It had come out of nowhere.

  One moment, Jianyu had been traveling in his stolen cart along the King’s Road. The next, a veiled Earl ranked demon had attacked him from the darkness, scoring him across the chest.

  Only his reflexes, trained into him every day at the sect, had saved him from decapitation.

  If he’d had the time, he would’ve pondered why such a beast, equivalent to a Core Formation cultivator, would have attacked him. After all, his flesh was poisoned due to his shattered core, and it was preposterous to think an Earl ranked beast wouldn’t know that simply by looking at him. Even if they weren’t sapient, any demon that had survived so long was cunning and vicious, but also pragmatic. There was nothing to be gained from such an attack.

  But he didn’t have the time, his mind entirely consumed by agony. The demon- a reptilian, as it would appear- was venomous, its claws covered in a caustic poison that put the pain of his core shattering to shame. Without intact meridians, Jianyu had no way to fend it off either.

  But I’ll be damned if I go to the Yellow River without a fight, he thought.

  Fighting through the pain, he rolled off the cart, and pulled himself to his feat as he leaned on a bandit’s sword.

  After attacking him, the reptile had left him alone, going after what he assumed must have been its true objective from the start; the oxen. Only now did he see the nigh-fatal wounds in its side.

  This had clearly been a magnificent beast once; through his energy vision, the demon looked like a starry sky, each scale a pinprick of light, only a fraction of the qi contained within. But the canvas that was its hide was ruined by several spears, all of which must have been at the Sky tier, two levels higher than his own Mortal tier sword. How else could they have injured such a powerful demon? And perhaps more importantly, who had they belonged to?

  The oxens’ wailing death throes gave him the opportunity he needed. Pushing through the pain, Jianyu took a step forward, and then a step after that. It was all he could do to walk forward, but he knew he couldn’t stop now. It was as if the plane itself was his ally; the traveled path of the King’s Road was moist and soft, allowing him to silently stalk the demon. And even though his mind was screaming in pain, he made not a sound.

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  Arriving at the demon’s back, he pondered how to proceed. As I am, I cannot lift my sword to strike them. And even if I could, mortal iron would shatter upon its scales.

  But it was move forward or die.

  Jianyu stepped forth, one foot in front of the other. He had no other choice, and so before he knew it, he’d arrived at the oblivious reptilian. The oxen were long dead, the stench of death permeating his surroundings and overpowering his senses considering his lack of sight, the smell was even more potent than usual, threatening to knock him unconscious.

  And yet he continued to press forward.

  His trash quality sword was neither sharp enough nor of sufficient quality to slay the demon.

  And so, with pure force of will, he threw himself upon one of the many spears protruding from the beast’s hide. He lacked even the strength to stand after this effort, even though the spear had only punctured a finger’s width deeper into the gigantic demon, whose head eclipsed his entire body.

  Within his inner sea, a concept began to condense. It inscribed itself upon his broken foundation, pillars of pure qi suddenly constricted and defined by an idea. Through sheer force of will, he had accomplished what it took many cultivators centuries to do.

  But at that moment, he had no time to contemplate such matters. The beast threw him off, screeching and wailing as it tried, and failed, to dislodge the spear. With its strength, Jianyu was sent flying through the air, the wind breaking against his skin. The time before he hit the ground was more than a handful of heartbeats.

  And then everything went black.

***

  Everything was pain. All he knew, all encompassing. Flashes of red, streaks of white light. Part of him knew that he shouldn’t have been able to see.

  A warm presence, wet, and slightly uncomfortable. But it was there to help.

  And then the all encompassing pain consumed him again.

***