Volume One: The Arrival Chapter Eight: The Kill

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Only then, with the spot where Meng Xingchen had just leapt from as the center, five kobolds simultaneously shot blood arrows from their throats or chests, converging in midair to form a blooming crimson flower.

At the instant the bamboo spear sliced through the air, two kobold guards instinctively sprang up, shielding their commander behind them.

The bamboo spear pierced through one guard’s chest and continued toward the kobold commander. But after this obstruction, the spear’s speed greatly diminished, allowing the commander to strike it away with his iron spear.

Though the spear did not wound the commander, it shattered his courage. He shook off his remaining guards and fled alone, howling a high-pitched, mournful cry as he ran.

The four remaining guards halted their retreat at the commander’s call, turning to brandish their short spears and confront Meng Xingchen.

However, relying on his great strength and agility, Meng Xingchen never touched the ground, leaping forward like an ape among the branches. The kobolds below could not hinder him at all.

He vaulted four or five meters in a bound, clinging to the branches and moving without pause, swiftly closing the distance to roughly twenty meters from the kobold commander.

At the peak of a leap, he drew a short iron spear from his back. His body bent like a drawn bow full of tension as he hurled the spear toward the back of the kobold commander’s neck.

The strike came from above, the short spear a streak of black light that sank into the commander’s back, piercing through his chest and embedding into the ground with only a five-inch tail visible.

The kobold commander staggered forward five or six steps before belatedly looking down at his chest. He stared in disbelief at the fist-sized, blood-spurting hole and wailed softly, collapsing to the ground.

Seeing their commander fall, the four guards’ newly gained courage to face a fearsome enemy instantly dissolved. They whimpered and fled.

From Meng Xingchen’s initial surge of internal energy to this moment, only seven seconds had passed. He leapt down from the trees, stabbing with his longsword to kill two pursuing guards. Then he hurled bamboo spears in succession, pinning the last two guards in their tracks.

Ceasing his internal energy release, Meng Xingchen glanced at his status panel: internal power remained at 10, while biological energy had reached 573 out of 300.

A battle lasting mere minutes had earned him over 500 biological energy. Counting the commander and guards, he had slain more than forty kobolds in this brief encounter.

At the moment the kobold commander died, the chase ended. The pursuing kobolds fled in full retreat. No kobold figures remained around the forest clearing, only the distant sounds of their flight.

Meng Xingchen walked toward the forest clearing, enduring the weakness caused by losing three points each in constitution and agility, silently reciting an incantation to level up.

Upon reaching level 6 of biological rank zero, his biological energy capacity increased to 273 out of 350. He allocated the free attribute point gained from leveling into agility, bringing his three main attributes to: spirit 7, constitution 10, agility 7.

By then, Li Daniu and two others had descended from the giant rock and were cleaning the battlefield.

After Meng Xingchen had entered the woods, all the kobolds, urged by their commander, had focused on intercepting him, abandoning attacks on the others. So though the battle seemed fierce, only Li Erbao suffered a bitten leg; the rest escaped unscathed.

Soon after, Li Dazhuang rejoined the group and joined in the cleanup effort.

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The so-called cleanup involved selecting kobold corpses of better quality for skinning.

Over the day, including those killed by Li Daniu’s team, they had slain seventy or eighty kobolds. There was no time to skin them all.

It was already afternoon, and they had to return to Lijia Village before nightfall. Moreover, the forest was home not only to kobolds but also numerous wild beasts and magical creatures. With so many kobolds dead, the strong scent of blood could attract unknown predators at any moment.

Even Li Erbao, injured in the leg, was helping skin hides. Unfamiliar with the task, Meng Xingchen dragged the bodies of the kobold leader and guards over for them to process. From system prompts on his task panel, he learned that the commander was the kobold leader, also a rank zero creature, providing 18 biological energy points, while each guard yielded 15.

Meng Xingchen focused especially on their weapons. The kobold leader’s short spear was forged entirely from iron, whereas the guards’ spears had iron tips but wooden shafts.

However, Meng Xingchen was disappointed by their metalworking skills—the iron was brittle and riddled with tiny sand holes, making its quality little better than ironwood.

After skinning over ten pelts, the sun sank toward the distant mountain peak. Li Daniu’s group dared not linger and began their return journey.

By the time they reached Lijia Village, only the faint reflection of sunset remained on the small river at the village entrance.

Many villagers gathered anxiously at the village head, and when they saw all five hunters return with nearly twenty kobold pelts, the village erupted in excitement.

According to tradition, hiring mercenaries to clear kobolds involved all expenses, including commissions and lodging, shared collectively by the villagers. Though this hunting team was mostly locals, the same rules applied. Before returning, someone had already prepared their dinner.

After eating, night had fully fallen. Meng Xingchen found a round stool made from a tree stump in Li Daniu’s small courtyard, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating his internal energy.

Through training last night and this morning, he had reached an entry-level proficiency of 75 out of 500 in basic internal skill.

Now fully understanding the energy flow path of basic internal cultivation, he intended to practice without activating internal vision. Otherwise, internal power cultivation was limited by spirit, causing slow proficiency gains.

To avoid the legendary risk of internal energy deviation, he first activated internal vision and completed three full energy cycles before closing it and relying on energy sensation alone.

The process went smoothly, with no mishaps. Meng Xingchen quickly entered a meditation state, losing track of time.

After some unknown duration, strange sounds roused him from cultivation.

The sound resembled a bamboo flute but was intermittent and discordant—as if someone unfamiliar with music was forcing their memory to play an unfamiliar tune.

Checking his status panel, Meng Xingchen saw his basic internal skill proficiency had reached 109 out of 500. Encouraged, he felt that breaking free from internal vision dependence would accelerate his progress, allowing him soon to surpass entry level and enter the next stage.

At that moment, the bamboo flute-like sound came again. Listening carefully, Meng Xingchen confirmed it was indeed a folk bamboo flute. Although the melody was broken and disjointed, it felt oddly familiar.

This realization startled Meng Xingchen to his feet. It might be reasonable if an otherworldly realm had instruments similar to Earth’s—but for the melody itself to be the same? That seemed impossible.

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Could it be? Considering this possibility, Meng Xingchen didn’t even enter the courtyard but climbed over the fence and followed the sound.

Soon, he found its source: a small courtyard on the village’s far west side.

Standing outside the waist-high fence, under the faint glow of the pale moon, he saw a boy around eleven or twelve sitting inside, earnestly trying to play the bamboo flute, attempting to connect the broken notes into a melody.

Meng Xingchen recognized the boy. He had greeted the hunting party’s return earlier that evening. The boy was a native local, unlikely to be a fellow traveler from another world.

A bit disappointed, Meng Xingchen quietly listened outside. The fragmented notes grew more familiar the longer he heard them, but the boy’s broken playing prevented him from recalling a full, recognizable song.

Determined, Meng Xingchen decided to test him. He glanced at the high moon and cleared his throat to catch the boy’s attention, then spoke in Chinese, “Quiet Night Thoughts.”

The boy stopped playing, looking puzzled.

Meng Xingchen continued, “Tang Dynasty, Li Bai. ‘Before my bed, the bright moonlight...’”

The boy looked even more confused, putting down his flute. “Brother Meng, what language is that? I don’t understand. I only know the common tongue of humans.”

Meng Xingchen sighed softly and switched to the common language of the Cangyue continent. “What’s your name? What instrument is that? Where did it come from?”

The boy answered, “My name’s Li Meng. This instrument was given to me a few years ago by an uncle.”

Meng Xingchen’s heart stirred. He pressed further. “Which uncle? Not someone from the village?”

Li Meng replied, “No, not from the village. He was a brave warrior who, like Brother Meng, helped us kill the dog-headed monsters.”

Without prompting, Li Meng continued, “More than three years ago, a chubby uncle passed through our village. The dog-headed monsters attacked, and he stayed a few days to help us clear them out.

He lived at my home then, and at night he played this instrument in the yard. I loved listening and begged him to teach me, but I was too clumsy. I never learned before he left. He gave me this instrument before going.”

His mood dimmed as he spoke.

Meng Xingchen asked, “Did he tell you the instrument’s name? Or the name of the song he taught?”

Li Meng scratched his head, embarrassed. “He did, but I didn’t remember because the sounds were strange, not like our human language.” He then uttered several odd syllables.

Meng Xingchen’s heart jolted. Two of those syllables sounded like the Chinese words for “moon” and “oil.”