New Paths

We crash-landed in the courtyard. I used my already cracked body to protect her from the ground, but we still hit a lot harder than I wanted to. We bounced, ending up next to the peach tree. I lay there for a moment, gasping. After some time, I got up and crawled over to a peach, slowly chewing on it. I took in Qi, flowing it through me.

"Cass… eat. Heal."

Cass let out small sounds of pain. I wanted to cry at that sound. She was just a kid damnit, and I'd led her to monsters.

And those things, those ants, were monsters. Coordinated hunters, moving as one. Even with all of our comparatively massive power, their numbers were way too high to really counter. I didn't want to fight them again.

Something told me I didn't have much choice. I had to look over my options. And take care of Cass.

Damnit. Could she heal? Could I? Neither of us had ever gotten so injured. Cultivators could heal fast, couldn't they?

I had no clue. Instead, I simply kept chewing on the peach in my mouth, the juices dripping down to mingle with the dust and dirt under me as I slowly faded away.

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I came back to full awareness with my own skin on the floor beside me, the moon shining down on me. I'd molted. Again.

Beetles weren't supposed to molt so often, were they? Then again, how many beetles were cultivators? I felt better. Still hurting, relatively speaking, but better.

"Cass?" I looked around, trying to find her. She was upside down in the tree, sleeping. Her dozens of wounds had stopped bleeding, but she still looked hurt. As I watched, she winced in her sleep.

Damnit. Hopefully she wasn't having nightmares.

I flew up to her, stopping to nudge her cheek gently. Her wince faded instantly for some reason, replaced with a smile. Adorable.

I then flew to the nearest roof to me, looking out into the forest. I had some options… but first, I needed to speak to someone. "Zi Yi?"

I said it softly, reaching out, hoping some kind of magic or something would connect us. I was a bit embarrassed when nothing happened. Still. That crow had some answers. It had called this a war. He knew things I didn't. I needed to speak to him.

How does one even find a superpowered crow?

With little options, I laid myself down on my roof and began to circulate Qi, bringing it in from the world around me and within myself, cultivating. And as I did, I kept trying to reach out.

"Zi Yi. The crow. I need to talk to you," I said softly. Over and over, I spoke, trying different tones. He'd implied he'd keep an eye on us. That had to mean something.

I was at it for over two hours, at least based on my fuzzy guess on the timing. And suddenly-

Fwoosh.

He came on black wings, tinged with violet coloration, landing in front of me.

Neither of us spoke for a moment. He simply eyed me with those intelligent black eyes, studying me eerily. He glanced over at Cass.

"Have you named her?"

"Cass Daji," I whispered, looking back at her.

"Hmm… Kasi Daji. A name with dangerous connotations." Zi Yi looked me over again. "You met the enemy. I can smell their filth upon you."

Pheremones, probably. I had been trying to ignore their scent. "They almost killed us… those ants. Where did they come from? They're unnatural, man."

"Not man. Crow," he corrected gently. "And none know. The other ants of the forest battle them desperately, but their own armies are being decimated. I have my own theories. But nothing I can call 'stone'."

The crow's wings fluttered open then closed in a stretch. "All I know for certain is that they have begun encroaching on the forest proper over the last two years. They devour the land. Qi dies before them. Soil loses the ability to grow plant-life. Even the largest and most powerful of animals are killed by them."

"We have to try and stop them," I said with a sigh. "Damnit. I just wanted to extend my lifespan."

The crow huffed out a laugh, both through the strange way of speaking we were using and a loud crow 'cawcawcaw'! "Technically, that is what you are doing!"

"Fair point," I agreed. "You called this a war. Do we have an army of our own?"

He huffed out a much less amused laugh. "You wish for too much. Even those of us with spiritual cores are still too much animal to discard our natures. You should feel lucky I did not devour you when we first met."

"The whole world around us is going to hell, and everyone won't come together to fight back because we're obsessed with old beef?" I asked. I thought about that. "Okay, fine, that's believable. And useless. The ants outnumber us enough without having to fight each other."

"Old beef," Zi Yi hummed, before letting out a sound of amusement. "Ah, I see. Fighting over useless food. A metaphor. Amusing. Yes. You have the right of it, feces worshipper."

"Okay, we have to clear that up at some point," I sighed. "But for now, I think we can count each other as allies. If you're okay with that."

"I am. Even the lowliest of lifeforms is a worthy ally in this fight," he said like he wasn't amazingly insulting me. "My murder has been dropping rocks atop the armies, but for every five we crush, hundreds arrive. But I know of more spirit beasts who can aid us. I can direct you to them."

"Direct me? Why not introduce us?"

Zi Yi said the next words without a hint of shame. "I tried to eat them."

"..."

"It is a shame I failed. They would have been delicious."

"This is the EXACT reason you haven't been able to bring the forest together."

"Yes. But then, those with a perfect view of the past may regret it. But those who focus on the present will enjoy it."

"Yeah, yeah. Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

He stared at me blankly. That was when I realized there might have been a translation error or something. Were gift and present not the same thing in the weird spirit beast language we spoke?

"I… suppose so. Now. Allow me to direct you."

For the next hour or so, he pointed out into the forest, telling me about the various spirit beasts that he knew.

There were a LOT. Mostly younger ones, but way more than should have been possible. Further to the north, in the mountains, there were more traditional examples of giant monstrous spirit beasts, the kinds that went on rampages and fought each other to death.

But the rest that Zi Yi knew about, whether from rumor or direct interactions, were more like us. And most were single members of their species.

A moth taking care of her eggs. Someone Zi Yi called the scorpion siblings. Some bug that Zi Yi only knew as the assassin god, which wasn't fucking ominous at all. More recently a mayfly that Zi Yi figured was worth ignoring, since he was probably dead after the couple of days. Monkeys, toads, a few other weirdos, even a devil's coach horse beetle, and, confusingly, a tarantula working for a human?

"A human?" I asked. "Like, a normal person?"

"Yes. She works as her bodyguard."

I would have blinked if I could have. Were tarantula's even Chinese animals? Then again, maybe in this world I shouldn't depend on my miniscule knowledge of China's wildlife. I pushed the thought aside.

"How do we stay in contact?" I asked.

"I will come back. Once a day. Failing that, I will send one of my ilk. You may need to beat them if they are hungry, but they will bring back any messages."

"Yeah… of course." Fucking predatory animals, man.

Still, our conversation had been extremely useful. To fight a war. A war with demonic superants.

What the hell was I doing?

After Zi Yi left, I contemplated on that for a long time. I sat on the roof, staring up at the stars.

They were beautiful. On this world, where the most pollution would come from cultivators destroying a mountain or three, the skies were clear and the stars were bright. A canopy of beauty millions of miles away.

I watched them slowly move as the world spun, trying to get a sense of things. I felt so small. Not just literally. I felt small under the gaze of the universe. And the task I'd apparently adopted.

An army was devouring the forest. Why did that have to be my problem? I didn't have to involve myself. I didn't have to bring together all those spirit beasts that were more likely to kill me than help me. I could run. Cass and I could fly somewhere else. Hell, we could send a message, let that mysterious empire that ran things know about what was going on in the forest.

I seriously considered that. It wasn't my problem. Not when I could escape from it. I could let others deal with it. That all made sense.

Then I slowly, internally, put down that option.

Look. It wasn't a bad option. Not even an incorrect one. An easy and safe one. But not one I could live with.

The selfish reason was that I wasn't about to lose another home. The Bloody Faced Man was still on my mind. The one who had killed my first friend in this world, who had stolen a thousand potential moments I could have had with the sect. Never again. The temple was mine. The forest was mine. I wasn't going to let anyone take them. Not when I could stop them this time.

Less selfishly, it is the role of every person to stand together in times of danger. Civilization didn't live in isolation. Doing the right things feels good, but it's also a logical choice. If I left things to others, who knew when it would get taken care of? I didn't know I could handle it. But I could help fight. I obviously wasn't going to lead the forest into combat or anything. But I knew why Zi Yi gave me the task of bringing them together.

"I have no enemies," I mumbled. Well. I would consider the Bloody Faced Man and his group my enemies, but no one else. I didn't have any beef with the forest animals. So I could meet them and bring them together… hopefully. There was one other person who I had to talk to though.

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"So now that we know the danger ahead of us, I wanted to give you the option to head out to wherever this empire place is and-"

"No." Cass snapped.

I stopped talking. Cass was glaring at me hard.

"Master… I want to fight," She raised her right wing and stared at the claw at the top joint of it, like a human staring at her hand. "Those ants… they were scary. But I fought them. And now I want to win."

She looked away from her claw to stare at me instead. "I want to challenge them. I want to win. I want to be stronger, to beat them all! I was so scared, but it was also amazing! I want that feeling over and over again, master! Let me join you! Let me help you! Please!"

"...I really shouldn't have picked Dragon Ball as your first story," I said with a small sigh.

"Goku is awesome!" She disagreed. "And master. We can win. I know it."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Because you're the smartest bug in the world!" Cass then nodded wisely, like she'd said something amazing.

"Oyoyoy… the hell kinda confidence-" I cut myself off with a laugh. "Okay… okay. Then let's get to work. First things first. We'll go moth hunting."

"...Moth…Hunting?" Cass thought about that. Then she began to drool.

"Oh god. No, girl, not like-"

I knew intellectually that Cass was an omnivore, but man did I not expect it to come up at all.