Probably should have asked if there was any more trash they needed me to take care of. Stop volunteering for garbage duty, me! I'll stop when it stops paying off. And literal garbage like broken furniture, isn't good trash. It's just trash. Although I can recycle the mats to essences and make more shit. Fack, Thousand Valleys helped me. Nope! I mutated to make that shit valuable. I helped me!
I stop standing like a lump and move into the kitchen. Gonna top off with my -- I notice the pot of "tea" I've been cooking --. Fack. I dump veg in the mill, take the pot off and start new pots of dumpling soup, check the dried Earth Hare, pretty tastey, and then gulp down some Shiver Tea. Try to. Apparently I shouldn't cook the shit outta shiver thorn and black tea leaves.
[Shiver Thorn Pudding Consumed]
[Con. Qi +1]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,784/23,765,758]
[Current Qi: 239,552/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,063,032/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,175De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
Or should I. I have a big pot of something that tastes like diet chocolate pudding. It's not the best, but I haven't had choco in a minute. It's not good. It's good enough. With a Super Qi boost? Yes, please!
Did I just bootleg some coffee? Feels like I chugged some good coffee flavored energy. Strong coffee, weak energy drink. Fuck yes! I remember that I'm actually cooking as I go in for another glomp, reluctantly put it away, blast myself with water, then get more food going.
I feel so much better after thinning my produce, still auto-harvesting, still getting mad quantities of things to cook, and --. I forgot to do the underground thing for muh fishies. I'm feelin good enough, I'll wait until I've got all those spirit beast corpses cooked up and ready to help me recover. Am I drooling? I think I'm drooling... I groom and there's moisture. I'm drooling. Fascinating. Gonna go fuck up some spirit beasts.
I hop out of my void and trot down the tunnel. No need to sprint, I'll get where I'm going eventually, and I'm a smexy fluff bait. The tunnel narrows then expands into a small cavern with multiple tunnels heading off. Compared to Old Granny's place, this place is tame As Faq. There's no spider--. A gust blasts across my back, and I know this isn't okay. I'm underground and it was a quick blast. I turn the direction it was going to see my silk drifting to the ground. Something shaved me without tugging a single strand. I look up to see what looks like an oversized house cat.
-Fuck no!- I am not gonna get hunted by an oversized pocket sadist!
[Silk Spray(Tier 4) Successful]
[Successful Uses 32/100]
[Qi -150]
[Karma -10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,584/23,765,258]
[Current Qi: 239,552/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,061,032/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
The silk spray blasts out like a New Year Popper, streamers everywhere. As they fall to the ground between me and the cat. My spray doesn't have range? Since when --? Oh... Piercing Shot loaded spray... Ah. The cat looks down at the silk, looks up at me, then casually starts to walk over, taking its sweet time. I can't outrun it. It sliced cleanly through my silk and I didn't even notice it was there. But my silk counts as physical contact, you fuck. It wants to hurt me, it's going to hurt me, and it's going to enjoy it. Until it stumbles, lays down, curls up, and dies. It looks like it's napping.
I bank it with a prayer and hop into my void. Oh. My fuck. I almost died to one of the weaker cats. Fack. It was so fast! Good thing I'm leaving the bodies intact from now on, because I can't stop shaking. If I was half as thick as my silk I'd be missing a good chunk of my back. Thank fuck it went for the area between my wings. Accurate bastard hit the spot where my wings leave my back, just a tuft behind my head. Left me completely unharmed. Fack!
I shift out of my void and start trotting back to the crevice. I need hugs. Can I get a haircut? Kinda concerned about anyone capable of breaking my silk, what with it being one of my main defenses, nevermind slicing through so much of it like it's nothing. Holy, wowza... I get to where the crevice is, notice that it smells like I've been here before, question da fuq, remember that I used to track hormones, then wonder why I stopped. Is hormone tracking a bug thing or a combat thing? Fack! I have so many things I need to stay ranked up on...
I whine dramatically just in time for someone to come down the tunnel, -- 'cause of course there's a witness, -- and they weren't being quiet, I was being obnoxious. I flop on my side, ready to eat another soul, or maybe I need to feed. I need to get Qi back up. Ugh! I can only do one or the other unless they're OP --.
Why was some basic bish from one clan so OP? He took three bites! Wait. Is that why the crevice is sealed? 'Cause I killed one of them? They let me live 'cause he's a dick, but I'm not allowed to go back? Aw and yay?
I realize, as I get scooped and shoved into a bag, that this chick could have just stomped my brains in. Instead she just shoves me in a sack and keeps walking. Back to the entrance? She groups up with another two women, all of them heading back outside, and I get to learn that I'm bait. Some randoms saw me, shoved me into a sack to be used as bait --. No. That's fair. If they can shove me in a sack I'm probably the best bait they've found. I literally laid down on the ground after I noticed them. My bad.
Back out of the caves they march, heading around the jagged hills near the river, moving towards the steeper cliffs and taller mountains. Earth Hares? They dodge them, leaning just out of reach, spinning out of the trajectory, just dancing around the attacks until the hares get frustrated and re-bury themselves. There are deer with shimmering silver pelts, -- grey deer? Why not Silver Harts? No... Wait... Nevermind. He did say Silver Harts and I assumed it was just colorful language. My bad. They really are silvery. -- and these women just ignore them, and continue to grimly forge onwards.
When they get to a mountain worth the name, they don't look for a path up its craggy sides. No, these bishes launch one person up, then the next reaches up while standing on the last person's shoulders, then the person at the top has to drag the other two up. And they take turns. Fackin' why? Why not use rope? Why not just climb? Why are they such hardcore badasses that they do things harder not smarter? Where are they taking me?
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
They keep doing their over the top "we are one" parkour bullshit while I try to delve into the memories I've consumed. I'm in the Prismatic Mountains, named after the colorful stones which apparently have a habit of absorbing heavenly element, and Green River is the name of a stretch of woods along a river between the two barren mountains. The council sponsors specific clans, making allowances for them, and taxes the shit out of other clans. Rogue practitioners? Heretical malcontents that need to be squashed, their assets stripped and redistributed for the "greater good". Not that being favored by a council member is all that great. And the politics! Not just backbiting, but straight up fostering of clans for assassinating.
I shift automatically, not putting up a fight, as they try to dump me out of the sack. I sit, groom, and try to consolidate the information I've learned. Yeah, Death Blossom Spider and Blossom Centipede are rivals, but they don't work well together. Centipede is subordinate to Spider, but it hasn't always been that way. They steal resources from one another, engage in bloodbaths for supremacy, and then bully entire cities to set up territory. Modesty did tell me there were gangs after I explained what they were. Didn't know clans and gangs were synonymous. Thought they were like families and servants. Huh.
I yelp, jumping away from the roar as the women square up and roar back. There's a massive, thick lion. Not a tiger, but a bulky boy with fangs that curl to the sides. Considering how much damage the flint cat did, I don't really trust our chances.
[Silk Spray(Tier 4) Successful]
[Successful Uses 33/100]
[Qi -150]
[Karma -10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,584/23,765,258]
[Current Qi: 239,552/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,061,032/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
I blast the ground between me and it with silk, the women looking at me like I just piddled on the carpet, which I think would be a perfectly acceptable response when something the size of a cart screams at you. Even more acceptable then yelling at something that can bite you in half. When I look at the beast, the Stone Lion, I get to see that it stopped to stare at me, too. Oh, fuck everyone. This is the best response for this nonsense. It steps on this silk? As long as it's not stupid fast we'll see who eats who!
The women are holding small wooden objects. I thought they were fans but my brain is rebelling at the knowledge that they're holding shuttles. For weaving. What the fuck is happening. The women charge in, still bellowing their challenge, not as impressive, but they're radiating crazy, so there's that, and the lion looks wary. Then things get weird when they start throwing the shuttles like knives, and the shuttles return.
-The fuck is going on?-
They're literally weaving attacks in the air, the pattern of the toss and return charging up their tool, causing it to glow, and it releases a mini explosion on impact with the annoyed lion. How is this a thing? Why is this --. I'm a giant bug that eats souls and dumplings. Nevermind.
The lion roars, slapping down a shuttle on its return trip, then charging and swatting one of the women so hard she flies past me and over the cliff.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[Successful Uses 80/100]
[Qi -30]
[Karma -5]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,384/23,764,756]
[Current Qi: 239,622/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,059,027/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
Stealth bank! No one will ever know... I feel my head turning away from the combatants, feeling like I look guilty as all hells. I don't feel guilty, but I don't want them to figure out what I did. Well, I don't want them to figure out what I did and demand her back. I refocus on them to see one lady picking up the other, the lion standing just on the edge of my silk and looking at me. How the fuck did I not notice it walking up to me?
-Please don't.- I'm not proud in the face of epic bullshit. I know I don't stand a chance, and being polite is free.
And it places a single paw on my silk and drags its paw backwards, tearing a chunk loose. Like a dick. Then places both of its paws on an intact session before sneezing at me.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[Successful Uses 81/100]
[Qi -30]
[Karma -5]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,384/23,764,755]
[Current Qi: 239,592/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,059,022/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
She's understandably pissed. She hadn't gotten to even try to take on the matron. Her mane had been patchy for so long and when it finally grows in fully, when she can finally make the challenge some assholes poison her and she wakes up so far away she can't smell her pack in the air. There are other creatures, mixed tribes, prides, clans, and packs, all dumped in this strange place so cultivators can hunt them? Not even real cultivators. Children! She's going to crush so many things and devour all the hunans cores!
-I understand, but? No,- I say and pull.
She gags, head dipping, stance broken. Oh. She survived the Suck.
[Feeding Successful]
[Successful Uses 53/100]
[Qi +1000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,384/23,764,758]
[Current Qi: 240,592/957,945,100]
[Current Karma: 95,059,032/107,275,977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
Didn't survive that Suck. I smirk. It's all about technique. I giggle to myself like an idiot while banking the body, grooming myself, this time keeping tabs on the pair that just stare at me dumbfounded. One of them is hunched, gripping her side, and I'm guessing she got smacked, just not sent flying.
-*I understand why you'd use me as bait, and, true, I'm not good at fighting,*- I sit up and stare straight at the women. -*But I'm very good at storing things.*-
I sound so prissy. I'm very good at organizing things! I'm not, but I don't have to be. Speaking of. I shift to my void, swap the dried things for more things to dry, put on a pot of shiver thorn and berries, store the old thick dumpling stew and put on new stew to cook before making myself another tastey salad, this time with veg cake. So good... Fish cake is better, but the veg isn't that bad.
There's a thump then silence and I feel a growing sense of dread. Is it Woodcock? Did that bastard just break and enter into my void? What the fuck, man?! I charge, screaming, to the bedrooms, defending my freshly created beds that I haven't even slept in, and full stop at the woman holding a shuttle and glaring at me. I sit down, trying to process what I'm seeing. Oh. I banked her. But she didn't get set in the crystal. I have to bank her again. And she crushed Crimson Star's head. Wow. Dude was dead or in a coma and she --. Nah, I'm not that torn.
[Piercing Shot Successful]
[Successful Uses 82/100]
[Qi -30]
[Karma -5]
[Feeding Successful]
[Successful Uses 54/100]
[Qi +1000]
[Karma +10]
[Current Condensed Qi: 1831384/23764759]
[Current Qi: 241562/957945100]
[Current Karma: 95059037/107275977]
[Max Will: 9,579,451]
[Mortal Wallet: 10E,27K,180P,154R,179Da,155De,105k]
[Spirit Wallet: 0Dr,0Ph,0Th,1199Di,126Co,10506St]
She doesn't survive the first Suck, falling to her knees and gripping her chest. Then there's a weird pulse, the world expanding then contracting, and she takes a slow, stuttering breath. So I hit her with the other Suck. A single tear slides down her cheek. I bank her before she can do any other nonsense.
-To the crystal with ye!-