Chapter 44: Chapter 44 - Yuk?
Now that they delved deeper, the yellow pine trees have lost their colour. The bushes became darker and thicker, and the tree branches were covered in spiky black vines, sucking the juices out of them. Some poor pines were even bent to the ground, slowly forced to grow in arc shapes. Even the soil looked grey and barren.
Xin squinted his eyes.
Everything follows the basic rules of exchange. This forest is thicker than the outskirts, there are more plants fighting for space, but the ground is less fertile? How could this happen? He sat down and picked up a small handful of soil, then sniffed it. Feels normal, looks normal, but it's certainly less fertile than the one on the outskirts.
"What happened, disciple?" Master Taowei looked at Xin with suspicion.
"I don't understand this forest. Higher plant concentration, worse soil. Weird."
"Use your brain, kid. The energy comes from somewhere."
"The air?"
"Think."
Xin looked around, then a thought flashed in his head.
He raised his pointing finger, but Murong Zhan was faster:
"There are qi ley lines below the ground. This location is much more qi intense. The old trees that have their roots growing deeper are bringing it upwards, to be shared with parasite plants."
"Right. This gives birth to many vines, and they mostly bully the younger trees, which aren't strong enough to resist them. This means that over time, the forest will wither, as no new trees will grow old. Correct?" Xin had a hypothesis, but wasn't sure it was right.
"The cycle will repeat itself. When the younger trees die, the vine population will be reduced, so the system will adjust." Xie Taowei explained.
"Not every system adjusts. Some just collapse." Wu Lei suddenly commented. Xin was impressed, it was an eerily profound observation.
"This might happen, too. The meridians sustaining this forest are underground, but they aren't necessarily stable, and if the system undergoes a crisis, can be permanently damaged. That's exactly why our sect should colonise this location. It was very costly to take it before, given how many animals were here, and how the Border Guard would probably try and... obstruct our expansion. But now these obstacles are gone."
"I guess Fist sect thinks the same way." Xin noted.
"Of course they do, but those inbred baldies can only chop all the wood down, they've got no depth or intelligence to truly cultivate this forest to its full potential." Xie Taowei spoke with disdain. As a formation expert, he had no respect for physical cultivators.
"That's why they won't be doing it. Divine Sword sect will." Murong Zhan looked grim as he said this.
"Right, we'll have to kick their asses eventually. You see how inevitable it is now, kids? Let's brace ourselves."
"Wait, everyone." Xin raised his pointing finger again. "Can everyone feel this?"
"No, what?" Rui Ming was confused, and so was everyone else.
"I can feel it, too." Wu Xiaoyun said. "A subtle tingling, and my meridians are quite tense."
"What we have in common is our wood element attunement. The area we entered is draining our qi, and it's a wood path interaction." Xin concluded.
"I can also feel it, slightly." Xie Taowei added. "That's bad news for everyone but you two, woodies. Xin, when will we reach the mines? And do we have any qi reinforcement materials?"
"Several hours, master. I don't have the exact location of this place, but I know of several helpful landmarks. Can't give you the exact timing." He stared at his feet as he said this, deep in contemplation.
"And the reinforcement?"
"I am calculating, wait. You will barely be affected, your natural regeneration should be stronger than the drain, despite the earth element's elemental weakness to wood. Master Qiang will be slowly losing qi, but it won't be a serious drain, and Rui Ming should break even. The mortals have around a day, assuming no qi spent, before they have to take a spirit stone. Me and Wu Xiaoyun have around two days. Yao Nang — half a day, as she's an earth nature mortal, and thus the most vulnerable."
"The alchemy, kid, I asked you a question." Master Taowei was impressed with Xin's calculations, but irritated with his behaviour.
"Oh, sorry... I don't have anything. I'd need a bunch of water path materials and to set up a field lab. I suggest we move. Preserve your qi, this effect should stop in the mines."
"Won't the mines have a similar earth or metal element drain effect?" Wu Lei asked.
"This part of the forest isn't supposed to be this way. The whole forest is qi deviated, it's not usually like that." Master Taowei explained. "Unless there is something like that in the mines, which I have no reason to believe is the case, then they should be safe."
"I don't like this sort of gambling, but you do what you gotta do, eh?" Lei smiled, he enjoyed being positive around distressed people. Made him feel powerful.
"I am the weakest link, again?" Yao Nang asked.
"Woman, earth element affinity and mortal? Yes, you are. Grind your teeth and endure." Xin didn't look at her when he said this, he was too busy leading the squad through the bushes.
"This fucking kid, heh." Master Taowei scoffed and laughed quietly.
***
Several hours later, Xin found a cracked murmur pillar near a giant ancient oak with green leaves. It wasn't hard to notice in a yellow pine forest. A good sign, because he felt his qi reserves slightly dwindle. Other mortals are having it harder, he assumed.
"That's it. Bonemen ruins. Cracked pillar. The north is up there, we go sixty degrees eastward from here." He announced.
"Seems correct. The mines can't be too far, right?" Xie Taowei asked. Xin nodded. "How is everyone holding up?"
"Wait, everyone." Murong Zhan suddenly said. "My ancestral ward just activated. Undead presence."
Ancestral ward? How exactly does it work? Xin was curious, but it wasn't the right time to ask.
"Create a battle circle. I'll use an investigative method." Xie Taowei leaned to the ground and started tapping it with his finger.
Xin suddenly felt anger overwhelm him. This retard! He had such a method? Why didn't he investigate the homestead? Master Lu would be alive now, that plant woman certainly hid underground!
In response to the tapping, the ground around them, in a circle of a hundred steps or so, cracked open.
"Undead! Brace yourselves! Conserve your energy!" Xie Taowei prepared his crystal mallet technique.
Xin equipped his crossbow and looked around. Out of the ground, around two dozen figures have emerged, all dressed into ragged clothing, with long sharp nails and unkempt hair. They breathed eerily as they stretched their figures, before shrieking and dashing towards the group.
Rui Ming momentarily started showering them with arrows, while everyone else prepared for the melee. Being encircled, they couldn't create any sort of battle formation and would have to defend standing shoulder to shoulder.
"Ghouls!" Murong Zhan apparently identified the undead already.
"What does it mean for us? That's some hun and po shit, right?!" Lei shouted nervously.
"No, human qi deficiency! They might all be earth element attuned!" Xin shouted as he aimed. Not yet. I only have one shot.
"Tips, brother?"
"Hit their body, they are like stronger humans, avoid getting hit! That's it" Murong Zhan commanded. "I'll have to exert myself, my techniques work well against the undead!" He spread his four chakrams around his limbs, and imbued them with a golden glow.
Xin entered the flow state, and fully focused on his shot. It must be perfect, I only have one. No qi infusion, no overthinking, just aim. With his peripheral vision, he noticed Rui Ming fell his ghoul, it took two arrows to the chest and one to the head.
Xin noticed three zombies of similar height line up as they charged him. Master Taowei was standing at the opposite side of him, so there won't be any overkilling like in the bug fight. He seized the moment and pulled the trigger.
The monster was intelligent enough and anticipated the shot, so it ducked to the ground and dodged the arrow, charging Xin on all fours!
Never intended to hit you, cunt! The ducking zombie obscured the line of sight of his undead brother, who had his brain pierced and dropped to the ground like a bag of rice. Xin smiled and felt the tingling in his knees and hands. The battle rush!
Xin switched to his guandao glaive, and pinched along its edge with his big and pointing finger.
A metal qi infusion of its blade, akin to Resonance Palms, but weaker. Xin was constantly improving, and this makeshift mortal level technique was one of his latest innovations.
The ducking ghoul approached him closer, making it look like he was about to charge him. Xin pointed a glaive at it, bracing for impact, hoping to impale the undead creature. Xin could hear the battle shouts around him, and the banging of rocks crashing the undead from behind. Xie Taowei was already using his techniques.
The creature didn't charge him, though. It stopped, grabbed a stone from the ground and infused it with earth qi, then threw it at Xin! He tried to subconsciously measure this attack's strength. His intuition told him that it's a mortal level qi infusion, thus he sliced at the stone with his infused glaive's blade, deflecting it aside.
"YUK!" The creature produced a weird hiccup, outraged by his deflection, and finally charged him, gulping and shrieking.
Stab! Xin caught the ghoul off-guard by moving the weight from his hips to his knees, and impaled it with a forward move.
The creature cried out in pain for a moment, its barren guts pierced, but then tried to swipe at Xin's neck with its long, dirty claws from both sides!
Xin successfully dodged backwards, his glaive serving like a bear spear holding the impaled creature in place. He could see the earth qi infusion on its claws, and another creature like that was coming his way.
"Help!?" He shouted out. No response. Everyone was occupied and was doing their best.
The second creature dashed towards him, its claws raised for a downswing, its decaying body hunched awkwardly, creating a creepy look. The impaled zombie, meanwhile, was pulling on the glaive's shaft, trying to force a choice of either dropping the glaive or entering the claw swiping range!
In a flash of martial brilliance, Xin baited the impaled zombie into a swipe, then used the shift in its balance to push it aside, the glaive serving as a lever, dropping the undead creature to the ground with a quick leg swipe. This move left his left side unprotected.
"Yuk!" The hunched zombie shrieked in excitement as it lunged at Xin, aiming to bury its claws into Xin's shoulders, but that was exactly what the young master wanted.
Xin's body first folded like a spring, then expanded, and his boot hit the zombie's chin with devastating force! A powerful sidekick, propped up by the spinning motion of his throw!
Bang! The creature's jaw was broken, and it was sent flying, dropping to the ground shortly after. Xin saw another zombie charge towards him. Terrible luck, his side was crowded with undead, but rank one and two masters were the opposite of him!
He quickly jumped towards the zombie he just downed with his glaive. It was about to stand up, but Xin unsheathed his dagger mid-flight and cut through its skull, right into the brain, killing it instantly. The approaching ghoul tried to flank him, cooperating with the ghoul Xin just kicked, who was just standing up. They're quite intelligent, Xin thought.
Curses.
Once the broken jaw ghoul recovers and rejoins combat, I am screwed! Xin quickly pulled out his glaive out of the impaled ghoul's corpse, pretended to lunge at a ghoul with a broken jaw, then made a half turn and threw his glaive at the ghoul that was charging him.
The ghoul shrieked and tried ducking from this throw, but Xin anticipated it and adjusted the trajectory accordingly. The blade, infused with metal qi, nailed the zombie's head before it even realised its mistake, and it died instantly.
"Hyaaa!" The zombie with a broken jaw shrieked, enraged, as it finally recovered and rushed Xin.
Resonance Palms! Xin raised his arms in a defensive praying mantis stance, as there was no incentive to attack, given that he removed his two other opponents.
The zombie ran up to him and delivered a swipe from two sides, but Xin took a step forward and blocked, his arms crossed, impaling both of the creature's wrists at the same time, preventing it from using its claws. Xin felt a rush of excitement run through his body. The flow state! I am fighting perfectly!
"Yuuuk!" The zombie shrieked, its voice muffled by its broken jaw, and tried to headbutt him.
Boom! Xin pulled the creature by its trapped wrists, then hit its chin again, this time with his armoured knee. The ghoul lost its balance, and Xin threw it over his hip, using its trapped wrists as levers. Xin took his fingers out of its wrists and stabbed its brain through the back of the head, killing it instantly.
Swish!
He could hear two gusts of wind approach him from two different sides. When he raised his head, it was already too late to dodge! A qi infused rock was launched right at his head! But it was redirected and missed!
"Pay attention!" Rui Ming suddenly emerged from the battleformation with an elegant two story jump, then charged towards the location from where the stone came.
Shit.
Xin looked there, and saw a buff, mud-covered zombie, emanating a faint brown aura. A ranked zombie? No fucking way, this attack could have killed me, if not for Windsplitter's technique!
The Windsplitter ran up to the creature as it elongated its claws, making them as long as its forearms, with glowing dark brown energy emanating from them.
"Master, be careful! I'll reinforce you!" Xie Taowei shouted. Xin could constantly hear the banging behind him, master Taowei was probably using low-ranked methods to dispatch the zombies in a qi effective manner.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Rui Ming delivered an attack from three different directions, slashing at the air and manifesting three dense winds that looked like thin blades, launched towards his opponent.
"Windstrider!" He shouted, as the speed of his charge doubled. The zombie protected itself from the wind blades, coming from three different directions, dodging one and blocking the other two with its claws, but it could never anticipate Rui Ming being that fast! A moment later, its chin was split by Rui Ming's elegant upswing, his blade firmly stuck in the creature's skull. But it didn't die!
It was only momentarily shocked, and then tried swiping at him with its claws.
How do I help him? Xin started charging the ghoul, but then heard a familiar sound.
Swirl. Swirl. Boom! The zombie's head exploded, its brains splattered all over the field.
Rui Ming wasn't the sort of person to look at the explosions, and instead used these freed up moments to scan the battlefield. Next moment, he was already running up to reinforce someone else.
Xin stood there, dumbfounded, unable to find space to help anyone.
Ten breaths later, the zombie horde dwindled, with Xin awkwardly backstabbing another half-dead zombie that Lei was fighting.
"That's the last one. Thanks." Lei smiled as he wiped his blade with a cloth he tore off one of the ghoul's rags.
"Be careful, everyone! The strong zombies have stealth methods! Stay alert, don't drop your guard!" Xin shouted.
"Area's clear, no one else around!" Xie Taowei announced after using his tremor sense again.
Rui Ming approached Xin and performed a martial gesture.
"Thank you, Xin. This was a delight to behold."
"What the fuck are you on? You saved my life!" Rui Ming's calmness astonished Xin. In contrast, Xin was still drunk on martial spirit, but also embarrassed
"I've only seen what you did with peripheral vision, but you dispatched four qi active opponents in mere seconds, all while being a mortal yourself. It was only natural that I sacrifice my qi to protect you. You are this sect's biggest treasure."
"Shut it, master Ming!" Xie Taowei scoffed. "Injuries, anyone?"
"Me!" Su Xing pointed at the dent in his beautiful armour. "Think I broke a rib. Need to clean the wound."
"Master!" Tu Qiang called him up. "Yao Nang is injured."
"Again? Fuck. Xin, let's look at her."
Xin approached the girl. She had a scratch mark on her wrist, and a deep cut on her shoulder, right through her cloth armour.
"Wu Xiaoyun, how are your qi reserves?" Xin asked.
"Around half." Her voice was a bit shaky.
"Would you be so kind as to clean Yao Nang's wound and reinforce it with wood qi to neutralise earth qi? Please use some qi active materials for the bandage." Xin tried being supportive, he didn't want Wu Xiaoyun to fold.
"Yes, Xin. I was very impressed by you in this fight, you outshined everyone..." Her spear was bloodied, she was clearly more useful in this fight, but she was still not a martial talent like Lei, Xin or Ming.
"I killed three zombies with my anti-undead technique, and you are saying Xin outshined me? Seriously?" Murong Zhan looked confused. "Do you not have eyes?"
"Do you not have ears, you smug monkey?" Rui Ming sounded irritated. "I just said that Xin killed four, without being reinforced by anyone. You mostly flanked my opponents. He's a clear winner."
"Wait." Xin raised his finger. "I think a new wave is coming"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone