Chapter 14: Shadowless Step

Qin Qianyu concentrated on the movements her master was showing her, she had the moves locked down after a while.

"Good, I'll set a task for you then. I'll give you three hours to reach the halfway point. There's a pagoda for resting there let's meet there."

"Three hours!?"

Qin Qianyu exclaimed, the estimated walk time was 10 hours on the beginners track, 6 on the expert track.

So having grandpa Wú give her 3 hours was akin to her having to do the nonexistent ultra elite track.

"Well who told you to meditate for 5 hours?"

"Ah. I . . Haha, I'm sure that, technically, it was you master!"

Cough cough,

"Well technically, anyway! You'll be fine. Just so you know, my first time was around 2 and a half hours, now I do it in about 40 minutes."

" . . . "

"See you there."

With that said, grandpa Wú initiated the Shadowless steps and took off up the mountain path.

Qin Qianyu sighed lightly then a smile formed on her lips as she ran in the same direction as her master while going through the motions of the shadowless steps.

Roughly 30 minutes in, Grandpa Wú made it to the rest area at the midway point.

"Hoho, I've bested my personal best hehe! Come on little girl don't let me down too much."

Grandpa Wú gloated. In actuality, he had pushed himself to the limit due to fear.

Fear of being beaten by his own disciple and her ungodly abilities.

He realised that no matter how old one was, if a competitive streak existed it would never wane or disappear from that individual.

Grandpa Wú found a shaded spot away from the pagoda under a tree to await Qin Qianyu's arrival.

"Hmm, between 2 and 2 hours 30 should be her time judging from her current self. Hoho, such a good seedling."

The old man mumbled to himself as he thought about Qin Qianyu's time of reaching the mid point.

However, 2 hours after reaching the pagoda, there was still no sign of Qin Qianyu. A frown sat unmoving on the old man's face.

After another hour went by, the frown grandpa Wú had, disappeared and changed into worry.

He picked up his phone a made a call, he only got a busy signal.

"What's going on!?"

Grandpa Wú tried again, it was the same, he wasn't able to connect the call. Standing straight up, stiff as a board, he disappeared in a blink of an eye from the spot he was just standing at.

"Oh crap, I think I'm lost!"

Qin Qianyu exclaimed mentally. However, her thought was if she kept going in one direction she would surely make it to the midway point or at least close to it eventually.

Some time after her realisation, Qin Qianyu heard something in the distance, she could eventually make out the sound of human voices.

Relief soon washed over her face as she headed towards the sound.

"Wait! You're poachers!?"

Qin Qianyu exclaimed at a low voice, however, it was still loud enough to alert the men she encountered.

What Qin Qianyu had stumbled upon where two Siberian White tigers. One was injured quite badly, the other was standing guard over it.

Four men had surrounded the pair of tigers, two were holding rifles the other two were holding extended pole snares.

The four men turn towards Qin Qianyu when they heard her call out. Two quickly dropped the tranquilliser rifles in their hands and armed themselves with the handguns that were strapped to their thighs.

The ones with the poles threw what they had in hand directly at her and armed themselves with machetes.

Qin Qianyu dodged the incoming poles with two simple sidesteps and glared back at the men who threw them,

"What the heck! Not even a hello?"

Qin Qianyu bellowed out. In reply, the four men started shouting at her, she didn't know what language they were speaking, she cocked her head sideways while she pursed her lips.

Soon enough someone of the group started shouting at her in broken Chinese.

"Girl Hey! Move don't stop! Shoot me you!"

"Pfft! . . Bahahaha!"

Even though it was a serious situation, Qin Qianyu couldn't take it seriously due to what she heard.

She soon waved them off,

"Haha don't mind me, they say laughter helps relieve stressful situations."

"Huh!? No! No! Move don't stop! Shoot me you! Shoot me you!"

The armed poachers waved their guns at Qin Qianyu, the tigers behind them roared out loudly which caused the four men to become distracted and they couldn't keep their eyes on Qin Qianyu and as they looked towards the two tigers, Qin Qianyu made her move.

She utilised the Shadowless steps and with a well place kick to the knee of the tallest man of the four he toppled over while she gripped the wrist of the hand holding the gun, she pressed on a point causing his hand to open up, dropping the gun.

With it out of his hand, Qin Qianyu gave the guy a kick to the back of his head knocking him out.

She then moved to the other man with a handgun, she attacked his elbow and shoulder of the arm holding the gun. That too dropped to the ground as his scream echoed loudly across the forest.

This drowned out the crunching sound of his bones.

Qin Qianyu shut him up with a raising kick to the chin.

The two holding the machetes kept throwing glance at Qin Qianyu then the tigers then back at her again before they decided to cut their losses and make a run for it, both heading in different directions.

Qin Qianyu dashed left, with her use of the Shadowless step. She found herself infront of the runner in a single blink. She gave him a roundhouse kick to the chest winding him.

She climb atop his downed body and delivered a well place punch between his eyes and knocked the guy out.

She turned towards the direction of the other runner but found he had been taken out by the less injured tiger.

She quickly round up the three men still alive and bound them securely before turning her gaze towards the pair of large white tigers.

She wasn't scared of the giant beast, nor was it aggressive towards her. It was as if they both had a shared understanding of each other.

One knew it wouldn't be hurt, the other knew it was being helped.

Qin Qianyu thought for a bit and pulled out a small container and bottle.

The ointment was able to help the blood clot around the wound and allow it to heal faster and better.

The pill not only calmed whoever consumed it, but, it also recovered fatigue.

There were also other benefits from taking the pills, but in all honesty, these were meant for human use and consumption.

"I don't know how effective these will be on you guys, but it's better than nothing. These are at least organic in nature, no msg! Haha, you don't even know what I'm even saying let alone know what msg is, right?"

Qin Qianyu says as she first fed both tigers two pills each and then attended to the wounded tiger.

The tigers regained their vigour after taking the pills Qin Qianyu gave. They became elated and well behaved. This allowed Qin Qianyu to attend to the wounds on the female tiger.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound behind Qin Qianyu as she turned towards the sound with a slight frown, a large white blur flew towards her.

"ROOOAR!"

The two tigers pounced at the newcomer and pushed it back and away from Qin Qianyu.

The wounded female tiger walked backwards towards Qin Qianyu while snarling at the interloper, soon both tigers formed a protective barrier around her.

The new tiger calmed down soon after it was "berated" by the other two.

It came closer to Qin Qianyu with it's shoulders hunched and it's head lowered. At times it eyes would peer up at her as it inched closer and closer to her.

It was presenting itself to Qin Qianyu showing its submissiveness and vulnerability.

"Haha, I know, I know, you where only trying to protect your family. It's all understandable."

Qin Qianyu quipped as she lifted the newer tigers head and gave it a scratch behind its ears.

Qin Qianyu noticed many wounds on this new tiger, so she did the same as she did the other two and after mending the wounds as much as she could Qin Qianyu got ready to leave.

"Now what to do about these guys?"

She said out loud as she eyed the unconscious and bound poachers. One of the men started to stir and when he found that he was bound, he reacted accordingly.

"ROAAR!"

The new tiger pounced forwards and took the man's head off in a single strike of his powerful clawed paw.

Qin Qianyu watch as the man's neck turn into a fountain spraying blood all around its vicinity before it flopped onto the ground twitching.

Qin Qianyu was surprised at her mental state after seeming the gory messy scene. She wasn't afraid, shocked or scared by what she just witnessed,

"Since he wanted my life, why waste emotions when his was taken?"

Qin Qianyu muttered to herself. She chalked it up to her understanding of the dyer situation that, and the fact that it was the tiger that had taken the man's life.

The other two men had woken up and saw the result of the guy that caused a scene.

They pretended to still be unconscious and closed their eyes, but they were shivering so much that one of the two bound men still alive had wet himself in the process.

"Serves you right, now reflect on how it must have been like for these guys when the four of you were ganging up on them. Pathetic scum."

Qin Qianyu scoffed, then called out to tiger Saan. The tiger responded and came to Qin Qianyu's side. She used her water bottle to wash the blood off around it mouth and settled into attending to its various wounds again that had opened up after it pounced at the other guy just moments ago.

"Your injured! Don't be so excessive! Wait until they've at least scabbed over!"

She groaned then lightly knocked its head with a knuckle just above its eyes. Qin Qianyu then gave him a few gentle rubs, scratches and strokes behind its ears, cheeks then its lower jaw and chin.

Haa! It's so late now, I wander if master is alright?"

Qin Qianyu asked herself as she watched the sky change in hue as night slowly descended.

Suddenly, Qin Qianyu, Tiger Yi, Tiger Er, and Tiger Saan, looked towards a certain direction. Something was approaching them angrily and quickly.

All three tiger surrounded Qin Qianyu in a protective circle.

She sighed and gave each one a slight pout telling them that she wasn't that weak.

"Argggh! I'll kill you all you sons of bitches!"

A loud heavy voice bellowed out as they landed where the two bound men lay shaking.

Qin Qianyu sat down and called the tigers back and they sat down with her as they looked towards the the man that just entered the fray.

"Hi master! So yeah I got lost and ended up having a small scuffle with some poachers. But I managed to save a family of Siberian White tigers while I was at it."

" . . . "

The man that just arrive was indeed Qin Qianyu's master Grandpa Wú. He looked at his disciple surrounded by three large white tigers then to the surviving poachers and their dead mates before looking back at the young Qin Qianyu incredulously.

The pair explained to each other what had transpired, for grandpa Wú, he had also stumbled on some poachers but what they had in their possession were not the same as what Qin Qianyu had found.

Soon five others joined them, they were all out of breath and gasping for air. It seemed like they were running nonstop to find where she and grandpa Wú were.