Sam was sitting on a branch of a large tree enjoying the gentle breeze. He had a map in his hands which was haphazard like it was drawn in a hurry but the writing were neat and clear. This was the map given to him by Helen before leaving.
Sam looked at the map thoughtfully. He wanted to explore all the dangerous areas in the swordridge valley. In fact, he even wanted to explore the central area which was known as dead zone where anyone who entered never returned back alive.
As he looked at the map carefully, he noticed that the Thousands Dragonnest was at the furthest corner of the inner region. He planned to explore all the areas along the way. So, he decided to first pay a visit to the City of dead which was closest to him.
Once he planned, he directly took action as he headed towards the direction of the city of dead. The city of dead was in the northwest direction from where he was standing. He had to cross a thousands of miles through the forest. The forest was dangerous place in itself as it was home to different demonic beasts.
Sam ran through the forest jumping from one trees to another at his fastest speed. He always remained vigilant as he paid attention to the environment to try and avoid as many demonic beasts as possible along the way.
As he travelling through the forest, he noticed many Dark Shadows which were following behind him. They were appearing and disappearing among the trees as they followed behind him like his shadow, a vicious one at that.
Sam focus his essence energy into his eyes. Due to the special nature of his eyes, he could always see far away from other people and could notice unnoticable things. He could expand the vision of his eyes by focusing his essence energy into his eyes. He found out about this while he was messing around with his essence energy inside his body.
When he looked back, he noticed there were many wolves following him. They had black furs and black eyes that looked eerie and chill inducing. They had a small body which was equal to the size of normal wolves but their legs at their front were smaller than their hind legs. The front legs were attached with three long and sharp claws each.
"Fuck... Is my luck really that bad. Of all the creature I could encounter, I just had to be shadow wolves, these Vermins".
Sam cursed under his breath after recognizing the creature following him.
Shadow wolves were the creature cultivators did not wish to encounter the most. These wolves had the innate ability to meld into the shadows knows as shadow-merge. With this ability, they could easily tail their enemies and deal a fatal blow during the most opportune movements. Another annoying thing about these wolves was that they always hunt in pack and are sly as devil. They would never fight with strong creature and always hunt creature slower and weaker than them.
Furthermore, they always hide in the shadow. One of their weakness was that they have a weak body due to which they can be killed easily but the most difficult thing was to land a blow. These Shadow wolves could reach up to rank 5 but due to the restriction in the swordridge valley, they could only reach rank 4.
Sam ran through the forest and stopped at a open space where he could see everything in the areas. He chose an open area to prevent being ambushed from the shadows.
He remained vigilant as took out the murderous sword. He had to be wary about using the murderous intent of his sword as it could attract more powerful demonic beasts. Sam focused his essence energy into his eyes as he was ready for a fierce battle.
The shadow Wolves surrounded Sam as he count sixteen among them. Two of the wolves were rank 4 while others were rank 3. Sam guessed that the two rank 4 shadow wolves might be the leaders of this pack. But Sam didn't believed that there were only sixteen wow ed in the vicinity as he still scanned the surrounding and all areas with shadows considering the possibility that some of them might hiding in the shadow due their sly nature. It just his intuition telling him there there might more shadow wolves hiding in the shadow.
Swish.. Swish..
The sound of air being cut resounded as two claws that were sharp attacked Sam from the front and behind. Sam dodged by side stepping to the right but just he dodged he saw another three claws attacking him from the front ,left and right side sealing his escape route.
Sam used his sword as he performed a half circular slash. The sharp blade cut through the bodies of the shadow wolf like tofu as they sliced into two halves spraying black blood like fountain.
Just as he finished his attack, he felt a chill down his spine as he executed his movement technique appearing ten metres away. The back of his neck was grazed slightly by the claw of a shadow wolf as block trickled down his neck.
"Fuck!!! That was so close. One step late I might have had my head severed from my neck".
Sam cursed as he maintained his vigilance. Just as he was watching in all direction, a claw attack came from below him as a shadow wolves emerged and attacked from his own shadow.
Sam hurriedly jumped backwards while swinging his sword downwards executing a vertical chop killing another shadow wolf.
"If I let them attack me like this, they will probably keep waiting until sun gets down. Then I will like a fish sitting on a chopping board for them to slaughter".
As he thought of this, he looked around and noticed eleven wolves surrounding him
The two alpha wolves were not around. Alarm bells rang out inside his mind as he hurriedly executed his movement technique and appeared ten metres away only to see a claw still heading for him.
He dodged to the right as his left shoulder was grazed by the claw creating a wound on his shoulder. There was no time for breathing as another claw attack came from his front. He slashed his sword forward but it was met with empty air.
Sam lost his balance as he was pushed forward. He hurriedly maintained his balance as he did a rotating slash like a whirlwind without thinking. He felt his sword cutting through the flesh and bones as five shadow wolves were killed instantly.
Sam felt a chill down his spine when he thought of the consequences if he had not executed that move. He hurriedly execute his movement technique twice as he heard the sound of air being cut. That was another claw that he dodged.
Sam executed his movement technique as he arrived at another location. There were still seven wolves alive.
"First slash of the six sacred slash"
He slashed his sword thrice as he sent three sharp sword energy in the shape of the crescent moon towards the area where more shadow wolves wolves were located.
Meanwhile, he executed his movement technique and appeared at another area and slashed his sword forward. His sword cut another shadow wolf as he disappeared from that area executing his movement technique.
As the battle of dodging and attacking went on noticed noticed his vision getting clearer and sharper. He could see the shadow wolves moving through the shadow and read through their movement and attacks. He easily killed the remaining rank 3 shadow wolves while only the rank 4 wolves remain.
They were hiding in the shadows as Sam could feel the sensation of being watched. He remained vigilant as he scanned the areas with his eyes.
At this movement, Sam felt a sensation of danger as he dodge the claw attack of coming from his right and left side. Just as he dodged the pincer attack of the shadow wolves, he felt that the danger sensation had not passed away.
He executed his movement technique and appeared ten meters away only to be attacked by another claw. He couldnot dodge this attack so he decide to attack forward with his sword. Since he could not dodge this blow, he attacked suicidal way, exchanging injuries for inquiries. The claw landed on his chest while his sword cut the wolf.
He was wounded as gaping wound was formed on his chest which extended to his stomach as blood oozed out. But when his sword landed, it felt different as the feeling was not like when his sword cut through flesh. It was like when his sword landed on water. It just felt empty.
He saw with his own eyes as the wolf was cut into two as it turned into shadow. He was alarmed as a single thought instantly appeared in his mind which horrified him even more.
"Shadow clones...? "