Gōrō Fur

I let out a sigh as I looked at the Armored Boar’s carcass.

“If I could take it back with me, I could use it for food and leather, but… it’s too heavy.”

I thought about taking just the hide, but true to being called an Armored Boar, even cutting its hide was difficult. If I had some kind of treasured sword, I might have been able to cut it, but since I didn’t, I had no choice but to give up.

“If I use the White Wolf Warhammer, I might be able to carry back at least one leg. No, even if I did bring it back, cooking it would be difficult too.”

I gave up on the meat and hide and continued searching for medicinal herbs. Once I had gathered enough to make two Qi Prosperity Pills, I returned to the Wallside Hall of Gyorei Cave and dried them in the shade.

The next day as well, I went out searching for medicinal herbs, and kept doing so until I had accumulated enough for about ten batches.

“Good, that’s enough medicinal herbs. Next are the Twin-Spear Deer antlers.”

Since I had heard that the Twin-Spear Deer lived on the western side of the demon realm, I went down to the outer edge of the demon realm and headed west.

The Twin-Spear Deer was a deer with spear-like antlers, and while it was not a yōma with tough hide like the Armored Boar, it was a dangerous yōma that attacked with swift movements.

The western side of the demon realm was an area overgrown with brush, and there were many ordinary wild animals there such as rabbits, deer, and boars that were not yōma. That made it seem like Taoist practitioners would come hunting here, but there were hardly any people in sight. Gōrō with amber-colored stiff fur lived here, and not only the outer disciples but even the inner disciples disliked the area.

Since the Gōrō was a yōma that was agile and had high defensive power, it seemed that even inner disciples could be in danger against it. Its fangs and claws were sharp enough to tear through human flesh.

As I searched the western side of the demon realm, I encountered a single Gōrō. Comparing my build, having only just turned eleven, to that of the Gōrō, the Gōrō was overwhelmingly larger.

The Gōrō and I faced each other with about five meters between us. As I readied the White Wolf Warhammer and stared at the Gōrō’s movements, the Gōrō kicked off the ground and sprang at me.

I jumped sideways to evade it, then turned and fixed my gaze on the Gōrō. The Gōrō was closing in with its fangs bared. Avoiding those sharp fangs, I slammed the White Wolf Warhammer, infused with qi, into the Gōrō’s back. At that instant, a Qi Claw Strike was unleashed from the tip of the White Wolf Warhammer, penetrated into the Gōrō’s body, and its blood and flesh burst outward.

The Gōrō gave a cry of pain and staggered backward. The Gōrō swayed for a short while, then collapsed with a thud. It seemed that the earlier blow had been fatal.

“It doesn’t seem to be as tough as the Armored Boar.”

The difference was not only in toughness, but in the hardness of the hide as well. The Armored Boar had been so hard that it would not even accept the blade of a skinning knife, but with this Gōrō, if I parted its stiff fur and placed the knife blade directly against the skin, I could cut it.

I skinned the Gōrō and put the hide into my pack. After that, even though I searched for the Twin-Spear Deer, I could not find one, so I had no choice but to return to the Wallside Hall.

The next day, I naturally did not feel like going out to hunt Twin-Spear Deer again right away, so I began the task in my room of pulling the fur out from the Gōrō pelt. The Gōrō’s fur was as sturdy as wire and could not be cut, but it could be pulled out.

The reason I was doing such a thing was because I was thinking of making armor. There was a book in the library titled “Yōma Armor,” and it described a method of spinning thread from yōma fur and knitting that thread into armor.

It seemed that thread spun from yōma fur could be made sturdier than wool, and sweaters knitted from it were said to be sturdy enough to serve as armor.

If I went deeper into the demon realm from here on, I would end up fighting strong yōma. If that happened, I would need armor. That was why I thought about whether I could make armor from Gōrō fur.

After I finished collecting the fur, I went looking for Yingjie. I found Yingjie practicing with his sword in the backyard of the Wallside Hall.

“Yingjie-shixiong.”

“Hm? Do you need something?”

“I heard that there’s a single alchemy furnace here in the Wallside Hall, and I’d like to borrow it.”

Yingjie made a slightly surprised face.

“Heh, so Kou can do alchemy too.”

I gave a wry smile and denied it.

“No, I can’t. Right now I’m still at the stage of studying it.”

“But that’s amazing. There are hardly any outer disciples who study alchemy.”

“Why is that? If you can make immortal medicine yourself, you wouldn’t need to buy it.”

Yingjie shrugged.

“To be able to use alchemy, you have to study for years. There aren’t that many immortal medicines needed to go from outer disciple to inner disciple. It’s more efficient to buy them.”

“I think it’ll be useful in the future, though.”

“That may be true. But the usual way for an outer disciple is to first become an inner disciple.”

“I see. But I want to study it.”

“All right. It’s kept in the shed, so you can use it as you like. Nobody else uses it.”

I went to the shed and searched for the alchemy furnace, and found a dust-covered alchemy furnace in the back. It really seemed that no one used it.

That alchemy furnace was shaped something like a water jar with a lid, about fifty centimeters tall. I could not understand its internal structure, but there were four protrusions on the lower inside and four on the upper inside, and they seemed to produce some kind of effect.

After cleaning the alchemy furnace with a rag, I carried it back to my room. I set the alchemy furnace on the floor, packed Gōrō fur into it, and sat cross-legged beside it.

I already knew how to spin yōma thread because it was written in “Yōma Armor.” This book was not the original text, but something someone who had read the original had left behind in the form of notes.

I fixed the alchemy furnace in place as though holding it between both hands, and poured qi into it from my hands. From the movement of the qi, I sensed the functions built into the alchemy furnace. Following the method written in the book, I began moving the qi. Inside the alchemy furnace, the qi swirled, caught up the Gōrō fur, twisted it together, and began spinning thread.

However, it was difficult to maintain that state of qi. After about two minutes, my concentration broke, and the motion of the spinning stopped.

“Haaah, this is rough.”

What I realized through this work was that to master alchemy, it seemed necessary to become proficient in the control of qi. For that purpose, the task of spinning thread might actually be ideal.

I continued alternating between hunting Twin-Spear Deer and spinning thread, and raised my skill in controlling qi. Unfortunately, though, I still could not find any Twin-Spear Deer. The Twin-Spear Deer seemed to be a rare yōma, with very few of them around.

Instead of finding Twin-Spear Deer, I encountered Gōrō many times, and I was able to defeat them and collect their fur. Thanks to that, I obtained a large amount of Gōrō thread made by spinning Gōrō fur, and requested that armor be knitted from it in town.