Chapter 133 - Totemic aspects.

After the feast, Xin bid his farewell, gathered his belongings and retreated into his lair, which wasn't that far. The nights were getting colder, but with his hide bed and the fire he could easily produce, they were bearable. 

When Xin woke up, he didn't feel a hangover. Interesting, seems my body is indeed in peak condition. His lair was intact, except for some food going bad, but with the supplies nomads thanked him with, food wouldn't be a problem any time soon. There were no signs of intruders, but Xin still stayed vigilant. If he was Moss Bush Demoness, he'd start with eliminating himself before going after the tribe.

Yet… she's not me? She's a bottom tier rank two, relying on summoned creatures and mediocre transformation techniques, her only real trap card is that rank two mercury snake ring. It seems that she doesn't have a single rank two dao shard, her qi pool is nothing special, and her cultivation depth is lacking. She probably procured an inheritance and bided her time for decades, until she finally lucked out and broke through to rank two. 

Fighting a higher ranked opponent is never easy, yet I have fought so many already! With Tu Qiang, I had to exploit his loyalty, otherwise I'd lose. With Little Mantis, it was just him underestimating me. He thought that he could see through the iron mantis' eyes as he fought me, and he also arrogantly assumed his natural reflexes and rank two scythe-arms would be enough to slice me up in seconds. He was wrong.

But with the Fist sect rank one powered physical cultivators and mercs they hired, I won on merit. My combat system was better assembled, and I know which fights to take and which to avoid. I killed one by sneaking up, another one died because I taunted him and he lost composure. This woman is a much tougher nut to crack. The difference between rank one and two is much larger than between rank one and qi active mortal, after all.

Fighting her again would be a huge gamble, even if I refine the White Tiger totem. Mayhaps I could rush back into the sect and persuade them to pursue her? Or cooperate with the Border Guard? Their larger fort is just a few days of travel away, if I borrow a horse.

Well, can't do any of these things until I tame the totem. That last fight almost broke its resistance, but breaking my vow of silence set me back a few days. If I hurry up, it will take just three days or so. The totem feels so quiet, though. It knows what's coming.

***

Xin spent three more days meditating. He kept hunting, slowly consuming spirit leaves and training physically, but mostly focused on soul exchange. Absorbing the tiger's soul essence, he also donated his own soul essence for the totem to absorb. Given that a human's soul regenerates faster and is much more malleable, it was a good way to break an already weakened totem's resistance. It was a draining process, at times leaving Xin feeling like a human qi drained ghoul, but he persevered.

By the dawn of the third day, Xin felt a tingling spread in his belly, where his core was. He was elated — the totem's resistance was finally broken, and he was fully attuned to it!

"So be it. Do what you must." The totem spoke in Xin's voice, but hoarser, fiercer.

"Do what?" Xin asked out loud. It felt so nice to speak again! "It's not like I have to refine you as soon as I tamed you."

"Oh, extending the torture? I bet you're excited that you can yap again, puppy. I almost elevated you into someone proper, yet you chose to regress once more. Go wear your armour, live in your sect and bow to your superiors — the moments we shared will always be when you felt most alive. How we killed together, how I made you drink that man's blood — how we bred this girl together, and how we forced that hag to flee — the greatest adventure you ever had! Fine, throw it all away."

"Ha, you sound pathetic." Xin started pulling out his clothing from his bag of holding. "Owned Erdeni together? I made you sit in a dark corner while I nailed her time and time again. Pussy."

"You dare!" The totem roared and tried lashing out, but Xin choked it out effortlessly. "Fuck you!"

"You know who else I nailed? That 'friend' of yours on the tip of my spear. Dumb fucking bandit. And soon I'll refine you, erasing your existence forever. A righteous creature will be born out of your remains, protecting the weak and making the world better. And you will be just a humus for our ascension. Pussy." Xin scoffed and spat on the ground. He had to endure the totem's torture for weeks, it wasn't too petty to insult it a bit.

"I see you enjoy taunting me. It's not over until it's over, Xin. You still have to defeat me."

"That will be easy, barely an inconvenience. The hardest part is already dealt with. Take your loss with dignity and stop talking."

"My loss? Ha, if not for Erdeni or her mentor, I'd overtake your soul while you were unconscious. You're nothing but a lucky child, with delusions of grandeur."

"You've grown quite a vocabulary, care to enlighten me where you got it from?" Xin was now donning his armor on top of the linen padding he was already wearing. In their gratitude, the nomads repaired it while he was unconscious. "You're soaked in my human qi, you're nothing but an uglier version of me I'll slay to become better. Know your place. Pussy."

The totem lashed out again, but Xin ignored it. It would take the totem months to wear down the vows that bound it now, so he knew he was pretty safe. Time for training.

Xin still had to do a few things before refining the totem. First, he had to manifest as many of the totem's abilities as possible, to master the sense of its presence. Then, once he had a full grasp of its abilities, he had to learn to consistently manifest its spirit form. Once this was dealt with, he'd manifest it, initiate the refining process and crush the totem, freeing it and starting a fight to the death. Once defeated, the totem's soul essence would be the final component in the white tiger totem recipe.

Xin entered an old grove, filled with dead and rotting trees. Sounds like a good enough training location.

"That move that sliced Lei's arm off, what was its name?"

"Paw of death." The totem responded.

"Hahaha! Seriously? Your previous owner was retarded." Xin laughed heartily, naming was certainly not that yaoguai's best skill.

"You asked, I responded. Call it what you want. You can try manifesting it, it's not like I can do anything to stop you."

Fine. Xin received an image of this technique in his soul, an intuitive understanding of how it works. Of course, it would be incomplete, and would require some practice before he could manifest it confidently. Or, just like with every other totemic technique, he could manifest it forcefully, like in the fight with the hag, relying on the totem to do the heavy lifting, but it would strain his soul and leak more qi.

So, the technique starts at the shoulder blade, then you manifest an impulse that travels towards your nails. As you perform it, you also manifest a spirit paw that replicates the move. It's a bit wasteful and strains the soul, but certainly powerful.

"I like it. Would be sad to lose this one once you're refined." Xin said out loud.

"I hate how talkative you are. Just execute it."

"Hehe." Xin smirked. He liked getting on the tiger's nerves.

Alright. Manifest the Yang qi in the shoulder blade, then let the impulse travel…

Now!

Xin slashed at the old tree, his strike imbued with fiery yang qi. His meridians stressed lightly, and his shoulder joint shot up in pain. This strike was weaker than Woodcutter's Downswing.

"Did something happen, boy? All you can do?"

"Shut up, we both know I'll master it soon."

Xin trained to exhaustion, injuring both of his shoulders somewhat. Once out of qi, he consumed a healing seed dao shard and ate two spirit stones.

"Quite wasteful, don't you think?"

"I can afford it, tiger. You have to admit, I thinned this grove quite a bit, didn't I?" Indeed, over the past weeks, this area went from looking like a desolate, overgrown mish-mash of half-dead trees to quite a pleasant glade, except for a bunch of tree trunks and a hill made of the trees he downed.

The totem didn't respond.

Now, let's try the same move, but a full version. Shoulder blade impulse… Travel… Spirit manifestation!

Xin roared out in fury and sliced at another tree. A faint ethereal presence manifested around his arm, and sliced along with him. Xin was elated — for a first try, this is amazing!

"Paw of death!" Xin shouted out fiercely and sliced again, this time manifesting a firmer spirit. He could now clearly see the tiger paw, with its claws and tendons. No fur, though. Just an orange glow.

Half-way there. Keep going.

"Paw of death!" Xin sliced again, and manifested a fully formed tiger arm. The strike he delivered was now on par with Woodcutter's Downswing, but wasted much more qi, and strained his soul on top.

"Didn't you make fun of people who shouted their moves out?"

"Yes, but those were xiandao cultivators. With totemic cultivation, it makes soul manifestation a bit easier."

Xin still frowned lightly. This technique still seemed stronger in the yaoguai's arms, it looked like his Yang Qi density and elemental affinity trumped Xin's Foundation stage soul foundation for the purposes of this move. Interesting.

"I can feel your rage, and your heart's longing for battle. You've got quite a rage in you, master."

"Master?" Xin smirked. It seems that the totem was instinctively drawn to submit now. "Well, I can rage and be as wild as you are, I just choose not to. That's the difference between me and your previous master."

The totem scoffed.

***

Day 2.

Xin leaped at a tree and nimbly climbed it, as if ignoring gravity. 

"Only took an hour. You know, now that I think of it, I think my wood element climbing infusion helped me master this move. Interesting, totemic cultivation and wood path are quite different, yet some things are similar. The similarities and distinctions between these two were quite helpful to figure this one out."

"Who asked?" The totem scoffed again, then retreated into a dark corner of Xin's soul, sulking.

"Wait. That paw of death technique, its patterns are quite similar to Woodcutter's Downswing. It's clearly a different move, as it doesn't use the element bonding in its foundation, and the energy spread is explosive, not up and down. Still, I feel like my Woodcutter's Downswing knowledge was key in figuring it out so fast."No response.

"Oh, come on. You're sulking now? I'd pity you, but you're too despicable. Let me rest, I'll quickly figure out the roar technique and let's try manifesting the full version of the tiger physique. What was its name again?"

"Yang Tiger body."

"How creative…" Xin smiled again, riding a high horse. 

***

Day 4.

Roar! Xin's ears deafened again. This ability turned out to be quite hard to manifest, and after a full day of on and off trying, Xin had to force it through significant soul strain. This totemic aspect, that the previous owner named "jungle king's roar", was a powerful tool indeed — deafening the opponent's ears, assaulting their soul and disrupting their will's connections at the same time. This could temporarily suppress the opponent's attunement with their dao shards, artefacts or tamed creatures, and was probably the totemic aspect Xin would regret losing the most.

"You're still hurting yourself, Xin. You'll need a few more months to master the white tiger's abilities. You won't make it in time for the tournament, so I suggest we cooperate instead. If you abandon your foolish plan and start training now, you'll have a winning chance. Right now, all you're achieving is deafness and soul damage."

"That's exactly what I'd say if I were in your place." Xin scoffed. The totem was eerily similar to him, which made it easier to see through its manipulations. Xin rubbed the healing seed dao shard, then quickly ate the seed it produced. He then meditated, focusing its healing energies around his ears. Certainly an overkill, but it was worth it to avoid permanent hearing damage.

Xin then consumed two more spirit stones, and was back in full shape. He was slightly tipsy from the spirit leaves he ate earlier, but he always calculated the needed dosage in advance, and never deviated from it, no matter the cravings.

Jungle king's roar! Xin roared out again. His ears were deafened, but a small tree he was roaring at shook, losing half of its dry leaves. The late summer had finally ended, giving way to the autumn's golden embrace. Xin smiled — despite everything that happened, it was the first autumn in his memory when he didn't feel melancholic. 

Do I have no time to be gloomy, or did I grow out of this seasonal malady? Wait, I'm such a dummy. It's Erdeni.

"If you want to be with her, the smarter option is…"

Hush. Xin forced the totem to shut up. One more time.

Jungle king's roar!