I was glad to get away from Special Inspector Deng, even if it meant facing a gigantic venomous serpent. Intellectually, I understood Deng wasn’t that powerful as an individual. Hell, even someone like me could probably beat him up if not kill him. I’m pretty smart, and I could tell I wasn’t quite a mortal anymore.

  Still, the fear of the black robe… there’s a reason Imperial Agents are known as the Emperor’s shadow. There wasn’t a single citizen in the Heavenly Phoenix Empire who didn’t have some apprehension when they saw them.

  You might defeat one — or not, as my memory told me — but it was the fact that more came. Always more shadows grasping where the light does not shine…

  But if I defeated the snake, then perhaps Deng would let me go on my way again.

  I really didn’t want his attention on me.

  The spirit beast stirred as I approached. Yellow eyes peeled open as it gazed at me.

  “Come back next week,” said the snake in a feminine voice. “I am too full to eat you tonight.”

  A faint, spicy, acidic smell wafted from the serpent as she closed her eyes and ignored me.

  I tucked Cabbagy into my robes and stood with my hands on my hips.

  “How many people did you eat?” I asked.

  Her yellow eye cracked.

  “What business is it of yours?”

  “Are they still alive?” I asked. “I know that sometimes a snake’s digestion is much slower than —”

  “Why don’t you find out!” the snake hissed.

  She lunged at me with her fangs bared. I dodged to the side of her surprisingly sluggish attack and backed away. Her great bulk uncoiled, revealing fifty feet of thick snake. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that she could eat Ghost Fang if she were hungry enough, probably in a single bite if her jaw stretched wide enough.

  Her mouth shot toward me, and I leaped, rolling across the ground as her fangs carved furrows in the dirt. I continued to dodge as she wove after me. It was easier than I expected, for though her body was powerful, she was slowed down by the meal she ate.

  By the people she ate.

  A frown formed on my face.

  “If those people are still alive,” I said as I leaped aside from another lunge that resulted in a shattered tent. “Then spit them out now.”

  “I don’t spit!” she shouted at me. “I swallow!”

  “Don’t let her swallow you, kid,” Cabbagy said from inside my borrowed robe.

  He acted like he was concerned for me, but I knew he was merely looking out for himself. I was confident I could survive being swallowed.

  Pretty confident, at least.

  “No shit!” I shouted back at Cabbagy.

  The snake lunged once more — she was getting faster now — her yellow eyes glowing brighter than the campfire. I could feel the heat of her breath as she moved past me. I pumped blood through my body, leaping so fast I tore the muscles in my legs.

  If I could feel pain, I would be shrieking up like a kettle in a furnace — as it was, I used blood manipulation to keep my body standing as the snake raised her head high.

  She reared up, and her head broke through the lower branches, sending leaves and twigs raining down to the ground.

  The sharp horns on her head caught the last rays of light like the glow of the crimson moon. Stars prickled the sky above her as she glared at me, and the true moon rose above. If it was a synchronicity of time, or a qi technique, I couldn’t tell.

  Qi remained invisible to me. I couldn’t sense it at all, and though I trusted Deng’s analysis of the creature’s cultivation realm, it was my own experience with the gigantic monster’s speed that told me I had to be careful.

  Still, the effect of a moon rising behind the serpent’s head was truly eerie. Was the snake about to enhance itself? I’d been lucky in my fight with the earth-qi-wielding monkey, but I didn’t feel lucky right now.

  It turns out speed wasn’t the only thing I needed to fear.

  Her fangs lengthened, each sleek weapon longer than I was tall. Thick venom dripped from their tips like dew from a bent blade of grass. Acrid smoke billowed up where the acidic substance splashed and burned the ground.

  “I meant to eat you quickly,” she said with disdain. “But now you shall suffer!”

  It would be a terrible idea to let her bite me, so I tensed, preparing to leap aside when she lunged.

  I was ready, but instead, she bared her fangs and sprayed venom in my direction.

  The liquid jetted toward me in a stream, and I leaped aside. It struck a tree, and thick smoke billowed up as the living material died.

  There was a palpable sense of danger in facing this snake that hadn’t been there when I fought Ghost Fang. Perhaps because Ghost Fang wasn’t truly a Foundation Establishment realm spirit beast — his power came instead from demonic experimentation and the number of monkeys under his control. This spirit beast I fought now was a true predator.

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  She twisted her head and sprayed again. The venom caught the light like silver. I struck the ground from my last leap, rolled, and leaped again.

  Even though I was moving so fast that I tore my muscles, I wasn’t fast enough.

  Her blast of droplets struck my body.

  Qi reinforced venom burned holes into my legs. Smoke from my wounds drifted up toward the watching moon. My flesh blackened and melted away until moonlight showed through the wounds.

  The spirit snake tracked me with her luminous yellow eyes, her head swaying under the canopy of stars. She leaned forward, but stopped as I raised my fists in an approximation of Cabbagy’s stance. Though my blood was smoking, I tried to wrap a couple of layers around my exposed knuckle bones.

  “How are you standing?” she said. “You should be curled up in agony! You should be dead!”

  The venom on my face burned away my cheeks and left me with a grin.

  “You didn’t even hit me,” I said.

  She choked on something. Rage? Maybe dust? I wasn’t sure.

  “Yes, I did!” she screamed.

  She sprayed more venom, but I no longer feared.

  I charged through the venomous liquid. My flesh blackened and smoked and melted as her venom poured into me like a waterfall.

  “Kid! You dumb fucking idiot!”

  Oh, right, I forgot about Cabbagy.

  My body continued regenerating, drawing on my reservoir of monkey meat, but the venom smoked and burned faster than new flesh could bubble. I was half bones, half exposed muscle. The snake reared back, flinching, or preparing to lunge — but I was already leaping.

  I folded layers of blood around one hand and grabbed at her scales. They were hard beneath my fingers, like trying to grip smooth metal. My hand slipped, and the snake sent me flying with a flick of her head.

  She felt stronger than the iron club-wielding monkey, and with her armored scales, she was much tougher.

  I had time to think of this as I was sent cartwheeling through the air, smashing through tree branches, and doing my best to wrap my body around Cabbagy and protect him from the fall.

  Before I even hit the ground, the snake slithered toward me. She crashed through trees, hissing like the wind, and spun. Her tail slapped into my body, shattered my arms, and shot me up into the air like an arrow aimed at the moon.

  Cabbagy flew from my broken arms, and though I reached out with my blood, he slipped from my grasp as I flew ever higher into the star-studded night.

  ###

  Deng remained behind the bush, trembling, unable to move, wincing with every crash in the trees. There was no denying that the serpent spirit beast was at peak Qi Condensation. It was simply too fast and tough, and the acid it sprayed glowed like hot metal in his qi senses. Even if a spirit beast didn’t gain gifts in the same way a human cultivator did… There was no way a 9th Stage Body Tempering cultivator could hope to match the venomous monster!

  It was better for him to simply wait here for the more powerful cultivator to defeat the snake.

  He couldn’t make a report about the disappearances if he were dead, could he?

  Maybe it would be better for him to sneak away now? Then he could make the report as soon as possible.

  Yes, maybe sneaking away now was the more prudent idea. If he ran away, he could report the snake up the chain to someone more powerful.

  And he would remain alive.

  All he had to do was force himself to move.

  Trees crashed in the distance as he stood. He tried to take a step, but his knees shook too much. He clenched his fists. Damnit! He was an Imperial Agent! He could take a single step!

  He raised his foot, ready to begin his valiant escape, when something bounced off his head and hit the bushes.

  A high-pitched squeak escaped his throat as he collapsed to the ground. If he had anything left in his stomach, it would have evacuated his bowels as he waited for the snake to swallow him whole.

  But there was no snake, merely a cabbage that rolled out of the bush.

  A cabbage?

  It was the same cabbage the naked cultivator carried around. Was it a spiritual cabbage? Deng reached out with trembling fingers. He picked it up, almost flinching as though he expected it to be burning hot… but it was just a regular cabbage. Slightly battered and browned, but a cabbage all the same.

  He examined it closely.

  There was blood and grime amidst the leaves. It looked as though it had been carried through several battles, and someone had tried to wipe it clean without much success. A faint, moldering smell reached his nose.

  “Why would a powerful cultivator carry around a cabbage?” Deng wondered aloud.

  At least, why wouldn’t it be in a storage ring? Anyone with qi control could activate such a treasure, and the mysterious cultivator had excellent qi control.

  Deng frowned as he examined the cabbage.

  Why carry such a thing into battle? Trying to keep it intact would only make things more difficult. The cultivator even prioritized the cabbage over his own clothes. Did that mean…

  Deng’s heart seized as he feared the mysterious cultivator was dead, but when he heard a hiss in the distant trees, he sighed with relief. The strange cultivator was alive. Of course, Deng had no doubts about that; he had seen for himself how shockingly powerful the man was.

  Though that begged the question: why hadn’t he defeated the snake yet?

  But that question was superseded by something even more curious: Why the cabbage?

  Maybe… he carried it into battle to show that he could afford to fight while handicapped. It wasn’t a treasure, but a training weight. By holding onto the cabbage, he was essentially tying one hand behind his back.

  Deng’s eyes widened as he fully took in the implications.

  To fight under such self-imposed restrictions…

  “How manly,” he whispered to himself.

  Deep in his soul, his qi flickered and pulsed. He’d gathered the necessary qi to advance long ago, but the fear of that first trial was too much.

  But how could he even think such a thing when confronted by the raw truth of this cabbage?

  “If that man can do something like that, then why can’t I?” he muttered to himself. “Why can’t I!?”

  Deng stood, his knees no longer shaking as he held the cabbage above his head. He gritted his teeth and reached deep into his body. His muscles and bones and veins were strengthened by qi, and now he cycled once more — as he had done countless times — and drew qi into his body.

  Not to strengthen, but to expand.

  With gritted teeth and an effort of momentous will, he broke through decades of calcification around his dantian and drew qi into himself.

  Power surged through his body as the qi rushed into his awakened dantian like living flame.

  It danced inside him, warming him, strengthening him.

  He couldn’t hide his grin.

  1st Stage Qi Condensing Realm.

  At last, he’d finally done it.

  There was a rumble in the air. The stars gleamed overhead as the heavenly trial settled onto his shoulders. His cultivation wasn’t yet stable, even as he drew more qi into his dantian, filling it with a trickle as he condensed the misty ambient qi into powerful droplets. The trial became a pressure, a weight reminder that the heavens had a finger on the scales.

  To stabilize his cultivation, he needed to pass the trial, and he knew exactly what test lay ahead of him.

  Trees crashed and tore, and a hideous hissing split the air.

  The battle between the cultivator and the Six Poison Horned Serpent raged in the distance — waiting for him to join. That could be the only reason the mysterious cultivator prolonged the battle. Deng wiped tears from his eyes. Who was he to deserve such generosity?

  The stars shone brighter, the air brushed sharper against his skin, and his muscles tensed. Deng stood straight and looked towards the distant crashing in the trees. He tucked the cabbage into his robe and sprinted toward the battle, his heart surging with a vigor he hadn’t felt since he was a young man first walking into the Imperial Bureau of Violet Hills City.

  His soul swelled with a pride he thought he’d never feel again.

  All thanks to a simple cabbage carried by a naked man.

  “I won’t let you down,” Deng whispered to the cabbage, to the stars, and to himself.

  With qi surging through his body, he raced through the forest toward the battle and toward his destiny.

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