Chapter 353: Monster hunting.
It was already morning and somehow Haru had been forced out of his own soul ocean as he was just about to obtain the techniques when suddenly he heard knocking at the door and that was when he realised that the reason he had been woken up was that the barrier that he had set up the night before had alerted him to the presence of someone trying to get into the room.
But it seemed like it was doing a good job of keeping whoever was trying to get in there out in the hallway despite the fact that they didn't have a lock on the door.
Haru turned back to look at Hong Xia who was still sleeping before standing up and walking over to the door.
As he reached out and opened the door he was met with the sight of two men in the sane guard uniforms that he had seen the night before when he was walking with Annabeth.
"Can I help you with something?" Haru asked, confused as to what they could want. He knew that Annabeth had said that she would come for him in the morning to give him everything that he needed so he refine pills for her. But he expected that she would come herself and not just send some guards.
"Our Mistress sent us to deliver this." One of the guards said before handing Haru a spatial bag. Haru reached out and grabbed it before remembering the threat that he had given to Annabeth before agreeing to do what she asked.
He thought back to how scared she seemed and it suddenly made sense to him why she had decided to send her guards instead of coming herself.
Haru smiled a little before the guard took a step back and then bowed before leaving with the rest of them.
Haru heard a noise behind him before looking back to see Hong Xia rubbing her eyes. She had just woken up from the commotion and looked both confused and lost as she looked around to get her bearings before it looked as though she realised that she was no longer on earth after remembering everything that had happened the day before.
"Good morning. Do you feel any better today?" Haru asked he noticed that her arms were now able to move which was an improvement from the day before. It seemed as though her body was adjusting to the planets True Qi just as he thought it would.
"Yeah, I feel… Wait… I can move!?" Hong Xia asked as she looked at her hands for a moment while waving them in front of her face. She couldn't believe it. All it took for her to adjust was a night of sleep.
But her excitement soon wore off as she noticed that everything below her waist still wouldn't move no matter how hard she tried.
"I can now say without a doubt that your body just needs time to adapt to the True Qi. Since you haven't cultivated it before all your strength has been taken away temporarily. But don't worry it will come back soon. Just try to take it easy and get some rest okay?" Haru informed her with a smile before walking closer to her.
"Well, that's good. But I also noticed that I can't cultivate. It's as though I can't sense any Qi at all." Hong Xia explained as she looked up with a confused expression.
"That's to be expected. True Qi is different from regular Qi so you will need a new technique. But I guess you're lucky I already thought of that and got a technique for you to learn. There's no need to thank me." Haru said with a grin before approaching her even more and leaning over her before placing his head against her's and closing his eyes.
"What are you doing!? You're too close!" Hong Xia shouted out nervously as she didn't know what Haru was doing. But she felt embarrassed by having him so close to her.
"I've never done this before so don't distract me. Just stay quiet." Haru replied as he tried to remember how Lao and Li Jun went about transferring techniques from their mind into his.
For them, it was as simple as touching him with their finger. But Haru knew that he wouldn't be able to take the knowledge from his brain and hold it in his hand before passing it to someone else. So he figured that it would be easier to directly transfer it from his mind hence placing his head against her's as he focused on bringing the technique he had memorised from Annabeth the night before to the front of his head.
Haru began to get a headache after a few seconds of trying before a feeling of lightness came from his neck and shot up and down his spine as Hong Xia screamed.
"Agh! What did you do to me!? It burns!" She screeched out in pain as the knowledge shot from Haru's brain and began to permanently burn itself into her mind.
"Just bear with it. It will be over soon. You're lucky this is just a small amount of information. Try getting a whole language transferred to your brain." Haru said with a chuckle as he knew that if he transferred the language of this world to her then she would probably die from the pain alone.
Hong Xia gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as that was one of the only parts of her body that were capable of responding to the pain.
Haru took a few steps back and watched as the pain seemed to leave her and she began to pant slightly.
"Open your mouth," Haru instructed her to which she first hesitated before slowly opening her mouth.
Haru held out his hand and summoned a small ball of water into the air above his palm before offering it to her.
"Drink. You gotta hydrate or you're not going to be able to think about anything else for the rest of the day." Haru said as Hong Xia pursed her lips and began to drink the water from his hand.
"Good. I'm going to go get some food for you. Try your best to follow the instructions that are now in your mind. It should help you recover some strength." Haru said as he walked to the door before stopping for a minute and then turning back to see that Hong Xia had already started to cultivate the technique he had given to her.
Haru smiled before leaving the room and walking downstairs to the counter where the bartenders were standing awaiting orders.
"Do you serve anything that can nurture the soul? My friend is a little injured and needs something that can give her a little extra strength." Haru asked as he stood by the counter and spoke with the bartender that Annabeth had spoken to the night before.
"Something that will nurture the soul. I'm not sure… There are a few monster beasts around here. You could try to get one of their cores and have your friend absorb them. But it will take someone with a lot of strength to take them down." The woman explained as she raised a finger to her chin and began to think of a solution to solve Haru's current problem.
"Monster beasts? What kind?" Haru asked as he had never seen a monster beast with his own eyes before. He had seen their cores used as currency to trade in the soul tempering grounds but he wasn't sure what the effect would be to absorb them directly. It seemed like a good idea.
"Well, the most common type seen around here are animal monster beasts like the horn fanged wolves or the poison breath bears. They are the strongest in these parts but the guards usually kill them when they wander too close to town so you shouldn't have to worry about those.
But if you wanted to try your hand at hunting then I would recommend you hunt some Feathered Rabbits. We would pay you quite handsomely if you bring their meat back too. We often use it for meals on special occasions but it is pretty expensive." The woman said with a smile on her face as she could tell that Haru was interested in hunting monsters.
She purposely told him about the weakest monster beast because it was a local delicacy although rare to come by given the speed of Feathered Rabbits, not too many people were capable of catching them.
"Feathered rabbits? I see. I guess that will work. Do you happen to know where I can find them?" Haru asked as he wanted more information since he didn't know the surroundings but the woman shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm not sure. If you enter the forest you should see a few of them pretty quickly their numbers are in the thousands since they breed all year round." The bartender said as Haru sighed in disappointment but then an idea came to mind.
"If I manage to catch some would you mind cooking some for me? I will give you the rest of them in return." Haru asked as he wanted to try them for himself. It had been a long time since he ate rabbits but he knew how to catch them from his experience in survival tactics from his last life.
"If you catch some I would be honoured to cook it for you." The bartender said with a smile on her face as she was doubtful that Haru had the skill required to catch such a quick monster beast but he didn't let that bother him as he walked exited the inn with a determined look on his face as he thought about how he was going to go about catching them.