Li Xiang didn’t offer any words of comfort. A strong man has no need for them.
And Yaki Toto was just such a tough man. When Li Xiang had treated his wounds, carving away the necrotic flesh without any anesthetic, the old man hadn’t so much as grunted. His face remained a mask of stoicism; he had only clenched his jaw.
About five minutes later, Yaki Toto lifted his head. He wiped away the bloody tears, picked up the Tier Four Battle Saber Li Xiang had given him, and continued onward.
Li Xiang nodded, gesturing for everyone to follow.
"Stop," Luo Feifei said, suddenly halting. "Nineteen jaguars are closing in."
An unnatural sound of grinding bones echoed from the depths of the humid rainforest. Nineteen black shadows burst through the hanging Strangler Fig vines, and a rotten stench thick with fluorescent green mucus washed over the group. The parasitized jaguars had translucent tentacles emerging from their eye sockets, their spinal bones had pierced their skin to form exoskeletons, and their claws threw off bluish-purple sparks as they scraped against tree trunks.
"Several of my children were eaten by these creatures! The time for revenge has come!" Yaki Toto showed no fear. With a ferocious roar and his battle intent surging, he charged forward, brandishing his Tier Four Battle Saber.
The Cat’s Eye Totem hanging from his belt suddenly flared with light. His withered arm erupted with a strength that belied his appearance. As the blade of his Battle Saber cut through the fetid air, it let out a wail like an ancient ocarina.
As the first mutated jaguar leaped through the air, the Old Shaman suddenly dropped and rolled. The edge of his blade sliced precisely across the beast’s belly, spilling its fluorescent entrails onto the moss with a corrosive SIZZLE.
Unmatched in his ferocity, he shifted his feet and met the next jaguar head-on.
Since the nineteen mutated jaguars were of average strength, Li Xiang and Luo Feifei held back, standing guard for the others.
Yao Yao lowered her rifle. With a grasping motion, she summoned the Mandarin Duck Double-Bladed Sword from her Spiritual Power Vortex and prepared to face a pouncing jaguar. But her gaze was suddenly drawn to a nearby vine where half an indigenous child’s arm was hanging. Fluorescent fungal filaments sprouted from the severed end, pulsing as if they were breathing.
Yao Yao gasped and took a half-step back, her boot crushing a mushroom cap and sending up a cloud of choking spores. Immediately, however, she suppressed her revulsion and lunged at the jaguar with her twin swords.
Yao Yao was impressive. With a twist of her twin swords, she executed an exquisite Swordsmanship technique, and the jaguar’s head went flying.
"Watch the right flank!" Zhang Youyou threw out a wall of fire, forcing back three flanking jaguars. Xu Xuan’s Wind Blade severed the tail of a jaguar attempting a sneak attack; the severed tail writhed in the mud like a live snake.
Soon, only six jaguars remained. Li Xiang called out in a low voice, "Everyone, stand down. Let Yaki Toto temper his will to fight."
Though his voice was low, everyone heard him. He had spoken in Chinese, which Luo Feifei and the others understood, but Yaki Toto had no idea what he’d said.
But even if Yaki Toto could have understood, he wouldn’t have "heard" it at that moment.
He was completely immersed in the slaughter, in his revenge, unable to spare a single thought for anything else.
The group fell back. Just as Li Xiang had intended, Yaki Toto was in a profound state.
The Old Shaman was drenched in blood, his eyes crimson, and he radiated an aura of Frenzy. As the others retreated, the six remaining jaguars all converged on Yaki.
A jaguar clamped its jaws onto Yaki’s left arm. In that instant, the totem tattoo on his chest flared with a cyan light. With a loud CRACK of bone, he crushed the jaguar’s lower jaw with one hand, his slime-covered Battle Saber bursting out from the top of its skull.
"ROAR!" The Old Shaman let out a thunderous scream, and a wave of dark green energy erupted from his body.
The instant a jaguar collided with the energy wave, countless vines sprouted from its fur, binding it tightly.
Zhao Xueqing’s eyes widened as she watched the tips of the vines blossom into scarlet daturas. Paralyzing Pollen sprayed from their pistils, causing the remaining mutated jaguars to Slow.
"Wood Spirit Parasite!" Zhao Xueqing exclaimed, her face full of surprise. "He awakened a plant-manipulation Superpower!"
However, she quickly discovered that Yaki Toto’s Superpower was very different from her Vine Technique.
Yaki plunged his Battle Saber into the ground and knelt on one knee. The fungal hyphae in a ten-meter radius around him began to grow with frenzied speed.
A mutated jaguar was ensnared by ghost-hand ferns that erupted from the earth, wrapping it in a cocoon. As the spores burst, a rain of fluorescent blood fell, becoming nutrients for the vines.
...
By the time the last jaguar’s dying wail was swallowed by the Strangler Figs, the Old Shaman’s totem tattoo had spread up to his neck. New vines were weaving themselves over his wounds, forming an emerald-green armor.
Zhao Xueqing now understood the difference between her plant Superpower and his.
Li Xiang, Luo Feifei, and the others understood as well.
If Zhao Xueqing was a Plant Spirit or Flower Demon, manifesting beautiful flora that could even secrete an alluring fluid like Spirit Dew Rain, then Yaki Toto was a brutal Rainforest War Priest.
His vines were essentially weapons of war formed from parasitic spores and humus: dark red with fluorescent spots, covered in barbs and poison glands. Their tips could blossom into a Corpse-Scented Amaryllis that released hallucinogenic Pollen, their roots could parasitize corpses and convert them into treant puppets, and he could control the rainforest’s native vegetation on a large scale.
Zhao Xueqing, on the other hand, manifested translucent, jadeite-colored vines with a golden spiritual fluid flowing within. She controlled them directly through a form of neural synapse mimicry, making the vines extensions of her own limbs. As of now, she was still unable to control any natural plants she hadn’t personally grown.
Lei Jiaming stroked his sniper rifle and muttered, "’This old man... no, this *guy*... he’s more brutal than the mutated beasts...’"
"Paya be praised!" Yaki trembled as he stroked his new Vine Armor, Li Xiang’s reflection visible in his cloudy pupils. "I can finally take revenge with my own hands..."
A crystalline Corpse-Scented Amaryllis bloomed in his palm, and a cleansing, anti-venom dew seeped from its center. It dripped onto the bite wound on his left arm; he no longer needed anyone’s help to neutralize the poison.
"Congratulations!"
"Congrats!"
Everyone offered their congratulations, but Yaki Toto didn’t understand them. Li Xiang translated for him, "You’ve become a Tier One Transcendent. We’re all happy for you!"
"Thank you. Thank you all."
Yaki Toto plunged his Battle Saber into the humus-rich soil and knelt on one knee before Li Xiang, his withered fingers stroking the star-like patterns flowing across the blade.
"The Eagle Eye Totem is carved into my bones. The roots of the rainforest entwine my spine. The breath granted by Paya surges through my veins, and my fallen kin watch me from the canopy—" He grabbed a handful of fluorescent hyphae and scattered them into the mist, the green light of the bursting spores illuminating his totem tattoo. "From this day forward, my blade will gleam only for the path Paya shows me! My war song will spread through the veins of the Strangler Fig, reaching every river!"
Li Xiang helped him up and patted his shoulder.
"The true mastermind has not yet been brought to justice. Let’s keep moving forward."
At Li Xiang’s command, Yaki Toto once again took the lead, and the group continued deeper into the Land of Demons.
Waves of mutated, rotting corpses assaulted them, but the group, their battle spirit soaring, cut them all down.
Li Xiang distributed Spiritual Medicine to everyone, allowing them to replenish their Spiritual Power.
Yaki Toto continued to fight bravely in the battles that followed, solidifying his Realm through constant combat. The others were also progressing and growing.