Kind Young Master [Progression Fantasy - Cultivation]

The bloodiron crab rose out of the dust flats as if it were breaking through a surface of water. Its shell was ruddy and rusted, pitted and scarred by the environment as well as past battles. Beady black eyes watched them through a cascade of grit and sand as one of its pincers thrust forward, wide enough to snap Fushuai in half. Cycling qi to his limbs, he left the ground to land atop the offending claw. His sandals clacked a swift rhythm as he raced up the segments of its arm to reach the top of its shell.

Heat beat down on him from the sun above, dry and stifling, even as it radiated from the baked soil and the beast itself. His gu-en spun, drinking his energy as he landed a ringing blow along the ridge of the crab's shell just above its eyes. A thumb-sized fragment chipped off, barely noticeable among its battle marks.

He ducked to one side as its other claw, longer and slimmer than the first, snapped up. He batted it, and that crack was more satisfying, but he wasn't as strong as he should have been, nor as fast. The threads of Yin binding him to the staff lacked substance, and Moon Step refused to come to his call as more than a pale shade of itself.

Zhang Sha dashed in, jammed a short blade into the joint of one of the crab's legs, and was away again before it could respond.

"Back!" Fushuai shouted as Bai Tu slipped forward. The fox snarled, but though it had grown in recent days, it was no more than a kit compared to this beast. It backed away at his command.

The crab had no voice to roar with, but its armored carapace clacked and snapped as it moved, and hisses of air escaped its mouth. It shuffled in a half circle to follow Zhang Sha's movement, still trying to dislodge the nuisance on its back with its longer claw. Though his named techniques were next to useless, Fushuai was a foundation formation cultivator now. He steadied himself with a breath. This would be a test of his reforged body.

Its eyes rode on mobile stalks, capable of withdrawing behind armor plates. After failing to smash one of them with the butt of his staff, Fushuai dropped to the disturbed earth to focus his attention on its legs. Three to each side, segmented into thirds. Each "knee" was taller than he was, but the lowermost segment was in an ideal striking range.

He could run faster than it could turn, at least in bursts, so he circled to its back leg and jumped into a spin, striking with all the might of his body and will combined. The joint snapped, bending back and staying there. Then he did the same to its other rear leg. The crab propelled itself forward in a rage, seeking the two targets that hadn't yet evaded it.

A flurry of high, piercing notes from Mei Li's flute was accompanied by the appearance of a flock of sparrows. The sudden rush of birds confused the crab, and the seconds it lost swiping at the flock that wasn't truly there allowed the sisters to escape.

Fushuai broke another leg as the hard soil beneath the beast softened into quicksand, and it sank.

"Can you hold it there?"

Zhang Sha raised an eyebrow at the question.

"I want to see what Lin can do."

His friend nodded, and a jug of water appeared out of his storage ring near his feet even as his hands continued to shift through spell signs. Fushuai tossed his sister the staff, and she caught it on sheer reflex, blinking with surprise.

"It's stuck," he said, "but the claws are still deadly." As if to demonstrate the point, one of them sliced toward him, and he avoided being bisected with a quick sidestep.

"What do you want me to do?" His sister's voice was half an octave higher than usual.

"Whatever you can."

Mei Li stepped between them. "This is unacceptable. It's too dangerous for her."

"That's why I broke its legs." He'd sensed the spirit beast before it tried to ambush them, so this fight could have been avoided. But it was a valuable resource, body and core, as well as an opportunity for his youngest sibling to test her mettle.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Mei Li looked ready to strike him herself, but Lin spoke up again, more certain this time.

"If this is too dangerous for me, then I am dead already." She pointed the end of the gu-en at the jug, her spirit rising, and water lifted to meet it. The liquid snake followed her as she circled to the front of the bloodiron beast, and she used it like a lash, staying out of reach of its claws.

Though it could not touch her, it was inching forward through the grasping terrain, and her attacks weren't strong enough to damage its shell. Fushuai clasped his hands behind his back, more to keep himself from intervening than anything.

"What techniques have you mastered?"

"This is Ten Cups Blessing," she said, her voice tight. "It's a basic skill I..." She swept the staff, and the water whip burst against a snapping claw. "I can't do much more than this. Morning Dew Salve is the only other I know; it's what I used to help with your burns."

Fushuai squeezed his hands. The breakthrough had sheathed his entire body in new skin, and there was no scar to remind him of the damage the Ash Eater sect member had done. Still, he imagined he felt tightness there, as if the new flesh had not quite equalled what had been lost. "Keep trying," he said, and she regathered the spilled water in a single sweep.

He didn't expect her to be able to kill it, but watching how she used her techniques was instructive. They weren't likely to find many spare manuals on the road, and he needed to understand her methods better if he was going to help her develop further. Lin paced back as the crab made enough forward progress to threaten her. Then, with her expression pinched with concentration, she sent the water whip under the hood of its shell, twisting into a noose that pulled one of its eyes from hiding.

The resulting pop made Fushuai flinch. This exercise had a purpose, but even a beast did not deserve torture.

"You did well," he said, gently retrieving the staff. Lin was so focused that she was reluctant to give it up, but she let go when he touched the back of her hand.

"I don't know how to kill it."

"You don't have to." He pointed the staff at the crab as if it were a spear, and in a single act of will, expended more qi than he had been able to carry in his entire body not long ago. A jet of blue-black flame erupted from its tip and drove itself into the creature's maw. It was far from an easy death, but it was the quickest end he could give it. Its limbs jerked, then stilled, as the steam rising from its shell added to the already oppressive heat.

The ensuing harvest was a chore that called for all available hands. They cut the meat into strips and slabs, and piled the least damaged segments of its carapace to one side. Its core was the size of an apple, a metallic knot of clotted beastflesh that only vaguely resembled a gem. A bloodiron beast, he'd recognized that much by sight and sense. But on previous hunts, he hadn't truly noted the polar nature of beast cores.

They were not only aligned with an element, most were also aligned with Yang or Yin, and his spiritual sense had become far too acute to miss the distinction. Yang and metal had made up the spiritual heart of this desert crab.

Flesh and shell alike vanished into Zhang Sha's storage ring. He'd done as much supervising as cutting, though he couldn't be faulted for it, as his knowledge of anatomy bordered on the uncanny.

"That was disgusting," Mei Li said when they were finally done. "I feel disgusting."

The sun had begun to fall, but they were hours away from any relief from its glare. For Fushuai and Zhang Sha, temperature meant little, as their foundation stage bodies adjusted to compensate. But the other two were still mortal enough to sweat, and Bai Tu couldn't stop panting. He had grown his winter coat in time for them to arrive at a place that did not seem to acknowledge the season.

"It would suit me to travel at night." Fushuai was disappointed to find that advancement had not lessened the difficulty of an environment heavy with Yang caused him. If anything, the weakness had only become more pronounced. Even using the staff had come with an increased cost in energy. It was something that would have to be addressed, though he wasn't yet sure how.

Zhang Sha's gaze drifted across the blistering white of the dust flats around them. "I won't object. There's no reason for us to visit civilization between here and our goal. We may as well skulk like the criminals we are."

"I am not a criminal," Me Li glared at him before wiping her face with a cloth. "But I'll take moonlight over this."

Though Coughing Valley had not been lush, it was a paradise compared to the lands they'd crossed into once they marked the direction of Emerald Bastion. Aside from a yellow moss that did little to set itself apart from the cracked earth and sand, there was hardly any plant life. The stream they'd followed had disappeared into the ground, and there hadn't been a drop of rain. It was almost the new year, but this was not a region that would celebrate spring.

They left what remained of the crab's innards for whatever scavengers there were, and veered slightly off-course the take shelter in the shadow of a butte that stood sentinel over the flats a few li away, agreeing to rest until sunset. Meditation was nearly as good as sleep, so Fushuai spent the hours cycling, struggling to restore his spent Yin from the inhospitable landscape. He reached as far as his intent could stretch, down into the cool earth, and pulled.

Any aura could be processed by his root with enough cycles of Void Dilution, but not every element gave up its aspect with equal ease. As the energy stirred, stretched, and twisted within him, slowly being woven into a single, dark cord, a thought occurred to him.

"Sha," he said.

The other man cracked an eye. "What?"

"I need your cauldron."