Forgotten One

The rank 1 spiritual beast Spinsters were not charging straight towards Lei Shu. He tried to pierce the shell directly with the use of his dagger. Once the dagger and the spinning shell made contact, the dagger was instantly flung away. The dagger was deflected because of the spin on the shell. Lei Shu dodged just in time and the spiritual beasts crashed into trees instead.

They broke the trees in half with their mass. As soon as they went through the tree, they turned and dashed towards Lei Shu again. Ting Ting spoke up, "Lei Shu watch out I'm coming"

She sprung into the air and twirled her little body. She stuck the mace out in front of her and smashed down into the ground. Her mace hit the ground and countless cracks formed underneath it. The mace was so close that it sent one of the Spinsters into the air. The Spinster flew into the air, exposing its abdomen. Its entire lower half was a scaly light yellow. It had no protection at all and was completely vulnerable.

Lei Shu's eyes darted towards his abdomen, it seemed like he was trying to pierce through the beast with his eyes alone. He dashed towards his dagger and picked it from the ground while never losing eye contact with the beast. Once he lifted his dagger his feet had already left the ground. He elbowed the beast in the abdomen sending it crashing straight down into the ground. One of the Spinsters was now stuck, shell first into the ground. It couldn't move because its entire shell was embedded into the ground from Lei Shu's attack. Only its legs swung wildly in the air.

Seeing this occur, Tian Fu thought back to the Scorpions. He slowly brought his whip out, he wanted to strike the beasts vulnerable abdomen. He wanted to turn it into soup, just like the Scorpion. Once he was done striking it, the shell that was in the ground would be like a bowl holding the soup.

Lei Shu pushed a handout and stopped him. The other Spinster saw this and stopped attacking. Lei Shu noticed the fear lingering in its eyes. It didn't attack them out of hunger or even malice. They were attacking out of instinct, they were bred to do this, they were obviously greatly harmed by humans in the past. So, it wasn't entirely their fault. Lei Shu stood in front of the beast, he faced his companions, giving his back to the beast. He voiced out his opinion using his spiritual energy, "Everyone near me, heed my call. Please do not attack these beasts, if you must attack, at least let them live comfortably. Their eyes contain an embedded fear, deep within them. Those that were stronger than them, took a bit of their lives away. We must be stronger than those before us, we should save the bit of life they have left. We may not be able to fix them completely, but we can help."

The Spinster behind Lei Shu seemed to have understood his intent somehow. His eyes became a bit calmer, however, there was still fear residing within the depths. The Spinster felt that he could at least trust this one man before him. The Spinster took one look at his friend embedded in the ground and left just like that. The beast took its time walking back into the depths of the forest.

Lei Shu crouched down in front of the other Spinster. His legs and arms were bulging with veins. Ting Ting and Tian Fu came over as well. They all crouched and lifted the beast out of the crater gently. They waited to make sure that it didn't try to attack. After a while, they slowly turned the Spinster and let it hop onto the ground. It looked at the 3 of them with complicated eyes. He looked around and saw no bloodshed from his companions' body, he gave Lei Shu one more glance. He then turned and followed the same path as his other friend.

However, this Spinster was much different. He knew deep in his heart that if they wanted to harm him or take his life, they could have whenever they wanted. His body was completely stuck, and his most vulnerable part of his body was directly given to the enemy. Yet, they didn't do anything. They could have left him in the ground and that would have been somewhat kind. But they removed him from the ground and helped him get back on his feet with no injuries.

He dropped his old wrinkled neck from side to side, signaling for Lei Shu and his group to follow him into the forest. The group of 3 looked at each other with mystified eyes. Ting Ting was the first to speak, "Waaaah, Lei Shu you're incredible." Then it was Tian Fu, "Hmmm, was this the original intention of the trial? Was this the way we were all meant to complete it? Maybe we weren't meant to kill our way through."

Lei Shu and the group followed the Spinster through the forest. Lei Shu was talking along the way, "If we have a job and it can be done without the loss of life, I think that would be a better outcome. Unless I have a deep hatred for them or they're completely annoying, I won't go around killing needlessly. There is always a purpose behind all of my kills."

Finally, the Spinster stopped moving. The group of 3 got to a lush sparkling pond. There were no trees or even plants sprouting near it, only bright green grass. It seemed as though the grass was dancing in the wind; sweet smells filled the air. In the pond were 5 more Spinsters, this was their home. There were 3 small young ones, almost the size of a hand. In total there were 7, 4 old and 3 young. The older ones were the size of a large basin. They were wrinkly and scaly, the young ones, on the other hand, were shiny and smooth-skinned. They let out small cries of joys, they rarely had visitors.

Ting Ting was overjoyed, "Wow, they're all so cute. Can we take one of them back!"

Lei Shu stopped her, "Calm down and stop being a child."

When the other Spinsters saw the humans, their eyes filled with the same fear that the other Spinsters had. But soon enough their eyes calmed down. The younger ones were just happy to see new faces, but the older ones were the ones who were filled with fear. When they saw that the other Spinster led them here, they calmed down. The Chief Spinster wouldn't be so idiotic as to bring potential enemies to their home. The Chief obviously trusted these people, the other Spinsters recognized that and most of their fears vanished.

Each of the humans took turns bathing in the spring, the spring water was incredibly soothing and clean. There were no obstructions that could be seen within the water. After each of them got out, all of their dead skin was removed, leaving only a shiny smooth base. They were delighted and packed their items. They were about to leave when Lei Shu bent down to see the young of the Spinster tribe. They waddled towards him in delight. He petted them endearingly and the other Spinsters could see the care in his eyes. Lei Shu reached into his bag, but the other Spinsters didn't care. Spiritual Beasts were incredibly perceptive regarding emotions.

Lei Shu took out a small vial of medicine that Mo Fen made when they were still back at the cave in the canyon. It was the exact same medicine that he had soaked in for days in order to strengthen his physical body. He took a few vials out and dug a small ditch into the ground. He poured the thick red liquid into the ditch and filled it to the brim. The smell of blood filled the area near the ditch. The small Spinsters were drawn to the liquid. They squirmed their way over and dropped into the liquid one by one.

PLOP PLOP PLOP

They were swimming in circles around the ditch, they loved the feeling because they could feel themselves slowly getting stronger already. The other Spinsters gave Lei Shu a weird look, they didn't know how to thank him.

Ting Ting and Tian Fu looked quite confused; they had never seen medicine like this. Lei Shu helped them, "Don't worry about this kind of medicine. If you guys want, I can whip up a batch for each of you. It's just something I used to use before getting enough spiritual energy. The medicine won't have much of an effect on you guys because you have already cultivated for quite a time."

The Chief Spinster turned to a nearby pile of debris. It was covering a large patch of ground, seemingly shielding something from the public eye. He craned his old neck underneath the debris. His toothless mouth clamped onto something underneath the debris and he took his time carefully bringing it out into the view of others.

It was a bright piece of green jade. It dulled the surroundings with its ethereal glow. When Lei Shu got closer, he actually realized that it was a piece of a tree trunk. "A piece of the Jade Tree?" he spoke out. Ting Ting and Tian Fu beside him both gasped. Lei Shu sent a bit of his spiritual energy into the piece of glowing bark. The energy in the bark was connected to something deeper in the woods with a small strand of spiritual energy connecting them together. Lei Shu was surprised to receive such a gift. He set everything down and immediately reached into his bag.

He pulled out the rest of the medicine he had left. He had no real significant use for it now, and if he ever needed more, he could just make another batch. He smashed a hollow rock on the ground, it kind of made a bowl. He poured all of the medicine he had into the bowl and gave it to the Chief Spinster.

The entire Spinster turned towards Lei Shu. They were mostly still apprehensive about him, but they knew how to thank someone. They all closed their eyes and lowered their heads, even the younger ones did as well.

Ting Ting was really disappointed she couldn't take one of them back to the sect. Tian Fu had to keep a watch on her to make sure she didn't run off. The 3 humans bowed towards the Spinsters, they have met a common ground, they have both benefitted. A valuable lesson to learn.

By the time the Spinsters raised their heads, Lei Shu and his group were already gone into the distant forest. Lei Shu kept pouring spiritual energy into the piece of Jade Tree. He followed the string of spiritual energy, as he followed it the scent of the Jade Dew was becoming heavier.

He finally stepped into a bright landscape. It looked as if the heavens were shining on this huge Jade Tree. When the rays of the sun would make contact with the Tree, it would let off bright sparkles. Jade butterflies were flying around the upper regions of the tree. The trunk was as wide as the length of a car.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tian Fu thought that a butterfly was buzzing beside his ear, he slapped out with his left hand. All he caught was air when he turned all he saw was a miniature lady. She had stunning red hair and it cascaded down the front of her body. She had bright blue eyes and glowing white skin. She also had wings on her back, they shimmered in the air as she flew. Spiritual energy was radiating off her tiny figure. "Hmph, trying to slap the Jade Tree Nymph Queen on your first encounter, you'll have to train for a few millennia to do that. Oh, a pretty lady with green hair, oh, did that man try to slap you too? And we have another, pretty average looking, not too bad not too good. I feel we have a slight connection somehow; I can't put my finger on it." As she said that her tiny finger fell onto Lei Shu's c.h.e.s.t. "Never mind about that for now. Did you all come for the Jade Dragon Dew? Don't be surprised, I have seen you guys come almost every decade."