Chapter 140 - A new perspective.

Xin rode a horse alongside Horhu, who led the way to the previous Horqin tribe encampment where they had fought the Moss Bush Demoness. After lengthy discussions with the tribe elders through Erdeni and piecing together more details, Xin decided to return to the site, hoping to uncover some overlooked clues. To his surprise, Horhu had volunteered to escort him, and, despite Erdeni's protests and offers to send a more experienced rider in his stead, Xin insisted on her brother's company. She had reluctantly agreed.

"Thank you for showing me around, kid."

"Yesu, thank you me, mastar. Me thank you good very much." Horhu nodded, his serious demeanor contrasting sharply with his broken Imperial, making Xin fight the urge to grin.

"Who taught you our language?" Xin asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Erdeni-dar. Me show you tribe fight we look demon woman and kill her good, yesu?"

Seems Erdeni isn't much of a teacher, I'll need to hire a private tutor for my son. Or maybe Horhu's just retarded.

"Yes, of course!" Xin tried acting friendly, as the kid was clearly anxious around him. "By the way, you did very well that night. I told everyone in the tribe that you saved their lives, stop beating yourself up about that rider that died, it wasn't your fault. Alright?" Xin wanted to act like an older brother to Horhu. In his eyes, the kid had potential, and was spoiled by being raised by women and anxious old people who have long forgotten the smell of success.

"Wot? I don't geta you mean rider. And fault."

"Oh…" Xin sighed. "You. Save tribe. Bring me. Friend killed. Not you do. She do. We kill her. He smile from sky."

"Ah! Sky! Yess!" Horhu pointed up and smiled lightly, then got serious again. "We kill her, he smile! Good. Mastar say good."

For some reason, Xin imagined that Erdeni taught Horhu wrong Imperial as a joke and laughed out loud.

"Wot? Mastar happy?"

"It's good that you're keeping up high spirits. Listen, I saw you look at me like this." Xin furrowed his eyebrows and lowered his head, looking at Horhu from under the forehead. "What did I do?"

"Oh. I am not happy Erdeni love foreinar. Bad for tribe. You good, she do bad. Ancestors sad. Grand mama say you steppe foreinar so good, but me say Clay Folk no steppe foreinar. Ardana sa, naa?"

Is he retarded? How am I supposed to understand what he means? Well, he's lying, he clearly has a problem with me. Is he jealous? He seem very attached to Erdeni, and I'm occupying most of her attention. When I last stepped out of her tent, he ran up to her like an eager puppy, and was very annoyed with me, acting as if I wasn't there. Not the proper behaviour of someone whose life I saved. Mayhaps his claim to power is threatened by me hanging around? Whatever, we need to focus.

"Let's check the camp's outskirts first. Then we'll check the blood pit, or what remains of it."

Horhu nodded.

Thirty minutes later.

"The rain ruined most tracks, but there are subtle signs of the vinemen here." Xin pointed at the ground, deformed by the weight of one of the monsters shambling and approaching the tribe from that side. "She probably pulled them out of her core in a dormant, reduced state, then injected them with some materials to bring them to full shape once again." Xin saw this technique described in the Carnivore Grove inheritance — some plant creatures were better stored dried out to reduce their upkeep. In this case, blood path was also likely involved.

"Yesu." Horhu rubbed his chin, then pointed at the tracks. 

"She snuck around, surrounded the camp with the hidden reduced vinemen, then awakened them and created an encirclement. Except you somehow made it out."

Wait, should I be suspicious of Horhu? No, his further actions don't add up to betrayal. It makes no sense.

"Yesu." Horhu nodded with a serious expression.

"While this was happening, I was wrestling with a certain person near the lake." Xin decided to test the waters. Does he actually understand me, or is he just nodding along?

"Yesu, mastar." Horhu nodded along. Xin barely repressed a smirk.

"Let's go check the blood pit. Follow me." Xin waved for Horhu to follow.

"Yesu."

***

The blood pit's smell hit Xin like a gut punch when he approached. It reeked of rot and decay, but also sulphur, flesh and burnt bone. The nomads fished the cauldron he dropped into it when they retreated, yet the boiling water that remained inside disrupted the intricate alchemical balance producing the vinemen, turning the pit into a mess of ingredients.

I need to identify them one by one.

Most of the liquid was gone from the pit, absorbed and evaporated over time, but since it was a wet season in the North, around a quarter still remained. Without breathing, Xin lowered a flask and fished some of the mucus out, then produced his alchemy kit from his bag of holding, setting up a field lab some distance away from the pit. Horhu observed with great interest.

Xin pulled out his testing kit, then started rubbing adding different chemicals to the mix of water and mucus in the flask. 

No signs of mercury.

Sulphur, of course. This one was obvious by the smell.

Hm. The current mix is quite acidic, the original even more so, I presume, given that it wasn't diluted by the cauldron water.

Xin filtered the liquid through a pressure sieve, then opened it and checked the filter. It was now covered in wood path material waste, clotting separately from the flesh mass. Boiled to an unrecognizable state, it was hard to identify which material it was.

That's… It? There were probably other ingredients, but they were all either used up, dissolved or withered as quite some time passed since the procedure. With my current cultivation level, it's hard to obtain more information. Unless?

"Hey, Horhu. Please give me your glaive." Xin pointed at the weapon in the young rider's hands. It was a shorter cavalry polearm with a wide blade, a weapon favoured by the Skyfolk raiders.

"Oh. Yes. Give me you." He handed it to Xin, who was already staring down the pit, and picked it up without looking.

Stab. Xin's weapon pierced the liquid and the mucus, then reached the bottom, which felt like silt to the touch. He used the glave as an improvised shovel and moved some of the material to the surface, battling an urge to vomit. Right, so this is where most of that stench came from. Xin quickly scraped the material off the glaive's edge and put it into a cup, then carried it back to his station.

"Clean the glaive. This mix is rotten, you might get sick."

"Yesu." This time, it seemed like Horhu understood him. 

Xin examined the material — a dark brown, viscous mess of blood, earth, and decomposed flesh. Over time, heavier elements had settled into the soil, leaving this clotted mass behind. Let's study it.

Totem, are you ready?

Of course, master. Please exhale and relax, we've only trained this technique briefly. I'll take on most of the burden this time.

Fine, Baihu. Don't overwork yourself. Xin exhaled and emptied his mind.

Celestial Vigil. 

A cold wind rippled through his veins, the lingering remains of flickering little thoughts all vanished without trace, replaced with a gentle pulsation. Each of his senses heightened, yet a subtle one emerged from underneath, stealing the spotlight.

Qi sense. 

The sensation was surreal, even paradoxical, akin to being able to taste music, yet it also felt strangely… natural. This sense was always within Xin, as without it he wouldn't be able to cultivate xiandao, yet now it was amplified tenfold. He felt his head spin, and braced against his knees to keep himself from falling.

"Mastar good?" Horhu ran up to him, worried.

"I'm fine, boy. Thank you." Xin patted him on the shoulder. Interesting, his first instinct is to care about me… Maybe his resentment is only surface level. "Back off." Xin gently pushed him away and raised his finger.

Heavenly qi was blowing through the steppe, a subtle breeze, yet with profound nature. It wasn't just a wind, but a cosmic energy, meaning itself washing over matter to create a bonding that gave birth to all things. 

I've only read about it in the manuals, yet to witness it myself, albeit still in limited form… Incredible. Xin looked at his own hand.

My aura looks normal for a Foundation stage cultivator, yet it looks slightly desiccated. In olden times, the tiny black flickers emanating from my body would be seen as a sign of corruption, yet modern treatises have proven it to be a sign of mental disturbance. No wonder I have these. 

"You're one troubled soul, master. Please take time to heal…" The totem spoke out, but Xin cut it off.

"There is an infant soul, pure and innocent, totem. That takes priority. I'm used to suffering." How could Xin rest, if his unborn son was in danger? Preposterous.

"I was about to say 'once we're done catching the demoness', master." The tiger sulked, scowling like a hurt kitten. Xin smirked lightly, he found his totem quite endearing.

He braced himself and finally did what he activated the totem for — looked down the pit.

"Curses!" Xin recoiled, coughing as he pinched his nose shut. "Need to build up some tolerance, this shit's unbearable." It wasn't just the smell, having to feel the corrupt energies flow through one's soul was too much for an untrained mind.

Xin took a minute of rest, then recomposed and tried scanning the pit again, this time more carefully.

It seems the liquid is still filled with earth qi, quite potent yet unbalanced. In this context, it's Ying-Yang's Earth qi, a foundational element that stands to the opposite of heavens, representing Yang. It's much harder to perceive to lower ranked cultivators, and it only partially relates to Wuxing pentagram's earth element. In fact, only a select few alchemists have a significant mastery over heaven, earth and human elements, while everyone else is limited to only basic interactions, having to stick to Wuxing elements for all other purposes.

It's evident that the vinemen relied heavily on this earth qi infusion. A crude method, it used flesh, qi active minerals and blood path to compensate for the natural downsides in these creatures' physiques. Hm, it seems that without this earth qi infusion, the vinemen would struggle to move and fight properly. That's quite a clue.

Being plants, these creatures aren't built for endurance, and it's also clear that they leak earth qi when they strain themselves. Which means that they need to recharge at times, and if they run out of energy, their combat worth drops sharply. It seems my assumption about her carrying them in a dry state to preserve the energy is likely correct. Still, even her current method has a material upkeep, if only I could track its source…

Scanning further, Xin noticed several sizable lumps of broken down wood qi, looking like the remnants of his first failed breakthrough. There was always a loss in each alchemical conversion, but here, it was amplified by blood element's partial metal element affinity. Blood element was the most malleable, but also the most conflicting of all advanced elements.

Then he found human flesh clots, tiny and filled with pus. Sniff. It seems that human qi dissolved and bonded with the blood element, and these clots are filled with this used up "egg-white". It seems this method only draws on qi, but isn't subtle enough to draw on jing or shen energies. No wonder, these went out of fashion hundreds of years ago, and as xiandao advanced more and more, qi cultivation became by far the most prevalent and developed approach.

There's also… Spiritual residue? Xin looked deeper into the pit, squinting. Should get that patch of soil up.

"No need, master." The white tiger spoke up. "I see what happened clearly now, let me assist you."

Oh? I'm listening.

Master, the suffering inside the pit attracted a bothered spirit of some sort, yet it failed to manifest and quickly waned. Whatever it was, this spirit was too weak to breach the rules of the afterlife so close to the Imperial Formation without a catalyst. Still, the echoes of its pain linger.

It's creepy how many of my memories you've absorbed, beast. But I trust you, and appreciate your expertise. Still, what does it mean for us?

I'd rather preserve my human qi and not think about it, master. You're smarter than me, I suggest you only strain me if you need spiritual guidance.

Sounds reasonable. Xin sent the totem an imagined pat on the mane, and the spirit purred playfully. Back to business.

Strong spiritual presence implies spiritual bonding of some sort. Her soul is quite strong, as she's rank two, yet Erdeni claims to have disrupted her during the fight, despite being a mortal. The conclusion is obvious — her soul cultivation skills are limited, and she relies on the brute strength of her rank when it comes to soul alchemy. If I was her, I'd seek a source of spiritual attunement to compensate.

An urge to eat some spirit leaves emerged from within once again, but Xin quickly repressed it. Right.

Xin felt a pleasant tingling spread through the back of his head, as his intuitive mind had already reached a conclusion. Still, he couldn't afford to take any chances, and he needed to establish a logical link. He sat down to meditate on his thoughts, spent half an our backtracking everything he knew and comparing it to his conclusion, then finally stood up, determined.

"Horhu! Come 'ere!"

"Mastar Xin, wot next?" The young nomad jogged up to him, eager. He grew tired and anxious sitting almost alone in an open field.

"I'll escort you back to the camp. I know where her lair is."