Chapter 13: Improve

Bandit’s Home - Forest, Jade Empire

They abandoned their axes and crowded around Kai with expressions of awe.

“That’s correct, I had a breakthrough last night”, he smiled and nodded.

“Holy heavens… did you really only start cultivating last week?”, Joran asked in disbelief.

“Yes”, he nodded again.

“Wow that’s insane. Forget a genius, genius is an understatement. This is the stuff of legends”, Joran laughed.

“Wait did you say last night?”, Adam questioned. “Are you saying you can cultivate at night?”

Ah! I guess I let that one slip…

“Yes, I’ve been cultivating at night ever since I’ve started”, he confirmed. “I have the ability to cultivate instead of sleep.”

Joran and Adam’s were stunned with their mouths agape. They glanced at each other, then at Kai, then back at each other. The rate of his cultivation and the god-like advantageous ability destroyed all logical boundaries they knew of.

“You really are incredible Kai”, Joran praised once he recollected his thoughts. Adam wordlessly nodded in agreement in a half-dazed state.

Thankfully they didn’t ask where I cultivated. The fact that I train in the forest would most likely make them needlessly worry and incur the wrath of Sandy.

“I think we should get back to work”, Kai casually reminded. Joran and Adam fully snapped out of their daze as they realized the rest of the boys were waiting for them before returning to work.

“Kai’s right, what’re we doing”, Adam laughed. He patted Kai’s head. “Continue doing your best, I look forward to seeing your strength in the future. Let’s finish our work for the day then we can celebrate during dinner.”

They nodded and resumed working. Working quickly, they finished their work and searched for the girls in the forest. Joran and Adam were extremely eager to break the news of Kai’s brilliance to them. They found the girls nearby and Joran wasted no time in telling them. In his haste and excitement he forgot to mention the nocturnal cultivation.

“What? Are you serious?”, Sandy gasped.

Kai manipulated his energies and white light briefly emitted from his skin before disappearing. They stared wide-eyed at him. Teresa gave him a ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ look, to which he responded with a weak smile.

Finding game was normally very rare and they only ever killed the ones that approached them but to celebrate, Sandy, Jordan and Adam attempted to scour the forest for one. Against their expectations, they almost immediately found a boar so when dinner arrived they enjoyed a delicious meal of pork stew.

A joyful night ensued as they shared funny stories and jokes. Ending the excitement, Sandy decided it was time to sleep and ordered each person to their respective mats. Once they were asleep and their soft breathing filled the night, Kai silently approached his training location as usual.

Having done the manipulation exercise the entire afternoon, he was more comfortable in controlling his Qi and Ki, however, he also completely depleted the reservoir of his dantian. He sat down and began to cultivate. His body attracted the energies in the air as he refined them, storing them in his dantian.

Upon the first signs of dawn, Kai felt a disturbance. Sharpening his senses he felt the chill of a familiar killing intent boring down on his body. He instantly identified it as a more bestial killing intent, rather than humane, and only a single beast appeared in his mind.

It’s the wolf!

He was almost certain that the killing intent belong to the wolf they encountered that day. Releasing Qi and Ki from his dantian, he expertly led them to his ears. While performing the manipulation exercises he thought of many creative ways to channel the energies and one of them was heightening his sense of hearing. With his briefly empowered ears, he heard the sound of leaves being crushed twenty meters away. The sound was circling him while slowly drawing closer.

Carefully opening his eyes, he looked towards the areas that produced the sounds while channeling Qi and Ki to his eyes. That was when he saw it! A blurry outline of a wolf steadily walked around his training location.

It must have waiting for a perfect time to ambush a single target.

Unbeknownst to Kai, his theory was correct. The wolf was angered the day it was unsuccessful in seizing a meal and after that day it readily waited for an opportunity. When it first saw Kai training at night, it nearly jumped straight for him. Before it did, it suddenly thought the small boy was an obvious trap and decided to wait.

A day turned into two and two turned into a week. It’s patience wore out and it felt completely certain the boy was alone. Fueled by certainty, it gradually started to prey on him.

Kai prepared to retreat back to the safety of the wooden fences but an insane thought struck him.

I’ve never been able to test my newfound strength so what if I use this wolf to gauge my level of strength? If things become difficult I can still rely on Silent Steps to safely escape.

He reevaluated his ability to escape before mentally nodding with conviction.

First I need to lead him away otherwise the fighting will disturb their sleep.

The wolf was clueless on Kai’s thoughts, thinking only of the taste of fresh human meat in its mouth. Without giving it time to reach, Kai suddenly sprang to his feet and sprinted deep into the forest. The wolf was caught off guard for a second before fiercely chasing the receding figure of the boy.

This place is good.

After a minute, Kai found a favorable fighting environment and determined he was far enough. The trees were crowded but not too close-knitted, giving him the ability to weave in between them during the upcoming fight. He casually turned and waited for the wolf to catch up.

The wait was not long. Merely seconds later the wolf dashed into a stop as he saw the motionless figure of Kai in front of it. It was confused for a moment before realizing the small human was actually intending to confront it. Giving no thought to the supposedly foolish idea, it instantly jumped at him.

While in the air a familiar thick white light coated and encased its body. Kai promptly channeled Qi and Ki to his feet and engaged the wolf. The wolf swiped its paw at his head but he cleanly dodged, his face only a hairsbreadth away from the claws.

He quickly followed up with a right fist to the wolf’s side. Mid-swing he channeled Qi and Ki into his fist. The energies exploded on the point of impact but the wolf merely winced at the strike. Noticing the lack of effect, he immediately backed off and created a decent amount of distance between him and wolf.

I should’ve been able to damage it… maybe my small body isn’t enough to damage its thick skin while its empowered with Qi.

The wolf growled in annoyance as it reengaged Kai. Realizing his empowered fists were unable to harm the wolf, he retreated back to the trees and weaved in between them. He contemplated his next move while it continuously struck nothing but tree trunks.

-Slash- -Slash- -Slash-

The wolf was faster than Kai but he was significantly better in evasive maneuvers so the fight ultimately turned into a one-sided chase between a cat and mouse. As a superior beast in the forest, the wolf grew extremely frustrated in being unable to catch a mere human boy.

Each time Kai dodged, he unconsciously applied Silent Steps to each step. Even with the wolf’s enhanced hearing it could hear nothing and only relied on it’s eyes and nose. The wolf discharged a furious howl and continued to lose itself in anger. Dodging became easier and while he did, he noticed that Silent Steps was lacking.

In actuality, he performed it to the best of his abilities but he felt that it was strangely incomplete.

Continuously channeling Qi and Ki to his feet while he applied Silent Steps, his steps became lighter. His muscles were working in an unique unity and he felt as if he was floating. His feet suddenly bursted with an intense speed and being unable to control the speed, he misplaced himself and slammed against a tree.

-Thud-

The wolf lost vision of Kai and stopped it’s relentless attacks to locate him. It was surprised to see him five meters away, leaning against a tree. He was slightly pained from colliding unprepared against the tree but at the moment he was too excited to feel it.

Silent Steps can further improve! With this speed I can…

Developing a theory, he immediately rose to his feet and engaged the wolf. The wolf quickly returned to its angered state and threw its left paw at him. The moment the claws were about to strike Kai, he applied the previous feeling on his legs and dodged to the side.

-Thud-

The results stayed the same and he collided against another tree but the impact was softer and his feet remained planted on the ground.

Almost did it… Again!

He instantly engaged the wolf once more. By the time the wolf located Kai, he was already running at him. It was perplexed at how the boy kept escaping its claws but continued to meet his challenge. He dodged to the side with another burst of speed.

This time, however, he landed on a different spot. Instead of colliding against a tree, he perfectly landed on the ground besides the wolf. With a twist of his feet, he leapt to the side once more. In the end, he was directly behind the wolf!

This is it!

The wolf became thoroughly confused. It turned its head left and right, moved it’s body in circles but the boy was nowhere to be found. It could not believe it! The boy was merely hopping around before and now he completely disappeared.

It angrily spun in circles, refusing to believe the impossible, and every time it did, Kai continued to follow its tail!

With his amazing perception, Kai perceptively read the movements of the wolf while using the bursts of speed to immediately place himself behind it. He practically melded with its shadow! Along with the ability to quell the sound of his feet, the wolf found it incredibly difficult to trace him.

It works! Amazing, with the power of Qi and Ki and my perception this is no longer Silent Steps. I’ll call this… Shadow Two Steps!

Engrossed in the feeling, Kai continued to seemingly attach himself behind the wolf. At this point it was blinded by anger. It was still able to smell him so it knew he was in its vicinity but it just could not see him! It wildly swiped its claws at every tree in its proximity, causing every other animal to steer away from the area.

-Slash- -Slash-

While enjoying the feeling, Kai noticed the reservoir of Qi and Ki in his dantian was depleted by more than half.

I should finish it off before I run out of Qi and Ki but how… Ah! You buffoon.

He smiled and mentally scolded himself for forgetting his weapon as he pulled out his knife.

In theory, I should be able to empower my knife with Qi and Ki.

Testing his idea, he carefully led the energies to his knife. Nothing happened at first but several angry wolf swipes later, the knife began to glow with a white light.

Success!

Satisfied with his success, he swiftly struck at the wolf’s hind leg. It cut through the skin behind the knees like butter and the wolf involuntarily buckled. Before it could turn, he appeared in front of its view. The wolf was slightly startled but was angry enough to instinctively slash at him.

Kai easily dodged the claws and decisively thrust his knife into the wolf’s throat. Worrying that the wolf’s skull would be more difficult to cut through, he went for a rare frontal approach instead of attacking its head from behind.

He removed his knife and stepped back. The wolf drunkenly staggered for several seconds before inevitably falling to the ground, dead.

I’ll leave it here since it’ll be troublesome to explain that I was able to slay the wolf.

Kai lifted his head, gazed at the sky and determined he had more time to train. He prepared to walk back to his training location but was stunned. A man was peering at him through the gap of the trees, shaking his head.

How strange! After all these years this is the first time I’ve seen a stranger in the forest.

Kai waited for the man to introduce himself but the man continued to blatantly stare at him. He questioningly stared at him and asked, “May I help you?”