Chapter 142 – Better to Lose a Fortune
The fast approaching fourth wave worried Benton greatly. The beast tide was not likely to crest at rank six, and any beast ranked higher than that was the equivalent of Golden Core or above. Fighting such an opponent near the village was a bad idea.
The kinds of energies that a rank seven or higher beast had access to could destroy even a wall made from Orange Vigor Spirit Wood with even an incidental blow. None of the sect members, not even the twins and Kang Lin, had a chance of surviving if forces of that strength were unleashed in their vicinity.
Heck, if the Big Boss were a high enough rank, Benton would have to go all out. Truly all out. He'd have to unleash the full might of his qi, and his techniques didn't exactly come equipped with IFF to separate the allies from enemies when determining who to blast into nothingness.
Yeah. Fighting the higher ranked beasts too close to the village was a complete non-starter, which was why he'd been preparing his disciples to survive a portion of the tide without him.
His original plan had been to stay in the village until the beginning of the sixth wave. Upon leaving to find the Big Boss, he'd do serious damage to the beasts as he passed and leave the dregs to the twins and Kang Lin. With a long interval between waves, that would have hopefully given him enough time to find and destroy the tide's mastermind before the higher ranks even reached the village.
If he left any sooner, he risked missing the rank sixes, and he feared what would happen if that entire wave made it to the wall. After all, he had no idea how many beasts would attack, and the defenders only had three Foundation Establishment cultivators to protect them if he left.
Crap. The village only really had one true protector as neither Yang Xiu nor Kang Lin were powerful enough to kill a rank six. Two on one, they'd have a chance, but only a small one. And they were likely to instead be severely outnumbered.
Benton had been hoping that the experience they gained versus the rank fours and fives would trigger skill and/or cultivation advancements that would assist them with the sixes. Which wasn't an absurd hope. The twins were two of the top three most talented sect members, and considering how much benefit even the low tiered disciples were getting, both of them should get significant gains.
That was really the best-case scenario. The twins would get stronger. Between their advancement and the special arrows Benton provided, they'd be able to handle the sixes and, hopefully, weather the storm brought by even higher ranked beasts.
With the interval between waves shrinking, though, there would not be enough time for them to finish one properly, much less consolidate their gains. They'd have to go into each fight no stronger than they were at the moment, a losing proposition.
They'd basically have to rely on the shield holding just to survive.
That plan obviously would no longer work. Instead, Benton would have to choose between the least bad of two options—do his best to find and destroy all the waves himself as he journeyed to find the Big Boss, knowing that if any escaped him could prove disastrous for his disciples, or stay at the village and attack with and defend enormously powerful qi techniques that would absolutely destroy any of the lower realmed cultivators if they were even so much as grazed.
Either way, there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. In no case did it seem to make sense for him to leave prior to the start of the sixth wave. He motioned for Ye Zan to signal Kang Lin and the twins to the gate.
Even though the three of them moved with all due haste to heed the summons, the beasts reached the wall first. The speed of the beast equivalent of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was an order of magnitude greater than that of a Qi Gathering cultivator. The journey from the edge of Benton's spiritual sense to the village took less than ten minutes total for the rank fours, and hundreds of them arrived to siege the village.
Everyone knew the plan. Once the fourth wave arrived and Ye Zan signaled for the twins and Kang Lin, the three were to engage at will.
Yang Xiu took up a position on the allure and began shooting. Each shot hit, of course, but though her rate of fire had improved, she couldn't quite get two arrows on a target fast enough to take advantage of the beast's qi shield being momentarily overwhelmed. Instead, she chose a different quarry each time until finding one that reacted poorly to her ice qi, mainly those with the fire aspect.
Those targets she took down, fast and hard. Unfortunately, there just weren't that many of them. Still, she managed to down two beasts before Yang Ru and Kang Lin jumped over the wall.
Those two faced an unenviable situation as they were each outnumbered several hundred to one. It quickly became apparent that the danger to them outweighed any possible benefit. Yang Ru had killed one beast immediately, having transferred the momentum from his jump, but he wasn't able to build up any additional energy as he was swarmed with beasts.
Kang Lin was more agile and was able to use her spear to deflect most of her attackers, but she wasn't able to land any truly damaging blows, either.
Benton had Ye Zan sound a retreat. Yang Ru and Kang Lin ran around the wall, beasts in hot pursuit, with her helping him to remove all the creatures clinging to him. Once he was free, they leaped back inside the wall.
"Well, that didn't work," Benton said to no one in particular.
He basically had two choices. One, kill all the beasts himself, which he could easily do with little effort and barely even expending any qi. Or two, he could allow the sect members to break out the special arrows and FEDs.
Both options had benefits. Killing the beasts himself saved a precious resource that the defenders could use to kill much higher ranked beasts later. But using the special munitions allowed the defenders to gain benefits from the fight.
What to do? What to do?
Using the wisdom of Solomon, he split the baby right down the middle.
Well, kind of. It really made no sense at all to use a consumable when his very presence negated the necessity. It wasn't like shooting the externally charged munitions would provide much enlightenment to his sect members, and the arrows would be much better used as a failsafe when he wasn't around to protect the village.
No, the split would be to have him kill a great number of the rank four spirit beasts while allowing his three Foundation Establishment cultivators to finish off the others.
That solution wouldn't provide them the benefit of a true life and death struggle, but it was a lot quicker. At the moment, speed counted.
He quickly drew the three and Ye Zan to him and explained the plan.
"Yes, Master."
Benton jumped up to the top of the allure and called Chain Lightning, targeting beasts furthest from the wall. Each use of the technique killed four to six beasts but also held the slight risk of spreading inside the village. Once there were no beasts he judged a safe distance away, he was forced to switch to another option.
Gravity was great for immobilizing a great number of enemies, but both cultivator and beast bodies were extraordinarily resistant to being damaged by it. It took a lot of effort to kill by burst alone.
Temperature differences were good but not when the enemies were so close to his allies. Which left his void technique.
He really, really needed to come up with a technique that could be used in close proximity to his sect members.
Benton pulled a handful of tiny metal spheres from his ring and tossed them down in a wide arc. When each touched flesh, a large sphere of void blossomed, disappearing the entirety of everything inside it.
He winced. So many expensive materials destroyed.
There was no help for it, though. Better to spend literal fortunes than to lose a single sect member.
Soon, the hundreds of spirit beasts had been reduced to a mere handful, and the twins and Kang Lin were again released to attack. Through teamwork and with archers on the wall providing support, they made quick work of the survivors.
They immediately started gathering the corpses, but he told them to consolidate their gains instead. While they meditated, Benton did the grunt work for them.
It seemed unlikely to him that they'd advance much from the lackluster fight he'd left for them, but he wouldn't know until they tried.
Chapter 143 – Shut Up
Benton was not encouraged with the way the beast tide was progressing. The first three waves had been great. Better than great. Awesome. Perfect.
His sect members had dispatched the creatures with barely any assistance from him and had advanced as a result. When it came down to brass tacks, however, meaning the performance of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators, the acceleration of the waves signaled disaster.
Still, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that the supremely talented twins could have gained something from the most recent fight. Getting any of their techniques from Small Success to Large Success would be enough to give them an all important advantage for what was to come.
Alas, it was not to be. Time passed as the twins and Kang Lin meditated, and soon, the rank fives appeared within range of Benton's spiritual sense. He gave the three until the last possible second, but when he had Ye Zan blow the whistle to call them back into action, none of them had yet advanced.
At least with the numbers decreasing with each wave, Benton could finally get an accurate count.
Sixty-three.
That was how many rank five spirit beasts assaulted the wall. One by one and in groups, they slammed against the Orange Vigor Spirit Wood, and unlike with the previous assaults, the wall trembled.
Benton didn't waste any time. There was no cause to prolong matters by waiting to see how the defenders performed against the latest threat. His disciples simply weren't strong enough to deal with so many beasts of such a high rank.
He destroyed most of the wave, leaving five for his disciples to kill.
Yang Ru had shown the ability to solo beasts of an even higher rank. The two girls could take foes of that caliber out by tag teaming. With support from the archers on the wall, Benton had no doubt that they'd be able to eventually win out.
Victory would take time, though. A half hour. Maybe more.
The battle would challenge them to their utmost, but he had confidence they'd prevail. And it was the very nature of that trial, the requirement to truly push themselves, that would give them the opportunity to advance.
As their mentor, their master, it was incumbent upon him to give them that chance.
Which meant leaving them behind.
The waves had all come from the same general direction, southeast toward the mountain, but the exact location each appeared varied by up to a half mile either side of a center point. To optimize the village's prospects of survival, he'd need to find and completely obliterate the sixth wave.
He'd go to that midpoint and remain on constant alert. If too much time passed and he hadn't sensed the rank six beasts, he'd assume he missed the wave and head back. That was the best he could do.
As Yang Xiu began peppering the beasts with arrows, Yang Ru sprinted far into the village to prepare his charge. Kang Lin waited anxiously to enter the fray in concert with him.
"I'm going now," Benton said to Ye Zan. "Use the special munitions as you see fit, but it would be better if you can handle those five beasts without them. Best of luck with the rest of the tide."
Benton Quickstepped far from the village, hoping that his sect members could handle the challenge he left for them and even more hoping that they'd gain from the experience.
Yang Xiu stared after Master as he disappeared. With her enhanced senses, it hadn't been hard to hear what he'd told Ye Zan even as she concentrated on shooting arrows at the beasts below her.
Master was leaving.
She knew it had to happen at some point. He'd explained to all of them multiple times that his job was away from them, but it was still a shock to see him go.
There were slightly over a thousand people in the village, and without him there, it fell to her, her brother, and Kang Lin to keep everyone safe.
If anyone died, it would be on the three of them. She'd never felt such a heavy burden in her life, especially after their clear failure with the previous wave. Their task felt enormous.
Even the longest journey began with that single first tiny step. Concentrate on making the best first move she could and then the next. And the next.
That was what Master would advise.
She returned her focus to the beasts.
A hyena, a dog, a turtle, a zebra, and a salamander were the five creatures Master had left for them to fight.
Briefly, she wondered if the choices were intentional before realizing that they had to be. Master never did anything on a whim. Each must provide either some important lesson or represent some specific challenge he wanted his disciples to face.
She had enough on her mind just trying to figure out which beast to kill first to determine what those lessons might be, though.
The turtle stood over four feet tall and was more than six feet long. Its shell would be nearly impenetrable. Surely, it would be the most difficult of the five to kill. Likewise, the giant salamander's scales would armor it against their strikes.
Killing the three softer targets would allow the defenders to focus their efforts on the tanks, as Master would call them.
Obviously, she and Kang Lin should focus on one of the beasts and leave one for Yang Ru to solo, but which one should they attack versus which one should she direct him to take?
Yang Xiu's spiritual senses weren't nearly adept enough to determine qi aspect, and she didn't know enough about the creatures to match their weaknesses to the sect members' strengths.
The hyena looked at her and laughed. It was a rude, arrogant sound, as if it knew it would kill every being inside the wall and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
She instantly grew to hate it with a fiery passion, which settled the one she'd be focusing on. Her brother should probably engage the soft target farthest from the others.
"Yang Ru, left," Yang Xiu yelled. "Kang Lin, focus on the hyena."
Before the other girl could even reply, Yang Xiu loosed an arrow, striking the jerk creature in the eye.
That shut it up.
Yang Ru ran toward the wall. He moved slowly and ponderously at first, but each step built momentum. Each step made him faster. Each step charged his technique.
His spiritual sense told him that there were five beasts of the fifth rank outside the wall, but he didn't know what type they were or which would be the most advantageous for him to attack first.
That was okay, though. He trusted his fellow sect members. Either Ye Zan or Yang Xiu would—
"Yang Ru, left," his sister yelled.
There. He had his target.
Nearing the wall, he leaped, using his incredible leg muscles strengthened by both Spiritual and Body Cultivation to propel himself upward. At the apex of his jump, he cleared the palisade, and his quarry came into view.
A zebra.
Yang Ru mentally shrugged. He had little knowledge of and no experience with such a creature.
Not that the type of beast mattered. Soon, it would just be a corpse.
Seeing him flying toward it, the zebra reared up on its hind legs, striking out at him with its forward hooves.
Yang Ru was falling on a determined trajectory right at the beast. There was no changing course.
He had reached Small Success with his shield. Barely. But he was far from proficient with its use. There was no way he would be able to use it to protect himself in the tiny fraction of a second he had before the hooves hit.
Yang Ru didn't even try.
In contrast, using Stone Skin was like flexing a muscle, an almost automatic response that barely required thought. Between the technique, his enhanced fortitude from advancing to the first minor realm of Foundation Establishment, and, even more so, the extreme toughness provided by being a peak Bronze body cultivator, he felt confident that he could survive the attack.
That didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.
Both blows landed.
It felt like he'd been kicked in the chest by a horse.
Oh wait. He had.
Heavens, that hurt!
If there was anything that becoming a cultivator had prepared him for, however, it was dealing with pain. His very first experience was taking pills to improve his spiritual roots. That process had felt like someone had poured fire into his stomach.
In comparison, the attack from the zebra was nothing. He pushed past the momentary sting and concentrated on simultaneously triggering his two primary techniques.
All the momentum he'd accumulated by running and jumping and falling was converted to force and concentrated on the tip of his spear.
The zebra, its instincts surely telling it that its shield would protect against the tiny human's weapon, didn't even try to dodge.
The spear tip struck the beast's forehead. An enormous burst of Momentum qi erupted from the metal, blowing past the zebra's qi shield and into its body.
Its head burst into a shower of blood, muscle, and bone.
One down, four to go.
Chapter 144 – Razor's Edge
Kang Lin was more than a little nervous about jumping over the wall and into the fray. Her last battle hadn't gone very well. Sure, she'd survived without any serious injuries, but she hadn't done much damage to the beasts, either.
When she'd arrived at the village, she'd been following her grandfather's instructions. Her mission was to, in order of priority, determine all she could about the mysterious Chao Su and his actions, keep herself safe, keep Pan Jiang safe, keep the other Poison Claw Sect members safe, and if possible, get some experience fighting against beasts.
If she were still following those instructions, she might just have decided to take her fellow sect members with her and leave as soon as the sect leader departed. But she was no longer only a granddaughter and Poison Claw Sect member. She was a disciple.
Master had poured so many resources into her—a pill to ease her advancement; a new cultivation method tailored specifically to her qi aspect; two techniques, one for launching bolts of lightning from her spear and one ridiculous shield technique that would automatically respond to threats once mastered, that were both also attuned perfectly to her qi aspect; and a new weapon better in quality than most sect scions received from their families. To repay his generosity, she needed to excel. Instead, she barely held her own for a few minutes before having to retreat.
She needed to do better.
In an attempt to steel her nerves, she told herself that she was facing only a mere five beasts instead of a hundred. Five was doable. Much better than one hundred. She had, after all, faced a much greater quantity and emerged relatively unscathed.
Right?
Of course, there were just her and two others. Three total. Versus five. So she and her allies were outnumbered.
And of course, the beasts were all rank five, which equated to between minor realm four and minor realm six of Foundation Establishment. She was only in the first minor realm and had only recently achieved even that much. Both her techniques were barely at Small Success.
The twins were in the same situation.
She was about to face five spirit beasts that all significantly outranked and outnumbered her team. Was she crazy? Were all three of them crazy?
Last time, she'd felt almost no fear about going against a teeming mass of beasts. Sure, they didn't outrank her by nearly as much, but there were so many more of them.
Overall, it had been objectively a more dangerous situation.
The difference was that she had supreme confidence that her unfathomable master would not let any true harm come to her.
Master left, though, taking his overpowered attacks and instant healing with him.
Yep. Grandfather definitely would tell her to leave. Fast. Run. Sprint.
Kang Lin took a deep breath. Trust had to extend beyond knowing that Master would save her if she got in over her head. She needed to believe he had a reason for leaving those five beasts for her and the twins to fight. After all, he could have easily just killed all of them. There must be a reason he left those five standing.
"Yang Ru, left," Yang Xiu yelled. "Kang Lin, focus on the hyena."
Kang Lin glanced back and saw that Yang Ru had already started his charge. She needed to get moving. With a flex of her powerful Foundation Establishment leg muscles, she jumped onto the allure.
The hyena was already blinded by ice qi. She made ready to jump down and stab it in the process of landing.
The other beasts were too close to it, though. She'd be overwhelmed by them as soon as her feet touched the ground. Maybe sooner.
"Keep the others off me," she yelled to Yang Xiu.
Kang Lin hopped over the parapet, trusting her friend to do what was needed.
The hyena's right eye was already clearing. It smirked at her, making her want to wipe that horrible, smug expression off its face.
In contrast to the technique her grandfather had given her, learning the one Master had granted was easy, and the strength of the qi it converted into lightning was magnitudes better than she had expected.
The difference between heaven grade and profound was truly unfathomable.
Between the ease of learning the technique and the practice she'd put in, Kang Lin had no trouble charging her spear as she fell.
The beast seemed unconcerned, watching her with that awful expression like she was a lamb heading to the slaughter.
She hoped the look on its face wasn't an indication that it was aware of something that she didn't know.
Regardless, it was too late to change tacks. She was committed.
Predictably, the hyena tried to snap at her with its enormously strong jaws, but she easily twisted away from it. Ignoring the distraction, she kept her spear on target, stabbing the center of the beast's forehead.
Lightning burst from the metal tip.
As Kang Lin gained her footing, the hyena recoiled, whimpering. There was a black mark on its head.
Her attack had done more damage than expected.
Water. The hyena's qi aspect was water, which was weak to her lightning.
Yes! Finally, she could prove her worth.
"I'll kill this one. Keep the others off me!" she yelled.
Yang Xiu surveyed the battlefield. One beast, the zebra, was down and out. Kang Lin had the hyena well in hand. It wouldn't last another minute as the Poison Claw Sect member rained lightning on it with quick thrusts from her spear.
That left the dog, the turtle, and the salamander.
Of the three, the dog, a large breed that didn't look familiar to her, suffered much more from her arrows than the other two. Yang Xiu guessed its qi aspect was fire, an element that was weak to her ice.
Part of her wanted to concentrate on the dog to bring it down, but while actually killing a beast on her own would feel nice, that choice wasn't the smart option at the moment. She needed to keep the beasts off her teammates, especially Kang Lin who had refused Body Cultivation on the basis of not having enough contribution points to pay for all the cores herself.
Yang Xiu thought she understood at least the basis of what Master wanted them to do. The hyena, zebra, and dog had qi aspects that were weak to attacks from one of the defenders. The salamander and turtle were tough but slow. Kill the three with weaknesses and team up against the remaining beasts.
It wouldn't be easy, and any mistake could lead to tragedy. The path was there, though.
"Yang Ru, retreat to rebuild your momentum. Attack the salamander."
He grunted in reply, already beginning to sprint away from the battle. With her peppering the eyes of the other three beasts with arrows, none of them followed him.
Perfect.
For the next minute, she alternated shots between the beasts other than the hyena, and Kang Lin finished that one off.
"Engage the turtle!" Yang Xiu yelled.
Her brother was already charging the salamander. His ability was interesting, the exact opposite of hers. The complement of hers, really. Instead of many fast but underwhelming—distracting—blows, he could deliver a massive amount of energy in an instant. That instant took much preparation, however.
He'd been almost worthless while overwhelmed with so many beasts, but then again, they all had been. The current battle gave all of them a chance to shine.
With him approaching the amphibian and Kang Lin engaging the shelled tank, Yang Xiu could finally focus on the dog.
When she'd been a mere Qi Gathering cultivator attacking rank four spirit beasts and above, her arrows had done literally no damage at all. All physical force created by the impact had been absorbed by the creatures' qi shields.
By coating the tips in qi, she was able to deliver force through both physical means and aspected qi. The arrows still didn't deal devastating damage, but the offensive qi overwhelmed the shield enough to allow some actual injury to the beast.
Using an offensive aspect that was strong against the shield magnified the amount of force getting through by somewhere between one and a half to two times, depending on a lot of factors that Master had a hard time simplifying enough for her to understand.
The result was the important thing, though, not the way that it was achieved. For each shot, the dog received extra damage.
Not much. No single blow was ruinous for the beast. But where the other two beasts found the arrows' impacts irritating, the dog flinched.
Previously, the canine had only received two shots out of every six, four total. Two on each eye.
With the extra damage, the beast had been blinded, leaving it unable to even attempt to dodge. Not that its previous efforts in that regard had done much good. Her arrows were too fast as they slipped through the air.
Since she was released to solely engage the dog, arrow after arrow hit it in the same spot on its head, and each did a little bit more damage, carving away first fur, then skin, then muscle, then bone.
Shot after shot rained down on it until, finally, the last thin layer of bone was destroyed, and an arrow tip reached brain matter.
Her target killed, Yang Xiu returned her attention to the rest of the fight. The salamander was dead. Only one beast, the turtle, remained alive. Kang Lin occupied it, neither doing it much damage nor taking blows herself.
Yang Ru was again retreating so as to build up momentum for another strike.
Yang Xiu hesitated before shooting her next arrow. A normal fight would soon be over as her brother would soon deliver a cataclysmic blow against the beast, killing it with one shot.
Turtles, however, were known to be defensive specialists. Yang Xiu didn't expect it to fall quite so easily.
Master could have killed it easily, though. Why leave that particular beast for them?
The answer came swiftly—the target was a defensive whetstone to sharpen their attacks.
"Killing the beast doesn't matter!" she yelled. "Focus on making your attacks stronger."
Putting into action her thoughts, she concentrated on each step of her process of loosing an arrow. At some point, she was sure that she would be able to improve the purely mechanical aspects of archery, but that technique was already mastered. The important current consideration was applying qi to her arrow.
Or was it?
Her practice had been focused on increasing both the speed of applying qi and how much of the arrow was coated. Both facets were coming along nicely. Her rate of fire wasn't quite as fast as prior to learning the Slippery Arrow technique, but it was close. And she'd recently started coating the entire shaft with ice qi.
She needed her arrows to be even faster, to pack more of a punch. Improving how quickly she could apply the qi before loosing would be a benefit, but it wouldn't enhance the power of each arrow.
There had to be a way to make it do more damage.
Master continually emphasized that her qi was what she believed it to be. Perfectly smooth ice balanced on the razor edge of freezing and thawing were the exact words he'd used to describe it.
Smooth. Slippery. Fast. She'd already incorporated all those ideas into her technique.
What else?
Balance? No.
Wait. Razor edge.
Ice could be sharp.
Fast, razor sharp ice would do more damage than fast blunt ice, right?
Could it really be that simple?
Her qi was what she believed it to be. If she believed it to be sharp and slippery, it would be sharp and slippery.
She just needed to be absolutely confident, and if there was one thing she was absolutely confident in, it was Master. He'd led her to the realization about her qi aspect, so it must be true.
Yang Xiu loosed her arrow, and she felt the difference. The tip cut through the air even better, making it faster. Even better, when it impacted the turtle, the razor edge penetrated the beast's qi shield easier.
Yes!
Chapter 145 – A Turtle, a Fork, and a Shell
The fight between Kang Lin and the turtle continued. Most of her thrusts landed, but the damage they caused was trivial for a rank five beast with such high defense and vitality.
Its head blurred toward her, and she dodged. It was slow to move and couldn't evade worth anything, but it obviously had some kind of skill that allowed it to snap its powerful jaws forward.
If those caught her, she'd definitely lose a limb if not her life.
"Killing the beast doesn't matter!" Yang Xiu yelled. "Focus on making your attacks stronger."
Kang Lin pondered the admonition but didn't have much time to give it much contemplation as she had to remain alert for the beast's bite. Soon, though, an arrow coated in ice qi slammed into the turtle's neck.
The impact did much more damage than Kang Lin expected, considering her experience seeing previous arrows hit. For a moment, the difference confused her.
Then she realized that Yang Xiu had received some form of enlightenment.
Though Kang Lin was happy for her friend making such an achievement and ecstatic for the added assistance in taking down their common foes, it was sometimes more than a little frustrating to fight so closely with such talented allies. They advanced at a simply breakneck pace that left other cultivators feeling inadequate.
"What did you do?" Kang Lin yelled, retreating from the beast as another arrow slammed into it.
"Re-examined what I thought I knew about my qi aspect."
Of course. Simple as that. Kang Lin rolled her eyes. Why didn't she think of it herself?
Unfathomable A ranks.
What had Master said her qi aspect was? Something like, "Forked lightning ripping the sky asunder."
Yeah. That was it.
Kang Lin didn't see what benefit that description provided her. She already held an image of a powerful lightning strike in her mind based on the one Master used to destroy the hippo. Her bolts paled in comparison to that one, of course, with her being so much lower than him in cultivation, but it was a fine basis for her mental image.
Of course, Master used Chain Lightning, a single bolt that split off after the initial hit to strike additional targets. Kang Lin's technique only generated a bolt that hit a single target.
Nothing about her qi aspect even hinted at a chain effect, so she didn't see how that helped her.
Wait. Forked lightning? Could a boost really be that simple?
If so, she was going to curse herself as six kinds of a fool for not realizing it sooner.
Kang Lin heard heavy footsteps and sensed Yang Ru approaching fast. She moved further from the beast.
Stopping suddenly in a way that was difficult to see or describe, he crashed into the turtle, and for a moment, she thought the fight was over. There was no way the creature's head could survive such a blow.
At the last instant, however, the turtle shifted so that, instead of the vulnerable head, Yang Ru's strike landed on the shell. Even considering the incredible magnitude of the force involved, the shell won.
He was blasted back several feet and stumbled, falling on his backside.
On the plus side, there was a definite crack in the shell, so that was something.
Of course, Yang Ru wasn't to blame for the failure. Given the plodding, ponderous movements of the turtle to that point in the fight, it was against expectations that it would be able to move so fast. Just like with its bite, though, it must have an ability that allowed it to intercept big attacks with its shell.
Another arrow smashed into the beast's neck, reminding Kang Lin of her own responsibilities. And her idea.
Replacing the image of the thick, powerful flash of lightning that Master had summoned with one just as thick, just as powerful, but forked so that two prongs struck her target, she charged the turtle. The change felt right, and as she struck, a split bolt hit the beast, one part on the neck and the other on the cracked shell.
Yes!
The two bolts hadn't been twice as powerful, of course. That result would have required her to use more qi. But the combined strike felt more powerful. Or more like the qi felt less restrained, like letting it fork instead of constraining it allowed more of it to be converted to force.
Kang Lin doubted she'd reached Large Success with the technique yet, but her discovery had boosted her power. Keeping up with the twins for the long term obviously wasn't possible, but for the moment, she was proud of herself. Her advancement would bring honor to the Poison Claw Sect and to her family, especially her grandfather.
Yang Ru exhaled sharply.
Again. He'd ended up on his butt again.
All that work. Having two techniques specifically created for him. Only to end up on the ground on his butt again.
Yang Ru scrambled to his feet. The turtle had used a skill to thwart his attack. Some such abilities could be used over and over again. Others cost a great deal or had to be re-charged over time.
If the latter were true, his best chance at killing the beast was to strike again as soon as possible. He ran from the fight, trusting Kang Lin and his sister to keep it occupied while he prepared.
No sense going quite as far, however. Speed trumped power at the moment. Either the blow would be blocked, proving that Yang Ru was unlikely to kill the beast in a single shot, or it would succeed. The turtle surviving in that case would matter little. It would surely be damaged greatly, and he would know that only persistence was needed.
He sprinted toward the turtle, building Momentum with each step.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
His feet pounded the dry, cracked dirt as he sped toward his target. He was inexorable. Inevitable. He would not be stopped.
At the last moment, he triggered his technique, converting all the gathered Momentum onto the point of his spear. He stabbed at the beast's neck.
And hit the shell.
Again.
And ended up on his butt.
Again.
"Yang Ru!" his sister yelled. "Focus on improving. The beast doesn't matter."
"I heard you the first time!" he yelled back.
"Did you? Did you really?"
Yes. Of course he had. He hadn't done anything about what she'd said, but he'd heard her.
He sighed. They did, however, need to kill the turtle, and repeating the same charge, slam, and bounce maneuver wasn't likely to achieve the end goal. Something had to change.
Yang Ru liked his two primary techniques. The first allowed him to build Momentum qi from his physical actions. The second transferred all that Momentum through the tip of his spear into a target. The combination allowed him to punch above his weight as Master would say.
The third technique was a shield, which he'd barely gotten to Small Success. So far, he hadn't even used it in combat. He didn't feel there was anything to do with it that would improve his ability to kill the beast.
No, the answer had to lie with his combination, but how to find it?
Master would probably say something like, "To find the answer, one must first find the problem."
Yes. Yang Ru was almost positive he'd heard that exact phrase. So, what was the problem?
Simply put, the stupid turtle used a skill that allowed it to move out of the way faster than he could hit it.
Hmm.
When he thought about it like that, the answer did seem clear. He either had to slow the turtle down or speed himself up. The former idea was not feasible with the current techniques that he, his sister, and Kang Lin had. Barring the girls physically grabbing the beast's legs and holding it, which might not even work, there was no way to prevent it from moving.
Maybe once Yang Xiu learned a new technique with her ice, something might be possible, but that advance wasn't happening in time to help with the turtle.
Making himself faster, however, might be possible. His techniques allowed him to build Momentum and transfer it to a single point, but could he also somehow use that accumulated qi to make himself faster? Doing so would bleed off some of his power, but if it guaranteed him a good hit, he'd take the tradeoff.
Eager to make the attempt to put his idea into practice, he sprinted away from the village, even farther away than the first time. He planned to put his all into the next attack.
By the time he stopped, he could barely even hear the girls fighting against the beast. That was okay, though. He trusted them.
Yang Ru hesitated a moment before heading back. He needed to get his thoughts straight. Trying to force a technique to do something new in the middle of combat was neither easy nor advisable.
He closed his eyes, visualizing each part of the plan, going over it in his mind as he briefly sank into meditation. When he opened them again, he was ready.
Each footstep was important. As Master had taught him so long ago and as Yang Ru had practiced thousands and thousands of times, he used microbursts of internal qi to push off with first his right foot and then his left, building speed and Momentum as he ran. Each step. Every step. Maximum force. Slowly at first before building to a crescendo, he sprinted.
His mind and body and qi became one. He let his instincts guide him, barely paying any attention to the turtle as he drew near it.
The spirit beast didn't matter. Nothing it did could counter inevitability. As long as he did his part correctly, all the turtle could do was die.
Five feet away, he leaped. He didn't even know why he did it. Something just made the action seem right, so he did it without thought.
His Momentum hurled him forward.
He concentrated, transferring that force not to the tip of his spear but to his arms.
It worked. He felt the increase in energy, in speed.
Even to his advanced senses, his arms seemed to blur as they thrust the spear toward the beast's head.
The strike happened too fast for him to track. Maybe the beast could only use its dodge skill twice in quick succession. Maybe Yang Ru, with the enhancement from his technique, was simply too fast for the creature.
Either way, his spear did not hit the toughened shell, instead impacting the relatively unprotected head of the turtle right between the eyes.
The qi shield had no chance against the supreme force Yang Ru used against it. His spear thrust through it and skin and bone like all those elements were so many layers of paper.
The beast died.
"Quick!" Yang Xiu yelled. "Meditate. Consolidate your advancements."
Yang Ru didn't have to be told twice. Heck, he didn't even have to be told once. He was already sinking into a lotus position before the first word left her mouth.
Chapter 146 – That Didn't Work
It wasn't long after Benton sensed the last of the rank five beasts near the village dying that he received the notifications. Yang Xiu advanced her attack technique to Large Success. Even better, Yang Ru did the same for both his primary techniques.
There was no similar notification for Kang Lin, but that lack was fine. Benton already felt better about the village's chances for a successful defense with the twins' power-up.
Not long after—way too short a time, actually—the rank six beasts appeared to his spiritual sense. The good news was that there were only thirty-one of them. The bad news was that they were spread out over at least a half mile instead of being grouped together. Killing all of them before they reached the village was going to be a chore and a half.
Best get to it, then.
Benton Quickstepped to one end of the line of beasts and triggered Chain Lightning. Since gaining the ability to form Concepts that supercharged his qi upon reaching Golden Core, he didn't need to worry about using an opposing aspect to overwhelm a shield. Rank six beasts, the equivalent to the peak of Foundation Establishment, were no match for his Lightning.
The technique also held an important advantage over his Void arrows—it left most of the bodies intact. Not undamaged, obviously. But intact. Even better, the all-important core wasn't harmed in most cases.
To achieve a better result, he would have to target arrows with a tiny bit of qi in order to selectively penetrate a beast's body with just the minimum amount necessary to kill it. The monetary benefit of leaving intact skins, more meat, and risking less damage to other valuable materials would be great. The cost, however, would be in time.
Dedicating that much effort to each creature would mean that some, perhaps a lot, would get past him, making him choose between going back to eliminate them or continuing forward. Too many rank sixes chanced overwhelming the defenders and trusting the static defense of the shield with their lives. If he instead retreated back to the village, he risked the very real chance of the next wave catching him there and having to engage Golden Core equivalent enemies in close proximity to the people he was trying to protect.
Frankly, he just wasn't all that worried about preserving every single tael. Benton electrocuted the beasts with abandon.
The only real disadvantage of the technique was that it required line of sight to target, meaning he had to move to the beast, find it with his eyes, and then trigger the lightning. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
That procedure quickly revealed the problem with his plan. As beasts increased in rank, the disparities between physical characteristics grew. Some were focused on Strength. Some Toughness. Some Stealth or Perception. Others Speed.
As soon as his first attack landed, the fastest among the horde stopped maintaining pace with their fellows. They scattered, all making for the village with haste.
There was no way to prevent all of them from getting past him. He ended up killing twenty-nine of them. Not a bad number. Well over ninety percent.
More importantly, he'd only let two through, and both the ones who'd slipped containment were obviously focused on Speed, meaning their Strength and Toughness would suffer. Benton felt that the twins and Kang Lin should be able to handle two rank sixes, especially with their recent advances.
Even if they couldn't, the combination of the wall and the shield should be enough to hold the beasts off. There was no way just two of them could overwhelm both barriers.
Concluding that there was no need to abort his original mission, he Quickstepped closer to the mountain, moving only a tenth of a mile at a time and stopping to fully explore the area with his spiritual sense before moving forward again. It was imperative that the rank sevens not get past him.
He just wished he had some way of warning the village to expect two attackers.
As soon as Yang Xiu felt her attack technique, Slippery Arrow, advance to Large Success, she ended her meditation and leaped back up to the allure. She and the rest of the defenders—well, mainly Kang Lin and her brother—had beaten the remnants of the last wave without Master overseeing them, but his finger had still been on the scale. He had, after all, specifically picked which beasts to leave alive for them to fight.
For the upcoming wave, she had no idea what to expect. The plan was for him to kill all the beasts, but no one knew what he would encounter on his way to confront what he called the Big Boss.
She and the other two Foundation Establishment cultivators might face no enemies, or they might have to fight an entire wave with each member at the equivalent of the peak of their realm. If the defenders did have to fight, it would be contrary to the plan, meaning that they would not be against foes specifically chosen by Master. They'd be effectively and in fact all by themselves.
Which was why she watched the forest from behind the palisade, her senses expanded to their maximum.
Of the defenders, no one besides her had gotten a perception technique to Mastery. There was definitely no one who had access to spiritual sense who had access to any kind of perception technique besides her.
Zou Tian, Ye Zan, and a couple of the guards with a perception technique at Small Success were next to her, all watching just as intently. Yang Xiu knew, however, that, if the village were to have to fight against a sixth wave, it was up to her to detect the beasts approaching, and she took that role seriously.
Minutes passed as she kept watch. There was no telling how long it would take for beasts to show, if they did at all.
When they finally did arrive, she barely sensed them before they were upon the village. One moment, she felt a presence at the very extent of her range, and the next a large creature was slamming into the wall. And then another.
A cheetah and a mongoose.
She drew and loosed an arrow at the cat.
It dodged.
She drew another. Concentrating as hard as she ever had in her life on making her qi speed the arrow to its target, she loosed.
The cheetah hopped to the side, and the arrow plunged into the ground.
At the height of its jump, Kang Lin leaped down from the allure. She'd timed the attack perfectly to catch the cat off guard and in a position where it was least likely to be able to react in time. But her tactical acumen didn't seem to matter.
The cat simply moved out of the way of the spear thrust and countered with a vicious swipe of its paw that Kang Lin was barely able to dodge.
With the cat occupied, Yang Xiu switched targets. The mongoose didn't even bother to hop. It simply arched its back, and the arrow impaled the dirt instead of its flesh.
She turned her attention back to the cheetah and, with her bowstring drawn back to her cheek, waited for the perfect moment.
Kang Lin was having a hard time of things. The beast was simply too fast and too powerful for her. In a series of three quick exchanges, she barely managed to keep herself out of the reach of its teeth and claws.
Yang Xiu had hoped to find a perfect moment while the cat was distracted to finally get a hit. Instead, she had to use her arrow to keep it off Kang Lin as the girl stumbled.
Finally, though, Yang Ru entered the fight. He came over the wall with all the power of a fifty-foot-tall Orange Vigor Spirit Wood tree crashing to the ground.
With Kang Lin pressing the cheetah with her spear and Yang Xiu harassing it from above, she thought there was a possibility for him to hit and kill the beast, especially with his newfound ability to convert part of his Momentum into speed.
As he neared the cat, his body blurred as he used his technique to quicken his strike. Yang Xiu tensed, hoping.
It was not to be, however. The cheetah skipped backward out of reach, snarling.
Unnoticed in the commotion, the mongoose slipped in and took a bite out of Kang Lin's leg.
The girl screamed.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Ye Zan yelled. "Retreat!"
Yang Xiu did all she could to keep the two spirit beasts off her friend, but seeing the blood sent them into a frenzy. Both lunged at the girl.
Yang Ru interceded, getting scratched deeply despite his Stone Skin and Body Cultivation. As the mongoose latched on to his calf, an arrow finally landed.
Though the arrow didn't penetrate the beast's skin, it had a definite impact. The mongoose let go, staggering to the side.
Yang Xiu would have loved to take advantage of its momentary vulnerability, but she was forced to focus on the cheetah, making it dodge instead of clawing Kang Lin.
The twins gave her enough time to gather herself and leap back over the wall, landing with a thudas her injured leg failed her.
In addition to the bite, Yang Ru took a swipe from the cheetah, but his enhanced body shook off the blow. He was able to extricate himself from the beasts by jumping back over the wall.
The cheetah tried to follow, but the shield put a stop to that.
"Well," Ye Zan said. "That didn't work."
Chapter 147 – The Kobayashi Maru
Ye Zan watched the two injured cultivators leap back over the wall. The cheetah jumped after them, but the shield held, repelling it.
He struggled with what he'd just witnessed. Frankly, Yang Ru and especially Kang Lin had been lucky to escape the rank six beasts with their lives. In the right circumstances, Senior Brother could one shot a creature of that rank, but the matchup against two highly agile foes that focused on Speed was absolutely not the right circumstances.
Having there be two enemies both at the equivalent of peak Foundation Establishment versus three defenders who'd only recently advanced to that major realm made the situation extremely disadvantageous for the sect members. That factor combined with barely being able to hit either of the beasts created an unwinnable scenario.
Once the two injured cultivators had consumed a Healing Pill—major for Kang Lin and a regular one for Yang Ru—Ye Zan huddled up with the two of them, Yang Xiu, and Zou Tian.
"These are not foes that we can beat," Ye Zan said.
Yang Xiu scoffed. "We should give up at that first sign of trouble? So much for challenging the heavens."
"We should fulfill our mission, which is to keep everyone safe from harm. Staying behind the barrier and monitoring what happens outside accomplishes that goal just as well as killing the beasts."
"Just as well? Really?"
"Scenario A—Master comes back and kills a bunch of high ranked beasts milling around outside the wall after he deals with the Big Boss," Ye Zan said. "Scenario B—the beasts outside are dead but so are one or more of the sect members who attacked them. So really, my idea accomplishes the objective better."
"Until enough of the beasts pile up outside to overwhelm the shield," Yang Xiu said, "and we all die."
Senior Sister had a very aggressive mentality, and he normally really respected that attribute of hers. It made trying to convince her to follow a more conservative route frustrating, however.
"That's not a valid concern, and you know it. If any more beasts show up, they'll be rank seven or higher, not something we can deal with. We'll have to trust the shield either way."
"Not to mention that you're basically saying you don't trust Master's work," Yang Xiu said.
"Master doesn't trust Master's work. He urged us caution many times, calling it unproven in battle. Its first test was the first wave of the tide!"
"Look, Senior Sister," Ye Zan said, "I am quite willing to put my life on the line stepping between danger and the rest of the sect members. That's my job. Right now, that extreme is not required of me or you or, more specifically, of Senior Brother and Kang Lin, who both could have easily been killed had things gone differently just a short while ago."
Yang Xiu sighed, relenting somewhat from her aggressive stance. "I do not want to risk lives any more than you do, but there's a big difference between coming up with a good, safe plan for killing the beasts and simply giving up. Surely, someone has an idea of how we can dispatch these foes without putting anyone in undue danger."
Zou Tian tentatively raised his hand. "I think I might have something…"
Each Quickstep made Benton more nervous.
He trusted his disciples to handle a couple of rank six beasts, but rank sevens were on a whole different level, a full major realm above the twins and Kang Lin in fact. They could not be expected to face even a single creature that highly ranked and survive.
That simple fact made it imperative that he not allow any of the seventh wave to slip past him.
Not allowing such a thing was a challenge. His spiritual sense was quite impressive for one of his realm, but it was not infallible. Neither was it omnipotent. It had limitations of range, as in beasts more than several miles away simply didn't register at all. Creatures that were heavily Shadow aspected or had stealthy abilities could also hide from him unless he was very close to them.
And finding the wave was merely the first obstacle. He'd never actually faced a beast higher ranked than six. Theoretically, defeating a creature at the low end of the realm while he was at the peak should be simple, but he wouldn't know until he actually fought one.
He did have two big advantages. First, he expected the wave to be much smaller than the previous one, and since that one only consisted of thirty-one beasts, a total of less than twenty was likely. Second, his spiritual sense, while not perfect, was pretty darn good. Between his natural ability from advancing to the peak of his realm, his perk, and a perception technique at Mastery, his range likely exceeded any other Golden Core cultivator in existence.
The problem was the extraordinary distances involved. The span between the village and the mountain peak was several hundred miles, and given where each wave had appeared, he doubted that the respective staging areas were exactly at the peak. Which made sense. It must be difficult to exert control over so many beasts to prevent them from attacking each other. The more separation the Big Boss could create between them, the better.
Probably, anyway. Benton really didn't know, but that conclusion made sense and fit his observations.
If he Quickstepped to a location more than a few miles laterally from the seventh wave, he could easily miss the entire group, especially if they traveled tighter than the sixth one had.
His only solution was to waste time and qi hopping around back and forth, making his journey toward the peak haphazard at best, and stop to do a detailed sweep to the extent his sense would allow. Even with all those precautions, each minute where he didn't detect the beasts added to his anxiety.
He Quickstepped again, stopped, and reached out with his sense.
Nothing.
Again.
He sighed. If he screwed up and let the wave get past him, the shield would hold.
Definitely. Probably. Maybe. Possibly.
Ugh.
Ye Zan looked to his left. Yang Xiu waited with her bow ready.
He looked to the right. His four best archers other than Senior Sister were likewise ready. Each had nineteen of the special arrows Master had created ready in a bucket in front of them. Each also had a twentieth of the munitions nocked and ready to shoot.
"Everyone ready?" he said.
"Yes, Guard Captain," the four said.
Yang Xiu nodded, as did Senior Brother and Kang Lin.
As plans went, the one Zou Tian came up with was quite safe. If it didn't work, there was no reason for the two melee oriented Foundation Establishment cultivators to ever jump down from the wall, and if it did, hopefully the beasts would be in bad enough shape that they'd be easy prey. The two creatures might even be killed outright without the need for Yang Ru and Kang Lin to endanger themselves at all.
"On my mark," Ye Zan called. "Three. Two. One. Go!"
The four guard archers drew back their bowstrings.
Yang Xiu shot the fastest arrow she could manage at the cheetah. It calmly hopped up, allowing the missile to go right past it without so much as scratching it.
That was okay, though. All part of the plan.
At the apex of its leap, the four archers loosed. Four arrows charged with Void aspected qi from a high realmed cultivator launched toward the beast. But not directly at it.
Instead, the arrows bracketed the cheetah. One was aimed in front of it, one to the right, one to the left, and one behind. Slightly, that was. Less than half its body length from it.
The beast had no idea what it was in for if one of them hit.
Master had instructed them to use Void qi on a creature after its qi shield had been disrupted, but the disciples were disobeying that directive for a very good reason—Void qi erupted in a sphere as it detonated, making it what Master called an "area of effect" weapon. That trait was what made it perfect for hitting the fast and agile cheetah, especially since any qi charged by Master was likely to overwhelm a mere rank six beast.
The big cat twisted its body to avoid the arrows, and to its credit, it succeeded. Each of the four shot past it, and Ye Zan imagined a smug look on the beast's face.
If so, the expression was wiped off soon enough.
When the arrows slammed into the ground, Void qi erupted from each of them. Three of the four spheres buffeted the cheetah. Sections of its body simply disappeared wherever the energy impacted it.
The best case scenario was realized as Kang Lin and Yang Ru's services weren't even needed.
"Next target," Ye Zan yelled. "Three. Two. One. Go!"
It was imperative to hit the mongoose before it processed what had happened to its ally.
The sect members succeeded again. Just like with the cheetah, the mongoose couldn't prevent large spheres of Void qi from touching it, and with each point of contact literally dissolving large chunks of it into nothingness, it didn't survive the process.
Ye Zan looked a Zou Tian, who grinned widely. Yang Xiu did the same.
With the slaying of the two beasts of the sixth wave, they all had every right to believe that the tide was over. Master was going to be very proud of them for the way they handled the village's defense.
Shadow clung to the badger as it watched the cheetah and the mongoose assault the village. The wood was tough as the powerful cat's claws did not so much as scratch it. Even more worrisome was that some force prevented the beast from simply jumping over the wall.
The attacks of both the mongoose and the cat proved the humans were weak. If the badger could get past the defenses, it would feast.
As it watched, though, the humans used fearsome weapons to kill its allies of convenience.
The badger wasn't all that worried, though. The events simply proved what it had known all along—a frontal assault was stupid.
It wondered if the force extended under the ground like it did through the air. Only one way to find out.
The badger began digging.
Chapter 148 – Worst Nightmare
Finally, Benton found the seventh wave at the edge of his spiritual sense, and he Quickstepped several hundred yards in front of them, placing himself between the beasts and the village. Immediately, he activated his Stealth technique and Quickstepped up to a branch of a tall tree, so he could get a visual.
He counted eighteen in the wave.
Perfect. Less than twenty as he'd predicted, and a reasonable number for him to attack on his own even given his lack of experience with beasts of that rank.
Time for some experimentation. First, gravity burst.
As he expected, the technique was not nearly as overpowering against the equivalent of a Golden Core cultivator as it had been on the lower ranked beasts. Instead of being completely immobilized, the creatures could resist the area effect but with difficulty. While they could crawl, they could not walk. They definitely could not run.
Benton had enough practice using the technique by that point that the strain of keeping it going was negligible, as was the drain on his qi pool. Worst case scenario, he'd consume one of his many spirit coins.
The next test was Chain Lightning, and as he had feared, it was almost worthless against the rank seven beasts. Well, worthless was only in comparison to the results he expected from his recent fights against relatively weak opponents, but still, he couldn't just fling a few bolts and wipe out the entire wave. In fact, though the lightning penetrated qi shields and did damage, none of the beasts happened to have a qi aspect that was weak to the attack. Not only did all of them survive, but it would likely have taken dozens of direct hits to kill any of them.
He considered testing temperature manipulation as well, but he already had a good idea of how that would go. It would definitely be possible to kill the beasts in that manner given enough time and enough qi. That method just wasn't helpful to him at that moment, though.
No, his best attack was the first one he'd conceptualized, the one meant for just such a scenario where he was fighting opponents of an equal or greater realm. He pulled his bow from his ring and nocked an arrow.
Benton didn't consider himself nearly as good an archer as Yang Xiu because he hadn't put in close to the amount of time practicing that she had. Still, with Chao Su's training and Benton's Mastery of both a general archery technique and a specific arrow technique, he was more than competent enough to hit a mostly immobilized target at a distance of a few hundred yards.
His Layered Variable Shield Breaker with Void Finisher had been created for just such a purpose. He drew back the bowstring and loosed. The arrow hit a Wind aspected elk right between the eyes.
Benton's channeled Wood qi ate through the qi shield that was weak against that element, and when the arrowhead hit flesh, a sphere of Void qi disintegrated the beast's head into nothingness.
One down, seventeen to go.
Killing the rest of the wave took more time than Benton would have liked, but any expectation that he could do it faster was based solely on defeating much weaker opponents. Slow, careful, and meticulous were good watchwords for his current mission. Taking a little bit of extra time to make sure he eliminated all the beasts was definitely worth it.
To that end, he Quickstepped to the middle of the beasts after the last had been decapitated. His sense strained to the maximum didn't pick up any qi sources nearby.
Realizing that the entire wave had gone a lot easier than he had expected, he chuckled. He didn't have to leave the village after all. Not for the seventh wave, at any rate. Those beasts had been no threat at all.
Oh well, Benton didn't regret being extra careful in that regard. For all he knew, a Golden Core equivalent beast would be able to shoot lightning bolts or whatever just like he could. Actually, for all he knew, that was still true, just for rank eights or higher instead of starting at seven.
He'd have to see.
Regardless, he'd been right about focusing so much on killing the entire wave before any of the beasts could reach the village. There was no way his disciples could handle a rank seven. They were too tough and too fast. Not even Yang Xiu would likely be able to make one of the arrows he'd created for them land.
Benton glanced at all the corpses around him. A rank seven beast attacking the village was one less worry he had to concern himself with.
He Quickstepped in the direction of the mountain peak, beginning his search for the eighth wave.
Zou Tian felt that something was off with the way the shadows at the edge of the forest were behaving, but there was nothing he could pinpoint as being wrong. He couldn't even find a particular spot that drew his attention. It was just an overall sense of unease.
Soon, his fellow defenders began implementing the plan he'd developed, pushing the issue to the back of his mind. They were victorious, and much celebrating was done. He dropped into meditation along with the others, seeking to improve his abilities from his recent experience.
Zou Tian found it hard to concentrate, however. Something nagged at the edges of his thoughts. Something important.
The shadows.
But that was just his imagination, wasn't it?
No. He was one with the shadow. He was shadow. He knew shadows, and they behaved wrongly.
They behaved as they did when they concealed him.
His eyes shot open. There was another beast out there!
The badger had been commanded to attack the gathering of humans, and while it had no issue with the attack itself, the fact that it had no choice but to do so rankled. Once he'd gotten in range of the gathering, however, all doubts and resentments fled. There was a large source of consumable qi inside.
A large source. A large consumable source. Such a quantity would instantly propel it to rank seven and perhaps even higher.
It just had to get inside that wall and past that barrier, absorb all that wonderful, powerful qi, and ascend to a level the puny humans wouldn't be able to challenge.
Besides providing both incentive and temptation, the source was like a beacon in the night to the badger's spiritual sense, allowing it to keep its bearing directly on target as it burrowed deep under the ground.
Inch after inch, foot after foot, it dug, always focused on the direction of the source. Eventually, the badger found itself directly below the massive amount of consumable qi.
The barrier hadn't extended below the ground. If the beast went straight up, he'd be inside the gathering!
Excited, the badger almost did exactly that. It hadn't, however, reached near the peak of rank six by being impetuous. It reached out its spiritual sense again and discovered an important lack.
Shadow.
There was almost none in the crucial area near the consumable, which meant the badger would be exposed as soon as it emerged from the ground. And it had already seen what the humans could do to an exposed target.
No, its strength was in remaining hidden, not in a direct frontal assault.
It would find shadow, and there it would rise.
Zou Tian experienced a moment of panic. A stealthed beast was their worst nightmare. If it somehow found a way into the village, there was nothing any of them could do.
He took a deep breath. They had Master's shield to keep it out, to keep them safe. It didn't matter that the sect members couldn't see their foe. The barrier would still detect it.
A warning, however, was definitely called for.
"Beware!" Zou Tian yelled. "There's a Shadow aspected beast lurking, and I don't know where it is."
Ye Zan, a bunch of the guards, the twins, and Kang Lin were all meditating, and Zou Tian felt horrible about interrupting them. Master had drilled into them that there was almost nothing more important than immediately going over a battle in one's mind to learn from what one did right and what one did wrong.
If there was one thing more important than advancing, though, it was the presence of another beast threatening the sect.
The others didn't question his alert. They broke free of their meditation and took up positions on the allure.
Their level of trust in him touched a spot in his heart. No longer was he a street rat lookout for a gang, paid with just enough food to keep him from starving. Instead, he was a respected member of a sect, one of their leaders in fact.
Not for the first time, he dedicated himself to doing whatever was needed for his master and his sect brothers and sisters. And at the moment, that whatever was finding the beast.
Chapter 149 – Alert!
Benton grew concerned as he continued his search for the eighth wave. His disciples should have long since been able to dispatch the two rank six beasts that attacked the village and followed that fight up with consolidating their gains. So far, though, he hadn't received a single notification about any of his disciples advancing due to that battle.
Of course, it was possible that none of them had gained enough to move any of their techniques or cultivation forward.
He frowned. Surviving a life-threatening situation typically led to gains, and a bunch of cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm or barely into Foundation Establishment facing the equivalent of a peak Foundation Establishment opponent should be life threatening. Even if they'd simply bombarded the creatures with the arrows and FEDs he'd left them, he'd have expected at least someone to improve something.
The lack did not necessarily indicate a disaster, however. Maybe the defenders had decided to simply depend on the walls to keep the beasts at bay instead of killing them. That result would be a lackluster one as he hoped that he was teaching his sect members to be more self sufficient than that, but he'd listen to their explanation were that the case.
Besides, that decision being reached didn't sound right if for no other reason than that he doubted Yang Xiu would go along with such a plan. Of course, she could have been outvoted?
Either way, he couldn't help but find the result worrisome, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to find the next wave and the next and the next until he finally reached the Big Boss. Returning to the village to check up on his disciples simply wasn't an option.
Besides providing an unwanted distraction, his worries about how his disciples were faring also made him want to skip quickly ahead in order to end the tide as quickly as possible. Which was, of course, the worst thing he could possibly do. He had to trust his sect members to survive a couple of mere rank six beasts as a defense against that level of threat was well within their capabilities.
His job was to protect them from the dangers they couldn't face.
In fact, he'd list that goal as one of his top three objectives as a sect leader. He wasn't sure about the exact order, but his priorities were well defined. One, he needed to mentor his sect members to help them grow stronger. Two, he was to serve as the nuclear deterrent so that any foe thought twice about incurring his wrath when facing one of his sect members. And three was the aforementioned protection from greater threats.
Yes. He liked that list of job responsibilities.
And he really should be getting on with that third objective instead of letting his mind wander.
Maybe advancing Mind Cultivation could help him with that.
Doh! He was doing it again.
Benton Quickstepped about a quarter mile ahead, stopped, and extended his spiritual sense.
Still nothing.
He sighed and Quickstepped again.
The badger sensed a nice amount of shadow above him and carefully and quietly tunneled upward. As it neared the surface, it slowed, barely creeping along at all. It extended its spiritual sense and listened intently but didn't detect anything in the area above it.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, its claw broke the ground. It tensed, waiting, but there was no cry. Nothing appeared.
It finished digging itself out of the hole and crawled into an alley between two buildings, cloaking itself in Shadow. The qi element hid all of it, including its smell and sounds and spiritual presence.
None of the humans gave any indication that they knew it was there.
Exactly as planned. Back at the mountain, even many of the rank sevens and even some eights failed to find it when it truly hid.
The humans didn't stand a chance.
Positive that it had not been detected, it focused on its quarry. The consumable qi simply lay on the ground next to the wall, guarded by a human female. She was small and weak, barely into the first step of the first major realm. Two older, slightly stronger humans stood nearby. They, too, were not nearly strong enough to stand against the badger, and they seemed distracted, looking up at the humans on the wall.
The badger would have laughed if it wasn't so focused on remaining absolutely still. The silly humans still thought that no threat could reach inside their gathering.
Granted, the barrier was strong, but it wasn't smart. Not like the badger.
It studied the obstacles to it gaining the prize and advancing. The three near the consumable qi source were pathetic. Killing all of them would take only seconds and could be accomplished making almost no sound.
The real threats were on the wall. Three of the humans had reached the beginning of the second major realm and had combined strength enough to be dangerous. The archers also had access to weapons that could hurt the badger.
Until it advanced, that was.
Once it ascended to the next major realm, the humans would be hard pressed to get a weapon near it. It would be able to tear the throats out of all of them before they could even react.
Fast, silent, and hard to detect was a dangerous combination.
Its priority, then, was to first kill the three on the ground without attracting the notice of the other humans. Next, consume the qi and advance. Finally, kill the rest of the humans.
The plan was good.
A big question remained—approach at full speed or creep quietly? Both methods held advantages. Both methods held disadvantages.
The badger deliberated for a moment before deciding on speed. Tactically, it wasn't sure the decision was the correct one, but it wanted the qi. It wanted to advance. The faster that happened, the better.
Zou Tian was frustrated. Something was wrong. There was a beast nearby, but he couldn't detect it. Neither could Senior Sister. But it was there. He knew it.
Staring at the edge of the forest did no good. Whatever had drawn his attention to the shadows there was gone. There was no longer anything off about them. They were just regular shadows.
The beast could have retreated deeper into the forest, and if he couldn't see it even in relatively plain sight, he'd never find it there.
On the other hand, the village was separated from the trees by dozens of yards of clear, sunlit open ground for the entire perimeter of the wall. The Shadow aspect couldn't conceal a cultivator—or a beast—unless there were shadows to hide in. At best, the creature would be able to minimize its presence, making it indistinct to sight, but in the open, it would still be visible, especially to someone as good with Perception as Senior Sister.
Zou Tian really had no reason to fear the beast attacking from the forest. It wasn't like any of them were going to suddenly go for a picnic or something. Until Master returned to tell them the tide was over, only authorized sect members would leave the wall and, even then, would stay within a distance where they could be supported by the archers.
Something nagged at his mind, though, telling him that he and his fellow sect members were in danger. Try as he might, he could not get rid of the feeling.
"There is no danger," he told himself. "Even an invisible beast can't get through the barrier."
What if it somehow found a way, though? Like Ye Zan had said, Master did not believe the shield to be infallible.
The more Zou Tian thought about it, the more positive he became. He had no way to justify his conclusion, but he became absolutely sure that the beast had made it inside the shield. He didn't know how or where it was exactly, but they were all in danger.
A rank six beast was inside the village.
Zou Tian turned to look at the plaza but saw nothing. Which proved nothing. A Shadow aspected beast would hide and attack from ambush. No one would see it coming.
There was absolutely no way to prove his suspicion, though.
He needed to warn the others, but if he were wrong, it would be a huge loss of face. After gaining so much respect, he could blow it all on one wrong opinion. How could anyone ever trust him again?
Why would they trust him now after he'd been so wrong about accusing Master of being a demonic cultivator?
The most likely result of him voicing his opinion was laughter. They'd all make fun of him.
Zou Tian closed his eyes tight. If he were right, though, and someone died… What if the beast went after Wan Ai?
"Ye Zan, Yang Xiu!" he yelled. "It's inside. The beast got through the shield!"
"You see it?" the guard captain said. "Where is it?"
"I don't know."
Ye Zan's eyes narrowed. "How do you know it's inside?"
"Quiet," Yang Xiu yelled.
From the tenseness in her posture, she was clearly concentrating intently. After a moment, she relaxed. "I don't sense anything. Are you sure?"
"I am, Senior Sister. My gut tells me it somehow breached the shield."
Yang Xiu nodded but hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "Sound the alarm."
Ye Zan looked doubtful, but an order was an order. He blew the whistle in the pattern indicating an incursion and rang each of the gong's four quadrants to tell everyone that they didn't know where the beast was.
The loud noises followed by the humans beginning to look inside the gathering instead of outside told the badger that its presence had somehow been discovered. No one seemed to know exactly where it was, however, leaving it with a choice.
Should it retreat or should it attack?
Both the command it had been given, which was so difficult to disobey that it bordered on impossible, and its greed made it want to attack. Only its sense of caution and self preservation leaned the opposite direction.
In the end, there was no choice at all. Cloaking itself as much as it could, it dashed out into the open toward the consumable qi.
Ye Zan didn't know if he believed Zou Tian's instincts or not. On one hand, the boy was both competent and not prone to flights of fancy. On the other, he was unable to offer any defense for his warning other than that his gut told him there was danger.
No matter how high in the sect hierarchy the boy was, trusting someone else's intuition was a hard sale.
The matter was quickly taken out of Ye Zan's hand, however, when Yang Xiu made it an order. If there was a line that he would not cross, it was disobeying a direct command.
Besides, there would be only a small amount of harm if the alert turned out to be false. If nothing else, it would be a good drill for the sect members and villagers alike.
Whether Zou Tian was right or wrong quickly became a moot point as a badger darted out from between two houses on the opposite side of the plaza. It sprinted directly toward Jin LiJuan.
Master had said that the spirit coins would be a target if any beast breached the shield, and he was right. He had also said that a beast reaching those spirit coins and consuming them would be a disaster of epic proportions. There was enough qi contained in them to propel a beast a rank or two or three or more.
If the badger reached that bag, it would probably end up killing every person in the village.
Only Huang Yimun and Pan Jiang stood between the badger and its target. The two of them were only in the middle realm of Qi Gathering, just like Ye Zan. None of them were any match for a rank six beast. All any of the three could do was delay it until the others could mount a more effective defense.
Yang Xiu shot an arrow at the fast-moving creature. It dodged, barely breaking its stride.
Yang Ru and Kang Lin were out of position. Ye Zan was the only one who could intercede.
Barely giving his action a thought, he jumped down, landing between the badger and the spirit coins.