Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 450

Tales of Blood (XV)

Who exactly attacked us, I couldn't say.

Though I put as much Qi into my eyes as poor things could endure, the best I ever caught was a flickering of light in the deep darkness. I'd just barely have enough time to discern it even flickered before it was gone, me not knowing where. The two stuck close to me, practically breathing down my neck, as I was the only one who could perceive the attacks.

They weren't quick, not really; in fact, they seemed about the speed that even an ordinary person was capable of (well, "ordinary" as in an Olympic-trained archer), but what made them a pain in the ass is that they didn't make a sound until they were practically upon us and that they blended almost perfectly with the surroundings.

Not to mention that whoever was firing them--at least two people, by my estimate--was doing so from clever angles, as they had the arrows travel through several patches of darkness on our way to us.

Growing a bit frustrated, I retaliated, randomly shooting a fire-charged ball of Qi toward the direction the last arrow came flying from. I knew there was nothing there, but I needed to vent in some way, and that was as good a way as any.

The sweltering ball of flames hit nothing but a patch of some strange grass that, instead of burning, seemed to literally devour the flames as though they were a feast. Shuddering, I curled sideways and pulled Xi Zhao back a few steps, just in time for yet another arrow to whizz by. I was just ready, however, and managed to catch it with my bare hands.

It streaked a bit on and sheared the top layer of my palm but didn't even draw blood. Bringing it closer, it was... odd.

The shaft was made of some strange wood that seemed almost like halfway-dry clay to touch, in that I could just barely mold it. It had two feathers locked into a spiral around one another at the rear, and the head that was made of something... dangerous.

It was a metal so dark it nearly swallowed the light and so sharp that it managed to cut through my Qi barrier. Frowning, I ducked my head down as another flew above me.

More and more, I'm beginning to think it's not so much the archers as it is the arrows... and probably even the bow.

My brain worked a bit faster than usual as I tried to clock the best approach to this annoyance. Run blindly toward the center? I mean, it was an option--but a risky one. While I could notice the arrows with relative ease while we were stationary or moving at a really slow pace, who's to say that their numbers won't go up the deeper in we go?

"What did you mean when you said you were marked?" I asked Liao Xinya. If anyone knew the answer, it was her; why was she withholding it? Pettiness, I'll hazard a guess.

"Just that," she shrugged. "The forest marked us, and its Guardians are hunting us. Do you think you can catch up to an extremely talented archer in their home terrain?" I mean, I probably could--if I disregarded the safety of these two for a bit, I could literally just jump to the flicker of light I see immediately.

Stolen story; please report.

This place lacked many things, but shadows weren't one of them.

"Master, I think... I can keep up." I glanced over at Xi Zhao while Liao Xinya shot him a look of derision.

"Are you sure?"

"It's something I learned from Brother Rayce," he said. "There is no such thing as an invisible attack--all things must interact with the world, one way or another. However, beyond our eyes lies a spectrum that we cannot perceive, but just because we can't perceive it doesn't mean it's invisible. It is interacting with something. If I concentrate, really hard, I can sense when the arrows shift."

Oh.

Well, it actually did make some sense, then. Ever since teaching him the Art of Surviving, Xi Zhao had focused on integrating the concept of vibrations as well as he could into his attacks. I do know that he's stagnated a bit as of late, but if there's anyone in our little group that could discern vibrations, it was him.

"Hm. If you can keep her safe for just a little while, I'll return."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure she doesn't die."

"..." was that keeping her safe, though? I eyed him, though I didn't probe any further.

I loosened up a bit and prepared for the Shadow Step; the opportunity came just a few seconds later, when I caught a faint fade of a flicker about sixty yards to my left. I immediately executed Shadow Steps and materialized behind a wispy cloak just in time to reach out, my hand coated with Qi, and extended it into a whip-like limb.

Since I've watched the kids fight so many times, I picked up a few of their little tricks--and the whip came courtesy of watching how Light fought with tentacles.

As I yanked the whip back, the figure finally materialized from shadowy, ashen mist--it was a rather small, child-size, ape-like creature with a darkly shaded coat of blue fur, a pair of backward-curving horns, and jutting eyes without irises. It was holding a strange bow woven from some kind of blood-red wood, twisted into form in such a way that it almost bent to such a degree it resembled a triangle.

It didn't seem to have a string--or if it did, I couldn't see it--though the faint plumes of energy drifting off its tips suggested that was how the creature fired off the arrow.

"Gahgah! Gah gah!!" it cried out rather loudly and tried to yank itself free, but I held firm. It was distantly familiar, as though I'd seen it before somewhere, but I very much did not, as I'd remember seeing something this weird.

Luckily, it seems that me catching this guy attracted the attention of the other as arrow after arrow came flying toward me. They were faster and faster, but all that meant was that the creature was closer and closer to me.

I kept staring into those starkly white eyes for a little while longer before the arrows suddenly stopped flying. Surprised, I looked to the side and saw Xi Zhao and Liao Xinya emerge from one of the patches of darkness, in their hands a cut-off head almost identical to the one in front of me.

"GAH GAH!! GAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" The captured one became quickly enraged when it saw the cut-off head, yanking itself with such force that it actually snapped its neck against the whip, its head rotating a full one-eighty degrees as the back of it stared at him while the body itself went limp.

"Shanxiao," Liao Xinya said. "It's really them. Please, I am begging you--we must leave." There was a clear panic in her voice, and I was just about to ask why when I got my response in the form of the loudest roar I've ever heard in my life. It was so loud, in fact, that it burst my eardrums, quaked the ground so violently that Xi Zhao lost his footing while Liao Xinya and I just barely maintained it, and caused a system warning to appear in front of me.

[--emergency quest]

[You have enraged an Ancient Yaoguai, the Great White Ape]

[You have been marked for Death]

[Quest: Slay an Ancient Demon (Legendary)]

[Context: In the heart of the Luminous Night Jungle resides a powerful Spiritual Vein providing an abundance of pure, dense Qi. It has been responsible for maintaining the existence of the entire jungle and all living things residing within it for innumerable years. However, an ordinary ape chanced upon it and underwent Enlightenment over the course of centuries, becoming a yaoguai. It has now perceived you as an intruder upon its land and will stop at nothing to kill you. Slay it and free the Spirit of the Vein]

[Rewards]

[Reward 1: New Major Trait]

[Reward 2: Chance to take in a Spirit of the Vein]

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