The seven-foot-tall, pale-furred, fat-bellied monkey lay sprawled out in the farm cart with a hand draped over his eyes, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. His snores filled the barn, and he didn’t move even as I stood a foot away from him.

  “Typical of a spirit beast,” Cabbagy muttered.

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Well?”

  “Well, what?”

  “Do something about it!”

  “You’ll wake him,” I hissed back at Cabbagy.

  My admonishment was the monkey’s cue.

  Yellow eyes flicked open, saw me, and bulged. The spirit beast shrieked at me and flung himself from the cart and up onto the roof. His fingers dug into the wooden ceiling, and he hung there, glaring at me with a soft fire that glowed amber in his gaze.

  “You disturbed me,” he said.

  I was surprised that he could talk.

  “You attacked this family.”

  “Yes,” the monkey said with a grin. “Now I attack you.”

  He launched himself forward, and I leaped to the side.

  The monkey’s impact with the dirt sent a shudder through the structure. He spun and swung two fists at me. I didn’t have time to dodge, so I blocked. Even with blood reinforcing my muscles, his double-fisted attack broke my arm in three places and hurled me into the wall.

  “Weak,” the monkey said with a laughing snort. “Too weak to wake me from a nap.”

  He lumbered toward me as I pulled myself to my feet.

  Blood control jerked my arm back into place, but my bones would take longer to heal. I gritted my teeth at the cost in time and energy the monkey cost me with that one brutal attack.

  “You don’t have time to stand around with your dick in your hand,” Cabbagy scolded me. “You must save that warrior!”

  Cabbagy was right.

  I set down the annoying vegetable on a shelf and charged the tall, arrogant monkey.

  My blood formed into swirling gloves. I couldn’t conjure the long-fingered versions — even with all the pig blood staining the ground, walls, and air. Instinctually, I knew that the blood was too cold, too dead, for it to be any use to me.

  But I didn’t need it.

  I ducked the monkey’s wild punch and came in with an uppercut. My bloody fist caught the monkey in the chin and sent him stumbling back a few steps. The blow clearly rattled the monster, but the yellow glow in his eyes never faltered. His lip curled back to reveal grinning fangs.

  “Duck,” Cabbagy said.

  The monkey surged forward faster than I expected.

  His two large hands clapped the space where my head would have been. I’m pretty positive I would survive having my skull popped like a pimple, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out for sure.

  Some day, maybe, but not today.

  “He’s off balance,” Cabbage said from his spot on the shelf. “Charge now.”

  Under Cabbagy’s instruction, I advanced. Ducking, weaving, punching left and right and left again. The moveset was simple, efficient, and though I lacked any real martial training, the monkey had none.

  “Aim for the joints, kid. Hit him where he’s soft.”

  With his belly full of pig, the monkey was slowed, but for all my landed hits, I couldn’t pierce the tough fur and tougher skin. The single blow the monkey struck landed and shattered my bones, and I doubted his other wild swings lacked that power. I was more focused on dodging than blocking or striking.

  We kicked up straw and dirt with every clash, crashing into the walls so hard the building shook.

  This single monkey was a tougher battle than the troop I’d fought earlier.

  I was positive I could win a battle of endurance, but the cost of dragging this out was the farmer’s death.

  I wouldn’t let that happen, and it had nothing to do with Cabbagy yelling from the other side of the barn.

  After trading blows, we each leaped apart and left some distance between us. He was heaving for breath, and I was battered, but neither of us was close to down.

  The monkey grinned.

  “Not weak,” he said as he tilted his hand back and forth. “But not strong.”

  He came at me again with a whirling spin, both fists hammering toward my head. I rolled past him, rose, and kicked out at his leg. The monkey stumbled, but leaped for the rafters, swinging his way toward me before dropping down with an elbow raised.

  I rose to meet him, taking a hit that further broke my arm, so I could slam a fist into his jaw.

  The monkey took a couple of steps backwards after that hit. I focused on keeping my arm together with blood control.

  “I’m stronger than your mother,” I said with disdain. “Or is she also weak?”

  The monkey frowned so deeply I couldn’t see his eyes.

  “You met my mother?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  That moment of confusion was all I needed to end the fight. I sprang myself forward and reached for my broken arm. The bones were shattered and merely floated within my muscles and blood. With more ease than I expected, I plucked a length of snapped bone from inside my flesh and thrust it like a dagger into the monkey’s eye.

  He shrieked as blood spurted.

  His fist crashed through the air, but I already bounced back, with blood leaking from my arm. After a few more swings, the monkey ripped the bone from his face.

  Burning rage consumed the monkey as he sniffed the bone in his hand. His nostrils flared, and then his eye widened. Amber flame pulsed in his gaze. He stared at me, stepping back.

  “You… you…”

  “Me?” I said.

  The monkey said nothing, simply turning and sprinting away. His great bulk shattered through the wooden barn walls, leaving a gigantic monkey-sized hole. The roof groaned, and I feared the structure might fall.

  Fortunately, it held.

  I scratched my head in confusion.

  “What was that about?”

  “Monkeys are stupid,” Cabbagy said with conviction.

  I frowned. That explanation seemed… lacking.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure! Honestly, most things on two legs are idiots. Just look at chickens.”

  I nodded absently as I searched for the bone I’d used as a dagger, but it seemed the monkey took it with him. That brought a sigh from my lips. Regrowing the bone from scratch would take far longer than healing the broken pieces back together.

  “Well,” I said with a shrug and a smile. “The monkeys are all gone. Best get on with the plan.”

  ###

  I left Cabbagy in the hands of the little redheaded girl as she and her family sat in the back of the cart. The handles were rough, but easily enough to lift, and I started down the road and hauled the cart behind me.

  With Luo Hong giving directions, I raced toward the nearest settlement — a place called Falling Hen Village. They were supposed to have a doctor, or an alchemist, or someone who could do more than stare at injuries with curiosity, regret, and hunger.

  Only a little hunger, I swear.

  I didn’t love that the injured man stirred my stomach, but it made a little bit of sense after he revealed he was a 6th-stage Body Tempering cultivator.

  That extra hardiness also explained how he survived having his body mauled and his leg ripped off. Though, survived might be a little bit of a strong word considering he was as pale as a sheet, and the road was bumpy. I feared each bounce of the cart sent him closer to heaven, so I did my best to avoid any potholes.

  If he didn’t die, then I wouldn’t be faced with the corpse of a cultivator. No matter what happened with Ren Feilong, I’d decided that I didn’t want to start eating everyone I met.

  No matter how good their qi smelled.

  I was better than that.

  Besides, my three sets of memories loudly confirmed that eating people was something that just wasn’t done, and even if I was starting to feel like an independent person compared to my past lives, three against one left me firmly outvoted.

  The longer he bled, and the closer he got to a corpse, the harder such resolve would be to keep. After all, a pork chop isn’t really a pig anymore…

  Nope.

  Speed was of the essence.

  With my blood control, I was able to pump up my muscles and increase the pace. I felt bad with every jostle, but speed mattered. Fortunately, we saw no more monkeys as the morning advanced.

  My arm was mostly clicked back together, but the missing length of bone was taking a long time to heal. The strain on my blood manipulation wasn’t too bad, but I needed to maintain my ability to hold onto the cart as I ran.

  I could hear the quiet conversation of the family huddled on the cart. Cabbagy offered some words of comfort to Luo Hong, but she wisely ignored his not-so-subtle advances.

  Better that we get to Falling Hen Village so Cabbagy and I could leave the poor family alone.

  They’d been through enough.

  “Gosh! You sure are a nice guy, mister!”

  I glanced back, thinking one of the children might have called out to me, but they were both huddled in the blankets with their parents and seemingly asleep from the stress of the situation.

  Cabbagy met my raised eyebrow.

  “What are you looking at me for?” he said. “I’ve got a future widow to console.”

  I ignored him and kept running down the road.

  So, who spoke to me? Had it been that presence tugging at my mind? Sunlight strobed through the silent pines as I ran.

  “Hello?” I said between breaths — I didn’t need to breathe, but it was a comforting habit while I ran. “Is someone there?”

  “I am!”

  I looked around wildly, suspecting a frenzied monkey to jump out of the pines above, but that voice distinctly came from below my feet. Glancing down between my feet, I saw a smile in the dirt road.

  “It was me!” said the road. “Ha, ha! I spoke to you!”

  I met the road’s eyes as I continued running.

  “Hello,” I said. “It would have been nice if you had spoken to me when I was lost.”

  “Sorry, I was shy.”

  “It’s alright. I’m glad to meet you now.”

  “Me too! Thanks for helping those people. You sure are a wonderful guy!”

  “Well, I don’t know about all —”

  “Hey, you’re almost at the village!”

  The trees fell away, and a tall palisade of sharpened pine appeared in the distance. Judging from the rising ribbons of smoke, Falling Hen Village lay encircled within those walls. A killing field of a couple hundred feet extended between the palisade and the pines.

  From the arrow-studded monkey corpses littering the dirt, the town had been busy defending itself. Recently, since some of the corpses still bled.

  Damned monkey bastards.

  I shouldn’t have let them run away.

  We neared the walls, and an archer at the top shouted for us to stop.

  “Who goes there?” he cried out.

  “My husband, He Dong, is injured,” Luo Hong shouted. “You must let us in.”

  There was a moment of arguing before the doors opened.

  “Hurry!” said an older guard, beckoning for us to enter. “We don’t know when they’ll be back.”

  I helped the family through the gates of Falling Hen Village. It was larger than I expected, with multiple streets of wooden houses and shops surrounding the town square where a market was in the process of being disassembled.

  The village served as a central hub for the farmers, hunters, and other people living in the surrounding pine forest. All those people seemed to be gathered, watching the gates as the guards helped lift He Dong onto a stretcher.

  The way the family all looked toward each other, their relief shining through their fear, reminded me of my family from the prairie enough to cause a little twang in my heart.

  I hoped my family was keeping well. I trusted that Special Inspector Deng knew the correct year, but sixty-seven years was a long time to be a farmer. Though in a world of cultivation, it wasn’t impossible they were still alive. Just look at me.

  I just needed to stay positive and hope I had a family to return to.

  Otherwise…

  “Don’t get all mopey on me!” Cabbagy shouted as I lifted him from the cart and tucked him under my arm. “Who knows when the enemy will return? You’ll need ice in your veins and fire in your heart — none of this weeping nonsense!”

  I did my best to ignore him as the family was ushered into one of the makeshift shelters set up outside the doctor’s clinic. There were clearly more people here than the town could support. Some kind of refugee situation?

  Now that the family was safely delivered, I let myself wander away. Nobody tried to stop me. People were busy in the streets, and though I walked around, I saw nothing of interest and so found myself back at the gate where I’d entered the town. Since there was nothing to do here, I might as well get back on the road. That flower wasn’t going to pick itself.

  Before I could ask for them to open the gate, they crossed their spears.

  “You cannot leave,” they said. “The captain wishes to speak with you.”

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