Chapter 461: "Consecutive Slaps - First Form (8)"
At the moment the black beast pounced, Hua Yao and Qiao Chu jumped away from Li Zi Mu. The screaming Li Zi Mu had not even managed to see the black beast clearly when he found himself pinned once again, this time on the ground. The black beast slavery jaws opened and bit down on Li Zi Mu's neck. A loud "crunch" sounded and the shrill scream stopped at that moment!
Blood gushed out through the black beast's fangs and splattered all over the dirt turning it red and sticky.
"You still want this?" Drunk Lotus was still dangling the silver wolf as he turned to Jun Wu Xie. Li Zi Mu was dead and it wouldn't be long before the Silver Wolf would fade back into the Spirit World. If Jun Wu Xie wanted to make use of the Silver Wolf to achieve a breakthrough in her spiritual power, she had to do it fast.
Jun Wu Xie nodded and Drunk Lotus hung the wine jar at his hips. He looped an arm around Jun Wu Xie waist and loped easily up the tallest tree, disappearing from everybody's sight in mere moments, hidden among the thick branches and dense leaves.
The black beast let go of Li Zi Mu's neck and sat under the tree, licking its paws with its bloodied tongue.
Everything had happened so quickly and Fan Jin did not have time to react at all, and he just stood there staring blankly at the black beast sitting under the tree.
He had always thought that Jun Xie's ring spirit had been an ordinary black cat and it did not possess any battle prowess. And when the little black cat had morphed into the black beast, he had been so shocked that he had froze!
What grade would a ring spirit who can change its form at will belong to? He dared not even think about it.
At that moment, Fan Jin realised that he knew nothing about Jun Xie. His strength, his ring spirit, his unfathomable and profound knowledge of Medicine.....
"What is Little Xie doing?" Qiao Chu craned his neck to look up into the trees. But Drunk Lotus must have taken extra effort to hide from them as he could not see any sign of them among the trees, not even their shadows.
The rest of the gang just shrugged their shoulders, as they did not mind whatever Jun Xie intended to do.
"You got a big fright?" Hua Yao walked to come beside Fan Jin, and he raised his hand to pat him on the shoulder in comfort, from the perspective of someone who had been through whatever Fan Jin was feeling at that moment.
Fan Jin shook his head vigorously as he sat on the side, unable to squeeze a single word out of his throat.
Li Zi Mu's body was still lying under the tree, his neck snapped in two by the black beast. The mess of blood and gore filled his mind as did the sight of the large widening pool of blood, slowly staining the ground devilishly red.
"Was he really shocked?" Qiao Chu whispered to Rong Ruo as he came to stand beside her, lowering his voice to not let Fan Jin hear him.
Rong Ruo laughed softly: "When you suddenly see a tiny bunny turn into a big bad wolf, you would usually need a little bit of time to properly digest it."
Jun Xie's young age and petite size would make people assume him to be completely harmless. But in actual fact, that tiny bunny when provoked, its ferocity would put many large vicious beasts to shame.
Fan Jin's reaction had been exactly like that. He had always taken the role of a protector with Jun Xie, and had intended to continue protecting him throughout the time they would be in the Battle Spirits Forest. But..... the person he was protecting..... seemed to be quite a tad bit more ferocious than him.....
Besides the fact that Jun Xie had already attained the orange level in his spiritual power, just the black beast alone would be more than what most people could handle, and not forgetting, there was also that white robed youth.....
Fan Jin's fragile little heart took quite a hit at that moment.....
He had fully intended to take on the role as Jun Xie's protector!
Up in the tree, Drunk Lotus gingerly put Jun Wu Xie down on a wide branch, to allow her space to sit crossed legged, in a meditation pose, while he held the twitching Silver Wolf and stood quietly at the side.
It was just yesterday, that Jun Wu Xie had completely healed the Snow Lotus, and that had allowed Drunk Lotus to appear in all his blinding glory today.
"How do you use this?" Drunk Lotus shook the Silver Wolf a little when he saw that only the whites of the wolf's eyes was showing. Although he knew that Jun Wu Xie needed to devour a ring spirit to attain a breakthrough in her spiritual power, however, he had no idea how to go about doing it.
Jun Wu Xie retrieved the Spirit Prison from the cosmos sack, and gave it a slight twist. The Silver Wolf in Drunk Lotus' hand suddenly felt as if an invisible force was pulling at it, and it was gradually sucked into the pristine and crystalline sphere.
Chapter 462: "Consecutive Slaps - First Form (9)"
When Jun Wu Xie had achieved a breakthrough in her spiritual power the first time, she had absorbed the Soaring Serpent. It had been extremely difficult for her that time and Jun Wu Xie had prepared herself for it, and she got Drunk Lotus stay by her side to stand guard for her.
After closing the Spirit Prison, Jun Wu Xie took a deep breath. Just like she did the last time, she turned the top of the Spirit Prison, and closed her eyes, absorbing the spirit's essence emanating from the Spirit Prison into her body.
However, the absorption this time was a lot smoother and it did not cause her much discomfort. Jun Wu Xie devoured the Silver Wolf's spirit completely and felt the power permeating throughout her entire body, and the remnants of bitterness from the Silver Wolf made one feel surprisingly satisfied.
The process was smooth that the absorption left Jun Wu Xie feeling a little concerned. Little did she know that a fifth grade Silver Wolf could not even begin to compared with the Soaring Serpent in the least.
When she had devoured the Soaring Serpent the first time, if it had not been for Jun Wu Yao who stayed by her side, it would have been impossible for Jun Wu Xie to completely absorb the Soaring Serpent. And after Jun Wu Xie had experienced having devoured the mighty Soaring Serpent, devouring a mere fifth grade ring spirit would no longer pose a challenge.
Jun Wu Xie merely used about two hours' time to fully absorb the Silver Wolf's spirit cleanly. After the Silver Wolf's spirit was completely devoured, a yellow glow flared menacingly from Jun Wu Xie's entire body. The explosive flare of yellow light pierced right through the densely overlapping leaves from the canopies of the trees, enveloping the area in a bright warm glow!
Qiao Chu and the others were waiting patiently below the tree when they suddenly felt the waves of spiritual power rippling through the air. They raised their heads to look up immediately and were immensely shocked when they saw the yellow light shining strongly through the leaves high up in the trees.
"Yellow spirit..... Little Xie has broken through to the yellow spirit so quickly!!" Qiao Chu's eyes were wide. If his memory served him correctly, Jun Xie was only fourteen this year and his ring spirit had just awoken not long before. And now, he had already attained the yellow spirit in such a short period of time?
Although Qiao Chu and his gang were able to execute the power of a purple spirit, the effect was just temporary. They had actually used a method that had existed in the Middle Realm to gain the power of a purple spirit for a short period of time, and it was Jun Xie's abnormally fast speed in her increase of power that really amazed them.
A fourteen year old orange spirit already had people tongue tied, if people got to know that Jun Xie had broken through to the yellow level.....
Qiao Chu swallowed subconsciously, as he turned to the only "normal" person among them, to look at Fan Jin.
Fan Jin's face was overcome with utter shock. His jaw dropped, his eyes bulged and he stood still as stone. The "statue's" head was craned all the way back, staring up into the tall trees, as if frozen in time.
Fan Jin was rather talented, having broken through to the yellow level at seventeen, and was considered to be well gifted and rarely seen. Jun Xie was years younger than he was and was already evenly matched to him when his ring spirit had just awoken not too long ago. He wouldn't call that gifted, that was just devilishly monstrous!
Fan Jin's self esteem was suddenly severely devastated!
Moments later, Drunk Lotus came down from the tree with Jun Wu Xie, his pure white flowy robes and graceful descent making him look like a deity had just descended.
Drunk Lotus and Jun Xie had returned, but the Silver Wolf that Drunk Lotus had brought up with him was nowhere in sight. Qiao Chu and the others estimated the time they had been gone and thought that the Silver Wolf must have returned to the Spirit World and they did not probe any further on it.
"What are we going to do with this?" Qiao Chu asked as he kicked at Li Zi Mu's lifeless body. The other youths had seen Li Zi Mu go with Fan Jin and Jun Xie when they left. If anyone were to find Li Zi Mu's body here, it might be difficult to explain themselves.
"Leave him." Jun Wu Xie said as she glanced at Li Zi Mu's body and then continued: "We are here to hunt for Spirit Beasts, and the Spirit Beasts are sure to fight back."
Chapter 463: "Being Cute Has Its Perks (1)"
It finally dawned on Qiao Chu why Jun Xie had asked the black beast to kill Li Zi Mu. Jun Xie had planned this right from the start.
It was a fact, that in the Battle Spirits Forest, disciples were often attacked by the Spirit Beasts. And if they did not dodge in time, quite a number of them would lose their lives here.
In the eyes of all the others from the main division, this puny team of theirs was the weakest among them all. The only one who would be deemed capable was only Fan Jin, but Fan Jin alone would not be able to protect all of them from harm.
Hence, Li Zi Mu's death would become plausible.
"Vicious, that's just vicious." Qiao Chu almost prostrated himself before Jun Xie's deep and complex mind. Jun Xie must have already thought the whole thing through the moment he had first agreed to allow Li Zi Mu to join their team.
Jun Wu Xie looked at Qiao Chu, her face expressionless, and did not say a word.
She had been more concerned on her breakthrough in her spiritual power. Before devouring the Silver Wolf, she had been stuck at the orange level's bottleneck for rather long. Over this period, she had continued to absorb spiritual energy but the level had not increased. And with this breakthrough, it had suddenly released all that stored and pent up spiritual energy within her body and pushed her spiritual power up explosively. Although she had just broken through to the yellow level, she could faintly feel that she was not too far off from green.
The pace at which her powers were increasing, was downright alarming.
Jun Wu Xie gripped the Spirit Prison within her hand tightly. If the chance presented itself, she wouldn't mind devouring another ring spirit before the Spirit Hunt ended.
Jun Wu Xie did not tell the others of her intentions, and they moved out after discussing their way forward a little.
The Battle Spirits Forest in the day, was much easier to traverse than at night, and the checkpoints indicated on the map could mostly be found. The small team made good progress, finding it unexpectedly easy. The occasional low grade Spirit Beast appeared but Qiao Chu and the gang disposed of them quickly, without any difficulty.
The longer Fan Jin was in the team, the more he was overcome with awe. He had initially thought that with the unbelievably gifted Jun Xie in the team, the team had become rather amazing. But they had not gone much further when he witnessed the skills of Qiao Chu and his gang. He was certain that among these youths, not a single one among them had skills inferior to his.
The Zephyr Academy's Spirit Tournament's esteemed fourth in rank, was finding himself continuously shocked into speechlessness by these disciples from the branch division. He really did not know whether to laugh or cry.
They slaughtered all the Spirit Beasts that stood in their way, and they progressed very quickly. Before noon, they arrived at the side of a lake and they decided to rest awhile.
"Summon the Yin Yang Bear and the Double Headed Bone Snake." They had just stopped and Jun Wu Xie immediately turned to Hua Yao and Qiao Chu.
Qiao Chu and the others had noticed earlier when Jun Xie had been intimidating Li Zi Mu, that Jun Xie was actually able to heal the Yin Yang Bear's injuries. When they heard Jun Wu Xie's words, they immediately jumped at the chance and summoned their ring spirits without hesitation.
Because the Yin Yang Bear had already undergone Jun Wu Xie's healing earlier, it was much more alert than the Double Headed Bone Snake. It was not known whether it was Jun Xie's earlier healing that had greatly impressed the Yin Yang Bear, but immediately after it was summoned, it walked tottering to come before Jun Wu Xie, its huge lumbering body like a small hill as it sat down with a loud thump, and raised its furry paw and stretched it out before Jun Wu Xie.
The next moment, Qiao Chu's face was suddenly flushed a deep shade of red.
"Darn it! Can that fat blob be more shameless than that!? It is actually trying to curry favour with someone else besides me! How humiliating !" All the other might know know it, but Qiao Chu was acutely aware of what kind of emotions were going through the Yin Yang Bear at that moment. The Yin Yang Bear was asking to be healed and that stretched out paw was meant as an exchange!
[I'll let you stroke and touch, you heal up my injuries.]
Chapter 464: "Being Cute Has Its Perks (2)"
Qiao Chu was feeling too ashamed to look at Jun Xie. His ring spirit had been guilty of such a shameless and humiliating atrocity. Fortunately, the Yin Yang Bear was incapable of speech, if the Yin Yang Bear had said all that was in its heart then, Qiao Chu would have jumped into the lake to drown himself in humiliation.
Jun Wu Xie raised her eyes and looked at the furry figure before her, its head lowered and its paw extended. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she lifted her hand to slap the Yin Yang Bear's paw aside.
"Oww~" The towering Yin Yang Bear whined pitifully as it held the paw that had been slapped away to its chest, its face looking heartrendingly hurt as it looked at Jun Xie pleadingly.
"The Double Headed Bone Snake's injuries are more serious. He goes first." Jun Wu Xie's face was stern as she admonished the Yin Yang Bear.
The Yin Yang Bear turned to look at the unmoving and dispirited Double Headed Bone Snake lying on the ground, and turned back to look at Jun Xie again, before it struggled reluctantly to shift its big furry behind. It shifted its lumbering body and made some space before it lifted both its chubby paws to move the Double Headed Bone Snake to come right before Jun Xie. Its enormous behind jiggled once more as it shifted its position and came to rest right behind Jun Wu Xie, its two stubby hind legs stretched out beside Jun Wu Xie's tiny form.
Luckily, the huge towering bear had a great girth and it wide width allowed Jun Wu Xie ample room to move and carry out her Spirit Healing.
Qiao Chu could not bear to look on at his ring spirit's idiocy any longer. He clutched at his chest and turned around to rest against Fei Yan's shoulder, looking all humiliated and embarrassed.
"Can I request for a change of ring spirits? This is too outrageous..... My Rolly wouldn't possibly do something this shameless!"
Qiao Chu only wanted to remember his Rolly's magnificence and overwhelming strength as the Yin Yang Bear, that had dominated and earned for itself a well respected place. He was not willing to accept the fact that the black and white fluffy panda behind him that was trying so hard to act cute was the same dominating ring spirit of his.
Ring spirits were spiritual bodies and when they got injured, they did not feel the same pain like humans, when the agony stemmed from their flesh and bones. When ring spirits got gravely injured, they become very weak and they would be tormented by agony of another kind. The pain that torments the spirit cannot be described by words and ever since Rolly realised that when Jun Xie put his hand on him, he would feel much better, and his spirit gets healed, that was the only thing that he knew and cared about, the small sized boy that was able to drive away his agony.
Jun Wu Xie did not give the panda who was still trying its best to stick to her any more attention, but raised her hand and infused her palm with spiritual energy and transferred it into the Double Headed Bone Snake's body, patching up its spirit's deficiencies a little by little.
It was easy when people talked about patching up a deficient spirit, but the execution was inconceivably complicated. Spirits were in actuality formless and when they got injured, they become weak. To target their deficiencies and patch them up completely, required a certain level of endurance and strength of mind. The spirit energy that was to be infused into the ring spirit had to be controlled and precise. If the energy flow was too weak, it would not heal any of the deficiencies, and if it was too strong, the spirit energy flow might burn the ring spirit's spirit essence.
Under the extended period of healing, Jun Wu Xie needed to maintain a constant flow of spirit energy and the speed called for unbroken consistency.
The meticulous precision required was right up her alley and she discovered after having achieved her breakthrough, her spirit power had grown more abundant. Although it was still insufficient to fully heal the Double Headed Bone Snake and the Yin Yang Bear in one go, it nevertheless allowed her to shorten the whole healing process. The Double Headed Bone Snake's and the Yin Yang Bear's injuries were not as severe as what the Snow Lotus sustained, and barring any unexpected incidents, Jun Wu Xie was confident that she would be able to heal both the ring spirits back to their peak condition.
Jun Wu Xie carried out the healing for the Double Headed Bone Snake in silence while the others just around quietly, not daring to distract Jun Xie even the slightest. Even Qiao Chu who had been deeply embarrassed by his ring spirit's shameful actions swallowed all his grumbles, and was reduced to squatting in a corner subdued, nibbling on dry rations, watching Jun Xie carry out her Spirit Healing.
Chapter 465: "Being Cute Has Its Perks (3)"
After Jun Wu Xie completed the first round of healing for the Double Headed Bone Snake, the Double Headed Bone Snake showed significant improvement in its condition, and both its heads that were drooping wearily before lifted up strongly.
Having finished the treatment, Jun Wu Xie fell backwards suddenly.
When Qiao Chu and the others saw Jun Xie falling backwards, they were shocked and they scrambled in a hurry to rush to him, afraid that the depletion of energy required for the consecutive healing of two high grade ring spirits might have been too much for their petite little companion.
However, before they managed to get to Jun Xie.....
Jun Wu Xie suddenly squealed and was buried into the deep thick fur on Rolly's considerable sized tummy. Her small frame was almost completely engulfed into Rolly's soft belly and Jun Wu Xie let out a big sigh within the comfy softness.
All the others who had already made it midway towards Jun Xie suddenly stopped in their tracks and a twitching could be seen on their temples as they strode back to their original spots.
They realised that Jun Xie's spirit power had not been completely exhausted, but he had just wanted to enjoy the soft and furry comfort of the huge belly behind him.....
That sudden realisation made the companions who had just witnessed Jun Xie's unhesitant and decisive killer instinct unable to come to terms with the irrational and drastic contrast.
"Huh?" Rolly lowered its head and looked at Jun Xie who was lying spreadeagled on his tummy, and its head tilted to one side, not understanding.
"Healing later." Jun Wu Xie patted Rolly on its tummy, immersing herself into the fluffy fur. However, Jun Wu Xie suddenly got up and stared at Rolly's tummy with a deep frown.
"It's not fluffy." Jun Wu Xie grumbled, the frown still on her face.
"Wooo....." Feeling that it had been spurned, Rolly rubbed sadly at its rotund belly, attempting to fluff up its own fur.
Jun Wu Xie narrowed her eyes and infused her hand with spirit power once again before she lifted it. She placed her hand over Rolly's tummy and the the fur that had lost its lustre suddenly become fluffy and soft. Jun Wu Xie looked critically as the change happened under her eyes and she retracted her hand after she was satisfied with what she saw. She then proceeded to jump once again into the soft fur that had been restored to his fluffy state.
The little black cat had grown used to its mistress weakness for anything soft, furry and cute and it jumped up calmly onto Rolly's shoulder and pawed at the fur a little to fluff it up and lay down after making the spot comfortable.
Fei Yan was back at his spot by the lake and was smiling widely at the sight before him. He turned to Qiao Chu and said, suddenly looking serious: "I just found out that your Rolly has another ability."
"What?" Qiao Chu asked, deeply curious.
"Making Little Xie happy." Fei Yan said with a loud guffaw.
That kid Jun Xie always had a stoic face on him all day long and was cold and expressionless. It was on rare occasions like this that they saw a crack on the immovable glacier and witnessed these more human emotions displayed by him. The credit went fully to Rolly's clever "exploitation" by "sacrificing its body" that their eyes were treated to such an eyeopener.
Qiao Chu's face scrunched up and it flushed red all of a sudden. He glared at Fei Yan and got up to stomp off, coming to sit down beside Fan Jin instead.
"All these rascals, with not a single one of them normal. I think you are the most normal one among us." Qiao Chu was feeling harassed by his other companions and came to seek consolation from the sensible Fan Jin.
Fan Jin's mouth twitched and in his heart, he thought: [You are rather abnormal yourself if you do realise!]
Although Rolly and the Double Headed Bone Snake still carried injuries on them, but based on their massive size and the power he felt from the two ring spirits, Fan Jin was certain that the grades that two ring spirits belonged to were extraordinarily high! Higher than any ring spirit that Fan Jin had ever seen before.
A group of disciples from the branch division, whose skills and power completely overshadowed the Spirit Tournament's fourth rank, and whose ring spirits made his own ring spirit to show respect and fear.
These youths that Jun Xie had gathered together to join their team, where had all these monstrously powerful youths sprouted out from, a rock?"
They were all just like Jun Xie! Scarily and unbelievably strong!
Fan Jin self confidence had all been shattered into dust before Qiao Chu and his gang. He suddenly felt incredibly sad for all those other disciples who had mocked and ridiculed this team before they had entered the forest. He was not leading a team of parasites who depended on his power for protection, but he had actually teamed up with a whole bunch of incredibly and inconceivably powerful people who smashed all norms beyond all his expectations!
Chapter 466: "Being Cute Has Its Perks (4)"
For the next few days, Jun Wu Xie and her team roamed about within the Beast Spirits Forest and the amount of Spirit Stones stored within the cosmos sack increased more and more. Although they were mainly just small spirit stones acquired from lower grade Spirit Beasts, the large quantity still gave the team a considerable yield.
Within these few days, they brushed shoulders with several other small teams, but most of them were from the branch division and the disciples in those teams were usually nervous when they encountered Jun Wu Xie's team.
The criteria for assessment for the Spirit Hunt was based mainly on the quantity of spirit stones each and every disciple held in their hands at the end of the event. Hence, besides hunting down Spirit Beasts, some of the stronger teams had even resorted to robbing the spirit stones from weaker opposing teams, and the teams from the branch division were usually made to be prime targets. The skills and power of the teams from the branch division were usually far inferior to teams from the main division and they were only able to successfully hunt low grade Spirit Beasts with large numbers which usually resulted in insufficient quantity in spirit stones to be split among the many disciples involved. On top of that, when they cross paths with teams from the main division, their meager stock of spirit stones were usually forcibly taken from them as well.
And the result was that teams from the branch division detected that teams from the main division were near, they were usually seen to run away faster than when they encountered Spirit Beasts.
Most teams from the main division avoided Fan Jin when they encounter his team. Although they were usually highly tempted to rob the team tagged as the "weakest team", they were nevertheless wary of Fan Jin presence, and did not dare act rashly against him and his team.
"I heard everybody saying that the Battle Spirits Forest was full of dangers everywhere, why am I feeling so bored then?" Qiao Chu had his hands clasped behind his head, and his habitual blade of grass dangling from his mouth, as he strode nonchalantly, bringing up the rear of his team.
The consecutive days of idleness besides overpowering Spirit Beasts with a low attack power of five made him restless with the inactivity.
Fan Jin turned around to look at Qiao Chu. After the past few days of interaction with the team, his heart had recovered somewhat from initial utter devastation at his lack of abilities to numb acceptance.
After he witnessed Qiao Chu's and his gang's skills and power, he suddenly realised that even if he gathered the top ten ranked disciples of the Zephyr Academy together to form a team, their combined power would still pale in comparison to his current teammates.
Scaring the living daylights of other disciples, the ferocious and merciless Spirit Beasts suddenly became tame sheep awaiting their slaughter before his monstrous teammates.
Not to mention.....
Fan Jin's eyes strayed to steal a glance at the towering and massive Yin Yang Bear, Rolly.
Ever since after Jun Xie had healed Rolly, Qiao Chu had not had the chance to send Rolly back to the Spirit World. Whenever Qiao Chu showed any such intention, Rolly would at the first instance speed to stand before Jun Xie and present his soft and fluffy tummy, by suddenly lying on the ground right before Jun Xie to allow Jun Xie to pat him.
And whenever that happened.....
A glare from Jun Xie always quickly convinced Qiao Chu otherwise, as he could only cry tearlessly as his ring spirit continued to embarrass him endlessly.
It had gotten worse now. Rolly had decided that it might as well serve to be Jun Xie's alternative mode of transport and carried Jun Xie upon its shoulders. With its two stubby legs, it huffed and puffed as it kept pace with the others in the team.
WIth such a massive ring spirit like Rolly so prominently present with the team, all the lower grade Spirit Beasts in this region of the Battle Spirits Forest were driven into flurried escape when they sensed Rolly's dominating presence before they even saw their team, resulting in that team not even being able to see a single bunny.
For the whole of today, they were not even able to spot a single low grade Spirit Beast and Qiao Chu was almost on the verge of chewing his own ring spirit's claws in restlessness.
Sitting high atop Rolly's shoulders, Jun Wu Xie was enjoying the soft feel and touch of Rolly's fluffy fur when suddenly, her eyes narrowed slightly. She had smelled a slight tinge of blood carried here by the light breeze that blew past them!
Chapter 467: "Consecutive Slaps - Second Form (1)"
High atop Rolly's shoulders, Jun Wu Xie was still enjoying the soft fluffy touch of the ring spirit's thick fur when she narrowed her eyes suddenly. The light wind that blew past her carried with it the faint but distinct scent of blood that she absolutely abhorred!
"Stop!" Jun Wu Xie said suddenly.
The team immediately stopped in their tracks.
"What is it?" Fan Jin frowned, worried.
"I smell blood." Jun Wu Xie replied, her brow furrowing.
"Spirit Beasts?" Qiao Chu turned around and sniffed with his nose, but he did not smell anything unusual and gave up.
"Human blood." Jun Wu Xie's eyes narrowed. The scent was extremely faint and if they had not been moving in a direction against the wind, the scent would not have reached them. Due to the fact that the scent was carried here by the wind and that it was very faint, Jun Wu Xie deduced that they were still a distance away from the source. She looked up and stared into the wind. They had come to the edge of the area marked out on the map and if they moved inwards any further, they would be stepping into territories beyond the area marked safe by the Zephyr Academy.
Qiao Chu and the others turned their eyes to peer into the direction that Jun Xie was looking at. That part of the forest had denser trees and vegetation that any areas they had passed before. Every tree looked to be more than ten metres in height and their thick overhanging canopies covered the area they were looking at completely, making it too dark to see clearly what was past those trees.
"Is it coming from in there?" Qiao Chu asked.
Jun Wu Xie nodded.
"Shall we go see?" Qiao Chu was eager to have found something to do. The area marked out by the Zephyr Academy mainly only had low grade Spirit Beasts and posed no challenge to them. And with the towering figure of Rolly in their midst, they had not even managed to come across those low grade Spirit Beasts. If things continued on like this, Qiao Chu felt like he was bound to go mad with boredom.
Jun Wu Xie turned her gaze to Fan Jin. She did not have any other objective coming into the Battle Spirits Forest but to slaughter any targets that came to them on their own to seek their own deaths.
Fan Jin was silent a moment before he said: "That area encroaches into the center regions of the Battle Spirits Forest and within it, not only high grade Spirit Beasts roam, but you might even encounter Guardian Grade Spirit Beasts. Are you sure you want to go in there?"
"Guardian Grade Spirit Beasts?" Qiao Chu asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It is rumoured that Guardian Grade Spirit Beasts are unbelievably strong and even purple spirit users have to run away from them. Till now, no one has ever been known to be able to successfully hunt down a Guardian Grade Spirit Beast." When Fan Jin mentioned Guardian Grade Spirit Beasts, he could not help it but to feel awe and fear rise within his heart.
A Guardian Grade Spirit Beast, that was a grade that no one had dared to ever challenge.
Qiao Chu had been anxiously eager to to go check it out, but after hearing Fan Jin's words of warning, he was looking visibly much more subdued.
The few of them might be able to use some extraordinary method to forced the spiritual powers within their bodies to reach the purple spirit level, but it was only for short periods of time and it greatly depletes their spiritual power. Unless it was to saves the lives of their companions or themselves, they would much rather choose not to use it.
"Cough, I think we better look around someplace else." Qiao Chu said practically. Although he did not know if Guardian Grade Spirit Beasts were as terrifying as Fan Jin's words had made them out to be, but he did not want to use up too much of his spiritual power in a place like this.
However, Jun Wu Xie was still staring at the wide forest of tall trees and just as she turned herself away, a ragged figure covered in blood ran out from those trees, and looking at the blood stained clothes he was wearing, they could just make it out to be the uniform of the Zephyr Academy!
That figure was running with all his might, his face a mask of terror, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. He stumbled and fell a few times, running and crawling in escape, in a direction towards Fan Jin and his team.
It might be due to the shock, but when the disciple saw Fan Jin, who was similarly dressed in the uniform of the Zephyr Academy, he began crying and shouting for help as he scrambled his way over to him.
"Help! Help!" As if clutching at his last straw of hope, the youth fell onto the ground before Fan Jin and pleaded loudly clutching at the corner of Fan Jin's clothes.
Chapter 468: "Consecutive Slaps - Second Form (2)"
The disciple's clothes were all badly tattered and torn and a large deep gash that had cut him to the bone looking extremely garish. The countless cuts and gashes all over his body made one want to turn away in horror and his face was deathly pale. Looking at the expression on his face, the disciple must have been scared out of his wits.
The direction that the disciple had run out from showed that that area was outside of the boundaries depicted on the map given to them by the Zephyr Academy and by right, there should not have been any of the Zephyr Academy's disciples in there.
"What happened?" Fan Jin helped the disciple up and found that the disciple was trembling in fright and the disciple stuttered: "Spirit Beast..... It's a Spirit Beast..... There's a Spirit Beast in there! Huge! Humongous!" The disciple was raving and it was a while before he realised that it was Fan Jin who was standing before him. He suddenly regained his senses and pleaded with all his might: "Senior Fan! Save me! Please save me!"
"Is anyone else in there?" Fan Jin asked with a worried frown. The center regions of the Beast Spirits Forest was an area that nobody had ever dared set foot into. So what were all these disciples doing in there?
"Yes..... there are..... many of us..... Senior Fan, please hurry and save them....." The disciple cried as tears ran down his face.
Jun Wu Xie was silent as she looked at the disciple groveling at Fan Jin's feet, her eyes not showing a ripple of emotion.
Fan Jin turned his head at that moment to look at Jun Xie as he had subconsciously started to seek Jun Xie's opinion. He did not know what kind of Spirit Beast those disciples had encountered and it was highly possible that in the center region, it could very well be a champion grade Spirit Beast and if that was the case, they might still not be able to contain it sufficiently to escape.
Rescue or abandon?
"Senior Fan wants to rescue them?" Jun Wu Xie asked suddenly.
Fan Jin hesitated a moment before he nodded slightly. "We are afterall from the same academy." The disciple who fled had his bloodied hands still tightly clasped on Fan Jin, and the warmth from the blood that had seeped in through his clothes was clearly felt on his skin.
Jun Wu Xie did not immediately reply but only stared at the disciple from her higher position and after a brief moment, she slowly said: "When you met with such danger, why didn't you release the signal flare?"
Before entering the Battle Spirits Forest, all the disciples were given two distress signal flares to carry with them just for emergencies like this.
The disciple raised his head and when his eyes saw the massive Yin Yang Bear, he was suddenly speechless. His terror filled eyes flashed with shock a brief moment but quickly reverted back to terror once again. "The canopies of the trees in there are too thick and we were not able to release our signal flares in there." After saying that, the disciple pulled out two used signal flares and showed them to the group.
In regions where the tree were immensely tall and grew extremely close to each other, they would prevent signal flares from being fired effectively. The distress signal flares the Zephyr Academy disciples were supplied with were meant to be used only within the boundaries marked out on the map. Although the tree population was rather dense as well, the heights their treetops reached were significantly lower and would not completely block out the flares from the distress signals. But if the disciples went in further, treading into the center regions of the Battle Spirits Forest, it would not be impossible if such circumstances were to happen.
Jun Wu Xie continued to stare at the injured disciple, her cold chilly eyes stopping briefly on the badly bloodied face. She finally turned her eyes away and said: "Then, let's go."
Jun Wu Xie's words made Fan Jin heave a sigh of relief but Qiao Chu and his gang exchanged glances with each other, as if sharing unspoken thoughts telepathically, without saying a word.
"This is my distress signal flare. We will go rescue them now. Fire it in a while and the Teachers in charge will rush over to come get you shortly." Fan Jin handed to the disciple medicine and the distress signal flare he had on him and gave his instructions carefully.
The disciple immediately nodded in gratitude.
Chapter 469: "Consecutive Slaps - Second Form (3)"
Executing a rescue mission was like saving a fire and Fan Jin did not dare delay a moment longer. He moved immediately with Jun Xie and his team towards the region fraught with unknown dangers.
After Fei Yan went pass the injured disciple, he stopped for just a brief moment, and turned his eyes back to look at the exhausted youth panting heavily as he laid heavily against a tree. The youth noticed Fei Yan staring at him and his expression froze.
"What a coincidence, you are from the branch division as well." Fei Yan exclaimed with a smile and pointed at the jade emblem before the disciple's chest, and he saw the youth suddenly relax, and smiled weakly while he nodded.
Fei Yan did not say anything more and picked up his pace to catch up with Hua Yao and the others.
"What is Little Xie planning to play at this time?" Fei Yan quietly leapt to appear beside Rong Ruo and Rong Ruo turned to look at him, putting a finger to her lips. Fei Yan's lips suddenly curved into a smile.
After seeing Jun Xie and his team enter the forest, the disciple who had been leaning against the tree pushed himself to stand up and the terror stricken face suddenly reverted to normal and he threw the two distress signal flares Fan Jin gave him into the thick grass that grew thickly in the area.
Upon entering that part of the forest, the scent of blood that reached their noses grew thick and pungent, and Fan Jin's expression became anxious.
The surroundings looked completely different from all the places they had travelled through in the days past within the Battle Spirit Forest. The trees grew much closer to each other and it was difficult for them to move around inside, even more so for a massive ring spirit like Rolly. Left with no other choice, Jun Wu Xie slipped off Rolly's shoulder and had Qiao Chu send Rolly back to the Spirit World.
Following the thickening scent of blood, Jun Wu Xie and her teammates went deeper into the forest. The roars of Spirit Beasts sounded from all directions and the thick canopies overhead blocked out the sun's rays. Even though it was day, under the thick leaves of the innumerable trees, it was nevertheless very dim. Twisted vines entrenched themselves in abundance all over the path that laid before them and Fan Jin took out his trusty short sword he carried with him, cutting and slashing his way through them, blazing a new trail ahead for his teammates.
Jun Wu Xie and the others followed patiently behind him.
After bashing through layers and layers of prickly and thorny bramble, the team finally came before a little open clearing. The thickets and bushes in the area were in a state of disarray and broken branches littered the ground. Trees lay broken upon the ground, the area a tiny little clearing of light, torn open within the dense and immense forest. On the leaves and grass that covered the ground in that little clearing, trails of blood could be seen. As their eyes followed the trails of blood to their source, they saw over twenty disciples dressed in uniforms of the Zephyr Academy, lying scattered upon the ground moaning in pain. Wounds big and small covered their bodies and they were all covered in blood.
Fan Jin's heart jumped and he rushed out, running into the clearing over to them.
Qiao Chu and the others were just about to follow when Jun Wu Xie suddenly raised a hand, stopping them in their tracks.
"Wait and see." Jun Wu Xie's cold eyes surveyed the disciples lying across the clearing and took a deep breath, almost tasting the heavy scent of blood in the air, and her eyes darkened, suddenly replaced by a chill.
Qiao Chu and the others held their steps and stood beside Jun Wu Xie, looking on as Fan Jin sped towards the injured disciples alone.
Fan Jin came beside a blood covered youth and lifted him up slightly, propping him up. The disciple's face was covered in blood and Fan Jin was not able to see his face clearly.
"What kind of Spirit Beast did you meet? What happened here?" Fan Jin looked worriedly at the youth. All twenty odd of them were injured, what kind of Spirit Beast could inflict such damage?
"I..... I don't know..... It..... it was moving too fast, we could not react in time, and were all taken down the next moment. Senior Fan, you must save us." The youth said, his hand holding Fan Jin's arm in a vice like grip.
Chapter 470: "Consecutive Slaps - Second Form (4)"
Fan Jin nodded and hurried scanned his eyes over the youth's injuries. Perhaps it was the pain from the injuries that had made the youth grip his arm so tightly, and it was hurting him.
However, just as Fan Jin lowered his eyes to check on the youth's injuries, murder flashed suddenly in the youth's eyes. The other disciples who had been lying on the ground moaning in pain suddenly all jumped up and pulled out their hidden daggers, rushing at Fan Jin all at once!
Fan Jin suddenly sensed danger and wanted to jump out of harm's way but he found his limbs tightly held down by the youth he had been holding. He looked up at the youth and saw that those eyes no longer showed fear and despair, but were filled with venomous murder.
"Senior Fan, the very same day next year will be the anniversary of your death, so do rest in peace!" The youth's body leaned back slightly as he gave out a loud chilling laugh, which revealed his blood covered hands. On those hands, were a pair of open fingers gloves, and they were glowing slightly with spirit energy.
Fan Jin gasped in surprise. The youth was obviously a user of a weapon spirit and those gloves must be his ring spirit. Caught completely unawares,he found himself held down forcibly and Fan Jin suddenly realised that he wasn't able to break free!
Meanwhile, the attackers were closing in on him from all directions quick and coordinated. The youth who had been Fan Jin locked down in a death grip suddenly felt his hands grasping at air. When he realised it, he suddenly saw that Fan Jin had disappeared from his sight and all the fingers on his hands had been cut off cleanly! Bright red blood suddenly spurted out from those wounds on his fingerless hands!
"AARGH!" A deafening loud howl erupted from the youth's throat as he held out his hands, and fell heavily onto the ground.
A silver bolt of lightning flashed to come stand beside Jun Wu Xie and as the blur of movement stopped, the face of a grinning Fei Yan appeared, and his hands were still holding on to a completely stunned Fan Jin.
Fan Jin's face showed nothing but utter shock and his mind still had not recovered from all that had happened in a short blink of an eye.
The youth who had all his fingers cut off was still howling in pain and the rest who had rushed in to attack Fan Jin were now standing in the clearing in confusion. Those twenty odd disciples who had been writhing on the ground and moaning in pain just moments earlier were now all standing upright, all their faces wary, as they stared at Fan Jin standing behind Jun Xie.
"What..... what is going on here?" Fan Jin asked as he stared at the youths in perfect health. However dense he might be, he could still see that all the disciples were not injured. All the blood on them had been deliberately smeared onto their bodies.
"It's clear to see, this had been a trap." Qiao Chu swayed as he moved to come beside stand Fan Jin, patting him comfortingly on the shoulder. "I had thought that you had already realised it and was just playing along. It seems you were really not aware?"
"What..... should I be aware of?" Fan Jin's mind was in a hopeless state of confusion and he was still not able to fully comprehend the whole situation.
"These people were never in need of rescue. The reason that they are all gathered here, was to take your life." Qiao Chu explained it to him readily.
"What !?" Fan Jin's face paled immediately and he realised at that moment that the twenty odd youths were moving in towards them and all their ring spirits had been summoned, and their fangs were bared right at him.
"Fan Jin, don't dream of walking out of the Battle Spirits Forest alive today. If you do not want to drag your companions down with you, just give up and surrender yourself to us." The leader of the youths said, his eyes staring with undisguised malevolence at Fan Jin.