The Wanyuan Forest welcomed me with filtered sunlight and the crunch of leaves. As I pushed deeper in, I tried to recall what I knew about this place.

  The old Taros had barely ventured to the farms, never mind beyond, but he had absorbed plenty of stories. Disappearing travelers, spirit beasts with glowing eyes, paths that led nowhere and everywhere. Really? I took such warnings with the skepticism they deserved. City dwellers loved their horror stories about the wilderness, especially those who had never stepped foot outside the city bounds.

  Still, I kept my senses alert. Even if half the tales were nonsense, the other half weren't, this wasn't a tame forest.

  After walking for around half an hour I found a clearing perhaps thirty paces across, perfect for the first part of what I had in mind. The changing light and wind added a new challenge to target practice with my knives. Having to use them in the real world rather than an airless cellar reminded me of how much work I still had to do.

  But, as I put my knives away, I couldn't help but smile. Jumping to my feet I drew my sword and gave it a practice swing. This would be more fun than stone walls and wooden posts.

  I swept through basic forms first, then began improvising, taking full advantage of the extra space and height. Fighting in the cellar had been useful to remind me of what I knew best, specifically fighting either above or below deck, but I needed to be more versatile than just being able to fight in the confined spaces on board ship.

  A leaf drifted from above and I paused to take a breath as I looked up. A smile spread across my face as an idea came to me. Those branches weren't a million miles away from the mast and spars of a ship and they were calling my name. I sheathed my weapons and shimmied up the trunk of a towering pine until I could haul myself up onto its lowest limb. My arms protested but I didn't care.

  Testing my balance and timing I moved from branch to branch. The first few attempts ended with me crashing down to the forest floor, but each failure was a lesson.

  By the fourth tree, I had it down. My meridians hummed with effort as I pushed ki through them to reinforce my grip and stabilize my landings, but I was leaping through the canopy. It was exhilarating, this body was finally starting to feel like it was pushing the mortal limits.

  The afternoon sun slanted lower through the canopy as I finally dropped back to the ground. I drew in a few deep breaths but couldn't stop myself from grinning with satisfaction.

  I wiped sweat from my brow and decided it was time for my other reason for coming out here. The acrobatics and the weapons training had been fun, but I also wanted to see if I could find ingredients to start my alchemy.

  As I headed even deeper in, the forest floor yielded its secrets slowly. I found clusters of Moonbell flowers growing in the shade of a fallen log, their pale petals would be useful for sleep draughts I had no interest in brewing, but they may be of use to Mistress Cao. A patch of Silverleaf caught my eye next, but left them. Without proper preservation bottles, the delicate essence would evaporate before I reached the city.

  And so it went, most things weren't useful for me, but useless to me didn't mean worthless. Even though the pricing at the Ash & Orchid seemed to be illogical from the outside, Mistress Cao might pay decent coin for quality ingredients, especially ones gathered fresh rather than the dried offerings I had seen in the market.

  As I searched I pushed through a thicket of brambles, following a faint game trail that wound between moss-covered rocks and then paused.

  A cluster of fat, golden mushrooms sprouted from the base of a rotting oak stump, their caps gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. A smile spread across my face as I recognized them.

  Goldcap mushrooms. The primary ingredient to restore stamina.

  I knelt beside the cluster, examining them carefully. Perfect specimens with firm flesh, no signs of rot or insect damage, and that distinctive honeyed scent that marked them as properly matured. I would need at least six caps for a full batch of potions, and this cluster held many times that number.

  Now this was something I could actually use. Goldcap mushrooms were the key ingredient in the recipe I could remember for a basic stamina potion. With those potions I could sleep fewer hours each night, giving me more time for training or business matters. But the real prize lay elsewhere. If I could brew these properly, I might be able to use Raging Tide more frequently as I could offset the tiredness and avoid a complete collapse afterward.

  I pulled out my knife and began harvesting carefully. This trip out of the city had definitely been worth it.

  Half an hour later I tucked the last Goldcap into my pouch and straightened, satisfaction warring with frustration in my chest. These mushrooms were a solid find, but they highlighted a deeper problem. Most of my alchemical knowledge had vanished along with the rest of my Archive.

  While I could remember some of the ingredients that were needed for a number of potions, I could only brew maybe six or seven recipes fully from memory. They were basic things. stamina restoration, minor healing salves, clarity draughts for hung-over scholars. The kind of tedious work they dumped on outer sect disciples to earn contribution points.

  Despite being a prodigy I hadn't been spared from grinding out hundreds of identical batches in those early days at Azure Tide, the repetition had burned those simple formulas into my bones where even the Archive's destruction couldn't touch them.

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  But basic wouldn't cut it for long. The recipes for the pills I would need to accelerate my cultivation, the Core Formation elixirs, the meridian-strengthening compounds, essentially anything that could give me an edge against the Vanguard were either gone or would cost more gold than I could earn in time.

  Which meant I would have to rebuild that knowledge myself. Trial and error, experimentation, maybe buying partial recipes from other alchemists and filling in the gaps. It would take time I didn't have and resources I couldn't spare.

  But that wouldn't stop me from marking today as a success. Best not to push my luck, so I shouldered my pack and started back home

  * * *

  I had just started back towards the road when a high-pitched, wavering cry cut through the forest. This wasn't the normal sound of nature, this carried notes of fear and pain. I froze in place until my brain worked out what it was.

  I relaxed as I realized that it was some small animal in distress. From the volume of the sound it was unlikely to be anything that could harm me. It didn't make sense though, if this was a smaller animal being hunted by a predator it would have died long ago. I could have ignored it, but the sound came again. It was nearby and a small detour wouldn't make a large difference.

  I adjusted my pack and moved toward the source, stepping carefully through the underbrush. The crying grew clearer as I approached. It was the exhausted whimper of something that had been drained by suffering.

  Through a gap in the trees, I finally spotted it. A deer lay caught in the jaws of a steel trap. It was small, a fawn maybe. If it could stand, its head would barely reach my waist. The metal teeth had clamped around its left rear leg, and dried blood matted the fur where it had struggled against the iron grip. Oddly though the blood did not stain the forest floor beneath.

  Fury boiled in my chest. The animal's ribs showed beneath its coat, and its breathing came in shallow, rapid pants. This trap had been abandoned for days, maybe longer. Any responsible hunter would check their snares within hours, not leave a creature to slowly starve and die in agony.

  The deer spotted my approach and tried to flee. For a moment, it seemed to shimmer in the air, half-transparent, before solidifying again and collapsing to the ground with barely enough strength to draw air into its lungs. My own breath caught with renewed anger.

  It was a Windstep Deer, a spirit beast that wielded the element of air to phase through obstacles and enemies alike. But, if that's what it was, then it made no sense that it was trapped. It should have been easily able to escape. Something was wrong with its abilities.

  I knelt beside the trap, examining the ground around it. Small, evenly spaced, carved stones formed a perfect circle, each carved with runes filled with gold that disrupted the ki flow in the immediate area. I had a solid understanding of rune craft, as I used formations in combat. This were simple suppression runes in a vicious formation that used the spirit beasts own blood and ki to power itself. It was designed to confuse spirit beasts' natural energy and prevent their escape from an otherwise mundane snare.

  The trap itself was ordinary and its release mechanism was simple enough. I pressed the side levers and the jaws sprung open with a clank. The deer had stopped trying to escape as I worked to free it, and it still didn't struggle as I carefully carried it to clear ground well away from the formation's influence.

  I set the creature down gently, but it couldn't stand or do more than take painful shallow breaths. Free from the formation that had fed on its blood, it now started to bleed onto the grass. Even with all my care I had aggravated its wounds and its injured leg hung useless. The prolonged starvation and the formation had drained too much of its strength. The deer looked up at me with intelligent, pain-filled eyes that held a terrible understanding.

  I knew what mercy demanded. Drawing my dagger, I placed one hand on the deer's neck and ended its suffering with a swift, clean stroke.

  The deer's eyes dimmed as life fled its body and I sat back on my heels trying to control the rage burning through my veins. As the deer passed I felt a surge of something flow though me and strengthen me, but I was too wound up to think about it.

  Hunting was honest work for food or safety. A predator faced its prey, skill against instinct, and when death came it was swift. But this was torture masquerading as sport. I was known for being ruthless, but I wasn't cruel. Whoever set this trap had deliberately condemned a thinking creature to days of agony through their own laziness.

  I wouldn't let its death serve no purpose.

  Rolling up my sleeves, I drew the dagger again and made a careful incision behind the deer's left shoulder. My fingers probed until they found the small, hard sphere nestled near the heart. The beast core came free with a wet pop, no larger than a child's marble but dense with concentrated ki. It glowed with faint wind essence, still warm from the creature's body.

  My first spirit beast core in this realm. I wish I hadn't gained it like this. Any number of sects or alchemists would be delighted to pay for it, or I could absorb its essence myself to accelerate my cultivation. Either way, I would honor the deer's death.

  I worked quickly after that to field-dress the carcass. The hide came off in one piece, revealing lean muscle beneath. I then removed the internal organs and wrapped them carefully in leaves. If I remembered aright then these would have a particular value for some alchemy preparations. Finally I carefully removed the hooves and antlers. Cao Wenli would have alchemical uses for these as well, and a talented armorer could turn the hide into light protection.

  Everything wrapped neatly in the deer's own skin, forming a bundle that I tied to a branch to help me carry it. It pained me to leave the rest behind, and I would have loved to take the meat itself but I had no way to transport the bloody flesh. It would have to stay to feed the creatures of this forest.

  The trap was next. I dug a hole and buried the metal trap itself, that could just rust. Part of me wanted to smash the formation stones, but practicality won over satisfaction. The suppression runes were crude but effective. I didn't know what use I might find for a ki-dampening formation, but I wasn't so flush in spirit treasures that I could afford to leave it behind.

  As I pried up each carved formation stone I examined the runic patterns. These weren't trivial pieces of rune work. Runes of blood binding, energy disruption, and spatial anchoring all worked elegantly together. I could feel old knowledge slipping back into my mind as I studied them, and I made a mental note to make sure that these runes were also added back into my Archive.

  Whoever the cultivator was who had made these they were talented. Irredeemably nasty pieces of work, but talented nonetheless.

  Two heavy loads now weighed down my shoulders. The sun hung lower than I would have liked, and several hours of travel stretched between me and Shuilin Haven's walls. Time to…

  I froze and the hair on the back of my neck rose as a low coughing snort rumbled out from the far side of the clearing.