Depthless Hunger

Chapter 425: The Great Verdant River Sect

Dispersing the slaves slowed them down slightly, but Kai estimated that the distance they moved south in a month couldn't have been completed much faster. The others must have made the same estimation, and considering that they needed time to train and prepare, they didn't complain about his do-gooding. Though in the cases of the Cloudspire peasants, he wasn't sure how much he had actually helped them.

Now their ship only had a number of Krysali with them, and though Kai had been careful to remember their names, the fact remained that he only really knew Cragrila. The others had known him, of course, but far more people recognized him in Krysal than he could possibly know. Thankfully they treated him with that odd sort of veneration he remembered, so they didn't expect him to be a close friend.

Along the way, he continued to train his monstrous abilities. Back in the Western Wilds, Omilaena had urged him to specialize, and after trying that with Manticore's Quill, he realized that it could work in many ways. When he used the full power of Thunderbird's Wings, he released shockwaves that devastated weaker fighters, but he could fly without shockwaves using only one form of energy. With qi, he could hover more like a cultivator; with mana, he flew completely silently; and with chakra, his wings grew out and allowed easier direction shifts. If he could master all three, Thunderbird's Wings would become more effective even if it wasn't stronger in absolute power.

The closer they got to the deep south, the more excited Zae Zin Nim became. She seemed certain that they could unlock the Masterful Crown clan's new secret to immortality and he could only hope that she was right. Whatever else was true, the Verdant River sect was supposed to be a powerful one, so it wouldn't be easy to simply steal their secrets.

Omilaena was the one who was truly energetic, though, bouncing from experiment to experiment. For once she didn't seem to need much from him, since her work was related to purely human attributes. She had described her revelations to him and he thought he understood the premise, but his monstrous soul was a massive unknown compared to all the rest. When she flounced up to him he had no idea which direction she might go with the encounter.

"Kai, do you know if the Frontier elites ever integrate new types of energy to enhance their abilities?"

"I don't know more than you do," he told her. "If you didn't get any specific information from them when we were there, you're out of luck."

"Damn. I'm just trying to figure out if every possible combination of soul parts is viable. Surely some must be better than others, right?" Omilaena leaned against him like he was a wall, less seducing than just distracted. "Some are obvious: the Essence and Element aspects are very close together, so they synergize. Some seem like nonsense: what would it mean to mix Physique and Soul? I need more data if I'm going to draw any real conclusions, because it's all a bit too complex to be neat and tidy..."

"What about Classes that use chakra?"

"What? Tell me."

"When we first went to Rosemount, there were some immigrants from Deadwaste who attacked me. They had Classes that were stronger than average and I saw them as 'Chakra-engorged Classes' in my spiritual sight. None of them were particularly powerful though, and they didn't have refined Class abilities."

"Holy shit, I could kiss you." Omilaena grabbed the sides of his head, her eyes wide. "In fact, I might as well. This is exactly the sort of thing I need, weird offshoots that haven't been polished by generations... so what exactly were they like?"

Kai did his best to remember the minor details of a bunch of thugs he'd fought years ago. Even though it didn't seem all that interesting to him, Omilaena soaked up the information, ending up plastered against him. By the time he'd finished, she was wiggling happily, and he still had no idea if she was going to fuck him or go run off to do an experiment.

"Forget a kiss, that's worth something more." Omilaena practically thrust her tongue into his mouth, but at that moment there was a shout from the prow of the ship.

Omilaena barely seemed to notice, but Kai reluctantly peeled her off and went to go look. Cragrila stood at the front, staring forward, and now turned back to him with a grim expression. Despite her apparent determination, he saw that she looked a little pale.

"We're almost to the work site," she said. "I know there's a major sect headquarters near here, and I could lead you to the hidden site, but I don't know anything else about the geography. You'd better scout before we run into anyone else."

"Where's our resident expert?" Omilaena asked, now just leaning off him in a casual pose.

Zae Zin Nim emerged to stand beside them, frowning at the landscape. "As far as I know, the Verdant River sect is primarily stationed just south of here, with agricultural land further south. The region must be heavily guarded, but I don't know exactly how."

"Then we'd better head down before we accidentally run into someone. Someone else should take a sword and see what they can notice."

That was actually his role - Kai didn't use it often, but Mutefang's Stealth was their best spiritual hiding technique aside from shrouds. He pulled one of the flying swords out of his spatial ring and glanced to Zae Zin Nim, silently asking if she wanted to go along. To his surprise, she stepped up onto the sword, which put them side by side.

"This is only so that I can be hidden by your ability," she said.

Kai nodded. "Right."

"If I wanted to be affectionate, I would just ask." Zae Zin Nim pulled his arms around her, so he hugged her back against his chest. "Now, let's go scout."

While the ship went under the tree cover along one of the smaller rivers, Kai took their flying sword toward the clouds. Usually that was boring, since it just made the sea of trees smaller, but this time he could see the differences in the landscape. They were clearly passing from one of the great wild areas of the Southern Rivers to real civilization again. Based on what he remembered from the map, there was another region of cities, sects, and villages from here to the coast.

Abruptly he spotted something else: a line of unnatural green cutting through the forest. It was a wall of some sort, mixing in with the foliage at most angles and yet repelling the plants around it. Worse, there was a subtle layer of qi extending into the sky that would have blocked, or perhaps fried, anyone who tried to get over it.

"What's the barrier technique protecting?" Kai asked. "Surely they don't have problems with the minor forest monsters."

"It's to keep people out, not monsters." Zae Zin Nim peered at it and then slowly nodded. "That isn't just the Verdant River sect's most secure location, it's one of the most important for the entire Masterful Crown clan. The outer wall is a shield and illusion, and there will be several more layers, then in the very center must be the Loam of the Gods."

"So they have one of the Insanities and they keep it down here?"

"They don't have a choice. In order to grow things in it, they need to keep the soil in its natural location and harvest it. I don't know where the line between legend and reality is, because they like to promote rumors about just how much the Loam can accomplish. But I'm willing to bet that alchemy using plants grown here could be related to their new immortality technique."

"What would that mean?" Kai mused. "Did they get better at using it, or is the Loam getting stronger?"

"No one can say. But we may find out soon."

Normally flying along with his wife would have been pleasant, but since they needed to scout and their journey was ending, Kai found himself too tense. Across all those barriers, there was a single object that could shift the fate of continents. He wanted to see it... however long it took them to actually get through those barriers.

Of course they couldn't break in directly, not without preparation, so instead they turned east parallel to the wall, following the ship hidden below. It was harder to spot now that Cragrila and the other Krysali had been taught a better shrouding technique, but they had the same general plan.

Before they could fly back down, Kai saw another flying ship on the horizon. At first they both tensed, ready to fight if it had seen them, but the ship drifted peacefully west. It was emblazoned with the golden crown symbol of the Masterful Crown sect and it passed through the barrier with only a ripple of qi. Since there was nothing else in the sky, Kai continued watching it, looking for any hints that might help them infiltrate later.

Instead, he saw the bottom of the ship open and dump corpses onto the land below.

Hundreds of bodies tumbled out, so small and loose from a distance that he almost didn't want to believe they could really be people. But he identified the forms and there was definitely no life left in them. The bloody mess fell toward the forest and then disappeared into the illusion, leaving no trace.

"Why would they do that?" Kai asked.

"I don't know." Zae Zin Nim pushed back further into his embrace, staring at the barrier.

When they caught up to the others, Kai was thinking about how to explain what they'd seen, then ended up saying nothing because the others seemed tense enough. Cragrila was pacing around the deck, gripping her new spear, and Omilaena leaned against one side. She was smoking with apparent ease, but he could smell the intensity of her poison.

"So you figured that's the Loam area?" she asked. "So did we. Cragrila says the main work camps are further east, and there should be other Krysali left alive there. Seems like there are transfers between the high and low security areas."

"It's still high security," Cragrila snapped, "the work camp just doesn't have those giant barriers. But yeah, they transfer dirt from inside and make us work qi or crystals into it. Sometimes they take workers in, and they don't come out. I can show you the guards and the outposts, but that's all I know."

"Since we can't take on a barrier like that now, I figured we'd start with the camp. Get more intelligence there and decide on our next move. Any issues?"

Kai shook his head, so they kept flying onward toward the source of the corpses.

Chapter 426: Becoming a Monstrous Predator

After the long journey south they had finally reached their destination: slaves, answers, and potentially even immortality were all within reach. The only problem now was that such things were never undefended, and even outside of the great barriers, each of the camps had a strong guard of cultivators. Cragrila had taken them close to the outer perimeter and showed them the different locations, which was where they planned now.

"The work camps only produce raw materials," Cragrila told them, "which are brought into the barrier, or into the Verdant River sect's headquarters. That's all I know."

"The raw materials probably aren't worth much," Omilaena said. "They have reasonably strong groups of guards, but the rest is security by obscurity. I'm not sure it's worth pursuing them directly."

Zae Zin Nim nodded. "I agree. Based on the qi I sense, it seems likely that they're developing materials for their immortality elixirs, but we don't have a chance of recreating the formulas on our own."

"Which means that there isn't much to gain by attacking the outer camps."

Both of them turned to look at Kai, who sighed and raised his hands. "Look, I know we're too close to the sect headquarters. Even if we freed them all, they'd just be killed immediately. But you're overlooking another advantage: information. Unless one of you has a way to break through those barriers, we need insider knowledge."

That made them fall silent for a while, exchanging glances that conveyed far more information than he could read. Eventually Cragrila spoke up. "Not to pile on, but there's another problem. The guards have special... necklaces, I guess you could call them?"

"Command medallions," Zae Zin Nim said.

"Right. Whatever they are, they have the ability to speak over distances. They can use those to call alarms - I saw some local cultivators try to break out and the guards were able to summon reinforcements immediately."

"That does increase the difficulty. Headquarters will likely check in with the sect from time to time as well. Based on the shipments, it might be only once every few days, but even that means that if we take any action, we're starting a timer until we face retaliation."

Kai glanced around the group, swallowing his frustration. He accepted that the ideal option wasn't always available to them, and he wasn't going to blindly follow the ethical path if it would lead to disaster. But here, where he was far from an expert, he could easily imagine them ending up going down a selfish path that trampled over innocents. Much as he loved his wives, he knew that Zae Zin Nim and especially Omilaena didn't have the same altruistic drive he did.

"You know..." Omilaena had been sitting back, quietly smoking her pipe, but now she spoke up with smoke escaping her lips. "We could use this as misdirection. Don't make it a direct attack on the Verdant River sect, just a problem that draws their attention."

"How would that work?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"First, Cragrila, were the camps ever attacked by monsters or sacred beasts?"

"Sometimes." The other woman stared back at her and her gaze shifted between them. "But this isn't like Deadwaste and the monsters aren't that strong. The cultivators always took care of them."

"But it's at least a possibility. We've been having Kai hide his monstrous side as much as possible... why not lean into it?" Omilaena turned to him with a venomous smile. "If you think you're capable of it, you could go down to one of the outer camps. Take out the guards before they can send a warning and leave their bodies to be found later, savaged by beasts. Don't let the prisoners see you, just kidnap the ones with useful information and let the others flee. Sound plausible?"

"I suppose it could work." Zae Zin Nim looked somewhat disgruntled, but nodded reluctantly. "A powerful monster coming out of the jungle would be shocking, but not unprecedented. So long as Kai can actually pull it off..."

"I'll try." He closed his eyes and began shifting his essence within him. "I still have Mutefang's Stealth, and I've been working on less explosive attacks. Pick the ideal target for me and I'll try it."

While the others debated the best choice of attack site, Kai sat down and focused on his monstrous side. Except that soon felt wrong... instead he crouched, posture more bestial than human. It felt a bit silly at first, then his body began to change with the Savage Heart. Claws and wings emerged first, and by the time black armored skin covered his body, he barely looked human.

Cragrila stared at him, visibly suppressing discomfort. Unlike many members of the revolution, she hadn't been terrified by his monstrous form, but growing up on Deadwaste with the constant threat of incursions, she definitely wasn't comfortable with it. It seemed insane that he'd come this far, now that he thought about it.

Fully indulging in this side of himself was a surprising relief, like he'd relaxed a muscle he didn't know he'd been clenching. Given how he'd lost control back in Yulthens, and again with Omilaena, he couldn't forget the lesson of letting his hunger out more often. Because the Savage Heart tapped into all his basest impulses, though, his mind was burning. He wanted to slaughter enemies, consume animals whole, grab his wives and take them back to the bedroom...

None of those would help him now. While he transformed, they had chosen their target, so it was time.

Kai moved to the edge of the ship on all fours and peered over the edge at the prison camp. He saw a cultivator in fine robes beating an old man who wasn't working fast enough. Another body in rags lay dead and one of the other guards dragged it away, presumably to be transported along with the others.

Anger wouldn't help him either. Kai focused on the monstrous instincts and felt his mind cool to an engine of calculating hunger. When Omilaena walked beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, he didn't feel any warmth.

"Yeah, we think this one is the best possible distraction." She nodded to the camp, then turned back to him. "This could work out for us, but if you can't pull this off, it will backfire. Be careful."

He growled out a response that may or may not have included a word, then jumped off the side of the ship.

When he hit the water, normally he would have been disgusted by the swampy murk, but in his current state it seemed to slide off him. He could even see fairly well when he opened his eyes, thanks to Sahagin's Soul. Kai swam upriver, reaching the point where the work camp was beside the river, and examined it carefully.

There was a small dock at one side, then walls extending into the jungle to enclose an area that seemed to be a farm for sacred herbs. Something to do with alchemy, more his wives' domain than his. What mattered was that he identified all of the guards on flying swords above the walls, then an outpost outside - separate from the working area, so they didn't fear being attacked in their sleep.

All told he counted twenty guards, including eight at Nascent Foundation stage and two at Earth Soul stage. Half along the walls, some at the dock, one inside beating the slaves, and the rest in the guardhouse. The Verdant River sect was definitely a formidable one, able to send out Earth Souls solely to guard resources like this.

But it really wasn't going to matter.

Two guards by the dock: Kai burst out of the water and caught one with each claw, then dragged them back into the river before they could even scream. If anyone glanced toward the splash, it was already too late. Underwater, he simply crushed them to death, denying his monstrous impulses a little longer.

Next he eliminated the biggest variable: the cultivators biding time in the guardhouse, who might wander or emerge at any moment. Kai opened the door silently and took a deep breath, drawing on Manticore's Quill. As they started to turn toward him, the venomous spikes burst from his body, impaling guard after guard.

The last started to raise his medallion in panic, but Kai was already on top of him, consuming the medallion and his arm in the same bite. After so long not using Isulfr's Bite, he was surprised by how intense the rush of blood was. He tore apart the rest of the bodies with tooth and claw, turning the inside of the guardhouse into a spectacle that no one would imagine had been caused by a person. None of them even had time to cough blood except dying gurgles, and many still had the dark quills embedded in their bodies.

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Now he needed to take out the guards atop the walls, which was the most difficult task. They were spaced evenly around the work camp, presumably covering all angles and ready to sound a warning. Most likely they would first summon one another before sending an alarm to the main sect, or there would be too many false alarms, but he couldn't guarantee that, so best to eliminate them all.

Kai slipped into the forest and circled around the side, then climbed the wall. His claws easily sunk into the stone, taking him to the top just beneath where a cultivator floated. He watched the guard look left and right, waited until he was looking away, then leapt.

One claw went around his mouth, the other went through his chest, then they both dropped back into the woods without a sound. The floating sword hovered a little longer on residual qi, then fell into the trees as well.

Soon the others would notice their missing comrade, but Kai was already racing around the wall of the camp to the opposite side. He pushed Thunderbird's Wings as hard as he could with mana alone, traveling completely silently, then leapt onto the wall. The cultivators were just now starting to look away from him toward the missing guard, more surprised and irritated than afraid.

That was all he needed: Kai raced along one wall of the camp, tearing guards apart on his side while he launched Manticore Quills toward those on the opposite side. Every single guard fell dead except one he intentionally knocked out and separated from his medallion. The last was an Earth Soul, who Kai had left for last because he knew the man would take a moment to draw up his qi and prepare to fight instead of calling for help like a coward.

It turned out that an Earth Soul's qi tasted good.

Only one guard remained, the last Earth Soul down in the camp beating the prisoners. The old man lay limp, but in his current state Kai felt no sadness or guilt, only hunger. Focused on his cruelty, the last cultivator only then started to realize what had happened.

Kai charged directly through the camp wall, shattering the stone on all fours before he reared up in front of the man on his hind legs and tore the medallion off the cultivator's chest. The man let out a cry of fear and launched qi attacks at point blank range, but he was no elite cultivator with any powerful techniques or tricks. Attacking with simply 500 Power was no longer much threat to Kai, and he stepped through the flames and grabbed the last guard around the head. A simple step carried him across the camp to smash him against the opposite wall.

The prisoners, always fearful of punishment, were completely alert to what had just happened. Just in case that wasn't enough, Kai unleashed a weak version of Banchlain's aura. They all began to run from him in terror... conveniently, toward the hole he'd smashed in the wall.

Of course the speed he'd used previously would have killed all of them, but Kai stalked behind them slowly to drive them into the forest. He ignored the locals and focused on the Krysali - he'd hoped for someone else he knew, but they were just random people with crystal cultivation. When he grabbed them he'd planned to knock them out, but they did him a favor by fainting in shock.

Just when Kai started to think that he'd taken those he needed, he noticed a woman who remained in the area. Not out of bravery, instead she clung to a tree planted in one side of the camp. A moment later he blinked as he realized that his monstrous vision was rendering everyone as targets: the more important fact was that her skin was bright green.

Could she be some sort of dryad? Kai hadn't thought about dryads in years, since they didn't usually get into the north of Goralia, but he'd met one during his Hunter Trials. The essential issue was that they didn't have dryads on Cloudspire as far as he knew, only humans.

Much as he'd wanted to rescue an old ally, this could be more important. After checking that all the other prisoners had fled, Kai walked toward her and tried to return to himself. As he did, he let his monstrous traits slough off into pure energy.

The dryad was obviously still fearful for justifiable reasons, but she stared at him in a different sort of shock. "You're... Goralian?"

"That's right." That seemed to confirm his suspicions, which was almost as much of a shock to him. "What are you doing here?"

"You... you killed the guards, but you didn't actually kill any prisoners." She ignored his question, her eyes flickering anxiously around the camp. "Is... is that a Class?"

"Something like that." Kai did his best to look non-threatening, which probably wasn't very good given what he'd just done and the bloody chaos behind him. He gestured toward the tree behind her. "I want to get you safely out of here before any others come, but are you tied to that tree?"

"This one is just temporary, but I'll suffer without a home tree."

"Will it hurt you to move it?"

She shivered and placed a hand against the tree trunk. "They already severed roots so many times transplanting me. Please, I can endure a little discomfort, just get me out of here. Who... who are you?"

The ship descended behind him to hover in the center of the completely devastated camp and his allies jumped out to grab the rescued prisoners and the remaining unconscious cultivator. That meant a cultivator, a poisoner from Rosemount, and a crystallier, so the dryad's eyes bulged further as she stared at them.

Kai used claw-like hands to scratch the back of his neck. "That's kind of hard to explain."

Chapter 427: Dryads in the Southern Rivers

It seemed like the risk had been worth it: Zae Zin Nim confirmed that no qi signals had gone out and Omilaena was interrogating the cultivator left alive for all he was worth. Hopefully Cragrila could help all the rescued captives get over their terror, but for his part Kai was mostly interested in one prisoner.

Her name turned out to be Lifrinyne, and once he got her tree out of the work camp and into other soil she seemed much more composed. Unlike the only other dryad he'd met, she wasn't physically combined with her tree, just bound to trees somehow. He decided not to ruin his reputation as a world traveler by asking how that worked and just assumed she was another species or ethnicity or something.

"Is there anything you need?" he asked. "We'll give you what we can, but we really need information. I know you were probably taken and don't know much, but anything y-"

"Oh, I wasn't stolen from Deadwaste," she said off-hand, then looked around plaintively. "Can I have some water? Just... normal clean water, nothing special."

At that moment Omilaena returned, handing over a water flask. Zae Zin Nim was just behind her and came to stand beside Kai, though she clearly wasn't in an affectionate mood. They'd just started an attack against a formidable sect, after all, and they didn't know how far it would escalate.

Lifrinyne took a long drink, poured some of the water around the base of her temporary tree, then drank again. Once she quenched her thirst, however, she began to compose herself. Compared to the other prisoners, many of whom just begged to go home or struggled with trauma, she seemed unusually focused. While he waited, Kai examined her soul to guess a little more of her story.

<

Name: Lifrinyne

Total Power: 58

Dryad Essence: 14 (42)

Cultivation: Qi Condensation 20% (12)

Soul Level: 2 (4)

>

Most of her strength came from Dryad Essence, which he'd once mistaken for a Class, similar to the lamias from Rosemount. It looked as though she had some local cultivation - just Qi Condensation, but learning how to cultivate and gathering that much took time, so she clearly wasn't a new arrival.

"I don't really know much about our Goralian alliance," Lifrinyne said eventually. "Did you come specifically to investigate?"

"I had no idea anyone from the Southern Reach was here until I saw you," Kai told her. "Why don't you explain what's going on?"

"Then you don't even know about Nymidria?"

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Omilaena suggested.

"Well... I think it started over a century ago." Lifrinyne took another drink of water as she gathered her thoughts. "A dryad named Nymidria was nearly legendary in the Southern Reach, was even considered to join the Frontier elites. Instead she decided to go to Cloudspire, since she felt some kinship to this place - Southern Rivers, Southern Reach, you might understand. Unlike most, she actually survived and in fact thrived.

"It still isn't common, but sometimes people from the Southern Reach come over to join her. There's a small community of us and we're valued by the local sects because we can grow some things they can't. Once you get into qi-rich soil, it can potentially be excellent for your growth."

"I'd like to ask more about that later," Omilaena said, "but we need to know more about the politics of the situation. Are these dryads a faction of a major sect?"

"I think we're treated as a sect of our own, but we're closely allied with the Verdant River sect." Lifrinyne took another slow drink. "Please understand, I'm not an expert or highly ranked. I had just started to live there - I haven't even met Nymidria myself. But while I was relocating, I was torn from my tree by those cultivators and taken to the work camp."

"Surely that's a violation of your alliance." Zae Zin Nim folded her arms in her sleeves and stared at the dryad. "How could such a thing be allowed? Does Nymidria not have the strength to protect her own?"

"I think she doesn't know. She's strong... even for here, I think. Not the strongest, but enough that she's respected, so... I'm not explaining this well. What I heard in the community is that relations have soured. The Verdant River sect used to be a close ally, but in recent years they've gotten more and more desperate. We heard rumors that they were capturing cultivators from enemy clans, but we never imagined they would touch one of us. If we can just get to Nymidria, surely she..."

Given how brutal Cloudspire politics could be, Kai wasn't willing to bet on the kindness of a dryad who had been living here for a century. He still gave an encouraging smile and nodded, since it actually might work in their plans, but first they needed more information.

"How much do you know about Nymidria?" he asked. "Why here, and why this specific sect?"

"As I understand it... she hoped to access the Loam of the Gods." Lifrinyne hesitated, as if expecting them to be surprised when she named an Insanity, but they only kept watching her. "If it can make herbs grow so quickly and so powerfully, what would happen to a dryad planted in such soil? But she's never even gotten close. For decades they've implied promises and strung her along, but she's never even seen the Loam."

Kai could understand why the dryad leader might be willing to remain anyway, given the potential benefits. Most of the Insanities were either threats or so overwhelming that people couldn't even interact with them, but if a dryad could gain the strength of such powerful soil, it could shake the continent. No doubt the Verdant River sect knew the same thing and had no intentions of ever allowing it.

"Forget about that," Omilaena said, "what did they want with you in particular?"

"I'm not really sure." Lifrinyne shook her head slowly. "They were always forcing me to grow strange fruit, or taking my bark, or conducting strange qi rituals. It all seemed to be to push power back into the soil, like they were trying to enrich it. They were making us work fields, but they didn't seem to care about the results except to test them."

"They're experimenting." Zae Zin Nim nodded as if everything made sense now. "There's some sort of alchemy problem they're working on that requires new materials. So they're grabbing qi crystals, dumping bodies, using dryads, anything they think might give them the materials they need."

"Dumping bodies?" Lifrinyne stared between them anxiously and Kai put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. He realized later that might be a mistake, but to his surprise she didn't flinch away from it.

"We've seen the sect do some terrible things," he told her, "which is why we took action. But now we need more information. Do you know anything about the barriers?"

"I have no idea, but Nymidria would. She's been scouting them for years, trying to find a way inside, so she knows more than anyone. I could introduce you to our community, I guarantee they would take you in. Nymidria herself is planted in the sect headquarters, but you might be able to get access. I'm sure if we tell her about what's happened, she'll take action."

"Those seem like good options," Omilaena said, "but would we be spotted by cultivators?"

Lifrinyne shrugged. "Some of them pass through the town built beside ours, but would they know your faces? Our community is secure, and there are many secret areas in the forests, so I'm sure you could find a place to stay."

"We can't go quite yet," Kai said. "There are still other work camps out there. I know we can't free them all, but we might be able to pull this off once or twice more, and you never know what information we could uncover. It would be a good distraction for the sect if you plan to act against them directly, too."

He expected some push-back, but the others took surprisingly little convincing, so they only had to discuss the details. Omilaena would investigate the dryad community, Zae Zin Nim would scout the Verdant River sect, and Kai would remain behind to strike again. They made him agree to wait until the sect started to react, in order to put them further off balance, and he didn't mind: the time in between would give him a good opportunity to pick the best targets.

When Kai had first suggested attacking one of the work camps he hadn't been lying, exactly, but he hadn't been confident that it would have great benefits for them. People like Cragrila were uncommon, after all, and indeed they hadn't found any Krysali who would be even slightly useful. But the encounter with Lifrinyne had transformed their knowledge of the area and given them a new angle to attack the Verdant River sect.

Most likely none of the other attacks would be anywhere near as significant. He'd kill a few cultivators, rescue a few people, and disrupt the enemy sect a little. That was enough, as far as he was concerned.

As Kai returned to the jungle, the dark armor began to close over his body and he felt his teeth sharpen.

Chapter 428: Unexpected Growth in Unexpected Places

Several days later, Kai was ready to choose his next target. When no shipments came in from the destroyed work camp, the sect sent a group to investigate - the group only had one Earth Soul and they didn't seem to take the threat particularly seriously until they saw the damage.

Kai resisted the urge to shadow them, just in case they had someone extremely sensitive, and also decided not to attack the expedition. Taking out a few more cultivators wasn't worth losing the appearance of random attacks. Instead, he waited until they started looking for the fleeing prisoners. The first one they found kowtowed immediately and babbled about being attacked by a monster, then to Kai's surprise the scout group just killed him.

So he picked a work camp on the opposite side of the region and attacked it. The first had been a proof of concept, so this time he was even more efficient. There was only one Earth Soul guarding this one, but he actually nearly grabbed his medallion before Kai froze him with Void Gaze.

In that camp he discovered that male dryads existed and carried off the man's tree. This dryad had a similar story to Lifrinyne, and mostly redundant information, so Kai just replanted him far enough away that he'd be picked up by the others. It might be useful to have multiple witnesses for the dryad matriarch, assuming that she was willing to listen.

That left him with a more difficult decision. Taking out the second camp had been easy, and drawn all the attention away from the escaped prisoners to further attacks, but also meant the cultivators were reinforcing their numbers. A third attack would have less impact and greater risk of ruining the ruse. If the Verdant River sect ever suspected this was a calculated plan to undermine them instead of a random monster, the plan would lose much of its effectiveness.

Still in full monstrous form, Kai lurked through the swamps, considering his remaining options. He didn't want to push too far and risk everything, but would hate himself for not pushing far enough if he could have done more. In the end, he decided that he could justify one last attack: right in the center, against one of the largest camps.

Maybe it would accomplish nothing, but he wouldn't have given up and told himself it was prudence.

There were no fewer than four Earth Souls this time, so he decided against trying to eliminate the entire camp cleanly. Instead he waited until night and attacked like a wild beast, targeting their military capacity instead of trying to free anyone. He lunged out of the shadows and struck wildly, a terror in the night that left the guards rushing about in chaos. Once the Earth Souls were dead, the rest had no real chance of containing what he'd started.

This camp had something new: a small building with binding qi around it. Kai smashed through the door, just on principle, and discovered there was a group of prisoners who were apparently strong enough to require being imprisoned at night. Glancing over them he saw moderately high Power, so he tore through the barrier as if he intended to eat them.

"The strong prisoners!" A cultivator flying overhead saw him and began pointing. "Stop the beast before it-" He cut off as one of Kai's quills went through his neck, but there were more cultivators coming.

By that point, however, the prisoners were ripping out of the ropes that had tied them, now that the binding technique was no longer limiting their strength. They clearly considered him the biggest threat, scrambling away, so Kai let out a roar to chase them off instead of doing anything lethal. Maybe they could cause more trouble for the guards and actually get away.

Suddenly he realized that he knew one of them: the grim, scar-covered woman among the others was Nirka. He hadn't seen her since he'd been forced to flee Yulthens.

<

Name: Nirka of N District

Total Power: 182

Crystal Cultivation: 1609 (57)

Physique Level: E-7 (100)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

>

His body acted on instinct, lunging out to grab her with one claw. She tried to fight back, stabbing him with some sort of improvised knife, but it broke against his armored skin. On his way out, Kai bit into another cultivator and carried the body in his teeth so that it would look like he was just carrying off food instead of rescuing someone.

The cultivators chased him for a while, but as soon as he started using Thunderbird's Wings he lost them in the jungle. By that point Nirka had gone still, more uncertain than combative. Once he got far enough away to be secure, Kai set her down and began to shift back to human form.

"Calm down," he said in a half-growl. "It's me."

"You!" Her eyes went wide and he saw tears in them, then she lunged forward and beat his chest with her fists. "You scared me half to death like that! You couldn't have said something?"

"We need them to fear a monster, not a human enemy, so I couldn't risk it. Is there anyone else back there I should try to rescue?"

"We... we were planning to try to break out, even if they probably would have stopped us. Those Earth Souls are just too strong, but you... I think the others will survive... it looked like everyone was hunting for you."

"And that's the way we want it." Kai started to turn away, but to his surprise Nirka hurled herself at his chest.

"I can't believe it... I haven't seen you since Yulthens..."

He instinctively put his arms around her and felt her body shudder as she released emotions that she'd no doubt been keeping bottled up for a long time. Kai felt a bit uncomfortable holding an ex-lover like that, but she clearly needed the comfort.

After this, he headed back to join up with the others. Last time he hadn't been careful in his personal relationships, it had caused a lot of drama and likely limited the development of what had become his marriage. Clearly, he needed to choose his actions very carefully and not screw this up...

.

..

.

At first Nirka had been stunned that Kai had abandoned Yulthens, though as the years passed and she saw the strength of Earth Soul cultivators, she understood why he'd needed to do so. He'd bought them years to build Krysal back up, even if it had gotten ugly again at the end, and she'd thanked him for it. When the people spoke about him fondly, she could smile along with them.

Yet in her heart she had always wondered if he was dead, or if he somehow survived the hell of other continents, she had assumed that he would never come back. Meeting him here, in Cloudspire, like this... she never could have imagined it.

On their way out of the region, she was shocked to see him slaughter another Earth Soul. It wasn't the way he tore the man apart, since she had seen his savagery before, just the fact that he had done it so easily. Her spiritual sight struggled with the intensity of Cloudspire, yet she estimated he had approaching 800 Power... just how much higher was his true strength? He casually mentioned that he had killed five or six of that cultivation stage and considered it just a step in his ongoing war.

That evening when they made camp he pulled an entire meal out of the strange ring on his finger, which was a feast after what she'd been fed. When it came time to sleep, he revealed two tents as well. She would have been offended if he'd made assumptions and shown only one, but that night she found herself lying awake thinking about their relationship.

Throughout the next day she needed to ride on his back at times, given the speeds they moved, and Nirka rested against the wall of muscle. They moved shockingly quickly, leaving the swampy region behind and moving further south. In the distance there seemed to be an unending raincloud that was mysterious to her, but she didn't want to think about that.

Had their relationship been so bad, despite its rocky moments? After the grueling torment of the work camp, she desperately needed to feel someone, and it was that desperation that had brought them together in the crystal mines in the first place.

That night she sat down next to him and brushed her thigh against his, and to her surprise, he shifted away. Even when she made more forward offers, he quietly deflected them. She knew he had slept around, after their relationship broke, so what had become of him? Surely he hadn't become a celibate monk.

The idea seemed impossible because there was an animal magnetism to him now, a strength she found even more attractive than before. He'd been bold when they first met, but he was even more confident in himself now. When he moved, especially in his monstrous form, she was sure there was a savage need within him, yet he continued to reject her.

When she actually brought it up directly, he said something vague about being in a relationship, which almost sounded like a lie to her. Hadn't he gotten over any residual anger toward her? She didn't understand why he would reject her and make excuses as if to protect his ego. Whatever the reason, he maintained a wall of distance between them.

It continued when they finally met up with Cragrila, since Kai only gave her a stiff nod. Then again, that was the energy Cragrila usually presented to the world. Nirka was having none of that and moved forward to embrace the other woman.

"I'm so glad you're still alive," she breathed.

"They got you too, huh?" Cragrila eventually pulled her back, though she kept her close. "Have they kept raiding Krysal?"

"No, there was just one last attack after you disappeared. The Frontier elites came to intercept the others, though they didn't seem happy about it. They were winning, but a group of cultivators got around them and used one of those binding techniques on me and some others, and dragged us away with them."

"Do you know how many are dead?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't be sure because I was taken." Nirka shook her head as she thought about everyone left behind. "Maggle and Krainuun were both fine when I last saw them. Yurwa and Gundle moved deep into the country after the attack where the cultivators captured you, so I think they're safe. But that's all I know."

"We'll get back to them one day, but not yet." Cragrila nodded toward Kai, who meditated some distance away, giving them space. "He's saved as many Krysali as he can, and we're gathering out in the forest, further east. You can join us if y-"

"No. I know I'm not strong enough to fight the higher cultivators, but I want to help. You and Kai are making decisions about what to do next, right?"

"I'm really just providing support. Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena are making the decisions."

Nirka blinked, not having thought about either woman for years. Omilaena was the temptress who had joined the revolution and stayed on their side despite the fact that she seemed utterly untrustworthy - how had she kept her claws in Kai this long? Zae Zin Nim was the scarred cultivator, of course. She had as many scars as Nirka, but unlike the silver lines from crystal cuts, hers were ugly and black. Kai was still traveling in the same group after so long? She'd expected him to grow up some, given how long it had been.

When they all reunited, however, Nirka was left astonished. Zae Zin Nim had been transformed, with untouched skin that made blindingly obvious how beautiful she was. Even more shocking, the three of them came together in an embrace that was far from chaste. Surely it couldn't be...

The cultivator woman glared at her over Kai's shoulder and Nirka hastily redirected her gaze.

That night when they made camp, Nirka felt awkward and off balance, so she decided to retire to her tent early. As she tried to fall asleep, she realized that the tent next to her was definitely occupied by all three of them. Having a very good time, based on the sounds. All three together? But... it sounded like... Nirka grimaced and wrapped her pillow around her head to try to drown it out.

Now she realized that she had lost him forever, but more than that, she wondered how such a thing could have happened.