Slaughter The Beasts (1)
Li Zian arrived on the other side of the mountain, outside the sect. He donned his simple black robes and carried a sword on his hip.
The second he arrived on the other side of the mountain, a wave of knowledge suddenly poured into his head, causing a slight numbing sensation.
He quickly swept his divine sense over his body, discovering his own aura and qi but no longer the foreign qi that originated from the paper.
'I see, so the qi must have contained the location of the mission. This will make it a lot easier. It seems that the location's quite close by. I should be able to finish the mission in a day.'
He turned around, heading north towards the village where the spirit beasts were at.
Despite having been in this world for eight years already, he had very few encounters with spirit beasts.
He first witnessed them from the wall of the Li family villa, and a few disciples rode around on them in the outer sect, but other than that he rarely encountered them.
This would be his first time battling a living, breathing being as well. He felt both nervous and excited about the prospect.
He didn't have any horse to ride atop this time, nor a flying sword or a spirit beast, so he just had to walk.
Since he was a cultivator, he could sprint constantly without breaking a sweat, so that's just what he did.
He felt that the sight of an eight-year-old sprinting faster than any man or beast was quite odd to a mortal's eyes.
He moved fast across the terrain, and after three hours of continuous running he arrived at a large area of flat land.
At the centre of the land was a walled town. The walls were tall, made from stone bricks, and there were several wheat fields sitting outside the town.
Beyond the walls were some wooden and stone brick buildings in a medieval style.
Multiple farm animals roamed the flat lands, grazing on the green, frosty grass.
The winds were bitter today, and dark clouds swept through the sky.
He could feel light rain drops and frowned.
His expectations for a fantasy world were somewhat distorted in the past. It was much colder and wetter than he could ever imagine.
Li Zian made his way past the town- there was no use going into a mortal town like that, he should just kill the wolves quickly and be done with it.
He entered the nearby woodlands, stepping across wet leaves and soggy ground. Birds chirped simple songs from the treetops, and wildlife freely roamed around.
He caught sight of the occasional fox or rabbit, but no wolves.
He sent out his divine sense, letting it expand for up to fifty meters in radius all around him before it suddenly stopped- this was his limit.
And there they were- a pack of thirteen wolves, crossing through the woods. They didn't run or make noise; they were nearly silent.
He focused his divine sense on the wolves and could see their appearance.
Rough black and brown fur, sinister dark eyes, sharp claws, a body three metres long and just over a metre tall.
They were a menacing sight, and each of them let off a ferocious aura belonging to a Qi Condensing cultivator.
However, they were all below the fourth layer. Li Zian was confident he could kill them.
He looked up at the tree branches above and dashed up high into the trees.
'The wolves have extremely sharp senses and will be able to tell when I'm coming at them. I should strike fast and catch them off guard.'
He rested his right hand on the hilt of his sword and waited for a while, feeling the wolves grow closer and closer.
Thirty metres…
Twenty…
Fifteen…
Ten…
He leapt forwards off the branch at full speed, drawing his sword.
Droplets of water materialised around his blade and as he swung his sword all the droplets convened into a mighty wave that roared forwards through the air.
The wave of water qi cut through three wolves immediately- decapitating one, bisecting another and ripping out the guts of the third.
They all fell to the ground, their blood and organs splattered over the mud.
Li Zian nearly vomited, if not for the danger right ahead of him.
The other ten wolves leapt forwards, howling loudly at the sudden attack.
They each moved at a speed beyond any normal wolf, swinging their claws at him and opening their jaws ready to chomp down on his body.
Li Zian focused and dashed to the right, swinging his sword and cutting down the tree.
The tree fell, and the wolves' sight on his was obstructed momentarily.
They leapt over the tree, enraged over the fact that their fellow pack members had just been killed.
They spotted Li Zian standing there, arms spread wide open, as if ready to embrace them. A taunt.
An ordinary wolf wouldn't have been able to tell what exactly he was trying to do- they would most likely just attack him.
However these wolves were much more intelligent than your average wolf thanks to their cultivation, and knew he was mocking them. Their anger got the best of them, and the ten wolves charged forwards to attack him.
SPLAT!
Suddenly the wolves all stopped in their tracks to dash to the sides, as two of their members at the back of the charge were cut to pieces.
Three wheels made from water qi ripped through the air, completely tearing apart the two wolves at the back and spraying clouds of fine red mist through the air.
The wheels of water continued onwards, cutting apart another wolf each.
Out of the thirteen wolves in the small pack, eight had died within a matter of seconds.
The remaining five knew the danger wasn't worth the risk, even if they wanted to avenge their fallen brethren, and they fled.
Li Zian frowned and looked at the slaughter he had caused.
'Should I stop?'
He shook his head. 'I can't. I have to complete the mission - I'll just have to get used to sights like this.'
He dashed forwards, catching up to the fleeing wolves, and noticed that they were moving in different directions.
"I see, so that's how you want to play. So be it," He stopped in his tracks.
The wolves could sense he had stopped and quickened their pace to make use of the sudden opportunity.
Li Zian lifted his right hand into the air and concentrated.
Waves of qi rushed out from his divine sea, exiting his body and gathering in the air around him.
The qi began to transform into water qi, creating hundreds of thousands of droplets.
These droplets moved towards one another, connecting and forming large orbs of water qi. There were twenty in total, each around a metre in diameter.
Li Zian concentrated even harder, manipulating the forms of these water orbs into ordinary shaped longswords.
Twenty longswords in total appeared in the air around him after a few seconds.
He swayed his hand forwards and sent the water qi swords flying forwards in the direction of the fleeing wolves, through the thick forest, ripping through trees and shrubbery towards their targets.
He could feel his qi moving further and further away, and his control grew weaker.
He focused hard though, keeping his control as long as possible until…
BAM!
The water swords struck the fleeing wolves, each wolf being pierced by several swords each.
Blood sprayed out, splattering over the wildlife around the spirit beasts as they tumbled and crashed to the ground, their hearts stopping and the qi in their body fading away.
Li Zian sighed and pumped his fist in the air. This form of the Rainfall Sword Technique was extremely difficult, but he was making great progress so far.
He smiled and felt a strange qi move around inside his robes.
He pulled out the piece of paper, and witnessed it burst into flames and turn to ash.
The mission was complete, and he could return to the sect.
--
Deep in the woods, a beast awakened. It could smell the blood in the air, the blood that belonged to its family.
A low rumbling roared across the forest, and the trees shook violently. Birds fled to the sky, and animals hid underground.
The beast emerged from its cave and let out a howl to the dark grey sky above.