Chapter 7: Ying-Yang Gu
In a dense forest, a group of fierce-looking men wearing elastic leather armor with swords at their waists and spirit in their eyes were slowly but steadily moving in a certain direction. These were the hunters that Evel had seen earlier.
"Hey Dean, are you certain that this is the direction that the previous kid headed to?" a hunter in the back named Leon asked with a slightly doubtful expression on his face.
"Why are you asking me? Go and ask that kid, he might know best where he went," the hunter named Dean replied with a sense of anger in his voice.
The hunter leading them was a bit smaller in size than the others, but he by no means looked less fierce. Instead, he appeared more dangerous, exuding a sense of leadership. He was the captain of this hunting team, known as Captain Fury.
"Stay silent, you two. I know you are slightly unhappy with my decision to follow that kid instead of completing our mission, but this is not the time to show that. We are currently in the middle of a dense forest, with many dangerous and strange wild beasts roaming here and there for their prey. So for the sake of not becoming their food, please be quiet and follow me," Fury said, his voice full of authority.
Both Dean and Leon fell silent, their expressions resembling children who had just been scolded by their mother for being foolish. Seeing their expressions, Fury's expression eased a little. "I planted a Ying gu on him. I don't think he may have noticed it, and even if he did, I am pretty sure he doesn't have any means to remove it," Fury answered their doubts.
"That's our captain," Dean and Leon said in unison.
When Evel was spying on the hunters from the bushes, he thought that he was being careful and they probably didn't notice him. But in reality, that wasn't the case. They were hunters for a reason.
Evel underestimated them a lot, but it couldn't be helped. After all, he was just a three-year-old kid, slightly smarter than others his age but still a kid.
These hunters didn't survive surrounded by wild beasts just because of some random luck. Surely luck played a part, but their keen senses and cautious nature were the main reasons for their survival. In the forest where you are surrounded by wild beasts, you should always be on guard, as slight carelessness may cause death.
Evel was already noticed by the hunters even before he discovered them. The true culprit for that was the smell and aroma of his first cooked meat, which was uncommon in the wild. As wild beasts prefer to eat without cooking, they might not even know how to cook, except for some.
Fury didn't catch him because Evel was weak and didn't possess any threat to them in the slightest. But he didn't let him run away just like that. Instead, he planted a Ying gu on Evel without him even noticing it as a separation present. Fury was curious why a kid who looked like he was under the age of five was roaming in the wild full of wild beasts.
After some time, Fury, along with his team, followed Evel with the help of the direction given by the Yang gu in their hands. Ying gu and Yang gu are always attached to each other, and if separated, both gu will raise their heads and lean in the direction of the other. They look like a lovely couple separated by a third-rated villain, their expressions full of sorrow and longing.
The Ying-Yang gu is a famous creation of the Gu clan, being widely used throughout the kingdom and is effective against every cultivator below the rank of Grandmaster, meaning it is the most effective tracing method in the present time where cultivator with grandmaster rank are so rare.
Along the way, Fury suddenly stopped, his expression bitter and grave. The cause was the Yang gu in his hand suddenly exploding without any warning.
Fury could himself feel the emotion of sorrow and unwillingness from the gu. Ying can't survive without Yang and Yang can't live without Ying. So, when one of them gets destroyed, then the other one also leaves this cruel world by exploding itself at the same time.
Seeing their captain's sudden reaction, all the other hunters were alerted and assumed their fighting postures, thinking that some dangerous wild beast was coming. Dean even drew his sword from his waist.
"Captain, what is the level of danger?" Leon tightened his fist and began to observe the surroundings.
Listening to the questions and doubts of his teammates, Fury felt ashamed. Just a bit before, he had said that the kid might not be able to find the gu and that he wouldn't be able to destroy it even if he somehow found it. But in just a few minutes, he was proven wrong. "Looks like I underestimated that kid," Fury sighed.
"The kid has noticed the gu planted on him. Not only that, he also managed to destroy it," Fury said slowly, without any sense of shame.
"What!!!" all the other four hunters were shocked. The Ying-Yang Gu was a famous product of the Gu clan. Ying-Yang gu can hardly be discovered by masters, and despite knowing the gu is planted on them, they can't find its place, let alone extract and destroy it.
"How did that kid do it? He seemed more stupid than Dean," Leon said with surprise.
"You..." Dean stared at Leon like a mad beast.
The other two hunters also let out a chuckle.
Fury ignored them and started to explain, "There are three possibilities. First, that kid may be the disciple of an ancient master having the rank of Grandmaster. Second, that kid is the disciple of a master with close ties to the Gu clan, and he extracted and destroyed the Yang gu with the help of a Divorce gu. As you know, the Divorce gu is only given to very few people as it is the direct counter to the Ying-Yang Gu."
"And the last possibility, which I think is most reasonable, is that the kid has died either by the claws of a wild beast or by the hands of humans."
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