Chapter 41: Chapter 41

In the days following her breakthrough and healing process, we ventured deeper into the Forbidden Ancestral Hunting Ground. This was merely reconnaissance at that early stage, which I approved of heavily.

It is like she is aware of the line that divides the outer region from the middle region of the dangerous forest, and she zig-zags across that line, exploring the region, and possibly looking for routes.

She doesn’t share her plans with me, but I know them nevertheless. There is not a thing a sapient monkey could hide from me, in terms of strategy, especially not someone who gives me such unrestricted access to their consciousness and Dao Heart.

She is hunting. She is eager to test herself and her newfound power.

Of course, she had this depth of cultivation before, but this time it was new to her. Even before she broke into Foundation Establishment, she could produce a strong sword Qi. Naturally, now she wants to know what she can accomplish.

As someone who likely could not produce any sword Qi before when they were in this realm — or at the very least not one strong enough to be useful — this must seem new and exciting. Well. Exciting.

Unfortunately, our flight experiments failed to produce any results. She could get me to hover over the ground, but flying on my back was out of the question. I wonder if it is because I lack the [Flight] talent. If I were not saving my resources for [Nooparallelism], I would’ve bought the talent, but it is also possible that once she reaches the Mid stage, it won’t be necessary.

Lan Xiaohui is not the same person she was before, though I am not sure that this has yet internalized within her properly. She likely has only thought about it in the short term: to survive in this place, she must change. She must adapt and become a predator.

Though she has spoken of the long term consequences of such a thing — her worry that she will not be able to regard another as a close friend or ally because of the solitary path she now walks — I am not yet certain if she has truly accepted it.

This term — demonic cultivator — refers to one who has abandoned all principles of morality in order to advance; not only burning their own life force but also relying on evil techniques and scriptures to do so. Righteous cultivators would never accept them, and demonic cultivators would, at best, only pretend to be allies until the moment was right to betray them.

Unable to rely on her own strength, driven into a corner and close to death, what choice does she have left?

She must kill others to live.

Still, Lan Xiaohui has not abandoned all the principles of her Humanity. During this time, she does not kill beasts of the Qi Refining realm, even if they could offer valuable materials — and much needed Blood Points for me — except for a single Peak stage Qi Refining realm wolf. It refused to retreat, and attacked her, even absent the rest of its pack.

It did not endure even a single move.

Her prey was Foundation Establishment beasts and she strategically stayed within this region between outer and middle layer to find the ones that were within the reach of her strength. A fair fight so to speak.

She found five of them.

First, a boar with a tough physique. Its fur was black but not metallic like the one we met previously. However, its skin was extremely durable.

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Her next opponent was a bear and what it lacked in defensive abilities, it more than made up for with a powerful offense, and a surprisingly quick body considering that it was taller than Lan Xiaohui.

Her most dangerous encounter was against two wolves that hunted together, both in the Early stage of Foundation Establishment. They were vicious hunters with an enlightened mind for tactics. In the end, they could not overcome Lan Xiaohui’s Dao, and fell to her martial arts.

Her most recent encounter was a white tiger and, normally, I would think that she would avoid this battle because it was in the Mid stage of Foundation Establishment. But perhaps exactly because it was a tiger, Lan Xiaohui refused to retreat and brought it down after an intense battle that lasted for an entire hour.

None of these encounters proved to be a threat to her, even though they were challenging prey to bring down. Even in the Foundation Establishment, it was too difficult for her to cut their tough bodies. On the other hand, now she could withstand their attacks without being injured in the process.

With each encounter, she sharpened her sword Qi and made it far more dangerous to her opponents. Of greatest benefit, in this pursuit, was her insistence to process the bodies themselves. She used only her sword Qi to separate their valuable parts from their carcasses, and her Dao benefited greatly from this.

Still, she has a very long path ahead of her, but her meticulous daily practice, and constant risk, improves her fighting capability by noticeable margins.

In her search for her sixth challenger, she ventures deeper into the Forbidden Ancestral Hunting Ground, under the cover of darkness, and follows a stream deeper into the woods.

I notice that medicinal herbs of high grade rarely grow here. Though we manage to restock on some items that could prove useful to her, it is not as abundant as in the outer regions. This is likely because of the density of creatures here.

Qi Refining realm beasts do not fight her. They likely understand that they do not stand a chance and have likely found ways to survive this deep in the forest despite the presence of much more powerful creatures.

At one point, however, Lan Xiaohui freezes and stares into the distance. This is not her usual behavior. Instead of charging in and challenging whatever it is that is outside of my perception radius, she stands her ground.

If it were a Mid or Late stage demonic beast of the third rank, I assume she would at least get into a proper fighting stance, but that is not the case this time. I have never really seen Lan Xiaohui’s Dao Heart shaken like this, or seen her hesitate to this degree.

It is so surprising, even I become curious enough to pause my routine of training my perception — I don’t have much else to do lately, as she won’t allow me to process materials, and she doesn’t need help in combat.

After a moment, she takes a deep breath and withdraws the fur of one of the two wolves we killed, and drapes it over her back. She tries her best to adjust her ruined dress, to cover the places where she is indecent, but in the end just ends up hugging the pelt over her body.

On these trips, I float behind her back, but now she goes out of her way to snatch me out of the air, and to slip me through the sash around her waist.

Then she walks forward and I understand what it is that has shaken her so much.

It is another cultivator. A living one.

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