Fiend Forest
The warm sun on the unbroken backdrop of blue painted skin warm.
A sword qi zipped strapped past Mu Yu, whisking a swirl of dust up. Once it settled, Lan Ling’er emerged, standing akimbo and tyrannically looking down on the elder before them. The elder wasn’t fazed in the slightest.
“Xu Ye, did you fall on your head? What are you mugging us for?” Lan Ling’er satirically asked.
Mu Yu heaved a pent up breath, relieved Lan Ling’er came back to rescue him.
Xu Ye snorted after he processed what Lan Ling’er said. “Dustfallen Sect? Get lost, you plagues!”
Mu Yu: Say what? We’re a dominant sect now?
“You were gone by the time I looked back. Can you stop giving me extra grief?” complained Lan Ling’er. “Running around blindly when you’re ignorant, thanks for wasting our time! If everyone can stop you, we’ll still be flying around by the time night falls!”
Mu Yu, mellow, vigilantly glanced over to Xu Ye, who was also monitoring them but didn’t show any plans to obstruct them. The duo took to the sky. Mu Yu let out a breath of relief once Dragon Tiger Gorge was out of sight.
“No need to thank me. I wouldn’t have come back for a burden if Shifu and First Senior Brother didn’t ask me to watch over you.”
“I wouldn’t have needed your help if I didn’t run into that geezer!”
“You think you’re a hot shot just because you’re an advanced cultivator? There’s this thing in life called ‘backing’. You heard of that? Do you think they could remain in the valley if he wasn’t skilled? So what if you can thrash his subordinates?”
“How do you explain him letting us go as soon as he heard we were from Dustfallen Sect, then?” Mu Yu assumed the elder had qualms offending them since Feng Haochen was a Golden Core Realm cultivator.
Lan Ling’er suddenly pulled over. Her smug expression ticked Mu Yu off because it was a sign she was about to jab at one of his faults.
“Yet you call yourself a disciple of Dustfallen Sect. Second Senior Brother put them in their place while he was still with us. For that reason, they don’t dare to pick fights with us. You should be grateful to Second Senior Brother.”
Mu Yu bit down on his lip. As irate as he was, he had to acknowledge Lie Shang was skilled. Up until then, he only heard of Lie Shang’s feats. Since Lie Shang was able to defeat those he struggled against, he had to acknowledge the former was superior. He concluded Lie Shang had to also have reached Golden Core Realm.
***
“Valley Master, are we just going to let them go?” grumbled the bearded man.
“What gives you the idea you can mug Dustfallen Sect?”
“Why do we have to fear an obscure and tiny sect?”
“I’ll give you a spirit stone if you can find a single one on any of their members. Is your skull empty?!”
The elder had a point. However, if they could still maintain autonomy on the mountain after so many years, perhaps there was more to them than met the eye. That being said, it was frustrating to have to let the two go without getting even.
Memories gushed into the elder’s mind. He recalled the arrogant and indifferent disciple from Dustfallen Sect who adopted an agile and sharp style. Had he not shown mercy, Dragon Tiger Gorge would already be history. Feng Haochen’s relaxed nature sent chills down his spine for some reason.
Dustfallen Sect was a symbol of poverty, but they weren’t pushovers.
***
Lan Ling’er didn’t fly high again. She flew just in front of Mu Yu to lead the way and chide him. The defeat at Dragon Tiger Gorge dampened Mu Yu’s ego. Helpless, he covered his ears and rolled his eyes. Out of nowhere, Lan Ling’er smacked his hands off his ears and pointed to a lush forest up ahead. “There are a lot of fiends in the forest up ahead. Kill a few so that we can collect some spirit stones.”
“Why does a girl sound so delighted to ill fiends? Is being reserved beyond you?” grumbled Mu Yu.
“Why is a boy so whiny?”
It was a challenge to go to Pine City, where the academy was located and used spirit stones as currency.
“If you want to purchase clothing, you best shop at a cultivator’s store. Cultivators use celestial silk as their clothing material. It’s head and shoulders above common silk’s quality. If you want to dine, go to a restaurant cultivators run. Ordinary folks wouldn’t be able to serve fiends.” Lan Ling’er turned and quickly descended at the forest and stored away her sword.
Mu Yu explicated, “Yeah, and so you can purchase celestial rouge, I bet.”
“What’s it to you? We can’t love ourselves?”
Mu Yu followed behind Lan Ling’er, head down.
Like cultivators, fiends were split into different categories. The duo was only capable of tackling Level Two fiends for the meantime. Only Golden Core Realm cultivators could handle Level Three fiends. It wasn’t uncommon for fiend hunting to turn into cultivator hunting.
“We’re only aiming for the Level Two fiends. Stick close to me. I’m not rescuing you if you get caught,” asserted Lan Ling’er, serious for once.
Mu Yu only filled the shoes of the audience when he went hunting with Cheng Yan, but he did learn some tricks just watching. Given Lan Ling’er always travelled solo to the academy and returned without a blemish, it was a testament to her capabilities. Mu Yu inwardly considered her scarier than the fiends.
“Stop.” Lan Ling’er abruptly signalled to stop with her hand.
Mu Yu almost crashed in Lan Ling’er. He spotted a hand-sized brown rodent chomping on a pine cone. “It’s just a rodent.”
Whoosh! The rodent vanished right as a green silhouette zipped by. A green snake took the rodent’s place. It oddly was about as thick as five bundled chopsticks and had a tiny head.
“It’s Level Two fiend, green yama.”
“Where did the rodent go?” asked a confused Mu Yu.
“In the green yama’s belly. It’s a small and smaller than a lot of animals, but it’s dangerously fast and able to devour animals bigger than itself. Its saliva contains a rapid-acting venom that will instantly melt its prey in its mouth.”
Mu Yu widened his eyes. “Sheesh. What do we do if it bites us?”
“Don’t worry. It won’t go after any life forms larger than what it can devour. Having said that, we can’t capture it due to its speed. Just stay alert.” Lan Ling’er waved a hand to indicate they could continue advancing.
Mu Yu pressed his hand on a tree. He seized control of the trees and used them to survey the entire forest. He could see fiends hiding in shrubs. If he willed it, he could capture the fiends using the trees.
They soon heard heavy footsteps resembling a galloping horse resonating in the forest. Upon listening closer, they confirmed it was heavier than a galloping horse.
“What now?” remarked Lan Ling’er.
“It’s a flame horse,” relayed Mu Yu.
Even without hearing its footsteps, Mu Yu could identify the horse since he saw one before. Though it was enveloped in flames, the flames couldn’t set the trees ablaze – probably had something to do with the forest’s law. They were a violent race that immolated themselves upon death. Consequently, there was no value in killing them. Some claimed they were descendants of fire element demons. Perhaps they were correct. Worth considering, however, was elemental demons’ intelligence was on par with humans, while fiends were classified fiends due to their inferior intelligence.
Lan Ling’er glanced at Mu Yu, doubtful. She focused in to the quick gallop. She informed, “I think it’s coming our way” and pulled Mu Yu along as she soared up to a tree.
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