The Missing Companion

An Jing didn't say much. He lowered his head and bit into the meat.

At first, his teeth met something like tough rubber. But with just a little force, they cut through the slightly charred muscle fibers on the surface, and the tender meat inside burst open, flooding his mouth with rich, fragrant juices and fat.

The meat was springy and delicious, an exquisite sensation. With every swallow, he could feel it quickly digesting inside him, breaking down and turning into nourishment for his body. That feeling of satisfaction soon became an insatiable craving, making An Jing want to take another bite without even realizing it...

In what felt like an instant, An Jing had eaten all the meat in front of him. Only the bones remained, gnawed clean and stark white.

"What kind of beast is this meat from?"

Sitting in his chair, An Jing's face had already flushed crimson. He could feel a searing heat surging from his chest and abdomen, rushing through his torso and limbs, down to his fingertips and the roots of his hair!

An urge seized him, making him want to leap to his feet and roar, unleashing this inexplicable heat—and in fact, others were already doing just that.

In no time, the entire dining hall had turned into a gathering ground for beasts. All kinds of roars and shrieks echoed through it, like the mountains and wilds.

"What kind of test is this?"

An Jing took a deep breath, suppressing the surging impulse inside him. He noticed that not everyone was being driven by this inexplicable urge.

Zhang Ying was howling at that moment. Her voice sounded like the long, shivering cry of some kind of wolf, carrying a chilling menace.

Gu Yeqi, on the other hand, was curled up nearby, clutching his stomach tightly and refusing to make a sound.

About half the children were staying silent, while the other half were letting the heat out. Perhaps there were a few more of the latter, but not many.

They're just going to let everyone vent like this?

An Jing took a few more deep breaths. By the last couple, he could easily suppress his instinctive urge. Curiously watching everything unfold, he spared half his attention for the instructors and lecturers, as well as the "servants" from Xuanming Manor.

They were standing by and waiting, watching everything with considerable concern, just like An Jing.

About a quarter of an hour later, once the children had run out of energy, both those who had tired themselves out howling and those who had endured the heat had mostly returned to normal. The servants then brought them cups of thick medicinal broth.

As Gu Yeqi had said earlier, its main ingredients were Tienan Core and Ice-Mang Flower seeds, which calmed the mind and steadied the spirit.

Zhang Ying and Gu Yeqi had both been right.

An Jing took his cup and drank it in one gulp. It tasted purely bitter, but strangely refreshing. When boiled and then cooled, Ice-Mang Flower seeds swelled and turned soft and tender. He crushed and swallowed one, and a cool sensation burst across his tongue.

The scorching heat caused by the beast meat began to fade. An Jing closed his eyes. After a few breaths, he opened them, completely calm.

But that heat, that power, hadn't been an illusion. The beast meat was definitely no ordinary game!

Most of the other children also settled down after drinking the broth. They were just a little dazed, as if trying to work out what they had been doing.

"All right. Everyone's a little excited today. Go back and get some good rest."

Manor Master Yao came forward and spoke kindly. "Tomorrow morning, you can rest. There won't be any morning training, so sleep in."

"If you do well, you'll all get meat. The better you do, the more meat you'll get."

There was no evening training before bed. Everyone returned to their dormitory rooms and lay down early.

Usually, almost everyone fell asleep as soon as their head touched the pillow. But that wasn't going to happen tonight. Everyone tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Before long, they started chatting without meaning to.

"I don't know why, but earlier I felt like I couldn't hold it in..."

Zhang Ying complained from An Jing's left. Her voice came through the bamboo wall, a little muffled. "I felt like I'd turned into a giant wolf and couldn't help howling... The meat was delicious, but it was so strange. I've never eaten meat that made me feel like I had so much strength—so, so much strength!"

"Indeed. It was extraordinary."

Ye Xiuyuan was on An Jing's right. His family had been scholars for generations, and even his speech was rather refined. "I've seen such meat at my family's annual ancestral rites. It must have come from some savage Fierce Beast."

"A Fierce Beast?!" Zhang Ying's voice rose. "One comparable to a peak Internal Breath cultivator, or even an Internal Strengthening martial master? How could that be?!"

Her astonishment was hardly unwarranted. Even a hunting party on the Northern Frontier had to go to great lengths to hunt a single Fierce Beast, and might even suffer casualties.

Encountering several Fierce Beasts could wipe out an entire hunting party.

But their flesh, hides, bones, and sinews were all treasures, materials for many precious medicines and miraculous artifacts. Both common folk and the authorities would pay a fortune for them. A hunting party that managed to kill even one Fierce Beast would have enough to live comfortably for the rest of the year.

Even Zhang Ying had never eaten Fierce Beast meat. Ye Xiuyuan was puzzled too. "That's what I don't understand. Even at my family's ancestral rites, held by the four branches of the Ye family, they use only a slightly larger piece of Fierce Beast meat alongside other cattle and sheep as sacrificial offerings."

"Xuanming Manor has given each of us a portion. The amount is simply beyond belief..."

"Who cares?" Zhan Feng's voice was especially loud. As soon as he spoke, everyone, including An Jing, shushed him in unison to keep the instructors from coming over.

Even so, he sounded entirely unconcerned once he lowered his voice. "It's still a lot better than being a refugee. I've had my fill of starving."

He had been a beggar in Mingshan City. He was too tall for people to give him money, but too young for anyone to hire him. The old beggar who had raised him had frozen to death during Frost Calamity. He had survived the journey by eating whatever he could scavenge, and had simply been lucky enough not to eat anything poisonous.

He had a very good impression of Xuanming Manor. He could eat his fill here, so he didn't care how exhausting the training was. In fact, to him, being able to eat until he was full and then train himself to death was the greatest blessing of all.

Quite a few people agreed. After all, every one of them had been chosen from a refugee camp. They had all gone hungry and had gone a very, very long time without meat or rice. But at Xuanming Manor, they could eat until they were full, eat to their heart's content, and even stuff themselves like they had today.

In their eyes, Xuanming Manor had no flaws at all, except that everyone was so nice it made them worry there might not be another meal.

"I'm more worried that this kind of life won't last long."

Cang Linzu smacked his lips, still savoring the meat. "Aren't hidden sects all like this? They screen people layer after layer, put them through tests, and throw out anyone who doesn't measure up."

"When that happens, we won't count as disciples of Xuanming Manor anymore. We'll just be servants, like those uncles and aunties who work here... These good days won't last!"

After living together for so long, everyone knew that Cang Linzu's family had once scraped together a fortune to send him to the Martial Academy. But after two years, they'd sent him home. Supposedly, he "lacked the Root Bone."

How could that be? Xuanming Manor had assessed Cang Linzu's Root Bone as upper-grade, second only to An Jing's. It left him seething with indignation. He was always gritting his teeth and muttering that it was all because his Martial Academy instructor had been greedy for silver—when Cang Linzu didn't pay up, the man had thrown him out.

His greatest dream was to master martial arts at Xuanming Manor, return to his hometown—if it still existed—and beat that instructor senseless for claiming he lacked the Root Bone and making his family look down on him.

Cang Linzu wasn't too worried about failing to meet the requirements. He just wanted to learn more cultivation methods and martial skills at Xuanming Manor.

"Quite right."

Ye Xiuyuan agreed with Cang Linzu. "I wonder how many of us will be allowed to stay in the end... Big Brother An Jing will definitely be one of them."

"Right, Brother Jing?" the other children chimed in. "We might get eliminated, but you'll definitely be allowed to stay!"

"...Perhaps the tests started a long time ago."

An Jing didn't like taking part in this sort of discussion, but since they'd brought him up, he spoke.

He rolled over in bed and said bluntly, "How eagerly you train, how disciplined you are, your physical fitness, height, and weight, how much you can eat, when you usually get up, whether you exercise regularly... Any of it could be part of the 'assessment.'"

"Go to sleep early tonight." An Jing rolled over again and calmly closed his eyes. "If Manor Master says we can rest tomorrow morning, there must be a reason."

"Get some rest and sleep in. Don't let it interfere with the afternoon drills."

"Okay." "Mm." "Yes, Big Brother!"

An Jing had a lot of influence. As soon as he said that, the whole dormitory fell quiet. Soon, snores, teeth grinding, and sleep talk rose and fell around the room.

An Jing also felt waves of fatigue and craving gradually welling up inside him... He hadn't lied to Vice Envoy Yao. When he saw the meat, his body had instinctively told him there wasn't enough. He wasn't full.

In truth, his "stomach" was full. The meat sat heavy inside him and was enough to fill his belly. But he still wasn't satisfied. The beast meat could temporarily sate his hunger and thirst, but it couldn't leave his body content.

With that feeling—uncertain whether he was full or hungry—An Jing fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, dawn broke over the mountains, staining them gold and crimson.

An Jing rubbed his eyes and threw off his blanket, realizing he'd slept about an hour later than usual.

That was very unusual for him. He'd gone to bed earlier than normal the night before, yet still gotten up late. No wonder Vice Envoy Yao had said there wouldn't be morning training today. Most of the children probably wouldn't be able to get up all morning.

If the meat had come from a Fierce Beast, it could indeed have that effect.

An Jing straightened his clothes and put on his training uniform, thinking to himself, Eating too much and taking in too many nutrients makes you sleepy. Perhaps that's why.

There were thirty people in the dormitory. An Jing glanced around and saw that everyone else was still fast asleep. That was probably because their digestion was weaker than his—or perhaps because An Jing still hadn't really eaten his fill.

Either way, it didn't matter. There was still some time before noon, so An Jing decided to go do some morning training and restore his stamina.

But just as An Jing finished getting ready to leave the dormitory, he suddenly noticed something.

Zhang Ying was missing.