Li Yao shook her head, uncertain as well. “The pressure?”
“That is a formation,” Liu Tsong said, frowning.
As she spoke, Wu Ying noted how the Elders were looking ever more concerned. Yet instead of speeding up, they were moving more slowly before the Elders came to a stop.
Wu Ying let out a breath, feeling the tightness in his chest and the churning in his gut decrease as they stopped moving. As he stood still, a cold wind blew by and Wu Ying shivered as he realized the back of his robes was damp with sweat. “What…?”
“A fear and beguilement formation,” Elder Po said, eyes narrowed. “It is the Seven Star Fear and Beguilement Formation from the sect.”
“Why would it be here?” Li Yao said.
“The team,” Wu Ying said, realization striking home. “They’re alive. And using this. But—”
A howl cut through the silence of the mountain, making Wu Ying shake and shudder as an instinctive part of him quailed at the noise. In the scream was a ravenous hunger, a desperate need to fill a never-ending abyss. His hand clenched around his jian, knuckles growing white.
“What was that?” Liu Tsong asked.
“The taotei,” Chao Kun said, appearing beside the group from the mist. The once-cultured, kempt inner sect member was bedraggled, deep bags under his eyes, long hair in disarray and a portion shorn off. A torn sleeve revealed a still-bleeding left arm. “Come. We must go. Place a hand on my shoulder. I will lead you through the formation.”
Once the rescue group managed to traverse the beguilement formation, they found a much-reduced scouting group. In a heptagon formation, seven members of the original group sat, each of them cultivating and supplying chi to the formation via the formation flags set forth before them. Even Wu Ying could tell the formation had been hastily constructed using pre-prepared formation flags. As he extended his senses to the formation and the individuals supporting it, Wu Ying could not help but notice how a significant portion of the chi they provided was dissipating into the air instead of reinforcing the formation.
What was even more shocking was the state and numbers of the scouting group. Elder Li, who sat in the center of the formation, had a cane laid before her, but it was one Wu Ying had never seen. Each of the surviving members of the scouting group lay about on the ground recuperating or sat cultivating, and all were injured. Even Tou He looked the worse for the wear, seated in front of a formation flag, bare-chested with deep bruises along one side.
“What happened?” Wu Ying said.
“The taotei caught us unaware,” Chao Kun replied. “Rest for a bit. I will deliver the Elders to Elder Li, after which I will show those of you who have arrived how to replace us at the formation flags.”
“I know this formation,” Li Yao volunteered.
“Good. Bei Khoo is tiring the most,” Chao Kun said.
Li Yao bobbed her head and trotted off to replace the cultivator.
The other cultivators moved to take a break, have a quick word with their friends, or in a few cases, relieve other cultivators at the formation flags, leaving Wu Ying to truly take in the clearing. The first thing to catch his eyes were the kurinji plants dotting the clearing. The kurinji were a few-feet tall shrubs that sprouted and grew at irregular intervals. As Wu Ying bent to look at a shrub, he could not help but notice how close to blooming the flower buds were. The petals for the plants were purplish-blue in color, with some shading all the way to sky blue. It did not take Wu Ying long to notice the plant he stared at was of the common variety, flowering once every twelve years. What they were looking for was the much rarer, spirit-enhanced plant which flowered once every half century.
“Beautiful, aren’t they?” Ru Ping said as he limped over.
Wu Ying’s jaw dropped as he saw how bandaged the cultivator was, one entire side of his face covered.
When Ru Ping saw Wu Ying’s gaze drift to where his ear had been, and the bandage that covered one eye, the cultivator offered a sad half-smile. “I am one of the lucky ones. It only ate one ear. I shall regain my eyesight eventually.”
“What is the taotei?” Wu Ying asked, his voice hushed as he looked around. “Everyone mentions it, but I have never heard of it.”
“I keep forgetting you are new to the sect,” Ru Ping said. “The taotei has plagued these lands for decades. It constantly moves around the spirit lands, so much so we do not know if there is one or a dozen of these creatures. We believe it be at least three though—for its cultivation level constantly changes.”
“And this one’s level?”
“Peak Core,” Ru Ping said. “It’s a demonic beast, released from the underworld directly. The taotei has four legs and carries its strength in its forelegs. It has a mouth filled with teeth, horns that surround and protect its body, beady, ever-hungry eyes, and a flat snout. The creature prefers those with chi for its meals, but it never stops eating.”
“The trees.”
“Yes. We should have known. We should have realized it had come to this land.” Ru Ping’s voice dropped as he continued. “Maybe she did and wanted the flowers anyway. When we arrived, Elder Li set up the formation immediately. But it was too late by then.
“It hit us when we were nearly done. Tore into Ah Bei. Bit off his arm. And then his torso. And legs.” Ru Ping glanced at a corner before jerking his gaze back to Wu Ying. There, in the shadows of the mist, Wu Ying could swear he saw a darker spot. “Killed and ate another two before it bore me down. If not for Senior Ge’s attack and sacrifice of his arm, I might have been eaten too. He struck it in the side. And then…”
“Then?” Liu Tsong, who had stayed, asked breathlessly.
“Then Elder Li hit him with her cane. Broke her cane and released the stored chi within, blowing it away. She hurt it enough that it backed off. And when it was outside our formation, we activated it forcefully,” Ru Ping said, nodding toward the group.
“That’s why it’s so sloppy,” Liu Tsong said.
“Yes. It saved our lives. But we cannot leave,” Ru Ping said.
“I don’t understand. If it’s at peak Core formation, should not the Elders be able to win?” Wu Ying said, brows drawn as he spoke. He looked over to where the Elders spoke in hushed tones, tension and worry radiating from their bodies.
“Not everything can be judged solely from their cultivation level,” Chao Kun said as he returned to the group. Even in the short time away, it looked as if his arm had been bandaged over. “Just as it is possible for a cultivator to beat those a tier above them.” Chao Kun looked pointedly at Wu Ying. “It is possible—even likely—for certain kinds of creatures to be stronger than their tiers. Elder Po is the only martial specialist among the Elders. And the taotei is a powerful, tier-bending demonic beast. It draws its strength from the food it eats, growing in strength as it eats more. Or when it is starved.”
“Then what are we to do?” Wu Ying asked.
“That will be up to the Elders. For now, you have training. You will need to take your turn too,” Chao Kun said, jerking his head toward the formation points.
“Yes, Senior.”
The basics of the formation support was simple—all it required Wu Ying to do was take the cultivator’s place, sit down, and channel his chi into the formation flag before him. The trick was that Wu Ying needed to channel the chi into the formation in a steady and constant fashion to match the expenditure of energy. This was unfortunately complicated by the inefficient formation, due to its hasty set up, and the variable amount required due to errant winds blowing away the mists, and the addition or subtraction of living creatures within the formation.
All of that meant it was better to send more chi rather than less into the formation. Wasted chi would not affect the formation, but too little chi could weaken it. As Wu Ying breathed and focused upon the formation flag before him, he steadied his beating heart and pushed more chi through his meridians from his dantian, sending it coursing from his hands to the flag. Even as he supported the formation, Wu Ying cultivated, drawing in additional chi from the ambient environment to increase his endurance. Each moment, each breath saw the exhalation of power, saw the chi in his body course through his meridians and out into the formation. The process was tiring, as if Wu Ying was taking part in a fast-paced marathon session. A marathon that required him to breathe slowly and steadily.