Baiyun told himself it was fine.

  In fact, it was something he had half expected to happen from the start. Spirit beasts weren't motionless statues, after all.

  If the path he took was blocked, all he o do was to route around it and hope no walls of rock blocked the way. And if that was truly the only way back, he could wait until the spirit beast moved out of the way.

  His hands grew cmmy, so he tightened his grip on the fungus fork and scythe he held in each hand. After noting the poisonous goop ging to the farming implement, he figured it might be an effective on.

  It was fine, he told himself again.

  But he suddenly froze as an indistinct souered his ears. If something was close by, he would remain motionless until it passed.

  The sound grew clearer and clearer until he realised it was a rustle from the ceiling. Baiyun's eyes stricted. That was the closest anything had been to him! He frantically swung his divihread upwards.

  Instantly, the thread sensed a beast falling from the ceiling towards him.

  Time seemed to slow.

  No, there wasn't any time to dodge! How had it gotten this close to him?

  Baiyun strained himself to his limit, letting go of the fork and reag out to shove the unknow away. With his other hand that held the poison-stained hand scythe, he tried to ssh the beast, but was far too slow.

  It crashed onto him, sending pain c through his body. His hand pushed the creature's head aside and he heard a long cck as its mandibles snapped shut beside his face. A chill went down his spine. If he had been a moment slower, his face would have been mangled!

  He finally realised it was a massive spider, one just as big as him.

  The spider seemed just as fused as him after missing its attack, so Baiyun hurriedly kicked the spider off him and rolled onto his feet in a hurry. He breathed heavily and clutched his painfully throbbing chest. He could sense a few cracks in his ribs, but thankfully the impact broke no bones.

  He cursed himself, thinking he should have knower. He thought his divine sense would keep him safe by being a step ahead of qi sense, but he fot to fully at for the basises!

  Of course. Spirit beasts could rely on their hearing and touch as well to navigate the dark caverns. In his old world, the beasts he faced had ludicrous qi fields that could stretch for kilometres, so it was easy tet that.

  To some extent, he did realise it from the beginning, from how he extinguished light and walked in silence. But he fot hearing could be used for more than sensing distant threats; it could also be used to directly seek prey! He finally realised the mortal world worked by a different logic.

  The spider scuttered away at inhuman speeds, fleeing the range of his spirit sense in an instant. Baiyun cursed under his breath. Foul creature...

  Ambush predators were cautious creatures by nature, so it did not stay to fight. It was most likely only retreating for now, and would look for another opportunity to get the jump on him.

  But Baiyued as he realised the bigger problem at hand.

  Sihe spider was not using qi se meant the field of qi sense blog his way was from a differe. And it had certainly heard the otion.

  The field of qi suddenly expanded, its aura washing over him! The worst had e to fruition. Uo tell what it was, Baiyun could only hold out his scythe in its dire.

  He could hear the creature glide across the ground in pitch darkness, roughly 6 metres away; too far for his divihread to se did not approach, but circled him cautiously. Baiyun tio turn and face its dire, holding out his scythe towards it. Cold sweat dripped from his face.

  The desperation he worked so hard to be rid off now returenfold.

  Think! He had to figure out a way to survive before the creature attacked.

  A moment passed, and a risky thought came to mind.

  He closed his eyes. With a swift motion, he reached into his bag and pulled out the helmet. In the endless darkness, a faint light peeked out of the bag, revealing the endless o of rock around him! It was not a bright light, but in endless darkness, it was as radiant as the sun.

  "Ssssssss!"

  A loud hiss of pain echoed as the creature flinched. It revealed itself as a giant snake as long as several grown men lying ft.

  "!"

  With his eyes still shut, Baiyuhe helmet upon his head and charged at the creature, leaping into the air! His divihread finally es effective range and gave him "sight", so he sshed his scythe towards its eyes.

  The serpent swerved to the side, but the on still nded. With a g, the scythe gnced off its tough scales, leaving a mere scratd a small splotch of poison. It slithered away from him, baring its fangs threateningly and hissing.

  It was still tht to open his eyes entirely, but Baiyun squinted with his left eye and mao look around. No other spirit beasts were in sight, but the spider was now on the ceiling, having jumped up silently.

  The surs back towards him, seemingly quite bothered by the light. It struck the ground with its tail a a small k of roto the air, raising its head towards it. With a burst of qi, the earth softened and ed around its eyes.

  The serpent approached him, its head raised as if proud of itself.

  Baiyun's eyes twitched. What a stupid animal, making a blindfold just because its eyes hadn't adapted to the light yet!

  He walked backwards slowly. Seeing the fungus fork he dropped from the er of his eye, he squatted down to pick it up with his other hand.

  At that moment, the snake lu him, shooting through the air with its mouth wide open! Baiyun threw the fork towards its mouth and ducked.

  "Kraaahhh!"

  The s out a guttural cry as it choked, followed by wretched gagging sounds. It began to puke piece after piece of the fungus up, along with a bloodied fork.

  Its heavy body crashed onto one of Baiyun's legs, but he mao squirm away and got onto his feet, running away as fast as he could!

  But a sudden chill struck him as a familiar rustle entered his ear; he quickly rolled to the side!

  At the very moment, the spider uself from the ceiling and smmed onto the snake's neck, biting viciously into it! With a horrific crag sound, the tough scales were crushed instantly, and its fangs sunk into the snake's flesh.

  "SSrragghhh!" the snake hissed in pain.

  Baiyun was stunned for a moment as he got up, patting the dust off his robes. Then he ughed to himself silently. To think the spider would unwittingly help him!

  With a quick motion, the snake swung its head backwards and smmed the spider into the ground with all its might. A loud crag sound rang out as the spider went motionless. The snake's wound deepened and blood dripped to the ground, but it igs injury and pushed the stunned spider to the side.

  The serpent tilted its head and wound up its body into a coil. Then it unleashed the trapped for a single go, sending its body into a violent whirl and smashing its tail directly onto the spider’s head with the full might of its body weight!

  A loud ch echoed through the caverns. The spider slumped to the ground, its legs spazzing out.

  Bleeding profusely from its ned dribbling from its mouth, the suro give Baiyu hateful look. Earth rose from the ground, seeping into its wounds and stopping its bleeding as it slithered away. Wild animals were rarely willing to fight to the death after all.

  As the threat slid into the darkness, Baiyun finally sighed in relief. He stashed all his clothing into his bag before running over to the spider. It was still twitg... was it still alive or an involuntary reflex? Baiyun didn't care.

  Without mercy, he sshed his scythe towards its head. The bde gnced off the dented carapace, leaving only a shallow cut, but he tio attack relentlessly. Again! Again! His hands hurt and began to blister, but he did not stop.

  It was only after minutes of violence when the spider finally stopped twitg, definitely dead. Baiyuhed heavily as he fell backwards toward the ground. His body was covered in the blue blood of the spider.

  At st, it was over...

  What once was the head of a spider was now a mangled mess of blue blood, a faint limmering in its midst. He reached for it and ripped it out.

  A beast core, covered in scratches.

  It was many times more useful than the poisoned fungus, but he did not feel any joy. This excursion had been far too risky. He had baseless fiden his divine sense and fot a mortal world worked differently from the divine worlds above. He barely escaped with his life!

  He ughed bitterly. In his past life, did he not die to impulse as well?

  He had not been a fighter in his past life. Safe within the prote of a sect, his days were peaceful and free of bat. If it had been Taikong, a bat elder from his past sect, he was sure the man would have won against the spider or the snake in a direct frontation, even with a servant's weak body. But an inexperienced alchemist like him? With a little less luck, the corpse on the ground would have been him.

  Baiyun resolved himself. He did not enjoy bat, but he would have to hone his skills in this life. There wasn't an almighty sect that could keep him safe from harm in this life.

  The WanLi was uo ever accept a servant as a disciple. If anything, he was more likely to bee a subject of human experimentation if they realised he could cultivate.

  Baiyun took out a gourd of water from his bag and poured the liquid over his body, enduring the cold. The blue blood of the spider washed off him. It was hardly dignified, but he did not want to expin why his clothes were stained by the blood of a spirit beast. Baiyun thought to himself that he must have resembled a savage from the wilds, attag in a frenzy while unclothed.

  After shaking off the water, he put his clothes ba a, leaving the spider's corpse behind. It was a shame, but if his bag was ied for whatever reason, he had no way to expin the corpse.

  Step after step, he tio retrace his way in the darkness. The journey was thankfully uful, free from beast attacks.

  Baiyun stopped about 50 metres away from the earth spirit's safe zone, beside a rge pit. While still outside the barrier, he was sure few spirit beasts would venture near a dangerous spirit's "territory". He took out a pot and several pieces of firewood and attempted to light the wood with a flint.

  The sound of g could be heard as he struck the fliedly, but not a spark was made. It seemed the air was too cold to start a proper fire.

  Baiyun clicked his tongue in annoyance. Shaking his head, he took out a knife and began to hack at the core instead, breaking off small fragments into the pot. He picked one of the ks and swallowed. How undignified, he cursed.

  If he had eaten the core whole, his frail body would have been poisoo death by qi overdose. It would have been easier to absorb the qi if the core had been boiled, but he had no choi the matter. Baiyun missed his old alchemic tools.

  Hours passed as his soul carefully refined qi from the fragments. The will of the spider within the core fought back, but it was quickly subdued by his soul, entering a dormant state.

  Slowly, his cultivation level rose.

  The first breakthrough happened. 2nd level of qi gathering!

  Baiyun suppressed his emotions and tio absorb the rest of the qi. Finally, with the st of the core fragments, he reached the 3rd level of qi gathering.

  At st...

  His face practically blue, he retched, vomiting out the remains of the core into the chasm beside him. The out a ghastly burp of bed qi.

  Urgh. He felt nauseous. He felt so queasy, he barely felt the joy of breaking through. The sheer amount of impure qi within rendered most of the core useless, and he had to focus his soul to prevent his stomach from abs it.

  Baiyun had a moment of doubt. Risking his life for just this, was the journey down here even worth it? Why did he get so far ahead of himself for just entering the 1st level of Qi Gathering?

  He ed up his tools with water before returning to the barrier.

  Suddenly, aernal force suddenly peered into his bag. Baiyued a little, but it seemed he was in the clear. Phew...

  He didn't know what time it was, but he spent the rest of the day gathering mushrooms with the other servants as a cover.

  Only a few hours of work remained. Before long, he followed the servants as they returo the surface.

  Ah. Baiyun stared towards the night sky in silence. Pitch bck like the caverh, yet infinitely more beautiful.

  "Baiyun!" the voice of the light spirit snapped him out of his trance.

  It seemed she had been waiting outside. Baiyun waved to her uhusiastically.

  "Hah... you look so glum! Why did you decide to go there anyway if it was going to make you so miserable?" she patted him on the shoulder. "e, some proper food should cheer you up!"

  Baiyun nodded, followio the servants' teen.

  ...

  The sect spirits did not have names, but some had taken the liberty to hemselves. The earth spirit, who dubbed himself Earthquake, was one of the few.

  He took great amusement in naming the other spirits ridiculous hat trasted his mighty ruly, the majesty of the name "Earthquake" was hard to rival! Though naturally, he did not tell anyone what he had hem i.

  Speaking of which, yesterday, a little spirit he dubbed "Shine" approached. Shine was annoyingly shiny as usual, rambling something about keeping a servant named "Bai Yu" or something safe. What a ridiculous request. Who would get attached to a short lived servant when they would die within a measly hundred years?

  Earthquake shooed off Shih a few affirmations, not wanting to be bothered. He spent the rest of the night and day resting.

  Hm. It seemed it was time.

  Earthquake watched in boredom as the servants of the sect arrived. Immediately, he could tell who "Bai Yu" was. A young boy with a miner's helmet and a coat, not luxuries most servants had. Even if he had fallen asleep, he would be able to figure out this was the human Shine favoured.

  The human, trary to Shine's bragging, did not get to work immediately.

  Instead, he walked aimlessly, further and further away from the work. Hah. Earthquake nodded. Running all the way dowo get a ce to fool around a! In the end, even a hard worker would get tired. Earthquake did not mind and was merely amused.

  Wait...

  That boy was walking further and further away!

  What in the world? Earthquake watched as "Bai Yu" left his barrier, now out of sight. The spirit shook his head.

  To think Shine had gotten attached to a suicidal servant of all things. It made sense now, why he wao e to this miserable cave.

  Earthquake hesitated for a moment but steeled himself, deg not to interfere. Shine was far too naive and would o learn nothing good would e from attat to those with short lives. If "Bai Yu'' had died decades ter, how much more would it hurt for Shine?

  Hours passed.

  Somethiered its barrier.

  It was "Bai Yu''! Earthquake was stunned.

  The servant looked fatigued, but was otherwise unharmed. Most jarring however was how he left the barrier without the helmet, marg into pitch darkness; even upon his return, he did not put it ba! Did he lose it somehow?

  Earthquake took a quick peek into the boy's bag, seeing the hat was still there. It was clear the servant deprived himself of sight iionally.

  The spirit could not help but get increasingly curious.

  He waited impatiently until the servants finally left, their work done.

  Earthquake dispelled his barrier and flew into the darkness. He could see faint footsteps "Bai Yu" had left in the dust, leading somewhere. He thought the boy must have been loungihe outside of the barrier to have returned safely, but this was clearly not the case.

  This boy… he had ventured way further than he expected!

  Spirit beasts fled in terror as they felt the presence of the spirit. He came across the corpse of an Assassin Jumping Spider, its flesh nibbled away by cave rats. But Earthquake could tell its body was mangled not by beasts, but by repeated attacks from a curved bde.

  This servaured out in pitch darkness, survived an enter with an Assassin Spider, killed it aurned unscathed?

  "Bai Yu".

  How iing.

  Earthquake would remember this name.

  LunaTheGhost