I stirred, wincing and groaning as I tried to sit up.

"?"

For a moment, my mind blanked out as I tried to remember what happened. Right, I almost died after that graze from the Hydra"s fang, the venom nearly overwhelming my body. I wasn"t able to drink the Green Dragon Spring water in time to heal myself, and was carried away by the irresistible current. At some point of time, I fell into a coma.

And during that coma, I apparently dropped into the underworld, met up with Grandma Meng and Master Tian Mo, and spent a week learning Heaven and Earth Formula from him. Then time was up and Grandma Meng unceremoniously sent me back to the mortal realm with a single smack on my head.

Then it must mean that I had just woke up in the world of the living.

"…! Ugh!"

I clutched my body, which still felt sore from my encounter with the Hydra. After spending a week in the underworld training under Master, I had completely forgotten about the injuries I sustained in my flight from the legendary monster.

On the other hand, it means that not much time pa.s.sed since I escaped the Hydra…

Unsteadily crawling out of bed, I stood shakily on both feet and glanced at my new surroundings.

Wait…bed?

Blinking, I glanced back at the bed I had just emerged from. Now that I looked carefully, I saw that I was in a room. A pretty simple, bare bedroom that did not have much in the way of furniture or personal possessions. A guest room…no, it was too bare to be a guest room. Other than the bed and a single wooden shelf by the wall, the room was almost completely empty.

Sunlight trickled from the transparent window that spread across one wall, bereft of curtains. The sun was already high up in the sky, which indicated that it was already afternoon. Early afternoon, around 3pm, perhaps?

"…"

I found my gla.s.ses and personal effects, including my Silverback Wolf pelt makeshift bag, my Golden Dragon Medallion and the flask of precious Green Dragon Spring water on the floor next to the bed. Putting the gla.s.ses on, even though I no longer needed them for visual aid, I packed my stuff up. As I placed the Golden Dragon Medallion into my pocket, I noticed that I was no longer wearing my uniform.

That made sense. The Wu Ling Academy uniform that I had worn since before the training mission had been reduced to nothing more than rags by the time I escaped the cavern. No doubt whoever rescued me was also kind enough to give me new, wearable clothes. It was a simple attire, a white and brown tunic with pants, but it was much better to my torn and tattered rags that were the remnants of my formerly magnificent uniform.

Beneath the uniform, there wasn"t much bandages. That made sense – most of the injuries I suffered were internal. The most fatal one was actually the venom, which wasn"t visible on the outside. Mostly, anyway. The graze on my left arm, which had swelled the limb to an enormous size and blackened my flesh, had been covered up by a long bandage. Thankfully, the swelling had seemingly gone down while I was out.

"Ah, you"re awake!"

While I was occupied with checking out my current condition, someone stepped into the room. I blinked and raised my head, catching sight of a young lady in her late twenties. Her hand flew to her mouth when she saw that I was up and about, and she hurried over when I staggered, catching me before I fell over.

"You shouldn"t be up yet!"

"Oh, sorry."

With her a.s.sistance, I sat back on the bed. Taking a deep breath, I allowed my mind to clear and my body to recover a little more.

"Um…thank you."

"No problem. I"m just glad you"re all right. You"ve finally woken up."

Rubbing my head, I glanced at her. "How long was I out for?"

"Hmm…three days, I believe?" the lady frowned as she considered. Then she smiled. "We didn"t think you would wake up so soon. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you."

"Were you the one who rescued me?" I asked, then bowed my head. "Thank you."

"Ah, no, no, no!" the lady waved her hands frantically, embarra.s.sed at receiving my grat.i.tude. "I"m not the one who saved you! It was Lu Shun who found you by the Riversh.o.r.e, and he brought you back to the village."

"I see." I closed my eyes briefly, still trying to fight off the soreness that threatened to pound throughout my body. "Then I"ll need to thank him."

"You"ll get the chance to do so later." The lady rewarded me with a smile. "But for now you should stay in bed." She turned to leave the room. "You must be starving. I"ll bring you some food."

"Um, thanks, uh..."

"I"m Hu Shi." The lady smiled as she pressed a hand to her chest. I nodded and bowed.

"Thank you, Hu Shi." Raising my head, I noticed that she was waiting by the door. Taking a deep breath, I introduced myself. "Fei Wu."

"I see. I"ll be back, Fei Wu."

Hu Shi disappeared through the door, and returned a few minutes later with a bowl of steaming soup. I accepted the tray and put it on my lap.

"Sorry, but this is all we have." Hu Shi smiled apologetically. "We don"t have much in this village."

"Nonsense, this is more than enough." I bowed my head. "Thank you very much. I really appreciate it!"

The soup was certainly simple, being nothing more than rice gruel and rib bones soaked in water. There wasn"t much flesh on the meat, and the rice tasted bland, but after so many days of feeding off demonic monsters" meat, the plain dish was an immense welcome. Tears almost welled up in my eyes as I felt a surge of emotions. I couldn"t help it. After all, I had never thought I would be able to eat rice and soup again.

"Be careful, it"s hot," Hu Shi warned me. I nodded.

"No problem!"

I had been through h.e.l.l and back, after all. Both literally and metaphorically. A little scalding soup was nothing compared to the excruciating agony I had experienced throughout the past month or so. Had it really been a month, though? It felt like an eternity.

"Mommy?"

While I indulged myself in the soup, I heard a squeaky voice. Raising my head, I saw an emaciated little boy poking his head from behind the door.

"Hai"er, what are you doing here? Go out and play."

Hu Shi quickly headed over to shoo him away. But the little boy shook his head and remained, clinging tightly to the door.

"Mommy, is that big brother finally awake?"

Uh, what did it look like? Did he think I was sleepwalking or something? Would someone still in a coma be able to sit up on a bed and eat?

Then again, the kid was no older than five. I guessed kids at his age should be allowed a stupid question or two.

"Yes. He"s eating now. Let"s not disturb him."

"That"s fine." I waved at the boy. "Um, h.e.l.lo. I"m Fei Wu."

The boy looked at me curiously, and then nodded. Taking a step forward, he smiled proudly.

"I"m Hai. Hu Hai."

"He"s my son," Hu Shi added, somewhat unnecessarily. Yeah, I mean, I figured that out long ago. But I didn"t mention that and continued to plaster the smile on my face.

"Sorry for taking a room." I looked around. "Um…do you have any siblings?"

Hu Hai shook his head, even as he clung to his mother. The five-year-old shyly shrank back, using his mother as cover.

"I see. So you"re an only child." I turned to Hu Shi. "Um, I"m sorry to disturb you and your family. Once I recover, I"ll leave. I would pay you, but I don"t have any money."

"That"s fine." Hu Shi shook her head. "We"re the ones who should be sorry for not being able to be more hospitable."

"No, not at all! You saved my life! I"m really grateful!"

Hu Shi merely smiled. "I"m glad you think so. But in any case, you"ll need a while to recover, so please don"t worry about imposing on us. Don"t rush and don"t worry. You may stay as long as you like. In fact, we"ll be more than happy to accommodate you."

"Now that"s a bit…"

While I appreciated the offer, I couldn"t stay in the village forever. I still needed to return to Martial City. My family must be worried. My cla.s.smates were probably concerned too, except that d.a.m.ned Qi Fu Ren. Speaking of which, I also needed to take my revenge on that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Ah, of course. I mean, we"ll try to help you return home, but it"s best if you rest for now." Hu Shi raised both her hands. "You were on the verge of death just three days ago, so it"s best if you don"t rush and force yourself."

"I understand."

Hu Shi smiled, satisfied, and then ventured forward to take the tray and empty bowl from my hands.

"It"s good that you understand. For now just rest. I"ll get Old Man Yi to check on you later."

"Um…that"s…"

However, Hu Shi was paying no attention to my protests. Leading Hu Hai out of the room, she shut the door, leaving me alone once again.

*

As it turned out, Old Man Yi was the village"s unofficial doctor. A man in his late eighties, he had retired as a medical physician long ago. While he was nowhere as proficient in healing techniques as the masters from the Green Dragon Sect, he was adept enough at treating my wounds.

"Hmm…" he mused as he took my wrist and checked my qi flow. "No irregularities. In fact, you"re healing a little too quickly." He peered at me with his large, myopic eyes. "If I hadn"t known better, I would say that your recovery is miraculous."

"Ha ha, well…" I couldn"t exactly tell him that my physical const.i.tution had somewhat been altered by my consumption of meat from demonic monsters. That sped up my healing significantly, which was why I woke up so soon.

"Even so, don"t overdo it. Make sure you rest, or you"ll open up your injuries again." Yi tapped my arm and I winced from the pain. Despite my enhanced recuperative abilities, my arm was taking slower to heal.

The Hydra"s toxins must have been really potent.

"But you"re a martial artist, huh?" Yi was squeezing the muscles in my arm and he nodded, impressed. "From Martial City?"

"Um, that"s right."

The old man chuckled. "No wonder you"re well-built." He then rose to his feet and leaned on his walking stick. "I"ll check on you again tomorrow. Try not to move too much, you hear?"

"Yes, sir."

But after he left, I was feeling pretty bored. There was no computer, no television, no Internet. I didn"t even have a phone, having left it back in Martial Academy. We weren"t allowed to bring our cellphones along during practical training sessions, after all. There was nothing for me to do and the boredom was driving me nuts…

Wait, there is something I can try…

Old Man Yi only told me that I shouldn"t move too much, but he never said I couldn"t meditate and circulate my qi.

Taking a deep breath, I sat cross-legged on top of the bed and began putting into practice the Heaven and Earth Formula breathing and qi circulating techniques that I had learned from Master during my time in the underworld.

*

Before I knew it, I had fully recovered. Even my left arm had healed completely and I could get rid of the bandages. There was no sign of injury, no sign that it had ever been poisoned. There wasn"t even a scar.

"Whoa…"

"You…just what are you?"

Yi was staring at me in amazement. I merely shrugged in feigned nonchalance, not knowing how to answer.

"A martial artist."

"Ah…are you at the Qi Fusion Stage or something?"

"Uh…I don"t know, to be honest."

Old Man Yi stared at me in disbelief, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What do you mean you don"t know?"

"I never paid much attention to all the different stages and levels. I just concentrated on honing my techniques and growing stronger. So I don"t know how much qi corresponds to what stage or what level." I snorted. "I"m not some qi-measuring machine."

"Ah. I know what you mean." Yi tapped his head. "To tell you the truth, I don"t know either. Apparently masters can estimate how much qi is what stage, but honestly, the whole thing sounds bogus to me. You"re either more powerful than your opponent or you are not."

I nodded in full agreement. "I know, right?!"

Old Man Yi grinned as he slapped me in the arm. "In any case, you shouldn"t have any problems moving around. I don"t know how you did it, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but you"ve completely recovered." He paused and studied me. "Well, with the amount of qi flowing in your body, I guess I shouldn"t be surprised." He then narrowed his eyes when he noticed something, grabbing my wrist to confirm. "Is it my imagination, or did your amount of qi increase since yesterday?"

"Just your imagination," I answered, my heart skipping a beat. Come on, I just practiced Heaven and Earth Formula for one night. Surely there shouldn"t be that much of a difference, right?

"Uh huh. Okay." Old Man Yi nodded distractedly, but decided to give me the benefit of the doubt. "Well, don"t be too reckless, all right?"

"Yes, sir."

After he left, I also departed the room. There was no way I was going to stay confined inside the room for too long. I needed to do something. I needed news. I needed information. I needed to read something. Not that Hu Shi"s house contained any books.

The outside surprised me. Even though I already had some sort of idea from looking out of the large window in my room, I didn"t think the village would be this bad.

The village was in pretty bad shape. Crumbling, dilapidated houses and shacks dotted the landscape, cl.u.s.tered together over roughly hewn pavement. Many of the houses seemed like they were falling apart. On the uneven roads, strewn with gra.s.s and soil, children gathered and played, laughing as they frolicked in the dirt. On closer examination, I realized how skinny and gaunt they were, in just as bad shape or worse than Hu Hai.

I did think it weird that Hu Hai was emaciated. Remembering what I had been subsisting on for the last two days – watery gruel and bare bones – I understood why the children in this village were so thin.

There just wasn"t enough food for everyone.

"Ah…big brother…"

One of the kids looked up and waved at me. I nodded and waved back.

"Hu Hai."

"Are you all right already? What about your injuries?"

I smiled and then flexed my arm to show him. "I"m back to full health. Thanks for your concern. And I"m grateful to your mother too."

Hu Hai stared at me in wonder for a moment, but kids being kids, he went back to playing his game with the other children.

"Who"s that, Hai?"

"Oh, I know! Isn"t that the stranger Uncle Lu Shun saved the other day?"

"Right…heard that your mom took him in?"

"Yup! Seems like the big brother is fully healed, though."

The kids discussed my condition while hopping over markings chalked into the ground. This timeline"s version of hopscotch, huh?

"What are you guys playing? Hopscotch?"

"Mhmm." A grunt was all the answer I received.

"Don"t worry. Kids will be kids."

I straightened up at the unfamiliar voice and turned around to face the man who had walked up to me. In his late twenties, and a little on the thin side but otherwise well-built, the man wore a sleeveless vest that revealed most of his torso – especially the muscles in his chest and abdomen.

"It"s good to see that you"ve recovered," the man said with a dazzling grin. "But should you really be up walking around so soon?"

"Thanks, but I need to stretch a little after lying on bed for so many days." I smiled back and waved my hands to show how I had recovered. The man studied me, and then nodded before offering a hand. I took it and his grip was firm.

"I"m Lu Shun."

"Ah, you"re the one who saved me!" I quickly bowed deeply to express my grat.i.tude. "Thank you very much!"

"Ah ha ha, I didn"t do much!" Lu Shun quickly raised both his hands to bat away my grat.i.tude. "You pretty much saved yourself. All I did was pull you out of the river, but I wasn"t able to do much other than that. You might have been unconscious, but you managed to cling onto something, so you weren"t in any danger of drowning."

"Even so, I might have been easy prey for the monsters living in the forest. If you didn"t save me and bring me to a place where I could safely recover, I might have become food for some demonic creature somewhere."

"Ha ha, maybe. Well…I"m just glad you"re all right, though. You look like you were in terrible shape when I pulled you ash.o.r.e."

I nodded and thanked him again, then glanced at the forest looming at the edge of the village. Frowning, I pointed toward it.

"Um, is that Sen Lin Forest?"

"Yeah."

"You guys live so close to Sen Lin Forest?"

"What can we do?" Lu Shun shrugged. "We can"t help it. There"s no other place to stay."

"Eh? There isn"t…?"

Lu Shun glanced at me, his cheerfulness from earlier now replaced by a tinge of bitterness. "We can"t afford to live in the city. The rent and property there are too expensive. Never mind homes, we can barely afford any food here." he sighed as he glanced in the opposite direction, where the fields were. "Harvest has been pretty bad, and we"re short on food. It wouldn"t be so bad if we could make some profits off our crops, but we couldn"t even buy food to make up for the shortfall."

No wonder the kids were so skinny.

"I"ve been trying to hunt some food, but as you know, demonic monsters aren"t edible. I can"t just hunt any magical beast or I"ll end up poisoning everybody." Lu Shun glared in the direction of the forest. "Only certain species, like the Wild Boar, are edible, but they"re hard to find. And even if I do find them, they"re too powerful." He dragged a finger across his throat. "I almost got killed by one. Their hide is impervious to sword, arrow and spear."

I was about to suggest that they used guns, but realized that they didn"t have guns in this timeline. There was no need for people of this timeline to develop guns or powerful, long-range weapons, after all. Not when they could shoot qi blasts out of their hands, or blow entire lands up with martial arts techniques.

"It"s a pity, but I"m not a martial artist. Otherwise I would be able to take down a Wild Boar." Lu Shun clenched his fists tightly. "Just one…or two, enough for us to tide over the next month before the spring harvest."

A Wild Boar was ma.s.sive, about the size of a small house. No wonder Lu Shun believed that a single Wild Boar or two would be enough to tide the village over for the winter. With careful rationing, that might just be true.

"Do you know where these Wild Boars are?" I asked. I also recalled that they were one of the rare monsters that were edible. In fact, they weren"t cla.s.sified as demonic monsters or magical beasts because of their complete lack of qi. They might be immense in size and possessed brute strength, but there was nothing magical, demonic or qi-like about them. That was why they weren"t poisonous to humans.

"I do. Ha ha, well…that was how I found you, anyway." Lu Shun turned back to me with a chuckle. "I was actually looking for a pack of Wild Boars when I saw you being swept along by the river current. Ah, don"t worry…" he quickly added when he saw me looking apologetic. "It wasn"t as if I was going to hunt them. I don"t have the weapons or techniques necessary. I was just monitoring their movements, so that I can design a trap."

"…a trap?"

"Yeah." Lu Shun nodded enthusiastically. "I was thinking of digging a pit and then luring one of them to fall into it. Maybe put spikes in it to impale the beast. That sort of thing. I was checking the movements of the herd so that I could find the best place to set up the trap."

I considered that for a moment, and then nodded.

"Perhaps I might be able to help with the Wild Boars."

"Eh? But you"ve only just recovered!"

"Don"t worry. I won"t do anything reckless." Adjusting my gla.s.ses, I a.s.sured him. "Consider it as thanks for saving me. I"ve been freeloading off Lady Hu Shi…and I feel bad about it. Those who don"t work shouldn"t eat, right? At least let me help with something."

"…okay, if you say so." Lu Shun considered me skeptically, but finally relented. "But don"t do anything rash, all right?"

"You have my word."

*

The herd of Wild Boars wasn"t very far from the river where Lu Shun found me. According to Lu Shun, anyway. I was unconscious the entire time, so I wouldn"t know.

Not that I needed to.

"Just look at how big they are!" Lu Shun whispered as we crawled behind a thicket of foliage. As the encyclopedia said, each Wild Boar was the size of a small house. They were so huge and strong that even the demonic beasts and magical beasts in Sen Lin Forest tended to avoid them unless they were really desperate. Facing down an entire herd of Wild Boars of such immense sizes as no joke, even for monstrous predators.

I observed them for a while, and then nodded.

"But they don"t have much qi."

"Well, they are technically not magical beasts, after all. They don"t have monster cores in their bodies."

Lu Shun offered an explanation unnecessarily. I already knew about that, but I wasn"t rude enough to snap at him. Instead I nodded.

"Yeah. This should make it easy."

"Huh? What? Hey, wait!"

Lu Shun panicked, but he was too late. I had already emerged from the gra.s.s and was proceeding toward the herd of Wild Boars.

The leader growled as it glared at me. I cracked my neck by bending it side to side, loosening my muscles.

"So you"re in charge, huh?"

The lead Wild Boar bellowed. From two sides, two other Wild Boars that were almost as equally as large as their leader charged.

I didn"t bother to wait for them to reach me. Raising both hands, I condensed all the moisture in the air into two huge swords, and in a manner similar to the Ghost Bear"s Ghost Claws, sliced in both directions with my Ghost Shadow Swords.

The two Wild Boars continued running for a while, and then their bodies split apart. Cut cleanly in half, their bodies flopped helplessly in opposite directions, seas of blood pooling underneath their chopped corpses.

"?!"

The lead Wild Boar growled as it stepped back, taken aback by the gruesome sight. Snarling, it launched at me in vengeful fury, bellowing as it swore revenge for its dead comrades.

"That"s more like it."

Dispelling the twin ice swords, I stepped forward, and then used Jin to advance. Making use of my momentum, I spun around just before I collided with the Wild Boar, and then slammed a Shadow Kick into its forehead, obliterating its skull and reducing its brain to mushy gray matter.

With a grunt, the leader of the Wild Boars toppled over, its huge bulk skidding forward as it was driven purely by the momentum of its charge. Slowly but surely, it crashed into a stop right in front of the stunned Lu Shun.

The rest of the Wild Boars stared at me, then turned around and promptly fled the scene.

"Well, three should be enough, right?"

Watching them go, I turned back to a spluttering Lu Shun. Ignoring his bewilderment, I estimated the amount of meat we could get from the Wild Boars. With three of them, which were the largest in the herd, there should be more than enough meat to feed the village for the next two months before spring came.

"You…you said you weren"t going to do anything reckless!"

Lu Shun finally found his voice and he pointed at me accusingly. I shrugged, as if I didn"t know what he was talking about.

"Yeah, and I didn"t do anything reckless, did I?"

"Huh?!"

"I mean, the opponents were just Wild Boars. It"s not as if I was charging at a Behemoth or a Hydra, right?"

Lu Shun could only gape at me in disbelief, snapping out of his stupor only when I began cutting the Wild Boars apart to ferry the meat back to the village.