章 125: Days of Madness - Beast Wave
"That was not good, Sect Leader," the BloodWitch enunciated flatly to Dàilán as the group of refugees shakily gathered together in a subdued group under the canopy of one of the larger trees. Howls, rumbles and roars of rage echoed through the dense forest and the Cultivators looked nervously over their shoulders towards the area they had just escaped, only a relatively short distance away, as the grown quivered and the trees around them shook.
"I take these are not average Essence disturbances," the young teen Heiress replied rhetorically as she let her gaze drift over the group, "is everyone present? Anyone injured?"
The Healer was bustling around the group fifty or so Cultivators, stopping to check one or two more closely, but stepped up to stand next to the BloodWitch as Dàilán asked the question, "the heavens have seen fit to grace us with remarkable fortune - no serious injuries and everyone accounted for - as unlikely as that might seem," the Healer shook her head in astonishment at her own words.
Chénli emerged from behind the other women to stand at her friend and Mistress' right shoulder, "we are fortunate the Leader decided to distribute the higher level Cultivators among each group of lower leveled Cultivators instead of sending off as separate patrols like yesterday," the young Enforcer declared, "otherwise we would have lost most of the lower leveled Cultivators in that mess."
"We have to keep moving," pointed out Dàilán's Father, "we cannot stop here."
"Most of us need to rest," disagreed the Healer, shaking her head, "the higher Earth levels have overdrawn on their Cultivation helping the rest out and the lower levels are exhausted after moving at speed and withstanding two Essence disturbances in short succession. If we are attacked by any relatively strong Essence Beasts we will lose people."
"My daughter, my senior and myself are still functional," disagreed the Clan Head, "we cannot afford for the group to stop here - it is too close to the disturbance. If the disturbance expands or attracts Essence Beasts over we will be fish on a chopping board."
"Father, the three of us cannot bring the rest along with us with our Cultivation domains - I can carry two at most - you and Senior perhaps twice or three times that each," Dàilán frowned, disagreeing respectfully.
Her Father shook his head, "I was referring to activating the Formations for moving the camp again," he held a hand up as his daughter's brow creased, "I am aware we agreed to limit use of our Formations both because Sage Lin requested it and there was a danger of attracting attention," he paused and shook his head again, "but the situation has changed significantly - I suspect the Sage was not expecting the disturbances to be this intense or frequent. Essence Beasts will be unlikely to detect any of our Formations in such chaos with so much Essence being thrown out - the same for anyone searching for our group through long distance searching techniques. As long as we operate the Formations at their lowest rate of consumption - we should be able to keep the group moving while the majority rests."
A horse cough interrupted Dàilán's Father and Monitor Leng appeared, his face pale and beaded with sweat, leaning heavily on the shoulder of one of the young Mortal Cultivators, "Forgive me, but the forest here is too dense to move the camp as a Formation," he paused to cough harshly again, "the camp Formation is a yǐn across at its most compact," the young man coughed again, covering his mouth. When he slowly dropped his hand there were visible dots of blood on his palm, but he ignored them and continued, "there is no route wide enough."
Dàilán looked at the young man, alarmed, "Healer? You said there were no serious injuries?"
The Healer was already at Monitor Leng's side circulating a Healing Technique as the young girl supporting him spoke out, "He pulled all of us Runners out of the disturbance on his own with a Formation," she was clearly upset and worried as she helped him stand, "he seemed fine immediately afterwards, but then he started coughing - I had to drag him over here to see the Healer."
"It is not serious," Monitor Leng disagreed, with a grin that might have been more convincing if his teeth were not bloodstained.
"That is for me to judge," scolded the Healer severely, her hands moving as she continued her healing technique, "foolish, you overdraw your Cultivation and now you are experiencing a backlash. Your meridians are beginning to flow in reverse - how is that not serious?"
"I had to make sure all of my cute Runners survived," Leng declared righteously, then started coughing again and spat out a clot of black blood and shook his head, "I did not realise how badly I had overdrawn my Essence operating the Escape formation - I felt ok immediately afterward."
The Healer grunted, "I did not notice it either which is this one's failure. My eyes must be growing dim." She nodded with satisfaction and stepped back as the Monitor stood straight and took in a deep breath, colour returning to his face, "Fortunately, it is only a minor deviation and within my ability to correct." She turned and bowed towards Dàilán, "I must go and check the injured more thoroughly, in case I have missed anything else." The Healer quickly moved back into the group without waiting for a reply.
Dàilán sighed in relief at seeing Leng's complexion improve, "Monitor, is there any way we can modify the Formations that move the camp? Can we…" she looked around at the separate clusters of refugees and her face brightened, "could we make smaller versions that could let small groups of Cultivators rest while one Cultivator moves the group? We are already organised into smaller combat and defense groups arranged around a higher leveled Cultivator."
Leng rubbed his chin in thought, "I need at least three Kè to make the modifications to the existing movement formation. And it will only be the movement formation - adding the defensive Formations will make it too much for a single mid to high Earth Cultivator to operate and carry six or seven people."
"Three Kè - no more," agreed the young teen heiress, "any longer and we risk not making the next safe camp location before nightfall."
As Monitor Leng nodded in assent and turned to hurry to his tools, Dàilán turned to the others, "into the trees while we wait," she ordered firmly, "check for anything else living in the tree you pick before you ascend it. Use concealment talismans if you have them. One Cultivator on watch in each group at all times."
The others nodded and quickly leapt into the trees, those with Essence assisting those who had run low up to the wide branches. A few leaves rustled as smaller animals fled the sudden incursion. Dàilán turned and leapt up the nearest tree, Chénli following closely behind her mistress and friend, the two of them settling on a broad branch approximately a quarter way up the massive tree about five yǐn above the forest floor.
The young teen Heiress settled down at the base of the branch, her back against the trunk, looking out and down at the profusion of plant life and towering trees reaching up towards the light of the Golden Crow. Birds were beginning to tentatively chirp, call and sing out again as the nearby rumbles and other violent sounds from the area they had just escaped died away.
The more peaceful sounds and smells reminded her of the last time she rested this way on her last trip. She leaned her head back, letting her hood rest against the rough bark and closed her eyes, pretending for a moment that she was travelling alone with only herself to worry about.
"You should go and guard one of the other groups, Chén'er, we do not have many high leveled Cultivators to go around," Dàilán suggested to her bodyguard tiredly.
"My place is guarding you, though I agree we have not had the luxury of that recently," admitted her sworn sister, "but I wanted to speak with you in private when we had the chance."
"Is there something I should be aware of?" Dàilán asked, without moving her head or opening her eyes.
"Many of the Guan are concerned that at least some of them will not survive this trip," Chénli answered bluntly, "despite their recent improvements in Cultivation and surviving Grass - many of them are still not used to travelling - especially through such a dangerous area."
"En," grunted the Heiress, "I do not suppose any of them have a solution?"
"It has been wondered why, with Grass destroyed or at least weakened, we did not return to Hujian," Chénli said matter of factly, "while it is obvious that the Guan would lose their identity as an independent Clan, that might be better than dying. Perhaps in a generation or two the Guan could rebuild."
"What do the Knives say?" asked Dàilán dully.
Chénli shrugged, "We are following you. Unless your leadership is incompetent, then we might reevaluate the situation, but it is not an issue at the moment, the BloodWitch's grumbles notwithstanding - most of those are for show - if she is complaining, others feel their concerns have been aired and she can keep an eye on any discontent as they are likely to see her as a rally point."
"I had begun to wonder," muttered the other teen, "I suppose it is something her and Father came up with."
"Speaking of your father," began Chénli cautiously, "for a miǎo, I thought he was about to suggest that the lower levels be sent back - or even left behind - when he started talking about continuing to move despite most of the girls being dead on their feet."
Dàilán did not bother replying, sighing slightly. Chénli fell quiet and they sat there silently for an incense stick's worth of time, before she spoke up again.
"Did… your new friend give you any way to contact him," the young Enforcer asked softly.
Dàilán shook her head minutely, before speaking in an equally low voice, "either he is uninterested in keeping in touch, or he did not realise the difficulty of the trip," she chuckled bitterly, "I am wagering it is the latter myself. We never once ran into a single problem when I was with him."
"It could be a test," Chénli pointed out with a touch of irritation, "it is the sort of thing an Immortal would do - if the old tales have any weight at all. Whoever survives is worthy of receiving his assistance."
Dàilán allowed herself a small laugh, "odd how we used to mock those stories, regarding them fit only for mortal daydreams - now we strain our memories for any scrap or hint on how to proceed," she released a breath before shaking her head, sitting up and opening her eyes, turning to her friend, "personally, he has not struck me as that sort of Cultivator. I could be wrong but that sort of 'test' is something that Grandmother might have come up with - she was the sort to set up elaborate schemes just to see how others would react. Ch… Sage Lin never seemed particularly interested in making me do anything and he had plenty of chances to entrap all of us to do anything he wanted."
Chénli looked at her friend solidly without speaking for several breaths then shrugged, "well if we do survive I am betting even the Mortal level girls will have their Cultivation pushed into the mid Earth Ranks - between the complete draining of everyone's Essence each day, the regular battles between life and death and the increasingly higher and purer Essence everyone is being exposed to and cultivating, everyone is going to Advance multiple ranks if not levels. If we survive."
"If we survive, we will be like a Tang blade," Dàilán agreed flatly, "hammered, folded, impurities gone and sharp enough to cut the wind - we would be able to put any of my surviving Clanswomen up against your Sect Enforcers before the invasion and expect them to crush them. Grass will never understand how they created the very thing they sought to destroy."
Chénli made an indecipherable noise, an astonished expression falling over her face, "it is not the Sage's test. You… you are the one testing them, pushing…"
Dàilán's expression was bleak, "we have to change to survive - to return and destroy our enemies. They must become strong - I would do them no favours to protect them and leave them easy prey for those who would use them as Cultivation resources or slaves of the worst sort."
"And when some die in this process?" questioned her friend bluntly, with a hard gaze, "is it for their own good?"
"No," replied Dàilán shaking her head and raising it to gaze out into the forest, "then I will have failed my own test."
---
One of the advantages of Monitor Leng's modified movement Formations was that with one Cultivator concentrating on moving five or six people together, with the Formation keeping each group hovering a few chǐ above the forest floor, the others could defend, attack and watch for threats without distraction. Combine that with the fact that they were now able to travel straight over minor obstacles - boulders, fallen trees, rivers, gullies, and so on - that some of the lower leveled cultivators had needed to work around or climb over before, they were making a much better speed in general.
It was also easier to keep an orderly advance. They had shifted the groups with the strongest average Cultivator level to the front of the column, with two groups flanking a third on either side, forming a 'point' and the remaining groups tailing behind in the more protected position behind the vanguard.
Curses and shouts of alarm alerted Dàilán that the groups at the point of their advance had encountered a problem. She was currently operating the rearmost formation with some of the weakest Cultivators in her group, but was pleased to see the others calmly activate their defensive treasures and asume watchful stances without anyone saying a word.
"Sky level Iron-back Ape!" The voice of the Cultivator using the air technique was frustrated, "It is leading an entire troop of Steel Arm Baboons and Bronze-Rear Monkeys. Ware! The bronze butts are going around our defenses and heading for the rear groups; BloodWitch and the Father have the ape locked down and the rest of the vanguard are handling the steels, but the bronzes are bypassing us to get to the back - the steels are preventing us from stopping them!"
The entire report was punctuated by the howling, chattering and screaming of the various simians and the blasts of techniques and attacks - on both sides.
Dàilán sent her own order out to the four or so groups making up the 'tail' of the arrow, "defensive circle and get as close to the vanguard as we can - we do not want Beasts between the Vanguard and us - if we can keep the Bronze-Rears off their backs they can concentrate on dealing with the stronger enemies!"
The tail groups spun their formations together to defend the rear of the vanguard and each other just as the monkeys leapt out howling out of the jungle around them; to her dismay Dàilán spotted at least three Steels leading the attack.
"Drop the movement Formations," snapped someone else, "the stronger Cultivators need to be free to draw away the Steels and everyone else needs to be able to have space to fight freely. A Peak Rank Mortal can handle a single bronze butt on their own easily and that is the lowest level Cultivator we have in the column."
"We can handle more than that," replied a cocky young girl's voice, "the average mortal level Cultivator has not spent the last week in life-or death fights, or wears battle robes while wielding inscribed weapons."
Dàilán found herself grinning as she dismissed the movement formation and blurred towards the nearest Steel, as the other young women in her group exploded out into a flexible battle formation like a group of elite Batte Cultivators instead of a bunch of empty vase noblewomen, "FIGHT smart girls! Leave the smart TALKING for the post battle bragging!"
She was barely able to notice the others engaging the smaller bronze-rears, her senses hammered by the screams and screeches of the smaller monkeys and an unpleasant stench. Something noisome splattered against her robes and slid reluctantly off - along with dozens of heavy wrist thick branches and stones - which she ignored, letting the Formations in her battle robes cope with the purely physical attacks. Despite some of the items being thrown hard enough to cause the branches of the trees around her to snap and shatter, the robes pushed them easily aside, although the force behind them caused her to narrow her eyes.
"...bronze-butts are low Rank Earth Beasts! Watch yoursel…" The warning shout was drowned out in the clash of collision as she crashed into the steel-armed baboon 'lieutenant', pushing it away from the other women. The Essence Beast reared back, rising on its hind legs to reach almost to her shoulder and opened its jaws in a fearsome threat display, showing vicious, yellowed incisors almost a chǐ in length jutting out from both its upper and lower jaws. It roared at her as it lunged forward, a visible ripple of force racing outward from its throat that knocked her back.
Her right arm raised up and out in an instinctive block as one of its namesake overlong arms lashed out to try and smash her head from her shoulders. The robes flared brightly at the point of contact forcing her back a step - she let the momentum pass through her shoulders and into her free arm which blurred as she swept it around - with the blade of her dagger leading through the baboon's throat.
Her eyebrows raised in surprise at the amount of Essence required to cut through as the animal collapsed to the forest floor and she shouted her own advice through the Air Technique as she whirled around and headed back to 'her' group, dispatching the bronze-rear monkeys that hurled themselves at her with swift strikes as she ran back towards the others, "the Steel Arms are Peak Earth - all of these beasts are several ranks higher than would normally be expected!"
"Guess we are not the only ones receiving benefits from the high Essence levels," quipped one of the young women, flashing the Heiress a smile as Dàilán skidded back into their defensive battle line beside her and turned to face the screeching, disorganised horde that flung themselves towards their weighting weapons in a berserker frenzy, "now if they would stop throwing feces…"
"Still better than fighting Grass," remarked one of the others from behind them, even as she darted out to bury her twin swords in two separate bronzes simultaneously.
"Of course it is," snorted someone else through the Air Essence communication technique, "these are only animals. Grass are - worse - than Beasts."
The somewhat dark laughter that rolled out over the air technique was punctuated by several large area-of-effect techniques that sent the troop reeling back, with two thirds of their number now dead or otherwise beeding out on the ground.
In the brief respite, Dàilán took a breath to glance around and seeing that none of her group was having trouble, cast her eyes over to the other groups, who all seemed to be pushing back the bronzes solidly in a similar fashion.
"They underestimated us, I think," she observed crisply with the Air Communication Technique, "now…"
There was a thunderous concussion from further ahead and a breath later the sound of something heavy crashing to the ground. A despairing howl rose from the general area that the sounds had come from which was quickly taken up by the other monkeys, who turned and fled into the trees as quickly as they had appeared, leaving tens of bodies scattered all around the path the refugees had been travelling along.
"The Iron-Back is dead," came the BloodWitch's cold voice, "the surviving members of the troop are fleeing - do not pursue. The bodies still have to be processed. We do not want these beasts coming back as Essence Wraiths."
"A literal bloody fortune in Essence meat, skins, bones, organs, blood and stones," grumbled one of the older teens a few steps away from the Heiress, "we would be set for life with all of this back in Hujian - and all I can think of how inconvenient it is going to be to clean all this up and wash the smell out - so I do not wind up attracting every Beast for a hundred lǐ tomorrow."
"Cheer up, girls" joked Dàilán as everyone bent down and started harvesting the nearest bodies, "we will find some place to spend all this wealth eventually and then we will beat everyone to death with the taels of money to get our revenge if we have to - the young men will be queing at our doors to marry into our Clan - not the other way around, ever again!"
"Anh… as if I will settle for some noble clan third or fourth son after this," laughed another woman as she expertly peeled back the skin of a monkey and stabbing a knife into its skull to skillfully flick out the Essence Stone, "drag them on a nice refreshing walk into the wilds and do not consider their suit until they have survived at least a week or two, I say."
The laughter that followed brought a lump to Dàilán's chest and she unaccountably found herself fighting back tears, "I think we are going to be alright," she said to herself, looking up into the sky as she blinked, "we are…"
---
Thankfully there were no further Essence disruptions as they travelled deeper into the wilderness, but the comparatively calm Essence - at least in contrast to the disruptions - grew increasingly dense, forcing everyone to rotate their cultivation in self defense just to process the ambient Essence they were absorbing as they travelled.
The increased levels of Essence may have been less overtly dangerous but they brought with them a different danger. The battle with the monkey troop was only the first of a number of clashes with increasingly larger numbers of Essence Beasts; or attacks from one or two Sky Level Beasts.
The average Cultivation level of the creatures the group was forced to fight off, battle or escape from, kept rising and everyone was sporting a compilation of small injuries gathered over the constant encounters throughout the day. The constant battles forced them to move as fast as they could towards this sanctuary as stopping for even a breath seemed to invite the local wildlife to try their luck.
Thankfully, they managed to harvest the bodies of everything they killed - the lower level girls permanently assigned the task of cleanup and harvest of the collected Beast corpses while the rest of them basically fought off the regular attacks on the march - the thought of having an army of Essence Wraiths coming after the refugees on top of everything else collectively turned everyone's stomach.
All of this meant that Dàilán's opinion was somewhat less optimistic as the group dragged itself into the beautifully glowing clearing - the next sanctuary point marked on the map - later that evening just before twilight, a chorus of relieved goans and quiet sobs underscoring the refugees' relief.
As she crossed the boundaries of the immense clearing deep in the forest the flow of peaceful, calm, pure Essence felt like slipping into a hot spring and her nerves almost collapsed in sheer relief as the strain she did not even realise she was sustaining released.
Dàilán fought the urge to simply collapse on the thick carpet of grass and looked around, spotting small pools of water at the base of the mammoth forest giants that surrounded the clearing. Forcing herself to walk over to the nearest pool of water she soaked her face in it, feeling the tingle of Essence-rich water soaking into her skin as she swallowed several mouthfuls of the sweet, bubbly liquid.
The Essence in the water temporarily pushed back her fatigue and she straightened up to a kneeling position, sitting on her ankles as she looked around, wiping the water from her face.
The clearing was gently lit by the soft light of glowing Essence motes, plants and flowers. Peaceful chips of birds and the singing of insects with a thick canopy above enclosing the area in a natural dome of glowing flora gave the clearing an eerie beauty - as if someone had cut out a piece of the Celestial heavens and transplanted it on Golden Crow.
The other refugees were doing the same thing as she was, slumped around various places around the cavernous clearing, drinking or washing their face. Many people just appeared to have fallen asleep wherever they had managed to fall.
"Come on," she asked quietly moving over to the nearest one and shaking them awake, "you will not rest properly like that," the other woman groaned and tried to push her away but Dàilán quirked an eyebrow and sent a small splash of water into the other woman's face from the pool at the base of the nearest tree.
The shock and jolt of Essence soaking into their skin woke her up and after sputtering in shock, the other Guan Clanswoman rolled over and staggered over to the pool to drink properly then threw her head back with a shout of, "refreshing!" sending water flying back from soaked hair. Dàilán nodded in satisfaction, too tired to laugh at the woman's uncharacteristic behaviour and moved over to the next collapsed 'body'.
It took almost a kè to get everyone moving to assemble the barest essentials of a camp - the Healer directed everyone to go to the restroom outside of the clearing if necessary, since the clearing was not really laid out in a way that made digging a latrine suitable - and no one had the energy for it anyway.
"Bury your leavings!" The Healer reminded everyone severely, "unless you want to be walking into it tomorrow or attracting the wrong sort of Essence Beasts - we do not know if the protections here will keep out a beast directly attracted over."
"We will have to hope so," remarked Dàilán's Father, swaying in exhaustion during their brief meeting - he had had to battle with several Sky level Beasts throughout the day - and was likewise dead on his feet, "I do not think anyone is alert or functional enough to stand watch tonight."
Monitor Leng wandered around poking at the strange shapes the plants made on the massive trees for about an incense stick's worth of time before declaring the entire clearing was protected by 'naturally occurring' formations stronger than a major Sect's Defensive Formation and then basically rolling straight into his bedroll - after being forced to dunk himself off in the pool that had been designated the men's baths - and change.
The clearing was warm and comfortable so only basic bedrolls were laid out. The two largest pools were marked off for bathing and everyone was rotated through to have a quick but refreshing wash before being permitted to retire.
Thankfully, between the effects of the water and the high Essence levels, everyone managed to gather enough energy to do the needed chores, although, like the Monitor, most fell asleep like the dead once they changed out of their ruined and bloodstained clothing into something suitable for sleeping and crawled into their bedroll.
A few of the hardier individuals nibbled on some dry beast meat, fruit or water before turning in themselves, but the young Heiress quickly found herself the last awake.
Looking around the clearing full of sleeping people, she shook her head and wrapped herself in the bedroll, looking up at the softly glowing canopy overhead that looked like a star strewn sky.
"We will survive," she whispered, even as her eyelids slid shut, "we must."
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