Heart of Cultivation 71. Welcome to the Jungle (4) (Patreon)

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Jian finished digging out the teeth he wanted and stood up, stretching the kinks out of his lower back. Then, it occurred to him that he'd gotten ahead of himself. He turned to face Meirong and held out the fangs.

"Properly speaking, these are yours," he said.

She waved a hand dismissively. "What need do I have for such things?"

Jian didn't stand on courtesy, dropping the fangs into his waist pouch. As expected, considering the resources the Heavenly Sword Sect showered down on its favored disciple, she wouldn't have much interest in scrounging up material from defeated beasts.

"Now, if there's nothing else you'd like to carve out of the body," Meirong said, "we should get going."

Jian gave the dead beast a last, longing look. He could almost see the pile of spirit stones they were leaving behind. By the time they made their way back, even if they ended up on the same path, the hungry denizens of the jungle would have long since disposed of the corpse. It hurt to give up on collecting that wealth, but there was nothing he could do.

Meirong hadn't waited for his response before turning and setting off through the jungle. Jian followed along behind. They soon settled into the rhythm that had been disrupted by that annoying bird. Meirong hacked her way through the jungle, Jian cleaned up any branches left in his way that she had easily walked under, and the two of them kept moving at a brisk walk.

It was a little frustrating, to move at a pace that a mortal could easily have matched, but Jian knew that to draw such a comparison was deceiving. A mortal attempting to traverse the Verdant Doom by himself would hardly be able to move at all. He would be unable to clear away any of the obstructing vines and undergrowth, and he would soon be bogged down and killed.

They might not be making good time compared to somebody traveling along a well made road. For two people traversing a jungle, though, they were doing quite well.

Even so, night began to fall long before they reached their destination. Meirong took little notice of the dimming light at first, continuing onward at the same steady pace. When the pinks and reds of sunset gave way to twilight, though, she finally stopped and turned to Jian.

"We should make camp," she said.

Jian nodded. He had some idea from his reading as to how to go about preparing a safe camp in the jungle, but he was happy to yield to Meirong and her practical experience.

She began by finding a large tree. The monster that she selected was broad enough that it would have taken five of Jian reaching out and holding hands to encircle the trunk. It's branches were sufficiently domineering that it had chased out the ever-present underbrush for several paces around its trunk. Jian thought for a moment that they would set up camp in this clearing. Then Meirong scrambled up the side of the tree.

She barely seemed to need a handhold. No doubt she was strong enough to punch her own handholds into the side of the trunk, but she seemed quite capable of using the rough texture of the tree's bark to give her enough purchase to continue her climb.

Jian, mindful of her admonition to stay close, moved to stand next to the tree. Even so, her climb brought her to the edge of that fuzzy border in his vision. When she crossed it, Jian's vision suddenly cleared as the sounds of the jungle became more distinct. He froze, not wanting to draw any attention to himself while he was outside of the protection of her technique.

Several terrifying moments later, the end of a rope fell down to hit him in the head. He looked up to see a rope hanging from midair, its end becoming fuzzy before it disappeared.

He shook his head. The strange effects of stealth techniques were the kind of thing that could absorb a lifetime of study. He had to focus on more practical concerns.

With the rope to aid him, walking up the side of the tree was well within his capabilities. After a few steps up the trunk, the noises of the jungle faded as he broke through the edge of Meirong's protective bubble. He ignored the sudden distortion of the edges of his vision and kept putting one foot above the other. A moment later he scrambled up to sit on the lowest branch of the tree.

"Welcome to our camp," Meirong said. "The accommodations are a little rough, but we won't be eaten while we sleep."

Jian followed her gesture to see two strange shapes dangling from the branch. It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. Two blankets, stitched into sacks so they could act as containers of a sleeping person. Each one was supported by rope so that they would remain somewhat level even with a person inside. It seemed he and Meirong would be dangling in midair as they slept.

Jian forced a smile onto his face. "So long as we'll wake up in the morning, I have no complaints."

He might not be capable of carrying his share of the weight when it came to fighting off the monsters that plagued the jungle, but he could at least show a modicum of courage when it was needed. The idea of sleeping with nothing but a single strand of rope between himself and a deadly fall was disconcerting, but he could push through it.

Meirong smiled. "Before that, though, we should eat."

Of course, they couldn't have a campfire, not when they were crouched in the branches of a tree. The jungle didn't get nearly as cold at night as the Devil's Teeth, though, which meant that sitting around without a campfire was only a little uncomfortable rather than nigh-deadly. Jian did wish that he had been able to fit his hotplate into his pack, but it just hadn't been practical. Instead, they were forced to eat simple dry trail rations, washed down with what was left in their canteens.

To be fair, it was dry trail rations produced by the Heavenly Sword Sect. Several cuts above the tasteless crackers that Jian had purchased back in Linshi Town when he needed a quick snack on the go. Somehow, the sect had produced a portable meal that was chewy, tasted decent, and didn't have to be cooked before being eaten. Even if they lost all of their sword techniques, they'd still be rich if they decided to go into the business selling food.

As he ate, Jian studied the canopy of the tree that was to be their home for the night. He couldn't see clearly beyond the bounds of Meirong's technique, but even within that restriction the tree was a veritable explosion of leaves and branches. A few different birds made their home here, though fortunately none of them were acting as a warning system against intruders the way that colorful nuisance had. There were also a few small animals moving about, foraging for food or looking for a safe place to spend the night. He didn't see any larger predators. He could only hope it was because the tree was safe rather than due to his own lack of ability, although for Meirong to have picked this spot meant she was at least reasonably confident in it.

"Is maintaining that technique a burden?" he asked. He'd just finished up the last of his food when he realized that Meirong had been maintaining the stealth technique for more than half a day.

"Not for me," Meirong said, patting her chest. "These techniques are designed to allow people to sneak around for a long time, you know."

Jian nodded. Stealth techniques wouldn't be very useful if they were too demanding of spiritual energy. "And while you sleep?"

"I have some formation plates that will obscure us to some degree," Meirong said. "It's not quite as good as my technique, but sleeping in a tree like this is already pretty safe."

Jian nodded. "As long as we don't move too much in our sleep."

She nodded, acknowledging the point, and they fell into a companionable silence. After a long day of walking Jian was feeling drained. Meirong had been doing much more work, between clearing a path, maintaining her technique, and fighting off the demonic beast. While she hadn't breathed a word of complaint, Jian thought he could see some signs of fatigue showing through her confident facade.

Jian thought he would have trouble sleeping in such a precarious position, but the day had taken more out of him than he'd realized. Almost as soon as he secured himself in the dangling bag of blankets, he fell into a dreamless sleep. He didn't even have a chance to be nervous.

He got a hefty dose of nerves when he woke up and almost crawled out into open air before he was fully awake. Fortunately, when his groping hand hit thin air instead of the solid ground, he was able to recover and grab hold of the rope above. He waited a moment for the shaking in his hands to calm down before he climbed back up to the branch.

Meirong was sitting calmly up above, snacking on a fruit as she watched the forest below. She raised an eyebrow at his awkward wake-up maneuver, but refrained from teasing him about it.

That was odd. Jian filed it away with the rest of Meirong's strange behavior. Some time when he wasn't in the middle of a deadly jungle he would have to try to puzzle out just what she was thinking. For now, though, the more pressing concern was to stay alive.

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