“Close,” Tou He said as he joined his friend.
“Yes.” Wu Ying turned his hands over in front of him, crusted blood flaking off his skin as he flexed his fingers. “If I had been ahead…”
“If, if, if,” Tou He said, shaking his head. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
“A little too wise for you, isn’t it?”
“Did I say it was mine?” Tou He flashed a smile. “I did live in a monastery most of life.”
Wu Ying offered his friend a wan smile then flexed his bloody hands once more. With a shake of his head, he stood. “I should clean up. And give Elder Li the harvest.”
“Of course. Be careful.”
The next few days were quiet, the group continuing their harvest even under the protests of the guards. The number of members in the harvesting group increased again, but finally decreased when Elder Po declared the creature had stopped stalking them.
“That’s good,” Wu Ying remarked to Liu Tsong as they jogged through the spirit lands. Even if Wu Ying had spent his days training, the constant exercise over the last week or so had increased his physical fitness even further, allowing Wu Ying to take occasional moments to just run.
“Not necessarily,” Liu Tsong said. “Demon beasts that stalk and hunt their prey will leave for only a few reasons. I do not think we injured it enough to scare it away. Which means we have likely entered the hunting grounds of a predator the demon beast fears.”
Wu Ying stumbled on an upturned root, his attention on the implications of her rather distressing news. As he recovered, Wu Ying sighed and offered his friend a tight smile. If they were facing ever more danger, then he needed to expand his meager cultivation. After he’d relayed that, Liu Tsong made a face and waved goodbye before taking a position upwind of the cultivator.
Ignoring her actions, Wu Ying deepened his breathing and focused within, sensing the chi coursing through the environment. He pulled it toward his dantian, cleansing it and making the chi his own even as he used a portion of the chi to aid his stamina. As he inhaled, Wu Ying drew in the wild ambient chi, and as he exhaled, he sent the dregs, elements, and impurities out of his body.
Hour after hour, Wu Ying’s feet pounded the earth as he cultivated. All to get strong.
A day later, Wu Ying was jolted out of his run when the group ahead slowed and stopped. Wu Ying frowned, relaxing his cultivation as he settled his chi. As Wu Ying gained full control of his senses, he realized the guards had spread out across the tiny clearing they had stopped in.
In front of the line of guards and Elders, a group of xing tian stood, barring the way. In one hand, each headless, eight-foot-tall creature held an axe, and in the other, a wicker shield. The score of xing tian stared at the cultivators with rage, shaking their axes, as the eyes where their nipples should be switched from target to target and the mouths in the creatures’ stomach-regions wordlessly screamed.
“Stay back,” Liu Tsong warned Wu Ying as she fell back to join him. “Let the guards and Elders fight.”
Wu Ying knew she was saying that for his sake. Even from this distance, Wu Ying felt the pressure of the monsters’ cultivation, the way they warped the ambient chi with their presence. At the least, a pair of those xing tian were in the Core cultivation stage, while the others were all in the Energy Storage stage. Their innate bloodlines made the monsters more powerful by default, though they would struggle to grow in cultivation as they reached the extent of their bloodlines’ strength.
As Wu Ying drew his jian, he eyed the Elders confronting the Core cultivation monsters. Elder Li stood, back bent, cane in hand as she faced them. Beside her, Elder Wei stood before a glowing pill cauldron, the spinning cauldron controlled by her chi. Elder Po was bare-fisted at the front of the group, his body gaining a metallic golden sheen that covered him from head-to-toe as he channeled his metal-aspected chi. And beside Elder Po, Elder Dong was armed with a pair of axes that glowed red.
The battle began with the lesser xing tian charging the cultivators. The guards intercepted the monsters as the Elders watched the pair of Core-level monsters. Upon meeting one another, the two combatant groups exchanged blows of compressed and aspected chi from swords, axes, fists, and feet. In the clash of conflicting chi, the air stirred and gusted, blown apart by the conflicting chi. The gusts of wind brushed against Wu Ying’s face and brought with it the sting of burning earth and the stink of corrupted demonic chi.
In one corner, Chao Kun fought a pair of xing tian alone, his fists flying and striking like departing meteorites. Each impact against their wooden shields resounded through the clearing. So powerful was each of his blows, the monsters he faced were forced to fight on their back feet and stay on the defense.
In another portion of the battlefield, Li Yao and Tou He fought together, their spear and quarterstaff combination upsetting and tripping a trio of demon beasts. Close by the pair, a group of five dao-wielding martial specialists suppressd a half dozen xing tian of higher cultivation, providing defense and safety to each other as they fought.
As the battle heated up, the two Core cultivation xing tian roared and made their move. As if they had planned it, the pair combined their attacks and lashed out with their axes, sending a shrieking lash of compressed fire- and metal-aspected chi toward the Elders. The chi was intercepted by Elder Po, his robes tearing under the assault but his golden metal body left unscarred. Elder Po rushed the pair as the other Elders completed their preparations.
Elder Li muttered and tapped her cane against the ground, the rhythm sending small thrums of power rushing up the soles of Wu Ying’s feet. As Elder Li’s attack built, Elder Dong joined Elder Po in his charge, only to be overtaken by a swirling, lit cauldron. One of the xing tian attempted to block the cauldron with its shield before it was forced back. As the pair of charging Elders reached the xing tian, the resounding impact of cauldron and shield shook Wu Ying’s chest.
As the battle increased in fervor, more and more dust was kicked up. Cold snowflakes gathered in one corner, thanks to Li Yao. As a water-aspected cultivator, she brought the chill of winter and the cold of the depths of the ocean to her attacks, forming snow as she fought. As the snowflakes mixed with the sudden gouts of flame and smoke from other cultivators and the scattered earth, Wu Ying quickly lost full view of the battle. Unconsciously, Wu Ying stepped forward but was held back by Liu Tsong.
“Wait. We’re here as reinforcements. And to ensure we are not attacked in the back,” Liu Tsong reminded Wu Ying.
Wu Ying bit his lip in frustration but stepped back to scan their surroundings, seeing no reinforcements as yet.
As the noise of the battle reached a crescendo, a creaking roar, as if a thousand rocks had cracked, erupted from the clearing. As Wu Ying’s patience was about to end, the wind swirled once more with purpose and carried away the loose dirt, floating ice crystals, and smoke to reveal the remnants of the battle.
Surrounding the corpses of a quarter of the xing tian was fresh earth that gripped their feet and thighs. Many of those monsters showcased defensive wounds, injuries which had been dealt after they were trapped. Even one of the Core xing tian had been caught, though it had freed one foot before its chest had been caved in by a flying cauldron. Even now, the cauldron spun lazily around the dead monster.
The second Core xing tian lay a short distance away, an arm displaced, its legs broken, and where its neck would be was a deep depression from a kick. Numerous cauterized cuts crossed its body, deep wounds from Elder Dong’s paired axes.
All around were the signs of the xing tians’ desperate fight. Wu Ying walked forward, staring at the corpses of the once-imposing monsters. Creatures without a head, their torsos and limbs were crushed, cut, and burned. As Wu Ying watched, the other cultivators were digging into the bodies, extracting spirit stones and handing them to the Elders.