Chapter 472

Arthur chose to do the smart thing. He waited till Jan had finished the whole strip, chewing loudly and making grateful noises at Bomoh Umi the whole time before he ate his own. It flooded his mouth with spice and pain, but after he finished consuming the dried meat jerky and swallowed it fully, he could feel the energy coursing through him. He had thought he had sensed a little of it - but it could have just been heartburn earlier.

Now that he had enough, the pulses of Tower energy was flowing through him, congregating around his eyes. The world slowly shifted, brightening further and further, muddying a little as his eyes teared up before they began to stabilize. At the same time, his stomach hurt, low pulses of pain coursing through him, pain that his Advanced Healing technique was doing nothing towards.

He had to pay attention, prod at the information within before he realised what was going on. The meat was filled with Yang-based Tower energy, probably from the spices and the actual animal it had originated from in the beginning. Now, though, it was interacting badly with his Yin Body. 

Arthur waved Jan over quickly, explained the situation and while she stayed closer, wathcing over the pair of them, he delved into his body and his own cultivation and healing techniques. Utilizing both helped him get a better handle of the conflict, the way the increased, foreign Yang energy was conflicting with his own Yin chi.

It was a matter of coralling the new Yang energy, making it blend into his own first before it escaped his stomach and enterred his system that helped focus matters. It was more cultivation technique based than his own Accelerated Healing technique, though he drew from some aspects of it, gained understanding of how the Yang energy - his own and the foreign ones - interacted and bolstered or damaged his body; to help blend things together.

One side aspect, he was realising, was that by blending the energies together before it left so that he was not damaged, was that the initial brightening aspect of the meat faded away. He was not able to fully tap into the advantages of the meat, since he muted it out to make it work with his body. 

Not great, but with his Keen Sight trait in play, it was more than enough to give him a significant increase in his night vision. 

Arthur was never certain how long he had walked, his mind turned inwards, before he emerged to the real world. Nothing in their surroundings looked familiar - or all too familiar, in the way that lush greenery blended into one another - when he came to the present, but he did note that Jan had her own parang out, her aura flickering on and off as sparks of flame appeared around it.

"Problem?" Arthur muttered.

"Nothing yet... but I can see them gathering. Can't you?" she waved a parang to either side of the muddy trail that they walked upon.

He stared, only now realising that the shifting lights were not a byproduct of his still adjusting eyes but the glow of various hantu drifting in and out of trees. He swore he saw a pengallan in there, floating head and arms and dangling intestines; but thankfully, only a ghost version. The South-East Asian version of the vampire was one of his personal nightmares after a rather nasty - or good, depending on your viewpoint - movie had embedded itself in his conciousness as a kid. He could fight them, but he certainly would never seek them out. 

There was nothing 'sexy' about these vampires, they were never characterised as hot, and dangling entrails, long claws and unwashed hair floating through open windows or slipping through barred grates was never enjoyable. In fact, one particularly memorable portion of a sequel had a pengallan wriggling its way through the gaps in an air conditioner vent in a car.

Yup. Nightmare fuel.

“How long?” he asked, softly.

“About twenty minutes. They’ve been slowly gathering,” Jan answered.

“Your aura?” Arthur asked.

“I haven’t had a chance to test it yet.” A lip twisted upwards in a wry smile. “Want me to test it out at full strength? Might light the forest on fire.”

“Jungle. And I doubt it.” The thing about a rainforest was that everything was green. Like, seriously, green. It took a lot of fire to burn it down, and he doubted Jan’s fire aura; a technique she hadn’t fully grasped or overclocked, would do that. On the other hand, their enemies were ghosts and discorporeal. “Go. I’m back.”

“Kamu dua, sentiasa cakap dengan satu sama-sama,” Bomoh Umi said, chiding them for leaving her out of the conversation.

“Eh, sorry, Puan-puan Umi,” Arthur said.

“Bomoh!” She hissed, raising her stick to swing at him. He side-stepped easily and Bomoh Umi sniffed, upset at not being allowed to hit him for switching to an informal address. “You kena lawan hantu ah?”

“Jan will.” A small gesture had the woman break off down one side. To where the incorporeal pengallan was, not for any reason at all. Nope. Not at all.

As she closed on the edge of the jungle, sparks began to form all around her aura, rippling in the air. One after the other, little fireflies burst into life and died, insects and wisps of leaves and twigs caught in the air, burning brightly before fading away. Arthur spotted some of the plants near her feet curl up, dry out and die even as she stepped through the jungle.

There was no way to tell what was happening before her, the undergrowth of the jungle dense enough that Arthur could only guess at the results. At least, he thought so, until she managed to destroy the first hantu, the ghost exploding in a shower of sparks and bright lights. 

"Sangat cintak, eh?" Bomoh Umi muttered, looking over only briefly. "But don't look too long or else you go blind."

"Blind?" Arthur said, returning his gaze to the old woman, content that Jan seemed to have the upper hand with her aura running at full blast. How long she could keep it up though, that he had no idea. Probably not long enough, but they would have to see. If she could thin out a large portion of the attackers on her side, it would be enough. "Isn't that carrots?"

"Carrots good for you, ah." The witch doctor shook her head in disgust at Arthur. Still, she had said that for a reason and he turned to do a check, running his eyes over the foliage that took up the other side of the pathway that Jan was currently not traversing and turning into a crisp and wilted living salad. 

Perhaps his double-checking was the reason for the warning, for as he looked to the left, Arthur spotted the first glimmer of real trouble. Prowling movement, low to the ground, only a flicker of it but enough to send a chill through him. While tigers in the real world were of little concern - humans weren't even as tasty as durians as far as most tigers were concerned - the ghost version likely did not feel the same way.

More importantly, this one was the size of a regular tiger. Which, if onehave never actually encountered a tigher - in a zoo enclosure or otherwise - it would be difficult to truly comprehend. Tigers - Malaysian tigers - were huge - about nine feet long, weighing around half a ton and all of it pure muscle. They could tear a person apart with a single swipe of their claw, and they were so adept at sneaking, most of the time their prey would never even notice they were coming till it was too late.

At which point, a half-ton death dealing feline opponent was on them, bearing their prey to the ground with mouths that could crack open a durian shell with a single bite - or a human head.

Not that Arthur's head might be safe from being bitten off entirely, what with his opponent being a ghost; but he was also uncertain how much of its semi-corporeality limited its bite or stinging attack. Would he die from the ghostly pressure or the draining of his energy first? 

He was not exactly looking forward to testing either one out. 

With that realisation, he pumped in energy into the Heavenly Sage's Mischief and prepared for the battle.

Which was, of course, a mistake.