"Alright, let's check the maps one last time to finalize our route." Nick said after they came out of the lake, "We won't have much time tomorrow and need to move fast while periodically leaving small clues behind."
Their plan was to go deeper in the woods in case some attackers later escaped in case of a failure. That way they would have a bit of time to catch the fleeing ones and their job would be completed 'cleanly'. Nick already explained to YunYun that this was much more than just dealing with the perverted Feng – the Chu family obviously was doing something illegal and with how seriously queen approached it, they even might have plans for the throne, even though she denied it.
"It is a great pleasure for me to welcome so many heroic youths at the annual Tiger hunt!" Early in the next morning the queen greeted the crowd in front of her. Few hundred people dressed in leather armor, carrying swords on their backs were waiting for the opening ceremony with excitement.
"I expect for you all to perform well, but don't forget, this is a fight for your own honor and, even if there are some people who might help you track down your pray, you have to defeat it in one on one fight! Also, don't run around our forests and mountains, slaughtering everything in your way, especially tigers! They are the most beautiful and graceful animals in the world and each of your families are allowed to hunt only one!"
While the queen gave her opening speech, Nick was completely confused inside.
'If the tigers are the most beautiful and graceful, why do you have to hunt them at all?'
Nick wasn't a big fan of hunting himself, but mostly liked the atmosphere in the wild. Even in the Royal woods, where Ben caught the rabbits and an occasional deer for the purpose of population control, Nick mostly spent his time practicing along the way. While on the Nestri continent, they also hunted only for additional food and not for fun and, even if the big fight against the rank five snake could be considered done for fun, they were pressured by the danger it presented towards the town and the caravan.
'That's some weird passion for beauty, but probably suits this monarch well.' Nick thought.
"The time limit, as always, will be fifteen days. Don't let your queen wait!" The queen said while raising her hand high up and then pointed towards the woods, "Go!"
Most of the people with a loud cheer rushed towards the woods while separating in to groups. Nick and YunYun were between the first who rushed in the thick forest that was around five hundred meters from the camp and to a huge surprise of others – disappeared.
While most females who took part in the hunt looked forward to battle tigers and prove themselves, many young men had some intentions towards the princess and intended to create an 'unexpected fateful' encounters and prove their strength and valor to persuade her to leave the good for nothing punk who only tried to suck up to her.
Even Chu Feng's group got surprised, but they had planted quite a few hunters in the groups of other families to be able to find their real prey, therefore soon managed to discover some clues that the 'careless' couple left behind. Unfortunately for them, for the next two days they didn't got to close up to the two, to not speak about capturing.
Meanwhile Nick and YunYun with smiles on their faces carelessly ran directly to the north. They tried to find a suitable spot for their ambush, or rather – the spot where they will get ambushed.
Only on the fourth day when they entered another mountain range, they found a natural dead end formed by two high cliff walls. This was more than perfect – they will create a fake camp here and the enemy will enter on its own, they only had to make sure all the 'guests' stayed there forever.
From their experience in the Osman's castle, Nick and YunYun learned to always have a couple of spare black 'ninja-style' costumes with them and to check on their pursuers, after the nightfall, dressed in black and covered in a 'stealth powder', sneaked up to the camp of their 'pursuers'. Already from far away they could hear the annoyed voices of several men.
"How hard can it be and how long can it take to catch up to a couple of kids!" Chu Feng sounded furious.
"Young master, there is no way they can last for much longer, I bet they are exhausted and anxious, maybe even hungry." His aid spoke, "We all saw that the blond kid had only a small backpack and they haven't hunted anything since entering the woods."
"My guess is the queen gave princess her own meteorite ring. With one cubic meter of supplies, they can even last for a month." Feng couldn't calm down.
"That's not necessary the case. I bet most of that space is used up with clothes and maybe even some bedding items. In addition – it's really good news. Young master, you will acquire a great treasure!"
"Your words are reasonable, but give me a plausible explanation why they are going north for so long?"
"We all saw how arrogant that kid is. They probably decided that the deeper they go, the bigger tiger they can hunt and currently they are trying to get in front of everyone else. I'm absolutely confident they will slow down tomorrow and finally start looking for the prey." One of the hunters answered.
"Hahaha! The paradox is hilarious. To think they really are trying to be hunters here." Feng laughed, "Let's do it like this. Right before the sunrise I want all of you find some fresh clues and immediately encircle them – don't try to be exceedingly careful and charge at full speed. The first of you who will meet them will pretend to be like those clowns at the lake and play some 'fateful encounter' to stall for time until the rest arrives."
"Why don't we simply kill them off? Or you want to do it yourself?" One of the hunters wanted to end this quickly. Even if they were in the middle of woods hundreds of kilometers from the closest town, their target was still a princess.
"I have to make that arrogant b*tch pay for ignoring me all these years! And we have a perfect opportunity here – my mother gave me two potions of a spotted jungle spider venom. It's rare and we don't have it on the Eastern continent, but I can tell you that it will paralyze the victim in the state between life and death. For up to twenty minutes they won't be able to move a muscle, but still see and hear everything around them and die right after." The more Chu Feng spoke, the more agitated he became, "Every single one of us will have a go at her in front of her new lover! This will be a fantastic ending for them!"
If during the first part of conversation Nick and YunYun mostly grinned, then hearing the last sentences shocked them deeply. This was too much of coincidence! As Feng said, the spotted jungle spider was not inhabitant of the Eastern continent, but there were many other more or less poisonous insects that could be used to create a paralytic poison. He could've used any of those to kill both of them, but specifically planned on using the venom of a spotted jungle spider his mother provided to torture them. This psychotic cruelty was the characteristic of one specific group of people they both knew of and it functioned under the name of 'Holy Order'. But to think that one of the largest aristocratic clans in the kingdom was a supporter or even a part of it?
"I'm sorry." One of the hunters suddenly said and stood up, "I can agree to help catch and kill them, but the girl is a princess and we should grant her the proper death. Good luck, with this many people you'll find her without me."
"Sure, no problem." Chu Feng smiled at the man and bonfire reflected on his white teeth, "Zhou Shi, we have known each other for years and there's no reason for us to argue about a small matter like this. You will still receive the pay I promised. Also, if there is anyone else who's uncomfortable with the plan, just say and you can leave together with him."
Two other men reluctantly stood up one after another.
"S … sorry young master." One of them stuttered embarrassingly, "You can count me in for any other occasion. This is just … too much."
"Don't worry, it's fine." Feng waved at him and smiled, "The rest of you, please help me to pay fully to these three people."
Even though the three were prepared for a sneak attack, they didn't have a chance against nine Qi masters. A minute later they lie in pools of blood and only managed to lightly injure four of their attackers.
"We don't need weaklings." Feng snorted, "You four, bandage up and rest. Tomorrow we'll have a lot of fun!"
YunYun and Nick departed shortly after that. They already heard everything they came for and even more.
"Let's leave the matter of the Holy Order for later. It's highly unlikely they have any clues on them, therefore we have to prepare for the fight we will have tomorrow morning." Nick said in a serious tone.
"Nine Qi masters is too much even if we sneak attack them. Do we have a way to somehow weaken them?" YunYun held chin in her hands while sitting next to Nick and pondered.
"Good thing we cleaned up the alchemy shops in Xian." Nick grinned, "Although we spent all the currency of the Lethe kingdom, we prepared quite well."
"Poison them instead?"
"Exactly! Let's do it like this, first I'll go and leave some tracks so they have easier time to find us. Then we'll have to use some make up …"
"Really?" YunYun loved this part the most, "Do we change our identities?"
"Hahaha! Sorry, no. But we will look really terrible, so you might like it." Nick laughed and they made another simple plan.
The sun had barely risen when Nick and YunYun heard approaching soft footsteps.
Two hunters were delighted to be the first to find them – young master promised an extra reward for that. But even thought they were happy, the view in front shocked them. In a thin corner between two steep cliffs near a campfire lie two sorry figures.
These two people in torn clothes were dirty and obviously tired. Even the campfire that they made was perfunctory and the branches mixed with random wet grass barely burned and mostly just produced smoke.
"This must be fate!" One of them exclaimed a line that all of them practiced last night, barely holding back a happy grin, "Princess, it's so good to see you, maybe you require some assistance?"
Hearing someone speak, the two weakly opened their eyes.
"We're fine, thank you!" Nick sat up, obviously with a lot of effort, "We'll just rest a bit and then be on our way."
"Nick, maybe they have water for us to drink? … I'm thirsty ..." YunYun couldn't even sit up and just supported herself on elbows.
"Unfortunately, we don't have anything, but our young master definitely will give you something to drink." The other hunter laughed inwardly at the plays the fate made and whistled in a peculiar manner. In a few seconds they could hear several other whistles replying and people approaching with quick steps right after that.
Within five minutes there were already nine people blocking the entrance of the dead end.
"Princess, why don't you invite us to sit down?" Feng smiled at YunYun.
"We're already leaving!" Nick tried to get up, but was visibly too tired, maybe even injured.
"Don't be in a rush, master Nick, you are evidently exhausted. You even made such mistake to set a camp here!" Chu Feng generously explained, "You see, if some predator or someone with evil intentions discovered this place, you wouldn't have anywhere to retreat to or run. This is no good! Even your camp fire is not properly set up, how can you go anywhere? Just rest here, we will guard you!"
"Feng … Chu Feng … do you have something for us to drink?" YunYun weakly spoke.
"YunYun!" Nick tried heroically to stop her.
"Nick, don't worry, Feng is from the one of our big clans and won't do anything to us, especially with so many people present." YunYun tried to calm Nick down.
"Of course? Why would I? Our competition is fair and if you are in need, my obligation is to help!" Feng got up and passed a small bottle to YunYun, "Please drink this medicinal elixir, it will make you stronger!"
The eight Qi masters at the entrance barely held back the laughter, seeing the acting skills of their young master Feng.
"Do … do you have one more ... for Nick?" YunYun barely could speak at this moment.
"I only have two, but I won't be frugal if the princess asks! Please, master Nick, take this!" Feng nodded and passed the second bottle to Nick who reluctantly accepted it.