"I didn't expect you to be the one hunting such a beast!" Tao Yan shouted ahead as he followed Shu He along, he couldn't see the wolf, but it was easy to tell where it had been through the trail of destruction.
"I said I had a mission, didn't I?" Shu He replied, his eyes not moving from the shape he was tracking ahead.
"Even so, I thought you only mentioned that it had just ascended? That beast… it's far too strong for that" Tao Yan recalled those short few moments; he felt an instinctive reaction to run enter his mind as he caught sight of the size of the wolf and the Qi flowing through it.
Shu He glanced over his shoulder a the three following him, the two at Meridian Awakening were falling behind slightly due to their lower cultivation "You should treat it as a Satiated Rank beast, it has a innate technique akin to a blade's swipe, it's powerful so be careful".
"Satiated!.. Why is such a thing out here… wait… is it the stones?!" Tao Yan also caught on quickly as he remembered how it had run off after that thief that held their stones. Shu He merely nodded in response.
You- You're not an independent cultivator, are you?" The dark green haired girl spoke all of a sudden.
"I never said I was" Shu He murmured, but it was loud enough for them to hear.
"Why did you hide it?" She questioned again. But Tao Yan stopped her "Gong Jie, stop, he had no reason to tell us".
"Senior Brother…" she pouted as she looked over at Tao Yan, the large man Wang Kang merely laughed "It's fine, I can tell he's not a bad person, what does it matter?"
She sighed "You two need to care more for details…"
"Brother Shu! You didn't join that man when he made that offer, do you know who he is?" Tao Yan asked about 'Luo Hu' who had run away.
"I don't know who he is, but he isn't who he claims to be, I'm 100% certain".
A hint of relief filled Tao Yan's face "Great, that means we won't be burning any bridges".
"I knew he was lying! I'm gonna' beat that bastard to a pulp!" Gong Jie vented.
"…They stopped, get ready!" Shu He announced as a few figures came in to view ahead.
…
"Luo Hu, you filthy bastard, give us back our stones!" A small group of people surrounded Luo Hu, the lanky man Lin Meng and a voracious looking wolf that was looking around the encirclement.
"Are you guys fucking idiots?! Shit for brains?! Does this look like a great time to do this?!" Luo Hu stood between the encirclement and the wolf as he shook in his boots, panicking from the sudden turn of events.
All of a sudden, this massive spirit beast had decided to come out of nowhere completely ruining his escape and hounding him down like he was possessed by it! He was scared out of his wits right now!
"Like we give a shit if you're in danger! You stole them from us! Return them now!" Another person shouted, there were 9 other cultivators here, all glaring daggers are the two while preparing their techniques.
And to make matters worse, in the trees behind them Shu He landed on a branch, overlooking the situation with his bow in hand and as he scanned the area.
'That's a lot of people… it would be nice if they would give me some help but…' he glanced at the wolf that was faltering, a look a panic in its eyes. 'It overcame its fear when fighting one or two, but a lot of cultivators are dredging it back up'.
In the next second, Tao Yan landed followed shortly by his two juniors.
"Lou Hu, return our stones!" he shouted causing the man to grimace "I've heard that enough already! Can't you people see the situation?!"
Meanwhile, Shu He saw the Qi inside of the wolf spike and transfer to its tail causing the fur to align, the only problem was that it was even more Qi than the last three times!
"Protect yourselves! It's preparing it's innate ability! It's a wide slash, be careful! He yelled as he dropped in front of the three and drew Enduring Edge while activating <
"It's fine, we can protect ourselves!" Tao Yan shouted as his two junior's stepped in front of him, Wang Kang stomped his foot as a large solid stone wall appeared in front of them, Gong Jie held out her sleeves as thick seaweed wrapped around the wall before hardening with a metal sheen, and Tao Yan gathered a large bubble of water that created a thin but cascading layer behind the wall!
'A three-layered defence, impressive!' Shu He looked with wide eyes, yet he didn't drop his sword, he wasn't going to be careless!
The others in the encirclement saw the three prepare their protection and followed along although originally doubtful, stone walls, thick wooden barricades and reinforced shields were raised!
In the centre, Luo Hu and Lin Meng looked around in panic, they had been shut off in an encirclement of shields!
"Lin Meng! Do something! I'm paying you aren't I?!" He screamed as they felt the Qi growing in the wolf, their skin becoming filled with goosebumps.
The lanky man grimaced "Tch, fine, get behind me! I expect more pay for this one!" he pushed Luo Hu behind him as he slammed the ground, multiple thin layers of earth rose before gaining a metallic sheen, it was a Earth-Metal composite technique!
And then, in the next moment the wolf unleashed its attack.
*SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
A bright silver light filled the area, before a humongous bang echoed, trees and rocks were blasted apart and screams filled the area.
Shu He and the three from the Crystal Coral Sect that were behind the triple layer defence weren't much better than the rest, the wolf seemed to have directed a lot of power their way, likely because of Shu He, the metallic seaweed was sliced like butter and the stone crumbled like dust, the water held like rubber and reduced the power before Shu He had to hold off the remaining energy with his sword, sending him and the three behind him skidding a few meters.
'That was even stronger than before… this thing is growing too fast!' Shu He's brow was filled with sweat as he felt his Qi reserves become even lower, after all this time he was just under 20%, the sustained movement and fighting along with creating arrows and the special composite arrows had heavily taken a toll on him, and that's even after taking a Qi Puddle pill.
Unfortunately… he had none left, this journey had taken a great toll on his reserves, he never expects to use this many, and he couldn't just whip one up whenever he wanted either.
He really needed to end this soon!
"Are you okay, Brother Shu?" Tao Yan walked up to him and asked, his face filled with worry.
"I'm fine, your defences helped a lot, even though that was more powerful I didn't receive anywhere near as much damage".
"You took one of those directly before?!" Gong Jie almost screeched as she couldn't believe her ears.
"With this sword of course…" He sheathed Enduring Edge, thinking he will definitely praise Yun Jiang when he gets back.
He then 'drew' his bow and stepped into the cloud of dust.
"Where are you going?! It's dangerous!" Gong Jie yelled, thinking he was insane for walking forward blind.
"It's fine" Shu He whispered back.
It was over.
He walked up to the beast, about 5 meters away, and looked it in the eye. The wolf was collapsed on to the floor, shivering, its body was weak, the blood from all its wounds dripped to the floor slowly, the poison had taken a hold.
'Because its fear filled its mind it took action, ignoring the consequences, that last attack drained a humongous amount of Qi and gave the poison a free pass in its body'.
Shu He sighed 'In the end, not even a apex predator like you can escape the mistakes that fear can bring'.
He drew his bow, a large arrow knocked and aimed it at the wolf's eye socket.
He looked at it in the eye, one last glance and a thought.
'A pity, if you hadn't eaten humans, if I had found you much earlier, we may have been able to be partners'.
It was just a passing thought with no weight to it, but he couldn't help creating a small image in his mind before it shattered.
*Shwoosh*
The arrow flew, piercing the eye, the thin bone and then then brain inside, the tip of the arrow then exploded in to spikes that decimated the insides.
An instant kill.
He never used these arrows against the beast before because unless the arrows can pierce deeply, they would only cause negligible damage, they would be a waste of Qi.
But for this, it was perfect.
Shu He withdrew his bow and sighed, the dust had begun to settle around him as the groans and moans begin to echo.
There were a few injuries among the 8 cultivators, mostly just deep gashes, and scratches, but no fatalities, they got lucky, they were further away and were lesser targets than the other six.
Unfortunately, one person wasn't so lucky.
He looked to his left, there was a dissected body of the lanky man, a face filled with sheer terror capturing his final moments, it was unfortunate that he didn't realise the person he was protecting wasn't worth risking his life.
And 'Luo Hu'… was gone. But he wasn't worried.
He had 'remembered' him.
"It's dead?" Tao Yan walked up to him, who was stood peacefully staring at the wolf. Shu He nodded gently; Tao Yan saw the corpse and frowned "So he got away… damnit".
"It's fine, we'll deal with him later" Shu He quietly stated, Tao Yan merely gave him a glance and nodded "Got it".
He then sighed "But to take out such a large spirit beast, you're impressive Brother Shu! I had completely underestimated you!". Shu He shook his head "If It was a direct fight I would lose, and if it had been given any more time to develop… well, it definitely wouldn't have ended well".
"But those things didn't happen, right?".
"…right." Shu He sighed as well and stretched his sore limbs, he was physically tired after all this.
"Do you need help taking it apart?" The large man, Wang Kang walked up to him and asked, "I'm used to doing it, so I can help if you want".
"About that… do you mind taking a lot of it off of my hands?" Shu He asked with an awkward smile.
"What?! We can't do that! We didn't help!" Gong Jie refused immediately as he barged into the conversation.
"She's right Brother Shu, we'd feel bad if we took it for nothing…".
"Well, you know I'm a traveller with nothing but my own two feet and a backpack, I can't carry much… besides, it won't be for nothing; You guys were heading to the Titanic Steel Sect, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Then, do you mind taking me back as well?"
The three looked at him with wide eyes as they realised what he meant by 'back'.
"Then, we'll accept your generosity!" Tao Yan's laugh filled the air as he patted Shu He's shoulder.