Chapter 413: Poisonous Predictability

[Thorn Smash!]

"Kee?"

CLANG!

"REEEE!"

"So you can bleed?! Good!"

As Zhen Jin brought down a thorn covered fist onto the strange rat beast’s hide, the sound of tearing metal and flesh echoed throughout the cargo hold.

A feeling of relief came over Zhen Jin as he saw that his sneak attack went off without a hitch and tore into the metallic rat’s skin like so many other beasts before it.

’Tougher than a rabbit’s fur, but softer than a boar’s hide...I can work with this.’

"REEE!"

Having been attacked, the rat beast quickly responded by lashing out it’s long tail like a thick whip towards Zhen Jin. However, Zhen Jin saw this coming.

’It should be...here!’ [Wild Growth!]

Fwwssh!

Crack!

"Ree?!"

Before the tail could make impact with Zhen Jin, the latter released a surge of aether that was quickly absorbed into a seed he tossed into the air earlier, blooming into a surprisingly thick shrub that absorbed the blow from the encroaching tail. The shrub however quickly began to decay, as it was an artificially induced growth in an environment it wasn’t meant to be in.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Zhen Jin quickly followed up with a counter attack.

’Now! [Petal Slash Kick: Precision!]’

Grabbing onto the decaying shrub, Zhen Jin quickly used it as a fulcrum to launch himself into a wheel kick, coating his legs in a flowery aura that made it look as if a thousand cherry blossoms were manifesting from his body.

This was an art his mother had taught him, albeit, it wasn’t the same move as she had taught him, many many years ago.

________________________________________________

As much as the previous Zhen Liu hated to admit it, his uncle Zhen Jin was a hell of a warrior.

Out of the seven elders of the Zhen Clan, Zhen Jin could only be described as the most..."precise".

Years ago, when he was just a child and found to have an affinity for wood aether, their mother, Bai Hua, was overjoyed.

After about four other sons and a daughter, Bai Hua finally had a child that could inherit some of her skills properly. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case.

The reason?

Incompatible personalities to fighting styles.

Bai Hua’s formula was known as [Petal Storm Mantra], a wood based aether formula that encouraged the cultivator to be like a petal in a storm. As such, Bai Hua’s fighting style was particularly free form and wild, like flower petals floating gently despite being caught in a massive wind storm.This worked wonders for her, since she herself was a free spirit that tended to float and go where she pleased. She especially enjoyed using arts and techniques that were unpredictable or conventional arts used in unconventional ways.

One of her favorite moves was [Exploding Blossom], a minor Ethereal art that allowed one to turn ordinary flower seeds into bombs. The only caveat being that the power of the blast was dependent on the soil’s compatibility with the flower seeds in question and amount of aether used.

Zhen Jin on the other hand was decidedly not. He was smart, calculative and precise. Someone who preferred a well-manicured garden, with precise ratios of every plant possible in order to maximize growth, instead of wild overgrown forests and meadows. In his mind, the world had an orderly predictability to it that had to be followed down to the letter.

Seed, sapling, tree, fruit, seed again.

Unfortunately, nature had a tendency to ignore that order...a lot. As such, Zhen Jin had a tendency to get frustrated at his abilities being so utterly...random!

’Godsdammit, no! The order of growth was the sunflower mines then the sundew traps! Fucking why?!’

Now, such an incompatibility wouldn’t normally arise, there were actually several wood aether based formulas based on the ideas of controlled growth, precise branch counts, the whole shebang. However, at the time of Zhen Jin’s youth, back when the Zhen Clan was still trying to establish roots, he didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.

The only wood aether formula they had on hand was his mother’s, and it wasn’t exactly a perfect fit.

Seventy five percent compatibility was high, but because it wasn’t a perfect fit, Zhen Jin always felt that he was a full step behind his brothers.

"Why couldn’t I have been born with something more common?"

In fact, he would often wonder if he was just...born with the wrong affinity of aether.

Perhaps it was due to this complex that he grew to be a man who didn’t take chances, who preferred predictable results.

"If I can’t predict every possibility, then I will focus on the ones I can."

Whenever the family went hunting, he would spend days and weeks studying their prey, figuring out the exact time and place to set the perfect trap.

If he was ever challenged to a duel, Zhen Jin would ask for a precise date, time and location so that he had time to study his opponent and study the venue. He wanted to make sure that everything, everything was in his calculations and if it wasn’t, he would make it so that it was in his calculations.

Even if he was presented a charity case, where the person in question had a chance to get better and improve with a single donation, he would prefer to use the money to buy himself an apple. He didn’t care about morality, he cared about predictability.

This obsession over "predictability" and "precision" was so great that he even forcefully modified the very same arts that his mother taught him to be versions more suitable to his inclinations. They might have dropped in power and lethality, but it now fitted him and that is what mattered.

"Why bother taking chances? If you can already see the outcome, it doesn’t need to be changed any further."

Of course, such a point of view comes from the idea of assuming one can control how a river flows but failing to see how can flow with it.

________________________________________________

[Petal Slash Kick: Precision!]

Zhen Jin’s cherry blossom coated kick came down on the metallic rat beast thing like an executioner’s axe, carrying with it a killing intent that aimed to lob off it’s fat head.

"Ree..."

Unfortunately for Zhen Jin, it wasn’t going to be that easy.

"Ree...ree...[Reverse Rusting]"

"What?! An aether art?!"

Pow!

"Ah!"

Before Zhen Jin’s leg could make contact with the rodent’s head, the rodent released a blast of rust colored aether and countered the incoming attack, blasting Zhen Jin away in the process and forcing him to take several steps back.

As he did however, he felt a sharp pain occur in his right leg, the same one he used for the kick.

’Gah! What’s wrong with my-what the fuck?!’

When he looked at back at his leg to see what the issue he was, he found that to his horror that it was somehow covered in rust.

Correction, not covered in rust, it was rusting.

Somehow, that creepy rodent’s attack had caused Zhen Jin’s leg to begin rusting, which shouldn’t be possible, since flesh doesn’t fucking rust.

"That...this is impossible! How?!"

As Zhen Jin understandably began to freak out however, the metallic rat beast didn’t stay still. In fact, it was in the process of launching yet another attack.

Yet another aether art.

"Ree...ree...[Rip Claw]!"

The rat beast pounced forward like a large jungle cat with it’s claws glowing with aether, it’s eyes full of rage and a vicious mouth ready to rip and tear.

Zhen Jin froze at the sight of all of this.

’What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?,’ Zhen Jin began to ask himself in rapid succession.

This entire moment was out of his predictions, out of his understanding of how rats were supposed to work in the first place.

In this exact moment, however, he could have tried to launch a counterattack.

He could have forcefully grown the seeds beneath the pouncing rat and knocked it away.

He could have charged headfirst in order to headbutt or punch it in it’s mouth.

He could have even risked his rusting leg and kick upwards.

But emphasis on the word, "could".

He didn’t know what would happen after doing any of those actions, and frankly, it terrified him that he couldn’t predict the reaction caused by those events.

Instead, he stood there frozen, all because he couldn’t predict any of this happening.

All because, he couldn’t adapt fast enough to the changing situation.

Luckily for him, however, there was someone to save his ass...sort of.

"CHAARRRGGGEEEE!"

"Ree?!"

"Huh?!"

Moments before the rat beast could land it’s attack on Zhen Jin and probably rip him to shreds, some random dude in a mask suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tackled the beast while it was in midflight, knocking the bastard into a nearby wall.

Zhen Jin was stunned further from this sudden turn of events, especially since he was definitely sure this mysterious masked fellow wasn’t on the roster of either clan or crew.

"Thanks for the save, but who the-"

"Sorry about this!"

"-what?"

BANG!

Before Zhen Jin could ask who this mysterious guy was however, he got blasted in the face by a weird looking aether tool.

’What the fuck?!’