Chapter 14 - The First Hunt

An Xin and Wei Bai dashed through the ancient forest edge side-by-side with silent footsteps, softly reminiscing about their own First Hunt.

"...I remember my First Hunt. My mother brought me on it, while Father was chaperoning her. After the savage wolf died, I was so scared that I bawled so loudly that I felt like the whole forest could hear me. Mother had to gently rock me and pat me on the back for the time it takes to eat a meal in order to comfort me before I could finally calm down...while Father had to fight off the animals that were attracted to my crying. It's kinda embarrassing now that I think back to it..." An Xin whisperingly murmured.

"...Hmm. What a coincidence, we were quite similar in circumstances except that it was my father who took me on my First Hunt. Mother was accompanying him instead. But otherwise, it was the same thing. A savage wolf, Father taking advice from Mother because he was terrible at comforting me, which was why it took the whole time it takes to eat a meal to calm me down. Mother was exasperated at the end, since she had to fight and advice Father at the same time." Wei Bai whispered, surprised and elated by the happy coincidence.

*rustle*

...

*ruslte*

An Xin and Wei Bai immediately stopped and kept silent, vigilantly keeping watch of the surroundings.

Wei Bai used his hands to gesture. He first pointed at mom and clenched his fist, waving it downwards. After that, he pointed to himself, then he pointed his finger upwards and circled his finger.

An Xin nodded and nocked 3 arrows, circulating her Qi with vigorous haste that I could feel, whilst keeping an eye on the surrounding area.

Wei Bai then also circulated his Qi, but instead coated it around his vital parts and then jumped up, using the trees' trunk around as footholds.

*rustle!* *fwoosh!*

Just as Wei Bai reached the top of a tree and scouted around, a shadow flashed out of a bush and am-bush-ed mom. Heh.

Wait, this isn't the time for bad puns! Gotta prepare, even if I can't do much.

I excited the Qi all over my body, kicking them into high gear and accumulating power and speed. Yin-Yang Qi surrounded by Neutral Qi in my blood flowed at a high speed within my bloodstream throughout my whole body.

Hmm? What's this? It feels invigorating! It's like my body was injected with adrenaline or something similar! I can also think clearer and faster than before. -! The shadow was much too fast for me, my visual acuity couldn't keep up. What if I.....

A breath of time has passed. And when an idea popped into my mind, I couldn't resist testing it out and immediately exe-cute-d it.

During that breath of time, An Xin dodged and shot her 3 arrows at the shadow passing her, her Qi attaching to the arrows and guiding it towards the shadow, intending to entrap it. Wei Bai, on the other hand, jumped straight down towards An Xin's position.

Meanwhile, I gathered Neutral Qi and sent it towards my eyes gradually. Still feeling no changes even after pumping it full of Neutral Qi until it won't fit anymore, I immediately switched to the Yin-Yang Qi, first grabbing 2 pair of threads and gently sending it into my eyes. A feeling of hot and cold, like burning ice, spread throughout my eyes. I then circulated it within my eyes, forming a tiny『Yin-Yang cycle』made out of threads of Qi within my eyes. As that happened, the world within my eyes changed vastly.

AHHHHHHHH! IT'S SO BLOODY BRIGHT! FUCK. I REALLY NEED TO FIND A WAY TO NOT GET BLINDED ANYMORE! I HATE THIS SHIT!

Taking a deep breath, I slowly reopened my eyes a little crack to peep through, and a visual cacophony of colours bleed through the crack, as if I was looking through a kaleidoscope.

At this moment, 3 breaths of time has passed. After getting used to the glare, I opened my eyes wider and saw a chaos of colours, tumultuously mixing around within the surroundings. I couldn't see at that time, but a『Yin-Yang cycle』 was circling within my irises, glowing with a faint lustre, with my black pupils blocking the glow of the cycle.

...Is this...Qi? ...Looks amazing, as if I could see coloured air currents chaotically shifting around in the air. No, not just the air, everything! The ground, water, the trees, even mom and dad! I can see the flow of Qi everywhere! ...Isn't this OP? I could literally copy others' skills by remembering the path their Qi took. Not just that, it feels like the world finally loaded into 9kHD9000fps when I was in 720p10fps before, where everything was blurry cause they moved too fast for me to see.

While engrossed in the stupendous view before my eyes, 6 breaths of time has passed, and the arrows mom shot finally caught up to the shadow and pierced it from 3 different sides at the neck.

However, the shadow melted as the arrows pierced it. And a loud sound of rushing air reached my ears from behind me.

*FWOOOSH!!!*

The moment I heard that sound, I immediately sent as many threads of Yin-Yang Qi as I could into my whole brain and formed a『Yin-Yang cycle』 as well. As I felt the familiar feeling of burning ice that was in my eyes before, the moment a pair of threads formed the cycle...

*BOOOOOM*

A loud explosion sounded out in my brain, as if my brain felt it directly, rather than me hearing it with my ears. The world, as I moved to look behind me, slowed down before my very eyes. With more Yin-Yang Qi joining the cycle, the slower the world got. Until a certain point, where the moment a pair of threads of Yin-Yang Qi intended to join the cycle, I got a splitting headache like a chisel was being hammered into my brain right in the middle, spreading out to the rest of my body.

Ouuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwuuuuu! Okay! Stop! Flow along the blood!

Amazingly, the pair of Qi responded immediately ad moved at the speed as it always did in my senses.

Woah! How is the Qi flowing like normal when my brain is clearly being accelerated! Even dad looks like he's floating in midair. 😆 Ahahahaha! Putting everything in slow-mo really lets you see some funny stuff. Dad looks hilarious! He's moving like a turtle through the air while he's trying to straighten his legs from a position that makes him look like a gorilla! Pffft~!

Oh? Dad's moving his arms backwards. Pfffffft~! His head is stretched out like a duck and his hands behind him looks like he's trying to fly! Oh. His Qi is flowing towards his arms and legs. I see, he's trying to use Qi like some kind of propulsion. I don't think he'll reach in time though.

Whew. Let's see what's behind us, shall we?

Turning my head around to the back excruciatingly slow, I thought of ways to speed myself up.

Can I even somehow form a cycle at my neck? Neutral Qi definitely won't help at all here and now.

As I gathered the Yin-Yang Qi threads at my neck, I tried to form a cycle as I did before, but it crumbled immediately after it formed.

Huh? Even if I expected it, how the hell that the Qi can pass through matter, but can't stay circulating in my neck? Aghhhhhh. I hope this works....

I then made the Yin-Yang Qi separate. Immediately, my neck felt different levels of hot and cold.

At the left side of my neck, where the Yin Qi gathered, was ice bitingly cold, and at the right side of my neck, where the Yang Qi gathered, was sun scorchingly hot. Not wanting to damage my neck, I immediately circulated the Yin Qi and the Yang Qi separately at the borders of my neck, each staying and occupying half of the space within the flesh. The feeling of hot and cold exchanged, but it became mellower, easier to withstand. Unfortunately, a cycle did not form.

Then, my view changed much quicker. Not as fast as I would have wanted, but compared to everything else around me, I was definitely moving quite fast. It's like the world stopped, and I'm the only one moving.

Ooof. This is broken. Even if I have to expend effort to withstand the hot and cold feelings that come with it, I'm actually moving faster than my parents, and I don't even have any cultivation. With such crazy benefits, I'm betting the consequences is going to be similarly crazy as well.

As I contemplated the price I had to pay for such power even as a baby, I finally laid my eyes upon the culprit of my woes and my gains this time around.

A small black wolf was inching its claws towards my neck, moving very slightly faster than at turtle speed towards my arteries. I can also faintly perceive that he's slowly moving towards where my left-hand side currently is. It seems mom is dodging to the right. Unfortunately, that means that the black wolf's claws are now aiming towards my mother's heart! Oh no you don't. Not on my watch.

Looking at the speed of advancement of the small black wolf, and comparing it to mom's dodging speed, I judged that mom would barely dodge the strike to her heart.

It seems I must do something.

Directing the Yin and Yang Qi now circulating in my neck towards my left arm, combining it and circulating around my neck a few times before I let it leave, my neck felt more relieved after that.

I then just let the pair of Yin-Yang Qi flow along the flesh at the borders on the inside of my left arm and towards my fingers, then circled around to the back of my hand along the flesh towards my shoulder. After a few revolutions, my arm finally moved faster in my eyes.

Huh. It worked far faster this way, within lesser revolutions and without the crazy hot and cold feeling. Looks like I know which way to move my research towards now. Anyway, time to move that blackie's claws away from mom's heart to grazing her shoulder. Need to stay low-key, always having humility in my heart.

Looking at the claws now, it's right beside my left shoulder. I pushed at the paws of this wolf towards the left lightly, feeling wary that not just my speed, but likely my strength has improved. Plus, at the speed I'm moving at, it's very possible the momentum I transfer over to those claws will be heavy due to the speed I'm moving at.

When I've finally reached the position where the rightmost side of the claws are pointing at the edge of mom's shoulder, then I slowly withdrew the Yin-Yang Qi from the cycle circling in my brain. The world slowly started moving at higher speeds, until it went back to normal.

With my eyes that could see everything, I watched the black wolf flew pass mom's shoulder, tearing through the armour and slightly grazing her shoulder. Dad finally reached the ground right at where the wolf was now heading towards thanks to my intervention.

Whew. That was close. I'm sure Dad could handle himself. Probably. I hope.

As I hoped that Dad will be able to easily handle that Lil' critter, my vision started fading to black.

Ah... It's.. here. ..The... back...lash...

That was my last thought as everything changed, and all faded to black.