The first order of business for Shu He was to gather some information on the beast he had to hunt, he decided to ask around and he found out where the village chief lived, surprisingly his house was a small hut that looked a lot older than the other buildings and was made of wood not bricks.
"Is there something wrong with wanting to keep my old house?" The old mayor huffed as he saw Shu He looking around at It, but Shu He shook his head "Not at all, I personally find this more relaxing anyway, it reminds me of my old home".
"Is that so? I didn't take an envoy for someone to have lived so humbly" The old man's expression relaxed as he took a seat at a small table.
"Well, everyone comes from different walks of life after all" Shu He replied as he took a seat at the table as well.
"So? What can I do for you? There are so many of you people waltzing around about some stones of sorts, are you here to ask me about them? If so you should leave, I know nothing" The old man said with a look of displeasure causing Shu He to sigh internally.
'I bet he's been pestered by all these cultivators to see if he knew anything more continuously…'
"Don't worry, I'm not here about that, rather I'm here about the request you put into the city about the beast nearby" Shu He explained.
"Oh, finally! I was thinking we'd just be ignored… that damned wolf has claimed such a large area as part of its territory that it's been hard to harvest wild foodstuff and chop wood there, when will you be able to deal with it?"
"Well it shouldn't take too long, but I'd like to ask about its habits, has there been any fatalities since it appeared?"
"None… there were a few injuries, but nothing life threatening, it's like it was telling us to stay away, that is until a week ago…" A dark expression grew on the chief's face "We thought it was another beast at first, but I remember hearing some time ago that such things can happen to animals, they change appearance and become more ferocious…".
"What happened?" Shu He had only heard about the ascension, but no particulars about what it looked like.
"It grew bigger, it's claws and teeth became like razors and its fur seemed to harden, any attempt to injure it failed and one of our men received a debilitating wound, a swipe of one paw nearly wrenched his arm off!".
"Why did you try to fight it?" Shu He asked, he assumed they would stay clear until someone came since they couldn't deal with it in its base form.
"We didn't want to! We had figured out its territory, so we only gathered in the areas we thought were safe, but when it went through the change it seemed to grow greedier, its territory expanded and caught our people off guard!" The old man slammed the table with his fist "If that thing keeps expanding its territory, the village will soon be part of it!".
"So that's it…" Shu He nodded slightly "Does it have any particular pattern of activity?"
"It seems to disappear for the morning period, about 6 to 12, and during the afternoon it has a smaller range of activity, during the night is where its most active, we keep to our houses these days because of that".
"How about the state of the forest? When you go there, was there a dramatic reduction in wildlife? Boars, deer, birds, and such?".
"Hmm… No, I don't think I've heard anyone notice such a thing, I've personally seen plenty of critters in the small periods I've been out as well".
"Got it… that should be all for now" Shu He stood up, tapping his forehead in thought.
"That's it? Do you think you can deal with it?" A hopeful look rested in the chief's eyes.
"It's not if, it's how, creatures like that can be crafty… well, I should be able to deal with it" Shu He merely smiled while replying "I'll take my leave now, I'll report back when it's done".
"I'll await the good news then! I knew it was a good idea to put in a request to the city lord…."
…
Shu He sat on a tree stump near the wolf's territory, his arms crossed as he put his thoughts together.
'The wolf has likely taken on the Metal element, it's going to be durable and lethal, but may not have too much in the way of surprises, but I shouldn't be too careless…'
'The question is, how on earth did this beast ascend so quickly, the common theory is that beasts need to take in 'energy' in order to trigger ascension, and that energy is 'Qi', but experiments have shown that there is a missing key in order to trigger it, so has this beast somehow obtained that 'Key?''
Shu He had some thoughts as to what that 'Key' was, but he hadn't managed to confirm anything so far.
'But even so, the rate of growth is way too fast, to undergo ascension in the period I've left the sect and seemingly consummate it… there's something unusual going on here'.
And that 'unusual' thing was likely something he had been hearing about.
'That stone that everyone is seeking, could that be the cause of all this?'
When he connected the dots, it was the only thing he could think of, if that beast had been chowing down on the stones and then resting to process the Qi, its rapid progress could be explained, it would also explain why it hadn't been devouring the wildlife to fill itself, it was filled with Qi!
'The question then is, where on earth did those stones come from?'.
Were they some earthly treasures born from the natural Qi around here, or was there some unique phenomena creating them? He was heavily curious.
"I guess the only way to find out is to hunt them as well!" He stood up, he had been using his <
He had already confirmed when he saw the man holding the stone that he could find them with it, after all they had a trait only he could see, they contained Golden Qi! It was a diluted, weaker version than he was used to seeing but it was the genuine thing, it was no wonder they were so potent.
'I'll need to 'hunt' him as well' Shu He's eyes flashed with ruthlessness as he thought that.
"Hm?" Shu He's eyes opened slightly in surprise; something entered his domain that he didn't expect to see here.
It was a duck.
Not the one he fed at the pond, mind you, it was pure white with a yellowish gold beak and bright eyes, plodding along without a care in the world, soon it reached Shu He's location as he watched it dumbfoundedly.
"Quack!"
It… quacked at him.
He bent down and held his hand out, to which it pecked it lightly.
"What are you doing here, little fellow?" He asked it, like it was going to respond.
"Quack!" It walked up to him and began trying to rummage in his robes.
"Hey- what are you doing?" Shu He yelped in confusion, before he got an idea and pulled something out of his robes.
"Quack! Quack!"
"Oh~ Did you see me feeding your friend and follow me here? Smart thing, here" He opened the sack of seeds and fed them to the small white duck that chowed down on them happily.
"Haha, you should go back to the pond when you're full, you shouldn't be around here; there's a big nasty wolf that would love to have a duck like you for dinner".
"…Quack?" It tilted its head slightly before continuing to stuff itself.
"Nevermind…" Shu He sighed with a smile watching the little bird eat.
Soon, it had eaten half of his seed bag, so he put it away to the reluctance of the gluttonous bird.
"That's all, you'll go pop if you eat too much".
"Quack…".
"Well then, don't follow me, you'll be in trouble if you do".
Shu He set off, speeding deep into the forest leaving the little bird behind, what he didn't realise was that it was tracking him closely with its eyes like it had found a prized possession.
…
After half an hour of searching, Shu He still hadn't found any of the 'stones' that the other cultivators were hunting, it was entirely possible he had overlooked them however, they gave off such a small amount of Golden Qi that it was easy for him to overlook it among the natural Qi.
'Either that, or they've all been found already.. or they're just really, really rare' he thought as he stood atop a tree, scouting the area about, suddenly he jumped down and picked something up that was caught on a tree branch.
'Bingo'
It wasn't a stone, it was a small patch of silver fur, Shu He hadn't only been looking for stones he had been looking for traces of the wolf, even this fur which seemed to be from its pre-ascension was useful to him.
He put it to his nose and began sniffing, trying to familiarise himself with the scent as he expanded his domain, focusing 'Smell' in to 'Sight' as clouds of particles appeared in his vision, unlike smelling a strong scent like a food and singling it out with ease, when it came to animals with more subtle scents or incredibly similar scents he found the need to have a trace from them.
As he sniffed it he eventually sifted through all the different scents, in his sight only a single 'Smell' remained, a cloud drifting downwind from more than a mile away, it was faint, but it was enough for Shu He.
'Let's go see what this beast is all about then!'.