* Huff * * Huff * He was running as fast as he could...
* Slither *
He was all alone, no one could be seen by his side.
But he still kept running, something was approaching him...
* HISS *
He could not escape it...
...it was too fast!
* PSHHH *
He was caught!
"No no no no nonononononononono" No amount of struggle freed him from the grasp of the monster.
He kept being dragged into the dark and cold abyss.
Where he knew it would be the end.
"I told him to leave him..."
If that fucker only had listened to him.
They would have both escaped the Tiger Snake!
* CRUNCH! *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"HAAA!" Sitting abruptly, Yao Tian, all drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, hastily looked around him.
He saw himself sleeping on the carriage next to a still unconscious Song Shou. "Oh, it was just a dream, just a bad dream, just a horrible dream, a nightmare..."
"Tian!" A happy, loud voice came behind him, Yao Tian turned to see his brother with bloodshot eyes from either tears or exhaustion or both, sitting on the coach seat stirring the horses.
Yao Bao immediately hugged and started crying.
"Waaaaa, I was so scared, I thought something bad happened to both of you. I couldn't wake you up no matter how hard I tried, and I could hear scary noises during all of the night! Waaaaa" Tears and snot already stained Yao Tian's clothes but did not mind. He kept hugging his brother and stroking his hair to calm him down.
"Don't worry, you don't have to cry anymore, I'm alright now. Those scary noises won't bother you anymore when I am with you." Yao Bao's crying slowed down, but he didn't let go of him, so he had no choice but to continue talking.
"You brought us away from danger all night and all by yourself? Wow! Yao Bao, you are truly a brave boy, a strong boy, I bet you will become the strongest swordsman in the world. After all, you are the bravest. And remember, strong men, don't cry." And so with some consoling and lots of praise, his little brother finally calmed down and let him go.
"But dad cried when we last saw him, and he is the strongest." Despite his loss in the tournament, Yao Bao still helps his father as the strongest being in his heart.
"Of course, he cried, he is our dad, and only the strongest of men can cry." Truthfully Yao Tian just kept telling his brother anything that came up in his mind without thought.
But he did believe his words as only the strongest of men aren't scared of showing their emotions.
"So I can continue to cry if I become the strongest?" Asked Yao Bao.
"Umm, yeah, sure, let's go with that. We are getting off-topic here. Anyway, you should catch some sleep. You were up all night, and this isn't good for your health. Okay?" Yao Bao nodded his head and took his blanket and slept where Yao Tian had just woken up.
Now that that situation was resolved, Yao Tian had to focus on the more pressing issues.
First of all, the horses had to rest, it would be detrimental if one of them feel sick or worse. So after stopping near another small clearing in the Jade Forest, he checked up on Song Shou.
After careful examination this time, he let out a relieved breath of air. Despite being a rookie in the field of healing and medicine, his concoction worked at least, and Song Shou's wounds showed no signs of infection. In fact, he could already see them starting to heal and close up.
He chalked up the fast recovery to Song Shou's current realm.
After setting up a camp in the small clearing, he immediately started putting together a campfire for cooking.
To say that he was hungry would be an understatement.
He didn't eat last time and he had spent the most amount of energy these last 12 hours, so of course, his body was demanding for nutrients right now.
He needed something heavy, something filling and delicious. 'Hmmmmm steeeeaaaack.'
He did have some piece of deer meat preserved in salt that he got as a gift from his village's local butcher.
He was not the best of chefs, but he knew his way around cooking. His taste buds would forgive him with how much hungry he was right now and care about taste!
'Stick! Meat! Salt! Fire! Eat!' With little to no energy left for complex thoughts, immediately started cooking.
* Ssssssrrrr *
The sound of meat sizzling and delicious aroma filled the air.
It was driving him insane!
But he was still conscious enough to avoid eating raw food. After what might have been the slowest 5 minutes in the world, he quickly devoured the meat in one bite.
His hunger now satisfied, he took this opportunity to reflect upon the actions that he had taken last night's disaster.
If he were more assertive and stubborn against Song Shou's decision, then he could have prevented him from descending there in the first place and could have left the area with him.
He now realized how lucky he was when he managed to hit the tiger snake's head with the log.
The area was quite large and he could have easily missed if the snake was in the wrong place or if he noticed the log beforehand and proceeded to dodge it.
Yao Tian now knew that being strong and powerful would be a major necessity from now on. He could not count on another person if he and his brother's life were in danger.
So he had to train more.
"Hurgh... What happened?" Song Shou's hoarse voice could be heard and Yao Tian immediately went by his side.
"Finally, woke up? Be careful, and don't move drastically, your wounds might reopen."
"Yao Tian? How am I here? The last thing I remember is..." An ugly expression appeared on his face and he looked at Yao Tian to know what happened.
"Well, after you were thrown away from the snake...", Yao Tian retold everything that happened to Song Shou. He didn't skimp on any of the details as there wasn't much to tell anyway. "... and that's how I got you back to the carriage."
Deep in his thought, Song Shou finally talked to Yao Tian. "We should go back."
Heavy silence befell the duo.
"What?" Yao Tian could have sworn that he didn't receive any ear damage because he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You don't get it, we have on our hands the opportunity to get a rank 2 beast core! Do you realize how rare and valuable those are? We could get promoted to inner disciples immediately and breakthrough into the 'Outer Aura Manifestation' realm first stage. The snake is certainly very weak right now as you disrupted its transformation. We can kill it easil-*
* SLAP! *
A palm suddenly struck Song Shou's front injuries with such force that the former nearly coughed up blood from the sudden intense pain.
Yao Tian gripped his collar almost strangling him and yelled. "Are you out of your mind!? You were moments away from getting EATEN back there against an already heavily injured and tired snake. Did you hit your head too hard? Are you dumb, stupid or brain-dead!?"
Unwilling to back down Song Shou retorted back, "A true cultivator is not afraid of death!" He screamed, only to be smacked again.
* Slap! *
"Of course you are scared of dying! Why else would any of you cultivate for 'immortality' in the first place, you worm sized brain idiot!"
"No, you don't understa-"
* SLAP! *
His wounds were again slapped by Yao Tian. "No, YOU don't understand, you stubborn piece of sh*t! We are not going back, if you want the beast cores so much, then get one by yourself and dig a tomb for your corpse while you're at it! My brother needs to arrive in Redwood alive and well. There is no way that I am letting you endanger him in any way. Don't force me to knock you out for another day because trust me, I will."
Song Shou had never seen Yao Tian this angry before in his life. Now that he was physically incapacitated, he didn't have much choice besides listening to Yao Tian.
But he could not just let go of the beast cores. Unlike low-grade Qi pills, regular beast cores effects are far better than any low-grade pills of any kind found on the market.
And the best aspect of a rank 2 beast core is its self-Qi replenishing effect that only the innermost genius disciples of sects and the clan heirs could get such precious materials available to them.
This would allow the cores to be usable for years! And it was the perfect material for sword crafting.
He might never get such a chance to acquire such a treasure anytime soon.
He was so close at breaking through into the 'Outer Aura Realm'.
Not wanting to leave, he had to accept the fact that it was currently impossible to kill the tiger snake and that he was too weak to handle it alone.
And he also did not want to get slapped on the wounds by Yao Tian again, he could swear that they reopened from the previous strike.
"Okay, okay, I get it, we won't go after the snake. So please, stop hitting me!" Shouted Song Shou.
"You promise?"
Sighing, he promised Yao Tian not to entertain such thoughts for now.
As they both claimed down, Yao Tian decided to bring up another topic concerning himself.
"I need to teach me how to fight with a spear." Asked Yao Tian
"To fight? Why not just wait until you achieve the first stage of the 'Body Reinforcement Realm'? All mortal martial arts become useless against someone who is in a higher realm with better elemental techniques." Song Shou truly thought that practising any form of mortal martial art is useless in the current era where people with a high enough cultivation could easily decimate entire landscapes with just a fist.
The same could be said with weapons as many experts just learn the basic movements while their main techniques stem from manuals that incorporate Qi to create powerful martial art techniques for cultivators.
Heck, he knew some of his fellow cultivators who got unusual weapons like fans and staff, and they mainly swing them around with their immense strength and speed during combats or use the techniques ingrained into the weapon itself. "So just focus on your cultivation rather than learning other things."
"I don't care, Dad gave me his spear to train with. And it is better than nothing." Even though Yao Tian heavily disagreed with Song Shou's thinking of normal marital arts being useless, did not contradict him as he did not want to start another argument with him.
He guessed that some other cultivators would agree with Song Shou's point of view, but he could guarantee that none of them would be considered as powerful or have a bright future ahead of them.
"Alright, I will train you on how to use the spear. I still think that it is a useless endeavour and that you can just wait to get a manual, but it is your choice." Straightening his back despite it hurting from the injuries, he gave Yao Tian a stern look and said.
"Let the training begin!"