly, especially if those hooves were going to strike him right after.
As the fight continued, Yu Quan slowly began to understand the technique. It wasn’t just about the steps but about controlling his entire body with each step. He didn’t know how, but he needed to be able to control his weight and balance so he could divert the momentum and continue taking steps in different directions. So, this fight continued on for hours. Eventually, the sun wasn’t even out, but Yu Quan and the damas were still fighting. Yu Quan was starting to feel a bit worn out and even felt his maximum qi was too little for fights like these. This fight would help him work on his endurance, but he decided he definitely needed to look into ways to increase his core’s capacity. But for now, he could only try to conserve his strength while he figured out the [Yellow Qilin Dance].
A few more hours went by, and Yu Quan and the damas were still fighting. Yu Quan still hadn’t gotten comfortable and probably wouldn’t since he was constantly regulating how much qi he used. But he was still making progress in comprehending, as well, so everything was going according to plan. That was until he accidentally misstepped. Yu Quan had so many things he had to worry about every moment that he was bound to make a mistake eventually. Instead of taking a forward or a side step, he angled his foot somewhere in between the two positions. He braced himself for what could happen next; whether he fell or tripped and went into the air, he would need to prepare himself to immediately recover, or the damas might take advantage of his moment of weakness. What Yu Quan didn’t expect was that he still strafed to the side but at a different, more curved angle. Reacting quickly, he continued with another forward step, followed by a strafe and a back jump into a defensive stance, so he had a moment to think about what just happened.
“…What was that? Did I just combine the steps?”
Yu Quan had been enlightened by his mistake. He realized right away that he was trying to force each step to happen right after another, but the movements weren’t compatible. If he wanted to chain them together to make a smooth, continuous “dance,” he would have to make his own steps that allowed him to do both movements. This was why achieving this took comprehension and wasn’t just something that could be taught. The true [Yellow Qilin Dance] was meant to be versatile and applicable to most situations. Now that he understood that he had to find his own steps using the movements and the original steps, he knew it was only a matter time before he fully comprehended the technique. But this enlightenment was enough to end this fight.
Yu Quan started trying out steps as he fought. Some worked better than others, and some didn’t work well at all. But he continued to try new steps and practice the ones he felt worked well. While he was doing this, he was already capable of doing a very basic dance that allowed him to occasionally go on the offensive. He started attacking when he got the chance but mainly focused on dodging so he could learn the steps. Before, he had been the only one with bruises and scratches, but now, as he practiced his [Yellow Qilin Dance], some of the damas began to show signs of being attacked.
After another few hours, the sun was peaking out over the horizon. Yu Quan had fought throughout the day and night and was now lying, staring up at the sky and breathing heavily. He had a wide smile on his face as he was now surrounded by the bodies of eight death-dealing damas, more beaten and bloodied than he was.
“Ha…Ha-ha… I did it!” he exclaimed through troubled breaths.
Yu Quan had not only found the path in the [Yellow Qilin Dance], but he had achieved his goal, and could now get even stronger.
…
Yù Quán
Realm: Body Tempering Realm
Stage: 5th Level Skin Tempering
Main Cultivation Art: [Stolen-eyed Mùmùlián Body](Level 3)
Strength: 1250 Catties
Qi: 2500/2500 wisps
Mùmùlián Core: 22/100
Strange Fire: (Level 2)Murderous Flame(x1)
Techniques:
[Mùmùlián Eye Stealing](Level 3)
[Mùmùlián Eye Refining](Level 3)
[Murder Mantra](Level 3)
[Yellow Qilin Dance](Level 3)
[Qi Compression](Level 3)
Attributes:
[Strange Fire: Murderous Flame]
[Starfire Eyes](Level 1)
[Sightburn](Level 1)
[Top-Quality Maned Hog Ferocity Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Winged Watcher Awareness Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality False Dragon Pride Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Death-Dealing Dama Killing Eyes](Level 1)(x2)