Devi stopped the fights around an hour before we needed to leave with the group and healed us all up for the final time. Although I had already expected it somewhat, it was still frustrating to have lost every single fight. Though I did not plan to act on that frustration in any way. They were all simply stronger than me. Estella had some fighting experience according to her, since her father was a mortal guard and had taught her, Ivia was simply trained since birth. She also had won the most spars out of everybody. And Devi managed to create enough distance between the two of us, the one time he joined us. And he had already figured out that I got distracted by any wounds on my body, which made it impossible for me to properly focus on the fight.

  We went inside and asked Piul when the mission would start and he answered, “You have about one hour until the merchant with the cargo will arrive. I sincerely hope you will have some proper clothes by then.” I only then noticed that my clothes had a lot of cuts in them and were stained in my blood. The others looked better, but with the exception of Devi everybody looked like they had just come out of a fight. Which was true enough.

  There was barely enough time to return to the sect and then come back, but I didn’t care too much about the opinion of the merchant. So, I simply sat down and began to think about all the fights I had done today. Estella and Devi seemingly had their own considerations and sat down. Ivia remained standing before she just quietly left.

  The first mistake which had haunted me the entire day was that I got constantly stopped in the middle of my movement, because I noticed my muscles and thought about how to move them. The simplest idea I could come up with to mitigate the problem was to practice these movements, while fully aware of them to balance it out. That should be rather easy to do while travelling, since I would be constantly on the move.

  Other than that, the next biggest problem was that I didn’t know what my opponents would do next. I had no idea what to expect of them and they always managed to surprise me. Lius had been the worst in that regard simply because I could not even see what he did with the wind. I knew that it was mostly a lack of experience. There probably were tells that I just didn’t notice during the fight. The other issue was probably my ability to sense Qi other than earth. I knew that the others at least somewhat felt it. But that was a minor issue compared to the lack of experience.

  And the last issue were my techniques themselves. I not once managed to land the binding one, simply because it was too slow and the others felt it before it could even emerge. I needed to make the technique appear faster, even if it would be less sturdy. It simply didn’t fit to how I was currently fighting and would presumably continue to fight. It was a technique for slow fights where I would slowly force the enemy in a worse position until the technique would finally land and end the fight. And my body gave me a clear advantage in being more aggressive with my fights, so it currently went against that idea.

  I liked stone skin since I already had an idea how to make it more fitting for me. Instead of fully covering my body, I would just cover the part that was being attacked. I would need to pull less mass, so it should be faster, though the distance was still a problem. I had yet to manage to control earth to be fast. So, I needed to reduce the distance that the stones needed to travel. My first idea was to have some just always in my bag, but that seemed rather useless, since the bag was always closed and forcing it open would destroy it sooner or later.

  While I was still trying to think of where I could store the stones, did Ivia return dressed in new robes and in her arms were three more. She handed them to us and sighed, “You can always just ask me, to buy things when we are out as a group. Don’t worry about it.” She grinned satisfied with herself and I realized that she had probably thought that we did not have enough money to buy new robes ourselves and thus stayed back. She probably was not even wrong, even if I had not thought about it.

  Piul pointed us to a private room, and I quickly tried to change, though I once again realized that I did not know how to properly tie it. It didn’t help that I had problems with fine motions, since they required me to focus on my fingers and thus their muscles. It took me almost until it was time to leave, though I was still glad about the opportunity to practice doing something while being forced to focus on my muscles.

  The merchant was a middle aged woman accompanied by a group of four warriors. And based on the fact that Piul seemed to relax upon seeing them, I was guessing that they were also cultivators. The woman and Piul had already made introductions when the woman asked, “Are you ready to go? Also, I will not be paying for the eighth member since I only hired seven of you. I just wanted to make that clear.”

  Piul just nodded and handed her the letter Master had written for me. She read through it and sighed, “I guess, the good luck of my journey has run out then. Let’s go. No time to waste.” We followed them outside and saw three more cultivators waiting for her by a carriage. The carriage was not attached to any spirit beast like I had thought, instead one of the cultivators took up that position when the merchant entered the carriage. The cultivator lifted the carriage up and began to set a brisk pace, while the mercenaries began to station themselves around the carriage, to cover as many routes as possible. I chose to stay in the back, since it would bother the least people, when I would inevitably stop during our travel.

  We exited through the eastern gates, and I was not greeted with the sight of the forest and mountains like I had expected. Instead, it was a large expanse covered in grass. It was unnaturally flat in the parts which looked untouched, the rest had been ravaged by something. Countless craters, ravines and spikes of varying sizes formed the landscape. The smallest being only a few meters deep or high, while the biggest craters looked seemed to cover multiple kilometres, the deepest ravines looked like valleys without a ground and some of the spikes pierced the clouds. Every bit of the expanse practically reeked of violence. The landscape could have only formed during fights between cultivators.

  I managed to catch up to the group again, after being briefly stunned by the sight and continued marvelling at everything as we walked. I quickly realized that the things left behind by earth cultivators, had just been the most obvious ones. Unnatural shadows stretched across open parts of the plain, while some of parts inside ravines seemed to shine, even though there was no light source. I spotted more elements simply being present, showcasing remnants of techniques that had been used.

  Even through all this apparent chaos, Piul led us along a pretty smooth path, which was either a lucky coincidence, or had been carved out by an earth cultivator. I quickly began to focus on walking and the muscles involved. I barely noticed the surroundings, even though they practically begged to be noticed. Still, training was more important than an interesting environment.

  Since my brain adjusted every time after I paid attention to my leg muscles for a while, did I start to rotate between different actions to keep it active. I also mixed in practicing my techniques in from time to time. We had walked through most of the dawn and morning when the surrounding slowly became darker again. I looked up to see if I had somehow missed most of the day, but the sun still shone. The surroundings still began to darken. It was around noon, when we were walking in almost complete darkness and Piul ordered us to stop for the day.

  He explained to the guards of the merchant, “This area has a lot of dark Qi remaining, so at random times of the day, does it get really dark here. It should be possible to continue walking in around seven hours. So, rest up as much as possible.” The cultivator led down the carriage, while the mercenaries began to create a campfire. I was surprised to see that it lighted up the area, though it only barely reached a diameter of five meters before the darkness consumed everything again.

  I wondered why we couldn’t use torches but notices soon after sitting down, that the darkness was slowly encroaching. Piul discussed the order of keeping watch with the guards before he sat down near the fire as well. We ate a simple meal consisting of jerky before everybody except me, Piul and one of the guards went to bed.

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  I silently began to practice to control my techniques better. I still was thinking about how to make rock skin appear on the needed spots faster, when I suddenly had a simple idea. I could just wear a bunch of rocks around my chest, like some kind of chainmail. Of course I didn’t plan on making it as detailed, but I could still wear it. I immediately let some rocks climb under my robes up my body until I had the desired plate of stone over my torso. It was a relatively thin layer, and I tried moving a bit, adjusting it slightly as I went until it felt somewhat comfortable.

  I sat down again and wanting to start practicing the binding technique, since I had figured out how to disregard its rope like form during my training, in favour of a more spike like form, when Piul called out to me silently. “You should also be sleeping, even if you partially are a body cultivator.”

  My attention turned to him, and I answered, “My cultivation manual messed a bit with my body. I don’t really need to sleep anymore.” I thought for a moment and decided to try to lessen any bad feelings he might have for us, “I also should be apologizing to you guys. I didn’t know before coming to you, that we would also make the mission riskier for you.” He just sat in silence for a moment before sighing.

  “It’s fine, though I expected the disciple of Garlou to be…” he stopped for a moment, before continuing, “crazy, I guess. Although it is insane that you even accepted this mission, given that you are going through body purification at the moment. So maybe I just haven’t known you long enough.” He grinned and just continued staring into the fire.

  I broke the silence again, when I realized that this might be a good opportunity to get more information about who I was studying under. And I didn’t even have to waste time, asking Master personally about it. “Could you tell me more about Master? I don’t really know her. We barely even talked up until now.” I slightly chuckled at the last comment, since I had barely talked to anybody, since arriving. I then added, “And I went under her, simply because she looked and felt like the best fit for my goal at the selection process.”

  Piul stayed quiet and said, “To put it simply, your master is a warhero. To my knowledge, she started as a slave under some demonic sect and poisoned the camp, when she was dragged to the frontlines. She then joined us and has fought in every single war or skirmish until recently. Even if she is not strong compared to those at the top of the alliance, she still is widely respected for her achievements.” He went silent for a moment, considering something, until he continued, “But she is also just as hated as she is revered. Pretty much all of the battles she is involved in, end up in total annihilation for both sides, with only her standing at the end.”

  I was curious to learn more about Master when Piul stood up unsheathing his sword and yelling, “BEASTS INCOMING!”. This immediately woke everybody up and he quickly explained the situation, “Twenty nine coming from all sides. Seem like wolf type spirit beasts. Most likely dark plain wolves, judging from their average height.” He then began barking orders as to which area which person would need to defend.

  I alongside two of the guards were guarding the northern side, since according to Piul it had the weakest beasts. I jumped up and went over joining the other two. I began staring into the darkness trying to see anything, but I spotted nothing except the pitch black darkness. One of the guards whispered to me, “Try to listen to their movements, that should be easier.” And I followed his advice without my eyes ever leaving the area in front of me. I began to focus on the sounds and began to hear the silent breaths of big animals somewhere in the darkness.

  I then got another idea and tried to feel them with my earth Qi. This turned out to be more effective since I felt their footsteps. Four were close to us. I focused solely on these five and tracked the one nearest to me with my eyes, even if I couldn’t see it. I did that to be ready when they would inevitably attack. I tried to guess how big they were, by the paw prints they left behind, but before I could properly guess did a howl cut through the tension.

  This was the signal they had need to start sprinting at us and hell broke loose. I saw a wolf sprinting right at me. It’s shoulders almost reached the same height as mine and its yellow eyes burned into me as it took off into a jump at me. I had been somewhat prepared and managed to cover my left arm in stone and stick it out before the wolf landed on me. It bit down on the stones on my arm and for a moment, did I fear that they would completely shatter, but luckily the protection barely held on.

  I had hoped that the teeth of the giant black wolf on me would shatter, but they stayed intact slowly digging deeper into the stone. I quickly created a spike like form using the binding technique, which while it did not pierce the wolf, still hit it in its stomach. It briefly let go of me, either out of pain or surprise and I used the chance and punched it in its left eye as hard as I could. Though, my fist only hit the bones around the eye, slightly cracking them.

  This finally got the wolf off me and I lunged after it, using my left arm which was still covered in stone to punch it cleanly in the head from the side. I felt the skull crack a bit and the head of the wolf flung to the left as it collapsed. I wanted to follow up with another attack, when I for a brief moment felt something run up behind me. I managed to divert some of the stone on me to cover my neck as I turned around. Another wolf had fled a battle and lunged at me. I felt its maw close around my neck as it slammed me into the ground again.

  I felt its teeth piercing slightly into my throat as the air was pressed out of me. And while the stone around my neck was protecting me from being bitten to death, I still got chocked by the beast. My vision began to turn blurry as my attention refused to leave my strained neck muscles. I barely managed to get my hands into a position, where I could try to pry the jaw of the beast open with my hands. I felt my consciousness slipping and everything began to feel calm. In a last ditch attempt to not die, did I shoot out a spike with the binding technique between my legs. It this time seemed to pierce something as the teeth around my neck disappeared.

  I took a deep breath but didn’t use the brief opportunity I had to orientate myself. Instead, did I sling my right arm around its neck, using its movement to pull me up. I then let the stones in my left arm flow down towards my fist and punched it. I felt the skull crack, so I punched again.

  And again, and again until I felt the skull shattering. I stopped and looked around completely out of breath. The fights seemed to have all ended, so I stumbled over to the first wolf that had attacked me and wound up my left fist. I then thought for a brief moment and shaped the tip of my stone covered fist into a spike. I then struck the beast in the eye, killing it instantly. I then took my time to properly look around.

  Ivia, Estella and Devi looked fine as did pretty much all of the others. I quickly realized why the fight had ended so fast. Piul had killed six wolves while the other mercenaries, including Lius had killed four each. And it looked like some of the other cultivators also had killed more than two. I just sat next to the wolf I had killed and gathered the stone skin pieces I had made back on my chest.

  I knew that I had almost just died, but I felt too excited about the fact that the changes I had done to both techniques had been effective. I even got new ideas what to do with stone skin, I could just create spikes to cover for my lack of weapons. I was beginning to like the technique more and more. I felt my heart rate return to normal and the adrenaline that had been coursing through my body wear off and only exhaustion remained. I noticed that I had cracked the bones in both of my fists at some point, though the right was somehow in a worse shape. Still, I was too tired to stand up and decided to wait for Devi to come and heal me.

  He joined me after a few minutes alongside the others. They sat down next to me, and we just watched as the camp calmed down. I then noticed that some of the mercenaries began to dissect the corpses. I realized that the corpses of the wolves we killed belonged to us, so I asked, “Does anybody know how to dissect a wolf? Also, how many did you all kill?”

  They just shook their head and Estella said, “I killed one, though I got help from one of the guards.” She then glanced at Ivia who was just sitting on the ground, looking exhausted. "Ivia got one of them and Devi focused on keeping everybody alive. So, he got zero.” She looked disappointed, which I can only guess is directed at herself. I thought for a moment and offered, “I am going to offer Piul to of our wolves, in exchange for getting the valuables out of them for us. And when it’s done, do we split it four ways.”

  I knew that it was a slight loss, but it would be better to make these trade offs for friendships, while the materials in question were still cheap in the grand scheme of things. And I didn’t really need them at the moment, at least to my knowledge. The others looked surprised, but I walked over to Piul who was busy taking out the teeth of some dead wolves.

  He glanced up and just said to Lius, “Get them the claws, teeth and some meat of the two wolves Miranda killed.” Lius clearly looked unhappy, and Piul added, “And don’t play any tricks. If you destroy something, I will just use what would belong to you in exchange.” Lius ignored him and just crouched down next to the others.

  I walked over and began to watch him carefully remove the claws. After a few moments of silent work, did he explain, “The claws and teeth can be ground up and used as coating for weapons or in pills. The same is true for the bones, though they also have bone marrow, which is similar to the meat. It is helpful to eat, since it contains quite a lot of Qi.” He then continued his work in silence, while I began to think about the fight again.

  Devi interrupted the silence, when Lius began to cut out some meat for us, “Are all beasts also like body cultivators or why do they have so much Qi in their bodies?” Lius continued his work without bothering to look up. He thought for a few moments and said, “They are not body cultivators, in the normal sense. Their bodies are just large and require Qi to properly function. Most of them are something more akin to elemental cultivators.”

  This got me curious as to why “Against nature” didn’t follow a similar path like the beasts. I quickly realized that like everything there would be a downside to balance it out, “Beasts are generally not as intelligent as humans, right?” To which Lius simply nodded. We left him unbothered for the rest of his work, and ended up with 82 teeth, since I had apparently shattered some, when I beat the first wolf to death, forty claws, and a bunch of meat. Lius recommended that we would eat the meat immediately, or at least within a day.

  We joined the others at the campfire and cooked our meat, eating in silence. I could feel my body absorbing some of the Qi from the meat, though it was not a lot. Just a bit more than what I would normally get my cultivating path of the inhumane regularly.