Merulla Region (2)

The young man with a broken leg had his blue leopard carry him, but they didn't have the leeway to carry a corpse. Furthermore, with its partner dead, there was no one who could control the red leopard, so, with great guilt, they decided to leave them behind. 

Only concerned about its lifeless partner, the red leopard didn't notice when the rest of the group left. It was the violent charge of the approaching high beast that made it turn its head in mad fury.

"!!!"

When it saw the black panther with a fluffy red mane, the red leopard pounced at it after igniting its blood essence. Like this, it would die in a minute or two, but if it was able to give the panther at least one wound, it would be satisfied. Unfortunately, the panther didn't allow the leopard the chance to get that close. The panther spat another black pike at the leopard, instantly reducing it to scant bits of flesh, and then crushed the head of the corpse that was nearby. The panther knew not why the leopard was so desperate to face it despite the obvious gap in strength; it merely sought to punish those who had touched what belonged to it.

Faintly aware that the red leopard's life had been snuffed out, the group that left pushed themselves to gain further distance. They had no advantage in speed within the forest, but they were conflicted between splitting up and leading the high beast to their village for the adults to take action. However, with Kiki becoming increasingly panicked and the high beast approaching, they soon made their choice.

"Shasha! Head back to the village! Everyone else, split up!"

The young man with the green panther shouted those orders, and the rest wordlessly agreed. Following the role she was given, Shasha ordered her snake partner to bring her back to the village. The snake opened its mouth and used one of its innate spells to suck its partner into its body. It then slithered through the forest so quickly that only a blur was left. With her gone, the others didn't hesitate to part ways.

When the chasing high beast noticed them splitting up, it snorted and then keenly sensed their locations in the forest. One pair of them was almost out of its range of detection, so it reluctantly gave up on following it and decided to finish off the other three pairs. To keep them from escaping, it went after the fastest pair among the three. It didn't take long before the green leopard and its partner noticed the high beast's approach. Unwilling to die, the young man turned towards the city. His village wasn't on good terms with the city, but he had hope that some expert would appear to stop the beast.

The people of their village practiced body cultivation, so there wasn't much of a speed difference between the young man and his partner. As they ran side by side, the two eventually made it onto the main road leading to the city. A sliver of relief made it on the young man's face, but that quickly turned into distress once he noticed that someone else was on the road. This person seemed to be around his age, but he possessed a mysterious charm that he hadn't encountered before. He might have watched him in a daze under different circumstances, but with a dangerous beast on his tail, that wasn't an option. 

"Hurry! Run!"

He was powerless to save himself, so he could only hope that the high beast didn't take interest in this stranger. Unfortunately, a shadow suddenly passed by their heads, and the owner of the shadow landed before them with a loud thud. With a smirk on its face, the high beast looked down on them. The young man despaired while the green leopard warily growled.

On the other hand, the stranger, who was actually Shui, wasn't nearly as panicked as the leopard's partner. Since he was on the lookout for an ambush, Shui had weakened his aura restraint and was actively checking for auras, so he discovered this group long before they did him. He intended on ignoring them, and even with them right in front of him, that intention hadn't changed. He nonchalantly walked past the young man and approached the high beast.

"Wait! Stop!"

The young man tried to grab his shoulder to hold him back, but Shui easily evaded him and continued forward. Despite his good intentions, the young man knew he couldn't hold the high beast down, so he could only hope that Shui could leave unbothered. However, the panther high beast wasn't so principled that it would ignore a human careless enough to approach it. Shui plainly exposed his energy cultivation, so although the young man couldn't sense it because of his lower cultivation, the high beast was certain that Shui wasn't even in the late Soul Realm, so he couldn't be a threat.

The panther fired its black pike spell, thinking that Shui wouldn't be able to last a second, and the young man grimaced, thinking the same, but the spell missed its target. The panther looked down on Shui, but it knew that its aim hadn't been faulty. Perplexed, it fired the spell again, but the result was the same. All except Shui stared with wide eyes as he walked past the black panther that was slightly taller than him. 

A few seconds after he walked by, the panther turned around and focused on him. If the young man and his leopard took this opportunity to escape, they would likely succeed, but they seemed to forget that they had been mere moments from losing their lives. 

Upon turning around, the panther's red mane lit up, and a dark, fiery aura covered its body. Right as it was to charge at Shui, it heard a sigh.

"If you had just let me pass."

The next moment, Shui glanced at the panther, and its heart stopped upon meeting his gaze. As the panther fell to the ground and the young man and leopard looked at him in awe and fear, Shui continued his journey. He hadn't been willing to deal with the panther because he didn't want to risk exposing his true power. Though he doubted that there was anyone among his suspected enemies and their clans that could spy on him without his knowledge, he didn't want any mishaps. 

It would take him little more than an hour to arrive at the gate of Garakil, and about half way there, Shui was suddenly attacked by an onslaught of various spells and projectiles from both sides of the forest. Every single one of these attacks carried the power of the Earth Realm that could easily kill a simple Soul Realm cultivator, so this seemed extremely excessive for an ambush, but the enemy was determined to ensure that Shui was left with no way out. Normally, such destruction would alert those inside Garakil, but a tier 4 concealment array had been set up with array flags just before the attack.

After a few minutes, the barrage stopped, and everyone sent their spiritual senses forward to confirm Shui's death. A barrage like that would be more than enough to erase all traces of an ordinary Soul Realm cultivator, but those who had fought him last time emphasised the eccentricities of the target, so they couldn't be fully certain.