[Last Emperor] Chapter 9 - Mercy for the Sickly (Patreon)

Congratulations on your exceptional action!

Reached the bottleneck of Qi Gathering Initiate Stage 4 - 5!

Reached the bottleneck of Body Tempering Initiate Stage 3 -4 !

2 Reward Bottleneck Breakthroughs!

No Heavenly Lightning Trial!

System Downtime and forced unconsciousness - 

12h 39m 20s

Do you wish to start the process?

Yes?

No?

Tao Zi stared at the prompt he had been given. This was not necessarily the best case scenario for him at the moment. Mostly because he had run out of food. Waking up starving after significant workouts and practice would not do him well. Nor would it make the hunting process and gathering of food any easier. 

Worse was that he had discovered that he could use other methods to gain Qi Exp without just working out. Changing his tactics slightly. But that meant wasting more energy than he had been planning for. Cardio of any kind tended to do that. 

It was a realization he gained after receiving his first usable weapon as a reward. A basic spear that he would never use in real battle. But it was durable enough for him to practice on without fearing he would cut Tiger in half if it got close enough. Nor did he have to worry about channeling any Qi through it. The thing was a simple mundane piece of wood and metal. 

Nicely crafted, but mundane nevertheless. 

Tao Zi had played around with it for a few minutes before receiving his first notification with it. Then received three more in the next few hours he continued to practice with it. It wasn’t as much Qi experience as he was getting from working out, but it was less strenuous on his body. 

He didn’t have to worry about aching pain and migraine inducing soreness affecting him. Just the causal exhaustion that came after some long form cardio. He didn’t even need to go full throttle either until his body gave up. Just enough to push his understanding of using a spear. Which was almost everything considering this was the first time he had ever touched one. Much less tried to spar invisible foes with it. 

So he decided to do the same with his sword. 

While it was a much slower process to gain rewards, it did provide him with the most out of all of them and the eventual moment he was waiting for. Reaching 100% on his Qi Cultivation progress. He had been ecstatic to have taken the final Concentrated Qi Pill to push him over the 99% edge and into the three digits. 

Yet, it led to a similar situation as what he was currently looking at. 

The system congratulated him and then offered the breakthrough to the next stage but with roughly eight hours of unconsciousness. It was in the middle of the day and he hadn’t even finished up his workouts. It seemed like a waste of his allotted time slot for working out. 

Yes. He was lazy and quick to procrastinate, but he did not like to break his daily rhythm. 

Tao Zi convinced himself to push for a double breakthrough of both body and Qi cultivation at the same time. Keep them relatively close and maybe push his body more to help it catch up. Being balanced was nearly as important as advancing to him if he was going to fight physically more capable foes in the form of monsters. 

Even the chimps seemed quite formidable physically considering what little he did know of them back on earth. 

So here he was. Considering what his best move forward would be. Whether he should just accept the rewards and say yes to the question. Start the process and wake up twelve hours later, much stronger, faster, smarter, and a more capable person overall. 

Or should he get food first?

Even a little to help him recover some energy when he woke up. It would not be a good situation to wake up far too exhausted to fight back Tiger and then be required to go out and face the world in order to get even a morsel of food. The thought of eating the orange rascals food did cross his mind for a brief moment, but it was thrown out faster than he thought it. 

He shivered in disgust at the thought of having to resort to eating cat food for sustenance. 

Everything would have to go wrong for it to happen. 

There’s no choice. 

He knew better than to waste more time when the sun was starting to set. Tao Zi made up his mind and acted on it without hesitation. He put on his shirt and robe and headed to the boulder. Taking a moment to listen in case something was out there. After, he moved the boulder just slightly to peek out into the clearing around the entrance. 

Nothing was there. 

Tao Zi let out a relieved sigh. The HellHound returned every day in an attempt to get through the boulder. It had not succeeded yet. As long as Tao Zi played it safe, it would not ever succeed in getting through until he was strong enough to take it head on. 

Little Tiger jumped from his perch on the bed. His heckles rose when Tao Zi opened the entrance. Not that anything was out there, just that the little guy had been scarred by the relentlessness of the HellHound. 

He would be too had he not been blessed with the system to help facilitate his growth. 

Tao Zi stepped out of the cave. Pushing the boulder back in its place and grateful that Tiger had learned to not make an attempt at escaping any more. He turned and ran into the forest, taking cover before anything could find him in the open. 

Pausing for a few minutes to pause and look around, in case he was being followed, did not bother him. Rather it seemed necessary. Three days could change a lot in a world full of cultivators. Best to be careful if he was out here. 

Only after hearing nothing else for a few minutes did he start to move again. His plan was simple. Find those roots and ground vegetables that the sickly chimp had been digging for. Gather some and then search for easy kills. If he couldn’t find any ambush-able prey, he would return with his stash of vegetables and hope it was enough to keep him going. 

So, he did exactly that. Search for those roots. Dodging a few groups of chimps in the process.

Tao Zi couldn’t find anything, regardless of where he began digging until he found the sickly chimp again. The poor thing was covered in bruises this time. Struggling to pick up its spear and foraging the clear source of food it had in front of it. 

Said source would be requisitioned for a better cause soon enough. 

He could end its suffering in the meantime. Being old, sickly, starving, and constantly beaten to a pulp by other chimps did not seem like the best livelihoods. The exact opposite. 

Tao Zi waited for some time. Studying the sickly chimp and slowly getting closer. Copying Tiger’s playful hunting style and moving extremely slow. Silently. Dodging anything that would make noise had he brushed past it or stepped on it. 

It wasn’t until he got through the bushes did he pull out the spear he had practiced with for the day. He held it up and aimed. Hoping to hit it, but if not, then it would serve as a distraction. Though he doubted he needed anything like that with how deaf and weak the sickly chimp looked. 

Tao Zi threw the spear. Pulled out his sword and charged the chimp without waiting to see if it landed. It didn’t get close. He had never thrown a spear, much less hit anything stationary with it in his life. It was not about to change in a couple hours of practice. 

But that was fine. It had done its purpose as the mostly deaf chimp looked up at what had disturbed the bushes in front of it. Staring at the butt of his spear sticking out. He had missed it by a few meters. The chimp didn’t even hear Tao Zi charging until it was far too late.

He channeled his Qi through the sword and slashed the chimp clean through the shoulders and neck. Severing collar bone and spine. 

Tao Zi’s Qi was no longer as lethargic as it had been four days ago. It flowed far more comfortably compared to before, but there was a lot of room for improvement. It was still slow, just not molasses slow. He could not deny how good visible and obvious improvement felt. No wonder gym bros with good genetics became addicted to going and working out all the time. 

Battle Concluded!

1x Sickly, Old, Injured Goblinoid

Total Rewards - 

1 Qi Exp

1 Body Tempering Exp

It was barely anything worthwhile, but it was still a reward. Tao Zi would not look the other way when he could get free Qi and progress on his body cultivation in a second's time. 

He shook his head. 

No time to waste. Let’s get this over with and back to the cave.

Tao Zi hurried to collect the white roots and strange potato looking vegetables that the sickly had been munching on. He made quick progress by cutting them quickly with his sword and sending them into his ring spacial pocket without worrying about cleaning them or getting too much of the inedible parts. He would clean and figure all that out later. 

Speed and safety were paramount. 

He snapped his head to the left. The bushes shifted. Tao Zi lunged behind a tree as something stepped into the clearing.