In one fluid motion, Bai Jingshen pushed Sam aside, jumped back and drew his sword. Before the two men started to fight however, a loud shout stopped them.
"Are you insane? We really don't have time to fight amongst ourselves!"
Bai Jingshen was surprised at Ryan's quick intervention. He seemingly was made leader for a reason.
"Count yourself lucky!", came Bloodsaber's arrogant answer, to which Bai Jingshen could only smirk.
"Guys, can we not fight? We need to assess our situation."
"Situation?", asked Bloodsaber with a laugh. "I tell you our situation! Someone tinkered with our receiver, interrupting our teleportation. If I'm not completely wrong, we are at Sleeping Lake Forest. This place corresponds to New Haven City."
Seeing the RSS members quietly talking among themselves, not understanding the danger they are in, Bloodsaber only got angrier. He rammed his saber against a nearby tree before yelling:
"We're at a gathering place for immortal beasts! Even New Haven City had to give up their former basecamp here and build a transmitter elsewhere. Did no one ever tell you why receiver and transmitter even exist?!"
It finally dawned on the RSS team that they were in serious trouble. If even the city couldn't hold this place, then it was most likely swarmed with beasts. Bloodsaber smirked, somehow feeling better himself, although he was stuck in this situation with a bunch of recruits.
Bai Jingshen was observing the RSS team from the side now. He wanted to leave this place as fast as possible, but wasn't sure if it was worth it to take this team with him. He was only confident in leading them if everyone perfectly followed his orders. However, to his disappointment he already saw a few of them blaming him for their situation.
Eventually Ryan managed to calm his teammates enough to start a discussion:
"Ok everyone. We have to make decisions now. Give me your suggestions."
"Hey, junior. There are no suggestions here. I am your guide, and you will do what I say. If you follow me, I will do my best to get you out safely."
Ryan looked annoyed at Bloodsaber's rude interruption, but the experienced man wasn't wrong this time.
"Do I have your attention? Good. I say we hole up somewhere on those branches. Although New Haven City wasn't able to build a camp here, they still spilled a lot of beast's blood after their arrival. Places like these exist all over the New World, where beasts would instinctively avoid them. Furthermore, this place is well known, so the likelihood is high that a search party will find us here."
All the RSS members clung to Bloodsaber's lips as if he was their light in the darkness. Bai Jingshen observed their faces before shaking his head. He sighed, turned around and began to walk away. Not even Bloodsaber's grating voice stopped him as the older man yelled:
"Hey Mister First Place, where do you think you are going?"
Although he disliked hearing the jealousy in the man's voice, he still hoped to safe a few of his teammates, thus he replied:
"What you said makes sense. However, the big commotion and the smell of our blood will soon lure beasts here. Their instincts won't stop them from investigating wounded prey. Our highest priority is breaking through to the Qi Gathering Realm, so we should search for a quiet cave."
Bloodsaber only scoffed at Bai Jingshen's words. Some of the RSS members seemed moved, but they still decided to stay at this place which gave them hope of being found quickly. Sam was shocked as he looked from his teammates to Bai Jingshen's back. He eventually bit his lips and dragged his limp foot after his idol. The RSS team members had mixed feeling, as they watched those two vanish amongst the dense undergrowth.
Bai Jingshen only took a couple of steps before he waited for Sam to catch up. Seeing the man hold back a few tears like a wronged child, Bai Jingshen could only sigh. Although they trained in combat and graduated from an academy, the young recruits were not ready for such a situation. The young man swore to himself to find and kill the culprit, but for now he had to find a quiet cave. After breaking through, Bai Jingshen could finally sustain himself with Qi. He would be able to live without eating for up to a month from then on.
Bai Jingshen spoke a few soothing words to Sam, before supporting him as they ventured on. The former emperor didn't have a clear goal, but he felt the ground being slightly sloped. In most natural places, the Qi would be denser if you travelled higher up. This in turn would prove attractive for stronger beasts. Therefore, Bai Jingshen's only orientation for now was downwards, in the hope of not meeting any strong enemies.
The two men walked forward for a while. Hunger and thirst slowly made themselves known, but Bai Jingshen wasn't desperate enough yet to eat something unknown. Looking up, he realized that the nine suns would distort his perception of time, but he guessed they should have been walking and resting for half a day now, at least by Rising Force World's standards.
Eventually, Bai Jingshen had to slow down, carefully keeping their bodies behind trees, as he heard more and more rustling among the foliage. As the chance of facing a beast grew, Bai Jingshen gladfully noticed that Sam, while still looking a bit forlorn, gradually toughened up.
After about an hour more, Bai Jingshen realized, that this forest was just too big. The chance of finding a random cave was almost nonexistent. Therefore, he decided to go with another, riskier plan. Bai Jingshen focused his senses, trying to make out the direction of a lone beast. Listening for a while, he was able to pin down a few spots where he only heard a slight rustling. Sam just followed obliviously, by now able to at least use his foot again under normal circumstances.
The former emperor led them through the undergrowth, while avoiding as many plants as possible. He was glad that the trees themselves seemed to have no consciousness here, or even he might have given up at this point. Fortunately, with his experienced leadership, the two man slowly came closer and closer towards a beast.
Bai Jingshen suddenly signaled Sam to hide, as the young men got close enough to just observe the beast with their eyes. Sam almost let out a gasp, as he realized where Bai Jingshen had led them. He never came close to a wild tier two beast before. He didn't understand how Bai Jingshen planned to defeat a beast which would normally be hunted by a team of Qi Gathering Realm cultivators.
The former emperor also had no clear plan yet, as he observed the big beast in the distance. He closely analyzed it while marking down all its characteristics in his mind. It was slightly bigger than himself, despite standing on four legs. It seemed fairly slow while eating some plants, but he couldn't take this for granted. It's back, sides and legs were covered in scales. Under his chin, all the way down to its belly however, only white, leathery skin could be seen, while it held its head up high to snap at some tree leaves. Bai Jingshen took special note of it two, spiked tails, which might be enough to knock him out cold with one hit.
Like this, the two men followed the beast Bai Jingshen conveniently named Spike-tail for multiple hours. The experienced veteran observed everything he deemed important, while making sure to adjust their position from time to time. Although Spike-tail didn't show any signs of smelling them, it was still better to face the wind. Finally, as Sam was already growing exhausted, although the suns in the sky barely seemed to have moved, Spike-tail reached a big cave and crawled into it.
Sam was happy that they found what they were searching for and looked at Bai Jingshen with expectation. The black-haired man smirked, ready to enact the plan he had in his mind. It was rather simply really. After their observation Bai Jingshen was certain this Qi Gathering beast didn't have any more intelligence than he was used to from the Great Cultivation World. As a rule of thump only from the Nascent Soul Realm onwards would beasts show the intelligence level of a human. Therefore Bai Jingshen decided to go with the simple technique of luring a beast with food.
One of the important things Bai Jingshen learned about spike-tail was, that it heavily preferred the leaves of a certain tree, while at the same time avoiding its fruit. Bai Jingshen wasn't sure if those fruits were poisonous or just tasted horribly, but he was certain that if Spike-tail ate this fruit, it would distract it enough, so Bai Jingshen could attack its weakness. Therefore, Bai Jingshen and Sam had to go back, gathering fruits and leaves.
The two young man once again were exhausted by the simple act of cutting leaves, but eventually they gathered enough for Bai Jingshen's plan.
He quickly pooled them together, before cutting of a vine from nearby and binding the leaves with it. Afterwards Sam and Bai Jingshen climbed up a tree not far from Spike-tails cave, pulling those leaves up with the vine and dangling them at the maximum height for Spike-tail to reach.