Save Yourself

Mayor Chen made his way through the bamboo forest, and when he came out on the other side he saw the large group of cultivators fighting against the beast tide. The first that caught his attention was a couple of streaks of color as he recognized that several people had just performed an escape technique. Looking around the scene, he finally found Lord Rui and Xue Jian watching the situation in front of them, so he walked over.

"Lord Rui, if you wish I will escort you, your family, and your subordinates to my residence to ensure your safety", the mayor offered.

"No need", Rui Zhong replied, "I didn't realize how talented the youth of this city was. I'm impressed by their performance so I've decided to watch over them to ensure their safety."

Both the mayor and guard captain didn't understand what Rui Zhong was talking about, but the mayor did his best to avoid letting anyone know.

"Captain Lan, I believe with three golden core cultivators here, we are in the safest location", Mayor Chen remarked, "Can you go ensure our city guard is fulfilling their duty of protecting the citizens."

The captain bowed to the three senior cultivators, "As directed, I will take my leave."

Captain Lan returned to the bamboo forest, and quickly went to direct the efforts to defend the southwestern corner. As Rui Zhong suggested, Mayor Chen watched the combatants and evaluated their efforts. The beasts invading were a mix of boars, deer, and buffalo varying in strength from early Qi Gathering to late Qi Gathering realm.

After ten minutes of watching, the mayor began to understand what Lord Rui was talking about. He witnessed the group of youngsters fighting much more proficiently than he expected. He recognized that the defenders mostly belong to the Dusky Peak sect, with only a small group from the other two sects of Blue moon city, the Verdent Grove and Ironclad Forge sects. Everyone else was a loose cultivator, but Mayor Chen was amazed that even their skills were much higher than the average loose cultivator.

A new wave of beast entered the the breach in the walls, and Mayor Chen could tell they held equal strength to early Foundation Establishment realm cultivators. A group of cultivators at the Foundation Establishment realm charged forward to engage the new arrivals. The weakest cultivators became much more strategic as they did their best to attack enemies they could handle as the ones that were stronger grouped up to take on the stronger beasts.

Mayor Chen had already decided that once this attack had finished, he would take the time to investigate this store more. It didn't take long for everyone to notice that the number of beasts entering the hole in the defenses had decreased, and when everyone looked up, could see why. A line City guards were spread out on top of the city walls with crossbows, and they were constantly firing into the tide of beasts. A couple of yelps signaled that the guards had either injured or killed the wolves responsible for directing the tide towards the city. Without those wolves guiding them, a portion of the tide split off and abandoned the attack on the city. Soon, the beasts that had entered the breach were taken care of by the combined efforts of the customers and the city guards. The customers grew worried about the reduced number of enemies, and they went through the hole in the wall to find more targets. The mid and later Foundation Establishment realm cultivators became worried about not participating, so they followed the others out and began finding spiritual beasts to fight as well. The three golden core cultivators followed the rest with the purpose of protecting them, but after watching the escape method of the bracelet work, they decided to just enjoy the show.

The spiritual beasts sensed a change in the wind, and began to scatter or retreat back to their homes in the forest or the plains. The spirit wolves were unable to continue their plans, and quickly vanished as well. Once the danger had passed, the bracelets everyone was wearing dimmed, and everyone could tell the event was finished.

When the crowd of customers returned to the pond, they found Fang Shi waiting their return.

"Congratulations to everyone for your participation", he announced to everyone, "I will call out the top three scorers based on the points that were tallied by my senior. If your name isn't called, report to the service counter you signed up at to receive the token for three hours of cultivation pod or cultivation room training time."

Seeing that everyone was eager, Fang Shi continued, "One last note, I did say before that winners could gift their prizes to others but they cannot sell it. This might be a strange stipulation, but if a prize token is sold and they try to claim it, we will reject them.

Now for what you've been waiting for, our third place winner is Jian Hua, please make your way here to get your prizes."

A young man of the late Qi Gathering realm in well worn black robes made his way to Fang Shi, who handed the a pair of items to the former.

"Think about what you want and present it to the shop in question once you've decided", Fang Shi instructed the young man.

"Thank you, Owner Fang", Jian Hua had no issues showing his gratitude to a boy younger than himself, "I will treasure this opportunity forever."

"Next, can Elder Yu Lu please step forward", Fang Shi asked.

A lovely woman started walking towards Fang Shi as the latter continued to speak, "Elder Yu is from the Verdant Grove sect, and is our second place finisher."

The two exchanges a few words before bowing to each other, and the elder returning to her position with a small smile on her face.

"And finally, the cultivator with the highest point total is…Rui Lan", Fang Shi couldn't contain his surprise and quickly tried to cover up the slip in composure as the smug girl made her way over.

"Congratulations on your excellent performance", Fang Shi said, returning to his normal way of speaking, "I'm sure you are an inspiration to us all."

"Thank you, Merchant Fang", Rui Lan smirked, "I wonder how it's possible to have such a thick face?"

"As the daughter of a merchant, it's more surprising you do not", Fang Shi retorted as he turned back towards the crowd.

"I don't know how often of when more competitions will happen", he told everyone, "But more will happen in the future, so there will be more opportunities then."

His customers did cheer up knowing there would be future events, so Fang Shi slightly bowed to them and returned to his seat.

Deep in the Verdant grove forest that bordered Blue Moon city, a giant spiritual direwolf had returned to its den with its followers.

(Shadowfang, how was the raid?), a subordinate who was waiting said on their arrival.

(There were unforeseen circumstances), Shadowfang replied, (We should relocate to one of our hidden dens, (There are some annoying bastards that might try to bother us soon.)

(Won't that cause an issue with Stonepaw?), the wolf responded.

(We aren't the followers of the bears), Shadowfang retorted, (We were just working together to bring down that city. Anyways, immediately send out the word that we are moving.)

As the sun moved closer towards setting, a large pack of wolves were gathered around their leader.

(Split up into five groups, and head to one of other dens), Shadowfang directed his pack, (Enjoy yourselves for a season, and then we will all return here after.)

The wolves split up into five groups, and Shadowfang was leading his group towards one of the more hidden dens. Several days later, his group had settled down in a their new temporary residence as he felt he could relax.

Shadowfang was resting in a burrow that was shielded from the sun, and he was enjoying the cool air when one of his pack approached him, (Boss, we have detected a small group in the air that seem to be searching for us.)

(Alright), Shadowfang stood and shook his fur to cleanse the dirt from his fur, (Lead me over there.)

The pair stealthily made their way to where the lookouts had gathered, and Shadowfang could already see the group of boars and deer wandering around. He positioned his ears to focus on their movements, and could hear their voices as they spoke to each other.

(…don't like walking around like this looking for wolves, this is stupid), a boar snorted, (We are just asking to be eaten.)

(The Verdant deer king and Irontusk has ensured us that as soon as we can locate those wolves, they will take action), a deer assured his companions.

Shadowfang gave a look to the wolves that had brought him here, and they immediately knew his commands. In the time it took to roll around to mask his scent, his pack had surrounded the search party. A portly boar was sniffing the foliage at random intervals, and not paying attention when it suddenly felt pain. To the horror of the other boars and deer, they witnessed a giant direwolf rise from the brush with the fat boar in its jaws.

(Sh, Shad, Shadowfang, you must submit yourself to, to, judgement of the Verdant deer king and Irontusk), a deer said with much difficulty.

After hearing more screams of pain, the deer that spoke realized that its teammates were also being killed, and turned to run just as three more wolves pinned it to ground. It watched in fright as Shadowfang made his way to the shaking deer.

(It seems those two have forgotten what fear is), the direwolf said to the captured deer, (Its true we decided to move, but that was to avoid troublesome problems and not because of fear. Oh well, this seems like a good way for more meals to be delivered to my pack.)

Soon, the pack wolves were dragging their kills home to share with the rest, and Shadowfang sat back in his favorite spot.

(Let them hop around like the prey they are, in the meantime I need to figure out what happened at the human city), Shadowfang said before beginning to eat his meal.

Wei Liang had just arrived at Blue Moon city, having followed a pair of mysterious masked strangers from Azure Sky city. He had saw the masked pair traveling through the city smelling like ingredients for a 2nd ranked pill, and had decided to follow them. Not long after, he had seen stop by a pavilion, buy and selling various alchemy items and decided that his destiny laid in the hands of these two.

Wei Liang followed the two when they left the cit, and was surprised as they traveled several days without rest. Another thing that shocked him was that the men he followed were heading in a familiar direction. He had originally grew up near the Verdant Grove sect, and was thought to be an alchemy prodigy, but reality was cruel.

Wei Liang quickly went from a highly respected young master to a dropout. He joined a sect in the Azure Sky city limits that focused on alchemy, but after just a few years was asked to leave. He thought it must be fate that he was returning home, because he had already considered doing so.

At this moment, Wei Liang was watching the two walking down a small road in the farmland of the outer city. Soon, he saw a giant wall around a property that as far as her knew, had no value. He hesitated for a moment, but when he considered his circumstances, he walks into the gate. Just like most guests, Wei Liang was very impressed as he strolled the pavilion, investigating the situation. That was until he found the alchemy shop, and was gobsmacked as he had never seen so many pills with pill clouds on them. In fact, they all had pill clouds which shouldn't be possible, but was a clue that a great master worked here.

After walking around and listening to other customer's conversations, Wei Liang found that the owner was a young man named Fang Shi, and that he normally watched the main store during the day. The young alchemist made his way back to the main store, where he remembered seeing the plethora of spiritual fruits and rice on sale.

"Owner Fang Shi?", Wei Liang nervously asked when he saw a 12 or 13 year old boy sitting behind the counter.

"Yes?", Fang Shi answered in a polite but reserved manner, "I haven't met you before, is there anything I can do to help you?"

"I'm Wei Liang, an alchemist", he introduced himself in a respectful way, "And I wish to study under the alchemist who works for this store."

"Oh", Fang Shi said as he started to evaluate the man in front of him, "Sure, I'll create a contract later, why don't you look around while I finish my shift."