Shadow Hunt (2)

It wasn't something obvious, but once Shui picked up on that small sense of danger, he immediately made a barrier that covered him along with Ragley in it. Once the wall of the barrier was in place, Shui focused his sight on a spot diagonally above his eyes. At that location, banging against his barrier was a black insect resembling a mosquito.

"I knew they took on a myriad of forms, but I didn't expect to see an insect shadow."

"It's the smallest form they can take. Although, to be more precise, it's the smallest form we hope they can take, but no one's found anything smaller.

Insect shadows were annoying enough because of how small and imperceptible they were, so Shui could understand why no one wanted there to be anything smaller. Just the thought of a tiny shadow slipping into his lungs as he breathed gave him chills.

"You were supposed to bring a special bug repellent sold at the outpost, but I forgot you were new here so you wouldn't know about it. I already have on mine so you can focus on protecting yourself."

"Okay, what should I do with them?"

"Just kill them. Even if they meet the criteria I have, they're too small to be proper samples."

Since he received permission, Shui gathered the mosquitos with the wind and then crushed them together. Ragley nodded in approval before leading the way to his usual hunting ground. Along the way, they spotted shadow snakes, birds, among other creatures, but Ragley told Shui to avoid catching their attention. The shadows close to the border were generally weak, but they were also numerous and had a tendency to gather in places where blood was being spilled. However, this didn't mean they had a sense of camaraderie and would help each other when necessary, in fact they would immediately feast on their weakened members.

After two hours of walking, Ragley stopped in place. By following his gaze, Shui found a jet black deer with red eyes and grey antlers.

"Should I kill it?"

"Yes, but listen to me first. All shadows have at least a single heart. Once a shadow's hearts have been destroyed, it will perish, but I want to retrieve those hearts so you'll be using a different method."

Ragley then went on to explain how Shui should kill the shadow. As this might prove useful when the time came to kill its parent, Shui listened attentively as he planned his approach. Supposedly, in exchange for their ridiculous vitality, shadows had limited ranges of perception. As proof, the shadow deer only noticed Shui when he was a few feet away despite his lack of stealth. A normal deer would immediately escape, but all shadows had the same response to all they met, bloodlust.

The shadow deer lunged at him with its antlers while Shui waited for it with a spirit-rank longsword in hand. As it had the power of a Earth Realm cultivator, its speed was nothing to scoff at, but it never escaped his gaze. Shui made his move at the exact same time that it entered his range. He held himself back so the three swings he used to sever its head and limbs from its torso were visible. He knew this did little damage to the near-immortal beast, but he stayed his hand. As the deer fell apart, Shui watched its writhing body parts so that he could locate the hearts.

'At the front of the torso and the left hind leg.'

A shadow's hearts couldn't move while they were aiding regeneration, so he had to take this chance. Fortunately, the hearts were easier to notice while in this state so Shui easily removed them. Besides being ominously black, the hearts didn't look very strange. After a quick analysis, Shui passed the hearts to Ragley who sealed them in separate bags. These bags had sealing inscriptions so there was no worry that new shadows would be born from the hearts. However, as a precaution, Shui created a vacuum and used it to turn the shadow's body parts into mush.

"Well done. Do the same for the rest."

Ragley had planned on doing this himself had Shui screwed up, but he was glad that there was no need for that. The two managed to find three more Earth Realm-level shadows and all were dealt with successfully. As they were mindless beasts, or maybe lower than that, their actions were simple to predict. Shui had little trouble dispatching them, but Ragley said it was time for a break.

Shui thought that Ragley wanted to finish as quickly as possible so him ordering a break contradicted that, but there was a clear reason for this. Shui hadn't noticed since he usually automatically filtered and absorbed nature energy and paid little attention to it since he was focused on battle, however, there was a significant difference between this wasteland and everywhere else. Nature energy couldn't be sensed here.

It sounded unbelievable to the average cultivator since nature energy was similar to the lifeforce of the world and should be omnipresent, but it was missing here, and the culprit was obvious.

'If it can drain the life of the land then naturally it would take the foundational energy as well.'

Since there was no nature energy for them to absorb, cultivators had to rely on pills to supply them with energy while in this place. Shui didn't have this issue since he had a vast reserve of divine energy and barely used any so far, but he still took a pill out to maintain his façade.

Using an array for protection would have been expensive energy-wise, so they had to keep their guards up during the break. Therefore, it wasn't hard for them to notice the group of evolved beasts with appearances similar to big dogs, that was walking through the wasteland.

"Strange. I didn't think they would hunt here."

"They shouldn't be. Even evolved beasts can't ignore the negative effects of eating shadows."

"Could something have happened to make them that desperate?"

"... I don't know, but I think I heard that they've been making troubling moves lately."

"Troubling moves? Like what?"

"I don't know."

Shui had spent long enough time with Ragley to tell that he wouldn't lie needlessly, he would merely stay silent. Therefore, he didn't doubt that Ragley truly didn't know anything else.

Shui kept his gaze on the beasts. They had noticed them as well, but chose to put their objective first, so after a glare they left. It was unlikely that their paths would cross again, but Shui's eyes grew keener as he watched them leave.

Shortly after, their break was over and Shui went on to kill two more shadows before Ragley declared the trip over. The darkening sky was a countdown for major trouble if they stayed in the wasteland, so they hurried to the hidden cave with the carriage where they would stay for the night.

Shui had offered to cook a meal for them, but Ragley refused and ate a fasting pill instead. He quickly set up his own personal space inside the carriage and went to sleep. It was surprising how quickly and readily he went unconscious, but Shui could sense the countermeasures he had set up before going to bed so he knew that Ragley still didn't trust him very much.