The Hunt (2)

The young lady then went on to kill the other three wolves while her teammates finally finished off their opponents. After the battle was over, they quickly took the parts they needed before leaving the bloody scene.

"We're ready, senior sister Kate."

"Good. Let's go."

The other person in the forest that Shui would be familiar with, also wore a silk coat with a thundercloud, but his was black, meaning he was a direct disciple. Unlike Kate, this young man was by himself in the forest. Yet, at the same time, he wasn't alone.

The young man was drawing something on his skin with the blood of the beast spirits he had killed. Normally, this would attract trouble, but the ominous rotting bodies around him overpowered the scent of blood.

What the young man was drawing on himself would only look like strange symbols to anyone else, but Shui would be able to tell that these symbols were similar to inscriptions or runes. However, rather than representing the laws of the natural world, these symbols were from a technique that were created by someone.

The young man drew each symbol with extreme focus without a single break, something that would have been impossible if it wasn't for his secret companion.

When the final symbol was drawn on the centre of his chest, the young man's entire body glowed with a red light and he clenched his fists.

"This is, power!"

He could feel a change in himself that wasn't from an increase in cultivation. This change not only increased his strength, it also improved his potential.

'Yes, soon. Soon I'll be able to get my revenge.'

Cleia was feeling exhausted. Her group chose to camp inside the forest since this was a rare chance to gain some experience, but that had nothing to do with why she was feeling tired. She was the leader of the group, so she knew she was responsible for keeping the members safe and assigning the right roles to the right people. However, the three young men trying to get her attention were quite annoying. She could bear it when they were in battle, but when it was time to decide the order of who would keep watch while the others slept, they all wanted to stay up with her.

If they at least brought up the benefits of having two people on watch first, before speaking their greedy motives, then maybe she could just look at them with a fake smile. However, they were very honest. Too honest really.

"Why should you stay up with her? I'm obviously the better choice."

"Huh? You'll just bother Miss Cleia."

"And you're any better?"

"Both of you stop. How could it be anyone but me? I mean, look at this face. What could be better than keeping watch of this?"

The more the three of them argued, the closer Cleia got to exploding. Luckily, her dear friend was here to prevent any serious accidents.

"All three of you! Shut up!" shouted Jade.

The three men flinched and stopped talking despite their open display of dissatisfaction. After all, they knew they couldn't be rude to Jade in front of Cleia, and Jade's status wasn't something they could overlook either.

"Senior sister's our leader, so unless you have something important to say, just follow her orders."

Since what Jade said was without flaws, the three young men could only meekly obey rather make fools of themselves. Once they accepted their defeat, the three spread apart and sat down further away from each other.

"Thanks," said Cleia.

"No, I was getting annoyed at them too."

In this place, she could only depend on Jade. For dinner, rather than cook something and attract beasts, they either took fasting pills or ate rations. The first one on watch was one of the three men. He was still upset about not being able to keep watch with Cleia, but only when everyone else was asleep did he let out the occasional grumble. Since he was a cultivator, there was no need for any unnecessary light so he spread his spiritual sense and waited for his shift to be over. Luckily, nothing happened during his shift so he woke up the next person, another one of the men.

Although the location made them worried, as long as their spiritual sense was out they doubted that they had anything to worry about. It wasn't as if there were certain evolved beasts that they were warned about that could hide from spiritual sense of their level. Feeling a little carefree, the handsome man spent more time fantasizing about his married life with Cleia instead of paying attention to his surroundings. And luckily for him, this meant he could die with a smile on his face.

"!"

No one noticed it this entire time, but once it bit off the man's head, all of them were alerted by its presence. They came out of their tents to surround it, but they were still the ones at a disadvantage. Not because they were shaken or because they were unfamiliar with the forest, the gap was simply in strength. While they were only in the Soul Realm, it was a high beast. Though with such an advantage in power, beasts would usually attack head-on, the green spotted tiger was an evolved beast that always started its battles with a surprise attack using its supreme camouflage ability that could fool the senses of evolved beasts of the same level, after which, it would either continue its attack or go back into hiding.

They were careless, but the four of them were at least knowledgeable enough to identify the beast in front of them and its traits. However, though its defense was weak, that was only relative to other high beasts. To them, it would still be hard to injure.

'What should we do?'

While watching the chameleon tiger chew on the man's body, Cleia hastily thought of a solution with a pale face, but there was nothing anyone could think of before the chameleon tiger was satisfied with its meal and turned to them with a sadistic smile. There was no need to guess, it was obviously not planning on going back into hiding. In the face of this crisis, there was only one thing Cleia could think of, but before she could say it, one of the men who tried to appeal to her before, frantically ran away.

"Ahh!!"

"Tch, everyone, split up."

Due to him making such a hasty decision, he was the first to be targeted by the chameleon tiger, but naturally Cleia wouldn't risk the rest of the group to save his foolish self. The other man didn't question her order and also ran away in a different direction while Jade followed Cleia.

"I said to split up," said Cleia in a soft tone.

"Sorry, but I can't leave you alone in this situation."

Jade was firm in her decision, a decision that warmed her heart. Rather than those stupid men who tried to court her, her friend was much more loyal.

"...Thanks."

In response to the quiet word of gratitude, Jade smiled. They didn't know how long they ran for, only when the sun came back out did they start slowing down and catching their breaths.

"Do you think we lost it?" asked Jade.

"I'm not sure. We should keep running for now."

It was a shame, but in this situation, Cleia thought it would be better to return to her sect or the nearest city. She fired one of the three flares provided by her sect and then headed east. Rather than a rescue flare, the one she fired would tell nearby allies that she encountered something dangerous and would be retreating, but it basically accomplished the same task.