บท 44: Truth of the Peak Master I

Walking towards the wooden house, the two brothers enjoyed the view as they walked around and got a closer look at the rare and exotic plants around them. Each plant had various smells and auras surrounding them, one of the plants even had a trace of Dragon aura in it

[Flood Violet: A species of violets that bathed in the blood of a Flood Dragon causing it to mutate and grow into a new species. Bathed in the blood for hundreds of years, this species of violets can be used to strengthen the physical body by a small amount. The longer it is grown before harvest, the greater it enhances the body. It can be consumed in any kind of food or drink or even directly. Use with the Sunborne Lily and the Butterfly Tulip and mix them into a drink or pill to enhance its effects further]

[Sunborne Lily: A lily that can survive in temperatures as great as 1000 degrees Celcius with ease. Grown naturally in volcanic areas of the Monster Realm and can only be harvested once. Consumption of this by itself will cause the body to be turned to ashes by the explosive contained within its essence. The hotter the environment, the greater the heat within it is released at once. It can be used to strengthen internal organs if one were to survive its effects. Use with the Flood Violet and Butterfly Tulip decreases its heat by a large portion while still retaining its full effects. Other various water and ice kinds of plants can also be used]

[Butterfly Tulip: A species of tulips that look identical to butterflies in appearance. Its water-based energy can cool all things. It can be consumed by harvesting it directly and ground into powder or dropped into drinks. A single drop of water is enough to decrease its effects if made contact before harvest. Can only be harvested by plucking it directly from the stem, however, beware of the danger in the process as one can instantly turn into a popsicle just by being near it]

As he brushed by the various herbs that didn't seem to bring him any feeling of danger, Ye Qin observed them to the fullest and kept every single detail in his mind. Walking by, a strange wind brushed against his face and blew his hair sideways. When he turned to face the direction of the wind, not a thing that wasn't there before appeared in his sight

Thinking that he imagined it, he continued following the Peak Master into the wooden house. Suddenly, another soft rush of wind brushed against his fair skin as he looked for it again. This time he was sure that something was there

"What's wrong?" Wang Tao asked seeing his brother look around. "It's nothing." Ye Qin replied as Wang Tao nodded

When they arrived at the door of the wooden house, a small pale green figure that is naked to the human eye softly landed on Ye Qin's shoulder and entered the house with him. Naturally, Ye Qin didn't notice the small figure even with his above-average senses as he found a seat to sit down next to Wang Tao

The Peak master sat down across from the two brothers and spoke before they could open their mouths to ask him "I'm guessing you two want to know about that and why I showed you even though you two have only met me for the third time". The two nodded

He then continued to speak at a fairly slow pace "To begin, we must go back to 40 years ago when I was still a young lad. That year, I who studied Eastern Medicine from the ancient times along with medicine of the present times had no time to spend training my partner."

"Every day I would read books or play around with herbs I grew or steal them from the garden in the back of my house. Naturally, those I had stolen were what my father and ancestors have grown for generations and are still doing now. That year I grew bored and had studied all I could about the various herbs and medicine. But my hunger could not be contained, I'm sure you've heard the saying 'knowledge is power' well I'd say that there's no better way to put it."

"I who studied for many years and neglected my partner began to let my curiosity get the better of me and even though I was weak, I left my home and headed for the Abandoned Lands all on my own. Naturally, I had a way to get my own pass to get there and left home one night as my parents were asleep."

"Running all the way the transportation gate, I waited until no one was in sight before entering. What awaited me was a sight I had never seen before in my entire sheltered life. Calling out my partner we both journeyed for days whilst escaping for our lives and only fighting those we could beat and became stronger."

"Spending weeks I continued running and battling as I found some plants I had never seen before, even in the books. Naturally, I almost lost my life more times than I could count considering my strength. One day, I discovered an incredibly rare herb that I had seen before, as I made sure that no monsters were around, I managed to reach the plant before a large claw from a beast gave me a huge scar on my back."

"Thinking that my life was over, I was prepared for death. Only at that time, a monster stopped the claw that would've ended my life then and there. Standing in front of me, a young woman around my age stood behind her monster as it struggled to deal with its opponent. The young woman grabbed my hands as we ran whilst I tried my best to run while enduring the pain."

"As we both ran, the monster managed to catch up after leaving behind the young woman's monster. Suddenly, her monster appeared out of nowhere and cut one of the monsters' arms off its body as it wailed out in pain. Even before we ran I naturally grabbed the plant since I knew exactly how to harvest it."

"Now this is the more interesting part." The Peak Master narrated

"As the huge shadow of the monster wailed out in pain, I carried my wounded body as far as I could so that she could fight freely"

"Staying just 20 meters away from the battle, I called out my partner to help her. The young woman's monster being of the Rare grade was much more powerful than mine, nevertheless, she still couldn't beat it on her own"

"Facing the greatest adversary of my life, I staked everything I had into this one battle. My partner being a ranged type stayed far away as it sent out waves and waves of blasts at the giant beast. As for the woman, her monster fought in a head-on battle against it using brute strength more so than ranged attacks."

"After battling for over 30 minutes, both parties had long run out of energy. Even then my attacks hardly did a thing managing only to create a small scratch on its tough hide. Even though it was missing an arm, we couldn't do much to it even while aiming at its wound"

"The young woman looked at me and said that we should focus the remainder of our power on its wound. I hesitated since nothing had worked even for a full half an hour, but seeing that nothing else worked against it, I could only comply with her wishes"

"Gathering all our strength together, we brought all the might be could muster and fused them all into a single attack. Naturally, the great beast didn't let us succeed as it pounced toward us whilst we gathered the energy. The monsters ran with all their might to escape from the clutches of the great beast while also continuing to gather the necessary energy for their final one-off attack"

"Finally we gathered every ounce of energy we could and fired it at the great beasts wound. Sensing danger from their fused strength, the great beast turned tail and ran with its three remaining legs. Unfortunately for it, the attack was much greater than its full speed resulting in it taking on the full-frontal attack of ours. As it wailed out in pain and sending out an earth-shaking cry, it finally dropped to the ground and stayed in eternal sleep"

"Catching our breaths, our partners returned to the Monster Sea as I slowly pulled my wounded body towards the great beast. When I arrived next to the young woman, I lied flat on the ground without any remaining strength and was about to faint due to blood loss. Luckily I asked her to take some medicine from my pockets before my eyes became hazy as I fell asleep"

"When I woke up, a nice cold and soothing feeling ran all over my back. Looking at my back, the wounds were treated nicely and bandaged without a hint of pain as though it had never happened in the first place. Though I was still lying down on my face, I mustered all my strength to sit upright and lean against the nearby wall. In front of me, some dried firewood was stacked evenly with smoke seeping out from it. Looking around the only traces of the young woman were from the fire that was just put out not too long ago. Knowing that she would come back, I closed my eyes as I awaited her return"

Thump!

"Hearing a loud thumping sound near the entrance of the cave I was in, I opened my eyes to see the silhouette of a huge beast lying flatly on its back. Behind it, two familiar faces appeared as I smiled"

"The young woman had gone out to bring back the great beast that we had defeated together with all our strength. As she saw my smile I couldn't see very well in the darkness but it seemed like she turned her face away for a brief moment before looking back at my smiling self"

"Using my keen sense of smell, I noticed that she also brought back dinner as she laughed at me for being like a dog. Scratching my head I spoke to her as she roasted the meat over the fire. We discussed many things including things about our families, where we lived and so on. Even what to do with the carcass of the great beast we had slain"

"After dinner my body had recovered some of its strength, standing up, I walked over to the carcass holding a torch in my hand as I looked around at its flesh. Suddenly, its flesh magically flew out and removed themselves from its bones as it flew down onto the ground and stacked itself neatly on top of each other. I almost dropped the torch seeing this as I turned back to look at the meat all lined up"

"The young woman whose name I learned was Sun Shuren shouted as she pointed inside the bones of the beast. Turning around to see the bones that appeared like flawless white jade, I peered into the center of its bones where Sun Shuren had pointed at. From within the center of its bones, a golden light shined brightly lighting up the entire cave with its blinding light"

"When the lights died out, I uncovered my eyes as the golden object began floating in the air. The object took the form of a tablet with ancient letters written on the surface of it as it flew into the center of my chest and swung we flying far backward"

Bam!

"Spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, I opened my eyes and wiped my mouth. Sun Shuren ran up to me and helped me as I took a bottle out from my bag and consumed the contents of it. As I recovered I tried to look for the golden tablet but to no avail, the two of us searched the entire cave even though it was only a dozen or so meters deep"

"Just as I had given up on looking for it, I felt a sharp pain in my chest as if the flames of hell were burning within my body. Clutching my chest with both my arms as beads of sweat dripped down along my forehead and onto the ground. Not only my chest, but the surrounding area of a few meters around me also began rising in temperature enough to even melt the cave walls!"