Chương 41: Battle Afar I - Bai Shun's Strength

While the attack from the beast tide was raging on, there was another conflict happening elsewhere, just a few miles away from the village two figures could be seen travelling along the ground incredibly fast, if one were to see them they would barely catch a glimpse, likely mistaking them for a speeding animal hunting some prey.

"How is it?" Chao Shi spoke, his long black hair whisking left and right in the wind.

"…It's got a lock on them, the baleful qi is quite strong" Bai Shun answered with reluctance as his foot slammed on to the ground, sending him flying forward, his robes rustling trying to join the breeze but kept still by his small yet robust figure.

In his hand held in front of him was a device, small and round it was a glass sphere with a needle in the centre, constantly shaking while pointing in a single direction, the direction the two were heading.

This was an item known as an 'Attunement Compass', it was used in the construction of formations and such, it could be set to detect the flow of a type of energy, so it could help the fine tuning.

In this case though, it was set to detect 'baleful qi'.

"This doesn't feel right…" Bai Shun clutched the compass and grit his teeth as he spoke.

"…It's what we need to do, if we left them to do what they wanted, there would be even more deaths" Chao Shi said, but there was pain hidden inside his eyes as well.

Bai Shun kept his eyes fixated on the compass, seeing it shake like it was a boat in a storm made him feel even more depressed.

"The baleful qi… a lot of it will be from the beasts but… there must be a lot of people dying as well".

He gripped it even tighter.

"Those treacherous pieces of filth, they'll pay for practicing such techniques!"

"Careful, you'll break it" Chao Shi spoke, glancing at the hand that was close to shattering the glass sphere letting Bai Shun loosen his grip and calm down.

"You're right though, those people…" His voice dropped a few octaves as a hint of bloodlust creeped into his words. "They need to die".

…

They had been travelling for a few hours now, following the compass, yet they hadn't met their targets.

"They're running! Bastards, how did they pick up that we were coming?!" Bai Shun cried out, he looked to Chao Shi to ask what to do.

Chao Shi stared at the compass that was now shaking erratically, it seemed to be moving between two different directions, one way was attracting it stronger than the other.

"I'll go after the stronger one, you go after the stragglers".

"Are you sure?" Bai Shun couldn't help but ask, currently they were only two as Yun Hua had been left behind, he wasn't sure if he alone would be able to handle all of them.

"Have some confidence, just be cautious and you'll be fine" Chao Shi replied, before he planted his foot on the dirt before bursting off at a speed more than twice as fast as before, leaving Bai Shun in the dust.

Bai Shun held no surprise though, he knew that Chao Shi was multiple cultivation levels above him and wasn't ordinary either, it's why he was so respected; he returned his gaze to the compass, shifting his direction to the weaker signal.

'They split up in to two groups, the one attracting the most baleful qi is probably the leader… Senior Shi should be able to deal with him easily, the others… is it one or a group? Probably the latter'

From what he knew of most 'Black Sects' they acted in a monolithic manner, in most groups there was a leader and many weaker members, it was uncommon for two prominent members to act together because the benefits would be split.

That and the needle had a small variation in direction when it came to the weaker signal, like it couldn't decide on a pinpoint direction, meaning there was probably a small group running together.

Bai Shun picked up his pace as much as he could, he couldn't let himself be outrun so he pushed himself that bit harder.

But to his surprise, he didn't even need to.

As he began to move faster, he noticed the needle's variation on the smaller group increasing.

'Did they split up as well?' was his first thought, but then realised he was wrong, the further he ran the greater the variation in an almost proportionate manner, the variation would be much bigger if they had split up.

'They slowed down!'

As soon as he realised it, he began watching the needle even more intently as he ran, he also began to listen closely with his ears.

It was barely another minute before he picked something up, in the distance ahead of him were the steps of a small group of people overlapping one another, the quickly checked the compass one more time, seeing the needle point ahead still, he just wanted to confirm that one of them hadn't held back and stayed behind; He then put it away in his robe.

They were in his range of senses now; he no longer needed it.

He kicked off the ground, into the trees above, the terrain they were in was a forest region so there was plenty of cover, he moved between the treetops gaining a above ground advantage on his targets, but he actually just wanted to observe them a bit more.

He frowned as he did so.

'They didn't notice me. The formation they're running in is really precise as well…'

He felt like it was a trap, he took out the compass and looked, all was as it was meant to be, none of them looked towards him even though he had rustled the tree branches when he stepped on them and just kept on running.

His gaze darted around the area and his ears focused so much so that he could even pick up a pin drop from hundreds of meters away, yet nothing was abnormal.

In the end he decided he still had to attack; this stalemate would lead to them running away at this point.

But not before he prepared.

He pulled out a small tincture out of his robe, breaking the top off and dripping the contents in his mouth, as the liquid dripped down his throat and became absorbed by his body greedily, he felt it grow warm, his senses sharpen, and his muscles felt lighter than ever.

The Qi in his body burst to life vigorously like the rapids of a river, leaving the confines of his skin and forming a circle around his body.

"<<Echo Domain>>" He whispered to himself, using the name to form the image and mould his Qi.

The technique burst to life, a sphere completely covering two meters around Bai Shun in all directions was created, invisible to the naked eye formed of his Qi.

And then, without waiting another second, he launched himself towards the closest enemy, of the five there was one situated at the back as if they were asking to be the first target.

As he flew through the air, his senses were fully alert looking out for any changed among the five, yet still nothing happened, and so Bai Shun's attack landed without any trouble.

His palm landed on the back of the enemies head, he gripped his fingers and thumb around the man's skull, planted his feet in the dirt and-

Twisted.

*Crack*

Without much effort the man's neck was broken, yet he wasn't done, he slammed the head into the floor, the body following along like a worn rag in the wind, slamming to the ground lifeless, he loosened his blood covered grip and stood up to look at the others.

In the time he had attacked, the others had reacted all at the same time, they had split up in four directions to surround Bai Shun, the way they moved as if one gave off a slightly creepy feeling.

He looked at their garb, seeing that they were all wearing a simple black robe, with a black mask adorning their face hiding most of their features.

The one below him on the floor was the same, except the mask had been shattered along with his skull, revealing worn black hair and patchy emancipated skin.

Bai Shun took up his stance, a balanced one with both palms open, ready to intercept any enemy.

It appeared that a short stalemate had formed, the five stood still, observing each-other.

The wind whistled, blowing through the myriad of branches, rustling the leaves against one another.

And then the battle begun again.

The four kicked off in a synched fashion, slipping and dodging between the trees while heading towards Bai Shun, their weapons branded to the side.

Daggers, a sword, saber, there was a small variety.

Yet Bai Shun wasn't worried one bit, he merely awaited their approach.

The first to strike was the sword user, her blade struck from above, airing directly for Bai Shun's neck.

He merely shifted to dodge it, the sword missed yet the user used her momentum, shifting behind him and redirecting her attack into a stab from behind.

At the same time, the two dagger users creeped out from the darkness airing for his vital spots, precisely timed so that their attacks would all land at the same time.

Bai Shun's eyes were closed, he felt the three closely, he knew their movements and didn't even need to use his eyes to tell.

The domain around him told him that, it was its nature.

Anything that entered, he could tell its shape, position, momentum, trajectory, even estimate the weight and force.

His Qi stirred once more, his hands and legs gained a metallic sheen as his body began to shift in response to the attack.

He pivoted on one leg that was planted in the ground like roots to a tree, he grabbed the sword that was threatening to pierce him from behind, making sparks fly from its blade, he used the momentum of the sword user, spinning her around and sending her blade towards on of the dagger users.

Said dagger user responded, trying to block the approaching sword, yet it still pierced their shoulder sending the two tumbling.

As for the other dagger user…

Bai Shun's other leg swung through the air, spinning like a top straight towards them, before they could even react the metallic limb crashed into their side, their arm holding the dagger quickly letting go.

A large crunch sound could be heard as they were went flying into a nearby tree, dropping still.

Before he could even take a breath, the saber user struck, aiming for his 'weak' point, the top of his leg that was still stuck in the ground…

Yet they were oh so wrong, Bai Shun's body contorted as his already flying leg made an almost inhuman movement, rising above him and moving in a vertical arc.

*BANG*

A heavy axe kick landed on to the head of the approaching saber user, slamming them to the ground and smashing their head like a watermelon.

He then retook his stance as he turned to the two remaining members.

They had untangled themselves and had pointed their weapons to him once more.

Bai Shun frowned.

"You won't run? Even after seeing what I did to your friends?" He questioned them, finding their behaviour out of the norm.

'These kind of people don't usually care for one another, let alone getting revenge for fallen allies, why are they still attacking?'

He stared deeply at the two before him, they hadn't replied or even flinched at his questioning, he felt no fear or anger, just an absence.

"Fine" He decided to take the initiative.

He dashed forward once more, the two reacted to tried to stab him together, moving in from different angles, but what was two to three, this was effortless to Bai Shun, he merely knocked the sword user out of the way before grabbing and crushing the neck of the last dagger user.

He then went over to the sword user, and crushed both arms before she could pick up her sword again.

'Let's take a good look'.

He grabbed her head and removed the mask and cloak hood.

A normal face, brunette hair and emancipated skin, nothing unexpected, as Bai Shun watched the girl struggle to move he watched her expression remain listless, uncaring.

Empty.

*Crack* Her neck was broken too, he let her fall to the floor.

'I've seen enough… I thought It was too easy, these people were mere puppets'.

He sighed, pulling out the compass, seeing it point strongly in a single direction.

'That one is likely the controller'.

He stared at the five bodies, he felt no pity or guilt, he could feel the deep stain of baleful qi on their bodies, they had likely been part of these 'activities' long before becoming mindless puppets, their fate was just karma.

'They were probably just made to be a distraction; too bad it didn't work well' He thought as he pictured Chao Shi's face before they parted.

'I should head over there as well'.