Demon Wolf

As soon as he had attained the Blood Saturating realm, Jakob had left his hiding place. In the following hours, his jade echoed several times, warning about Earth Pavilion’s disciples getting attacked, and as time passed the attacks grew in frequency.

They are hunting us down, he realized, and, after a day, he noted the uncanny precision with which Brilliant Gate’s disciples found his acquaintances.

They can locate us. He stored his callingjade into his holdingring. The simplest way to do so is through callingjades. I don’t know how they are doing it, but that’s the only thing that makes sense. Did they develop an artifact or Spell Formation which can trace the signals?

Jakob did not care about the details, but he faced a moral decision.

Should I warn the others? He frowned, weighing pros and cons. If I accidentally contact the enemy, they may locate me, but unless they are really close, I can simply move away and remain hidden. Besides, if others didn’t scream and curse those attacking them, we never would’ve known we were in danger.

That thought tipped the scales in Jakob’s mind. He summoned his jade and tapped a random active name.

“Jacque, warn five others to keep their callingjades inside their holdingrings. Tell them to warn five others. That way, everyone should get notified soon enough.” Damn, other than me, nobody has Senior Apprentice Brother Wolf’s contact. He’s in danger.

Jakob paused and snickered. As if they could hurt him.

Without worrying about Wolf, Jakob warned another four random contacts, then hid the communication item he believed painted him a target and endangered his life.

Now that I’m blind, how do I increase my chances at staying alive? Monster Beasts deeper in are stronger, and that area is more dangerous, meaning, more people will linger towards the fringes, at least in the first month or two until they increase their realm.

Since that’s the case, I should advance deeper, find a safe spot, and cultivate there. I will absorb as much World Energy as possible, and saturate my blood to raise my cultivation.

Having forged a plan, Jakob headed center-wards. Contrasting Wolf’s confident jog, Jakob sneaked forward from the start, making sure he stayed off the paths Monster Beasts had beaten.

After half an hour, he froze.

“You Brilliant Gate bitches!” Clang of metal accompanied the shout, but even before the speaker finished her cry she screamed.

“I curse you to—” However, her malediction was cut short.

“I curse you to die.” Another female voice guffawed, only for someone else to shush her.

“Search her, take her stuff, and let’s continue.”

There’s at least two of them. No, it’s safer to assume they have an even larger party. Jakob heard nothing but ambient sounds for several long seconds, then the woman continued. “Fleur, we cleared the mark. Where’s the next one?”

Jakob did not catch the response, but the presumed leader issued orders to follow her, speaking in plural, and the distant Brilliant Gate disciples went silent.

Jakob looked around. He removed his clothes and coated his skin with Qi. Then he entered the yellow-flowered thorny bush to his right, moving even further from the jungle path. He checked no thorns pressed against his skin and dropped his protection to rid himself of the traitorous glow.

I’ll wait ten minutes, in case they head this way. He nestled within the bush’s mostly hollow center and rested.

Jakob counted the seconds in silence, and after seven-odd minutes, he heard the tearing of briars snagging on someone’s robe.

“Shit,” the distant mutter drew a smile from Jakob, despite the foul language.

They are far away. Then his smile disappeared. It could be someone else passing through this part of the woods. Don’t let your guard down, they might be on top of you.

The boy waited in paranoid silence, but nobody pounced him even after a quarter of an hour had passed.

Timidly, he coated himself in Qi, and froze. Jakob looked left and right inside his tiny sanctuary, then he crawled out of the bush, his bearing resembling a mouse’s. Once he had cleared the layer of thorns, Jakob withdrew his luminous protection, donned his robe, and advanced towards the center.

He spent half an hour to clear a single kilometer, ensuring he left no clues of his passage. And yet, beads of sweat dotted his forehead when they came.

Seven deer with sharp, branching horns crossed his path. Like the manling, the animals froze. They exchanged glances of startled herbivores. After seconds’ long staring contest, the buck turned its head and continued on its way. It was the weaker party, and it sensed dormant danger in Jakob.

The manling, however, stayed still because causing a ruckus was the last thing he wanted.

No wonder they didn’t attack. That was a low grade evolution of deer, probably not even at the peak of Qi Gathering, and they had two fawns with them.

Jakob covered his mouth, resisting the urge to laugh aloud. A wave of relief washed over him after the looming outlines materialized into harmless prey animals.

In the next five hours, Jakob froze at every rustle, at every forest bird fluttering off its branch after noticing an intruder or chasing a morsel. With his heart in his throat, he neared an area of thin mist, which he considered safe.

He retrieved his callingjade yet again, still hesitating about his idea.

***

So many people stalking one random boy. Denice frowned, leading her squad towards the mark’s location. Who is he? Why is he so important we forfeited so many opportunities for his sake?

She did not know, but she obeyed the orders. She believed the senior apprentice sister Grundhoffer had full control of everyone’s movements and had a broader view.

I don’t like it. The list of compromised devices keeps growing every hour. She glanced at Luize. The woman’s face was still pale. Caked blood crusted her robe, while the gaping tear revealed her bandaged bosom. If that sword had pierced a bit more to the right, it would’ve severed her spine. Low grade healing pills we carry can’t heal such difficult trauma.

Denice’s skin crawled at the thought. Thank gods we didn’t have to lug her hundreds of kilometers through this jungle until we reached the infirmary.

At least we did better than Rona. Since they were close friends, Rona contacted Denice, notifying her that her squad had stumbled upon a fourth stage Blood Saturating Whiteflame Honeyeater. The beast tore apart two of their squad before they realized what had happened.

The three survivors ran in panic, but only Rona escaped the monster’s wicked claws.

Denice bit her lip as she considered the dangers of Corpsewood. Maybe it’s better to approach things like this. There will be a hundred of us, even if peak Blood Saturating Monster Beasts attack, we stand a chance. If not to kill it, then to fend it off or escape.

“The mark is a hundred meters away, dead ahead,” the words came not just from Denice’s pocket, but from all around.

Denice looked from side to side, spotting four more teams, whose leaders had their callingjades within reach, just like her.

Annelise winked and gave her a reassuring grin.

I’m worrying over nothing. Denice flashed back a smile. There’s a hundred of us. No matter what happens, we will survive.

The time seemed to crawl until they reached the fifty meter mark. By then, the teams had already merged into a solid ring of women. They no longer skulked, but stood tall and advanced to capture.

Brilliant Gate’s disciples used their swords like machetes, hacking bushes and briars before them. Birds flapped their wings in terror as steel destroyed their homes while squirrels, hedgehogs and rodents fled the danger, dashing into the shrubs ahead.

As the iron garrote tightened, the girls felt exhilarated. Denice watched her apprentice sisters, seeing the fire in their eyes and the yearning in their grins.

Senior Apprentice Sister Grundhoffer had promised a reward for this capture once we left Corpsewood.

When the ring shrank down to ten meters, it had transformed into three layers, the more important the disciple, the closer she was to the center, and yet there was still no sign of the mark.

He must have noticed something was wrong by now. Is he hiding, hoping we won’t find him. Denice smirked, rolling her eyes. Typical male behavior. Pretend the problem doesn’t exist, and hope it resolves itself on its own.

The ring closed, hacking down the final thorn-bush, and there was no sign of Jakob Silentear. “He’s not here,” a woman Denice did not recognize muttered, then Arielle fished out her callingjade from her pocket.

“Oi, Fleur, where is he? We can’t see him.” Arielle grumbled into the white device and several moments later got Fleur’s flustered response.

“Give me a minute to calculate his position again.”

Two long minutes passed in awkward silence, with everyone turning around and looking at each other before Flear called back.

“He’s right there. Slowly moving away from you towards the rim.”

Everyone looked up towards the canopy, but Denice, who stood in the middle ring, looked down.

There, she saw a thick yellowish-green snake with a dark-green bag glued to its back.

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Spoiler

What Jakob encountered, the hunters’ sect of origin, the direction they took…

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