Betrayal

Join my server! — https://discord.gg/smAesXp

Feel free to give ideas and talk with others.

***

Now, began his return to Steel Armor Shelter. He brought Shadow along and they both left through the way they came from. They climbed their way out of Lower Valley and back to surface level.

He ate away at the jerky he had made from mutant creatures. He had enough to last him for a while.

As soon as he managed to arrive at an open area, Long Tian summoned his mount, the Crystal-horned deer. A beast soul jumped out from his forehead and materialized before him.

A large and elegant looking deer appeared, its features were regal, especially those large and white crystal horns of it. It stood majestically, displaying its beauty.

Seeing it before him, Long Tian suddenly felt it a pity to have killed this beautiful creature. Jumping on it, Long Tian rode his mount to Steel Armor Shelter.

"Mutant crystal-horned deer meat eaten. One mutant geno point gain."

As Long Tian ate the meat and savored its taste, he recalled the tastes of the other creatures, ordinary and mutant. His eyes rolled and he definitely had to agree that the meat of a mutant creature was not only more nutritious compared to the meat of an ordinary and primitive creature, but it was also more tasty.

If the greater the grade of the creature resulted in its taste increasing, how good would a sacred-blood creature's meat taste be like?

His stomach rumbled, equally wishing to try the taste of the creature.

Smirking, Long Tian decided to look for one.

He wasn't too far from the Lower Valley, so he should have some luck in searching for one. His eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for traces of a sacred-blood creature. After having met quite a few, distinguishing traces of creatures is quite easy for Long Tian.

Whether it be smell, fur, or any other feature, Long Tian could discover and distinguish it.

He searched for a couple of hours before finding some inconspicuous marks on a tree. Touching the marks, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes in amusement.

Sacred-blood creature marks!

And they were fresh.

"It must be close… about an hour away…"

Long Tian moved, urging his mount forward and following the traces. Slowly, a scene began to play within his head. A vivid reenactment of whatever had happened here.

A large creature moved about, scratching and leaving marks wherever it went.

The more traces he found, the more the creature began to take shape within his head. His golden eyes rolled and then, he found it.

Drinking from a stream was a large creature with a lot of quills on its its back. Almost three meters in height, the porcupine creature was white all over its body besides the tips of its quills which were black.

Looking at the porcupine creature, Long Tian quietly returned his crystal-horned deer beast soul before approaching the creature.

He stood two feet away from the creature, masking his presence. Grabbing the z-steel sword at his waist, Long Tian instantly jumped into his best form.

Summoning Bloody Slayer, Long Tian flashed the sword and swung it down to the creature. His strength and speed both increased as he shapeshifted.

With the increased speed, he caught the creature off guard and watched as the sword cut through a couple of spines on the porcupine. The sword dove down and cut through its flesh.

Puchi!

"Heee!"

The creature yelped in pain and Long Tian rapidly pulled back his sword. He turned covered himself, watching as the spines on the purcupine shot at him.

"Hell…" muttered Long Tian, feeling as the spines lodged themselves into his flesh.

He covered his face and weak points carefully while evading the more fatal attacks.

Swinging the sword down again at the same spot from earlier, he galloped behind the retreating creature.

Moo!!

Along with his yell, the sword fell.

Pak!

More spines were shot as he did so. They struck Long Tian's body and he felt the pain from every inch of his flesh. He rapidly ran , looking to stabilize his situation.

"Ah… this can't go on much longer…" he muttered as he felt his body weakening.

The creature turned around, noticing Long Tian becoming weak. It shot more spines, lodging them into Long Tian and watching his as he fell to the floor.

He turned back into his human self and weakly glared at the creature.

"Heee.."

The creature hissed as it cautiously approached Long Tian. Seeing him not move, the creature moved and attacked.

Grabbing the weak human, the creature rolled into a ball, bringing Long Tian into its embrace. It curled up, crushing him within its embrace.

"Ugh… this is… good…" muttered Long Tian.

With the creature rolled into a ball, he couldn't see a single bit of light. Darkness enveloped him and he smiled. He tried moving around, but as he did, the creature began to crush him.

Crack!

His bones began to creak under the immense pressure, some beginning to crack. Yet as they did, the cooling sensation from his began to run heavily within his body and deeper into his bones.

"I can… do this…"

Long Tian began to grit just teeth, trying to move his hands. However, with one tightly holding the z-steel sword, he had to rely on his other hand.

But that too was being immobilized with barely any room space to move.

Yet that wasn't going to stop Long Tian.

He flexed his muscles and tried moving his hand. As he moved, the sacred-blood creature began to tighten its hold on him. Crushing him further.

"Come on…"

Long Tian smiled, a little nervous.

His hand clenched into a fist, and using the small amount of space to move his fist, he punched at the creature. It didn't work and it only caused the creature to squeeze harder.

'I need to create enough space to attack…'

Not giving up, Long Tian punched again.

Pa…

Again.

Pa…

And again.

Pa…!

And as he punched over and over, the attacks he was doing were getting better. He tried attacking in that minute amount of space, and he was able to draw out more and more of his strength effectively.

Pa…!

Pa..!

Pa.!

Pa!

Tcha!

Suddenly, Long Tian felt his body become tougher and cooler at that instant. His pained body was slightly relieved, and his fatigue and soreness receded. He felt like he had an endless amount of stamina.

His eyes lit up, finding the best moment to strike was then and there. 

PA!

Hee!

The creature screeched, maybe from pain, or maybe annoyance. Long Tian didn't care, his leg was already broken and his body was growing numb.

Grabbing the dagger at his waist, he stabbed it into the creatures body.

SCREECH!

The creature yelled in pain and Long Tian didn't stop there. He took the opportunity, now that he was there and extremely close to the creature.

Dragging the knife along the creatures belly, the guts within the creature spilled. It released Long Tian, the light beaming down right at him as the creature tried fleeing in panic and fear.

It only took three steps away from Long Tian before it collapsed on the floor breathlessly.

"Sacred-blood White-bellied Porcupine killed. Beast soul gained. Eat its flesh to gain 0 to 10 sacred-blood geno points randomly."

Long Tian grinned, hearing the notification.

He felt the cool sensation on his body for a second and returning his bodily sensations before struggling to stand up. With his leg broken now, he had to support himself on his sword.

He used it as a crutch, stepping toward the dead creature.

"Haha… looks like my gains this time aren't too bad."

Long Tian recalled all the meat he already had. Mutant meat from three whole creatures, which can't bring his mutant geno points up by at least 20 points.

Now with the sacred-blood creature's corpse, Long Tian could increase his sacred-blood geno points.

He smiled and sat down.

"Where's Shadow?"

Long Tian muttered to himself, wondering where the cowardly cat had run to. Even when it's master was in danger, it didn't step up to help him.

'Whatever… I can only take this slowly…' he thought, planning to slowly train Shadow.

Turning his head, Long Tian noticed Shadow stepping out from the darkness. It walked towards him with its head lowered, seemingly ashamed at its actions.

It stopped right before him, Shadow raised its head and looked at the sacred-blood creature. Returning its gaze to him, Long Tian reacted quickly.

His dagger, was now lodged in Shadow's throat.

"I'm disappointed in you…" Long Tian muttered as he looked into Shadow's greedy eyes.

He sighed.

With so many plans for Shadow, Long Tian planned to raise Shadow. Yet it seemed like Shadow had chosen its improvement over his new friend.

Shaking his head, Long Tian twisted his knife.

"Mutant Purple-Eyed Beast killed. No beast soul gained. Eat its meat to gain 0 to 10 mutant geno points randomly."

"I can only try again…" he muttered to himself as he looked at Shadow's lifeless corpse. With little pain in his eyes, Long Tian rested his body.

Shadow was an unexpected friend he had made along his travel, but it was short-lived. All the food and herbs he had given it had gone to waste after its betrayal.

The smell and benefits of the sacred-blood creature meat was too much for it. Without thinking clearly, it attacked him.

It disappointed Long Tian, but it showed him that Shadow's intelligence wouldn't have allowed it to live for long. It should have realized that with Long Tian, it would be capable of eating a lot of meat in the future.

Shaking his head, Long Tian knew that he needed to improve his taming abilities. The simple methods he learnt and improved from the skynet weren't enough.

…

Resuming his journey, Long Tian sat on his crystal-horned deer mount. Behind them, strapped to the mount, were the meat from the sacred-blood creature and Shadow.

They were being dragged on Shadow's resilient pelt.

The days were passing slowly and he was eating the meat from the creatures. His leg and arm had wood strapped to them, keeping his broken bones in place and making sure that they healed properly.

After this close death, Long Tian was smiling.

He knew his skills were lacking. Xingyiquan wasn't compatible with him, and the was still too weak at its current level. It's prowess won't be revealed until much later.

The only good thing about all this, was his advancing a level. From the introductory stage, he had entered the Minor Completion realm.

At that moment, he knew the changes that the Minor Completion of the had brought.

His body felt more resilient and tough, his endurance had increased twofold(4x), and the upper limit of his stamina had greatly increased. Even if he spent the entire day running, he wouldn't feel out of breath or tired.

The last change wasn't too significant.

His body was cool and refreshing, even under the scorching sun, he could feel its warmth, but he didn't feel hot at all.