Chương 157: Razor Wolf II - The Chase Begins.
Shu He's battle with the Razor Wolf played out like a game of tag, he continually ran from it by making use of the forest's cover, jumping from tree to tree like a monkey and dipping behind thicker trunks when he was in need of a shield, the wolf was relentless in its attacks, its claws sliced through the wood with ease, their chase left a trail of collapsed and decimated trees in its wake.
'How much more can it take?!' Another arrow flew and struck the beast in its shoulder before it lashed out and snapped the arrow's shaft off, it had been nearly 15 minutes since he had started using these arrows and he had managed to hit the beast with more than 10! It was bleeding all over from the small wounds made by the holes and arrow heads that were latched into its skin.
The wolf took a step and stumbled slightly, its large paws drifting in the dusty mud before it righted itself.
'About time!' A slightly smile filled with relief plastered itself on Shu He's face.
The arrows were composite made of Silverwood tree seeds and Consuming Ivy, both were Low Mortal spiritual flora, the former was a tree that had a silvery grey colouring and was known for its hardness, while the other was well known for one thing-
Poison!
Shu He wasn't fond of poison, even the word reminds him of that moment in his past where he witnessed the bodies of many tens of his fellow villagers still and dead, having succumbed to the numbing poison used by the invaders.
But at the same time he understood- it was a valid tactic and important tool, it may be 'shallow and underhanded' but in a fight to the death, nothing like that truly matters.
Even more so as someone that has his foot in the field of medication, the difference between medication and poison was a mere change in dosage, he couldn't shun them forever despite his dislike for them.
And so, he forced himself to dredge through those memories and walk past them, he needed to use it now.
The thing with cultivators and spirit animals was, mortal poisons had a far lesser affect on them, the higher their cultivation the less of a chance they would perform their tasks, as someone's cultivation rises their body follows along, thus improving flaws and their control over their own body.
Say, a poison worked by being absorbed into ones liver and shutting it down, or into ones brain and destroying that, for a cultivator their Qi would detect the disruption of the body and prevent such a thing happening, forcibly isolating, and expelling the poison.
It was like a secondary, highly efficient, and active immune system.
And so in order to harm cultivators and spirit animals, you would need to use a Spiritual Poison of a suitable rank, these poisons work by affecting the Qi flow in the body before targeting the physical form, the poison of the Consuming Ivy is one such poison.
It was slow acting but can affect animals and people just by brushing its purple leaves against the skin, it disrupts the Qi flow and forces the afflicted to expel Qi constantly before eventually numbing the muscles and organs until the blood flow is completely halted.
And Shu He had been using arrow heads lined with such a poison, directly putting it in to the bloodstream! Yet even after more than 10 arrows, it had taken this long for it to begin to take effect, the Wolf's Qi flow was surprisingly strong, and its size didn't help either.
'I just need to keep going until it drops dead now…' He placed his hand on the tree below him as the wolf charged at him.
*CRACK*
The bark burst open and fresh branches grew out suddenly in the hundreds, reaching like a massive palm that grasped around the wolf that charged!
'I would love it if you sat still until you passed away, but-' He dodged to the side.
*SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE*
The thicket of branches and the tree he was standing on was cleanly bisected, it had used its innate technique again!
'That was a mistake! You won't be able to move now!' He knocked three poisoned arrows as he prepared to hammer them in while it was immobile, he had wanted the Wolf to use up more Qi so the poison could tighten its grip, so this was ideal!
Yet, he felt a sense of danger as the debris fell to the ground-
"Shi-!" He instinctively drew his Enduring Edge in front of him and activated <<Overedge>>, not even a millisecond later he felt an impact that forced the blade and his hand in to his chest as he was sent flying!
'A second one?!'
He felt the air leave his lungs as he crashed through a few thin trees before slamming in to a large one.
"Ugh!" He spat out some clear fluid and he cycled his Qi, trying to catch his breath.
'I have to get back up!' He forced his muscles to move as his bow turned back into a bracelet and he held his sword forward as he stumbled, his eyesight readjusted as he looked towards the wrecked trees and branches.
'It ran…'
He was lucky he had his territory up a moment ago, he had caught the flow of a second innate technique forming so he managed to guard in time, if he hadn't used <<Overedge>> he might had been bisected with his sword then and there…
He felt a rustling in his robes as a small white duck peeked its head out with a displeased look in its eyes.
"I forgot about you…"
"Quack!" The duck shook its feathers as Shu He picked it out his robes, it seemed indignant that it was being removed from a comfy place.
"Little duck, stay away, it's too dangerous; And you ruined my sneak attack!" He admonished it like it could understand.
"Quack?" It tilted its head.
"Here, have this feed and go back to your home" He gave it some more seeds before he ran off, he couldn't let the wolf get away.
'If it manages to eat more of those stones, it may be able to neutralise the effect of the poison… it'll be going straight for them again!'
…
"What do you think, Brother Yan?" The man that calls himself 'Luo Hu' asked with his hands up in the air like he was showing a presentation.
"As one of the strongest here, shouldn't you be receiving the biggest share? Lin Meng here has already agreed, it's just you left!" The shady man gestured to a lanky man stood next to him, the apparent 'Lin Meng'
He was at Balance Attainment like Luo Hu and Tao Yan.
"What about the fourth? There was one other, wasn't there?" Tao Yan expressed his doubt. At the gathering there were definitely four of them, if he was the last, what happened to the other one?
"He ran away, he probably wanted to monopolise the stones and got scared when we started gathering together! Kehehe".
"…I'll consult my juniors" Tao Yan walked away to where his two sibling disciples were waiting as he heard Luo Hu shout from the back "Just remember, if you agree I'll put in a good word with a Core Disciple I know! Your sect will be able to rise if it affiliates itself with ours!".
Tao Yan frowned as he looked at the two in front of him "What do you two think?"
The green haired girl, Gong Jie spoke with reluctance "I know I said we should go along with it before… but this just feels more and more suspicious".
The tall, bulky man Wang Kang then spoke after with his eyes spitting glares across the field they were in "I don't like him".
"Why do you say that?" Tao Yan asked, curious as to why his junior brother that was usually quite kind felt this strongly.
"I don't know" Wang Kang shook his head "My instincts tell me he isn't a trustworthy man".
Gong Jie looked up at him "You're usually a block head, but… I really do agree with you on this one".
Tao Yan sighed "I was on the edge… I still haven't confirmed his disciple status, but if you two feel this way then we can walk away from this, we have found a few stones already so we can just leave quietly".
"Senior brother… but what if he is a disciple? Won't it cause some problems…" Gong Jie clenched her hands in her laps as she looked up worriedly.
"It's fine, it'll work out… huh?" Tao Yan opened his pouch as he stared inside, his pupils dilating to the size of a pin.
"What's is it, Senior Brother?" The large man walked over, trying to get a look inside the pouch as well.
"Gone… the stones are gone!" He shouted, the three looked up at each-other, they had an innate trust, so they knew none of them had hidden them. Their sight darted to the other side of the field, looking for the two figures.
They were gone.
"BASTARDS!" Tao Yan had quickly realised he was duped, one of the two must have very sticky fingers!
And then in the next moment, a trampling of footsteps along with a massive bang sounded as the trees lining the field burst open.
"What now?!" The girl exclaimed.
A large, silver wolf had landed in the field, its tattered body filled with snapped arrows and bloody holes with singed hair ends.
"Such a large wolf!"
"It's a spirit beast! Why here?! It's wounded!" Tao Yan observed it quickly, putting together that it was being hunted speedily as he prepared to fight.
But the wolf just lifted its head, sniffed before looking off in a certain direction and charging off, leaving the three stunned.
"What's it chasing?" The large man wondered.
"The stones!" Gong Jie shouted, half guessing.
"If it lives in the area, that's a likely possibility!" Tao Yan nodded before adding "That bastard has all our stones, and likely others as well! It'll be chasing him down! Let's follow!" He shouted, before another figure shot out of the forest and landed near them.
"It's you!" The green haired girl stared with utter surprise.
"Little brother- Brother Shu!" Tao Yan also stared wide eyed as he quickly corrected himself, noticing that Shu He was in fact the same cultivation level as him, and at a younger age!
"What's the wolf chasing?" Shu He asked immediately.
His territory was just managing to catch the wolf itself, but not what was ahead of it, so he didn't know, combined with the damage he had just received, and his dwindling Qi reserves he wasn't in the best state.
Physically he was mostly fine apart from a couple of small wounds on his head.
"Luo Hu! He has all our stones, he's with another as well!" Tao Yan yelled back, to which Shu He nodded and set off to chase the wolf.
"We'll come with you!" Tao Yan yelled again before following along, his two Juniors ran along not after a well.
A chase had suddenly begun!
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