Chương 58: Village

They made good progress and eventually found the crossroads where a smaller path deviated towards the village they were aiming for. Unfortunately, as dusk came early this late in the year, the sun was already low on the horizon. A bit tired after the intense hike, they followed a bend in the road and finally saw the small village ahead of them. It couldn't be more than a couple dozen houses, if that.

They were simple wooden structures, but well-maintained, and so was the wooden palisade surrounding the village—except for the dozen paces or so where it was ravaged and broken. His eyes were pulled to that gap, not just because he was awed by the strength of whatever beast had broken it, but because there seemed to be a commotion. Jianyi squinted through the darkness. Supposedly, higher realm cultivators could see in the dark, even without the help of techniques; he couldn't. But there was something going on.

Hectic movements. A scream…

"It's a fight. They are fighting!" he shouted and reached into his storage ring while starting to run towards the village; his companions following in his wake. Miyao caught up with him and navigated to her agreed position at the arrow's head. Shuhua accelerated equally quickly. The larger cousins needed a moment to get to their maximum speed. As Jianyi closed in on the village, he saw half a dozen men and women, wearing simple, undyed mortal garb, standing in the breach with spears, holding back… squirrels.

They were big, though, easily as big as a large house cat, not including their long, bristling tails that looked more like metal brushes than a soft, fluffy tail of a normal forest dweller. There were at least a dozen of the beasts alive, more lying dead before the villagers. He was just ten paces away from the back of the pack when he heard the gurgling shout of one of the villagers, who dropped out of the line. Flowing Current.

Jianyi had adjusted his stance for the beasts being smaller than his usual opponents in the sparring ring. The squirrels had heard them coming, so the beasts in the back had turned around. Their fur was dark red, and their claws and teeth were elongated and of similar color.

As his spear connected with the large rodent, the beast hissed, and for a moment its fur turned metallic, slowing down his attack, but whatever technique the beast had activated quickly fell apart in flakes as if it had rusted in the blink of an eye—not strong enough to prevent his spear from drawing blood. The adrenaline pumped through his body, anxiety warring with excitement, but he couldn't fully suppress the smile that formed on his lips.

With the help of a quick Turn, he managed to keep a squirrel leaping at him at bay and launched a direct counterattack. Apparently, the beast did not have enough qi left to strengthen its fur with metal, so his spear pierced deep into the cat-sized rodent and ended its life. Beside him, Miyao, Shuhua, and the cousins were fighting as well. Both of the girls delivered efficient attacks to the small beasts.

Hong and Jun's attacks looked a lot less elegant, but where they hit, they delivered swift death to their opponents as well. Jianyi's next opponent was larger than most of the ones around it. It had previously been at the back of the pack, which was still viciously attacking the villagers standing in the breached palisade. He suspected that, while the squirrel likely was still in the Qi Gathering equivalent realm, it probably was a few steps ahead of the rest of the pack.

When in doubt, he relied on Piercing Fang as his opening attack. Hong, beside him, yelled in pain, distracting Jianyi, making his spear waver and miss. Furious with himself and remembering the many sessions with Minghao in which they had trained exactly for these kinds of situations, Jianyi clenched his jaw and concentrated on his fight. He knew he needed to work on his spatial awareness, but losing focus now, against an opponent in a higher sub-realm, would be a mistake.

Jianyi launched another Piercing Fang attack at his opponent to push it back, and only once that had succeeded did he take a brief look at his friend's situation. A squirrel was chewing furiously on Hon's leg, and the disciple struggled to free his limb, given the awkward position and the length of his spear. Jianyi yelled for Miyao, on his other side, to cover him, and then brought his spear around in a Blazing Arc on the beast attacking Hong.

There was a risk that he would hit the boy—and he saw Hong's eyes go wide as he saw the slash incoming—but it didn't. His spear cleanly cut through the beast's spine, and with a shout of pain and frustration, Hong kicked it away from his leg. The boy was out of the fight, though, as blood streamed from the nasty wound that the metallic teeth of the squirrel had left behind. As he was not in imminent danger of death, Jianyi focused on the fight and joined Miyao in attacking the larger squirrel.

The beast had so far evaded or blocked the girl's attacks, but two on one proved too much for it. Both of them landed hits that drove the beast to a frenzy, but it didn't help. Within seconds, it died, and shortly after, so did the rest of the beasts that were stuck between the villagers on one end and the disciples on the other. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Jianyi turned to Hong, checking on the boy, but he waved him off, holding a hand over his wound with a grimace, indicating that he was fine. One of the villagers came running over to them.

"Honored cultivators, does one of you have a pill or potion that might save my husband?" The woman still held a bloody spear with which she had defended her village, but tears threatened to fall from her eyes, given her husband's state. The others shook their heads apologetically. None of them had brought alchemical products with them. Could they have afforded them? They didn't know; none had thought to check.

Jianyi started to realize that a bunch of inexperienced youths running off on a mission without any preparation might not have been the wisest of decisions. But now was not the time to think about that.

"I don't have a pill, but maybe I can help." He could see hope forming in the woman's eyes as she pulled him back to the breached palisade where she and her fellow villagers had defended their families. There, amongst the carnage of slain squirrels lay an unconscious man, who was bleeding profusely from a wound at his neck, his skin already sallow from blood loss and exhaustion. Jianyi did not know whether he could save the man, but he was determined to try.

He knelt beside the man and breathed in, still probably more pronounced than necessary, but it helped him concentrate on the act of drawing two cards from his small deck. Verdant Mending was amongst the two cards appearing before him, and he concentrated on selecting the card without pointing at it. It took a moment, but he felt his spirit connect with his intent, and he breathed out as he pulled qi through his Celestial Core Card as well as through the Wood affinity card and activated his first two-cost technique.

The card turned into green motes of light that seemed to be drawn to the wound in the man's neck and merged into it. Jianyi could feel how the technique had emptied his lower dantian of almost all his qi, and felt exhaustion rolling over him. His eyes were glued to the wound. Nothing happened. Then, the blood flow seemed to dwindle; whether that was because of his technique or because the man was close to dying, he wasn't sure. But it felt like, maybe, just maybe, the man had gained a bit of color.

"That is all I can do for him for now. Now it is up to the Heavens whether he will pull through." The woman had knelt on the other side of her husband and looked at him with a mix of despair, hope, gratefulness, disappointment, and other emotions. Clearly, she had hoped for a miracle, but that was not something that Jianyi could deliver—yet. He hoped that what he had done was enough, but his technique was for healing wounds; whether it helped a body deal with blood loss was something that he would need to learn.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Shuhua smiled at him.

"That was awesome!" She pulled him to his feet, and they walked over to the others, who were clustered around Hong, who was still sitting on the ground, but somebody had bandaged his wound, and he looked more chagrined than in pain.

"Jianyi just healed the wounded villager. It looked quite spectacular. Can you do the same for Hong?" Shuhua asked excitedly.

"Well, first of all, it is far from clear whether it will save the man. Second, I am currently out of qi, but if I cultivate a bit, I am happy to try." Miyao cleared her throat.

"I read a bit about healing, and apparently, it is quite hard to do for other cultivators. Is that correct?" Jianyi nodded.

"I had planned to do more research, but this mission interfered with those plans. However, according to my teacher, healing techniques struggle with people who are suffused with qi that isn't one's own. So it works well on yourself and on mortals. On other cultivators, not so much, especially in later realms. That's where pills and potions shine. But for Hong, it might still help a bit." The others signaled their understanding, so he moved on.

"We should probably harvest the bodies, and we likely need some sort of watch. Anything else?" Jun spoke up.

"We should probably talk with the village elder as well." Shuhua nodded.

"I can talk with him in a moment." She waved towards the beast corpses.

"Have you done this before?" She pulled a spirit needle out of her storage ring.

"I do have a needle, but have never used it." Stepping towards the first of the squirrels, Jianyi nodded and held the needle over the body before activating it with the tiny bit of qi that was still in his dantian. Everyone looked on expectantly, but nothing happened. Blushing, he moved to the next, and then to the next—none of them provided a card. He looked at the others.

"I don't think it is me. I can feel the connection to the needle and it reaching out…"

"Maybe they are just too young? Try that one!" Shuhua said, pointing towards the larger beast that Miyao and Jianyi had defeated earlier. Jianyi reached out, felt the connection to the spirit needle, and how it searched for the creature's spirit. Success. A card materialized above the corpse that he quickly grasped, grinning towards the others who crowded him; even Hong limped over; the village elder and the watch were forgotten in light of seeing the first card they had gained from a mission as disciples.

Jianyi held it so that all could read it. Rusted plate Technique Common 1x Metal Strengthens one's skin with rusted metal for a breath The silence among the group dragged until broken by Jun.

"Is it just me, or is this horrible?" Miyao shook her head.

"I have a metal affinity, and I am fairly certain that this is quite bad." Jianyi had seen bad cards during the alchemy sessions with Elder Sun, but this was certainly one of the worst. He shrugged.

"It can still produce an essence, just like any other card, which means it has value." The excitement slightly lost, Jianyi still moved from body to body and tried to gain more cards, but failed. Shuhua, in the meantime, had walked towards the villagers to talk with the elder, and Miyao and Jun had taken positions a few paces to the side to be alert in case of more spirit beasts attacking.

Once he was done, he looked at the remains of the squirrels and thought about what to do with them, when Shuhua returned with a few teenagers, not much younger than themselves, in tow.

"The elder has offered that the butcher will harvest the claws and teeth for us." Jianyi was happy with that arrangement and looked on as the teenagers collected the bodies and brought them into the village.

"Have you discussed with him how we can help best?" She nodded.

"Yes. He said that it would probably be safest for all involved if we stayed within the palisade and protected the breach. With the initial attack of the spirit boar that damaged the wall and the swarm of Rust Squirrels, he thinks they have already had all the misfortune for the next decade, so he doesn't believe more attacks are likely, but of course, he can't be certain."

"Good. Once the last squirrels are brought inside, we should do so as well. If possible, I would like to take the second shift, so that I can cultivate now and try to use my technique on Hong." He looked at her, questioning. There was an ever-expanding list of things that Jianyi noticed that they were not doing well. The latest addition was that they hadn't selected a leader.

In his mind, it was Shuhua, as he didn't want that responsibility right now, and she had suggested taking on the mission, but it wasn't clear, and he didn't know whether he should address it.

"Sounds great!" Shuhua seemed oblivious to his concerns.

"I will ask Jun and Miyao whether they can take a watch now, then Hong can rest, and the two of us take the next watch." She ran towards the others energetically, and Jianyi's head swiveled between his three companions and the teenagers bringing in the final squirrels.