The youth didn’t hesitate as he brandished his dagger and started processing the now dead Mono-eyed Whip Rhinoceros.

“Damn, its hide is thick!” the youth had to apply massive force to even begin penetrating its skin.

“Honestly, you should stop grumbling,” Jian Gong scoffed from behind. “It’s quite good that you killed this rhino, you know? It’s at the Fourth Stage of Qi Refinement Realm; so it’s probably a juvenile.”

“It’d be very helpful if my own system didn’t get me killed!” the youth hissed at him. “Why the fuck did you have to put on such a show when it was right in front of him?”

“Just helped you remember its weakness better,” Jian Gong raised his hands in defense.

“Yeah, exactly! Remember. Why do I need to remember its weakness when said weakness is so obvious?”

“Come on, man. Just appreciate the reference.”

“Ugh, fuck off for now,” the youth shooed him away. “I need to process the meat quick before the scent alerts every other beast in the area.”

In the end, he had to imbue Qi in the dagger for it to cut faster which was certainly not good for the dagger’s durability. As he sliced through the hide, the ground underneath started trembling. First, it was mild but soon it ramped up.

“What the…?” he looked upstream. Dust clouds were rapidly approaching as the ground rumbled madly.

“You don’t think…” Jian Gong looked at him with an apprehensive look.

“Yeah, it’s probably-” the youth got up hastily and ran towards the river. Submerging himself up to his neck, he waited. The rumbling got louder and louder like the march of an army. But unlike the orderly march of soldiers, it was unruly. The youth finished his words in a quiet voice, “-the scared Deviant Beast running away from whatever that explosion was.”

“But as far as you know, not even a battle between Tendon Transformation experts can create that loud of an explosion.”

“Then there are only four options- it’s a battle of experts higher than the Tendon Transformation Realm, one of the experts has an explosive move, someone or something self-destructed in a last-ditch effort or, someone used a bomb.”

“How the hell did you come up with guesses that have an equal chance of happening?” Jian Gong was astounded.

“I think you should be focusing on which one is worse for us.”

“Ah, right. The first one has a 50/50 chance of being bad for us since we don’t know if the experts are hostile or not. The second one has the same problem as the first one. The third one…” Jian Gong collected his thoughts before speaking, “well, there’s a good chance that anyone caught in the blast radius would either be dead or heavily injured.”

“Yeah but it’s not a certainty, is it?”

“Well, no.”

“Good then let’s not bank on that ‘good chance’. And for the last one, do people in Spiritual Haven even have bombs? Status, comb through the Monarchs’ knowledge to see if bombs have been invented.”

[In the Eight Monarch’s memory, there are no records of bombs being invented.]

The youth nodded understandingly, “Yeah, so, there’s a 50-50 chance that bombs have been invented.”

“That is not helpful.”

When the earthquake reached its peak, the youth further submerged his head, only keeping his eyes above water. Soon, he saw Deviant Beasts of all sizes rampaging madly through the forests. Many also stampeded through the shore. The beasts stomped on the dead Mono-eyed Whip Rhinoceros. Hell, even other Mono-eyed Whip Rhinoceros stomped on the dead one. If it had been alive, it would’ve coughed up blood in anger.

“Ah fuck, my food!” the youth yelled angrily but his words came out as bubbles on the water surface.

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The Deviant Beast stampeded lasted for ten minutes as beasts of all sizes passed by his hiding place. The river water smashed against his body as he patiently waited for the stampede to pass.

After a bit of observation, the youth remarked as bubbles rose, “This looks quite a bit like a-”

“-a beast tide,” Jian Gong completed his thought. He looked at the youth who was hiding in the water, “You don’t think that this was orchestrated?”

“At this point,” the youth sighed inwardly, “anything’s possible.”

When the rumbling has subsided quite a bit, the youth emerged from the water and walked to the shore. He was once again drenched. Clicking his tongue, he looked at the rhino he was butchering. Even though it was stomped so many times, it hadn’t turned into mush. At most, it was a bit flatter, and blood gushed out from the cuts on its body.

“The internal organs are surprisingly not destroyed,” the youth looked at the rhino and raised and eyebrow.

“But you’re not going to be eating the organs though,” Jian Gong looked puzzled.

“But, I can sell them off…”

“Focus on surviving first, dumbass!”

“Yeah, yeah!” he waved his hands dismissively. Then he got to butchering. He cut away at its neck and created a pit underneath the almost severed head. The blood flowed out of the rhino and congregated into the pit. He was bleeding the rhino.

As the rhino bled, the youth sat down for a while. The Deviant Beasts had already run further downstream from where he was. So, he was safe for the time being.

After the rhino was done bleeding, he fully severed its head and put it aside. He then got to work on its body. He flayed the rhino. The entire process took him almost half a day. So much so, that the sun was already setting. He dug out the beast core from its body and set it aside. The organs were separated from the meat.

“How are you going cook them?” Jian Gong asked from behind.

“Most I can do is smoke them, nothing fancy.”

“Then you might need to build a campfire.”

“That’s what I’m going to do.” The youth got up and found some branches before piling them. He got some dry leaves and put them on the branches. Taking a branch, he spun it rapidly on a bunch of dry leaves. The leaves heated up and eventually some embers sparked. This way of lighting fires was totally viable with the strength of a Qi Refinement Cultivator.

He took the lit leaves and placed them on the pile of branches and leaves before blowing on them. The pile soon caught fire and now he had himself a campfire. He dug two long branches above the fire. Then he cut the meat into thin slices before skewering them with an arrow. He then placed the tip and end of the arrow on the branches so that the slices of meat hung over the fire. The meat began crisping from the heat.

Jian Gong clicked his tongue in amazement, “Damn, it’s like I’m watching a caveman version of Food Wars!”

“I don’t get that reference,” the youth shook his head.

“I really should get you localized,” he mumbled in a low voice.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Jian Gong thought and changed the subject, “You know if you just went to where the cliff was, I bet Li Chyou would’ve sent men to search for you.”

“I know,” the youth nodded.

“You could’ve returned to your comfy life.”

“That’s right.” The youth looked up at the now night sky.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“You know,” the youth’s eyes were pinned to the sea of stars overhead. As there’s no light pollution here, the stars could be seen shining brightly. It looked enchanting. The soft crackling of the fire and the chirps of the insects in the forest had introduced him to totally different scenery. He continued his words, “I’ve lived a relatively eventless yet peaceful life in the Li Clan. It was not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did. Even then, it was a very conflicting feeling, living such a life that is.”

“How so?”

“Even though I finally got the quiet life that I yearned for, it felt like something was missing.”

“Exhilaration or perhaps a need for a thrill?” Jian Gong guessed.

The youth shook his head, “No, nothing like that. I don’t need constant thrill in my life.”

“Then is it perhaps companionship?” Jian Gong smiled inquisitively.

The youth paused and sighed. The starry sea reflected off his blue eyes. “…perhaps. But I don’t know.”

“I thought some of the people in the Li Clan were your friends.”

“Sure, I can call them my friends and they’d probably agree. But there was always something lacking when I was with them. It always felt like there was, there was-” the youth took a second to find the word he wanted and spoke, “-like a wall in between us like we were not in the same place when we were talking.”

“'It felt isolating', is that what you wanted to say?”

“Right!” the youth nodded. “It felt like I was somewhere far away from them or they were too far away for me to catch up. I can’t help but think that I’m overthinking this but…” His voice trailed off as he became unable to explain it.

“Huh. So, what will you do now, aside from the duties of being a Monarch of Hell that is?”

“I don’t know,” the youth shrugged. He said with a laugh, “Now, I’m stranded in the forest, struggling to survive. I think I’ll push aside my dreams for later.”

Jian Gong said nothing and looked at the youth from the corner of his eye. The light from the fire dyed his face in a soft orange hue. He looked particularly serene yet lonely looking at the stars above with a faint smile on his face. Jian Gong no longer looked at him and shifted his gaze to the sky as well.

A bit later, he heard the youth’s quiet voice. It felt unsure and seemed like he was trying to reassure himself.

“Maybe, I’ll try living a fulfilling life. Whatever that entails…”