29 Chapter 28: Awakening (2/2)

”Uh…I don't know, to be honest.”

Old Man Yi stared at me in disbelief, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. ”What do you mean you don't know?”

”I never paid much attention to all the different stages and levels. I just concentrated on honing my techniques and growing stronger. So I don't know how much qi corresponds to what stage or what level.” I snorted. ”I'm not some qi-measuring machine.”

”Ah. I know what you mean.” Yi tapped his head. ”To tell you the truth, I don't know either. Apparently masters can estimate how much qi is what stage, but honestly, the whole thing sounds bogus to me. You're either more powerful than your opponent or you are not.”

I nodded in full agreement. ”I know, right?!”

Old Man Yi grinned as he slapped me in the arm. ”In any case, you shouldn't have any problems moving around. I don't know how you did it, you bastard, but you've completely recovered.” He paused and studied me. ”Well, with the amount of qi flowing in your body, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.” He then narrowed his eyes when he noticed something, grabbing my wrist to confirm. ”Is it my imagination, or did your amount of qi increase since yesterday?”

”Just your imagination,” I answered, my heart skipping a beat. Come on, I just practiced Heaven and Earth Formula for one night. Surely there shouldn't be that much of a difference, right?

”Uh huh. Okay.” Old Man Yi nodded distractedly, but decided to give me the benefit of the doubt. ”Well, don't be too reckless, all right?”

”Yes, sir.”

After he left, I also departed the room. There was no way I was going to stay confined inside the room for too long. I needed to do something. I needed news. I needed information. I needed to read something. Not that Hu Shi's house contained any books.

The outside surprised me. Even though I already had some sort of idea from looking out of the large window in my room, I didn't think the village would be this bad.

The village was in pretty bad shape. Crumbling, dilapidated houses and shacks dotted the landscape, clustered together over roughly hewn pavement. Many of the houses seemed like they were falling apart. On the uneven roads, strewn with grass and soil, children gathered and played, laughing as they frolicked in the dirt. On closer examination, I realized how skinny and gaunt they were, in just as bad shape or worse than Hu Hai.

I did think it weird that Hu Hai was emaciated. Remembering what I had been subsisting on for the last two days – watery gruel and bare bones – I understood why the children in this village were so thin.

There just wasn't enough food for everyone.

”Ah…big brother…”

One of the kids looked up and waved at me. I nodded and waved back.

”Hu Hai.”

”Are you all right already? What about your injuries?”

I smiled and then flexed my arm to show him. ”I'm back to full health. Thanks for your concern. And I'm grateful to your mother too.”

Hu Hai stared at me in wonder for a moment, but kids being kids, he went back to playing his game with the other children.

”Who's that, Hai?”

”Oh, I know! Isn't that the stranger Uncle Lu Shun saved the other day?”

”Right…heard that your mom took him in?”

”Yup! Seems like the big brother is fully healed, though.”

The kids discussed my condition while hopping over markings chalked into the ground. This timeline's version of hopscotch, huh?

”What are you guys playing? Hopscotch?”

”Mhmm.” A grunt was all the answer I received.

”Don't worry. Kids will be kids.”

I straightened up at the unfamiliar voice and turned around to face the man who had walked up to me. In his late twenties, and a little on the thin side but otherwise well-built, the man wore a sleeveless vest that revealed most of his torso – especially the muscles in his chest and abdomen.

”It's good to see that you've recovered,” the man said with a dazzling grin. ”But should you really be up walking around so soon?”

”Thanks, but I need to stretch a little after lying on bed for so many days.” I smiled back and waved my hands to show how I had recovered. The man studied me, and then nodded before offering a hand. I took it and his grip was firm.

”I'm Lu Shun.”

”Ah, you're the one who saved me!” I quickly bowed deeply to express my gratitude. ”Thank you very much!”

”Ah ha ha, I didn't do much!” Lu Shun quickly raised both his hands to bat away my gratitude. ”You pretty much saved yourself. All I did was pull you out of the river, but I wasn't able to do much other than that. You might have been unconscious, but you managed to cling onto something, so you weren't in any danger of drowning.”

”Even so, I might have been easy prey for the monsters living in the forest. If you didn't save me and bring me to a place where I could safely recover, I might have become food for some demonic creature somewhere.”

”Ha ha, maybe. Well…I'm just glad you're all right, though. You look like you were in terrible shape when I pulled you ashore.”

I nodded and thanked him again, then glanced at the forest looming at the edge of the village. Frowning, I pointed toward it.

”Um, is that Sen Lin Forest?”

”Yeah.”

”You guys live so close to Sen Lin Forest?”

”What can we do?” Lu Shun shrugged. ”We can't help it. There's no other place to stay.”

”Eh? There isn't…?”

Lu Shun glanced at me, his cheerfulness from earlier now replaced by a tinge of bitterness. ”We can't afford to live in the city. The rent and property there are too expensive. Never mind homes, we can barely afford any food here.” he sighed as he glanced in the opposite direction, where the fields were. ”Harvest has been pretty bad, and we're short on food. It wouldn't be so bad if we could make some profits off our crops, but we couldn't even buy food to make up for the shortfall.”

No wonder the kids were so skinny.

”I've been trying to hunt some food, but as you know, demonic monsters aren't edible. I can't just hunt any magical beast or I'll end up poisoning everybody.” Lu Shun glared in the direction of the forest. ”Only certain species, like the Wild Boar, are edible, but they're hard to find. And even if I do find them, they're too powerful.” He dragged a finger across his throat. ”I almost got killed by one. Their hide is impervious to sword, arrow and spear.”

I was about to suggest that they used guns, but realized that they didn't have guns in this timeline. There was no need for people of this timeline to develop guns or powerful, long-range weapons, after all. Not when they could shoot qi blasts out of their hands, or blow entire lands up with martial arts techniques.

”It's a pity, but I'm not a martial artist. Otherwise I would be able to take down a Wild Boar.” Lu Shun clenched his fists tightly. ”Just one…or two, enough for us to tide over the next month before the spring harvest.”

A Wild Boar was massive, about the size of a small house. No wonder Lu Shun believed that a single Wild Boar or two would be enough to tide the village over for the winter. With careful rationing, that might just be true.

”Do you know where these Wild Boars are?” I asked. I also recalled that they were one of the rare monsters that were edible. In fact, they weren't classified as demonic monsters or magical beasts because of their complete lack of qi. They might be immense in size and possessed brute strength, but there was nothing magical, demonic or qi-like about them. That was why they weren't poisonous to humans.

”I do. Ha ha, well…that was how I found you, anyway.” Lu Shun turned back to me with a chuckle. ”I was actually looking for a pack of Wild Boars when I saw you being swept along by the river current. Ah, don't worry…” he quickly added when he saw me looking apologetic. ”It wasn't as if I was going to hunt them. I don't have the weapons or techniques necessary. I was just monitoring their movements, so that I can design a trap.”

”…a trap?”

”Yeah.” Lu Shun nodded enthusiastically. ”I was thinking of digging a pit and then luring one of them to fall into it. Maybe put spikes in it to impale the beast. That sort of thing. I was checking the movements of the herd so that I could find the best place to set up the trap.”

I considered that for a moment, and then nodded.

”Perhaps I might be able to help with the Wild Boars.”

”Eh? But you've only just recovered!”

”Don't worry. I won't do anything reckless.” Adjusting my glasses, I assured him. ”Consider it as thanks for saving me. I've been freeloading off Lady Hu Shi…and I feel bad about it. Those who don't work shouldn't eat, right? At least let me help with something.”

”…okay, if you say so.” Lu Shun considered me skeptically, but finally relented. ”But don't do anything rash, all right?”

”You have my word.”

*

The herd of Wild Boars wasn't very far from the river where Lu Shun found me. According to Lu Shun, anyway. I was unconscious the entire time, so I wouldn't know.

Not that I needed to.

”Just look at how big they are!” Lu Shun whispered as we crawled behind a thicket of foliage. As the encyclopedia said, each Wild Boar was the size of a small house. They were so huge and strong that even the demonic beasts and magical beasts in Sen Lin Forest tended to avoid them unless they were really desperate. Facing down an entire herd of Wild Boars of such immense sizes as no joke, even for monstrous predators.

I observed them for a while, and then nodded.

”But they don't have much qi.”

”Well, they are technically not magical beasts, after all. They don't have monster cores in their bodies.”

Lu Shun offered an explanation unnecessarily. I already knew about that, but I wasn't rude enough to snap at him. Instead I nodded.

”Yeah. This should make it easy.”

”Huh? What? Hey, wait!”

Lu Shun panicked, but he was too late. I had already emerged from the grass and was proceeding toward the herd of Wild Boars.

The leader growled as it glared at me. I cracked my neck by bending it side to side, loosening my muscles.

”So you're in charge, huh?”

The lead Wild Boar bellowed. From two sides, two other Wild Boars that were almost as equally as large as their leader charged.

I didn't bother to wait for them to reach me. Raising both hands, I condensed all the moisture in the air into two huge swords, and in a manner similar to the Ghost Bear's Ghost Claws, sliced in both directions with my Ghost Shadow Swords.

The two Wild Boars continued running for a while, and then their bodies split apart. Cut cleanly in half, their bodies flopped helplessly in opposite directions, seas of blood pooling underneath their chopped corpses.

”?!”

The lead Wild Boar growled as it stepped back, taken aback by the gruesome sight. Snarling, it launched at me in vengeful fury, bellowing as it swore revenge for its dead comrades.

”That's more like it.”

Dispelling the twin ice swords, I stepped forward, and then used Jin to advance. Making use of my momentum, I spun around just before I collided with the Wild Boar, and then slammed a Shadow Kick into its forehead, obliterating its skull and reducing its brain to mushy gray matter.

With a grunt, the leader of the Wild Boars toppled over, its huge bulk skidding forward as it was driven purely by the momentum of its charge. Slowly but surely, it crashed into a stop right in front of the stunned Lu Shun.

The rest of the Wild Boars stared at me, then turned around and promptly fled the scene.

”Well, three should be enough, right?”

Watching them go, I turned back to a spluttering Lu Shun. Ignoring his bewilderment, I estimated the amount of meat we could get from the Wild Boars. With three of them, which were the largest in the herd, there should be more than enough meat to feed the village for the next two months before spring came.

”You…you said you weren't going to do anything reckless!”

Lu Shun finally found his voice and he pointed at me accusingly. I shrugged, as if I didn't know what he was talking about.

”Yeah, and I didn't do anything reckless, did I?”

”Huh?!”

”I mean, the opponents were just Wild Boars. It's not as if I was charging at a Behemoth or a Hydra, right?”

Lu Shun could only gape at me in disbelief, snapping out of his stupor only when I began cutting the Wild Boars apart to ferry the meat back to the village.