Molting the Mortal Coil

The two men were surprised. Their prey had fallen over the cliff. That wasn’t the satisfying kill they were going for. The burned man walked up to the edge cautious of trickery and peeked over. The other one went to Chou’s body and confirmed his death, taking his possessions as the burned man spoke, “I can’t see him, but I heard a splat.”

The other harrumphed, “Good enough, we’ll tell the boss what happened. Come here and help me with Chou, we gotta bring his body back.”

“Psh, you better split his stuff with me. I’m not carrying back his fat ass for nothing.”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go.”

The saber had stabbed into his abdomen, which is exactly where Sage had been hiding his Beast Bag. The thick spirit animal leather stopped it like a suit of armor, but was destroyed in the process. All of Sage’s Spirit Insects and a huge pile of Insect Cages were expelled into the air and sent flying in all directions as he tumbled down into the canyon. He saw a Fire Weaver Mantis in the air and snatched hold of its leg. The bug was not his linked mantis so it was only a foot long and when its wings snapped open it only slowed his fall slightly. The knife in his shoulder had weakened his remaining hand and that tiny leg slipped out of his grip.

Panicking, Sage started pulling things out of his Storage Ring. Pulling out a blanket to use like a parachute, the cloth slowing him again as it rippled in the air before once again pulling from his weakened hand. Terrified he grabbed a large storage shelf and pulled it out, jumping off of it like that story he’d heard about elevators. He actually slowed down! The shelves were far heavier than his whole body and he could jump off them in mid-air. He was still some ways from the ground so he did it again, and again. That large and well organized storage ring suddenly turning into a mess as he fervently pulled out every shelf and cabinet inside to use as a spring board, finally throwing down all the clothing, blankets and even food sacks inside as he saw the ground approach.

His feet hit the ground first and he heard bones crack even as his training kicked in and he rolled with the momentum. Smashing into rocks covered in the wreckage of shelves, and piles of food and clothing. The cliff face above extending over top of him so the two men could not see him, but it also shaded him in darkness. His tumbling body slowing to a stop, the two knives knocked out of him from the impact and blood spilling onto the dirt beside him.

I’m alive. I’m still alive.

Sage was elated, somehow he’d escaped from those killers and he was still breathing. For now. Realizing how weak he felt, he sent his awareness into his body. It was something that he’d learned how to do when he reached Rank 2. All of the qi in his body used to be like a thin vapor, his body was a container and it was slowly getting inflated with qi from his lungs everytime he used the special breathing technique of the Mantis Heart Manual. Eventually it felt like he couldn’t fit any more of that qi vapor and it was then that he had to compress it. The meditation training increased his perception until he was strong enough to manipulate the qi inside his body with his thoughts, at which point he used them to condense the vapor. Squeezing the vaporous qi into a liquid which then flowed down into his dantian.

The dantian was an area just below the navel and the place where qi was stored and condensed. From then on, when he breathed the energy of the heavens and earth in, the vapor wouldn’t just disperse into his body it flowed into his dantian to be compressed into more liquid qi. The next section of the Mantis Heart Manual was a circulation pattern. Once the qi had become a liquid it would become many times more powerful especially when it was sent through the cultivator’s meridians like a river. The pattern of the flow could cause many miraculous effects and every Qi Cultivation Art was based around a unique meridian route, breathing art, and possibly special methods to breakthrough to different ranks.

Using his qi and inner perception, Sage felt around his body to determine the extent of his injuries. Both of his legs were broken in multiple places, he had a deep stab wound on his hip and left shoulder, his right hand and wrist were severed, and the rest of him was covered in over two dozen deep cuts.

Does this really count as alive? I’m going to bleed to death in mere minutes. Even if I can stop the bleeding I can’t go anywhere with broken legs, I’ll starve to death.

With no other options, Sage looked into his storage ring. The place was like a tsunami had hit it, the few remaining shelves were knocked over and the rest of the place was basically empty. He looked into the last two cabinets. One was filled with currency, coins and spirit stones. He probably subconsciously couldn’t throw it all away. The other was filled with herbs and pills, the other cabinet he considered most valuable and didn’t wish to lose. He hadn’t had time to fully explore it but he was out of options now and hoped there would be a medicine for this.

The cabinet consisted of dozens of small drawers like the old card catalogs in a library along with a single bookshelf along the top. Reading the titles on the books, they seemed to be a bunch of general knowledge about plants, herbs and animal parts until he got to the end. The last book said ‘Pill Identification’. Gasping, he pulled it out and quickly started flipping pages, reading the names of different pills and their effects. Sage was stunned, were these things even possible?

Seven Lives Pill: This pill can revive someone who has died within the last seven minutes as long as their body is intact and uncorrupted. Restores the lifeforce but not the body.

Nine Blossoms Pill: Nine stages of qi boosting. Each more powerful than the last. It can make a cultivator rise through stages quickly, but creates a shaky foundation. Dangerous if used by someone of a later stage as it does not help with a rank breakthrough. The cultivator may end up exploding.

Face Setting Pill: Upon consuming one’s face and other features will be frozen at their current age. They will never appear to grow older physically though they will still age internally and die when their lifespan reaches its end.

Amazed, Sage found dozens that would help him but this was only an identification book. Pulling open drawers in the cabinet he started looking inside them. The first two rows of drawers all had little jade bottles in them while the others lower were all just herbs and materials. Taking out one of the bottles he pulled the stopper and saw a pile of pills inside. While looking he noticed characters written on the side of the bottle and started pulling them out to check each bottle.

Eventually he found what he needed, ‘Blood Clotting Pills’ and quickly brought it out, popping one into his mouth. Smiling as merely seconds later he could feel the blood flowing from his wounds starting to slow down. Looking back inside the ring, Sage frowned as he noticed the majority of the pills were all qi cultivating boosters. The drawers weren’t even half full and after doing a thorough check, he found only a half-dozen pills that weren’t cultivation related. The previous Blood Clotting Pills. Energy Sustaining Pills which seemed to be like an energy drink to keep you going. Sentry Pills that let you go without sleep for a night. Bug Repellent, which was common in the Lang Clan already and worked for a full day. Warmth Pills that could keep even a naked man toasty warm even in the deepest blizzard and finally Breathing Pills that let someone go without breathing for half an hour.

Where are all the miraculous life saving and healing pills? What kind of nonsense is this? Why isn’t there even a basic healing salve or bandages?

Looking at all the drawers of herbs and materials he frowned as he saw the books only listed how to identify, find, and harvest things. There was nothing about pill making, just like a big treasure hunting guide.

I guess it makes sense. You should know what the valuable stuff is so you won’t miss out on it.

He guessed that pill making was way too hard or specialized to just be covered in a few books and all these materials were too strange for basic uses. Rubbing weird monster blood in his cuts probably wouldn’t help, worse yet it might even kill or maim him further. He can’t just lie here forever, they might come down to confirm their kill!