Shu He dropped from the tree and landed with a slight bang, announcing his arrival as he stared at the figure pinned to the dirt in the distance, blood leaking from the multiple arrow wounds as the man struggled to move, grunting, and screaming.
"Who's there?!" The man known as 'Luo Hu' yelled, he was pinned on to his back so he could barely lift his neck in attempt to get a look at who was approaching, Shu He steadily walked from under the trees as the moonlight lit his figure and reflected off his golden eyes.
There wasn't an ounce of warmth in those cold eyes.
"Y-you, you're that run- fellow from earlier?! Why are you here?! Why have you done this to me?!" 'Luo Hu' struggled even more; the arrows had dug deep into the dirt after piercing him, so he was trying to force them out of his wounds by pulling.
"Quack!" The little duck ran up to Shu He, he merely glanced at it before returning his gaze to the struggling man who saw this interaction and concluded something-
"That duck! It's yours! You're after the stones?! Please, take them! Just don't kill me!" He pulled one of his hands free, flicking blood across the grass as he swiped the fallen stones towards Shu He like he was offering them to him.
But Shu He continued to walk until he was stood at 'Luo Hu's' feet, they stared into each other's eyes as the latter shuddered with fear as he watched Shu He draw the fine silver blade from under his cloak.
"Don't! Please! We shouldn't have any enmity between us, there's no need to go this far!" He pulled out some more arrows as he began to crawl away from Shu Hu.
*SHIING*
The blade was at his throat before he knew it, he didn't even want to gulp lest the lump become a new hole in his throat.
"You're not 'Luo Hu', are you?" Shu He spoke calmly, his voice lacking emotion.
"Oh.. that? Are you angry about that? I'm sorry I lied! That's no need to kill me though!"
The blade moved slightly, drawing blood from his thin neck.
"Where did you get the uniform, the token?".
"O-oh, you want to know? I just found it laying around on a corpse one day, tell you what, I used up a lot of the pills already but there's some scrolls I found as well, I'll share them with you so let me go, okay?". He picked out some items from his robe with his free hand and threw them Shu He's way.
They fell at his feet, but he ignored them, instead he lowered his sword and sheathed it before speaking "Let me see the token" his tone was commanding as he held his hand out.
"Yes, yes, okay! Here!" 'Luo Hu' threw it at him like he was throwing away a curse.
Shu He caught it and looked over it, as he was doing that 'Luo Hu' managed to free himself and steadily stand up as he quivered, eyes darting around before he watched Shu He hold the token up to the moonlight.
The token had the name 'Luo Hu' engraved in it, so the name was real, however… Luo Hu was dead.
They both knew that now.
"Do you know the functions of these tokens?" Shu He asked as he stared at the token, his eyes filled with melancholy. "…they're used to show who belongs to the sect?" The man answered quietly as he took a step backwards.
"That's one of them, but the other allows other sect members to find fellow disciples, they can either activate it manually… or when they die it will activate automatically" Shu He's head slowly tilted before his gaze locked on to the man "That's how I found you".
The man, the fake 'Luo Hu' felt chills rise up his spine, he had made a mistake "You-You're one of them?!" He seethed as he took two more steps back, the wind slowly blew and the cloak Shu He donned steadily flapped, letting the man peek are the pure white and silver trimmed robes beneath.
He felt his heart drop like an anchor in water.
Impersonating a sect member was an affront to the sect! he gulped deeply as sweat began to run down his forehead.
"But there is another function, the most useful one really" Shu He's voice dropped on octave, the man felt like the cold night air just became freezing as he paid rapt attention to Shu He's words.
"When the disciple dies, it will record his last moments, the surrounding visuals, the audio…" Shu He's bow appeared in his hands, an arrow grew out of his dark gauntlet and nocked itself on the string.
"Everything".
The man turned and ran, he executed one of the few techniques he knew and shot off as fast as he could go, using all his Qi, burning everything!
If this was any other cultivator, he would be able to escape, his speed in a straight line was basically unmatched among the same stage, even though he was wounded deeply he didn't care, he needed to get out of here!.
But unfortunately, he was facing Shu He.
He drew his bow, the arrowhead neatly fixated on the man's back, even though he was already a few hundred meters away, his territory locked on to him and the space between them, he had a full picture of the firing angle and details on the distance.
His mind was clear, his focus as calm as a still lake.
Compared to fighting that Spirit Wolf… this was a joke to him.
The arrow flew and struck true before the man even heard the whistle of the arrow, a full powered shot from his bow was nothing to scoff at.
He panicked, but then felt relieved as he felt it pierce his chest but not hit any vital organs, it hurt but he wasn't dead!
But then…
*CRRACK*
He heard a noise from his chest, but he didn't even have the chance to check what it was, that's because a tree burst out from the arrow, the branches and roots piercing and ravaging his flesh, tearing his organs and skin apart within a single second before the weight of a fully grown tree mushed the remains.
He died on the spot.
…
Shu He breathed out the stagnant air in his lungs as he looked at the newborn tree in the distance.
'It's over' he began walking towards it, he had one last thing he wanted to do.
He didn't really want to do this, but it was part of the sect rules, if someone was impersonating a sect member they needed to be captured, if someone killed another sect member they are to be killed in turn, at least those were the loose rules.
Nothing was definite.
However that man's fate was.
While the token certainly allowed sect members to locate each-other, it had no such function like recording the surroundings on death, but outsiders didn't know this; It was a bluff.
And he fell for it spectacularly, cementing his fate.
The truth was, Shu He didn't feel much about hearing the death of a fellow sect member, in the end it was someone he didn't know, at most he felt a tinge of sadness and irritation towards the killer, the reason Shu He acted as he was, was simple.
It was because he needed to kill again.
He looked down at the corpse that was trapped beneath the tree, the strips of flesh and copious amounts of blood mixing in with the dirt and grass.
And he felt little to nothing. It was odd.
Back when he had killed all those bandits, he had been beside with himself, it might have been the large amount of deaths, his first time actually killing, the fact that they were mortals while he was a cultivator, he wasn't entirely sure, but it felt wrong, he felt disgusted.
Yet as he stared at the man's corpse, all he could think was.
'I see, I did this'.
He raised his hand and a flame lit upon his palm, he then steadily fed it a small amount of his Golden Qi as its intensity and colour changed, it almost became a copy of his Golden Core Flame. He then placed it on the body and watched as it became consumed as well as the tree around it.
In the middle of the forest, a simple vigil was lit, he was burning the uniform along with the killer.
It was the least he could do for his fellow sect member, he didn't know when or where he died, nor where the body was, so this was all he could do.
Within minutes, the entire body, uniform, and tree was reduced to ashes, along with whatever other items the man held, Shu He didn't care about those, he didn't need them.
"A life for a life" he murmured, it was a rule that cultivation society was built upon, a rule that seemed barbaric to him… but in a world where humans can wield such fantastical power, it's a rule that is necessary.
'But, as with anything, nothing is definite' He gazed up at the stars that lit the night sky as clear as day as he began to walk back to the town, he came upon the place he had first encountered the man and found a certain little duck sitting there, looking around happily.
"What are you doing…?" This little duck was an enigma to him, he had encountered it a few times now like it was looking for him, it had even broken his cover that should have been near perfect before with ease.
'Maybe it's not a normal duck?' he thought to himself.
It wasn't a spirit beast, he was sure of that, but he couldn't see much else of interest either, so he was a bit lost, if it had a high concentration of Qi in it then maybe he could figure it out but…
"Quack!" it called out him.
"Hm? What?" He frowned as he walked up and crouched near it. It then stood up… and right below where it sat… was a stone.
It then walked sideways slightly, before it pecked the stone and tilted its head in confusion.
"Quack?" It looked at Shu He, like it was asking for an explanation.
Shu He, on the other hand, had his eyes open wide as he looked between the stone and duck.
"You…!" He looked over in the distance, about 10 meters away was where the stones spilled from the bag earlier, he doubled checked and was sure that the number of stones were the same as when he glanced over as he first arrived.
That meant…
"You laid these?!"