“The remnants of Qi in the Formation are faint, yet they are definitely from at least an Ascendant realm Cultivator. You did well to report this rather than continuing your mission.” The Elder nonchalantly removed two storage rings from one pinky and flicked them at Bei Septus and Tai Tupanz. Both young men caught them and hid them quickly away. There was time to check on how generous the Elder was later.
The true prize, really, was in avoiding punishment for potentially endangering the Sect or the loss of reputation for their ‘hunt’. This Elder was chosen carefully since he was one of the few who had, surreptitiously, suggested following the rumors of the Beast-hybrid masquerading as a Cultivator. It wasn’t the first such hunt and it would certainly not be the last. Not so long as they avoided being too open about it in view of others.
As a righteous Sect, enslaving demi-humans and using them against their will as Furnaces was a moral gray area. The practice was incredibly widespread, but it was also one of those open secrets. When the ‘secret’ part went away, it meant that some heads would metaphorically, or literally, roll. The Sect’s reputation was more valuable than some mere Foundation Establishment disciple, even if they were recognized geniuses slated to become Inner Disciples upon their breakthrough to the next realm.
“Curious.” The Elder knelt within the cratered remnants of the chamber. He frowned at the rubble and as if it were afraid to suffer the consequences of slighting one so powerful, rocks and dust alike shifted aside. The stain which was revealed could have been blood. What the Elder saw from it though was lost to the two Outer Disciples who remained kneeling nearby. “Beast, minor at best, yet I sense the traces of Core Fusion realm Qi… and no corpse, nor traces of it being dragged away.”
Bei Septus froze, realizing he’d neglected to mention something which seemed inconsequential, in his report.
“Forgive me Elder, I thought so little of it that I failed to recall. There had been a Beast, rodent of some kind. It… it might have spoken, though I crushed it accidentally upon descending into the chamber after the hybrid.” Bei swallowed hard and forced himself to report it fully. “I may have ignored the possibility that it was a high enough stage to be intelligent. It stuck to my boot and was still alive, so I sought to end its misery, th-then scraped the r-remains…”
The Elder’s impassive gaze bored into Bei as if it could physically extract the details, or the stupidity, of the younger Cultivator. Though the Elder waived dismissively, Bei sense just how close he’d likely come to death, or worse, for having failed to fully inform the Elder. This one brooked no omissions. None. Control of information was true power and a failure to obtain that information robbed him of control.
“It seems this ‘Beast’ was still alive, even after all that. That it might have spoken suggests, perhaps, a high realm Cultivator in the form of the Beast. That it was easily crushed by your boot also suggests that it is weak, unable to exert its cultivation, or perhaps crippled.” The Elder raised a hand.
Bei flinched, expecting a Technique to be unleashed upon him. Instead, another storage ring bounced off of a shard of stone. Instinctively, Bei caught it, unsure of what was happening.
“Elder?”
“The Soul trapped in that minor Beast is likely of similar value to this ‘pill’ of which you spoke. If it was here, it likely saw value in the contents of this chamber too. The trail it leaves may lead me to-“
The pressure which bored down upon them instantly separated the very Souls from everyone but the Elder himself. Even at mid-Core Harmonization, his two Cores not insignificantly resonant and bonded together, his own Soul shuddered and shifted. The feeling was beyond horrific. The damage would not be obvious to an external observer, but his Meridians began to crack, his organs liquified, and his Crystal Core screamed in protest as it was nearly torn from his body.
Blood leaked from the Elder’s mouth and eyes as the fingertip descended upon him, blotting out the very sun and parting the thick forest as if simply parting hairs upon the head.
As the finger swiped through the space where the Elder had collapsed, nothing remained behind except a strange scoop in the ground reminiscent of the mark from a wayward finger through the frosting on a cake.
--
Nightjar stuck the tiny speckle of Souls into his mouth and licked the tip of his finger, humming in thought as the memories were processed.
“Oops. If I’d let that one go a few more days, it might have located my pill.”
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“You don’t seem terribly upset.” Oxblood observed, to which he received a shrug.
“I’ve already learned that the approach was effective enough for the pill to start overcoming the Formation Array itself. One little Soul is hardly worth prodding too much within a Realm that such prodding might be noticed.” The wide tongue licked once more at the visibly filthy fingertip. “Besides, I got a treat that was even higher level than the pill could possibly be at.”
Feeling quite satisfied, Nightjar proceeded to process some more of the Souls he’d kept in reserve for further experiments, inscribing them with variations of the ‘failed’ cultivation method. Humming happily as he crafted, it became clear to his observer that True Ascendant Immortal Nightjar was not going to be doing anything fun for a while.
Oxblood considered going hunting once more. Then again, his curiosity was piqued, rather than sated. With a small thought, he reached out to that particular Realm and left a message with one of those who worshipped him as their god. Nightjar never bothered with the whole deity business. Soul eating was not a particularly popular faith practice, not in Realms with stable civilizations.
After sending his message, Oxblood decided to stay and watch his friend at work. It wasn’t slaying, but any true master of a craft could see another master at work and appreciate the skill and attention.
If only the man would look the part!
--
I never slept, so when the feeling of horrifyingly incomprehensible existence slammed into my Spiritual Sense, I was immediately focused on it. Nutkins on the other hand bolted up the nearest tree chittering and chattering in the squirrel equivalent of a panicked “The End is nigh!”.
Then it was gone. The world seemed no different, except in that moment. The forest sounds had never stopped. Terra slept still, undisturbed. Only those with a Spiritual Sense would have detected it and the only two nearby were myself and our fluffy not-a-pet-but-totally-a-pet.
Fluffbutt returned to the camp and seemed to consider waking Terra up, or running away, in turn. It didn’t take a lot of thinking for me to get some idea of what the crippled Cultivator was thinking. That thing we’d felt, that horrible sense of an existence far beyond our reality, that was probably the fat ass Demonic Immortal who’d made me, looking for his Pill. Either because he couldn’t look into the Realm well enough or because something distracted him, it seemed like I’d gone unnoticed.
Heck, maybe being inside Terra was shielding me enough that even a freaking Ascendant couldn’t detect me?
I’d bet though that right now, our squirrel companion was seriously thinking about running off and leaving me be. Nobody wanted to get between that thing that we’d just felt and their prize.
Nobody.
Black eyes stared consideringly at the sleeping Terra until nearly dawn. The squirrel did not leave, but come morning, we found the promised threat to extract me and eat me himself was changed.
“You’ll teach me everything you know?”
<…you may pet the tail- WHAT? I mean… perhaps…>
Terra put out a hand, offering a comically sized handshake to the totally mundane sized squirrel. With some hesitation and agitated tail twitching, Captain Acorn eventually stuck out a tiny paw and grabbed one of Terra’s fingers, performing a tiny shake.
“Also, I get to pet the tail.”
<…you drive a hard bargain.>
“You just want me to pet you anyways, so it’s not really hard.”
Groaning, Terra complained that she hadn’t even had a chance to scrounge up breakfast. The squirrel insisted though on getting moving right away. And frankly, I was 100% with him.
Let’s get moving Terra. Something happened while you slept that has me and the squirrel both rattled, even though he’s not letting on about it. Getting to that safer place is super important I think.
By midday, Terra’s stomach was growling, but the squirrel chittered victory as we arrived at a wide stream. At his direction, she explored upstream, collecting tender ferns, roots, and many, many mushrooms to eat. Enough mushrooms that the squirrel expressed his dubiousness about their safety. Repeatedly.
I had to keep reassuring Terra that the fungal bodies were absolutely compatible with her body. Namely because I could break any toxins down into Qi. That, and, nothing had high quality Qi stuffed in them like these mushrooms!
“Oh, I’ve been eating that one for days! It tastes a lot like bell pepper, honestly. It’s refreshing, but weird.”
<…I see.>
“You should try it!”
“Your loss!”
Terra stumbled into a small clearing where a swirling pool of nearly still, waist deep water had formed alongside the flowing stream. The distant sound of a deer which had fled our arrival, moving with only the telltale cracks of the occasional twig, was the only evidence that this also served as a watering hole. Oh, well, actually there were all the paw prints and poop too. The water though, the water was clear and inviting and Terra immediately stated a refusal.
“Ugh, why do you guys focus so much on that!”