Chapter 395 - The Beastly Human Techniques.
Beasts using human techniques?
Bai was surprised by this, as he had thought only someone like Liu Feng would do something crazy like that. It was difficult to adapt techniques designed for a human body to fit a snake or similar creatures. But it seemed like there were others as strange as Liu Feng out there.
Humanoid beasts had a clear advantage, with superior physical qualities that enabled them to use human martial techniques to a level even higher than that of the cultivators themselves.
“Of course,” the golden monkey replied to Song San, tightening his fist. “Our kind has been trying to learn arrays, martial techniques, and alchemy that the humans have developed and that have allowed them to compete with us.”
“That is damn terrifying,” Song San complained, looking at the ground. Then he brought his bloodied hand up and ripped the porcelain mask off his face.
Behind the mask was a fleshy human face with horrible scars that looked like burns. But to Bai, a snake, it didn’t look strange. He didn’t have a human sense of aesthetics.
Currently, his thoughts were more occupied with the idea that the Beast Sect and Liu Feng had the same plan: incorporating human fields into beasts.
The golden monkey moved again, appearing next to Song San in an instant, looking ready to punch his head off. But Song Song's arms were like snakes, flashing out in an instant and striking dozens of pressure points on the monkey's arm.
After that, Song San jumped back with a smile as he stared at his fingers, where his nails were cracked. Then he looked at the golden monkey's arm, where blood spots marked the bright golden fur.
“Some type of martial technique that targets pressure points. You're trying to eliminate the advantage of my superior body by adding hidden injuries where I can't exert my full power,” said the golden monkey, flexing his muscles in the injured arm, stopping the bleeding by closing the wounds through pure muscle strength.
Song San opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the golden monkey was beside him again. This time, Song San couldn’t even move in time before the golden monkey kicked him in the side, folding his body like paper and sending him flying like an arrow. He smashed into the ravine wall, shaking the whole crevice.
Bai shuddered, that attack would have killed him in one shot. He was not going to get too involved in this conflict in the future and should look for a way to complete Liu Feng's orders without stepping on too many tails.
Coughing sounds followed as Song San stood up. He coughed out a mouthful of blood, his eyes growing hazy. The crevice he found himself in had cracks everywhere and looked as if the mountain was about to fall on the scarred human.
Song San held onto his midsection, where there was now a large chunk of missing flesh at his side, where one could even see his pulsing intestines.
It seemed like that last attack had blasted part of his body apart.
Song San was right, combining a beastly body with human techniques created obscene results.
“Fuck, can't that guy at least play along for a bit? Why respond with violence immediately? No wonder he and my sister get along,” Song San complained. “Also, what the fuck? I thought you could control one or two beasts. Are you the one behind this whole beast uprising? Did you have them attack the Titanic Sword Sect just to ease the pressure on us?”
Bai's heart almost stopped in his serpent body as a cold chill washed over him. Because while the other beasts only looked at Song San with mocking eyes, Bai knew the man was talking to Liu Feng, or at least knew that these words were going to be passed on to him.
“I didn't think he had developed so far without even breaking through to Core Formation,” Song San complained, as blood kept spilling past the fingers that were holding the gaping hole on the side of his abdomen. “You fucker, I was just bored and wanted to pick apart your mind in some games behind the scenes, like old friends. At worst, it should have been just some pawns turning up dead. No need to turn the tables like this!”
Bai didn't agree with the words, but he agreed with Song San's sentiments. Liu Feng was really an overbearing fellow when it came to certain things, and he wasn't the kind of guy who could play along.
How good would it have been if Liu Feng were the kind of man who would give Bai some limited freedom to earn his loyalty?
Of course, if he had done that, Bai would have been the first to betray him. But that was beyond the point.
But while Bai was monologuing and trying to think about how he was going to avoid suspicion from his fellow beasts and report things to Liu Feng, Song San's eyes settled on him.
What?
Song San smiled, showing his bloody teeth.
Wait, that was not him talking to Liu Feng! He had been saying these things to try to read which of the beasts were actually controlled by Liu Feng!
And he had figured it out so fast!
Damn!
“So, it was you after all, as I suspected back then. You got the Four Way Immortal's inheritance, didn't you?” Song San asked.
“What in the heavens are you talking about?” the golden monkey asked, confused.
But Song San didn't even look at the guy who had almost killed him in a couple of exchanges.
“Heh, an immortal inheritance landing in the hands of a hardass like you, Liu Feng. What bad luck for everyone else,” Song San said. “When these wars end and things quiet down, I know you're going to force this whole generation to play nice. I feel it in my bones.”
Okay, so perhaps he was sending a message to Liu Feng, too?
Bai had a rough description of this guy from Liu Feng, but he couldn't read this scarred human at all.
Bai considered it a great loss that a guy like this was an enemy he had to kill, because they agreed on a many things. They could have worked together to try to suppress Liu Feng.
Also, Liu Feng was totally the kind of guy who thought things should be a certain way and made his own “justice,” and anyone who didn't follow it… Well, he didn't have the power to enforce it for now, but that was only a matter of time.
“Have you gone delusional? Who even is Liu Feng, or what immortal?” the golden ape asked, sounding somewhat interested in the subject.
Bai decided right then that all the teammates who had accompanied him here would have to be killed soon. He should draw the Titanic Sword Sect’s main forces to attack. Despite the traitorous thoughts, his life was tied to Liu Feng, and he couldn't let certain things get out that would make him a target.
Song San sighed, and then the blood that had spilled on the ground darkened and turned into miasma-like poison that scorched the rocks and the ground around it.
The golden monkey frowned and jumped back, creating some distance.
Bai did the same, staying low to the ground and using his Qi to create a skin-tight, rudimentary barrier that Liu Feng had taught him. It served as a way to seal the air in and out, and was effective against airborne poisons.
The dark poison miasma swished around, formed into a clone of Song San, and charged ahead.
“See you next time,” Song San, on the other hand, waved at them all, and his own shadow spread out like tetackles grabbing onto the scarred human and then his body submerged into his own shadow, disappearing completely.
Bai frowned.
He couldn’t sense him.
Wasn’t Song San’s element Poison?
He didn't believe in mysteries and unexplainable phenomena.
It seemed someone with the shadow element was supporting Song San and helped him escape. If Bai were to guess, it was likely the secret guards from the Blazing Sun Sect.
Ah, how torublesome, he was a pawn caught in the mad schemes between two titans. No, he was not even a pawn, he was more like a jester.
This mission had been quite eye-oppening, and Bai was sure that Liu Feng never thought Song San would be actually caught here.
As for trying to stop Song San from fleeing, that was unlikely. Only an Array Conjurer like Liu Feng could stop something like this.
Also, it seemed like Liu Feng only wanted Song San cowed for a while so he wouldn't intervene. As for whether Song San died in an accident, Liu Feng didn't give off the feeling that he would have cared much. But with his poison element, Song San was a very good deterrent against other powers.
“Hmm, what should we do now?” The golden monkey asked as he stared at where Song San had disappeared.
If Bai were on the Beast Sect's side, he might have complained that this Core Formation beast had revealed that they were trying to imitate humans, which would put them at a big disadvantage in the future. This might lead to the human sects banding together to eliminate them all.
Still, what should they do now? And how was he going to douse the suspicions of some of the beasts here? Not everyone was stupid enough not to notice the strangeness of this whole mission.
*******
I looked at my disciple, who had recently broken through. This time, it was Tingfeng who broke through to three-star Foundation Establishment.
He was sitting before his house, moving around as the Qi around his body flowed in perfect sync with his movements. There were also many other strange changes that I couldn't quite perceive.
The further he got in his cultivation, the more Tingfeng felt like a sword that was slowly being drawn out of its sheath.
“As expected, teacher, my fighting abilities might not be as high as if I had gone through a more traditional route. But I think your way is better. My chances of breaking through to Core Formation after I reach that stage are almost guaranteed,” Tingfeng said, his face indifferent, but his voice closer to joy than it had ever been before.
First Wu Yan, and now him. I got the feeling that these two Core Techniques… Wu Yan's was already an absurd cheat-code ability. But Tingfeng might get his own overpowered ability.
I smiled.
“You don’t have to stay around and worry about me having some sudden accident after my breakthrough, like Wu Yan,” said Tingfeng, his bald head gleaming under the soft winter sun. “So you do not have to waste time wandering around like a mother hen.”
“I thought the same about Wu Yan also, that soon she would no longer need my help the first time she was about to break through, and look at how she ended up. Not to mention you, because if you fail, then you will never be able to recover your cultivation like Wu Yan did,” I explained, voicing my worries.
Tingfeng was mature for his age… Well, he was almost twenty now, so it was expected of him to be somewhat mature.
“Even though I do not feel the same as Wu Yan and Jiang Yeming when it comes to silly anxieties, like whether I will ever make you proud, I can see how someone like Wu Yan would feel pressured. Your presence alone puts pressure on us who were raised by you. After everything you have done for us, it feels weird to fail in front of you,” Tingfeng admitted. “I can only imagine how someone like Wu Yan, who sees you as more than a teacher, feels. Even the treacherous Jiang Yeming looks at you like someone worth listening to, even though she has that internal arrogance.”
I stared at Tingfeng and his bald head, staying quiet as he continued his speech.
“Perhaps I do not know how to articulate this as well as you would have done in my position. But we, as your students, want to make you proud. Or at least live up to your expectations, like Jiang Yeming,” he said.
Huh. I always assumed that Tingfeng was socially incapable and couldn’t read the mood, caring only about himself. But he was someone who could be perfectly normal and friendly, he just didn’t want to and considered that a waste of time and thought.
So that last part about him only caring about himself was still somewhat true.
Tingfeng took a deep breath and let go, releasing the fatigue in his muscles as he stopped training and moving.
“It might be a bit shameful for a teacher to ask a student, but what do you think I should do next?” I asked Tingfeng.
As someone affected by the situation, he had insight that I might have overlooked, as he had clearly shown until now. Though Jiang Yeming had offhandedly mentioned it before, I never considered just how much pressure I was putting on them just by being around.
After all, who didn’t want to try and do well in front of their teacher or parental figure? At least I was learning all this before my kids grew up. Otherwise, I would have become an overbearing father.
“The only way to solve something like this is to have some belief in us,” Tingfeng said, smirking. “If you give us even a quarter of the trust you have in Song Song, then this would all be good. Believe in us that no matter what, we will be able to pull through even without you micromanaging everything.”
“I see… From now on, I will try to be a more hands-off teacher and let you pave your own paths, and there is no need for me to be notified and study every single breakthrough,” I agreed.
“Honestly, part of me admires the way you care about us, and saying I do not like it would be a lie. After all, no other teacher I know so far would be willing to sacrifice his own leisure time to take care of us,” he admitted. “But we are not your kids, we are your students, and are now approaching twenty years old. Most people our age would be married and have kids by now.”
“Wu Yan is actually twenty,” I interrupted him.
Tingfeng’s eyes widened for a split second. “Wait, really?”
“Yep,” I nodded.
“With how much you doted on her, I always assumed she was the youngest among us,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Oh, so it was just blatant favoritism.”
After that conclusion, he nodded, as if he now understood everything, and gave me a strange look.
“You want me to treat you all like I do Song Song?” I shook my head. “That is going to be hard.”
“Not treat us or trust us as much as you do her, but at least we deserve a quarter of the trust you have in her. Well, Wu Yan and I do. As for Jiang Yeming… she is a traitor, and I think execution would be the best step forward, as she is untrustworthy. But that is your decision,” Tingfeng said, getting a bit sidetracked by his blatant dislike for his fellow disciple who had brought him to the Blazing Sun Sect to begin with.
I nodded.
“Anyway, back on topic,” he continued, being unusually chatty, showing how much he cared about this issue. “Because you met us when we were weak, and first impressions matter. I bet that you met Wu Yan when she was the youngest among us. But now she is a Core Formation Cultivator, and at her age, there was probably some kind of record. She will definitely become a Nascent Soul Cultivator, and if you don’t smother her with your love, she might even take the next step beyond that.”
“I know you all are no longer the kids I first met,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “You’re now all accomplished cultivators who have been surpassing me in cultivation one by one as your talents shine through–”
“No matter our cultivation, don’t be so fast to take us off your roster of disciples yet, teacher. Because I feel like I still have much to learn from you,” Tingfeng said with a smile.
Seeing him smiling was a bit weird, especially with his gleaming bald head.
“What troublesome disciples I have,” I complained. “But finally, they’ve grown now and can take care of themselves.”
It seemed like I should continue moving faster from now on. After all, even if I didn’t care much if other cultivators surpassed me, that didn’t mean I was okay with dying without trying to see what the peak looked like…
Becoming an immortal, that was my goal for now. There were too many mysteries related to that stage for it not to be attractive to me.
So, first thoughts, finding a way to increase my limited talents before the age of fifty.