The monkey launched the spike at me faster than I expected and I barely dodged it. I was forced to roll to the side, which gave it the opportunity to close the distance.

  Even though it had a potent long-range weapon it didn’t seem to mind getting close and brawling with our fists. The first punch made a few bones in my hand break as we collided.

  Not only was its skin the colour of stone, but seemingly made of it too. It really made me regret not finding a weapon of some kind.

  Even a simple one might’ve made these fights easier. Then again, I was a healer not a warrior. I knew some martial arts but had never trained with weapons.

  In fact the only blade I knew how to wield was a scalpel.

  Wait… maybe that could work? I’d need to find a talented blacksmith to forge a suitable one but there was some merit to having a high quality scalpel.

  Both for my healing arts and perhaps fighting. For now though I had to put those thoughts to one side as the monkey grew enraged and threw dozens of punches and kicks at me.

  I blocked most of them but a few slipped through my guard, not quite breaking bones but leaving nasty bruises and making me stumble. However, I wasn’t so easily beaten.

  Since I’d fully refined my lungs, my body healed at a much faster rate which meant these surface level wounds didn’t bother me too much. At least from a beast at a similar level to myself.

  I had to restrict myself from using my tumour touch since that would probably kill the monkey faster than I could heal it. If I could even heal it at all after using that technique.

  Also, I really needed a better name for that. Currently it made me sound like some kind of psychopath. Almost like a cultivator, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.

  The monkey punched me again but this time instead of blocking I let it make contact. Tensing my shoulder muscles made the blow a little easier to withstand.

  I grabbed hold of its arm and it sensed something was wrong, but it was too late.

  My open palm smashed into its elbow as I pulled its wrist back towards me. I felt a lot of resistance from its tough skin, its stony fur lacerating the skin on my palm, but my move was destructive.

  A sickening crunch sounded out as the monkey’s elbow snapped and its arm bent the wrong way from my strike. Following that I didn’t let up and delivered a punch to its throat.

  The monkey gasped for breath and clutched at its neck with its one good arm, but that just gave me the space I needed to finish it off. I unleashed a rapid torrent of strikes that broke almost every bone in its body and left it bruised and bloody in a matter of moments.

  It feebly raised its tail, pointing the jagged spike towards me, but it flopped to the ground soon after. It had no strength left, walking the line between life and death. Only a few breaths kept it from the afterlife.

  But not for long.

  Blood essence sparked in my fingers and I thrust them against the monkey’s neck. Almost immediately it took a sharp breath and started twitching. It took a lot longer to heal than the other beasts.

  Unlike the other beasts which had seemed quite scared of me afterwards and tried to run away, the monkey stared at me with fury and screeched loud enough that I almost let go.

  Then right as I felt the feeling of blood surging into me, it punched me in the face. Blood promptly spurted back out of my nose and I staggered backwards.

  However, there was a grin on my face. This was more like it. A punching bag that didn’t escape after just one round. Which was great, because I’d actually felt a noticeable difference in strength from the amount my blood essence had increased.

  Strange, given that I still felt like I was blocked from advancing further. For now though I wouldn’t question it.

  I knew that the answer to whether I could break through lay in these mountains, I would just need to beat my way through the endless spirit beasts to find it.

  ****

  Li Feng sighed as he tried to focus his qi towards healing his wounds. His respite was short-lived however, as the damnable bastard Huo Ze Qiang soon approached him.

  “Junior Brother Li, get off your ass and go harvest more beast cores. I won’t let Sun Deng’s group beat us to the Ten Ascensions Lily,” he ordered, releasing his qi and making Li Feng shiver.

  Huo Ze Qiang had been assigned to lead their group by Elder Jin, an act of blatant nepotism. However, the guy was the strongest there by far and none of the others dared to stand up to his tyranny.

  The entire day they’d been forced to fight every spirit beast they came across to harvest their cores, only for Huo Ze Qiang to keep them all for himself. Stingy bastard, Li Feng cursed.

  In total, five groups of inner disciples from the Cloudy Falls Sect had been sent out to compete for the Ten Ascensions Lily. No doubt some groups from the Soaring Sword Sect had also snuck into the mountain range to try and snatch the rare treasure for themselves.

  Of the five disciples chosen to lead the groups, Li Feng cursed his luck for ending up with Huo Ze Qiang. Even Sun Deng, their leader’s eternal rival, wasn’t this despotic.

  Nonetheless, he didn’t have the strength to complain. For now he would simply bide his time and wait until the opportune moment came. The moment he could snatch the Ten Ascensions Lily from that bastard Huo Ze Qiang and overtake him, reaching the heavens in a single leap.

  Well, maybe just the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm, but to most inner disciples that was as close as it got to heaven. Only the Elders and talented core disciples were able to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm and they were few in number.

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  Suddenly, a small rock slide occurred and nearly buried him alive. He managed to jump back just in time to avoid the falling stones when a nine-star spirit monkey suddenly rushed at him.

  As a one-star cultivator, he could fight evenly with such a beast in the right circumstances but as he was now the beast would get the opening strike and claim the momentum.

  He raised his arms to guard his vitals, but the blow he was expecting never came. Opening his eyes and lowering his guard he saw the monkey sprint past him, an expression of pure terror on its face. What in the heavens is going on? he wondered to himself as he observed the spirit beast’s odd behaviour.

  A second later another stone fell to the ground beside him and he tensed up, expecting another attack.

  Instead, a streak of green raced past him in pursuit of the spirit monkey. He just about made out the features of a handsome man with sword-like brows and a majestic… hold on Li Feng, you don’t swing that way, he caught himself. It wasn’t his fault, the guy was just that handsome.

  Even stranger, he didn’t recognise the robes the man was wearing at all. No one in the Cloudy Falls Sect wore green robes and he was fairly certain that none of the disciples from the Soaring Sword Sect should be wearing robes of that colour either.

  So just who was the strange cultivator?

  He decided to forget about it. The expression on the monkey’s face, the terror of facing a deadly predator, told him everything he needed to know.

  A man who could make a nine-star Body Tempering beast scared enough to run for its life was a man he didn’t want to mess with. So, Li Feng just continued searching for weaker beasts to hunt as his group made their way to the centre of the Jagged Sword Mountains.

  When he rejoined the group, he didn’t tell anyone what he’d seen. Hopefully they didn’t encounter that scary cultivator again.

  And if they did, he would just try to throw Huo Ze Qiang in the way and run for his life, just like that monkey.

  ****

  I began to wonder if all spirit beasts were cowards or if it was only those in the Body Tempering Realm. This spirit monkey had shown great promise when it defiantly struck me after I’d healed it.

  However, after the third round of being beaten and healed, instead of getting back up to fight it instead sprinted in the other direction. I wasn’t going to let my source of free blood essence escape so of course I had chased after it.

  At one point I thought I saw another person in the valley as I chased the monkey over a small cliff, causing a minor landslide, but it might’ve just been my imagination. Then again, just because the Jagged Sword Mountains were dangerous didn’t mean everyone avoided it.

  It was a great place to find spirit herbs and harvest beast cores for cultivators. I knew plenty of inner disciples from the Cloudy Falls Sect would come here on expeditions.

  I put it out of my mind. Even if that guy was a disciple of my former sect it wasn’t like I needed to stop and make friends with him.

  I had a goal to accomplish and the only way to do that was by hunting spirit beasts and then healing them. Or so I’d thought when I first started this mission of mine.

  Now after repeating the same actions without much change, I was starting to feel like a hamster in a wheel. Stubborn determination hadn’t failed me before though, so at least for now I would keep doing what I set out to do.

  After a while I realised I was never going to be able to catch up with the spirit monkey. Especially not in this terrain. The monkeys, which were clearly the most plentiful spirit beast around, had adapted to live on the sharp, rocky cliffs and mountains.

  My speed was pretty ridiculous when I compared it to a mortal’s, but I was used to moving on easier terrain. I couldn’t keep up here, even at nine-star Body Tempering.

  So I let another monkey escape my clutches.

  I didn’t mind though because I knew there would be plenty more unsuspecting beasts ahead of me to battle, heal, and then repeat until I had grasped some semblance of an answer about my path.

  ****

  Another six monkeys later, four of which had fled, one I was currently healing, and one which I accidentally killed while battling it when I forgot to control my strength. Despite the effects being massively reduced at the peak of nine-star, I had actually improved quite a lot with my practice, going beyond the limits.

  I wasn’t sure how to describe my cultivation. Often those who were at the peak of a certain realm, on the cusp of breaking through to the next but missing one key insight, were known as half-step cultivators of the next realm.

  However, I didn’t think that describing myself as a half-step Qi Gathering cultivator was accurate. Because I wasn’t just one insight away from breaking through—I was entirely barred from advance, because of my shattered spirit roots.

  Yet my strength continued to increase.

  And my knowledge of my healing technique and blood essence with it. I heard a crack as the final bone of the nine-star spirit monkey snapped back into place and I was flooded with blood essence shortly after.

  I stumbled backwards and coughed blood, my body suddenly feeling like it was going to burst, the sheer quantity of energy within too much to handle. Had I broken through some kind of safe limit before advancing to Qi Gathering?

  I was not going to be outdone by my own body. Perhaps cultivators were not supposed to possess this much blood essence or perhaps it was due to my lack of spirit roots I was starting to experience instability in my cultivation.

  I didn’t care. I clenched my teeth and focused inwards, forcing my will on my erratic blood essence until it calmed down. I still felt swollen, like a balloon about to burst, but it was manageable.

  Looking down at the monkey, I saw it opening its eyes. This was the third time I’d beaten and healed this one and I figured it was about to run for its life.

  If I really wanted to I could keep it down and refuse to let it have a fair fight, but that would feel too much like torture. I wasn’t that kind of man.

  With a sigh I released it from my grip and stood up. I had reached the end of the narrow valley and the cliffs were less steep now. The path had opened up to reveal a towering mountain, the entrance to the heart of the Jagged Sword Mountains.

  With a few more steps I left the valley behind and approached a thick forest, one that seemed to cover the side of the mountain almost to the peak. I hoped I would find more powerful beasts inside, perhaps even ones that had broken through to the Qi Gathering realm.

  I suspected that in order to break through—if it was even possible—I would need to heal someone, or something, that was already in the Qi Gathering realm. Blood essence was used to temper the body, the hallmark of my current realm.

  It was effective at doing that, but it was far from enough to gain the spark of inspiration needed to claim the spiritual energy of the world and form a dantian. Qi was an energy far more mysterious and powerful.

  As I entered the forest I felt a light breeze brushing against my face. It relaxed me, a single breath rejuvenating me and filling me with strength. Within the wind there was an almost familiar scent.

  I took another breath, inhaling through my nose and realised what it was. A potent herb lay within the mountain range.

  Originally, I’d only come to the Jagged Sword Mountains to seek a spark of inspiration for my next breakthrough; to obtain the strength I needed to claim revenge on the city lord and those who dared to harm my friends and allies.

  Now though I was tempted to chase another goal. Since I was already here, why not keep travelling further in and see what had released such a potent aroma?

  I wasn’t sure how much further I would need to travel but at the moment the spirit beasts were still not too powerful to handle. So I continued.

  Five minutes passed and suddenly I heard a rustle in the trees and felt something in the air shift. I froze.

  I ducked, my instincts warning me against an unseen attack. Right as I did, a thick stone spike ripped through the air where my head had been a moment before.

  Screeching and snapping branches could be heard nearby and I looked up. Three spirit monkeys, all half-step Qi Gathering beasts, were hanging from the trees. They stared at me with mocking glares, tails raised to strike once more.