Chapter 8 - Unexpected Loot (1)

"What happened?" Guo Jing roared as he saw his two grandchildren and an unknown boy enter his pavilion with Guo Yang still unconscious. "What happened to Yang'er?"

"We had to fight a Blue Heart String Phoenix today. He used some kind of earth attack and movement practitioner art to land a blow on the phoenix. He just fainted from exhaustion," Guo Mei explained as Guo Yang groaned.

"Ugh, where am I?" he murmured, shaking his head. His body felt weak as he looked around. "Oh, I'm at Grandpa's house. I suppose I overexerted myself with too much spirit energy consumption. It seems I'm not at the level where I can use my element attribute arts freely."

"Spirit energy in wine?" Guo Jing frowned as Guo Feng and Ji Ting arrived, noticing Guo Yang drinking a milky white wine full of spirit energy. "What is that?"

"It's monkey wine. It contains spirit energy and tastes quite good," Guo Yang replied.

"What are you doing?" Ji Ting snapped, and Guo Yang turned to her. "You are just a child. You cannot drink wine!"

"It's in my new magical treasure. I can do with it what I please," he replied, sipping some more before beginning to meditate to restore his spirit energy.

"Listen to your mother. You should only drink that monkey wine if you need to replace your spent spirit energy. It will be easier to improve your cultivation in that exhausted state," Guo Jing said, and Guo Yang sighed as his body restored to an acceptable level.

"Where did you learn those practitioner arts? We did not give you any manuals," Guo Jing asked.

"I learned it from a snake," Guo Yang answered, telling a half-truth as it did come from his hereditary memories.

"From Red Shadow?" Guo Jing asked, glancing at his snake.

"No. I learned by observing the magical beasts at the Alchemist Association while we sold herbs there on some days. I studied their movement and how they manipulated their spirit energy," Guo Yang replied, stunning them all.

"Theoretically, it is possible but very difficult," Sun Yi said as he adjusted his glasses. "Ah, sorry. My name is Sun Yi, and I am a classmate of Guo Mei and Guo Yang. I'll, uh, get going now. See you tomorrow."

"Did you do something at school?" Guo Jing asked.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Guo Yang asked.

"I never saw you buy that gourd or monkey wine," Guo Jing pointed out.

"I, uh, received it from an older classmate in return for a favor. You see, I noticed a girl with very powerful cultivation and stared at her to assess it for three seconds? Then I returned to my meal, but some idiot older student yelled at me. I think he was jealous. All I did was ignore him while smelling my poisonous powder in a little vial. While I was enjoying its fragrance, the idiot named Robert snatched it from me, insulted me, and took a whiff. Is it my fault he became temporarily paralyzed and nearly lost his life? No. The range of the vial's mist is not even a foot long, and the smell dissipates quickly. It's a nice, shallow scent that I was enjoying until he came," Guo Yang smiled, sending chills down everyone's spines.

"And how did it end with you owning that gourd?" Guo Feng asked.

"I, uh, told his friend that Robert would die unless he bought a cure. It’s worth twenty thousand spirit coins, but we were too far, and he was evidently too poor to buy it. So I told him I would cure Robert in exchange for something I needed. He gave me this gourd as the means of transaction to cure his friend. Did I have to save him? No. Did I save him? Yes. He turned out alright, his friend was not publicly exposed as a spineless weakling, and I got this gourd filled with seven barrels of monkey wine," Guo Yang laughed.

"What else did you get?" Guo Jing asked.

"What do you mean?" Guo Yang replied, everyone looking between the two, confused.

"You're a smart boy, too smart. There is no way you would be satisfied with only one item. If there is one thing I know as a master of a snake magical beast, it’s that snakes are very cunning and always attack when they are certain of pulling off the kill. There must be other prey you encountered before that Robert character," Guo Jing said, and everyone nodded as it made sense.

"I guess I underestimated you, Grandpa Patriarch," Guo Yang smiled. "You're right. I did get more than that gourd, but I'm pretty sure no one found out."

"How did you get those?" Guo Feng cried as Guo Yang deposited five meter-high eggs. They were obviously eggs of magical beasts, and everyone turned to him in shock.

"You know, even for me, there’s no way to tell what’s inside these eggs. I doubt whoever owned these knew either. Trust me, no one knows more about magical beast eggs than I do," Guo Yang smiled evilly, reminiscing about his times as a snake, creeping into magical beast dens and breaking many of their eggs. The taste was... addictive for a snake. Very addictive.

"What do you want to do with these eggs?" Guo Jing asked.

"Well, I planned on eating one," he said, stunning them all.

"How could you? It's a magical beast egg," Guo Mei began.

"That is more delicious than most magical beast meat and milk. Trust your youngest brother. I know these things," he smiled. "Well, I could give my siblings one each, keep one for myself, give one to the sub-branches, and eat the last."

"No. You will give two to the sub-branches. You can't eat magical beast eggs," Guo Jing said, Guo Yang outraged but keeping calm as he did not have the power to do as he wished. Yet.

"What else did you get?" Guo Feng asked.

"If you press any further, then I will cease harvesting poisonous herbs," Guo Yang said through gritted teeth, even Guo Lin and Guo Mei realizing he was angry despite his calm demeanor. "You and Guo Lin pick one and leave. I... am angry. Grandpa Patriarch, you will take two eggs after I make my pick. I will remember this day."

"Sorry," Guo Mei and Guo Lin said as they each took an egg and hastily left.

"I will be by the pond in the backyard of the pavilion, sorting out the rest of my loot. If you two go anywhere near me, or anyone, really; you will all be poisoned. I guarantee no one else will know the cure. Come, Red Shadow," Guo Yang growled at his parents as he drank some monkey wine, stored the gourd and one egg in his inter-spatial ring, and stormed out.

"Come here," Guo Jing said but was shocked to see the snake ignore him. It slammed its tail against Guo Feng and glared at Ji Ting before slithering behind Guo Yang. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Father," Guo Feng said, coughing blood. "I... don't know what's going on. I think I worsened my relationship with my son even more than it already was. I did not expect him to be so strong or so smart either."

"Yes, you paid more attention to Guo Lin and Guo Mei and their active sibling rivalry. Perhaps treating Guo Yang as a sickly, crippled child due to his weakness to cold weather contributed to this. He and I get along fine. He calls me grandpa," Guo Jing said. "Although, knowing him, he might be angry at me for a few hours before calming down."

"I told you to pay more attention to him," Ji Ting snapped, her husband looking at the floor as she did so, having done so many times before. "However, he had her help him keep Guo Mei from hating Guo Lin for displaying more talent than her. He was also to blame for the bad relationship between Guo Yang and his mother.

Guo Yang would never admit it, but this had a small, small influence on how he treated them. After all, he witnessed his own mother being eaten by a hawk magical beast and never knew his father. Love was foreign to him. That was the biggest factor. He was always hiding and forced to eat weaker prey or weakened predators. Once he became strong, he had to slither and escape from those who sought his magical beast core.

His body was broken, his mind under stress, and danger was worn like a mantle for nearly every year of his life. Family? He trusted the snake magical beast of his human grandfather more than his new family. Snakes truly lived one of the harshest lives as the number one delicacy for avian magical beasts, with phoenixes at the very top. His human parents' interactions with him were minor and nearly insignificant compared to his past life's experiences.