Yu Chen looked around, ensuring the cave had only the one entrance, before sitting down to rest with a groan. He laid back, resting his head against the cave wall and making himself as comfortable as he could. Despite it not being his intention to do so, his head soon began to nod, and he fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.
He awoke in the morning feeling refreshed, despite falling asleep on the hard cavern floor. His side ached, the wound there still not fully recovered, even after the expensive salve he’d used upon it. It was only a medicine provided for Qi Cultivators after all, and not some miracle elixir.
Yu Chen yawned and stretched, looking around the area as he thought about his future plans.
The cavern Xiao Huang had led him to actually contained an essence well, a spiritual spring that bubbled with the energy of heaven and earth, drawn deep from the heart of the world itself. These veins ran throughout the earth and were part of the natural order. They pumped energy across the surface and were integral for life’s existence.
They were known to be an extraordinary boon for a cultivator.
He could leave it behind and return to the sect, but in his heart, he didn’t want to. This place represented an incredible opportunity. Besides, the Feng brothers would no doubt be waiting for him, and even if they weren’t, they knew where he slept. He was in no hurry to return. His mission had ended up a failure, and the only thing waiting for him back in the sect was a lousy paying job delivering packages and his daily training within the sect grounds.
There was only one real option.
Yu Chen settled down to meditate, restoring his qi reserves and soothing his spirit that was still shaken from the day before. By now he had already achieved large success in the Condensing Fist, and his martial arts were fine. Instead, it was his spiritual energy that was in need of cultivation. Perhaps before he would have been content to take it slower, enjoying his life in the sect, but he feared that his next meeting with the Feng brothers would only end in death.
There was no underselling the benefit the essence well provided towards this end. Almost no amount of contribution could have bought him such a thing. Perhaps if he was among the very best of the inner disciples, he would have been considered qualified enough to have earned his own spiritual cave.
As a Qi Condensator and an outer sect disciple to boot? Don’t make him laugh.
He let go of the thoughts, breathing out as he meditated in the middle of the cavern. The air in the cave was cool against his shirtless skin. More thoughts flowed through his mind, but he didn’t acknowledge them, maintaining a conscious level of attention that was both focused and aware, refusing to be drawn towards any one thing. The thick energy in the cavern began to move, flowing around him, spinning in a hazy vortex as he drew it into his dantian.
It was dense beyond description. Yu Chen couldn’t compare it to the level of energy that typically surrounded him as he meditated, whether in the forest or the sect. It was even many times denser even than the cloud of energy that the orchids had produced, and it didn’t seem to matter how much of it his dantian hungrily sucked up, as the essence well merrily bubbled away, refilling the energy in the room.
Time passed as Yu Chen sat there and Lue She slumbered. Once his dantian was full he awoke from his meditations, a small frown crossing his face as his stomach let out a low rumble.
He stood up, considering his options as he looked around the cave. He didn’t want to return to the sect yet, and he didn’t know how far away the town was. He supposed he would have to hunt and forage for food, living a bestial life for the time being.
A savage grin crossed his face at the thought.
Yu Chen left the cave, returning to the surface world. He took his time exploring the area around his new home, looking for anything significant. Before traveling too far he stumbled across a small stream not so far away from the cave, burbling as it came down from the mountain. He took the chance to bathe himself, drinking deep from the clean spring waters. They were comfortably warm under the summer heat, although a tinge of chill remained within, carried from the dark places beneath the earth.
Once he was finished, he resumed his search, quickly covering ground, a perk of being a cultivator. He kept his eyes peeled as he traveled, looking for the telltale green sprouts of wild onions and leeks, finding plenty of them around the cave. He also found some golden mushrooms lurking in the shaded ground beneath the forest canopy, and discovered a copse of mulberry trees, their branches filled with fat, dark-purple berries he knew were safe to eat.
He had his pick of meat as well, the nearby land was filled with abundant wildlife, a variety of birds and small mammals like rabbits and squirrels. He found a pond as well. The stream from before led into it, and it was filled with a variety of large fish that would make good eating.
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Before he knew it a week had already passed at the cave.
Most of his time was spent in meditation, and he awakened from it only to go hunting for food. He ate what he could raw, but he roasted any meat he obtained atop a small fire he had made on the surface. He felt his qi reserves growing stronger as time passed, and he emptied and refilled his dantian day after day.
He was, of course, still within the Qi Stabilization realm, and it would do him no good to neglect his practice as he focused on increasing his qi reserves. Towards that end he resumed his training, practicing the Condensing Fist for an hour per day, focusing only on making sure his usage of qi was as efficient as possible.
He also began training his movement technique, which Xiao Huang referred to as the Snow Goose’s Flight.
He didn’t neglect his fundamentals either. Often during his meditations he would split his attention, running his qi through some of the simple techniques from the large book Ling Xia had given him.
Time passed in this manner, and the days soon turned into weeks, as his cultivation steadily grew. Lue She awakened from her hibernation during this time, close to when the wound in his side finally healed over, leaving behind a nasty scar that was a sharp reminder of the perils of hubris.
His control over his qi had also increased. He was capable of performing most of the small tricks in his technique manual and had even reached the level of small success in his movement technique, able to channel it with minimal loss of efficiency.
Lue She had grown as well, her hibernation having added a handspan in length and the slightest amount of girth to her form. She was livelier these days, and often flicked her tongue in what Yu Chen interpreted as a simulacrum of speech. Unfortunately, whatever she was trying to communicate was often lost on him.
The next time he left his cave, he had a different purpose.
He strode out into the world, blinking as the light of the sun hit him. It burned low in the sky; the worst of its heat having passed as summer drew to a close. It wouldn’t be too much longer, and fall would soon arrive. Yu Chen’s bronzed skin shone under the sunlight, and hard muscles rippled beneath his skin as he walked. A large scar marred his side, adding a hint of danger to his powerful form.
His training in uncivilized places had hardened his body, burning away most of the boyishness that had remained. Life and death battles had tempered him, and Yu Chen felt as though he had been reborn out here in the wilderness.
He leapt from the ground, easily circulating his movement technique as he leaped far away from the cave. He kept his senses peeled as he traveled, and it didn’t take long before he found what he was searching for.
He landed softly after his last bounding leap, and began striding through the forest, caring not if his prey noticed. He’d had enough of hunting simple beasts just to survive, and he’d approached the limit of what practice could do for his techniques.
His heart began pumping as it entered his vision.
It was a Bloodthorn Stag.
It was a fairly prevalent spirit beast in the surrounding area, and he recognized it from his time in the Manual Pavilion, the creature having been heavily featured in the various bestiaries.
Its hide was a bright tawny in color, and a massive rack of antlers adorned its stately head. They were brown, crooked things that faded to a dark red at the tips, the same color of dried blood. It was a regal beast, and it cast a lofty look towards Yu Chen as the boy approached.
The stag tossed its head, snorting in warning as the young cultivator entered its domain, but Yu Chen strode forward, fearless. Once it became apparent the boy had no plans to turn around the stag lowered its head, charging down the foe who dared to invade its territory.
Yu Chen channeled his movement technique, making the lightest of motions as he pushed off the ground, moving in a way that seemed neither fast nor slow, but managed to take him a step further than he otherwise would have traveled.
He avoided the charging stag and lashed out as it passed, throwing a heavy kick into an economical arc that smashed into the stag’s shoulder, sending it stumbling off balance.
He landed beside it, touching down lightly, and followed up with a flurry of blows, chaining punches and kicks in quick succession as he attacked his foe, beating it to the ground. The stag’s hide didn’t offer the same protection the boars had, and every strike caused real damage as they slammed into the side of the spirit beast.
The beast buckled to its knees from his blows.
Yu Chen raised his fist, and was right about to deliver a crushing blow, when the stag turned its head towards him, its eyes flashing as it looked at Yu Chen. A feeling of danger suffused him, filling him with alarm. He was much more attuned to the trickery of these beasts after his encounter with the boar, and he quickly activated his movement technique, leaping backwards away from the stag.
He was just in time. Using some strange technique the blood-colored tips shot off of the stag’s antlers, flying through the space Yu Chen had just occupied. A cold drop of sweat ran down his back. Those thorns had earned the stag its name, and they carried a heavy paralytic poison that rendered one immobile once it entered their bloodstream.
It would have been the end of his journey if they had struck home.
Yu Chen didn’t hesitate now that the beast had exhausted its most dangerous attack and leapt forward to finish the beast off. The stag tossed its head, leaping about as it tried to ward him off, but he would not be denied. He struck at it relentlessly, and it struggled to avoid him, but he finally caught a hold of an antler in a triumphant grasp and proceeded to beat the beast to an ignoble death.
Yu Chen was breathing heavily afterwards, and a grin spread across his face as his blood exulted at the savagery of the fight. This was the second spirit beast he’d taken down on his own, and this time he’d managed it without being wounded.
He quickly gutted the beast, but he didn’t skin it right away, throwing it over his shoulder and carrying it back towards his cave. Once he’d arrived back to the place he’d turned into a home he unceremoniously tossed it down and removed its core before quickly skinning it. He fed the bloody core to Lue She, who accepted it with relish, and rolled the hide up, carrying it into his cave.
There was still the rest of the creature to deal with. The meat from spiritual beasts was a great deal more beneficial than that of normal creatures, and it was worth a good deal. If the boar hadn’t been too heavy to drag back, he would have gladly tried to return its entire corpse to the sect.
Here he had no such concerns. He cut thick steaks from the stag’s ribs, roasting them over the fire before greedily tearing into the meat, a low moan escaping his lips at the pleasurable taste. He could feel the rich energy that suffused it and knew that it was yet another boon for his cultivation.
He didn’t waste the rest of the meat either, cutting it up before setting it out to dry, preserving it for the future. Once that was finished and he’d cleaned up the area, he turned around, entering his cave.
There was still one final matter to deal with. He had fully recovered, no he had improved, and he was finally ready to face the frigid pool of spiritual water that lay within the cave.