Wolf spun midair. The great-club slammed into his shoulder, ribs, and hip at almost the same time, covering the entire length of his flying body with half a meter to spare.
Wolf expected a burst of agony, however, a pale glow sprang around his form, enveloping him with a layer of protective light. The film dispersed most of the shock before flickering out of existence. Yet, it could not defy the basic laws of motion.
Propelled by the superior force, Wolf’s trajectory changed. He smashed into the herb-covered earth, sliding and skidding on the ground, rolling like a broken tumbleweed, just barely passing between the enraged ape’s legs.
Wolf rolled forth, plowing through precious medicinal plants and blighting the ones which survived his destructive touch. As he stumbled, his brain struck his skull half a dozen times in rapid succession, scrambling and jolting his thoughts. The violent motion drove Wolf to the brink of unconsciousness. For a moment, he could not tell up from right or left from down as the world spun around him.
“Move!”
Fuck you! I should’ve fought them from the start. Look at the mess I’m in now. And I still passed through his Ten-damned legs!
“Move!”
Wolf’s guts roiled, his throat tightened. The slight itch, which was his dislocated elbow, screamed for attention, but Wolf disregarded the pointless sensation.
The world before him swam in a blur of green, brown, and luminous haze, but with his senses awakened, Wolf composed a scene into a sight clear enough to work with.
I’m laying on my back. The crux is thirty meters ahead, and my arm is bent the wrong way.
“Move! Gilded Apes are running towards me, waving heavy clubs above their heads, ready to turn me into a meat paste.”
Left without a choice, Wolf moved. He rolled onto his stomach, then crawled on all fours and after two steps he finally straightened and tottered forward.
The apes did not wait for him. The ape which had smashed Wolf into the ground turned and lashed out with his club, sweeping it horizontally, mowing the herbs; too low for Wolf to duck under.
The air screamed behind Wolf’s back, but he wasted no energy to turn around. Given his present state, whatever heavy object approached, it moved far faster than the speed he could muster. At the last possible instant, he screened his back with a Qi shield and waited for the inevitable, thinking how best to land after the bone-shattering hit.
Wolf’s movement was minimal, his dodge nonexistent. He just took a dazed step. However, that one step brought him just outside the club’s reach. The blow, meant to break his body and send him flying, brushed past Wolf. It scraped against his back and propelled him forward, launching him within five steps of his goal.
Close enough that no Gilded Ape could reach him before he took the pulsating orb.
In that moment, Corpsewood went still. The Gilded Apes rushing to intercept Wolf froze, panic burning in their bloodshot eyes.
“Please,” a rough, guttural voice scraped against Wolf’s ear. The giant ape, its face so wrinkled it resembled an armful of discarded leather scraps, gazed into Wolf’s eyes. His black eyes blazed with intellect not inferior to any manling Wolf had met since falling through the rift.
“Don’t kill us. We have younglings,” the beast slurred the words of man speech, fear dripping from its crude voice.
Wolf used the pathetic display to inhale and check his body, without wasting a split-second to consider the plea.
I broke no bones, but seven are out of place. My false ribs are dislocated. One stabbed into my lung, the other made a mess of my guts. I will need to set them in place before I take a healing pill.
My kidney burst at some point, and a bunch of bones popped out of their sockets, but those are survivable wounds. The only real problem is the blood filling my lung. I’ll start drowning in several minutes.
“The Gilded Ape behind my back slid his foot a step towards me.”
Wolf half jumped, half hobbled towards the sphere, eliciting a cacophony of screams. Fear, despair, rage, and emotions born in the clash of those three assaulted Wolf, but he did not care.
They tried to kill me, and they expected me to show mercy?
As he moved, the misplaced bones stabbed and slashed his flesh, but Wolf ignored the pain. He closed his hand around the green orb, and the world around him dissolved into a lake of orange-glowing mist. World Energy swirled around him, obscuring Corpsewood.
I was curious what would happen to the world once I take its crux, but I guess I won’t find out.
I must admit, I hope that the natural laws governing secluded worlds don’t destroy these apes.
“Really? They brought their world to the brink of collapse. If Corpsewood has any say in the matter, it should eradicate them, and never again generate Mind Clearing Lotuses.”
Technically, we are destroying Corpsewood. Gilded Apes only threatened to strangle its wildlife and turn it into a giant farm.
Half a second passed in Wolf’s internal dialog before the whirlpool of energy crashed into him. The misty glow entered Wolf’s body through his orifices and pores, binding with his blood. Unlike cultivation, the process was violent, invasive, yet oddly pleasant and it satisfied something deep within Wolf’s subconsciousness.
While his blood boiled, bubbling with Qi over-saturation, a part of the World Energy dissipated exuding pressure on Wolf’s body, forcing the merger of Qi and blood. A process which required both Anima and time during meditation.
Then, his bones shifted, moving back into place, and his internal injuries knitted closed. Wolf took several moments to understand his situation and the ways Corpsewood used its power for his benefit.
No! Don’t! What a waste! I’m drawing in a tenth of the World Energy around me and even that is used to repair irrelevant injuries.
“Less. I don’t think I’ll keep even a single percent of the energy in this hurricane.”
Time stretched and shifted, and Wolf lost any notion of it. His heart pounded so quickly it tore. However, a gentle current of World Energy caressed it and healed the wounds as soon as they appeared. Then, the tears reappeared only for the World Energy to fix them again, repeating the process over and over.
“That’s wasting even more World Energy! There’s no need to do that, I can take a healing pill.”
Wolf tried to move, but his hand refused to obey, and even his connection with his holdingring disappeared. He was entrapped in an intangible solid force, squeezed by the flood of World Energy.
As Wolf focused on moving his muscles, he realized he was still maintaining the pose in which he had captured the crux.
I guess we’ll have to wait.
So, Wolf waited. Weeks and months passed during which he had nothing to do, save to bicker with himself.
Wolf tried to test his realm a dozen times, but had no way of measuring his growth in the misty void he alone inhabited. Then, finally, ten hours after it had started, the forced internalization of World Energy ended.
The crystal cocoon enveloping Wolf turned into a liquid as dense as mercury, then flowed like water until it disappeared, and Wolf found himself in front of a forest of gnarled enraged trees, clawing furiously at the heavens.
Twenty-seven hundred Earth Pavilion’s survivors stood behind him, blinking at the familiar scenery.
The world was quiet for a moment, then shouts filled the silence.
“It closed early!”
“What happened?”
“I was a step away from advancing!”
“Silence,” Eleanor’s authoritative voice cleaved through the rabble’s clamor, slaying the noise. “Did any of you claim the crux?”
Her question stunned Earth Pavilion’s disciples, and they exchanged wide-eyed looks.
Elder Dreadingham sure knows how to handle the situation. Wolf smirked and raised his hand without turning around.
“I did.”
Hundreds of people gasped, and for a moment, Wolf wanted to see the expressions of those who cursed Corpsewood for breaking down.
“The Gilded Ape obliterated the backside of my robe. Everyone is looking at my bare, World Energy cleaned and regenerated ass.”
Wolf summoned a blanket and wrapped himself with it.
He turned, facing the shocked gazes.
“My clothes suffered a malfunction while I fought the Gilded Apes.” Wolf broke the silence, his embarrassed gaze drifting towards the ground.
Why am I feeling embarrassed? I can jump around naked here if I feel like it!
“No, you can’t. Social norms strangle those living within them. We have suffered enough trauma because of breaking the rules, they sunk their hooks into us. Maybe I could do it, but you, as drenched in hormones as you are, stand no chance of doing it.”
You—
“Elder Dreadingham is glaring at us.”
“Disciple Hillman, could you come here once you make yourself presentable? Everyone else, turn around and don’t peek as your Senior Apprentice Brother changes his robe. As a head of our Earth Pavilion’s disciplinary commission, I’m officially saying that breaking this order is punishable by five hundred contribution points, and twenty canes delivered by me, personally.”
Wolf spun midair. The great-club slammed into his shoulder, ribs, and hip at almost the same time, covering the entire length of his flying body with half a meter to spare.
Wolf expected a burst of agony, however, a pale glow sprang around his form, enveloping him with a layer of protective light. The film dispersed most of the shock before flickering out of existence. Yet, it could not defy the basic laws of motion.
Propelled by the superior force, Wolf’s trajectory changed. He smashed into the herb-covered earth, sliding and skidding on the ground, rolling like a broken tumbleweed, just barely passing between the enraged ape’s legs.
Wolf rolled forth, plowing through precious medicinal plants and blighting the ones which survived his destructive touch. As he stumbled, his brain struck his skull half a dozen times in rapid succession, scrambling and jolting his thoughts. The violent motion drove Wolf to the brink of unconsciousness. For a moment, he could not tell up from right or left from down as the world spun around him.
“Move!”
Fuck you! I should’ve fought them from the start. Look at the mess I’m in now. And I still passed through his Ten-damned legs!
“Move!”
Wolf’s guts roiled, his throat tightened. The slight itch, which was his dislocated elbow, screamed for attention, but Wolf disregarded the pointless sensation.
The world before him swam in a blur of green, brown, and luminous haze, but with his senses awakened, Wolf composed a scene into a sight clear enough to work with.
I’m laying on my back. The crux is thirty meters ahead, and my arm is bent the wrong way.
“Move! Gilded Apes are running towards me, waving heavy clubs above their heads, ready to turn me into a meat paste.”
Left without a choice, Wolf moved. He rolled onto his stomach, then crawled on all fours and after two steps he finally straightened and tottered forward.
The apes did not wait for him. The ape which had smashed Wolf into the ground turned and lashed out with his club, sweeping it horizontally, mowing the herbs; too low for Wolf to duck under.
The air screamed behind Wolf’s back, but he wasted no energy to turn around. Given his present state, whatever heavy object approached, it moved far faster than the speed he could muster. At the last possible instant, he screened his back with a Qi shield and waited for the inevitable, thinking how best to land after the bone-shattering hit.
Wolf’s movement was minimal, his dodge nonexistent. He just took a dazed step. However, that one step brought him just outside the club’s reach. The blow, meant to break his body and send him flying, brushed past Wolf. It scraped against his back and propelled him forward, launching him within five steps of his goal.
Close enough that no Gilded Ape could reach him before he took the pulsating orb.
In that moment, Corpsewood went still. The Gilded Apes rushing to intercept Wolf froze, panic burning in their bloodshot eyes.
“Please,” a rough, guttural voice scraped against Wolf’s ear. The giant ape, its face so wrinkled it resembled an armful of discarded leather scraps, gazed into Wolf’s eyes. His black eyes blazed with intellect not inferior to any manling Wolf had met since falling through the rift.
“Don’t kill us. We have younglings,” the beast slurred the words of man speech, fear dripping from its crude voice.
Wolf used the pathetic display to inhale and check his body, without wasting a split-second to consider the plea.
I broke no bones, but seven are out of place. My false ribs are dislocated. One stabbed into my lung, the other made a mess of my guts. I will need to set them in place before I take a healing pill.
My kidney burst at some point, and a bunch of bones popped out of their sockets, but those are survivable wounds. The only real problem is the blood filling my lung. I’ll start drowning in several minutes.
“The Gilded Ape behind my back slid his foot a step towards me.”
Wolf half jumped, half hobbled towards the sphere, eliciting a cacophony of screams. Fear, despair, rage, and emotions born in the clash of those three assaulted Wolf, but he did not care.
They tried to kill me, and they expected me to show mercy?
As he moved, the misplaced bones stabbed and slashed his flesh, but Wolf ignored the pain. He closed his hand around the green orb, and the world around him dissolved into a lake of orange-glowing mist. World Energy swirled around him, obscuring Corpsewood.
I was curious what would happen to the world once I take its crux, but I guess I won’t find out.
I must admit, I hope that the natural laws governing secluded worlds don’t destroy these apes.
“Really? They brought their world to the brink of collapse. If Corpsewood has any say in the matter, it should eradicate them, and never again generate Mind Clearing Lotuses.”
Technically, we are destroying Corpsewood. Gilded Apes only threatened to strangle its wildlife and turn it into a giant farm.
Half a second passed in Wolf’s internal dialog before the whirlpool of energy crashed into him. The misty glow entered Wolf’s body through his orifices and pores, binding with his blood. Unlike cultivation, the process was violent, invasive, yet oddly pleasant and it satisfied something deep within Wolf’s subconsciousness.
While his blood boiled, bubbling with Qi over-saturation, a part of the World Energy dissipated exuding pressure on Wolf’s body, forcing the merger of Qi and blood. A process which required both Anima and time during meditation.
Then, his bones shifted, moving back into place, and his internal injuries knitted closed. Wolf took several moments to understand his situation and the ways Corpsewood used its power for his benefit.
No! Don’t! What a waste! I’m drawing in a tenth of the World Energy around me and even that is used to repair irrelevant injuries.
“Less. I don’t think I’ll keep even a single percent of the energy in this hurricane.”
Time stretched and shifted, and Wolf lost any notion of it. His heart pounded so quickly it tore. However, a gentle current of World Energy caressed it and healed the wounds as soon as they appeared. Then, the tears reappeared only for the World Energy to fix them again, repeating the process over and over.
“That’s wasting even more World Energy! There’s no need to do that, I can take a healing pill.”
Wolf tried to move, but his hand refused to obey, and even his connection with his holdingring disappeared. He was entrapped in an intangible solid force, squeezed by the flood of World Energy.
As Wolf focused on moving his muscles, he realized he was still maintaining the pose in which he had captured the crux.
I guess we’ll have to wait.
So, Wolf waited. Weeks and months passed during which he had nothing to do, save to bicker with himself.
Wolf tried to test his realm a dozen times, but had no way of measuring his growth in the misty void he alone inhabited. Then, finally, ten hours after it had started, the forced internalization of World Energy ended.
The crystal cocoon enveloping Wolf turned into a liquid as dense as mercury, then flowed like water until it disappeared, and Wolf found himself in front of a forest of gnarled enraged trees, clawing furiously at the heavens.
Twenty-seven hundred Earth Pavilion’s survivors stood behind him, blinking at the familiar scenery.
The world was quiet for a moment, then shouts filled the silence.
“It closed early!”
“What happened?”
“I was a step away from advancing!”
“Silence,” Eleanor’s authoritative voice cleaved through the rabble’s clamor, slaying the noise. “Did any of you claim the crux?”
Her question stunned Earth Pavilion’s disciples, and they exchanged wide-eyed looks.
Elder Dreadingham sure knows how to handle the situation. Wolf smirked and raised his hand without turning around.
“I did.”
Hundreds of people gasped, and for a moment, Wolf wanted to see the expressions of those who cursed Corpsewood for breaking down.
“The Gilded Ape obliterated the backside of my robe. Everyone is looking at my bare, World Energy cleaned and regenerated ass.”
Wolf summoned a blanket and wrapped himself with it.
He turned, facing the shocked gazes.
“My clothes suffered a malfunction while I fought the Gilded Apes.” Wolf broke the silence, his embarrassed gaze drifting towards the ground.
Why am I feeling embarrassed? I can jump around naked here if I feel like it!
“No, you can’t. Social norms strangle those living within them. We have suffered enough trauma because of breaking the rules, they sunk their hooks into us. Maybe I could do it, but you, as drenched in hormones as you are, stand no chance of doing it.”
You—
“Elder Dreadingham is glaring at us.”
“Disciple Hillman, could you come here once you make yourself presentable? Everyone else, turn around and don’t peek as your Senior Apprentice Brother changes his robe. As a head of our Earth Pavilion’s disciplinary commission, I’m officially saying that breaking this order is punishable by five hundred contribution points, and twenty canes delivered by me, personally.”
