The Desolate Mountains (The Divine Elements Book 2) (4 page)

*whooosh*

“Control your heartbeat!”

The Voice quietly whispered within Calron’s mind.

“Yes Teacher!”

Calron replied, as he swiftly grasped the tiger’s incoming paw with a steely grip and immediately sent a powerful palm strike towards the beast’s jaw.

Seeing the human so easily suppress its attack, a hint of surprise flashed across the black tiger’s eyes, as it opened its jaws wide at the nearing hand.

A slight smile slipped from Calron’s lips when he saw that the beast was attempting to bite off his hand. Taking in a long deep breath, Calron suddenly bellowed out.

“HAAH!”

Instantly, numerous veins popped up across his arms and neck, causing the individual strands of muscle fibers to unnaturally stand out.

Just as Calron’s palm was about to come into contact with the beast, the black tiger opened its mouth even wider as it revealed its sharp fangs, and waited for Calron’s hand to approach its proximity.

Without missing a beat, Calron calmly twisted the tiger’s paw that was held in his other hand, and continued to push his other arm straight into the beast’s throat.

Once the human’s hand went inside its mouth, the black tiger instantly snapped its jaws shut as its fangs began to pierce into Calron’s skin. However, before the fangs had barely even penetrated the human’s skin, they abruptly met a resistance and were unable to pierce any deeper.

Fiercely glaring into the beast’s eyes, Calron softly whispered.

“Time’s up.”

At that exact moment, Calron’s hand located the long bone at the back of the beast’s throat and crushed it within his palm!

Letting out a low whimper, the tiger slowly collapsed onto the ground.

“You defeated a fifth rank black tiger in under two minutes… not bad, kid! Looks like the training that I put you through the past few weeks really helped. Let’s do it again!”

The Voice proudly exclaimed as it materialized next to its student.

Calron shuddered in reflex the moment he heard his Teacher’s suggestion of going through that training routine again.

—A Few Weeks Ago—

After his incident with the Mountain Ash Bear, the Voice had made him undergo a barbaric routine of punching massive rocks with his bare hand until his bones cracked.

Although the Blood Legacy would quickly start the regeneration process, the sensation of one’s fist striking against a solid rock with full strength was not something that Calron enjoyed or looked forward to.

The first time his Teacher had suggested punching rocks in order to harden his skin and bones, Calron had immediately refused. However, the Voice had then threatened to make him resume fighting against the mid-ranked beasts, and that made Calron’s decision for him.

Resigning himself to his fate, and after several broken knuckles, Calron miserably continued to endlessly train for several weeks until bit by bit, his bones started to become more resilient and tougher.

The experience with the grey bear and the will to control his own emotions, all surged within his heart each time he struck a punch against a rock.

However, the torture did not seem to end there, as his Teacher still wanted him to increase the toughness of his muscles, and its plan was to have Calron intentionally let the low-ranked beasts snap their jaws at his body.

“NO! I can understand punching rocks but I don’t want to be humiliated with those rascals trampling all over me!”

Calron heatedly protested once the Voice relayed out the next part of the training.

The low-ranked beasts that his Teacher was talking about were actually the baby beasts of the small mountain.

Although they were still in their infant stages, the little beasts still had the blood of their parents, and several parents of these baby beasts were experts in the Vajra stage. Even if the infants did not currently have a high cultivation, just their physical strength was incomparably superior to the strength of the human element lists within the same rank.

His Teacher’s plan was to let Calron’s body be continuously attacked by the small beasts and let his muscles slowly adapt to pain and increase the toughness of the fibers. This was much safer than fighting a beast like Mountain Ash Bear, and besides, the baby beasts on the mountain seemed to generally like Calron and they would immediately stop if told so, unlike the others monsters prowling in the forest.

However, being abused by those little punks would definitely be a hard blow to Calron’s ego, and he would rather lose to the grey bear a hundred times than have those little animals chew him up.

“Don’t tell me those baby beasts intimidate a peak Spiritual stage expert like you, kid?”

The Voice began goading Calron with amusement.

“Sigh… let’s just get it over with.”

Calron dejectedly responded and mentally prepared himself for the inevitable confrontation with the little monsters.

“Well, why don’t you summon them then?”

The Voice stated as it burst into a fit of laughter.

With an annoyed expression on his face, Calron took out the small wooden flute from the inside of his fur trousers, and leaned back against a nearby tree.

…………………

Since childhood, Calron always had a deep passion for music but neither his parents nor the villagers knew anything about playing an instrument, so he had to simply settle for whistling tunes that he would hear from the passing caravans near his village.

A few months after he had arrived at the Desolate Mountains, Calron had initially settled in a new cave and it was then that he had noticed a broken flute lying in the corner along with some other items, including a cloth sack and a pile of human bones. It was clear that some beast had once captured this human and left his or her belongings within the cave.

Grabbing that flute, Calron had dissected it in half and used it as a  model to construct his own wooden flute. Initially, the notes and the sounds were completely bizarre on the flute he made, but after several tries and finding the perfect size of the holes, Calron had finally made a flute that was in tune.

………………

Taking a deep breath, Calron gradually brought the small wooden flute closer to his lips and began playing one of his favorite melodies. The baby beasts were usually always gathered in the same large group, so if one of them heard his flute, the rest would soon follow.

He did not know why these little rascals liked his music so much, and he given up contemplating it any further when he realized that he would never receive his answer.

Calron loved playing the flute, but whenever he did, the little beasts always seemed to locate his position no matter where in the mountain he was, and would soon begin to crowd around him. Slowly, it would become distracting for Calron when they would start hopping back and forth onto his body or pestering him to continue playing for hours.

During the earlier years, Calron had been completely dumbfounded as to why the baby beasts behaved so familiarly with him, while the adult beasts seemed to treat him with hostility.

When he had raised this matter up with his Teacher and inquired as to what it thought, the Voice had strangely turned silent and tried to furtively divert Calron’s mind away from that matter.

…………….

The melodious sound of a flute gradually filled the air as Calron began to play a slow and harmonious tune. Unknowingly, he had shut off all his other thoughts and worries, and simply reveled in the sensation of the soothing melody.

Calron was so immersed into the music that he failed to detect the one pest that always seemed to follow him around: the baby monkey!

Excitedly rushing deeper into the forest, the tiny monkey mirthfully yelled to gain the attention of its other little friends.

“Gagaga, gaga!”

“chirp?”

“grr?”

A series of curious growls sounded out in the distance several yards away from Calron, as the baby monkey finally arrived at the current location of the infant beasts.

“Gaga! Gagaga Ga!”

The little monkey excitedly burst out, as its tiny paws pointed towards the direction of the human playing the flute.

“Meow?”

A baby jaguar suddenly perked up its ears and carefully listened to the surrounding sounds.

“Mew!”

The jaguar cub abruptly yelped and turned to immediately rush towards Calron’s location. Seeing their friend suddenly sprint away, the others beasts quickly followed suit with their cheerful cries.

It appeared as if the grumpy human boy was finally playing the happy music that they all liked.

Soon, a clamor of soft thuds and excited cheers echoed out in the forest, while one human boy was absolutely clueless to the impending chaos nearing him.

*sha*   *sha*

Suddenly, something soft and furry began to rub up against Calron’s bare leg.

While continuing to play the flute, Calron slowly glanced down below and saw a golden jaguar cub lovingly rubbing its furry little head against his body.

“Purrrr”

Tilting up its cute little head towards Calron, the baby jaguar happily purred as it enjoyed the music from the flute.

*chirp*  *chirp*

*woof*

“Gagaga!”

A train of little animals soon appeared within Calron’s sight, led proudly by the baby monkey. With its tiny chest puffed up, the monkey theatrically marched ahead of the other beasts. It was a completely comical sight as it appeared that the little beasts were actually obediently trailing behind the monkey.

Calron remained standing, as he knew that if he sat down on the ground, then the baby beasts would immediately try to jump onto his lap as soon as they were near him.

The large bear cub slowly trudged at the back, as it carried several baby birds on its back. Within seconds, the once-empty forest around Calron was now littered with dozens of little beasts. There were reptiles, birds, and various other species of beasts.

Did their group suddenly grow larger? Don’t these brats have anything better to do all day? Dammit, that shitty monkey is coming near!

Calron inwardly fumed, as he recalled the last time he had encountered the baby monkey, and when it had spat directly into his eyes to distract him from the roasted bird. Calron had yet to take revenge for that humiliating scene.

Seeing the little thief pompously arrive in front of him again, Calron vehemently fought his urges to electrocute the baby monkey right then and there.

“Gaga ga?”

The yellow-furred monkey curiously gazed at the human as it saw the expression on Calron’s face abruptly change while his hands slightly trembled. The little monkey did not realize that it was it was because of him, that the human was struggling to control his anger.

It appeared as if the little monkey had entirely forgotten that it stole food from Calron!

Thinking that the human boy was just feeling emotionally down, the baby monkey nimbly hopped onto the tree above Calron and sagely patted his back, as if comforting him.

“Gaga… ga… gagaga… “

You little bastard, just wait till I’m done playing the flute!

Calron screamed within his mind as he tightly shut his eyes. He felt like if he saw the little monkey’s face one more time, he would be unable to control himself and he did not want to hurt the cute jaguar cub next to his leg.

The golden jaguar cub was one of the few beasts that Calron actually liked, as it would never pester him and would simply cuddle beside him. Most of the little rascals would unceasingly scratch his bare skin whenever he would stop playing the flute, or any other time when they would carelessly graze his skin while they were goofing off around him.

However, the main reason that Calron liked the little jaguar was because the golden jaguar cub was a magical beast with the lightning attribute.

After several minutes, the melody finally came to an end and Calron let out a deep breath, as he put the small wooden flute away.

“Hiss!”

One of the snake beasts of the group suddenly hissed in dissatisfaction at the human who abruptly ended the music.

Just as a nearby baby fox was about to claw Calron, he suddenly darted away from the tree and appeared a few yards away from the entire group. Even without using the Blood Mist Step, Calron’s speed had already reached an astonishing level.

“Alright, I need you guys to do me a favor. You will come in groups of five, and start biting me. No scratching, and only biting!”

Calron turned a glare towards the baby fox when he finished his sentence. The little fox quietly whimpered as it guiltily hung its head.

“Also, all poisonous beasts step behind that bush. You are not allowed to participate in this activity.”

Calron sternly stated with a firm tone.

Slowly, several poisonous little beasts miserably trudged away as they shot looks of envy towards their non-poisonous friends. They wanted to play with the human as well.

“You too!”

Calron yelled when he saw that a small black lizard was casually trying to blend itself behind the large bear cub.

“Sssa ssa?”

The black lizard innocently cried out when it realized that it had been swiftly discovered.

“Get back over there, your saliva is toxic.”

Calron immediately countered back.

“Ssa!”

The little black lizard angrily spat out, and joined its other poisonous friends near the bush. It did not know what the human was planning, but it seemed fun and it wanted to play as well.

A gloomy atmosphere spread over the group of the poisonous little beasts.

“Alright, you, you, you… you, and you, all form a group….”

Calron carried on for several minutes as he assigned each of the remaining beasts a group.

He decided to balance them out, so he would have several agile beasts along with several slower beasts in one group. The agile beasts would attack faster but with less strength, while the slower beasts would attack with a greater strength. Calron separated them this way so that he could simultaneously train both his reaction speed and adaptability in battle.

“I’m going to regret this… “

Calron sighed when he noticed the excited and eager expressions on the parade of the baby beasts in front of him.

“Let’s do it… COME!”

Calron shouted while tensing all the muscles within his body.

……………………

*pant*   *pant*

Calron collapsed on the ground as he heavily breathed in order to regain his breath.

“meowww… “

The golden jaguar cub lightly licked Calron’s cheek as it sadly looked at the various wounds covering his body. It did not want to bite its human friend, but the boy forced it to attack him.

“Haha, I’m fine, don’t worry. You should go now, the others have already left.”

Calron rasped, while he gently petted the little beast’s soft golden fur.

“mew?”

The little cat inquired as it gazed into the human’s eyes.

“Yes, we will do this again tomorrow. Go!”

Calron gingerly replied as he slightly nudged the cub away from him.

Giving a final last glance towards its human friend, the cub rushed into the forest and called out to its beast friends.

“Huh?”

Calron felt a sudden thought pierce his mind!

Wait.

How did I know what it was saying?

Calron’s mind instantly reeled back as he realized that he had actually understood what the jaguar cub had asked him!

Could it be?

“Looks like you’ve already figured it out… ”

The Voice quietly said as it materialized next to its student.

“NO! This can’t be possible! But both my parents were… Teacher?“

Calron turned towards his Teacher in a quivering voice.

“Sigh… Calron, have you ever wondered why your lighting was so different? Even when taking away the Azure Lightning, your normal golden lightning is much stronger than the lightning of any other cultivator. You thought that your physical body was much tougher due to the Blood Legacy, but did you ever test your real strength before you inherited the legacy?”

As his Teacher continued to talk, all the pieces within Calron’s mind started to slowly come together and the realization of what those pieces meant, thoroughly shook Calron’s soul.

The thoughts of the little beasts and why they were always so familiar with him, even though he looked like a human, all rushed through Calron’s mind. Instinctively, beasts were naturally wary of humans and even their children would never approach one, unless…

*thump*     *thump*

“Yes, Calron… you have the blood of a beast within you!”