Mo Shui

In a nearby forest outside Jiang City, a small portion of the Mo Clan gathered noisily.

Patriarch Mo Chen together with some clan elders and servants were standing and chatting idly by the forest when, after some moments, three silhouettes gradually approached the gathering.

As the three appeared, the clan members was surprised to see an old acquaintance in Shu Wei.

Shu Wei then immediately greeted them and introduced his son.

"Greetings Patriarch and clan elders..," Shu Wei politely said. "This here is my youngest son, Shu Qai, and his 'contracted' black tiger demonic beast."

All of them looked at the boy and the demonic beast as if sizing up the pair's cultivation.

"Ho ho ho ho," the Patriarch chuckled. "Boy, I never thought you'd really amaze me.. a 'lightning' black tiger.. ho ho ho.. a rare find indeed!"

Mo Chen with one look instantly guessed that the tiger had lightning elemental affinity.

At that moment, a pretty young girl with a jade-like skin of about the age of eight appeared from behind the Mo Clan patriarch.

"Ah.. this here is my great granddaughter, Mo Shui," he said.

An emperor realm cultivator had an extended lifespan of 3000 years at least, so having a great grandchild would only seem natural.

"She's in the initial Heaven stage of Expert realm..," the Patriarch informed. "And she's the one I've chosen for this challenge."

The rules of the game hunt was easy.

The participating 'hunters' would hunt to their hearts' content within two hours. And the one who would be able to kill the highest level beast will be declared the winner. But if participants killed beasts of the same level, then the one who ended up with the most kills would win.

"Boy," the Patriarch asked, "do you think you can match up with my Shui'er?"

"I will do my best, Esteemed Patriarch," Qai respectfully responded.

"Hmmmp," Mo Shui smirked, "a mere trash from the backwater wants to challenge me.. you're courting death!"

"Ho ho ho," the Patriarch chuckled. "If both of you are ready, then you have two hours to spend."

Since contracted beasts were part of a cultivator's skills, Qai was thus allowed to utilize his contracted black tiger.

"I hope you and your tiger will live up to my expectation," Mo Shui remarked, "hmmp."

Right at that moment, Mo Shui jumped off from where she stood. She instantly released her movement skill and flashed her way to the forest with a cool breeze.

It gave Qai and Shu Wei some chills.

Mo Shui has a rare Ice elemental affinity like the patriarch. And her movement, called 'Frozen Rush' looked as if she was gliding over an iced path. It actually appeared beautiful as snowflakes apparently evaporated from the tracks she left behind.

"Shandian, let's go!" Qai softly commanded.

Then he also released his newly learned movement skill together with his contracted demonic beast. Since Shandian had ligthning element as well, its speed was also innately agile.

His 'Flash' however was not outdone in flare as bits of electric bolts run through the tracks he left behind.

"Ho ho ho ho," the Patriarch remarked as he looked at Qai's father, "not bad.. Little Wei, not bad.."

The elders who stood behind nodded unanimously in approval.

***************

Inside the forest, Qai did not waste his any time with mere 'mortal' beasts he came across with on his way.

The black tiger sneaked through the bushes stealthily while Qai followed from behind by jumping over branches from tree to tree.

They were practically doing it strategically as they practiced before.

'Swoooosh,' 'swoooosh'

'Roar'

'Swiiiiish'

'Baaam,' 'baaam.'

Arrows after arrows flew speedily in the forest while Shandian did his thing.

Qai shot arrows while moving from one place to another. It was so smooth that he looked as if there was not only one, not two but several Qai's in motion.

As a result, several Earth stage demonic beasts were easily dealt with by the two. And they collected the beast cores of the beasts they slain as proof.

An hour passed.

'This won't do,' Qai thought, 'I'm not gonna win even if I collected hundreds of Earth stage beast cores.'

The master and beast pair decided to move towards the inner region of the forest. But not before long, a loud sounds of fighting was heard.

'Baaaam, 'Baaaam.'

'Hissss.'

The pair rushed towards the location where the sound was coming from.

As they got near, they were surprised to witness the battle between Mo Shui and gigantic snake of about ten meters long.

The demonic beast looked so fierce as it emitted a deadly Poison elemental aura—and it appeared to be at the mid Earth stage of 'Sage' Realm.

The snake had an overwhelming presence but Mo Shui was eagerly fighting her way well.

Her preferred weapon was a long sword and she manipulated it well with her 'Frozen Rush' and another rare skill called 'Sword Mist'—a powerful display of sword strike that releases a gust of snow freezing the movement of the target.

Qai frowned at what he saw as he realized he's about to perhaps lose the challenge.

He shook his head and figured out he can't idly watch as the battle unfolded.