First Kill
Zhang Wuji searched long for a prey and finally found one in the distance. Red robes, walking cautiously. He readied his gun, took aim. Excitement filled his heart. First kill, the first step to the legend of the Mighty Wuji, the name that brings the whole world shivering down to it's knees.
It was an hour past noon. Scorching. He breathed in, concentrated on the target and squeezed. Burst activated, the gun fired.
He shot him in the face. the red robed man fell. Seeing no movement in him Zhang Wuji ran towards his body to take his token.
His face was mangled. The stone pierced through his nose. Zhang Wuji was half excited half scared. he took a deep breath to calm his heart and get rid of the weakness in his stomach. He leaned forward to search for the token when he heard a loud wheezing sound from the man.
He panicked and fell on his butt. He stared as the man struggled and screamed in agony. A voice was screaming in his head to get up and finish the job but his body refused to move. He tightened his grip on the gun and just kept staring as the man struggled to his last breath and died.
One breath.. two breaths.. five..
Time passed. he stayed still, frozen.
Ten breaths later something in the man's robes glowed and right in front of Zhang Wuji's eyes he was reduced to dust and a single drop of blood was sucked into the glowing token.
The token fell. It was like an explosion in his ears. He pushed himself away reflexively and aimed the gun at the token. He landed a meter away. Never was he more aware of his body. His breathing was loud and unbearably real. His heart beat so loud that it was starting to become uncomfortable.
He just stayed there staring at the token.
A while later he heard a sound somewhere and flinched. Fearing someone aiming for him like he did, he ducked to the ground, crawled to the token and ran away. He ran and ran till he felt safe.
By the time he stopped, it was already night. He didn't know where he was. He was surrounded by rocks that blocked his vision but also shielded him from eyes outside.
He leaned on a rock, legs shook maybe because of the running. He slid down, unable to bear his own weight, hugged his knees closer to his body with his grip getting tighter and tighter. His breath shuddered, his mind stuck, unable to get the red robed man's image out. The image haunted him.
He wanted to think of something else, prepare formations to divert his mind, but every time he managed to divert his mind a little, sudden pangs of pain in his heart brought him back to the red robed man struggling for one more gulp of air. He hugged his knees closer, his nails dig into his shoulders.
Suddenly he remembered his conversation with his master just before reaching the capital.
'900.' Tears rolled down his cheeks.
As the tears fell, his sorrow got deeper. He didn't know why he cried anymore. Was it for the red robed man? Was it the 900 more? Was it guilt? Injustice? Or was it plain helplessness.
That night there was no fire. No defensive formations.
The morning sun woke him up. He was curled up into a fetal position, one side of his face covered with dirt. He looked up at the sun. He felt naked. He shifted under a rock's shadow. Made himself small and hid.
An unknown amount of time later, he felt something and reached for his pocket. It was his token. It gave off a dim glow. His heart beat faster. He was scared. He jumped up and kept looking around. The rocks were all around but so were the paths in and out. He gripped his token harder and waited.
*Tak* He looked at the origin of the sound. It was a small stone. All his hair stood on end and he instinctively rolled away from his position. He stood back up and cautiously looked around. He looked at his previous position. There was nothing. Time passed. The expected attack didn't happen. The token stopped glowing. He stood alert for long. Finally he breathed a sigh and fell on his butt.
After his heart calmed down, he picked himself up and started walking out of the rock forest. He wanted to go back to his base. Build stronger defenses and hole up. He wanted nothing more to do with this realm.
He suddenly remembered his gun. He knew it was right behind him. The gun scared him. The fear froze him. After a brief internal struggle he realized he was drenched in sweat. That realization jolted him awake. Fear of failure, shame steered most of his past life. It even haunted him in this. It wasn't easy for him to get out of it's shadow. Now he can't let another irrational fear in his heart to take control.
He didn't want to rationalize with his heart. He didn't know how to. But he couldn't let it ruin his life. He wasn't sure what he should do. But he knew what he shouldn't. Holing up and giving up this opportunity his master got was definitely something he shouldn't.
He just vowed to not make the first move to pacify his heart and and decided to pick his gun. It wouldn't end well if it landed in another's hands. Also it was undeniable that this realm was dangerous. He knew it would be useful. This was the world he was in right now. It was time he learned how to live in it.
When he bent down to take his gun he saw another token from the corner of his eyes. It was the red robed man's. He hesitated for a second before reaching out for it. He realized that the token now had the same connection with him as his own.
He checked the space within. It was much bigger than his own. He didn't think muck of it. Maybe the red robed man's kingdom had a higher status and they were given better tokens. There were many resources. Most of them were healing. He put the token in his pocket together with his own.
The moment he put the token in his pocket, the two shone. He put his hand in his token to pull them out but he felt only one token. he took it out and checked the space within. He was startled to see the size of it. Understanding, he put it back and started his journey back to his cave. The fact that the red robed man killed many soothed his heart only for a moment before it managed to find guilt with it too. He sighed at the mystery that is the heart and took out his map from within his clothes.
....
After walking for long, Zhang Wuji finally exited the rock forest. He had no idea how he ended up so deep in it. He took a breath of fresh air and exhaled through his mouth to expel all the weariness.
THUD!!
Suddenly something hard hit him in the chest and he was thrown backwards. Before he could get his bearings a javelin pierced through him from the back. He could feel the hand of the attacker on his back.
"Aargh!!" He grabbed the javelin sticking out of his stomach and jumped forward using Obliteration Fist preparatory stances. Mid-air he twisted his body and punched the attacker behind worsening his wound.
The attacker was caught unprepared with another javelin in his hand intending to pierce Zhang Wuji again. He got pulled forward and punched in the face. He let go of the javelin still pierced through Zhang Wuji's back and heavily crashed into the ground.
He didn't expect such a reaction from Zhang Wuji. You get stabbed, twisting, jumping aren't things one instinctively does. He quickly got up and made some distance with Zhang Wuji.
Zhang Wuji got a good look at his attackers. Both were dressed in brown robes. One look at them told him they were brothers. The slightly bigger one wielded a morning star and the other had multiple javelins on him. Tough weapons. Especially the morning star.
The wound was getting worse. His chest felt stuffy. There was no way he could fight the two of them in this condition. He reached out for his token and took out his flags. Two vs one. With two pairs of eyes trained on him, planting the flags will be difficult. He took out a talisman. He didn't have many of those left. Though he collected a lot of supplies to make them, they were almost completely emptied in running around the past few days.
The brothers didn't react much when seeing the flags. But the moment Zhang Wuji took out the talisman, one jumped at him with the morning star and the other threw a javelin. All Zhang Wuji could do was roll away and having a javelin pierced through didn't help.
The javelin had pierced through his internal organs. If not he could've pulled it out and his qi would've have naturally stopped the blood loss. Damage to internal organs was not something his measly amount of qi could help with.
The javelin was made out of metal. There was no way he could break it. If only he had a sharp weapon..
He kept dodging the morning star, the javelins and each time his wound got worse. He didn't get a gap in the barrage of attacks. The brothers' coordination was impeccable. If it were not for the wound, he could've waited for one of them to slip up and escaped.
Realizing that time was not on his side he grit his teeth and decided to take a hit for an opportunity to retaliate. In his condition the morning star would be crippling, so he took a javelin to his shoulder and using that opportunity he fired at the bigger one. He was close, he just pointed in his direction and squeezed with all his strength.
The stone pierced right through his abdomen, missing his heart by a few centimeters. Shocked he jumped back and distanced himself from Zhang Wuji. The javelin thrower became alert and kept staring at the gun.
They exchanged a glance and decided to continue. The moment the bigger one took a step he was shot again. The javelin thrower was more timid and dived to the side before Zhang Wuji even pointed the gun at him dodging the bullet. It just grazed his hand. Not much of a wound for a cultivator.
Zhang Wuji had some projectiles stored in the gun. He had a bag full of carefully cut stones in his token. The morning star wielding man retreated in fear. This was his chance. He hesitated.
In that moment, the brothers took the chance and ran into the rock forest, disappearing from sight.
Zhang Wuji stared in the direction for a while. Struggle apparent on his face. He sighed and turned back to his base. The wound was not small. Luckily the red robed man's token had a lot of healing resources. He would find something of help in there.
He went back to his cave. Safe. After the relief came fatigue. And then came pain. He sat down and started dealing with his injury. With the herbs in his token he made two medicines, one to be consumed and another to be applied externally. The internal injury would take quite some time to heal.
He thought back to the fight. He thought of how he froze and sighed. Soon his eyelids got heavier and he went off to dreamland. This was his base. He had nothing to worry.