The trek upward proved to be treacherous. The stopes were steep and the terrain rough. I panted while I climbed the highest mountain. Despite my years of cultivating in the Heaven and Earth Sect, it appeared that I was still somewhat lacking in physical stamina. I wasn't exactly a body refinement cultivator, so it was understandable. I emphasized more on…uh, schemes than muscles, though I was sure people would call me stupid (they would accuse me of simping for a girl, etc.). Whatever the case, I clearly was not in good shape.
I was gradually running out of stamina. Heaving, I paused for a moment, reaching for a bottle of water in my spatial pouch. Now that I thought about it, the fiery heat from the potent yang qi might have an adverse effect on me as well, which was why I found myself more exhausted than I usually would be. The intense heat was sapping my strength as well as dehydrating me. Fortunately, I had come prepared, otherwise I would be forced to turn around and leave. Dehydration was one of the hidden dangers of journeys such as this. More often than not, cultivators would take their enhanced physique for granted and neglect their health while fighting spirit beasts or hunting for treasures. They would forget that there were other types of enemies too, which led to them collapsing from heat exhaustion or a myriad of other conditions.
"Focus, dude. Who cares about other people?"
I might be a villain, but that didn't mean I was a completely evil bastard who kicked puppies and revel in the suffering of others. Like I said, reality was never so black and white, and nobody was totally evil. A bandit might rob a merchant convoy, then return home to take care of his wife and children. A corrupted official might embezzle funds, and then spoil and pamper his kids. A burglar might break into someone's house, raid their furniture, and then stop to provide some food to a homeless person on the roadside. There was no rule that stated that all villains had to be cruel and arrogant. Even though I had embarked on the path of demonic cultivation, I still believed in the adage do unto others what you want others to do unto you.
That meant staying humble, respecting people and helping them if possible. Treating them with kindness. I was sick of all those stupid cultivation stories that promoted ruthlessness, selfishness and cruelty. All the "might is right" and "strong eat the weak" bullshit was justification for the main characters to bully others, and quite frankly, behave like awful human beings. Honestly, many of the so-called "heroes" of cultivation stories were more villainous than a villain like me, and that was saying something. "Being kind to others is being unkind to yourself" and all that nonsense were used to justify them indulging in brutal slaughters and vicious acts of murder.
Nobody was born strong. Everyone started out weak. You could claim that strong eat the weak was the law of the jungle, but even animals didn't cannibalize and feed on their own young. A tigress would fight to protect her cubs, not because they were strong. Even a cub started out as weak before growing to become strong. Same with cultivators – we all had the same starting point, born as weak babies and slowly nurtured by our parents and adults to become stronger. If the cultivator world was truly "strong eat the weak" then why would parents ever bother to raise children? They would eat their children. Besides, the whole point of society was to pool resources and help each other, to ensure that nobody would be left behind. Otherwise why bother with this façade of society if you were going to behave like beasts and insist on the so-called law of the jungle (which I already proved false)?
Speaking of beasts…
I paused and watched the salamanders unfurl from whatever rocks they were resting on. I was already feeling exhausted and irritated, and now I had to deal with spirit beasts in my path. The mountain path was narrow enough that I couldn't avoid these creatures – if I deviated from the route and tried to climb the mountain any other way, I would find the slopes too steep. And I would also be vulnerable to being picked off by the airborne winged wyverns.
The salamanders probably knew that, and they were lying in wait for cultivators like me. Embers sparked off their black and crimson scales, and they crawled forward confidently. Each was the size of an adult human, and their length stretched to about three meters long – so they were a bit bigger than their counterparts in Crimson Forest. Their powerful tails whipped out, grounding rock to dust. Flames ignited in their mouths before they unleashed torrents of liquid fire in my direction.
I vanished into the shadows and appeared elsewhere, leaping out of a shadow cast by one of the salamanders and landing on top of it. Using my foot, I stomped on its head and slammed its jaws shut right when it was about to spit fire. The poor salamander writhed, the inside of its mouth seemingly burned. Honestly, I doubted that it was possible for the salamanders to accidentally burn the insides of their mouths. Their flames came from the inside of their bodies, after all. But that probably applied only to the interior of their jaws, not their throats or stomachs…unless the gland that produced fire was located in their throats.
Well, I wasn't a zoologist. I didn't know how the biology of spirit beasts worked. I wasn't some divine doctor like almost every other cultivation story protagonist. I majored in literature, not science.
That helped me focus on the battle before me. Using Seismic Step, I obliterated the salamander's head, turning it into an explosion of blood, bone, flesh and flame. Its enraged brethren surrounded me, exhaling tremendous gouts of flame that washed over the narrow path.
I vanished into the shadows before the resulting inferno could devour me, avoiding the flamethrower attacks that the salamanders were hurling at me. They snaked their heads about, bathing the entire mountain path in flames, including the unfortunate vegetation by the edge of the road. Trees charred and crackled all around us, incinerated into ash and soot by the ferocious flames. Emerging behind them, I drew my sword and swung it, unleashing Heaven and Earth Strike. A golden dragon leaped out of my blade and slammed into them, tossing them into the air like bowling pins.
A few of the salamanders survived, still somehow able to spew flames. However, their flamethrowers went awry from the impact and they ended up burning each other. Being fire type spirit beasts, their own fire type attacks were not very effective against them. Clearly the salamanders possessed resistance to heat and fire. However, resistance was not immunity and they visibly suffered some damage, their armored scales glowing and the creatures hissing in pain. Several of them thrashed in agony when they landed, but I didn't give them a moment to breathe.
Kicking off the ground, I surged forward and cut through them with my sword. Shadow Strike still seemed pretty weak, unable to cut through their armor. I was tempted to use Heaven and Earth Strike like earlier, but I was worried that using it too many times would draw attention to me. Once was all right – the other cultivators on the mountain might consider it an anomaly, but or even think it was their imagination – but using it a few times would give them a clue that there was a demonic cultivator in their midst.
I didn't want that. Besides, I wanted the opportunity to test out Shadow Strike. It was certainly an inefficient attack, but I was hoping to make up for its shortcomings by adjusting the output of my qi.
Pouring a bit more strength into my swings, I sliced the head of a salamander off, sending it flying in a spray of blood. The blood that leaked down the armored scales resembled molten lava, emitting potent yang qi. Kicking its corpse aside, I then stabbed the inside of the jaws of a salamander that was about to set me on fire.
Yanking my sword out of the carcass, I turned to face the rest of the salamanders. They were bloodied, having been sent flying by my Heaven and Earth Strike earlier. I had held back to prevent people from detecting the demonic qi or the demonic technique, but apparently it had done more damage than I had expected.
The salamanders were watching me warily now before they retreated to lick their wounds. Their heads were bowed in submission. I let them go. If they were withdrawing, then I had no reason to pursue and hunt them down. Again, I found the whole "being kind to others is being unkind to yourself" and other claims that you shouldn't show mercy to your enemies or you must be ruthless in order to survive to be bullshit. Yeah, if they tried to kill me, I would cut them down without hesitation, but there was no point or honor to slaying a beaten dog. Let them try again, and if they didn't survive their next attempt, that was their own fault for not learning from their mistakes. Let it not be said that I didn't give second chances.
Besides, my true objective was to obtain the True Fire. I had no time to waste on small fries. If I were to get bogged down fighting and killing every spirit beast that dwelled in the mountain, someone was going to beat me to it. I had better quicken my pace and catch up with the others.
The salamanders didn't chase me – even if they wanted to, they were too slow and clumsy to do so. They might be powerful and durable, but their stubby legs meant they couldn't move swiftly. While their lower center of gravity made it easier for them to scale the mountain, they often did so at a snail's pace. By the time they reached my current position, I would be long gone.
I hadn't gotten very far when I heard a sound behind me…or rather, I sensed the presence of someone else behind me. Turning around, I caught sight of the tall and lanky guy with red spiky hair from earlier. He was strolling along the mountain path, his hands in his pockets and looking all casual. The salamanders turned toward him, noticing his presence. As he was the closer target this time, they decided to turn their wrath toward him, probably still pissed off that they couldn't beat me. They reminded me of bullies, oddly enough.
"Damn…"
Even though I was the one who had stirred the salamanders into a violent frenzy, if I were to be honest, they would still have attacked the guy anyway even if I hadn't shown up. Such were the hostile behavior of the spirit beasts that inhabited the spiritually dense Tian Xuan Continent. Regardless, my conscience wouldn't allow me to simply walk away when someone else was in trouble.
So I rushed forward, drawing my sword.
Inwardly, I noted the guy's lack of panic and total indifference. Even though I didn't know what his abilities were, if he was confident enough to brave the mountain alone, then he must be strong. Either that or he was deluded…given that he was still standing with his hands in his pockets, doing absolutely f all while the salamanders pounced on him, I was worried that it was the latter.
"Watch out!" I called out to the spiky-haired person in the distance. He simply ignored me and continued striding forward, his eyes fixed on the salamanders. One of them charged at him, its jaws opened to release a torrent of flames.
The guy simply scoffed and took one hand out of his pocket. Flames ignited around his hand and he sent forth a stream of flames of his own that not only swallowed the salamander's gout of fire whole, but also engulfed the stunned fire-breathing spirit beast in an instant. To my surprise, despite the salamander's resistance to heat and fire, it was immediately reduced to ash.
"Amazing…" I muttered. The spiky-haired guy simply threw a withering glare in my direction and snorted. His lips curled into a sneer.
"I don't need your help, kid."