The Licentious Cultivator

After some steps, he stopped and looked at the ground. He could not see it before but now, it was as clear as day. There was red liquid all over the ground.

A metallic smell poured into Jun De's nose as his face twisted in horror: "Blood? Mama!"

Jun De did not think straight anymore. He dropped the boar he had spent his day searching for and ran straight to his house.

Every other house was completely destroyed, as if a thousand Nightwing Horses [1] had stampeded through the village.

"Oh no" Jun De's heart beat in tune with his legs. He ran as fast as he could but even so, his legs felt like they were filled with lead.

"Hmm!" Jun De saw a sight that nearly made his heart skip a beat. He immediately hid by a short wall that was still standing and peeked to check what had scared him greatly.

It was his house. The stone walls were already broken and turned into rubble and the pergola where they cooked was nothing more than shards of wood.

Jun De trained his eyes and he was finally able to make out what was before him. It was a beast.

The beast was like a boar, only it was the same size as a grown adult. Its tail curled like a spiral spring and poked the air as its head bent into the rubble, grunting and snorting as it fed.

"No…" Jun De's eyesight was not good normally but now, it was like he was using a pair of binoculars. The beast grunted and snorted as it fed on a female human.

She did have much features left to discern her identity. Her waist was broken by the hoof of the boar and her head was crushed by one of its tusks. The hungry boar fed silently on the organs within her belly.

Yet, Jun De knew this female greatly. After all, she was the only one that wore a green hanfu in the village.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he screamed: "Mama!"

"[grunt]" The boar lifted its head from its food and looked around. Its ears twitched and turned as if trying to filter the sounds in the air.

Jun De was stunned as millions of bolts ran through his head. A sudden calmness took over him as he hid behind the wall. He had spent half of his day in the bush and smelled like grass and dirt with a tinge of blood.

Jun De hoped that smell would cover his own natural smell.

– He was wrong.

…..

The boar took one more bite of what was left of a woman and snorted. Dust and water droplets billowed from its nose as it scratched the ground with its left leg.

Jun De's heart shook. He had wrestled with many boars and knew the tell-tale sign of their charging. He counted in his head, knowing very well that he would die if the boar caught him.

"Now!" Jun De leaped away from the wall and a fragment of a second later, the boar's horrible head crashed through it like stone through glass.

He only looked at the boar for a short moment before turning to run as fast as his legs could carry him. Even so, its image was frozen in his head.

It was large and furry with a grey scar that ran the length of one side of its face and through its left eye socket. The boar had only one eye and blood dripped from its snout and mouth.

It was the blood of his mother.

Jun De was angry but fear overrode the anger. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

The boar was unsightly. It shook its head and prepared to charge again.

Once more, Jun De avoided it by a hair's breadth as he tumbled to the ground, dust rising to the sky as he rolled. Even so, the evasion had reduced the small distance Jun De had managed to create.

The boar grunted angrily now. This small weakling had managed to dodge it twice in a row. Even if it was a rank one beast, such a matter was very disgraceful.

It charged again and this time, Jun De was hit squarely by the boar's snout and he fell to the ground. The boar did not let up on the advantage and stood above Jun De as it bent its head to feed.

"No!" Tears streamed down Jun De's face. "I will not die here!"

He held the boar's snout with his hands but compared to the large beast, they were like toothpicks.

The boar pressed with its head as if trying to show the disparity between their physical strength. Jun De's arms quacked but he would not give up.

He could not give up.

Just then, a small explosion sounded from Jun De's belly in the space between his kidneys and a warm feeling spread through his entire body. From nowhere, a great strength spiralled through his body as he screamed.

"Aaaaaah!" Jun De moved his hands in opposite directions and with one final burst of strength, he tore the mouth of the boar open that even its neck was cut open.

The boar bled greatly, pouring Jun De with massive buckets of blood. It staggered for some time and then fell to a side with a loud thud.

"Huff, huff" Jun De did not have the luxury to sense the changes in his body or gaze at the dead boar. He ran towards what was left of his mother and hugged her mangled corpse. "No!"

Tears streamed down his face as rain began to fall. That day was the last time Jun De ever thought of eating sweet and sour pork.