[CHAPTER 8]
A-MAZING PROGRESS
The forest is perpetually overcast, a dark mass of clouds roaring down at a drowning forest. Lightning flashes through the sky, radiant bolts glistening off the slick surfaces and mud below.
Fang sits alone in the dark temple chewing on a tough piece of meat. It has been two days since he awoke, his body still relatively raw from being sword slapped in the face by Shui Han.
The good news was that all major injuries had healed, especially his eyes, losing sight would’ve sucked. His hands were hard to move at first, his bones felt crunchy, tendons a little tight. His knuckles were rapt in scars and his nails were still flattened.
Yet, all in all, he was thankful to be alive.
The backlash from burning five drops of Aura had prevented him from doing anything serious. He could hardly walk as his body had groaned and complained with each tentative step. For two days he sat unmoving, meditating. Listening to the skies’ thunderous roars. His world illuminated by intermittent flashes of smiting light.
Two small drops of Aura burned in his chest, a far cry to what he used to have.
He thought back to the battle, replaying the fight between him and the disciples. While it was true, he did beat them both, he couldn’t discount the element of surprise he had over them. In a prepared duel, he felt that his chances were much slimmer. Unless of course, he burned five drops of Aura immediately… He remembered the feeling of euphoria as power coursed through his veins — flowing straight to his head.
He cringed as he remembered launching himself towards Shui Han, only to blackout in a single move.
No more leaping at things… He promised himself. He replayed the fight over and over throughout the two days. His mind rolling over the crisp graceful moves of the disciples, the way their feet shifted for maximum power with little effort, the continuity of their movements that allowed them to react to his explosive strikes.
In comparison to them he moved like a bull. Thrashing about, relying on pure unadulterated strength to pound them to death.
I need more manuals… training and time against cultivators.
His battle experience was lacking. The instinctual reactivity provided by the System could only take him to far. Fang was no fool, and while his knowledge of cultivation worlds from Earth seemed at times accurate, granting him insight far above his age, it was a matter of time before his expectations of what should be leads to would be foolish death.
The image of Shui Han standing in mid air flashed in his mind. How Qi gave way to teleportation was beyond him. A tinge of envy almost flittered through Fang, though it was quickly stifled with a self-deprecating chuckle.
I need a ranged offensive option.
He had no Qi, and Aura couldn’t manifest outside of his body. So he’d probably have to settle for simple throwing knives, javelins, or needles. He gazed at Matriarchs’ knife, realizing he had also had little to no skill with the weapon.
Another thing to add to the list.
He ruminated on his thoughts before swallowing the jerky and sighing.
“System.”
Fang :
[Cultivation]
- *Aura-Burning Art I (Initiation)
[Technique]
- *Stormquaking Strides I (Peak Mastery)
- *Viscera Rupturing Strikes I (Great Success)
- Bone-Crushing Claw I (Great success)
[Bloodline]
- Mortal Human
The system was practically a beacon of light in the temple, it wasn’t really there however, the system was invisible to all but Fang, even if it did illuminate the darkness.
His techniques had leaped forwards, all of them either at or very close to the peak of the 1<sup>st</sup> stage. It was unclear to him how many stages a fused technique truly had, but he hypothesized that there wasn’t a limit. Perhaps it was a matter of resources, coincidentally no different from normal cultivation.
He focused on his Stormquaking Strides. There was an odd feeling behind it, a wall, something intangible that prevented him from moving to the 2<sup>nd</sup> stage.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, fused techniques didn’t follow the manuals that they evolved from. Which meant in order to improve his technique further, he’d either need to fuse another 1-star or Earth Grade technique, or have an epiphany of sorts, easier said than done.
Fang stood, stretching out his limbs with a soft groan. It was time to move, he was running low on food and starting a fire in this drowned bamboo forest was an unlikely endeavor.
He leaned outside the temple peering at the sky.
No moon…
No way to determine East from West.
He sighed, turning back to look into the temple’s abyss.
‘The Temple isn’t safe?’
Why?
His curiosity was getting the better of him. Yet the feeling of near death remained too close to heart to tempt fate.
…Just a little look.
Fang stepped into the darkness, using his system as a bonafide flashlight. The overgrowth of vines and moss that consumed the temple slowly began to recede away as he delved deeper down the hallway. As if nature itself didn’t dare venture into the temple depths — the roaring of the storm faded away with every step he took.
There was no mistaking it, there was something wrong… then he saw it.
A door.
Fang eyes struggled to focus. It was like looking at a colony of ants from a distance. What looked at first, like a solid mass of color slowly congealed into a slick oily substance that crawled over the door like moist worms.
Fang’s breath hitched as goosebumps rose across his arms. His body found the sight innately disturbing, his lizard brain screaming at him to not get any closer.
Thankfully… he didn’t need to.
The golden system flashed, a new screen appearing above his own.
[Enter Dungeon - Nine-Faced Realm?]
[Foundation Establishment or lower required…]
[Enter?]
A secret realm?
Yet the system described it as a dungeon. He was well read on such phenomena of course — secret realms were the subject of many a cultivation stories. Hidden worlds filled to the brim with rare resources, powerful legacies, and mystical beasts…
Or a fatal trap of a desperate immortal…
The fact alone that the system described it as a dungeon tolled the bells of caution in his mind. And as much as he wanted to… he had to accept he was too weak.
It was infuriating.
I will be back. He declared, acquiescing to his limits. He overestimated himself once, it would not happen again.
Fang turned and left the disturbing door behind.
—
He quickly found himself soaked to the bone. His backpack likewise laden with water as the sky tried to weigh him down with each furious droplet. His cloak had unfortunately been reduced to tatters in the fight against the cultivators, another mistake he made — one he was now paying for with interest.
The rain pounded down relentlessly, the large shoots of bamboo creaking under their thumping fury.
Fang truly had no idea where he was going, unable to see the sky to discern his cardinal heading he decided to gamble it on some esoteric remnant knowledge he had read about back on Earth.
Temples faced south, or so it goes…
Whether such things are still applicable across, dimensions, planes, universes… remained to be seen.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
As such, he took a right out of the temple, doing his best to maintain a straight-line.
No wonder it’s called The Green Maze.
For as far as he could see, which wasn’t far at all, it was a suffocating thicket of ribbed green. Small blade-like leaves fluttered in the incessant wind, a rumbling howl of a forest-sized wind chime. The bamboo itself was surprisingly sturdy. A cursory finger punctured into the stem of one, broke a dam of fresh rain water to burst free.
Each and every shoot seemed to be storing water en mass, most likely for a dry day.
Fang couldn’t help but laugh.
Drowning men, hoarding water.
It had been days and the rain showed no sign of stopping. And from the way Yunfeng had declared ‘The storm will not pass’ he had a suspicion that the current forecast was not a matter of natural occurrence.
After what felt to be an entire day, though he no true way of discerning since the cloud canopy above was so thick it gave no room for the light of day. Fang setup camp for the ‘night’.
He had been making incredibly slow progress. As trying to maintain his heading without sight of his target or a single point of reference was a practice of blind faith. The bamboo, while somewhat evenly spread, tended to bunch in impassable bundles thicker than a small house.
It was in one of these bundles that he had found a small space somewhat free from the rain above. And with a little make-shift construction, Fang was able to fashion the bamboo into a roof, shoving the long roughly half-cut pieces into the narrow spaces above him using friction as holds.
He laid out his bedroll with a sad sigh, the fur and leather sleeping sack slapped onto the muddy ground with a wet smack.
Man...
It was a sorry sight. A young child huddled in darkness, drenched in exhaustion, chewing onhis last pieces of dried jerky.
Under the light of his system, he mindlessly ate. He felt his face, feeling his cold, wet skin give way to a freshly healed scar. He traced it across his nose until it curled under his jaw.
I guess my modeling days are over… he laughed ruefully to himself before falling silent.
This is going to take too long…
He could only jog with his backpack, as any faster risked ripping the straps — not to mention being embarrassingly awkward.
He felt the wet bedroll squelch underneath him, water seeping into his pants. He leaned back against the bamboo, feeling the subtle shifting as it swayed in the wind high above.
It reminded him of home, of the ocean. Of the soft swaying of a boat on a clear summers day.
Slowly, Fang drifted to sleep, under the hollow patters of rain and the rumbles of a furious storm.
—
“CHEEEEEEEK!”
Fang shot awake. Leaping to his feet and smacking headfirst into his makeshift roof. The bamboo shattered, a bolt of lighting streaking across the sky.
The world grew bright, and Fang eyes grew wide.
A giant Mantis, larger than an elephant was trying to slice its way into his little abode.
Fang dropped to the ground suddenly. A sharp blade of wind carving over him. The bundle of bamboo all around him shifted, sliding off their stumps in a tangled mess of timber. Rain exploded into being, drenching the small refuge he had painstakingly created.
The giant Mantis leapt backwards with insect-like grace, blurring in speed despite its size. Large translucent wings fluttered behind its back as it reared its scythes close to its body.
Its mandibles twitched, a high-pitched stutter crying its intent to battle.
“CHE-E-E-E-EK!”
The sky roared, lighting flashed and in the blink of an eye the Mantis was upon him. Its scythes punched forwards in rapid succession, tearing through the rain with watery trails.
Fang twisted, Stormquaking Strides throwing him out of danger by a hairsbreadth. His eyes could barely keep track of the man-sized blades as they carved past him.
Its fucking fast!
Fang ducked as the Mantis sent another slash towards his torso, his eyes went wide, the anticipated attack never came.
FEINT?!
The Mantis chittered curling its scythes back with a snap it sank its wrist like a cannonball into his chest.
WHAM!
Fang was sent careening back, his legs pulsing as they wrestled for control. His feet dragged across the ground leaving cart-like ruts in the muddied forest floor.
He wheezed, breath forced from his lungs, pain blossoming across his body. His ribcage creaked, fracturing slightly under the single punch.
Fang coughed, trying to catch his breath. He glanced up at the Mantis, it stood there standing tall on its four legs, scythes held close to its chest.
And though it had no human features he could tell — it’s fuc-kin playing with me.
Its mandibles chittered.
“CHEEEEEK!”
“Yeah fuck you too.” Fang replied spitting out a globule of blood. Without hesitation he ignited the two drops of Aura in his chest.
Power exploded across his body, his heart thundering in chorus with the sky. His eyes began to faintly shimmer gold, the world snapping into clarity.
The machine-gun fire of rain slowed, the towering bamboo around him swaying softly in the tranquil storm-rage.
The sky cried, lighting clapping the round bell.
KAA—CHAAAK!
A sharp flutter of wings screamed over the the thundering crater of Fang’s strides. The Mantis sent clawing slashes, air & rain rending apart. Fang shifted, streaking around the mantis, dodging as the slashes carved ravines into the earth behind him, he launched himself forwards with blurring speed. His hands forming blades searching for insect flesh.
The Mantis leapt backwards with a snap of its wings, chittering at the feeble attempt. Fang quickly realized his attack wouldn’t reach, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer—
VISCERA RUPTURING STRIKE!
His hand shot forwards regardless of distance, his muscles tensing, entire body twisting in perfect unity as Aura burned through his veins. He stabbed forwards ripping his hand over itself — rupturing sheer air pressure.
DTHUUUMM!
A spiraling spear of air barreled towards the Mantis. It screeched in surprised, scythes crossing in protection. Bamboo shaking as the air spear slammed into the Mantis with the force of a jackhammer.
WHAM!
Its scythes held strong, as it slid a short distance back. It shook its head, anger burning its in two large compound eyes, its beady irises locked onto Fangs.
Fang grinned at the Mantis with a wolfish snarl, when his attention was suddenly stolen. The system appeared with a flash of golden light.
[*Viscera Rupturing Strikes I (Great Success) —> Viscera Rupturing Strikes II (Initiation)]
The Mantis spat out a short chitter, a single drawn out syllable.
“Cheeeeeeek.” Its wings flaying out behind its back as it stared down at him.
Then it vanished.
Fangs eyes ballooned as he wrenched his attention away from the System. The hairs on his right arm suddenly rose — he twisted, a searing pain erupting across his shoulder. Blood spurted outwards, as the Mantis appeared beside him in a delayed rushed of wind, scythe dripping with his blood.
Fang grimaced, trying to counter with a sweeping back-hand — THUK!
He felt the bones in his hand shatter as the Mantis blocked with its scythe. With a vicious flick of its organic blade it sent Fang flying.
Air whipped around him as he tumbled through the air, a pulsing pain running up the side of his body. The moment was awkwardly slow, the Mantis staring up at him with a bored look in its beady eyes.
Still not fast enough…
Fang flipped, landing horizontally on a bamboo shoot. His body weight pressed into the towering plant, it bent back like a bow — Fang as the arrow.
The Mantis tilted its head.
“Che-eeek?”
Fang twisted his feet, Stormquaking Strides loaded like buckshot in his legs. The bamboo snapped back into place launching Fang forwards as he mustered the full extent of his movement technique.
The bamboo shattered in his wake, the stored water within crushed underfoot.
Fang flew like a bullet not at the Mantis — but another Bamboo stem.
He flipped, barely able to control his speed, feet crunching into the bamboo stem.
Control…
Stormquaking Strides was anything but delicate. He was like a bull trying to stack a house of cards, he needed control.
The bamboo stem bent once more, and he shot off its momentum with another Stormquaking Stride. This time, the stem merely shattered, water seeping out from its cracks.
The Mantis’ eyes followed Fang with a building sense of curiosity. It had never seen prey like this, how quaint — it thought.
But Fang continued building speed despite his steps leaving smaller and smaller craters behind. A small smile rose to his lips.
I understand it now.
And the System agreed.
[*Stormquaking Strides I (Peak Mastery) — > *Stormquaking Strides II (Initiation)]
He didn’t even bother looking at the screen, as a euphoric warmth bled into his legs. His thighs bulged momentarily, his muscles shifting, his balance increasing and the wind surrounding his feet curling as he moved.
The silent before the storm.
Fang vanished.
The Mantis’ jolted, its beady eyes snapping back and forth as the bamboo shoots around it began to sway. It brought its scythes to bare as a whistling sound filled the air.
It couldn’t see its prey.
Fang appeared in a blur, his foot slamming down on the Mantis’ arm like it was a twig. Its exoskeleton shattered, Scythe falling to the floor in a green gush bile and blood.
“CHEK!” It screeched, using its remaining scythe to lash out at Fang. The Scythe carved through nothing but air, as Fang had vanished once more — not a crater left in sight.
THUK!
The Mantis looked down, only to see its remaining scythe fall to the floor. For aquiet moment it looked over at Fang, their eyes meeting. The rain fell on them, a flash of lighting illuminating the battlefield. He smiled at the Mantis.
“Thanks for the help.”
“CHEE--”
THUK!
—
Two fucking months…
For two months Fang was lost in The Green Maze. Every single other day a fight for survival.
In a way, the experience should be enjoyable for him — he wanted to see the world? Did he not?
Though the forest was a homogenous desert of bamboo and rain, it was thick with all manner of animal and Qi-beast alike.
Three headed pythons that could swallow a boar whole, a half-bear-beetle with pincers that could crush rock like clay and even what he believed to be a dryad.
A spirit beast, the first he had seen since transmitigating. It was beyond his expectations, humanoid in form yet molded from living root. You could see right through its body, as well as its visibly beating heart. An organ of pure natural energy — spirit essence.
Fang did not approach it, hiding under the cover of rain and shadow. He watched as the dryad manipulated the surrounding bamboo like a snake whisperer, the plants willfully twisting under its will forming beautiful patterns and arches.
Fighting a dryad in the forest must be akin to wrestling a squid in the sea.
And so he left it behind.
Fang shot towards a bamboo stem, his steps emitting a low rumble through the Earth, the noise drowned by the rain. He launched himself upwards, striding up the stem before kicking himself off towards another.
He landed on the stem, his weight bending it backwards as it loaded like a bow.
It snapped back to place and Fang launched himself directly upwards. The air rushed passed him, his twisted mane of dark shoulder-length hair whipping in the wind. The sky roared as he pierced through the forest canopy.
His eyes glowed a subtle gold, a hawk-like gaze locked in them. He swept his vision around him, before they suddenly narrowed, his pupils focusing to their maximum.
Finally…
He saw something new for the first time in two months. From this distance it looked like… an ocean? He couldn’t fully tell, the rain obscuring his vision.
Maybe it’s the river?
Regardless he was relieved. Two months was too long, he needed some cooked food, a bath, and maybe a vacation.
His tattered clothes whipped in the wind as he began to fall back to earth, the remnant of civilized apparel holding on by mere threads.
Need some new clothes too, thankfully I have plenty of stuff to sell.
It had been an incredible hassle, but he had accrued a small collection of what he thought to be the most valuable pieces of all the monsters he fought.
A pair of Mantis Scythes (quite handy for making makeshift shelters), six eyes and six fangs of a three headed snake, and even a large pelt off the half-bear Beatle thing (surprisingly warm and comfortable).
He was sure they’d fetch a pretty price... probably.
Yet, the most fruitful part of his ‘short camping trip’ was not materialistic.
Fang broke back into the forest canopy, twisting towards a bamboo stem. He began siding down the stem, using the friction of the bamboo to arrest his momentum. A burning sensation bubbled along his soles, as he suddenly leapt off the bamboo landing into the wet forest floor with a squelch.
His feet steamed as they sank into the mud, the heat visibly dispersing.
With a deep breath he smiled.
System.
Fang :
[Cultivation]
- *Aura-Burning Art I (Initiation)
[Technique]
- *Stormquaking Strides II (Great Success)
- *Viscera Rupturing Strikes II (Small Success)
- Bone-Crushing Claw II (Initiation)
[Bloodline]
- Mortal Human
Though on… scroll the change seemed insignificant, externally his prowess had taken leaps and strides forwards. The difference between 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> stage was immense, and during his battle with the Mantis he found first-hand that fused techniques were more than the sum of their parts.
He had at first assumed that Viscera Rupturing Strikes required solid contact to work, yet that had proven to be a close-minded perspective. Like-wise, he had misinterpreted the nature of Stormquaking Strides itself. Though the System did grant him a level of muscle-memory like instinctual knowledge, pulling out the full potential of the technique, understanding the essence of the technique itself, was up to Fang.
It had been a good two months.
And that wasn’t even the best of his efforts, that, lay within.
A baseball-sized mass of Aura hummed in his body, ethereal strands of energy rushing along his veins like electricity from a power plant. While he didn’t get a pure, two months of meditation — what with the need for food, shelter, battling beasts and burning the odd drop here and there — he was immensely satisfied.
Twenty-nine drops of fused Core Aura — with nine more single drops in reserve to burn as needed.
Why twenty-nine? Fang wasn’t too sure either, it was like he had hit an immaterial wall. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his Core Aura to thirty. Seeing Aura-Burning still at the 1<sup>st</sup> stage, and still at initiation was infuriating. Regardless, he was sure it would be solved with either A) more Aura, B) more fusions, or C) vitality-based medicines. All of which he could achieve in a town… he hoped.
I’m gonna miss this place… his mind drifted to the hidden dungeon deep in the forest. It was going to be an absolute pain in the ass to find it again, but he was currently too wearied to worry about it now.
Fang grabbed his backpack, the poor thing barely holding together as he lugged it onto his shoulders. Two Mantis blades hung off the sides of the bag and a roll of bear-beetle fur was strapped under the pack lid. It had gotten much heavier over the past two months, and he could only pray it held together for just a little longer.
Its time to go.
—
The rain stopped.
Abruptly, like someone had turned off a faucet. The moment was surreal as Fang stepped out of The Green Maze. He turned to see a perfect wall of rain still falling, confined to the forest by some unknown force.
He looked up, the storm clouds high above refusing to cross the same invisible barrier. For as far as he could see dark clouds stretched along the edges of the forest.
Fang turned away, his eyes wincing as some foreign heat seared down at him.
Is that… the sun?
The radiant rays of light graced his dirt ridden skin for the first time in two months. A soft breeze passing over him.
Fang looked onwards, his head tilting in confusion at what he saw.
Another sea of green. Yet, unlike the towering stems of the bamboo hell behind him, he saw instead a verdant sea of head-high grass stretching endlessly into the distance. His eyes narrowed at a disturbance in the uniformity of grassy sea.
For a moment he wasn’t too sure what he was looking at — a tree?
But the scale was off.
For it to be so big at such a distance meant it must be gargantuan in size.
His eyes focused, scarcely making out further details.
No. Not a tree—
— Three Trees.
Finally, Three Bayan Town was in sight.