A flick of a small wrist—
The ice spear shot off like an arrow and struck the boar that had just poked its head up to sniff the wind.
Perched on a rock, Xue Kui propped his cheek with a hand and watched, bored, as the hunters cleaned the carcass and heaved it onto a pushcart.
Ever since he'd accidentally broken Big Brother Shi's arm, Xue Kui had filled in for him on the hunting team.
Emergency stores were ample now, but daily food still had to be gathered.
With Xue Kui around, the team's quota went up fast; they no longer tiptoed around monster territories when moving through the wilds.
"Little brother Xue Kui, today's haul is plenty. Let's head back."
The hunter's tone held respect. The white hair and baby-fat cheeks said "child," but anyone who'd seen a Cryo spear one-shot a monster found it hard to treat him like one.
"When will Big Brother Shi be healed?"
Xue Kui sounded listless.
He wanted news, yes—but mostly, he was simply tired of this job.
His nature craved battle, but it was picky: fighting the weak disgusted him. He hated hunting.
He would keep at it, though—until Shichen recovered.
"You're responsible for the trouble you cause."
That was what Guizhong had told him when she heard what happened. She'd prepared a long talk for a rebellious yaksha… but after staring at her with a complicated look, he'd accepted it right away.
"Hard to say. When his leg broke, it took over three months. This time's better, but he'll need another month or so."
"I see… There isn't a faster way?"
His white hair drooped like a wilted leaf.
"A pity. The right herbs would speed the bone-mending… but no one will pick them now."
The hunter rubbed his stubbled chin, half to himself.
A tuft of Xue Kui's hair sprang up.
"Why won't anyone go?"
"The bone-healing herbs grow in caves in that forest there."
He pointed at a distant stand of trees.
"But the caves have started shaking on and off, like they'll collapse any moment. A few people tried to check, and nearly got brainwashed by stones flying out from the depths."
"The herbs near the entrance are all picked clean. No one can push deeper with those stones flying."
Xue Kui blinked—then grinned.
"We're nearly at the gate anyway. You can make it home yourselves, right? I'm taking a detour."
"Brother Xue Kui, do you—"
Before the hunter finished, the boy who'd been beside him was already far away. He lifted a hand—too late—and let it fall with a helpless shake, then trudged on with the team.
In the forest, a white blur leapt from shadow to shadow.
Running alone under the trees reminded Xue Kui of the days before he'd joined Guizhong. Life among mortals was good, but a little wild freedom now and then felt wonderfully new.
He didn't forget his goal.
Before long, faint tremors rippled through the ground. So the hunter was right.
He crouched, palm to earth, eyes closed—listening.
Following the tremor's pull, he found a wide cave mouth.
He stepped into darkness without hesitation.
Pale-blue eyes glimmered, taking everything in.
A yaksha who couldn't see in the dark—now that would be odd.
Green plants clung to the walls. Xue Kui studied them, wondering if they were the herbs the hunter meant—
The cave began to quiver.
He frowned.
This shaking didn't feel natural.
Within the vibrations, there was a rhythm—
and… feeling.
The flavor of it was a little like the aura that clung to Morax's stone pillars.
And the emotion… almost like—
a sigh?
He scratched his head.
Why did he think that?
If so, then the thing making the cave shake… was a living being's sigh.
A sigh strong enough to move a stone meant something very, very big.
A battle-born yaksha could sense life, but Xue Kui felt no creature here.
Something was off. He formed an ice spear in his hand and moved inward with care.
His ear twitched.
Whip—whip— Stones sliced through the air. His spear flicked; rocks caromed away. He ducked, sprinting deeper.
He watched one stone shoot past toward the entrance, brows drawing tight.
No malice. Not natural either.
More like a circle of slimes crowding a rich elemental spring—keeping other creatures away from the center.
Slimes were living things. Stones were not.
Wasn't that… unfair?
His thoughts wandered—then snapped back.
It wasn't carelessness; the cave simply didn't make him feel threatened.
The deeper he went, the harder it was to breathe.
He paused, sensing.
Geo energy saturated the air—far beyond normal.
A common creature would have been eroded to death by now.
In that light, those flying stones had been… a warning. A clumsy kind of protection to keep intruders from harm.
He rounded a bend and stopped.
Dead end.
Cryo in the air had thinned so much it was uncomfortable.
But the richest concentration of Geo… pulsed just beyond the stone wall ahead.
What to do was obvious.
Xue Kui hefted his spear, eyed the tip, and sheathed it in Cryo—reshaping it into a hoe. He nodded, satisfied.
He raised the ice hoe and struck.
…Huh?
It didn't bite.
He checked his tool, wondering what he'd done wrong—
The cave lurched.
Not the soft tremor from before, but a heavy, rolling quake that made even Xue Kui stagger.
Before his widening eyes, the "rock wall" moved.
It slid aside—slowly.
And when he finally saw what it was, his mind blanked for a heartbeat.
What filled his vision then was not a wall—
—but a true body of Geo,
a mass of shattered stone given form.
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