章節 155: Faker - F*cking Duck.
"Say, what do you make of that guy?" A man with tattered robes resembling a vagabond asked another as their eyes scanned the area carefully.
"You mean the Metal Sect guy, right?" The other man who was dressed rather cleanly asked, to which the tattered man nodded, the clean man shrugged "To be honest I was sceptical about these stones in the first place, there's a reason alchemists exist, a lot of natural resources can't just be straight up eaten so they need to be processed".
"Yeah, but do you think he's legit?" the tattered guy frowned "I don't feel comfortable letting one man be in control of an auction".
They stopped walking as the clean man chuckled a little "What, do you think he's able to get away with all the stones somehow? We'll be pooling them for the auction, but even then there's a lot of us, I highly doubt he'd be able to pull the wool over all of our eyes" he then smirked "Though I think a lot of people might try to pull the same thing, it might be better to err on the side of caution".
"Right… but do you think he actually belongs to the great sect? Why would he be all the way out here? Surely they haven't heard the news already…" a hint of worry creeped up his expression as his eyes darted around.
"No way, the disciples would be pouring out towards this area if that was the case, he's likely a single disciple that picked up the news and kept it to himself… or he's not even a disciple at all."
"You mean he might be a fake?" A glimmer of doubt flashed in the tattered man's eye as he questioned his friend.
"I don't know, the robes and the identifier look real enough, it'd be hard to tell without getting our hands on it, and he's too cautious to let us; That in itself is suspicious enough though…".
"Guess we'll just need to keep on our toes… hmm?" The tattered man's brows rose as he walked off the beaten path and into some hedges.
"What's wrong?".
"I think something shined over here…"
"Wait, did you actually find one?!" The neat man rushed over to follow to see the man pick up a small translucent stone, it refracted the sunlight and shined all the colours of the rainbow around the area causing the tattered man to grin deeply.
"I got one! Ahahahahahaha!" He began dancing around in glee.
"Put it away before someone else sees it, or you drop it!" The other man chastised him.
"Right! There may be more around here, let's keep looking even closer!".
And so, the two wandered off while sweeping between every bush and tree they came across to make sure they didn't miss a thing, eventually their voices became quiet before the area returned to silence once more.
…
'Well, seems like some of the others have doubts about that guy's identity' Shu He was perched in a tree as he always was recently, he had inadvertently caught the conversation between the two men and listened in.
They were completely right to doubt that man, Shu He knew the truth after all, he realised it the moment he had set eyes on him, the robe was a legitimate robe, the same as his, but it had signs of wear and dirt like it hadn't been repaired in a long time, but the more telling thing was the identifier token.
The tokens were registered with the Qi of the person who took it, it's only possible to wipe them clean at the sect and the trace of Qi will last for tens of years, meaning it was possible to retrieve it off a corpse and return to the sect and identify who had died, it also doubles as an alarm to alert other sect members as he used the other week to notify Su Wen when he was attacked.
But that man's token, that 'Luo Hu' if that was even his real name, it contained a different Qi signature, it wasn't his! If anyone checked it they could tell, but he was sidestepping the question whenever anyone asked apparently.
That's why Shu He felt a tinge of anger when he saw him, he had either robbed a fellow sect member's corpse… or did the deed himself, either way it was his duty as a member of the sect to bring him to justice.
But first, he wanted to sort out his mission, and then ideally catch him alone before dealing with him, they were both of the same cultivation, but he has no idea that Shu He would be targeting him, Shu He had been hiding his affiliation under his cloak after all, just like he had at first.
'Those two men were lucky'.
Shu He, of course, was currently tracking the Razor Wolf, so of course, since he was here, so was the wolf; In fact it had been hiding away just a few tens of meters away from the two men, when they had picked up the stone Shu He was ready to take action-
But the beast never moved.
It's eyes had been fixated on the stone when it was picked up, yet instead of pouncing on the inferior prey like a normal spirit beast should have, it froze, shaking slightly, causing Shu He to become slightly confused.
'Is something wrong with it?'
He had already inspected it as much as he could while following, it didn't have any external injured, not even scars and no sign of internal injuries either, it was a well-oiled killing machine, so it made no sense for it to falter against such prey.
Soon, the wolf began moving once more and Shu He followed along, after another hour it came across another set of cultivators, this time they were a group of 4, three of them were at Blood Enhancement with a single one at Meridian Awakening.
Like before, the wolf hid its large body behind the thick foliage as he quietened its breathing, it was natural hunter so hiding came like crawling to a human, the group of cultivators had found another stone and as they celebrated the wolf watched as drool dripped on to the grass and its claws extended, digging into the hard dirt with ease.
Yet it didn't move once more, letting them wander away.
'…' Shu He watched it happen again, making sure to take in every movement from the beast and then he came to a conclusion.
'The shaking body, low posture, ears flattened, tail low to the ground… it's not just trying to hide from prey… it's scared!'
Shu He was surprised as this revelation, he hadn't expected a creature that very well should be an apex predator of this area to be scared of some lower-level cultivators.
'But why? Did it encounter a strong cultivator? It wouldn't be alive if it did though… and it hadn't received any major wounds or there'd at least be scars….' He pondered as the wolf began moving again, this time they came across a singular cultivator on their way to the next stone, and the wolf avoided them like a plague.
'This isn't just a small fear, it's like it's been traumatised…. Wait…' He thought back to the skeletons in the den, there wasn't any sign they were cultivators and they looked old, maybe half a year or more.
'Could it have been attacked by a cultivator long before its ascension? And that traumatised it?'
It would explain why it hadn't attacked any cultivators at all until now, and was even cautious of humans in general, a beast like that should have easily been a much bigger problem especially post ascension.
He then watched it let another stone be taken away, he noticed the claws digging into the ground, the increasing drool, and reddening eyes.
'Even if it's traumatised, the madness driven by hunger and rage of seeing its meal taken from it over and over again will eventually push it over the edge…'
It was only a short time before it attacks and breaks the chains of the trauma holding it back.
'I should deal with it before then… hopefully it can find a lone stone, dealing with it while it's distracted digesting it would be the easiest way…'
He followed it once more, he could tell that there weren't any cultivators in the vicinity so he predicted that the next stone should be eaten by the wolf, and he was right.
There definitely weren't any cultivators there, he could see the stone with his territory, resting next to a rock.
The problem was…
"Quack".
There was a white duck there, its beak was beautifully gold as it stood next to the rock, pecking it as if it was curious what it was.
'What the hell is that little duck doing here?!' Shu He yelled in his mind.
The wolf leaped towards the stone, but it skidded in the mud as it halted its momentum before stopping in front of the duck.
The little duck was startled as it cried with a loud squeal as it flapped its wings, white feathers flying everywhere, the large wolf that was about 50 times its size stared it down, sizing it up and sniffing.
Without another moments hesitation the duck ran off, head to the ground like its life depended on it, because it did!
'At least it has some common sense' Shu He internally sighed.
The wolf ignored the little bird and sniffed the stone, its eyes glazed over.
'It's time!' Shu He repositioned slightly, the bracelet wrapped around his left wrist transformed into his longbow as a seedling became a heavy arrow with a thick, pointed head, he drew it back while remaining as silent as possible.
He watched as the wolf picked up the stone with its teeth, and then tossed it in to the air where it flew up before descending in to its open maw-
*GULP*
It sat on its behind with its eyes closed, controlling the surge of Qi that entered its body, and as it was doing that Shu He's aim was directed right at the wolf's right eye socket!
'Now!'
Just as he was letting the string of his bow loose-
"Quack!" A loud, poorly timed noise came from the tree below him and the wolf heard it! It's head jolted towards the source of the noise as the arrow flew from his bow-
*SWOOSH*
It flew true, at least towards where Shu He aimed, which was now the wolf's left cheek! It rushed by, leaving a deep gash in the left cheek's skin and its left side, but the wound was superficial at best!
'Shit!' He looked down the tree, only to see the little white duck looking up at him!
'How the hell did it find me?!'
"HOWUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" The wolf cried in anger, its how shattering the silence for miles as the wind whipped around its large body.
And then, its gaze followed the little ducks until its glaring pupils locked on to Shu He's form.
Shu He felt a chill as he prepared for battle.
"This fucking duck!".
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票