As the sun set, and the forest descended into darkness, Jun Li slowly enjoyed a meal at the Creekside. At her side, she opened her pouch and looked over her haul.

  She had obtained sixteen Beast Cores since noon; six hours had passed since then, and she felt fairly relaxed.

  Three Cores an hour felt like a good pace to her, good enough that she wasn’t too stressed to rest at least.

  Taking comfort in her soup, Jun Li couldn’t help but remark. “So peaceful…” She felt almost enamored by the forest, seeing it as something more serene than anything she had seen before.

  It was an odd sentiment to have, covered in blood and fighting Magical Beasts to the death every hour.

  But she didn’t even consider the killing as a struggle; in her memory, it felt no less natural than cooking soup or gathering Medicinal Plants.

  Unaware of her own mind, Jun Li’s gaze was drawn to the Creekside by a pale glint, slipping through the smooth stones.

  As it got closer, Jun Li saw it for what it was, a small white snake.

  It was a tiny thing; if not for her Cultivation, Jun Li wouldn’t have been able to identify it from even as few steps away as she was.

  Focusing closer, Jun Li noticed an inconsistency on the snake’s body.

  As the snake lifted its body to look her way, Jun Li saw a single, large scale on the snake’s underbelly, facing in the opposite direction of its other scales.

  This single misaligned scale weighed on Jun Li’s mind for a moment, a previously obscured memory bubbling to the surface. ‘…A Reverse Scale…?’

  Her memories told her it was a symbol of dragons. A common trait among all the myriad draconic species that tied them together as Heaven's most favored Beasts.

  For a moment, she thought it was a coincidence that this snake, which had begun to gaze in her direction, had this scale; perhaps it could have been an aberration of some sort with an odd birth defect, or perhaps an injury that displaced a regular scale, but it felt too natural.

  The snake in front of her was, though young, a Magical Beast, a creature that shouldn’t be subject to mundane deformities.

  Jun Li sank deeper into thought as the snake slowly began making its way over to her. It didn’t seem particularly draconic to Jun Li.

  As tiny and smooth as it was, it lacked any claws or horns, it had no fur or whiskers, and it certainly didn’t seem like it could fly.

  In the end, she could only conclude that it had some sort of very faint draconic bloodline, but that it had degraded over millennia until all that remained was a misaligned scale. 'I suppose it's an auspicious sign, if nothing else.'

  As Jun Li was trying and failing to find any memories backing up her assumption, she felt her heart jump as something crept up onto the side of her ankle, almost jumping up from her seated position.

  Seeing the white snake creep up onto her leg, Jun Li felt too baffled to form a thought.

  As the snake started staring her in the face, Jun Li’s mind creaked into motion.

  “Do you… want this…?” Jun Li reached into her now partially-cooled cauldron, grabbed a small piece of meat, about the size of a fingertip, and slowly placed it in front of the snake’s mouth, half expecting it to lash out and bite her hand.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The snake, however, readily accepted the offering, pulling the chunk of meat from Jun Li’s fingers, and slowly twisting its jaw to work the meal down its gullet. 'Weird little thing… why does it seem so relaxed around me? I thought snakes were meant to be skittish'

  As Jun Li watched the snake finish eating, she remembered the Trial and reached out to lift the snake down from her leg.

  As her hand approached the snake, however, it slid up and over her outstretched palm, quickly making its way up her arm.

  Though she was alarmed at first, as Jun Li saw the snake settling in behind the hem of her collar, she felt helpless.

  “I guess we’re sticking together then…” Despite feeling like she had no choice in the matter, having a new companion at her side made Jun Li feel a bit less lonely. ‘I suppose I can’t feed them pickled vegetables from the Sect Repository… I wonder if there are some crickets or slugs around here…’

  Jun Li quickly cleaned her cauldron and tied it together with the furnace. As she finished her preparations, Jun Li touched her bandaged left arm. ‘It doesn’t look like any blood soaked through the medicinal paste, and it feels a bit numb… it worked better than I thought.’

  Clenching her fist, Jun Li was quite satisfied with the efficacy of the herbs she found, mundane as they were.

  As the hour passed, the last shreds of twilight lingering in the canopy vanished. Left in the dark, Jun Li felt her hair stand on end as she lost her sight.

  Whatever advantage she may have had over the Beasts of the forest, it wouldn’t matter if she couldn’t see a thing.

  Slowly, Jun Li’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the forest, but even after a minute, and even with her Cultivation, her vision was so impaired that she couldn’t even be sure she was alone at the creekside anymore.

  Just as Jun Li continued to adjust to the lack of light, a visceral roar caused her heart to lurch; whatever Beast that made it, it was too close for comfort, and too powerful to bother fighting.

  Quietly rushing in the opposite direction, Jun Li leapt up a tree, seeking to disconnect herself from the forest in whatever shallow way she could.

  ‘Quietly and carefully, I need to be the one to initiate fights, I can’t be caught off-guard…’ Jun Li steadied her breath and leapt from tree to tree as quietly as she could.

  Listening carefully, Jun Li moved quickly whenever she heard noise, bounding forward in hopes of finding a Beast before it found her.

  Eventually, the sound of a struggle reached Jun Li’s ears.

  As she followed after it, she rose higher into the forest canopy, seeking a vantage from which she could observe the source of the sound without being seen herself.

  Embedding her awl into the thick bark of a tree, Jun Li made her own foothold to look down on the scene in front of her.

  Below, a small stretch of forest had been cut down, smooth tree stumps littering the area, the bodies of the severed trees haphazardly scattered about the area.

  Many leaned against the intact trees at the edge of the clearing, creating a chaotic web of trunks, branches, and obscuring foliage that filled the area.

  Below, Jun Li could barely make out two silhouettes flitting through the mess of trees below. ‘Is it two Beasts or…’

  Jun Li didn’t want to waste time watching another disciple fighting, but if it was a fight between two Beasts, then it would be a lucky encounter for her, even if she had to wait a few minutes for a victor to emerge.

  Before she could identify the silhouettes, however, a shadow directly below Jun Li grabbed her attention.

  From the edge of the clearing, the shadow, clearly that of a Beast, slowly crept through the fallen trees, getting closer and closer to the fight ahead. ‘Ahh… I can’t risk it, if it's another disciple down there, I don't really want to watch them get ambushed and die…’

  Pulling her awl from the tree, Jun Li stepped off the trunk and fell towards the clearing.

  Focusing her breath into her Reverse Qinggong, Jun Li fell like a stone towards the Beast below.

  Landing hard, Jun Li didn’t even bounce as she sank her awl into the mole-like Beast’s back.

  Alarmed at the sudden pain, the Beast jolted back and thrashed its body to try and dislodge its attacker.

  Yet before it could, Jun Li had already leapt away behind a fallen tree, distancing herself from any retaliation.

  “Hey! Is someone there!?” Jun Li quickly called out to the dueling silhouettes, hoping she hadn’t put herself in danger for no reason.

  From behind the obscuring tangle, a feminine voice rang out, sounding entirely unstrained. “Another disciple…? I’m not interested in fighting over any Beast Cores if that’s your concern.”