Undercurrents

Back in the village. On the western side was the residence of the Qing family. 

At its center was the main manor. Deep inside the main manor where it seemed no light could penetrate, in a dark room which seemed like an abyss. 

In this room where the other members of the Qing family were not allowed to enter. 

Only the patriach of the Qing family could enter this room. No one was privileged to know any of the secrets of this room. 

A tall man stood in this room with his eyes closed as if in deep contemplation, he wore a black coat which seemed to be refined from the finest material in the world. In this dark room, the coat seemed glowed with light, showing a hint of majesty. It seemed it had an interesting history.

The man had his left hand stretched forward as if to touch something, but there appeared to be nothing in front of him except a gourd bottle filled with dense cracks floating in mid-air. If another person appeared in this room and looked closer, they would only see an altar with complicated inscriptions right below the gourd bottle. 

But were these the same things reflected in the man's eyes? 

In the man's eyes, he saw an ancient bronze door standing tall right in front of his outstretched arm. The stone door seemed to show traces of time. It was unknown how long that door had been there for.

It looked dull, and it's edges it seemed to be crudely made. One seeing it would think its maker was not paid well enough for the job. 

At this moment, the man opened his eyes slightly. It didn't seem as if there was a disturbance in the surroundings. 

He did not turn any side or move an inch, only his mouth opened.

"What is it?"

There was silence in the room, and in the next moment, another sound that seemed to be coming from a different room spoke softly.

"Patriach, that person has finished. He requests to have a word with you."

After these words were uttered, there was no response. The servant did not show any impatience awaiting a response.

A moment later, the man spoke again, "Tell him, the rest of what has been promised will be given to him by the Sky Penance Sect."

Hearing these words, the servant was stunned for a moment. 

The patriach seemed to have noticed this, and his eyes showed a sharp glint.

He spoke again in a cold commandeering tone, "Is there anything else?"

The servant feeling this presence immediately realized his mistake. He felt as if he had been eyed by a ferocious beast. His back broke out in cold sweat and answered hurriedly, "N-no my lord."

Even after the servant said this, the presence of the patriach did not seem to diminish at all. Instead, it seemed to turn even more violent.

Outside of the manor, the servants who were out doing their due duties stopped feeling the tremors coming from the manor. In a short moment, they seemed to have been engulfed by an unheard-of presence. They all felt their existence turn miniscule.

No one felt safe.

In another room inside the manor stood four figures. One of them was a man wearing a black cloak. He seemed to be a bit agitated. He had already done what the Qing family's patriach had requested of him and is now waiting for his reward. 

He had a bit of arrogance and annoyance etched on his face. He was not pleased with the treatment this family had shown him. Outside of this village, his name could make any crying child turn silent. 

If it were of the deterrence of the Sky Penance Sect's elder, he would have long flattened this group of ants, which seemed to not know what was good for them. 

Seeing this man's face, Qing Yue and Qing Luo, who stood not far away, felt a tinge of dissatisfaction. This man was clearly a guest, but he was acting all high and mighty. 

The female attendant standing quietly behind the two girls narrowed her eyes. There was a sharp glint which seemed to be hidden in it, but how could such a thing escape the senses of this man. 

He couldn't tolerate their treatment any longer. He was now determined to teach this servant a lesson. However, it was just at this moment when he was about to release his aura when a terrifying presence engulfed him. In that moment, he turned docile and didn't dare to act rashly.

He eyes darted around the room as if searching for a hidden enemy.

He was deeply shocked, never had he thought that he would encounter such a presence in this small mortal family. 

"Did an elder personally descend the mountain for this small family?"

He immediately thought an elder from the Sky Penance Sect had been lying silent in the manor, but he then immediately rejected this idea. He didn't find the family all that interesting to actually make an elder personally act, and besides, it wasn't easy for such a person in high status to act to a non-entity like himself.

"Could there be another lone cultivator such as him?"

This was the only thought that seemed logical, and his mind had seemingly helped him convince himself that this was the most likely scenario. Besides him, it seemed the Patriach Qing Wei had hired another cultivator without his knowledge. 

"How deceiving!"

The arrogant man nearly spit blood. He felt deep regret. After all his years of cultivation, he wasn't refining himself into an idiot. He had already realised that this presence seemed to be directed at him. Just when he was about to quickly appease this hidden expert, the two girls' words shocked him greatly.

"Father..."

The man's mind seemed to have been thrown into chaos. 

"What?"

He thought maybe these two girls had turned into idiots just by encountering this presence, but looking at their expressions, it didn't seem as if they were playing a trick. 

The man immediately turned his attention to the attendant standing behind these two girls. She was now standing with her body slightly leaning forward as a show of respect.

"What the fu..."

The man's thoughts were thrown into even more chaos. He now felt like the owner of this presence might actually be that Patriach Wei, but he still had some doubts.

Could it really be?

He looked up to the rooms ceilings, feeling as if there were invisible eyes lying quietly there. 

Shortly after a voice echoed in this room, "Very good, you've done well, Luo'er with this treasure, your future prospects will be limitless."

Hearing this voice, the man became convinced that this voice was indeed from Patriach Wei. He had a belly of questions, but he didn't dare to ask them and remained silent.

He didn't feel dissatisfied that he was being ignored.

"Yue'er you have just as much potential as your sister, practice well and don't let this father down."

Hearing these words, the two girls immediately responded, "Yes, father." 

After the exchange ended, the man felt a gaze lock onto him. His forehead throbbed with a sensation that seemed to warn him of danger. It had been a very long time since he felt this way. As a cultivator, he immediately knew what this meant. 

He didn't try to think whether the patriach was using an artefact or not. In the cultivation world, power was power, and it was everything. There was no room to say the other party had used underhanded means, the winner was king.

In that moment, he didn't dare to move an inch. Still rooted in place, the gaze didn't show any emotion or intent. 

After a moment, the gaze slowly receded. 

The man felt the pressure on him lessen a bit, but just before that presence completely vanished, Patriach Wei's voice echoed once more.

This time, no one else heard anything. Qing Luo and Qing Yue smiled brightly. Qing Yue turned to the man with a look that seemed to say, "See that, if you keep acting like you did before, then it won't be long before you receive your first flowers."

Qing Yue's act did not even register in the man's mind. Only the contents of the last words the Patriach had said kept reverberating in his mind. 

Seeing the man's stunned and stiff posture, Qing Yue lifted her head in a proud manner with her chest, heaving up a bit, thinking that her actions were effective.

Qing Luo and the attendant remained silent. 

"Impossible, he knows!"

The man's thoughts were a mess as he kept recalling the last words Patriach had left for him, "As expected of a half-step Vessel forging."

The Patriarch had only left those words. This left him both shocked, fearful, and alert. This face immediately turned ashen.

The man was no fool. He had cultivated for many years to reach this step and considered himself invincible under the Vessel forging realm. 

He could clearly tell that this message was a warning. He didn't dare to underestimate this family no longer. To him, it seemed like a hidden dragon or crouching tiger. 

He wouldn't have mattered to him if the patriach had only mentioned that he was still an essence condensing cultivator. At most, he would just be wary, but now, after hearing this message, he was no longer as arrogant as before. 

Most people outside this village only knew he was at the peak of essence condensing, but none of them knew that he had taken half a step towards Vessel forging realm.

The fact that the Patriach knew this and was still able to convey this to him spoke volumes. 

He didn't want to take unnecessary risks. It was not easy to reach this point.

With these thoughts, he immediately calmed his mind and adjusted his posture. Seemingly noticing this change, the two ladies standing opposite him were baffled. 

Qing Luo showed no apparent reaction on her face.

The man was no longer arrogant. He now appeared reserved. The female attendant's lip curled up. She didn't seem to hide this. Qing Yue's showed a cunning smile. At this moment, she seemed to carry a bit of charm. It seemed the both of them thought the same.

Even a dragon has to coil inside the Qing residence. 

The man simply ignored these provocations and remained silent.

Meanwhile, back in the secret room, the servant was about to collapse as he was closest to the source of this presence. Now that the aura had disappeared, he could now breathe. It now appeared to him that at some point, he had stopped breathing completely. "

"You may leave."

Hearing these words, the servant felt like he had grabbed a staw at life and without any delays he had vanished.

Patriach Qing Wei snorted coldly. He had not intended on dealing with this servant. After sensing the hired man's motive, he had decided to teach him a lesson. 

He didn't think further of this and closed his eyes. In that moment, the dark room returned to its deathly silence.

…

Everyone's heart skipped a beat. No one could have expected that in that hopeless moment, a hammer like object would appear out of nowhere. 

No, it was not quite right to say it had appeared out of nowhere, more like it appeared from a direction they never expected. 

Even this black shadow disregarded this person in the group. He did not have a tall frame, but his reaction speed surprised everyone in the group. Even Bai Ming was shocked.

A healer can also fight like this?

No matter how one looked at it, the man and his weapon did not seem to match. Originally, when the healer was brought over, looking at him, one would think that the load he had on his back was just medicine, natural herbs, and other useful tools for treatment and maybe dissection.

No one could have expected that what made the load on his back seem too big was his weapon, but when they thought about it seriously, it seemed logical.

How can a man survive out in the forest without something to rely on. Since the moment Chi Huo had joined the hunting expedition, he had not done it purely for the hunt or to perform a meritorious service to the village, but to take this opportunity to go out in this uncharted territory to pick out some more medicinal herbs for himself. He already had a plan to stock pile some of these herbs to last this coming winter.

After all, a man had to live on something, right?

The black shadow, which had pounced on Cui Rong, was still in midair, and an object, seemingly heavy, was flying straight at it.

However, the black shadow could not be out done by this, given its speed from before. It was evident it also had a very fast reaction speed.

In that instance, abandoning its original target, it twisted its body in midair but unfortunately in the air it could not exert its full capabilities, so it could not completely move out of the way of the incoming object.

BAAAM!!!

The hammer like weapon struck the black shadow on its hind leg. In that moment, the black shadow felt the force coming through this object. Had this strike landed on its chest, the sight would not have been pleasing.

Fortunately, thanks to its reflex ability, it had dodged what might have seemed to be a fatal strike.

Still in midair, the shadow seemed to have changed its trajectory. The claws on its front leg landed on Cui Rong's shoulder. With a slight force, they dug into her flesh, spilling some blood in the process.

Cui Rong had previously failed to react to the black shadow, but when its claws penetrated her skin, her unresponsive body seemed to jolt awake. In that moment, she twisted her body as if to fall back. This lessened the impact on her shoulder and the black shadow's front leg.

The black shadow did not mind this. Its priority was to move out the way of the hammer like object and regain its footing. In the air, it was completely disadvantaged.

Like the wind, the black shadow quickly passed Cui Rong and landed on the group's right side. Without any delay, the members quickly regrouped and turned to face it.

After landing on the ground, the black shadow moved a bit further from the group, then turned to watch them.

Cui Rong, whose back had made contact with the ground when the black shadow landed, also stood up. Feeling the tingling pain from her shoulder, she felt glad, in that last moment, she had reacted as she did. Although right now her shoulder seemed to have been dislocated, it was not an unsolvable problem. Had she not responded in time, then a part of her upper body might have ended up being crippled.

In this instance, she turned around to look at the being that attacked her.

Their eyes met.

This time, she saw its appearance and size. It was a twelve feet tall, four-legged creature whose black fur lacked any pattern. It had eyes that seemed to glow in the dark, its pupils compressed into vertical slits and it had sabre like teeth. 

Hiss.

Bai Ming's trio sucked a breath of cold air, seemingly recognizing this creature. In the village, there was a list of the top five beasts one should avoid engaging in battle with. They were extremely dangerous and could only be dealt with by an expert hunter or warrior and looking at the people present in this group, none of them seemed to fit well with either of the two respectable titles.

Three of them were poisoned, and even in their peak condition, they still could not be counted as expert hunters. It was the same for the one bearing the hammer like weapon. The two who were carrying a sickly person were not even qualified to be called hunters.

Even though Chi Huo had once landed a strike. The entire group knew for a fact that they could not truly contend with this beast.

An image of a certain creature on the fierce beast chart of the village seemed to overlap in their minds. The beast ranked as the fourth on the beast chart.

The sabre toothed jaguar.

It boasts a strong, flexible body, extreme reflex, sharp teeth, night vision, and strong sense of smell.

Recalling how it was described matched with its previous performance. Everyone couldn't help but feel anxious.

In that precarious moment, when they were about to be overwhelmed by fear, a figure took a step forward, seemingly blocking their view of the beast in front. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to this. It was none other than Chi Huo, with his hammer like weapon in hand, seeming ready to swing at any moment.

Seeing the person who had taken a challenging step forward, the sabre toothed jaguar's pupils and mouth opened wider, baring its fangs at the person who had attacked it.

The people behind Chi Huo seemed to want to fall back, but at this moment, another figure took a step forward.

It was Si Niang. Although he did not like this Chu Huo, he had to admit that in this moment of extreme danger, he had taken the right action.

They were facing a man-eating beast, even though they knew that it could potentially slaughter them all as if killing dogs and chickens. It was not wise to cower in fear.

Now was not the time to show fear but courage. If they wished to see the light of tomorrow shine on their faces, they had to stand their ground. Looking at the figures in front, Bai Ming and everyone present seemed to understand this.

One by one, they followed suit with their weapons tightly gripped in hand. Glaring back at the saber-toothed jaguar, they seemed to have formed a tight formation without any gaps in defence.