Chapter 26 — A Fist Through Red Armor

CHAPTER 26

A Fist Through Red Armor

The guardian charged across the kiln.

Shi Feng stepped left of the doorway. The guardian’s head came straight at his chest, but its right side scraped the kiln wall. The wall blocked its turn.

He stepped inside the jaws’ reach before the beast could pull back. He drove the bent sword beneath its jaw and shoved with his whole body. The blade entered the wound he'd already opened, then struck hard bone and snapped.

Half the steel stayed inside the beast.

Shi Feng threw the broken hilt aside and caught the edge of its upper plate. The guardian pushed him backward. His boots struck the fallen bricks near the furnace, but he kept his feet and pulled the head downward.

Its good foreleg swept toward his wounded shoulder. He punched the joint with his right fist.

The leg bent sideways. A sharp pain shot through his wrist.

Shi Feng's expression tightened. The force had cracked the thick joint and damaged his own wrist at the same time. His first forefinger bone was stronger than before, but most of the hand and arm still needed refinement.

He couldn't keep putting every heavy clash through that little section.

The beast tried to lift its head.

Shi Feng caught the lower jaw with his left hand, ignored the pain in his shoulder, and drove his knee upward.

The damaged armor shattered.

Dark blood ran over his boot.

The guardian staggered. Shi Feng moved with it, planted his foot against a fallen block, and forced its head toward the floor.

It was strong enough to fight a Foundation Establishment cultivator. So was he.

The difference was that it only knew how to bite, slash, and use its weight. Shi Feng could choose where his strength went.

He drew Wei Kuo's knife.

A red plate covered most of the back of the creature's skull. Below it, the neck bent where the head joined the body. The wound beneath the jaw gave him room to turn that joint.

Shi Feng pulled once more and drove the knife into the soft gap.

The beast thrashed.

Its body struck his left shoulder and slammed him against the furnace wall. Pain ran through the torn flesh, but he didn't lose his grip.

He pushed the knife deeper.

The guardian struck the wall again. Bricks broke around his back.

Shi Feng planted both feet and wrenched the hilt sideways. The blade tore through the flesh beneath the skull.

The creature's legs folded.

He held it down until the last spasm stopped, then pulled the knife free and stepped away. For a few breaths, only his breathing disturbed the chamber.

The first guardian had been an easy kill. The larger one had cost him a shoulder wound and a damaged wrist. He'd killed it with his own body and ordinary steel.

Next time, he'd buy better steel.

A shaky voice came from outside.

“Is it dead?” Zheng Bao called.

“Yes,” Shi Feng said.

“Both of them?” Zheng Bao asked.

“Do you want one left alive?” Shi Feng asked.

“No! Absolutely not!” Zheng Bao cried.

Shi Feng put away the knife and sat beside his pack.

His right wrist was swelling. He could move the fingers, but turning the hand hurt. The left shoulder had a deep cut and heavy bruising from the wall. Blood had soaked the sleeve.

He cut the cloth away, folded a clean strip over the wound, and pressed it firmly until the bleeding slowed.

Then he used two flat pieces of kiln wood to splint his wrist. Tying the final knot with one injured hand was troublesome. He caught the cloth between his teeth and pulled it tight.

Outside, something much larger moved along the road.

The mother.

Its cry rolled through the broken buildings. Gray legs passed above the yard wall, followed by a body higher than the surviving roof.

Shi Feng stayed seated.

He didn't live here. Nobody in Yunze Town was depending on him. After fighting two guardians, he had no interest in rushing outside to challenge the mother over somebody else's stolen eggs.

“Don't make a sound,” Shi Feng told Zheng Bao.

The potter obeyed so quickly that even his prayers stopped.

The mother lowered its head beside the kiln mouth. Its nostrils widened. A low sound came from its throat, and its eyes fixed on Shi Feng. The smell of the young beast he'd killed still clung to him. Washing his robe hadn't removed it all.

Shi Feng tightened his good hand around the knife. Standing now would pull the shoulder open, but staying seated wouldn't stop a charge.

Then an egg cried from the eastern lane.

A hunter ran past with a smaller basket. One pale egg fell, struck the road, and split. The mother's head snapped toward it. More cries answered from the Wei storehouse farther east.

Its foreleg smashed through a corner house. It followed the eggs, tearing down anything that blocked the lane. Shi Feng stayed still until its body passed the kiln mouth. It hadn't forgiven him. The stronger scent had simply drawn it elsewhere first.

Shi Feng waited until its footsteps grew farther away. Then he took a water flask from the pack and drank.

A section of roof fell somewhere down the road. Shi Feng listened until the mother's cry moved beyond it.

“Is it coming back?” Zheng Bao whispered.

“How would I know?” Shi Feng said.

“Can you go and look?” Zheng Bao asked.

Shi Feng looked at his bloody sleeve.

“Can you?” Shi Feng asked.

Zheng Bao fell silent.

The potter's courage apparently ended at his own wall. Shi Feng didn't blame him for staying there, but he wasn't going outside on the man's behalf.

He moved his pack to a dry spot beneath the remaining roof and leaned his back against the furnace. The bricks were warm from an earlier firing. At least the potter's broken kiln had something useful left.

His jaw ached from clenching it through the fight. He loosened it, spat dust from his mouth, and checked the knife. A short blade, a plain handle, and no damage.

Wei Kuo had owned a better knife than Shi Feng's sword. That was almost annoying.

He cleaned it with a strip from the torn sleeve and laid it across his knee. Nobody was getting it while he slept.

As the yard grew quiet, Shi Feng placed his left palm against the second guardian's exposed neck.

Its vitality entered him slowly. He controlled the flow instead of taking everything in a rush. Warmth spread through his chest and helped him steady his breathing.

The shoulder still hurt. The wrist remained damaged. Devouring a beast gave him resources his body could use; it didn't turn a serious wound into something that never happened.

He removed his hand and circulated qi until the first gain settled.

Only then did he draw again.

Two guardians held far more strength than the beasts he'd hunted around the spring. He intended to use it carefully over the next few days. Wasting a resource through impatience would be stupid, and he wasn't in a hurry to prove otherwise.

The first little bones took part of the gain. The rest nourished his flesh and supported recovery. He examined the result after the heat eased.

Only a few bones refined. Most of the two hundred and six bones still needed work.

He'd barely begun work across the full skeleton. The warmth reached the larger bones, but they needed more than a few breaths of cultivation. He let the gain settle and stopped before his wounded shoulder began to ache again.

His combat strength was another matter. The dead Foundation Establishment-grade beast at his feet made that clear enough. Shi Feng rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes for a while.

Somewhere outside, a baby was crying. A man shouted for water. Another insisted his storehouse key was still inside the house that had just fallen.

Yunze Town was beginning to sound human again. When Shi Feng opened his eyes, light came through the broken roof at a different angle. He ate a piece of bread, drank more water, and checked the shoulder binding.

The bleeding had slowed to a stain.

He touched the remaining Jade Marrow Dew bottle inside his pack. It was unbroken. So was the ordinary Bone Refinement manual, though dust filled the folded pages.

His sword was gone. The knife would have to serve until he bought another. Shi Feng pulled the pack closer, placed the knife beside his good knee, and looked toward the doorway.

A mirror on the end of a pole crept around the doorpost.

Behind it, Zheng Bao whispered fiercely to himself.

“Dead means dead,” Zheng Bao muttered. “It can't bite the mirror.”