Chapter 33 – A Fated Encounter

He had been dazed by great treasure before his eyes and had been caught unawares! Knowing he had precious time to act, he swiftly grabbed a bone with a small flame the size of a candle burning on it. He placed it in a jade box and tossed it into his spatial pouch. He had just enough time to turn and face his opponent’s lunge.

The bladed tip passed a hair’s breadth from his nose, but he had avoided the attack. He stumbled backwards and awkwardly twisted to not land on the yin flame. He rolled around it, placing the white flames in between him and the slasher. It was only then that he noticed. It wasn’t the original owner of the cave, the mutated slasher, but a regular one!

Maybe it had followed him, but somehow it had stumbled onto the cave and entered for the same reasons as he had. Yet, unlike him, it hadn’t taken any precautions to cover its tracks. Even as it started to advance toward him, he heard an enraged roar not far away. Ren was starting to sweat. He could barely face one without preparations, let alone two. Not to mention the other was mutated! He needed to do something, but no ideas presented themselves. The urgency made him clench his teeth helplessly.

The slasher had decided to take another swipe at him through the flame, not realizing how dangerous it was. Ren managed to easily avoid it, but the beast quickly learned of its folly when a small fragment of the flame stuck to its blade. It let out an earsplitting shriek of surprise and pain.

This was it! A chance. Ren didn’t doubt himself and leapt into action. He reached into his pouch and retrieved a handful of one of Ling’s poisons. He threw it at his feet, the poisonous powder cloud enveloping him. Under its guise, he leapt back into one of the enormous piles of bones that surrounded them and hid.

Even as he suppressed the poison slowly working its way through his skin, the mutated slasher beast made its rage known as it entered in a scramble of blades and limbs. It took but an instant to spot the thieving beast, who was even now waving around a flaming limb and was driven mad with anger.

The two beasts clashed with vicious brutality, a mix of pain, anger, and even fear. The mutated slasher beast soon got the upper hand and ended up hacking its foe into pieces. Ren watched with bated breath as the mutated beast lifted the flaming limb and carefully placed it back onto the main fire. Then it looked around its cave. Not daring to move a muscle, he could only hope the poison would deter its sense of smell as planned. It was all he could think up in a pinch.

The mutated beast seemed to slowly relax. It crouched and poked through the remains until it found the core and consumed it. Then after another nerve-wracking glance around its lair, it finally shuffled out.

Ren stayed in position for a short while longer, afraid it would return. When it didn’t, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

‘That was too close! I can’t let myself get caught like that again!’

Before leaving, Ren threw whichever piles of bones had the most traces of spirituality remaining into his spatial pouch. Since the beast had toiled hard, why not take advantage? After all, it was valuable nourishment for his little flame to recover. He made sure to hide his tracks and quickly vacated the area. After watching the ease with which it dismantled a regular slasher, he knew he had very little chance to defeat the mutated beast, even with a well-prepared trap formation. It must have been in the middle layers of the foundation realm.

Once he found a safe hiding spot, he consumed the antidote for the poison. He then retrieved the jade box with the flame and threw in some of the best-quality bones for it to feed on. The pale white flame was mesmerizing to watch. He didn’t want to risk letting any trace of it escape to attract more trouble, so he quickly sealed it again and put it away. He was still giddy from the find! This tiny flame alone made all the dangers he had faced worth it twice over!

With this, he would be able to make up for lacking a fire attribute spirit root and truly delve into the mysteries of alchemy. Yin attribute pills would see the most benefit, but other pills were also within reach. Even the weapons he could forge would be transformed if exposed to these flames. His fortunes had just changed drastically for the better. All that remained was to survive until the end of the trial.

Ren continued to hunt for treasures in a different region of the mountains. He occasionally found some small natural treasures. One day, when he finally found another blood pool, he decided to take away as much as he could. He was no longer restricted by the amount he could carry. Granted the spatial pouch he had obtained wasn’t the best, it had enough space to serve his current needs. He fashioned large jars from the wood of nearby trees and started storing away the strange liquid.

Mei Ling’s experiments had determined that it wasn’t dangerous and could serve to grow many spirit plants. Knowing she would like some, he made sure to keep a few jars for her. It took almost an entire day, but he finally drained the blood pool, which was astonishingly deep. He kept drawing out more and finding no end. When he eventually did scrape the bottom, he also found a large red crystal.

Sensing it had something to do with the blood pool, he couldn’t leave it behind. He used his sword to leverage it out. The crystal was larger than his head and emanated from strange qi that he didn’t recognize. He tossed it into the last jar he had filled and put it in his pouch with the others.

The next few days continued in a similar manner with one difference. The red haze was getting thicker. Something was changing, but since he didn’t know what it could mean, Ren carried on with his exploration. His days were filled with dangerous hunts, beast cores, and occasionally a natural treasure. He occasionally had to flee a fight if a nearby slasher beast detected the combat and was drawn in.

He also saw other cultivators every now and then. For the most part, everyone mutually decided to keep their distance. But on one occasion, he was forced to defend himself from a Celestial Instrument sect disciple trying to use him to escape a pursuing beast. He managed to avoid being the bait this time but couldn’t help but be annoyed.

‘These damn weaklings! Don’t they have another tactic than to drag bystanders into their conflicts?’

These incidents just made him more wary of other cultivators. He did his best to stay away, if only to avoid tempting someone during a slaughter trial. So it came as a shock when he entered a hidden cave and found himself face-to-face with a bald young cultivator. They both froze at the sight.

Ren quickly glanced around the cave and saw a metallic ore vein on the walls. As for the cultivator, he clearly belonged to the Golden Light Monastery, judging by his shaved head and the robes he wore. Unlike most other monks, he was extremely well muscled. He was shorter than Bao Hua but somehow more dense with his broad frame.

Unwilling to initiate combat against another human unprovoked, he quickly spoke up.

“You clearly found the cave first, fellow Daoist. I seek no claim to the treasure.” Ren was half expecting the situation to devolve into a fight anyway, but he had to at least make an effort. The crucial problem was that no one could trust such words from a stranger under these circumstances.

To most anyone, it looked like Ren was backing away, only to later try and hunt them down, bring backup, or any number of such nefarious schemes. There was no such thing as a free meal.

“You don’t want any of this lunar silver?” The monk asked, clearly doubting his words.

‘He didn’t attack right away!’ Ren jumped at the chance to settle this amicably.

“Our sects are allies, and I don’t want to pick a fight. But if you could answer some questions for me in exchange, I can consider us even.”

Ren refrained from mentioning that he lacked the tools to mine the ore vein. He would have walked away anyway, but this way he would gain some information, and the other could feel relaxed if they felt it was a deal and not unknown intentions.

After a few breaths of time, the monk slowly nodded.

“Very well, I accept. But please wait near the far side of the cave while I harvest the ore.”

There was clearly very little trust, but Ren was glad that they both had at least made an attempt. He moved to one side and waited patiently. The young monk nodded and turned around to face the vein. Then to Ren’s utter amazement, he started punching the wall with his bare knuckles! The cave boomed with each clash as the wall around the vein started to crack and crumble!

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This was the strangest way to mine that Ren had ever seen. The monk must be following the body enhancement path because even after repeated strikes, his knuckles showed no sign of bleeding. Afraid that the sounds would attract unwanted attention, Ren called out.

“I’m placing a silencing formation. Some beast might come to find out what’s making all this noise.”

“That’s how I hunt, but if that’s what you want, please go ahead, fellow Daoist.”

Taken aback by another novel approach to hunting, Ren nevertheless placed a formation to keep the sounds from escaping. Then seeing how mining could take a while, he started building a simple wood fire and took out some rations and the last of the piranha fish to cook. If this was to be his first friendly interaction with the member of another sect, then Ren wasn’t going to be found wanting as a host.

As he spiced and roasted the fish, he didn’t notice the booming sounds slow down. When he looked up, the monk was watching with an open mouth, clearly drooling in anticipation.

“Please join me for a meal. There’s no need our conversation has to be held on empty stomachs. My name is Zhao Ren.” Then to show there was nothing wrong with the food, he took a bite from the fish.

“Amitabha. Then, I won’t refuse. You may call me Subo.”

Then the young monk sat down right away. He also brought out some rations to share. Ren was pleased by how the exchange was going. Both of them had shown trust and politeness, and neither had been too suspecting to sour relations. He had proposed the exchange as a way to diffuse the earlier situation and spare himself unnecessary combat, but he was rapidly growing more interested in the friendly monk.

Only then did a thought strike him. “Wait!”