Chapter 78
Old Lady

A black colored fire shot out in a column in front of Lucas. It looked like a flamethrower. With even the slightest touch the trees would vanish into a putrid black ash. The black flame spread quickly, burning holes in whatever it touched, clinging to whatever it burned.

Over a half-mile of forest over twenty feet across was burned to ash instantly and even more was being destroyed as the fire spread. In an experiment Lucas dropped a thing of water on it but it instantly turned into steam without snuffing out the fire.

Chu Shen reached out a hand covered in Qi. As his hand touched the fire he sensed a strong corrosive and burning force trying to destroy it. Instantly he started using null Qi, which cancelled out the destructive forces of the shadow flame.

Observing carefully, as bits of ash landed on the trees surrounding them, they started to wither away from the corrosive force. Chu Shen released a surge of null Qi, putting out the fire and stopping the corrosion of the trees.

Lucas shook his head. “Well. That wasn’t expected.”

Chu Shen shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what happened. In terms of instant destructiveness your tools win. However, in terms of killing I think this Shadowflame Primordial Pistol wins. Without my null Qi the Shadowflame would have eventually burnt me to death from just a touch.”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah. That shadowflame is insane. It clings to anything it touches, burning and corroding it. It’s like an acidic napalm. It can even burn pure energy. It would be exceedingly troublesome to deal with.”

Lucas then looked at Chu Shen’s Primordial Pistol. “Well we test fired the shadow flame ape core. Let’s try the stone frogs instead.”

Nodding in agreement, Chu Shen aimed at the forest. Pulling the trigger his pistol fired.

A brownish-yellow colored beam shot out and struck the trees in front. Instead of smashing the trees, an earthen shell formed around the trees encasing them in over meter thick rock. Firing the laser pistol at the tree it was revealed that besides the rock covering the tree nothing else happened.

Chu Shen handed the pistol to Lucas. “Alright, fire it at me. I need to see how powerful it is.” Lucas fired it at Chu Shen. Just like with the trees he became encased in rock.

All except for his head. A gray helmet made of null Qi protected it from being encased in stone. However, Chu Shen was not able to move. Trying to break apart the rock he couldn’t even budge. Circulating his Qi he unleashed a vibrational force. Cracks appeared on the stone but nothing else happened.

Using up more Qi he used Song of The Universe to slowly weaken the rock covering. Then with a quick jerk he destroyed the cracked rock cocoon. Gesturing towards himself he looked at Lucas.

“Fire it again. I need to know something.” Nodding Lucas fired the earthen colored beam. This time after being encased in rock Chu Shen suddenly used a burst of null Qi in a shockwave around him.

When it came in contact with the rock shell it instantly shattered back into earthen colored energy before being absorbed into the null Qi. The Qi shot back into Chu Shen who absorbed it.

Chu Shen stretched his back for a second while laying out his thoughts on the new weapon. “It might not be as destructive, but it certainly can hold someone off. Unless they are a Martial Practitioner it should be able capture them for a good thirty minutes. Otherwise it might delay them for a minute or two.”

Lucas nodded. “Agreed. Physically you are as strong as a Martial Student Level 8 and even you had to use a martial art to weaken it. Unless they have an unarmed martial art it should hold them up long enough to kill them or escape.”

“Okay, since we tested out the new weapons we should head back. I am pretty tired from all the hunting we did earlier.”

“Alright wuss.”

“Hey! Just because you’re a cyborg and can’t get tired doesn’t mean you can look down on me!”

“It’s not my fault that you’re fatigued so don’t blame me for pointing out facts.”

“ARRGH.” Chu Shen threw his hands in the air and stomped huffily towards the hotel. Lucas chuckled and followed him a victorious smirk on his face.

The next day they got up to go hunting like they normally did. But while walking through town they encountered some weird rumors…

“Hey did you hear about that battle yesterday?”

“Yeah. I heard that it was a class 5, maybe even a class 6 beast.”

“Nah. I heard it was several class 5 beasts with a fire and shadow element between them.”

“I saw the wrecked forest myself. If I had been there then I would have died just from the aftershocks. Luckily it’s an isolated section of the woods so no one died. Probably.”

Lucas and Chu Shen looked at each other with an awkward grin at each other. How could they know test firing some weapons would cause such a disturbance.

Shrugging it off, they both went back to their regular process of hunting primordial beasts for money. Chu Shen and Lucas were in the middle of killing a pack of wind wolves when something disturbed them.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

A high pitched scream echoed out from inside the forest. With no hesitation Chu Shen immediately smashed the wind wolf he was fighting into the ground and ran off towards the sound of the scream.

Simultaneously Lucas activated his plasma gauntlet, making a blade of blue iridescent plasma jut out from his gloved forearm. Swiping it at two wind wolves he cut them in half and ran after Chu Shen.

Quickly arriving from his movement technique, Chu Shen came across a heart rending scene.

A young girl of about eight was huddled against a tree screaming while a fairly old lady was standing in front of her. One of the old lady’s arms was missing, the stump still bleeding.

Facing them was a bladed ape. A metal attribute level 3 beast that had extremely hard metal blades that grew all over its body. It had a human hand in its mouth and was eating it. It was no surprise considering the beasts habits. It would slice its prey up into pieces before devouring them. The Bladed Apes loved it when it’s prey was in fear.

Chu Shen rushed in right as the bladed ape swung down at the old lady’s neck. Swinging his hammer he hit the apes side, crushing it’s ribs and sending it flying.

When it landed it immediately tried to get up and run. Before it could a beam of energy shot through it’s forehead, killing it instantly. Lucas holstered his laser pistol before walking up to the old lady. Taking out some gauze, he helped staunch the bleeding.

Taking out a blood coagulating pill, Chu Shen gave several of them to the old lady before moving onto the young girl. She had nothing wrong with her thankfully. Lucas checked out their surroundings before declaring it safe. Chu Shen then asked some questions.

It turns out the old lady was a herb gatherer. Risking her life she would go into the outskirts of the forest and forage for herbs there. Usually she would have her husband with her but he fell ill. In order to pay for the doctor she needed to gather herbs quickly so she took her granddaughter with her.

Unfortunately a Bladed Ape found them on the outskirts and chased them deep into the forest where they were currently. Feeling pity, Lucas and Chu Shen agreed to escort them back to town.

They soon arrived back in town with a minimum delay from Lucas avoiding all primordial beasts unlike their usual hunting. As the old lady and the young girl started heading back Lucas followed them with his eyes.

“I feel really bad for her.”

“Yeah. With her arm gone how can she be expected to fend for herself now. Not to mention she still has to go back and gather more herbs for the doctors bill.”

Lucas adopted a thoughtful look. “You know. I scanned her arm. I think I can make a prosthetic for her now.”

Sighing Chu Shen agreed. “Well if we can help her we should. It’s just too pitiful to see them like this.”

Running after the old lady he quickly reached her. “Hey, mam! Mam! Wait up for a second.”

The old lady looked back and stopped, bowing towards him. “Yes benefactor, how can we poor people help you.”

“I think we can help you with your arm.” The old lady looked at him for a second, confused, before the words he spoke sunk in. Wide eyed with shock she stammered out.

“I-i-is it t-t-true. C-can you really help me regain my arm?!”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yes but we need an hour or so to make preparations. Could you tell us where to find you?”

The oldy lady quickly nodded. “We live on the street behind the Mystical Herbal Garden, in the wooden shack three houses down.”

“Alright. We will go there once the preparations are done.” With that said they quickly returned to the hotel room to start fabbing a prosthetic for the old lady.

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