Chapter 451 : Battle Spirits Forest (1)
It was now late into the night and the Battle Spirits Forest was pitch dark. Jun Wu Xie and her teammates held their torches up high as they traversed through the dense trees and vegetation, lighting up the way before them.
The roars of the Spirit Beasts rang out occasionally through the darkness. In the quiet night, the myriad sounds from the forest made the whole place seem much more terrifying.
The torch in Qiao Chu's hand was burning brightly. He swung the torch to shine onto the trees surrounding them many times and peered at the map held in his hand intently for a long while. He finally gave up.
"And they call this a map? Who can read it! ?" Qiao Chu shoved the map in his pocket in disgust and exclaimed loudly to his companions in exasperation.
Fan Jin had been to this forest a few times and when he heard Qiao Chu, he said with a laugh: "The map will only provide us with a general idea of the direction we are to take. Moreover, it is late in the night now and visibility is low. Even if we have a map, we will not be able to see our way clearly. Why don't we find a place to sleep first and wait for morning to come. We will still have ample time to hunt for prey after the sun rises."
Fan Jin was a little older than the others and he was the only one among them that had come to this forest before. Hence, the others naturally looked to him for suggestions on how they were to move within the dense forest.
"I think that will work." Qiao Chu nodded in agreement.
"The forest is more dangerous at night and there are some nocturnal spirit beasts that will come out to hunt for food. If we do not intend to become dinner for them, I suggest we rest up high among the trees." Fan Jin warned gravely.
The group nodded one after another and looked around for aged trees. Their branches were broader and their canopies denser, which made them more suitable places for the companions to rest.
Fan Jin took out a coil of rope from his hip and attached a hook to one end. He was just about to throw it up when he saw Qiao Chu and his gang going up into the treetops with a quick leap!
Their movements were light and graceful and with a single bound, they reached the lower branches and they quickly went up into the higher reaches with a few more quick leaps in succession going left and right effortlessly.
Fan Jin's eyes sparkled as his heart was overcome in awe.
He had initially thought that Jun Xie had gathered the group together just because they had previously traveled together to come to the Zephyr Academy, and even if they turn out to be weak and could not contribute much, he had prepared himself to at least keep the group safe while they were in the forest. But what he just saw told him that these youths were neither weak nor unskilled.
Under the darkness of the night, where visibility was extremely poor, his companions had still been able to locate the necessary footholds with such pinpoint accuracy to reach the upper reaches of the trees in lightning quick time, and these showed him how nimble and agile his companions really were.
Fan Jin knew for a fact that even in the main division of the Zephyr Academy, not many would be capable enough to match them in such a feat.
"Throw up the rope. We'll haul the two of you up." Qiao Chu was totally oblivious of the fact that their show of agility had already far surpassed any standards that disciples of the branch division were "supposed" to possess.
Fan Jin removed the hook from the end of the rope and threw the rope's end up to Qiao Chu. "Just pull Little Xie up, I'll climb up myself." Fan Jin handed the other end of the rope to Jun Xie and she looped it around her hips, allowing Qiao Chu to pull her up into the branches. Fan Jin imitated his companions and leapt up, leaping through the branches to go up into the upper reaches of the trees.
As they laid down among the higher branches well concealed from sight, everyone quietened down. The moonlight shone through the thick canopies of leaves, and the tiny rays that fell through shone on the companions, looking as if the stars had descended upon their bodies.
"Sigh, I haven't slept like this for a long time. Feels rather nostalgic." Qiao Chu was reminded of something and he mumbled with a laugh. He turned his head to one side and saw that Jun Xie was on the branch just next to his and he was puzzled by what he saw Jun Xie did next.
Jun Wu Xie was not resting but she took out a porcelain bottle from her sleeves. She poured some white powder into her hand and smeared it on the branch she was leaning against. After she was done, she threw the bottle to Qiao Chu and simply said: "Many bugs, apply it."
~
~
~
Chapter 452 : Battle Spirits Forest (2)
Qiao Chu did as Jun Wu Xie told him and after applying it, the bottle was passed around and everyone followed suit.
Jun Wu Xie lay down on her branch after that and the little black cat lay just above her head, its furry tail hanging over the branch, swishing back and forth.
"Meow."
[This forest is rather similar to that place.]
Jun Wu Xie's eyes narrowed at the memory. She spent the initial ten over years in her past life in that demon's lair which had been situated in the middle of a dense forest just like this, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by silence.
Refusing to think anymore of the past, Jun Wu Xie slowly closed her eyes.
When the sun first rays broke across the treetops, a scream tore through the air, causing the companions asleep among the higher reaches of the trees to startle awake.
The screaming was coming closer and the leaves on the trees were beginning to rustle.
"Spirit Beast?" Fei Yan sat up suddenly. An earsplitting beastly howl then reverberated in their ears.
Fan Jin was already sitting upright on his branch and his face was creased in a frown. "We are still at the fringes of the forest and there shouldn't be any Spirit Beasts belonging to the higher grade around here."
Just as Fan Jin finished his statement, several ragged figures burst through the vegetation. There were seventeen of them in total and they were dressed in uniforms of the Zephyr Academy. At that moment, they had lost all the semblance of magnificence they had portrayed initially from being an esteemed disciple of the revered Zephyr Academy. Their faces were now covered in dirt and their clothes were all tattered. Several of them had wounds on them and their blood had stained their clothes red. But they did not seem to notice their wounds as all of them ran for their lives.
The youths were already panting heavily from their mad dash and they all hid with their backs plastered against the trees, too tired to run another step further.
The next moment, a large pack of jackals appeared, following the scent of blood. A quick count showed that there were at least more than thirty of them in the pack!
Jackals were Spirit Beasts that belonged to the lowest first grade and they were smaller in size than wolves and did not possess strong attack power. Faced with a jackal, as long as one's ring spirit had awakened, they would be able to manage defeating them without too much difficulty. But jackals were gregarious Spirits Beasts and they always moved together in packs numbering at least three or four and the number can go up into the hundreds in large packs. Each pack was always led by a leader on their hunts for food.
One lone jackal could be easily defeated, but when the numbers in the pack increased, their attack power was multiplied in folds.
The smaller bodies of the jackals meant that they were more nimble of foot. They were innately crafty and they coordinated their attacks when they hunt.
The team that had run here had really been unlucky. They had groped their way blindly through the forest throughout the night and due to the poor visibility, they had lost their way and made a huge detour. They had carelessly stumbled across this pack of jackals when the youths were already exhausted from having trekked such a long distance through treacherous terrain and dense vegetation the whole night. When they found themselves suddenly under the attack of the jackals, many of them panicked and ran for their lives. Fortunately for them, they had a few seniors in their group who had better presence of mind, and that had allowed them to run all the way out here.
But those seniors were mostly injured now and the jackals were relentless and still aggressively chasing down their prey.
"Damn it. To think that we would be pushed so hard by a pack of jackals." A senior whose arm had been bitten by a jackal said, as blood flowed down from the four deep punctures which he had hastily tied up with cloth he had torn out from his clothes.
"I..... I can't run anymore." One of the youths said, gasping for air, and leaning heavily against a tree.
"Zi Mu! We cannot stop!" A senior who was injured shouted, gritting his teeth against the pain.
Li Zi Mu's mind was completely blank, and his legs were starting to cramp up from the mad dash where he had given everything he had in fear of his life, and his face was filled with utter despair.
~
~
~
Chapter 453 : Battle Spirits Forest (3)
"I..... I really can't take another step." Li Zi Mu cried, his face mournful. He felt as if his legs were about to break off.
All the other youths were also depleted. The jackals had pursued them relentlessly half the night and they had bashed their way through the dense forest in the darkness, looking for a way out and avoiding the jackals flanking attacks. They were all at the ends of the rope, both physically and mentally.
"Growl!" A jackal leapt at Li Zi Mu who was still panting heavily and the blood drained from Li Zi Mu's face and he fell back onto the ground in fright. His hand grabbed up the stone he had felt when he fell and threw it at the leaping jackal.
The jackal was extremely agile and avoided everything Li Zi Mu threw at him, its eyes fixated on the youth it was about to pounce on.
Li Zi Mu let out a shrill scream and was still grabbing whatever he could from the ground to throw when his hand closed over something rounded and cold to the touch, and by reflex he threw it out at the jackal as well!
The quick footed jackal dodged that as well and the unidentified white item thrown fell onto the ground and broke into pieces and a white cloud blew out and dispersed into the wind!
The highly aggressive jackal smelt the scent that had spread from the white cloud and suddenly gave out a sharp shrill whine. It stopped its advance and suddenly turned around to run away, its tail in between its legs. When the scent reached the other jackals, all of them suddenly turned tail and fled whining, quickly disappearing from sight.
One moment, the disciples found themselves about to be devoured by the jackals, and the next moment, they saw the jackals suddenly turn around and flee!
The unexpected turn of events had all the exhausted disciples stunned, and totally flabbergasted, including Li Zi Mu.
"Zi Mu, what was that that you threw out earlier?" The senior who was Li Zi Mu's mentor asked in surprise.
"I..... " Li Zi Mu gaped like a goldfish and his eyes finally fell on the unidentified item he had last thrown out on the ground.
Broken white porcelain pieces lay scattered and a white powdery substance could be seen on the dirt.
Li Zi Mu gulped and looked at all the other disciples staring at him.
Actually, he had been the one who had first attracted the attention of the jackals. He had been lost and had stumbled blindly into their territory. He was the one that had brought them that disaster that had almost killed them all. Even the senior that was his mentor had gotten himself bitten by the jackal to save Li Zi Mu. When the jackals had attacked, all the youths had summoned their ring spirits and they had asked Li Zi Mu to summon his as well. But Li Zi Mu had been too terrified when he saw the large number in the pack and he froze completely, incapable of any action.
As they were running for their lives, Li Zi Mu had trailed the others and dragged down the whole team. If he hadn't been a disciple of the Spirit Healer faculty, the other disciples in the team would have long abandoned him.
Li Zi Mu knew at that moment that the whole team was dissatisfied with him, including his mentor, and he desperately needed to do something about it to improve his standing and image within the team. Afterall, they still had more than six days to go within the forest, which was filled with endless unknown dangers, and he needed the team's protection to get through it.
"That..... That was something my father gave me. It can drive Spirit Beasts away. I did not have the time to take it out earlier. I'm sorry I caused my seniors to get hurt." Li Zi Mu looked at the others guiltily and claimed the life saving treasure he had carelessly picked up to be his own without shame.
The other youths had been rather displeased with Li Zi Mu, and when they heard Li Zi Mu say he had been the one who had driven the jackals off, they decided not to pursue the matter further. They still harboured a little displeasure, but the fact remained that Li Zi Mu was afterall a disciple of the Spirit Healer faculty and they gave in in the end.
They did not want to burn all bridges with potential Spirit Healers and the other disciples forced themselves to accept Li Zi Mu's apology.
~
~
~
Chapter 454 : Consecutive Slaps - First Form (1)
Down below the trees, Li Zi Mu was trying desperately to gain back a little of his reputation. He was completely unaware that his every action was being closely scrutinised by the people high up among the higher reaches of the tall trees.
"Qiao Chu! The bottle that that kid threw out earlier, wasn't it the same bottle that Jun Xie handed to all of us last night?" Fei Yan's sharp eyes saw the broken porcelain pieces on the ground and turned his head to asked Qiao Chu.
Qiao Chu squinted his eyes and said: "After using it last night, I asked Jun Xie if he wanted it back and he told me no. I just slipped it into my clothes and I guessed it must have dropped out while I was sleeping."
"Oh..... I thought the disciples from the main division were always acting all high and mighty before us but it seems that it's not beneath them to be capable of stealing credit when it's not due to them. When did things that belonged to our Little Xie become his?" Fei Yan said with his eyes narrowed, feeling extremely disgruntled that Li Zi Mu had claimed Jun Xie's medicated powder as his own so shamelessly.
Jun Wu Xie was observing Li Zi Mu silently as he claimed all the credit from his fellow teammates.
"Little Xie, you know him?" Seeing the way Jun Xie was staring at Li Zi Mu, Fei Yan's keen eyes seemed to notice something.
Jun Wu Xie did not reply but it was Fan Jin who cleared his throat lightly instead to say: "That boy below us is Li Zi Mu, and he wasn't too friendly to Jun Xie in the academy."
Fan Jin was being very reserved with his choice of words, Li Zi Mu had merely been unfriendly to Jun Xie! ?
It could be said that the reason that Jun Xie had to suffer under all those curses and admonishments from the other disciples so badly in the academy, had all started when Li Zi Mu had cooked up such a story in the dining hall in the beginning.
If Li Zi Mu had just told the truth then, Jun Xie would not have had to be seen to be a despicable and scheming scoundrel.
"Oh?" Fei Yan's eyes narrowed dangerously.
Hua Yao had already stood up on his branch and he turned to look at Jun Xie to ask: "Him?"
Jun Wu Xie was silent a moment before the words came out of her mouth:
"We'll start with him."
Hua Yao and the others suddenly had a glint in their eyes and only Fan Jin was still rather lost, not understanding what Jun Xie intended to do. And before he could open his mouth to ask what was happening, Hua Yao and the others had already leapt off from the branches!
Li Zi Mu was busy trying to get his teammates to warm up to him. The ring spirits belonging to several of his seniors had also sustained injuries and they asked Li Zi Mu to heal them with his Spirit Healing technique.
However, Li Zi Mu repeatedly refused their requests, an expression of reluctance on his face.
"Li Zi Mu! What do you mean by this! ? Our ring spirits are hurt because we had to save you and now that we ask for a little healing for them, you are rejecting us so adamantly! What is the meaning of this! ?" A fiery youth within the team could not hold back his anger and shouted at Li Zi Mu.
Li Zi Mu turned pale and hid his head between his shoulders without saying a word.
He had been with the Spirit Healer faculty for some time and Gu Li Sheng had been extremely caring to him. That had made Li Zi Mu become very conceited initially. But his conceit had not lasted long as he soon found that no matter how hard he tried, he could never grasp the concept of Spirit Healing itself. Even after being in the Spirit Healer faculty for so long, not to mention healing a ring spirit, Li Zi Mu did not even know how to convert his spiritual power into spiritual energy. And due to the excessive attention Gu Li Sheng showered upon him, all the seniors in the Spirit Healer faculty detested him. Li Zi Mu was reduced to only being able to show off in front of the other disciples from the two other faculties who knew nothing of his incompetence.
And anyone who knew what was really happening under all that pretense, completely despised and ignored him.
And now, his teammates were asking him to heal their ring spirits with the Spirit Healing technique, how was he going to do it? If his teammates got to know how useless he really was, they would definitely give him the boot without a moment's hesitation!
~
~
~
Chapter 455 : Consecutive Slaps - First Form (2)
Li Zi Mu still refused to answer his teammates when right at that moment, several figures fell from above, landing on the ground right before their eyes!
The sudden appearance of the those figures shocked the exhausted youths.
But when they managed to see them clearly in the next moment, their startled hearts calmed back to normal.
Those figures were dressed in uniforms that showed they belonged to the branch division of the Zephyr Academy and when all the others saw clearly that the figures were just the disciples from the inferior branch division, their faces creased into deep frowns immediately.
However, the two other figures that descended right after, greatly surprised the other youths
When Jun Wu Xie and Fan Jin landed on the ground, Li Zi Mu who had been sitting on the ground suddenly jumped up. He surveyed Jun Xie's clean and spotless clothes and when he saw Fan Jin standing protectively next to Jun Xie, an inexplicable surge of jealousy came upon him.
He felt that he was obviously the one that really deserved protection and why would the last Spirit Tournament's fourth ranked Fan Jin protect Jun Xie so much?
Before this, Li Zi Mu had not felt this way before. But he and his team were chased by a huge pack of jackals throughout the night and many of them were covered in wounds, and he had to still swallow his pride and resort to sucking up to his teammates after all this. And what about Jun Xie? He was still safe and sound under Fan Jin's protection without having suffered a single scratch, and his clothes had not even been creased!
If right from the beginning, Jun Xie had not been here, there wouldn't have been the farce about the stealing of the position at the Spirit Healing faculty and Fan Jin might just have taken him under his wing instead!
And if Fan Jin was his mentor, he would be safe from any dangers within the Battle Spirits Forest! When he saw Jun Xie and the several other disciples from the branch division with Fan Jin all looking well rested and still clean, he suddenly felt insanely jealous.
Those thoughts filled Li Zi Mu's mind completely and his eyes that were staring at Jun Xie suddenly became vicious.
"Senior Fan! This is my first time here at the Battle Spirits Forest and am extremely unfamiliar with the surroundings. Can I follow and walk with you from here on? I might not have strong spiritual powers but my ring spirit and Spirit Healing technique would be a great help to you. Would you allow me to tag along with you?" Li Zi Mu had decided he wanted to cling on to the highly skilled Fan Jin and he could not care any less that he was saying all this before his current teammates. He strongly believed that if he hung around Fan Jin long enough, Fan Jin would undoubtedly realise that a Spirit Healer faculty disciple like him was better than Jun Xie in every way!
After Li Zi Mu said that, Fan Jin did not react. However, the senior who mentored Li Zi Mu suddenly found his rage rise!
"Li Zi Mu! You are such a despicable and ungrateful brat!" He had almost been maimed trying to save Li Zi Mu but Li Zi Mu had cleanly forgotten what he had done for him the moment Fan Jin had appeared. He had never met anyone more self centered than Li Zi Mu!
Li Zi Mu gritted his teeth and did not even turn back to face his mentor but continued to look pleadingly at Fan Jin.
Fan Jin stared at Li Zi Mu with a deep frown on his face and his expression was one of utter disgust. The kind of people he had always hated to the core were ungrateful scoundrels just like this.
Fan Jin had acutely noticed after the attack from the pack of jackals, the whole team was looking to be in bad shape, all bruised and battered and their clothes all tattered and torn. But Li Zi Mu on the other hand, did not have a scratch on him compared to the bloody wounds seen on his teammates. It was fairly obvious that the team had been looking out for his safety and Li Zi Mu had so indifferently turned around and asked to switch teams..... How big of a jerk was he?!