Corpse looked up and the sky was still a picture of indescribable beauty but there was one thing that bothered him. There was no Sun. Both of them had walked for several hours, maybe 12, maybe more. It was kind of hard to tell, but at least on his homeworld, it would be enough for sunrise.
Currently, Corpse sat on a rotten stump in front of a small fire and ate, what he assumed was soup, since the damn thing tasted like nothing. He saw the old monk prepare the whole thing but he could have sworn, the old thing exchanged meat with paper at some point. Anyway, when not slurping his soup he conversed with the old monk, " How long till sunrise? " The old monk thoughtfully rubbed his chin and answered, " Eh if you want sun, you might have to sleep for a bit, how does a Millenium sound? " A bit shocked Corpse asked. " Is the Sun that far away? "
The old monk chuckled in that particular knowing manner. " Nah, but if you wait so long somebody bored might come around and make one while you're napping. " Corpse rolled his eyes. " Then how come this desolate hell hole, isn't a frozen desolate hell hole? " The old monk sipped that tasteless soup of his and explained, " Touch the ground! Can you feel how warm it is? " Corpse put away his bowl and touched the ground. Indeed he felt like his palm just touched a lukewarm teapot
The old monk continued his lecture, " While I'm not sure of the mechanics but the heat necessary for life to prosper seems to be produced internally on Myris. Unlike in other more normal worlds where it is absorbed from man-made or natural celestial bodies. Because of that, some believe that there is a hidden inheritance from some ancient cultivator deep underground. Only thing is, HeHe, people don't tend to come back after going underground. "
"Also.." The old monk spoke with played up bitterness. " The grass here is edible, in case someone is ungrateful about the food given to them, that always is an option ." Corpse snorted without a bit of shame. " If your cooking continues to taste like white mesh I might have to do just that. " He ripped out a few stalks of grass and brought them closer for inspection. Their bright green color had faded a bit. He inspected them again, smelled them, but still didn't taste them. Corpse dubiously asked. " Are you sure you're not going senile? Seems like any other grass to me. "
Again the old monk answered with that knowing smile of his, " Oh! Quite sure. Only thing is, the grass will also color your teeth bright green, and the locals don't tend to like that. Calling such people cows or other such nasty things " Corpse allowed the grass to fall to the ground. " I'm also not much of herbivore myself. "
Afterward, Corpse quickly finished his unfulfilling meal, and the old monk cleaned up. His bowl vanished into the old monk's dirty sleeve without even getting washed and Corpse silently swore never to eat from that ever again. Soon the two men continued their seemingly endless march, but they were forced to stop quicker than any of them anticipated.
Tension filled the air as it was finally the old monks' turn to satisfy his curiosities, and Corpse wasn't pleased. Question after question seemed to stab at his week points and he was forced to face things he, perhaps even unintentionally, avoided, and Corpse simply snapped.
Corpse snarled, " Fascinating, you think my fucking situation is fascinating? " The old monk tried to respond in a calm manner, " Please listen, there is a chance..... " But he was rudely interrupted by the angry youth, " I need no chances, I just need to know how I can undo whatever has happened to me." The previously playful old man now spoke calmly and seriously, " As is your right, I just ask that you make no hasty decisions." Seeing that Corpse was silent for the moment the old monk continued, " Through a quirk of fate, it's possible that you gained access to a power that's rarely seen and if you were to cultivate it.... "
But Corpse was unconvinced and his moment of calmness passed. " What power? I'm so broken I fell to the Qi gathering realm and can't even properly cultivate anymore. Trash isn't rare to find, hell, there's plenty of it here. I don't know if you find some cruel joy in messing with my head, trying to ruin what little of me there is left, but I'll have none of it. Follow me and heavens be my witness you'll pay for it. "
Corpse stormed off quickly picking up speed and left the monk behind in a matter of seconds. Despite the weird state his body was in, his speed was nothing to scoff at, but Corpse was way to worked up to notice that. The old monk didn't give chase and simply looked towards the direction that Corpse fled to. He sighed at the hot bloodedness of youth and sat down in a lotus position. He closed his eyes and started meditating, with no intention of moving.
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Corpse ran for good two hours. He kept up the same pace the whole way through. He stopped only because he found a wreck of a large spirit ship, that he could climb and use as a vantage point. After he stopped Corpse was surprised to find he was still hungry, but wasn't all that tired, despite keeping up a pace that would kill a normal person. For a moment he considered what the old monk tried to say but he quickly dismissed it. " Must be leftover qi from my broken aperture, " he rationalized.
He carefully maneuvered the wreckage and climbed the almost broken mast of the spirit boat. Several times during the climb he almost fell down, but he persevered. Once Corpse actually got to the top, a part of him wished that he had fallen off. 500 meters above ground, nothing to obstruct his vision, and the horizon was nothing but green glowing grass.
Corpse stared at the sky in an absentminded manner thinking just what the hell should he do. The view above seemed to be the only comfort that heaven would allow him. But not even that would last as a red streak cut through the sky at extremes speed and quickly flew over the horizon. It flashed by so fast that Corpse didn't even manage to see what it was but after a few seconds, the earth trembled as something in the distance crashed into the ground.
For a few seconds, the world was covered in silence but soon just like a hornet's nest that just got kicked, the whole damn plane seemed to wake up. Horns thundered in the distance from every imaginable direction, some far too close for comfort.Corpse was currently a sitting duck and if anyone managed to find him while he was still up there...
Yet he didn't panic. It wasn't experience, it wasn't logic, it was something akin to instinct. If he messed up he's dead. So he carefully got down. He made sure he didn't break the mast that barely held on and did the only thing he could do. Corpse hid. He needed to lay low for a few hours if not even days so he found the most intact looking room in the wreckage and sat against the wall biding his time.
No sound came from the outside and the silence that once blanketed the surroundings seemed to return. But Corpse knew better than to trust that silence. The crash was quite far away from him so there was no guarantee that anybody was nearby. Yet he remained where he was. There were bound to be people passing by, and while finding people was one of his objectives he rather not end up at the spear point of some war party. Because those horns definitely weren't summoning everyone for a tea party.
" Heavens damn it! " If only he had his cultivation, if only he had power. The thought tortured Corpse, but there was nothing he could do, It was far too dangerous to cultivate here. If only he hadn't ran off, that's something that ran through his brain more and more often, yet what's done is done.
The hunger got worse and worse as time passed. In desperation, He tore off a few stalks of the grass growing through the cracks and contemplated eating that. " A cow. such a nasty nickname." Was he truly so desperate to lower himself to a mere beast, was there truly nothing else he could do? A sad smile broke on his face as regret welled up inside him. " Shouldn't have left, not like that. " He allowed the stalks of grass to fall to the ground. " I'll find that smelly old monk and apologize, better that than this. " Yet the heavens looked down upon the plans of man and mere moments after Corpse made a decision something suddenly broke through the hull of the broken down spirit ship.
