Chapter 6: Heroic
Time passed as the battle concluded.
Jiao San was somewhat injured. Fighting three wolves was not very easy for him. Thankfully the scales of his transformation were not very easy to penetrate, as well as the support later delivered by Hua Xin after she had recovered from her trance.
Kong Jing on the other hand only suffered minor injuries. The wolf was not very hard to deal with, the surprise attack only left him off guard, but once he had his full attention on the singular wolf, he had made quick work of it.
Hua Xin had few injuries, but somewhat severe ones. The fangs of the wolf weren't anything to brush off, not to mention the effects of the light grounding on her body. This isn't including her body being sore from her heated struggle against the wolf attacking her.
On the other hand, Fang Yuan was completely fine. Dao marks were truly advantageous in this early stage. Any injury he had sustained healed at a visible rate. Nowhere near the level of a Gu's ability but was fast enough to be superhuman levels.
By the time they had finished fending off the wolves, everyone took a brief rest from the ambush.
"Damnit! Those bastards, how are we supposed to complete our mission now!?" Jiao San angrily shook his head.
"Perhaps we could return and request a replacement team for this?" Hua Xin raised her hand to give this suggestion.
However, Kong Jing denied this: "I doubt we will be able to get off scot-free. As punishment for our failure, it is possible we might get assigned to an even more dangerous mission."
Jiao San stared at the silent Fang Yuan: "How about you, Fang Yuan? What do you think?"
"I believe we should complete it." He spoke with a smile: "The debriefer did not state we would need to urgently rescue them, leading me to believe they should have enough supplies to survive, correct?" Jiao San nodded at his response, before standing up from his sitting position.
"You're right. Let's camp here for now, recuperate our injuries. We can save them once we're recovered." The others nodded at his order.
Seeing their course of action decided, Kong Jing approached Fang Yuan: "I... thank you. If it weren't for you, Xin'er might have died." Fang Yuan smiled in response to this.
"No need. We are clan members after all, it is expected to save family, no?" Kong Jing brightened at this, before nodding and walking off to set their camp.
Fang Yuan's eyes moved towards Hua Xin, who looked away in embarassment. This kid managed to save her, a fully fledged adult. Let alone embarassment from gratitude to her savior, he was also a child.
She finally managed through her embarassment as she stared at said child, briskly walking towards him and patting his head.
"Thank you." She smiled kindly and followed suit to Kong Jing, helping him with the preparation.
After she walked out of sight, Fang Yuan's seemingly bright locked smile drooped down coldly in an instant.
His eyes moved towards the corpses of the wolves. They had yet to butcher these wolves, still preparing the camp.
He moved towards the wolves. Noticing the hide to be nothing special. He checked the mouth, finding two ivory fangs.
These two fangs, when he held it, gave him a slight jolt on his hand. But with his unnatural resistance, it was snuffed out.
He plucked out the two grounded fangs and placed them inside his pocket, making sure to do the same to the other wolves before moving to their established camp.
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Fang Zheng stood, worried.
He heard the news of Fang Yuan's deployment. And this current situation, almost reminds him of his original world's event too.
This attack, if his suspicions were correct, would signify the deciding factor of the Gu Yue clan between survival or total annihilation.
Since it might truly mirror the Gu world's events, would the Gu ancestor resurface?
That would be a catastrophy. He was no fool. Fang Zheng knew who the primary reason for the Gu Yue clan's destruction was.
If Fang Yuan had not killed them, the Gu Yue ancestor very well might have in his stead. After all, he only nurtured his clansmen for his own benefit of surpassing his limits. Not to mention his master, who would go to any lengths to stop the Gu Yue ancestor.
There was no chance he would be able to stop the Gu Yue ancestor, considered to be the strongest expert the entire clan had seen. A rank 5 Gu master, what level would that reflect?
Regardless the level, he doubted anyone in the clan would be able to stop him.
Right now however, he could stop Bai Ning Bing.
He made careful observations of anything happening around him. The slightest trace of a scheme would send him to a full alerted state. His current occupation as a nuisance for Bai Ning Bing would naturally incur her hatred of course.
And so, any schemes she makes would always be directed at himself. A target dummy, if you will.
The girl in front of him couldn't take it anymore as she roughly ruffled her hair: "What is with you!?"
Fang Zheng of course, acted dumb: "What do you mean?" A cold look that promised pain was the only response he got.
Seeing her get serious, he opted to do the same.
"I won't let you be, scheming against my family." A defiant look stared in contrast to Bai Ning Bing's cold stare.
Bai Ning Bing looked away in annoyance: "Don't get ahead of yourself, if I really wanted to destroy your clan, then you wouldn't be able to stop me." Fang Zheng's gaze intensified.
A silence spread out. The tension between the two slowly rose, until...
"Hey, you two are fighting again!" A little boy around their age stood inbetween them. This was the boy encouraged by the adults to "play" with them. Really, he was only sent because the adults often saw them fighting alot.
Of course, he was of the Xiong clan. And coincidentally, all of them were destined to either be the clan leaders or at the very least great figures.
"Xiong Lin!" Fang Zheng's eyes brightened at his appearance. While he and Xiong Lin got along, Bai Ning Bing was an outlier. She instead, was hostile to Fang Zheng and cold to Xiong Lin.
The same couldn't be said about her feelings towards her family however. Spending such a large amount of time with them would surely get her more and more attached. She wasn't like Fang Yuan.
But perhaps that is the reason she would never be able to surpass him. Maybe only through disposing of everything holding her back, she would be able to defeat Fang Yuan at last. But for now, she did not have a pure and true demonic nature like Fang Yuan.
While she did not show it, she was also worried about Fang Yuan's schemes. And so, everyday her mind travels to effective ways on how to counteract Fang Yuan. Surely, in one of her previous timelines, she was fully capable of outsmarting him, right?
Bai Ning Bing's creased her brows in worry. Whatever happens in the spirit beast tide, it might very well determine life and death of the three Qing Mao mountain clans.
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Fang Yuan's eyes snapped open. Welcoming the bright dawn of a new day.
Throughout the night, he spent it all cultivating, and coincidentally raised his level to 6 already. His constant cultivation, and first time raising a level greatly increased his efficiency. Although he may not compare to the monsters that have full innate Spirit Power, he was still outstanding in an average sense.
Getting up from his seated position, he stood up from the hard ground covered with some cloth.
He spotted Kong Jing seated near an extinguished campfire.
The latter gave a smile and a wave when he noticed Fang Yuan.
He merely returned the smile and nodded.
Soon, the others woke up. First with Hua Xin who let out a yawn first thing in the morning. And last of all Jiao San who rubbed his eyes and went to sit near the campfire as well.
"Xin'er, how's your injuries?" Jiao San looked at her bandaged arm.
The receiver shook her head: "It should be fine now. I won't be a burden anymore." She smiled.
"That's good. I myself am mostly fine now. I believe we can complete the mission now." Everyone nodded their heads as they stood up from their seats. They picked up the ground cloth which they had slept on and scattered the remains of the campfire.
Staring at a map with some red marks on it, Jiao San pointed at a direction: "This way." He folded the map back and waited for the others to come to him.
As they all gathered together, they all sprinted towards the pointed direction.
They were not too worried about Fang Yuan's stamina, with his prowess in battle, they doubted he'd really fall behind even with his child body.
Minutes passed as they stopped and took a break. Soon after that, they continued their run.
And so a few hours passed as they alternated between sprinting and taking a break, all the way until they managed to reach a destination.
As they stood upon a cliff, they spotted a cave: "That must be it!" Kong Jing alarmed.
"Let's go, don't let your guard down." Jiao San pulled out a rope from his baggage. He threw said rope down and tied it around a sturdy tree.
Together, they slowly climbed down the tree without incident.
They finally went inside the forest, making their way to the direction of the cave.
They were startled as a roar resounded throughout a forest. The roar dissipated slowly as they continued making their way.
As they finally reached the cave, they felt that hours had passed.
All four of them quietly walked inside. It was quiet, very quiet. They couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary from the cave.
Walking slowly, they finally reached a point where they could hear faint noises.
"There's fighting!" Jiao San loudly whispered to his teammates. They picked up their pace but not without keeping it quiet either.
They all stopped once they reached where the battle was happening.
Right now, they could see a man battling a giant bear. It roared and thrashed at the man, who barely dodged some of them.
'That is...' Fang Yuan stared at the large body of the bear.
"Hundred years Spirit Beast!" Looking past this battle, they could see other Spirit Beasts combatting other Spirit Masters as well.
This cave wasn't a resting place, it's now a battlefield!
"Let's go!" Ceasing stealth, Jiao San transformed and charged towards the bear the man from before was fighting.
As the bear moved to swipe its claw, a snake bit on it, halting it in its place.
The man, noticing the opportunity, punched as heat appeared from his fist.
The attack sent the bear a few meters away, and fell back on its front legs.
Seeing a disruptor interrupt its attacks, the bear became enraged. It moved to charge when two things halted its movement.
A collection of purple thorns wrapped around one of its legs, while another leg was wrapped around by a tongue.
It looked back and saw a figure flash in its eyes.
With a howl, the bear's eye was pierced by a hand.
Fang Yuan jumped back after the bear went into a frenzy.
"Good!" The man from before smirked: "Grrragh!" He shouted as his body emitted smoke and his skin turning reddish.
His knees buckled as he leaped towards the berserk bear which had swung its arms wildly.
"Burn!" He dodged a swing of its paws, and landed on the bear's body. His body began slightly glowing as the heat emitted by his body transmitted to the bear.
The bear's fur was set on fire, spreading all around its covered body. It roared and thrashed in pain, but could not throw off the burning man sticking to his body.
Its resistance gradually weakened alongside its cries. The cave became filled with the smell of burnt meat.
"Hooh." The burning man from before panted as the glow from his body diminished, red decoloring off his body. His bulky body and sharp eyes rotated to face his allies: "No time. Still more bears." His teeth were gritted in anger.
His body moved unbefitting of his large body as he ran towards a different battle.
Quick to catch on, the rest of the people from the previous battle moved with the exception of some who were injured prior to the arrival of the reinforcements.
A battle raged on inside the cave. Casualties were sustained on both sides. However in the end, the Spirit Masters managed to win the day.
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Fang Yuan jumped away after he pierced the throat of the bear.
These bears were called "Bud-shattering Spirit Bear", thanks to their ear defeaning roars. As Fang Yuan had experienced albeit with minimal damage.
The dao marks don't simply enhance his strength, it enhances everything about his human body.
From his speed, to his eyesight, to his smell and everything regarding his five senses. And the durability of them have skyrocketed.
The burning man now stood in front of him with a calm face: "Good work. But I don't know how you managed to bypass the Spirit Beast blockade from outside, how did you do it?"
"Blockade? Chi Shan, what do you mean?"
The man now named Gu Yue Chi Shan was temporarily stunned before sighing: "Those damned Spirit Beasts..."
"It seems... we are still trapped." Roars erupted outside the cave.
Everyone tensed up at the loud noise echoing throughout the cave.
The sound of constant movement across the cave floor drowned out any noise that came out of anyone's mouth.
Fang Yuan himself, was completely calm.
In fact, this was an opportunity.
A very convenient opportunity.
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