Blood and bone manipulation might make me stronger, faster, and — dare I say — sexier, but it hadn’t made me any tougher. When the snake struck me with her tail, she broke my arms and sent me flying through the air like a drunken owl.

  Stars glowed above, and the forest spread out beneath me. A breeze moved through the treetops as though rippling a dark lake.

  After I reached the zenith of my arc, I came down.

  Hard, fast, and hitting every branch between me and the ground.

  My skull fractured, my neck broke, my ribs cracked, and I got caught in the fork of a branch, which wrenched one of my legs around so much it was twisted back into the place it’s meant to be. I hit the ground a sack of broken bones and oozing blood.

  Trees surrounded me, and I was far from the path. Almost lost, but at least I didn’t have Cabbagy mocking me as I climbed to my feet and twisted my leg back into place. Willpower kept me together, but my regeneration was lagging.

  Several spots on my body were burned through from the acid. The snake’s spray chewed straight through my clothes and my flesh, leaving only green-tinged bone.

  Even though I still had plenty of meat tucked away in my soul, I couldn’t regenerate where the venom touched. It was like lingering acid; the second my regeneration bubbled up new flesh, the venom ate it away.

  I could feel my stored meat dwindling, even though I gained nothing.

  When I tried to rub it free, the venom just spread further.

  The snake crashed through the trees towards me. I only had a few moments to breathe — even if I didn’t need to breathe, it was comforting — and devise a plan.

  I concentrated on my regeneration; if I could at least suppress it, then I’d stop myself from wasting my stored meat.

  My willpower groped and grasped, like trying to take control of something I’ve always done automatically, but at last I found the source of my regeneration, like a pipe leading from that locker in my soul, and I twisted. The bubbling flesh slowed, and stilled, and though I remained ragged in both clothes and meat, I stood in control.

  My grin was half skull, but it was genuine.

  Trees shook in the distance as the snake raced toward me. Her shadow passed between some trunks, and moonlight flashed as venom sprayed toward me in a thin jet.

  I ran to the side with blood pumping through my muscles. The stream of venom burned bushes and grass as I dodged.

  I dodged between trees and leaped up into the branches the moment I was out of sight.

  She crashed into the area after me, her head swiveling about as her tongue tasted the air.

  I held my breath and did everything I could to stay still and silent.

  “I know you’re here,” hissed the snake. “I can smell you. How are you alive, little mortal?”

  She coiled about the trees, searching for me.

  “No qi,” she said. “No words. I suppose I’ll have to eat you to find out!”

  I had one hand coated in swirling blood, but my other hand had caught a full dose of venom, and although I felt no pain, the flesh melted away to reveal bones. There was a faint, green quality to my bones like tarnished copper from the residual venom.

  I focused on my regeneration, twisting in the other direction and trying to force growth over the venom… but nothing came.

  I would need to wash my hands if I wanted my meat back.

  If Cabbagy were here, he would give me shit about running straight into attacks and how it was a terrible strategy. Still, as annoying as he was, he had good advice about fighting. Thinking of Cabbagy reminded me of how effectively he used my skeleton while defending Falling Hen Village.

  I glanced down at my bony fingers, and my eyes lit up with an idea.

  ###

  Emerald Whisper, the Six Poison Horned Serpent, slithered through the moonlit bushes and cursed her luck. She thought the heavens had blessed her as she enjoyed the bounty she found along the road. Unfortunately, after eating, she’d been just so sleepy. Of course, it was smarter to return to the wild forest far from the road to nest and sleep, but the little flame made by the humans had been so warm, and she’d been so full…

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  Then this damned, annoying mortal had come and spoiled everything.

  He woke her up from her nap, insulted her venom by ignoring the writhing pain, and now he was avoiding her stomach.

  The nerve of these humans!

  Her tail thrashed in rage and smashed apart a weaker tree. It did little to mollify her temper. No, she needed to find that scampering little mortal and fill him with her venom until it poured out of every hole on his body!

  She could smell him all over the area, but her qi senses weren’t helping her pinpoint his location.

  “Where are you, little mouse?” she hissed.

  “I’m over here.”

  He was over there!

  The snake spun and lunged toward the annoying mortal standing amongst the undergrowth behind her.

  He didn’t move, like a fool! Her jaws closed around his body, and she wrenched him up into the air. His arms flailed as his spine snapped under the strength of her bite. One of his hands was already melted down to the bone from the strength of her beautiful venom.

  His blood leaked into her mouth with a peculiar, exquisite flavor — almost like he was half monkey! She hadn’t eaten monkey in so long, not since Ghost Fang took over the pine trees. Truly, her luck had turned around.

  Thoughts of joy filled her head until the mortal’s bony hand swung around and gouged straight into her eye.

  ###

  The snake screamed as I plunged my bony hand into her eye. I clawed at the gunk, and as she spasmed and flailed, I detached my hand at the wrist with a soft pop. Not a moment later, the snake threw me from her mouth. I cartwheeled through the air and struck a tree. Her bite already broke my spine, but hitting the tree trunk was enough to shatter every intact vertebra. I slumped down at the roots.

  So much for qi-soaked meat making me stronger.

  I could have lifted myself with my blood control, but I let my body sag as I concentrated on manipulating the bones I left inside the snake’s eye. The writhing serpent was crashing through the forest, moving away from me, and even though I’d improved my ability to control my regeneration and my body, moving my bones at range was terribly difficult.

  Good thing I didn’t need to lift my hand or even make it move very fast; I just needed to crawl my fingers along.

  The world zoned out as I forced myself to focus on my fingers, flexing them, grabbing at the eye, dragging my fist deeper until my fingers scraped against the snake’s skull.

  Monstrous screaming filled the forest as I tried to poke my bone into her brain.

  But the spirit beast’s bones were tougher than expected.

  I would need another strategy.

  Because right now, all I’d done was piss that snake off.

  “I’ll kill you!” she shrieked. “I’ll melt your flesh and crush your bones!”

  Even though she was far away, I hid behind a tree just to be safe. The snake continued to coil and thrash and curse my existence.

  If I hadn’t lost Cabbagy, I’m sure he’d say something like…

  “She sounds like my wife.”

  I jumped six feet into the air in shock and grabbed hold of a branch above me.

  “Oh, sorry!” Deng said from below me.

  The Special Inspector stood below me, with Cabbagy in one hand. There was a look of determination on the man’s face, and a fire in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before. He was even standing straighter.

  I dropped to the ground and took Cabbagy from him.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I wasn’t sure where I dropped him.”

  “He fell out of the sky and hit me in the head,” Deng said. “Wait, he?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ve managed to half-blind the snake, but it’s not dead.”

  We both looked in the direction of the screaming snake. Trees crashed and tore, and smoke rose up toward the sky as the snake sprayed venom everywhere. I focused on keeping my skeletal hand scratching away at the eye. The socket was probably completely hollow by that point.

  Deng gasped.

  “Your hand!” he said.

  “It’s fine,” I said with a smile.

  “Oh… OK,” Deng said, trying to match my smile. “I broke through to the next realm, and I’ve come to help you!”

  “That’s great, Deng!” I said.

  Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of cultivators, I could respect the hard work that must have taken.

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d ever… wait, has it gone quiet?”

  It had gone quiet.

  Too quiet…

  I tried to control my skeletal hand. It was a lot easier, and getting easier still, but that meant… I looked at Deng, and he looked at me.

  “The snake’s coming back!” we said at the same time.

  The serpent burst through the trees.

  Gore trailed from one socket, nearly black in the light as it reared up high to glare at us with her one functional eye.

  “You… you!”

  She bared her fangs.

  I shoved Deng aside with all my strength as a jet of venom sprayed toward us. The thick liquid splashed into my chest, and my flesh instantly sizzled and dripped like fat on a grill. Deng rolled away in the bushes, avoiding the splash zone.

  The snake sprayed me until my ribs were showing through the remnants of my black robe. My legs were completely eaten away.

  I staggered as I struggled to adjust from using blood manipulation to hold myself together to using bone manipulation to keep myself upright.

  Venom dripped as the snake shook her head. My skeleton hand tried to grip, but it was flung from inside her skull and struck a tree hard enough to break bones.

  The snake slithered toward me.

  I leaped aside as she lunged, but without my muscles, I didn’t have the explosive strength, and she caught me in her coils. My bones creaked as she wrapped me tight. I couldn’t move my arms, or my legs, or anything as she wrapped around me.

  Cabbagy watched, helpless, from amongst the roots of a tree. Deng was out of sight — if he was smart, he would have run.

  The snake lowered her head down to mine, turning so that she could see me with her remaining eye as she gloated. The yellow orb was larger than my face.

  “You took my eye, and so I shall take yours!”

  She leaned down, a long fang extended toward my eye, the razor tip angling toward my sensory organ. Even with my new painless body, I was still disturbed by something so sharp coming toward me like that.

  I tried to separate my bones like I had underground, but my willpower was strained, and her grip on me was absolute. She must have felt me struggling, because her body quivered as she lowered her fang. A throaty, moaning laugh came from her open mouth. I could taste the sadistic joy on her wet, meat-stained breath.

  Unable to move, I could only stare as the fang inched toward my eye. I wasn’t sure what would happen when that venom flooded my brain, but it couldn’t be good.

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