Assault on Sun Swallowing Village
Growing back a limb was more difficult than healing a broken arm. It was an unfortunate fact that Man Eater had become deeply aware of in the past few weeks. He'd made his base of operations in the green pine forest, hunting Butchering Chefs cultivators when they deigned to creep out from behind their fleshy walls. Yet, though he'd had a slow but steady stream of fellow blood path cultivators to feast on, his arm was no closer to growing back.
The problem was simply one of technique. His Rejuvenating Flesh Mastication Art was derived from a Beast Cultivation art he'd learned long ago, before he'd seen the true nature of the world. It very efficiently used qi to speed up the body's natural healing, but to compensate for that cheapness it also sped up the rate one needed to eat to avoid starvation. The original art had been used as a last resort to heal after getting injured fighting spirit beasts, but the principles were also relevant for anyone seeking to learn how to heal others.
This technique had two weaknesses: poor efficiency and the limitations of natural healing. While it used very little qi, the technique compensated by burning vast amounts of consumed flesh. Because the qi did not need to come from the flesh itself, Man Eater was able to use it despite his status as a blood path cultivator, but it meant that in order to heal quickly the user had to eat a grand amount of food. The second, more relevant problem was that it only sped up natural healing. Something like a missing limb, which would not naturally grow back no matter how long Man Eater waited, could not be regenerated with this technique.
Which was why Man Eater was currently cowering in the forest rather than hunting the eighth heavenstage cultivator standing on its outskirts. The man was carefully scraping some sort of moss from the trees, though it was like no moss Man Eater had ever seen. It looked the color of human flesh, and smelled oddly palatable for a plant, though Man Eater hadn't dared give it a taste. The fact that he was thinking of eating moss from the trees rather than the cultivator below him, clueless of his presence, showed just how far Man Eater had fallen.
Before his fight with the Golden Devil, Man Eater would have happily gone after such an oblivious target. Now though, the thought made his missing arm ache. He could probably kill his prey in a single strike, but if he was wrong, or the man had some sort of life saving treasure, Man Eater would be drawn into a fight. And with only one arm, he had no confidence that he could win.
The very thought irked him. Man Eater wanted to jump down and tear his prey's throat out, to prove he was still stronger. But he knew he had to be careful. Once he figured out how to grow back his arm, he would enjoy a grand feast, but overconfidence would get him killed.
If he had learned anything, it was the folly of overconfidence. And there was nothing more important than staying alive, no matter what the Golden Devil said.
The man turned to walk away, and Man Eater watched him go.
"I'm disappointed. Who would have thought the rabbit in my garden was such a coward?"
Man Eater twisted, looking behind him in shock. There was a woman standing behind him on the tree branch, a beauty with jade-white skin and eyes that glittered like sharp blue ice. But his gaze did not fixate on her beauty, but instead the red lotus nestled in her midnight black hair.
Though he could not sense her presence, not even in the dip of the branch they perched upon, he knew who she was at once. "Bloody Lotus."
She smiled at him like one might smile at a particularly dumb pet managing to pull off a trick. "That's right! I'm glad to know the man who has been feasting on my disciples knows my name, though I'm afraid I don't know yours."
A shock of deep fear ran through Man Eater's spine. Bloody Lotus was a foundation establishment cultivator, and part of the reason he'd been cautious about getting too close to where her sect had put down roots. Yet, to so easily sneak up on him was an ability beyond what Man Eater ever could have guessed from her. He had already known he would be outmatched if they ever met, but this just hammered the point home. If Bloody Lotus wanted him dead, he would be.
Which meant he had to humor her.
"I am Man Eater." He spoke the words begrudgingly, but there was more harm in insulting her than ignoring her implicit question.
Her grin widened, "What a delightfully simple name."
He fought down the urge to bristle at the underhanded insult. She had barely spoken a few sentences, and already her mockingly saccharine voice was getting on his nerves. But he couldn't afford to let his anger out, and they both knew it.
"I apologize for preying on you disciples," he groveled, dragging words from his own unwilling throat, "and I will make it up to you however you wish."
"You certainly will. But do not fear, I am not here to kill you, Man Eater. I am here to recruit you."
That was not what he had expected. Recruitment? He had sworn to himself that he would never join another sect, never again place his life in the hands of others. But Man Eater had no illusions about what would happen to him if he rejected Bloody Lotus' offer.
Still, she seemed to sense his reluctance, "Don't worry, I wouldn't ask you to join me for free. You're strong, maybe even strong enough to reach foundation establishment the old fashioned way. I can offer you something no other sect can, though."
Bloody Lotus placed a hand on Man Eater's shoulder, just above his missing arm, "How would you like to be whole again?"
There was nothing Man Eater could do but bow, "I submit to your training, Master."
Without another word, Bloody Lotus leapt from the tree, setting out back towards the wall of fleshy red vines growing off in the distance.
Man Eater followed after her.
– – –
"Welcome," Bloody Lotus spoke with a grandiose sweep of her hands, "to Sun Swallowing Village."
The wall parted before her, welcoming its master, and beyond Man Eater saw something he never would have expected.
There were rows of houses, clearly sturdily built, seemingly grown from the ground. They were wood constructions, if constructions were the right word, but rather than being made from planks each one seemed carved from a single tree. Yet, even that wasn't quite right. Rather, it looked as if each house was a single tree that had naturally grown into such a shape without the touch of a chisel or saw. But the houses themselves were not as strange as what was inside of them.
Mortals. He could see them everywhere, coming and going without a care in the world. It was like they did not know they were in the presence of their natural predators, but how could they be so blind when the evidence was in the very walls surrounding their homes? As he watched, one even waved towards Bloody Lotus, seemingly without a care in the world.
Man Eater looked on in disbelief.
"It is a beautiful place, is it not? Now come, I have just the thing to replace that arm of yours, and then I can have someone show you around."
They walked in silence. Man Eater had no idea what was going through Bloody Lotus' head, but he simply could not tear his eyes from the village life before him.
Mortals were walking about, but as he paid more attention he realized they weren't doing so without purpose. The entire village was covered in plants, so much so that it would be difficult to walk off the clearly defined paths. Man Eater couldn't identify the different varieties, though he knew a fair number of useful healing herbs.
Some of the plants looked fairly ordinary: there were rows of berry bushes and fields of flowers with so little qi they seemed useless to cultivators of any kind. There were even rice paddy fields near the wall. But alongside the more mundane vegetation were varieties of a stranger nature. He saw a small tree with deep blue bark, wrapped in a vine that shimmered with heat. Where the two met, water dripped down into buckets placed below.
And of course, there were plenty of plants that smelled disturbingly appetizing to his nose. It was not right for a plant to smell exactly like a human corpse.
The mortals traveled between all these plants, he saw now, harvesting their fruits. It reminded him strangely of his home village. These mortals were simply farmers, though many of their crops were different from what Man Eater was used to seeing. Yet, they went about their tasks as if they were not in any danger.
Finally, Bloody Lotus spoke, "My village may seem strange for one such as yourself, but I believe it is the future of the blood path. Other blood path sects are wild and ravenous, they devour mortals without care and turn on each other at the first pang of hunger. Those methods can produce decent fighters, I suppose, but they cannot build anything that lasts."
She gestured to where some mortals were hammering a tap into a pale tree, "But here, we live in symbiosis. We offer mortals protection and all the conveniences we can create, and in return they offer us enough corpses to survive, and new recruits of course. They live in luxury all their lives, and we do not have to risk constant fighting just to survive. A perfect, self-perpetuating system."
The portals turned a knob on the spigot, and deep red sap began to pour from the tree. Man Eater could smell the blood qi within, heavy and thick.
"You supplement your diet with your own creations."
She turned to look back at Man Eater, as if she hadn't expected even that most basic insight, "It seems you're clever as well as strong! Yes, none of this would work without my garden, or the efforts of my disciples of course. The blood sect is not kind to those who specialize in areas outside direct combat, but my Butchering Chefs sect is full of such individuals. No other blood path sect could maintain the kind of infrastructure we do to ensure sustainability."
There was real pride in Bloody Lotus' voice, and Man Eater couldn't help but see the promise in her pretty words. Sun Swallowing Village probably offered a quality of life unheard of for blood sect cultivators if its promises of sustainability were true. Even the great blood path sects that ruled over massive stretches of territory and could support nascent souls had to raid and fight to survive. Perhaps joining the Butchering Chefs wasn't so bad after all.
But then, why did the whole thing leave such a queasy feeling in his stomach?
"But I'm sure the logistics of sustaining a sect are of no interest to you. Here, let me show you a more concrete example of our success."
She led him to a field of black ferns. Besides their color the plants seemed normal enough, but as he grew nearer the scent of blood filled Man Eater's nostrils. Immediately, he felt himself start to salivate. The only time he had smelled this much blood was on a battlefield, with bodies littering the ground.
But in this case, the bodies did not lie above the earth.
Bloody Lotus wrapped her hand around one of the ferns and unceremoniously yanked it from the soil, revealing the plant in its entirety. Man Eater's eyes widened. Hanging from the fronds of the fern was a humanoid corpse.
"What is that?" He could not help the words that emerged from his mouth, for of all the disturbing things he had seen today, this was the worst. The corpse looked almost exactly like a human. It had arms and legs, sure, but it even had the exact right number of fingers and toes. It had a mouse, a nose, even eyelids, though he could not see if there were eyes underneath.
Yet, it was a plant. Its skin was the color and texture of tree roots, twisted and gnarled in a way that looked utterly wrong on something so human. But even that was not what disturbed him. Rather, it was the fact that the plant smelled exactly like a human being.
Bloody Lotus looked it over fondly, "It's impressive, isn't it? I call it the Human Mimicking Root Fern, a bit on the nose I know. It was an experiment to see if I could create a crop from scratch that could replace humans in our diet, but that never panned out. Amazingly, as good as these smell they're actually fully inedible. Not only that, but they'll tear you apart inside out in a heartbeat."
Man Eater took a step back. They seemed totally inanimate, but he wasn't looking to test it.
"Don't worry, I keep them well fed. You don't need to worry. In fact, this is going to solve your missing arm problem. Come here."
It wasn't a demand Man Eater could refuse, and he knew it. He stepped forward, towards the uprooted fern.
She gave him a smile that was probably meant to be comforting, "Have you ever heard of grafting? It's a technique where you join the roots of one plant with the stem of another. The plant will continue to grow like normal, but the fruits and flowers it produces will be identical to those of the plant the stem originally came from. It's truly incredible. Now, hold very still."
As easily as Man Eater could tear apart a leaf, Bloody Lotus tore the arm off the fern. Sap like blood immediately began to leak from the wound, but his eyes were drawn to the ragged edge of the tear. Immediately, new roots were growing from its surface, wriggling in the air like worms. Or spears.
Before he could react, Bloody Lotus jammed the root arm into the stump of Man Eater's shoulder.
The roots dug into his flesh, worming their way past his skin. Man Eater tried to rip the thing off with his free hand, but Bloody Lotus caught it with ease, holding him in place. He could feel the roots multiplying, seeking his veins as they spread throughout his shoulder. They were sucking away at his blood and qi alike, draining him so quickly it was like his arm had been severed a second time.
"Listen very carefully, Man Eater. If you want to survive this, you can't fight the Human Mimicking Root Graft. You have to push your own blood qi into it, but you have to maintain control while doing so. This is a plant, it needs nutrient-rich soil to grow. You are that soil, and if you aren't careful it'll eat you up."
Man Eater had no choice but to try and follow the directions. He tried to shove his qi into the plant, circulating through it like he would a normal arm. The pain intensified, the tendrils shooting deeper down, wiggling now from his shoulder into his chest and up his neck. It burned beneath his skin, and he could not hold back a roar of pain.
"Not too much though, or you'll just fuel its growth. Maintain control, remember? Enough to keep it content, but not so much that it'll grow any further."
Gritting his teeth, Man Eater tried to wrestle control of his own qi away from the hungry roots. It was difficult, agonizing work, like trying to untense every muscle in his body but being stabbed each time he failed. He wanted to survive, he didn't want to die to a damn plant. But the roots were working their way towards his heart now, drinking up all his qi-rich blood. He couldn't get control without stopping his own heart, and that would kill him as surely as the roots.
"If the roots reach your heart or your brain, you'll die, so hurry up if you want to live."
Why was it that, in this moment, half his body inflamed with the pain of a thousand roots digging through his skin, the first thought that came into his head was a quote from that Golden Devil?
"It's not about living."
Bloody Lotus gave him a curious look, "What was that?"
But Man Eater couldn't respond, because he had just stopped his own heart.
Almost immediately, the flow of the roots slowed to a snail's pace. They had been swimming in qi, and now they were cut off. Yet, they did not stop growing. They could not, for they needed a steady source of qi or they would starve. And, having supped so mightily upon Man Eater's blood, the roots had plenty of fuel for their growth. They would carve through his heart and brain long before they ran out completely.
Of course, the bigger problem was that his heart wasn't beating. Even being able to stop his heart showed Man Eater's capabilities compared to other blood path cultivators. The control and knowledge it took to stop his heart without damaging it was incredible, and doing so without preparation could only be done by someone with a deep knowledge of anatomy and a highly honed affinity for blood arts.
Even if it was technically impressive, however, that didn't make stopping one's heart a good idea, generally speaking. That didn't mean it was impossible to survive. Man Eater's blood was concentrated with his qi, and he was used to circulating his qi through his body. All he had to do was use his qi to circulate his blood through his body as well. And he had to start quickly, before anything in his body started to shut down.
Man Eater sucked in a breath. Air filled his lungs, and oxygen entered his bloodstream. He carefully guided the blood through his arteries, directing it through his body in pathways he'd memorized long ago. The root tendrils were hungrily digging through his flesh, and a punctured vein caused a shudder in his control. The blood pooled, stagnant in his veins for the second it took him to firm his concentration.
If the roots were so hungry, Man Eater would feed them first. He carefully directed qi-rich blood towards the tendrils, feeling as they came to an agonizingly slow stop. He could almost feel a satiated contentment radiating off them, as if they were communicating that this was enough to keep them happy for now.
Then, he just had to finish the cycle. Carefully, he brought the deoxygenated blood back through his veins, dragging it towards his lungs. He let out a breath, a single cycle complete. Then, he repeated it again, and again, until he was confident enough to open the eyes he suddenly realized had slammed shut from pain.
Bloody Lotus looked genuinely impressed, "I didn't think you had it in you, Man Eater. You'll be happy to know you're the first one to successfully survive a Human Mimicking Root Graft. We're treading entirely new ground here, but I'm sure it'll function just as well, if not better than your previous arm, just as promised."
Man Eater tried to respond, but all that escaped was a gasping wheeze as he lost control of his own blood.
"Oh, were my congratulations too soon?"
He quickly took in another breath, refining his circulation enough to try speaking again, "How long?"
"How long for what?" She was eyeing him cautiously now, as if expecting him to drop dead at any moment.
"Have to do this?" Was all he could gasp out.
"Have to do what?" She looked him over again, then pressed a hand to his newly grafted arm. Oddly, Man Eater could feel the pressure on the gnarled root as if it was skin.
Bloody Lotus' eyes widened, "So that's how you're doing it! That really is quite impressive. As for how long, well, I'm truly not sure. As I said, we're treading new ground. It's possible that the graft will set in and stop being so aggressive now that it's secured a steady supply, but I can't guarantee it. If that doesn't happen, well, it's possible you'll eventually grow strong enough the graft can't eat away at your skin, but given the way it's designed it may actually grow stronger alongside your cultivation, in which case you'll never actually outpace it. So I would say anywhere between one day and the rest of your life."
If his heart wasn't already dead in his chest, Man Eater felt like it would have stopped at that pronouncement. His concentration broke again, only for a moment, but even in that time he felt the roots start to shift uneasily. He quickly started up the flow again.
If this was how he was going to have to live for his whole life, then he was better off without the damn arm. He reached up to yank if off, but Bloody Lotus stopped his hand, as easily as if he were a newborn child.
"Careful now. With how deep that's burrowed in, I wouldn't tear it out unless you can survive having a quarter of your body come with it."
The strength dropped from Man Eater's legs, and he fell to the ground. It was all he could do to keep breathing and pumping his blood through the despair.
"I'll send someone over to check on you in a day, they'll show you around if you're still alive." Bloody Lotus patted him on the shoulder, "Welcome to the Butchering Chefs, Man Eater. I'm quite delighted to have you as part of my garden."
– – –
Qiang spent the rest of the day before the sect set out in cultivation. He knew he wasn't going to achieve any last minute breakthrough, he had only just reached the eighth heavenstage, but he wanted to ensure he was in top shape for what was to come. The truth was, he had lived a charmed life, protected and nurtured by his parents for all his talent. They'd kept him and his sister safe, even sending them off to Thousand-Year Moon Bathed Valley to clear it of All-Devouring Kudzu right before the village was attacked. But Qiang and Qiao were the two strongest qi cultivation disciples in the sect, and their parents couldn't afford to leave them behind in such a dangerous operation. Qiang couldn't disappoint them.
Someone banged on the door to his room.
"Flavius is gone now, you can stop hiding!" Qiao's teasing lilt echoed through the room.
"I'm not hiding. I'm training." Even Qiang had to acknowledge his voice sounded more like a whine than a resolute statement.
"Please, you only ever willingly train when you're thinking about him."
"That's not true!" Despite himself, Qiang was rapidly losing any concentration on his cultivation, "I trained with Mom all the time before he ever showed up!"
Qiao gave a snort so unladylike it would probably ripple through time to scare away future suitors, "Only because Mom calls sleeping on a hot rock training."
"Yeah well, better than slamming your heads together all day, the only thing you're getting is brain damage!"
Before his sister could retort, another voice interrupted them both, "Now children, there's no need to fight, I love you both equally."
"We're not children anymore Mom," Qiao huffed, "I was just coming to let Qiang know Flavius had left is all."
"That's true, you aren't a child any more. So surely that means you're out there helping your father with the goats and not wasting time arguing with your brother?" Qiang couldn't hear the arch of his mother's brow, but he could hear his sister beating a hasty retreat.
"You can come out now, Qiang, I'm not going to make you do any work."
He huffed, "I really am just trying to cultivate."
His mother didn't bother waiting at the door, slipping under it like a shadow to appear in front of her son. She stood casually, but Qiang could see the stress on her face. It was unusual for her to be so concerned. He had always thought of his mother as unflappable and totally in control, but it was only now that he was getting a glimpse at what was underneath that facade.
It was only a glimpse though, a single moment of weakness before her face set back to an all-concealing smirk. "The day you just try to cultivate is the day the world ends. Don't worry, I get it. I let your Dad stew for weeks after the first time we–"
"I don't want to hear about that, Mom." He clapped his hands over his cheeks to hide the blush.
She just sat down next to him, "You two, you really are so innocent. It makes me happy, that you two could remain carefree for so long, but it worries me too. I think this will be good for you."
Qiang wished he could argue with his mother, but she was echoing words he'd thought to himself. As much as he hated to admit it, he was something of a greenhouse flower. His fight with Flavius had shown him a bit of that, and coming home to see it in ruins after the Butchering Chefs had attacked did the rest.
It still hurt to admit, so instead he said, "I'm ready."
His mom gave him a look, "You're hiding in your room from a boy you like."
"I'm training." He didn't know why he even bothered with the excuse when nobody believed it.
"Look," she sighed, "I get it, but Flavius, you know he'll never put you first. I only needed to talk to him for five minutes to realize his priority is cultivation."
Why everyone wanted to bother him about his love life right before going off to war, Qiang couldn't say. And he certainly didn't know why his mother thought he couldn't see a mountain right in front of his face.
"I know where Flavius' priorities are, Mom. But," he groped around in the air, as if he could find the right words hiding within, "he's really buff."
His mom snorted, "He really is. You know, he might not seem like it now, but what your Dad was younger–"
Again, Qiang cut her off, "I don't want to hear it!"
She just shrugged, "It's your loss."
Then, her tone grew serious, "Now get up, it's time to get moving."
Qiang knew better than to argue. He stood, turning to collect some of his things, and didn't even bother reacting when his mother disappeared the moment he took his eyes off her. She'd been pulling that trick since he was a baby.
He gathered his bag, which held a few pairs of simple clothes and some light armor for the battle. He didn't often bother with the armor, his skin was tough enough and he didn't like how it slowed him down and restricted his movement, for all that it was made from toughened animal hides. Still, Qiang had promised to be careful, so he'd take any extra protection he could get.
After he had his pack, he stooped to grab something hidden below his bed. Carefully, he withdrew a simple sword, a gladius as the Golden Devils called it. The blade rested in an unadorned leather sheath, except for a name carved carefully into the side. He couldn't read the characters, written in some sort of Golden Devil code, but he knew what they wrote out.
"Flavius Eirenikos," Qiang whispered.
He drew the sword, unveiling the bronze blade. Qiang didn't need to run his finger along the edge to know it could cut even the flesh of cultivators with ease. It was craftsmanship of a level that would be impossible for a sect like the Shining Goats to acquire normally, and the fact that the Golden Devils could distribute such weapons to every cultivator just showed the power of the desert hegemon.
The fact that Flavius had conveniently "lost" the blade right in front of Qiang's room and "forgotten" to take it back was even more meaningful. Qiang held the blade reverently for a moment, before sheathing it again and clipping it to his belt.
"So he left you something to remember him by after all."
Qiang jumped so high he slammed his head into the roof in shock as he looked over to where his mother was still standing, a shit eating grin on her face.
"Smooth of him, leaving you a sword. Keep you wanting for his real–"
"Mom!"
"You're really far too innocent. You know you weren't just dropped off as a baby by the Fecundity Stork Clan, right?"
Instead of gracing that with a response, Qiang chose the better side of valor and fled the room. Unfortunately, outside his room things didn't get much better. His blush deepened as disciples saw and cheered. They were congratulating him for, "Finally getting it on with the Devil," clapping as he walked past. One even gave him a loud wolf whistle.
Honestly, it was just a kiss! Did those meatheads have nothing better to do than harass him?
Eventually, he reached his destination, the fields where the goats of the sect preferred to spend their time. Crushing Jaws was the most powerful by far, but the clan kept a whole herd of qi cultivation goats for various purposes. Qiang's personal mount, Curling Horns, was a large beast, though not particularly clever. Certainly he was nowhere near the intelligence of even a mortal, though he was strong and hardy.
The fields looked remarkably empty, most of its residents already taken away by their riders. The fields extended over a vast area, the mountainside covered in green grass. It wasn't the Earth-Defying Spirit Grass the village farmed, but apparently even the regular grass in the area was especially delicious.
Out across the fields, it was easy enough to pick out Curling Horns from those few goats that remained. He was the tallest still around, the large horns he was named for towering over the other goats in the area. Qiang ran over, crossing the distance between them with a speed only cultivators could manage.
Running a hand over Curling Horns' shaggy hair, he pressed his forehead to his mount's. Curling Horn seemed nonplussed, but tubbed his forehead gently into Qiang's with just enough pressure to be comforting.
"At least you won't make fun of me." Qiang sighed.
"Who's making fun of my son?"
Qiang spun. He expected his mom to sneak up on him, but his dad? "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, of course. We're just about to head out. Your Mom said you came this way. Has she been giving you a hard time?" The seriousness sitting on his father's face made him look a different person, laughlines morphing into chiseled features. Qiang knew he wasn't really concerned about his son getting lightly teased.
"It's not a big deal," Qiang frowned, "I just don't understand how they can joke around. Don't they realize what we're getting into?"
"I'm sure some of them have no idea," his father didn't look happy about that thought, "but a lot of them do. They lived through the assault, at least. But Qiang, there's always a risk of fights like this. If we were serious all the time, there'd be nothing making those fights worth winning."
The logic didn't sit well with him, "But this isn't a freak disaster, we're choosing to set out. After we lost so many people, I don't know, it doesn't feel right."
His dad pulled him into a hug, strong arms holding him tight. "I understand, Qiang, and I'm sorry I can't promise that it will all be alright. But I think, especially in times like these, people need reminders that there's more to life than bloodshed."
"I suppose." Despite his uncertainty, he sank into the hug, enjoying his father's comforting presence.
"I'm sorry that we couldn't keep you safe from the world longer."
Qiang stepped back, looking his dad in the eyes. "I don't want to be protected anymore. I want to help."
His dad smiled back, "You really have changed." Then, his smile turned mischievous, "Who would have thought all it took was a hunky foreigner to get you motivated."
"Not you too!" Despite himself, Qiang couldn't help but laugh at his own mortification. How ridiculous, to feel embarrassed over a kiss on the verge of a war. But then, maybe his dad had a point.
Laughing with his family at his own romantic life, well, it was a ridiculous thought, but that too was something to live for.
– – –
Man Eater did not die on his first night in the Butchering Chefs Sect. He also did not sleep.
He was stuck, lying in the dirt, trying to pump his own blood. It took absolute focus, and he knew if he faltered for too long he would die. Certainly, Man Eater could not afford to rest. He had no idea how he'd manage when it grew necessary to do so.
But even lying there in the dirt, on a field soaked in bloody qi, he had to admit that there was something incredible about what Bloody Lotus had built. If he had found a figure like himself in his state, he would have eaten his fill. There would not even be bones left by the morning. Yet, lying here through the night, no one dared even come close. Perhaps his own qi was hidden by that of the field, but he somehow doubted that was the case.
It was more likely that Bloody Lotus truly maintained absolute control of her garden.
As the sun rose above the horizon, Man Eater felt a pressure on his arm. His eyes snapped open.
A woman was cowering at the far side of the field, a staff of bone in her hands. She was weak, a mere third heavenstage qi cultivator, and clearly terrified.
"Are you alive?" She whimpered.
Man Eater took in a deep breath. He circulated his blood. He exhaled. Then, he stood. It was slow and laborious, but he completed the movement without a single lapse in concentration.
He opened his mouth and spoke in a raspy voice, "I am alive."
She whimpered again. "Are you really the one who killed Corpse Blossom, Blooming Death, Bone Cruncher, Kidney Thief, Blood Alchemist–"
"I do not know the names of all I kill," he interrupted, "but I preyed on your sect, yes. Are you going to take revenge?"
Even just standing, talking, and keeping himself alive all at the same time was difficult. If she wanted to take revenge, now would be the time. Even with how weak she was, she might have succeeded and devoured him, rising immediately to the ninth heavenstage.
He was almost disappointed when she waved a hand in front of her face in furious rejection, "No, no of course not Mr. Cultivator, I don't want to fight you! Master sent me to give you a tour."
Ahh, Man Eater did remember something like that. As much as he hated the thought, if he was going to be a part of the sect he'd need to know the way around. And he couldn't have anyone calling him 'Mr. Cultivator' either.
"My name is Man Eater. Use it." He could demand at least that much respect.
She jumped, nodding furiously, "Oh course Mr. Man Eater sir. I'm Spinecarver. Because, you know…" She gestured at the bone staff in her hand. Now that he looked at it, the thing did look like a spine.
"It looks sloppy. Carved by mortal hands." Twisting script was carved down the length of the staff, and for a mortal it would probably look passible. In his eyes, though, the flaws were obvious. Every chip and jagged edge stood out like a jutting cliff face, surely obvious to any cultivator worth the core used to ascend them.
"I carved it when I was a mortal. Not just anyone can be a cultivator, you have to prove you're worth it. It's how I got my name." She clutched the staff to herself closely.
Well, at least his guide wasn't a total incompetent. He wished he had a staff of his own to lean against, but he couldn't afford to look weak by asking. Even if this place was strangely peaceful, there were benefits to being feared.
At least he had gotten the hang of his own blood circulation. It still took much of his focus, but he hadn't lost his grasp on it yet during the conversation. Keeping his concentration was still easier without the dialogue, so he didn't bother keeping it up as they lapsed into silence.
He could see sweat begin to bead on Spinecarver's forehead.
After a few moments, she gave up on waiting for a response.
"Well then!" She cheered in a poor approximation of confidence, "the tour. Uhh, we're currently in the Village Gardens. They're split between Mortal and Immortal, Sustaining and Utility. The Mortal and Immortal Sustaining Gardens produce food, and the Mortal and Immortal Utility Gardens produce non-edible products. The field we're in now is part of the Immortal Utility Gardens, specifically the Human Mimicking Root Fern Field. The Ferns–"
"I know what the Ferns are." Spinecarver jolted as Man Eater interrupted her flow, flexing his graft. It felt almost exactly like his missing arm had, except for the roots digging into his flesh and the constant draining of his qi. He wished he could tear it off.
"Right, well," she started up again, "if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the Immortal Residencies. I think you've seen the Mortal residencies already?"
She seemed terrifyed just asking the question, but Man Eater just gave her a gruff nod.
Spinecarver began to walk, winding between fields with the ease of long practice. Man Eater struggled to follow after her, even this minimal exercise straining his newly achieved equilibrium. His body was in good shape, so he didn't need to worry about increasing the rate of his blood circulation, but just adding the extra effort of putting one step in front of the other was a struggle. She hardly seemed to notice, chattering nervously as she led him.
"I know you came from the outside world, Mr. Man Eater, but Sun Swallowing Village is different. We've all heard stories of the violence and chaos out there, but here everyone has enough and nobody has to fight. It's not perfect, but nobody goes hungry, and we all have a place. I wanted to become a cultivator because I thought… Well, it doesn't matter. I just wish the outside world would leave us alone, now. It's brought nothing but trouble."
It wasn't until after the words escaped her mouth that Spinecarver seemed to remember that Man Eater was one such troublemaker.
"Not that I mean you, of course!" She lied desperately.
Man Eater wanted to laugh, but he didn't trust himself to manage it without losing concentration. Instead, he spit out, "You should."
He meant it as a threat, but when she turned to look at him her eyes seemed to soften for some reason he couldn't identify. "You've never known anything else. I shouldn't blame you for what you didn't have a choice in, even if you are scary."
How dare she? How dare she, who was so weak and scared, look down on him? Even the Golden Devil, that man who had twice laid Man Eater low, had enough respect to recognize Man Eater's actions as his own.
"Don't pity me!" Man Eater roared, "I made my choices! I survived!"
The rage was overwhelming. Unfortunately, he was not in the position to be distracted by overwhelming rage. Man Eater's concentration wavered, and his blood stopped its flow. He stumbled.
Spinecarver caught him. "You're injured!" She seemed surprised, as if she couldn't imagine he was capable of taking wounds. Yet, there was no satisfaction or hunger in her voice.
Even so, Man Eater knew better than to show weakness to a blood path cultivator, even one as strange as this. "I'm fine."
"No, you're clearly not." She spoke not with triumph but concern, "You're clearly in no shape to be walking around. Let me take you back to my home, you can rest."
He tried to push her off, but his body was so weak. He wasn't just suffering from pain, exhaustion, or his split focus. A great deal of his blood and qi had been sucked up by the graft, blood and qi he hadn't replaced. Man Eater suddenly realized he was terribly hungry.
He opened his mouth to bite, confident that even in his current state, he could still tear out this girl's throat before she could react. But then his mind went back to Bloody Lotus.
This was a test. Bloody Lotus wanted to see if he could be trusted around the dullest sheep of her flock, to see if he could be tamed. And as much as he hated himself for admitting it, if it meant staying alive, he could be.
He couldn't afford to fall unconscious, but he closed his eyes and allowed Spinecarver to carry him with her. Perhaps she didn't realize he was awake, for as she took him to her home, she muttered something to herself.
"I'll show you, you can do more than just survive here."
Even here, that Golden Devil haunted him.
– – –
That night, Spinecarver brought him something to eat. He was lying in a simple bed, hidden away within wooden walls. As it turned out, the dwellings of cultivators were no different than those of mortals, though Spinecarver's was decorated with various carvings that looked like the good be arrays if not for the lack of qi. It was a humble dwelling, all things told, a single room to sleep in and store her equipment, but not much else. It was still the nicest room Man Eater had been in in a long time.
Spinecarver entered carefully, a bowl of soup in her hands. It smelled fragrant, filled with blood qi, but there was something off to Man Eater's nose. The bloody smell was almost overpowering, but underneath there were hints of wood qi. Well, that was no surprise, given everything Bloody Lotus and Spinecarver had told him.
She sat down on the bed next to him, holding out the bowl. The broth was blood red and totally smooth, without anything solid floating within. Spinecarver offered to help him sit up, but he waved off her hand, pushing himself into a sitting position.
"I got you some soup from the feast," she gestured with the soup in question, "normally Master has all the immortals eat together, but she made an exception because you're hurt. I wish I knew how you were hurt. I'm an array carver, not a doctor, but I would have tried to bring you some medicine."
Man Eater just took the bowl from her, "I'm fine."
She leaned in so close he could have bitten off her nose, a frown on her face, "Don't try to be all tough, how could you know for sure? Are you a doctor?"
If he killed her, Bloody Lotus would almost certainly put him down. He had to remember that.
Instead of tearing out the girl's throat with his teeth, Man Eater just tried to do it with words, "I have killed and eaten more people that you have ever seen. I could kill you with a single claw. Go back to fearing me, girl, you were wise to do so. And yes," he continued, just to shove her assumptions back in her face, "I was a doctor once."
With that, he brought the bowl to his lips and took a sip. His nose wrinkled.
One year, before he had left to become a cultivator, his village had faced a bad harvest. It hadn't been so bad that they would all starve, but it had necessitated stretching out what remained as much as possible. He still remembered the taste of the watered down gruel and sausage that was more sawdust than meat. This soup tasted similar, like a single meal watered down and supplemented to last a whole family for a week.
When he lowered the bowl, entirely drained, it revealed Spinecarver smiling at him hopefully. "Isn't it good! I remember my first time having immortal food, it was the best thing I ever tasted."
"It's shit, barely worth eating." It was true that his stomach felt fuller, and he knew he could barely maintain his current stage of cultivation off of such slop, but that was all he could say in its favor. If this was the result of Bloody Lotus' efforts towards sustainability, then he could understand why she was stuck here rather than out conquering a kingdom for herself. No blood path cultivator that knew better would willingly subsist off of those watered down dregs.
Spinecarver's face fell, "Well, I'd heard that outside food tasted even better, but you must be exaggerating."
Man Eater bared his fangs, "Don't call me a liar."
"It's just hard to believe. But then, if you're telling the truth, does that mean you're really a doctor?"
"I was a doctor," Man Eater frowned, "Was. Those who wish to live will live, those who do not will die. I only care about saving myself."
Yet, even as he said the words, he knew they weren't true. Not about only wanting to save himself, of course, but about people who wanted to live. That Golden Devil hadn't cared about living or dying, but he'd still won in the end. Man Eater couldn't even tell himself his opponent had been better, the Golden Devil had been losing until the very end. Where did that burst of power come from? All the man had spoken was some nonsense about climbing and not being able to lose. Man Eater didn't know.
He also had no idea what was going through Spinecarver's head as she looked at him with eyes practically glittering with hope. He also didn't particularly care.
"Now be silent, I need to focus on healing."
That seemed to do the trick, though it wasn't exactly true. He did need to focus, but he certainly wasn't healing. At best, he was just learning to manage. Slowly, surely, Man Eater was trying to carve the flow of his blood into his own mind, until he could keep it cycling without a conscious thought. He had no idea if he could ever achieve that level of mastery, but he had to look towards it. Otherwise, all Man Eater had to look forward to was a life of constant pain and struggle, always one moment from death.
A life filled with nothing but constant pain hardly seemed worth living.
Spinecarver turned away from him, going to lie down on the floor. Good, he was worried when she'd given him the only bed that she was going to try and share it with him. If she had, he wasn't sure if he could have kept himself from killing her.
As her breathing slowly grew steady with sleep, Man Eater closed his own eyes. He breathed in, cycled his blood, and breathed out.
The next week was one of the strangest of Man Eater's life. He slowly grew more used to manually pumping his own blood, and the graft that had replaced his missing arm. It was not just as good as the one he'd previously possessed, it was actually better. The graft was not made of flesh but of wood, and it seemed to shift and grow with ease. The only problem was that it needed fuel. Shoving his blood qi into it could cause it to grow and expand in ways that didn't dig further into his shoulder, but forcing it to do so was a fight for dominance. It was his arm, in a way, but it was also a separate living thing. If he let up for even a moment, it would bite back, digging its tendrils further in. At those times, it was all he could do to keep them from digging into his heart or brain.
Not that he was using his heart at the moment, but Man Eater refused to accept the possibility that he could never use it again. That was an unacceptable thought.
But while he slowly grew used to his new condition, Man Eater couldn't move around. He couldn't hunt or fight. Bloody Lotus never came to visit him again, but it was clear she wasn't willing to let him be a passive drain on her stores. Unfortunately, he had also let slip to Spinecarver that he used to be a doctor.
All of which was to say, he started having to treat patients.
Man Eater wasn't happy about it. Most of the injuries were minor stuff, things that anyone with an ounce of knowledge could do. He bound broken bones, cured minor poisonings, and sealed some open wounds. There weren't many cases, but each one was a humiliation. This whole sect was full of children, willingly placing their arms in the maw of a lion. And even worse, Man Eater couldn't even bite them off.
If that was bad, Spinecarver was worse. She clearly seemed to think they had become friends, constantly chattering at him as she carved arrays into wood and bone. He had to admit that the work was actually fairly good from his untrained eye, but somehow that just made it worse. Somehow, Bloody Lotus had managed to raise an entire sect of blood path greenhouse flowers.
The whole place reminded him of an overripe fruit. It was sweet on the surface, with the words of stability and food for all, but there was a rot underneath. He could taste it in the awful, barely palatable food. He could smell it in the heavy metallic tang of blood in the fields. And he could see it with how quickly Spinecarver grew to trust someone who had surely devoured her friends. The only true blood path cultivators here were Man Eater and Bloody Lotus. The rest were just cattle trained to love their slaughterer.
Then, seven days into Man Eater's stay at Sun Swallowing Village, Bloody Lotus took off the mask.
It was midday when it happened. Man Eater was sitting, trying to cultivate by circulating his blood and qi separately and simultaneously, when Bloody Lotus' voice echoed throughout the village.
"Hello my dear flowers, this is your Master Bloody Lotus. For generations, I have protected you from all the harms of the outside world. But today, I can do so no longer. Our village is about to be attacked by outsider savages, and with the loss of Sword Huffer we cannot fight them off. Sun Swallowing Village will not survive the night."
Man Eater could hear the stillness in the air as every resident of the village froze, unable to move while their entire lives dropped out from under them. Yet, Bloody Lotus barely gave them the time to process their impending doom before she continued.
"Almost all of you are going to die, but that does not mean that all our progress must be lost. I cannot help all of you escape, but I can help one. If you wish to survive, you must become the culmination of all my research, and grow beyond your station. As disciples of the blood path, know that you only have one method of doing so. Just as the lotus blooms from mud, cultivators bloom from violence. I hope I get to see a beautiful cultivator bloom on this day."
The silence stretched onwards, as if the residents couldn't understand what Bloody Lotus had just said. Perhaps they truly didn't. Their sect leader had put so much effort into suppressing the blood path within them, perhaps they couldn't recognize when it was being let loose.
It seemed Bloody Lotus had come to the same realization, because her voice cut in one final time to make it absolutely clear.
"Residents of Sun Swallowing Village, if any of you want to survive, devour each other until only one remains. Oh, and don't try to escape unless you want to feed the walls."
Pandemonium.
From where he was sitting within Spinecarver's home, Man Eater could hear the sweet sounds of a perfectly ordered system breaking down into total chaos. Crashes and screams rang through the walls, and even through the door he could smell the metallic scent of blood spraying in the air. He could almost picture it, all the repressed cultivators getting their first taste of undiluted human flesh. Cultivators who had spent their entire lives carving arrays or mixing potions suddenly had to fight tooth and nail, all that careful artifice thrown aside to tear into each other's throats.
To another man, this violence would seem a tragedy. To Man Eater, it was a truly profound relief. He realized now, why the whole place had felt so deeply wrong to him. It wasn't just that this was all a strange experiment of Bloody Lotus, though it was. No, Sun Swallowing Village had felt wrong because there was no struggle. All these people, all these cultivators, they were surviving, but only that.
Before his thoughts could get any further, the door slammed open, and Spinecarver stepped into the room. There was blood on her staff, and tears in her eyes. She closed the door behind her, slumping to the ground.
"I don't understand," she sobbed, "why is everyone fighting? If we could just," she hiccupped, "just stop fighting and work together we might win. Why would Master do this?"
Man Eater stood from his bed. He had grown much better at pumping his own blood. It was no trouble at all to walk and talk at the same time.
"Bloody Lotus is blood path," he answered simply, "it is in our nature to consume and destroy."
She looked up at him, and Man Eater saw splatter of blood had landed on her cheek, "But it doesn't have to be! You don't have to fight, you could have been a doctor again! I could have fixed you!"
So that was what was going through her head. Fury filled him, cold as ice. His heart could no longer pump with rage, so his mind would have to suffice.
"I was a doctor. Now, I am immortal. Why would I ever want to go back?"
Her eyes widened, going to his clawed hands as if seeing them for the first time. She really should have stayed afraid of him.
"You should never have become a cultivator, Spinecarver. Immortality does not suit you."
He reached out with his grafted hand. He barely even noticed the blood qi he was pouring into it, forcing it to reach and grow across the room until it reached Spinecarver's neck. She didn't even move, staring uncomprehendingly as his wooden fingers wrapped around her throat and twisted, snapping her neck in one clean motion.
She hadn't even fought in her last moments.
The anger didn't fade. He looked at his arm, stretched out across the room, unwieldy and long. Then he yanked his blood qi from its maw. The graft immediately shrank back to its original length, but it wouldn't take his theft lying down. Immediately, the tendrils within him started to dig further, but Man Eater had grown skilled at manipulating the blood qi in his own body over the last week.
He forged his blood into sickle claws, driving them into the advancing roots. He cut and hacked them back, but he didn't stop there. He forced his qi into drills, and carved through the grafted arm. Already it took his qi and gave back feelings of touch, moving at his command. A symbiotic relationship, if an unequal one.
Man Eater would not let a plant get the better side of the deal over him. He carved channels into the hand, mimicking those which had allowed qi to flow in the arm he had lost. It was only fitting, given this was the replacement. He could feel his technique working like pins and needles on his skin, the graft's sensitivity increasing tenfold. It was only now that he realized how little sensation it had transferred compared to his arm of flesh and blood. Now, it was brought in line.
Once he was done, Man Eater let off the assault. He couldn't cut the roots too far back, after all, or the graft would surely disconnect. The tendrils did not launch a counter attack, instead staying obediently in place.
"I understand now, Golden Devil, what you meant. It's not enough to just survive. You need to struggle. And win."
Man Eater slammed his wooden fist into his chest and restarted his heart.
Blood like liquid fire rushed through his veins. The relief was immediate and immense, his focus freed from maintaining the bare minimum functions necessary to survive. His blood rushed through the channels carved into the graft, but the roots did not drink it up. He had taught it better; the graft would only take what he willingly gave.
Only then, feeling stronger than he had since his fight with the Golden Devil, no, stronger than he ever had before, did Man Eater bend over the body of Spinecarver and begin to eat.
He could not savor the meal, though he relished the taste of real meat. There was simply no time. Bloody Lotus had claimed that she would save a single survivor, but even if he wanted to continue as her pet, Man Eater knew she had lied. Those first cultivators he'd killed near Sun Swallowing Village had mentioned a Bloody Gu Pill. He hadn't thought much about it at the time, but now all the pisces were clicking together.
A gu poison, Man Eater knew, was created by trapping poisonous creatures inside a sealed container to devour each other, and then letting larvae feed on the survivor. The last surviving larva would hold the gu poison, more toxic than the sum of its parts. Man Eater didn't think Bloody Lotus was making a poison, though.
This entire village was a sealed container, and it was filled not with poisonous animals but blood path cultivators. If Bloody Lotus left now, she would be leaving all of their cultivation behind. But if she had them all devour each other, all the gathered qi would be gathered into one easy to access source. Then, if she refined that person into a pill, she could have a cultivation treasure of incredible value, perhaps even for someone in Foundation Establishment.
Which meant Man Eater didn't have to just survive, but escape. Getting through the walls would normally be near impossible for him, but Bloody Lotus had mentioned an invading army. If there really was an army marching on Sun Swallowing Village, one Bloody Lotus wasn't confident in stopping, then they would surely be able to tear down the walls. That would be Man Eater's chance to escape.
Man Eater stood from his meal, licking the blood from his claws. Of Spinecarver, not even bones remained.
He stepped out of the door, and into chaos. There would be plenty of time before the army arrived. Until then, Man Eater would eat his fill.
– – –
Qiang was trying very hard not to feel bored. They had been traveling for a week now, cutting a straight line towards the Butchering Chefs' hideout. He knew Flavius had taken over a month to find it, but now that they had the location it was a much faster trip. Especially considering his parents seemed to know exactly where they were going.
That didn't make things any more interesting. Oh, he'd tried to keep focused, but it was hard to stay alert when they were just going up and down mountains every day. Flavius loved the soaring peaks and sunken valleys, but to Qiang they were nothing special. Sure, maybe he could admit some objective beauty, but he couldn't look out over the mountainous vista for more than a few seconds before losing interest.
Really, Qiang just wanted to take a nap, but he couldn't do that while riding Curling Horns.
He looked over to his parents, riding out in front of the group. The two looked almost regal on their goats, but there was an impossible distance. They looked like heroes out of a story, heading out to do battle with ancient evil. And Qiang was just upset about how long it was taking to get there.
Groaning, Qiang buried his face in Curling Horns' fur. Then, he urged his goat on up towards his parents.
His dad looked over to him approach, "We're not there yet, though we're close."
"I wasn't going to ask that, Dad." Honestly, how childish did he think Qiang was?
"But I was. All this traveling is kind of boring, isn't it?" He gave Qiang a goofy grin. Right, Qiang wasn't childish, but his father was.
"I'm not bored at all," he lied, "but I wanted to ask you about something."
"Oh?" His dad asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"Yeah. We're going to fight the Butchering Chefs Sect, but why did they attack us in the first place?"
It was a leading question. Qiang knew why the Butchering Chefs sect attacked: his parents had some sort of history with their leader, Bloody Lotus. But what that history was, Qiang had no idea.
His father clearly understood the actual question being asked, because he sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth before explaining.
"You know that your mother and I were unaffiliated with any sects or clans when we got started. It was a difficult time, we had to fight and scrape for any crumb of knowledge we could get our hands on. We probably could have joined some sect or another if we'd really wanted to, of course, but your parents are rebels at heart, you know?"
Qiang looked doubtfully at the man who was the co-head of a village and had a sect named after himself.
"But when you're trying to make it work as an independent, you tend to meet other people crazy enough to do the same thing. That's how I met your mother, you know. She kicked my ass in a tournament for a beast core and I've been in love ever since."
He looked over at his wife, quietly listening in to the conversation. She scoffed, "Of course, you pursued me for twenty years before I gave you a chance. I thought you were just a dope with more luck than talent."
"I've already heard all those stories," Qiang interrupted before they could get off track or started flirting outrageously, "but where does Bloody Lotus come in?"
His dad sighed, "Well, we met at around the same time. She wasn't called Bloody Lotus then, of course, but then I wasn't Shining Goat either. We all took new names after our first tribulation. We swore an oath then, the three of us, to create a new sect that would protect all those in need."
Qiang thought back to the wreckage of Goat-Cat Spiral Village after the Butchering Chefs' assault. "Bloody Lotus swore to protect people?"
"She did, and she had more potential to do so than me and your mother combined."
It was an unbelievable statement.
"Blooming Lotus, that was the name she took. She was never that good at fighting, but she was a genius when it came to what she called alchemical botany. She had a very difficult life before becoming a cultivator, but she wanted to create plants that could make life better, not just for other cultivators, but for mortals. I always admired that about her."
"You talk about her like she's dead."
"Blooming Lotus is dead," his father spoke firmly, "Bloody Lotus is just wearing her corpse."
"It was the Blood Mist," his mother picked up the story where his dad cut off, "you weren't alive back then, but the Blood Mist changed everything. We don't know how exactly it got to her, but Blooming Lotus fell to the blood path that day, and Bloody Lotus was born."
"She found us again soon after, drunk on her new nature," his father continued, "seemed convinced that we would willingly join her in the blood path, that everything would continue as it had before. We refused, of course, and fought. But she had been one of our closest friends. I couldn't bring myself to kill her, and she escaped.
"After that, we couldn't bring ourselves to stay independent anymore. We decided to settle in the mountains, created Goat-Cat Spiral Village and the Shining Goat Sect. Had your sister and you. I almost fooled myself into thinking we would never see Bloody Lotus again."
He looked out ahead, eyes hard as stone, "But we lost someone who could have really changed the world, that day. Just look."
Qiang turned his head and his eyes widened. Before them stretched a field of snow, littered with beautiful icy-blue flowers. He had never seen anything like it. Snow certainly shouldn't have been forming at their altitude.
"Welcome to the Frozen Lotus Snowfield. Blooming Lotus made it. She was experimenting with ways to create water to alleviate droughts, I think. The Frozen Lotuses were a failure, but they were so beautiful she couldn't bring herself to eradicate them all. Now they grow here."
They were beautiful, he had to admit. Light shone off the snow, but when it caught in the petals of the lotuses it fractured into a rainbow of colors. The entire fields were covered in all those beautiful colors, painting the white snow in reds and blues and everything in between.
Even so, Qiang couldn't help but look at them with suspicion. "Is it safe to cross?"
"Not for us." His mother dismounted from her goat, approaching the snowy landscape. "Let me handle it."
She raised a hand, and Qiang could see yin qi gathering on the tips of her nails. She waited, preparing and gathering more and more power, until her hand was glowing with black light. Then, she slashed the air, a single swipe carving a wide arc.
And the Frozen Lotus Snowfield died. The lotuses were all cut from the earth, scattered by the force of the strike. The snow itself was thrown up, flurried filling the air. All the gorgeous colors that had dyed the fields collapsed back into pure sunlight.
The snow didn't fall back to the earth. It continued to swirl, forming into larger and larger clumps in the air, growing to the size of massive boulders. Qiang's father dismounted from his goat, raising his fists, "Snowdrifts. Get ready, I have a feeling we're going to be fighting here on out."
Before Qiang could ask what exactly was going on, one of the clumps, snowdrifts, his father had called them, began to move. It threw itself at his mother, the mass of snow whirling through the air at incredible speed.
She dragged a single nail through the air, and the snowdrift split in two. It collapsed with a thud, snow spilling on the earth below. Qiang could see a small blue core, once its center, cut perfectly down the middle.
Qiang drew Flavius's sword from its sheath, and got ready to fight.
The approach to the Butchering Chefs' Sect hideout was a slog. The snowdrifts were just the start, though they were fairly easy foes. Without the frozen lotuses to provide them a constant supply of ice qi, they were much more limited in their size and survivability, and the sect was fairly easily able to cut them all down. But that was just the first of their foes.
After the snowdrifts came human-gulping fly traps, immobile but with vines that could stretch great distances to snag prey. Then there were thorn-spewing roses and toxin-spitting ivy. Finally, an army of foes Qiang's parents couldn't name, looking for all the world like humans, but with skin of bark and black ferns growing from their heads. This last wave was the most dangerous, for though they held no skill in martial arts, they were utterly ferocious and could quickly grow stronger by feasting on blood.
At some point, Qiang fell away from his parent's sides, unable to keep up with their strength. Instead, he found himself fighting alongside his sister. Qiao was holding her own, fighting to aid the weaker members of the sect. Her form, practically shining with yang qi, drew enemies towards her alone. The grin on her face as she mulched wave after wave of enemies would have been terrifying, had Qiang not been on her side.
For his part, he stood just off center, allowing his sister to distract their foes so he could take them by surprise. Together they tore through every monstrous plant they faced.
And then, at last, they reached the walls of the Butchering Chef Sect. They stretched up into the sky like a line of spears, dyed red with blood. The walls split the landscape, and there was no way to see past them. But there were no Butchering Chefs Sect cultivators standing before them, or manning the walls. Where were they?
Qiang was too far away to see his father, but he heard his voice echo throughout the battlefield. "If you won't come out, Bloody Lotus, I'll tear down your walls myself!"
His father leapt into the air, rising far above the bloody ground below. He hung in the air, and yang qi shone from his body until it was blinding. Qiang knew the entire sect was watching as a second sun bloomed in the sky.
The wall of bloody spears rose to meet it. They struck from every direction, rushing to swallow the sun. Qi burned the first ten, twenty, thirty that struck, but for every one that was incinerated two more took its place.
Across the battlefield, an entire sect held its breath. They watched in horror as vines reached from the earth and devoured the sun. Shining Goat tried to escape their grasp, but for the first time that Qiang had ever seen, his father was overpowered.
And then in a flash of purple light, the vines were severed, and Qiang's dad dropped to the dirt below.
The earth shook. For a moment, Qiang thought it was from the force of his father's fall, but the quaking just got worse and worse. With horror, he looked towards the walls, and saw something rising up within them. It was a massive, twisted thing, like a worm the size of a mountain. Yet it was covered not by skin but by red, fleshy bark, like a demonic tree. The thing loomed in the air, so high it blotted out the sun, and then it shifted, tip pointing back towards the ground.
It had no eyes, no face, but the tip of its form was topped in a massive, gaping maw, lined with wooden teeth. And standing atop it was a woman, barely visible, arms spread wide.
"You'll never break these walls!" Her voice boomed, so loud it could shatter a mortal's eardrums, emerging not from her own mouth but the thing she rode atop. "They were made to destroy you, once and for all! Welcome, Shining Goat, to my Sun Swallowing Village! Here, you will finally die!"
But his father's voice rose in retort, "You don't just face me, you face my Shining Goat Sect! Today is the day I finally put you to rest, Bloody Lotus!"
Though Qiang couldn't see his father, he could feel his qi shining across the battlefield. Surely, even against this Sun Swallowing Village, his parents would be victorious.
Qiang just wasn't sure how exactly he could help. Then, as if answering his questions, he felt something shifting at his feet and jumped away. It was just in time, another sharpened vine piercing through the place where he had just stood.
Drawing his sword, Qiang sliced through the plant with a single yin-enhanced strike.
He heard his sister shouting out to the nearby disciples, "They're attacking from the ground! Be ready, every vine we cut makes it easier for Shining Goat and Shadow Cat!"
Whether or not it was true, it was a comforting thought, and so Qiang embraced it. He saw the ground shake behind his sister and lunged, slicing down another vine before it could stab her in the back.
She gave him a grateful look, but then her eyes widened. Before he could react, Qiao tackled him to the side, barely dodging another striking plant. She spun, rising from the ground with an uppercut that smashed straight through the vine.
They fell into a pattern, striking and slashing away at any plants that grew near. It was a difficult, chaotic battle, and it was all Qiang could do to hope that his fellow disciples were able to keep themselves safe.
Then, something caught Qiang's eye that he hadn't expected: a man. He was tall and broad shouldered, but the most noticeable thing about him was that one of his arms was clearly made from wood. And of course, he was running away from, not towards, Sun Swallowing Village.
And right towards him.
He readied his sword just in time. The man threw forward his arm and it stretched forward, closing the distance between them in a second. Qiang barely managed to get his blade between the wooden hand and his throat, stopping its claws before they could tear through his flesh.
He ducked down, swiping upwards with his blade, but the arm retracted back to the figure before he could cut it off.
Qiao turned towards the figure, fists raised, "Are you with the Butchering Chefs?"
If he was, this man would be the first Butchering Chefs sect disciple they had encountered. The ground was littered in fallen vines, but they had not encountered a single human foe.
The man bared his teeth at them, "No, I am not. I am Man Eater, and you smell like that Golden Devil."
"Flavius?" The name escaped Qiang's lips before he could stop it. Man Eater was a name he recognized, one Flavius had spoken of, but the figure before them was nothing like Flavius had described.
He was large and dangerous looking certainly, but Flavius had spoken of Man Eater as an ambush predator worried first and foremost about his survival. This man had attacked them head on in the middle of a chaotic battlefield, seemingly unconcerned for his own line.
And of course, Flavius had described Man Eater as his equal in cultivation, but the man before them was not in the ninth heavenstage. He was in the twelfth.
Man Eater grinned, licking his shining white teeth, "Flavius. So that's his name."
Qiao stepped in front of Qiang, "Well, Flavius isn't here. We are."
"I know." He took a deep breath through his nose. "I can smell him, so far away. A shame. He has helped my advancement so much, I wanted to thank him properly. But perhaps I can give him a gift."
The man's eyes roamed over them, and Qiao suddenly felt like a rabbit standing before a wolf. Even so, he took an offensive stance, blade held tight, "I won't let you hurt him."
"Yes," Man Eater replied, "you will."
He lunged forward. Qiao moved to meet them, hands glowing with the qi.
"Shining Goat Art: Horned Fists of Fury!"
She threw a fist at Man Eater's head, but he stepped to the side with ease. She launched a flurry of blows, and yet he dodged each one with contemptuous ease.
"I never took the time to savor it before, my power over others. Letting a fight go too long was just an unnecessary risk, you see. Watch your feet."
Qiao lept back, and a vine tore through where she had been standing. Man Eater lashed out, wrapping his wooden hand around the crimson spear. It seemed to struggle in his grasp for a moment, but then it settled, perfectly still.
Man Eater let go of the vine and it dropped to the dirt, inert. "I realize my mistake now. Scraping in the dirt to barely get by, that was never what I wanted. The village is much better like this."
"It seems like the village is losing," Qiao retorted, "and you will too."
Indeed, Qiang heard the thing that had once been Sun Swallowing Village roar in pain. He couldn't afford to take his eyes off the fight at hand to look, however.
Instead, he used the lull in battle to step out of his own image. It was a difficult technique to pull off, rendering himself invisible and leaving an illusion behind, but there was a reason he was considered the second strongest student of the Shining Goats sect.
Qiang began to creep around Man Eater as the blood sect cultivator attacked once more.
Man Eater swiped at Qiao, forcing her back. His claws never directly connected with her skin, yet blades of bloody qi extended from his fingers, drawing long scrapes along her crossed arms.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, girl."
He pressed his advantage, and it was all Qiao could do to keep herself alive. His claws dug into her skin again and again, watering the earth with her blood. Qiang couldn't just watch any longer.
He swung his sword at Man Eater's back, coated in destructive yin qi.
Man Eater caught it with two fingers.
Qiang looked in shock at the wooden arm, twisted unnaturally behind Man Eater's back to grab the blade. The two fingers were shaving themselves down just from contact with his yin qi, but Man Eater didn't even seem to feel it.
The blood sect cultivator's wild grin sharpened. He was already turning, free hand flying for Qiang's throat.
A force impacted Qiang's side, throwing him back. It was so sudden he couldn't react, hands slipping from his blade.
Flying back, he saw Qiao, arms out, right where he had stood.
Then Man Eater's claws sheared off her head.
"No!" Qiang shouted.
Man Eater raised his claws to his lips, sucking Qiao's blood from his fingers. "Tastes like lamb. Never thought I'd taste lamb again. Today is a good day."
Qiang saw red. He brought his hands up to grasp a sword that wasn't there.
"Shadow Cat Art: Nine-Lives Slaughter Blade!"
A blade of pure yin qi formed, so black it seemed to suck in the light around it. Qiang charged.
"Thousand Swipes of the Bear Claw!"
Claws of blood qi, sharp and hungry, pulsed from Man Eater's form. They cut into Qiang's face, into his body, into his arms. No part of him was spared. His blade destabilized, and he collapsed to the ground.
Somewhere he couldn't see, a roar shook the air, so loud it left his ears ringing. The ground shook with a massive thud, like a meteor had smashed down to earth.
Man Eater stood over him. "I could kill you now, but I won't. I need you to send a message. Tell Flavius that I send my thanks, and that next time we meet, I won't just survive. I will prove how much I have grown."
And then he turned and left.
Qiang struggled to stand, but he barely managed a single leg beneath him before he collapsed again. He couldn't rest though, not yet. He dragged himself, inch by bloody inch, to where his sister's head was lying.
He grabbed it in shaking hands, and pushed it back into her neck. He held it there, even as the blood slowly drained from his body. He waited, one minute, then two, then three.
Then, finally, something in her pocket began to glow. The Cat's One Life Marble she had received from Fleet Foot, what felt like so long ago. The skin of her neck slowly sealed together, until finally she sat up with a gasp.
Only then did Qiang finally let himself fall into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
