Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

Five wolflike creatures charged out at the group from the bushes. The vicious beast leading the group was twice as large as the rest of the group, and its strength was around Middle Bone and Marrow Tempering. Liu Zhu would be able to defeat it without much trouble, but it would take more than a few blows. A few seconds after the beasts left the bushes they reached the four and engaged in combat. Liu Zhu pushed their leader back with a heavy swing from his guandao. Two of the other four were forced back with the leader, and the other two clashed with the three squad members. In the meantime the rest of the group would have to do their best to hold out.

The beasts were slightly weaker than an Early Flesh Tempering cultivator, so the three were able to keep them at bay without too much trouble. It'd be harder to defeat them, but since they just had to avoid getting injured and wait until Liu Zhu could help them, it wasn't too difficult. As Liu Zhu and the pack's leader fought more of the beasts appeared, trying to take him down. Despite their enthusiasm, they were simply killed as collateral damage in the fight between both forces' leaders. With their low intelligence and Liu Zhu's overwhelming strength, they could be seriously injured in a single strike. Beast after beast went down protecting their leader, while it occasionally got blows in against Liu Zhu. Said blows only bruised him, not affecting his battle strength in the slightest. Eventually the beast realized this, and turned tail and fled. That decision sealed its fate, and as it ran away Liu Zhu aimed a parting blow at its back. Its retreat had caused the beasts following it to fall back, so it was defenseless, allowing the attack to cut all the way through it. Blood splattered everywhere as the wolflike-beast collapsed, its back half cut in two. Now that their leader was dead the attackers w.h.i.n.ed and sped up their retreat, the instinctive fear of a predator kicking in.

Liu Zhu promptly killed the stragglers, but didn't pursue the rest of the pack. If the beasts were much stronger it would've been seriously dangerous, so it was a fools' errand to head deeper into the forest to follow after them. Liu Zhu turned to the other three, who were splattered with blood but uninjured. "We're leaving. Follow me." They simply nodded their head and followed after him, but as they left a hairy hand came out from a nearby tree, holding a rock. Liu Zhu's eyes narrowed upon seeing this, and he pushed Yin Bai out of the way as a rock was sent flying at its skull. It missed, slamming into Liu Zhu's arm instead.

The squad members paused, confused, as the hand withdrew itself and the leaves of the tree began rustling. Not wanting to let whatever creature was there get away, Liu Zhu threw his guandao into the tree's canopy. A spray of blood covered the leaves as the guandao flew through the leaves and impaled itself into another tree, carrying some sort of monkey along with it. Liu Zhu retrieved his guandao, letting the animal drop to the ground, but as he did so noticed that several of the nearby trees were also showing signs of movement. He immediately jumped back, avoiding several rocks aimed at his head.

As Liu Zhu dodged he noticed two flashes of brown in the nearby trees, allowing him to narrowly avoid a second set of projectiles. As he did so the monkeys jumped down from the surrounding trees, viciously charging towards him. There were around a dozen of them, and based on their speed and strength several of them were as strong as a Bone and Marrow Tempering Cultivator. Liu Zhu sighed and yelled towards the others. "Head back to the village! I'll cover your retreat, but I'm not confident in keeping you safe if you stay here." The three hesitated for a moment before the man recommended by Feng Jun left, followed shortly after by Yin Bai and Yin Yuhan.

Truth to be told telling them to leave by themselves was also risky, as there was a decent chance they would be attacked by yet another group of vicious beasts. Still, it was probably safer than having them assist with the monkeys. If Liu Zhu had to protect them he couldn't go all out, and this seemed like a situation where he couldn't afford to let his focus wander. As he saw the three leave he threw himself into an all-out fight with the pack of monkeys, using 2 and 3 D.e.s.i.r.es wherever it could cause a fatal blow. He needed to keep their attention so that they couldn't go after the others, and to do that he had to be a threat. There was no room to conserve his strength.

Within a couple of minutes all of the monkeys were wiped out, their corpses scattered throughout the surrounding trees. After killing them Liu Zhu ran out of the forest as quickly as he could, wary and slightly tired. He kept an eye out for his squad, but never caught sight of them. Luckily they met him shortly after he exited the forest, only having encountered a few weak beasts after parting with him. The training was called off for the day, and Liu Zhu returned home.

After that incident their next exercises were kept within 100 meters of village walls, and were mainly focused on hand signals and other useful tidbits. Liu Zhu couldn't go over much since he had less than a week and had to spend part of that with Feng Jun and his other squad leaders, but but it was still useful. The few people Liu Zhu had in his squad caught on quickly and were pretty amiable, so he was more than satisfied with them. As for the man who ran, he'd spent a few hours looking for him, but as far as he gone. It seemed that while he was a coward, he wasn't an idiot and had decided to lay low for a while. Upon realizing this Liu Zhu was at a loss, and decided to just leave the matter up to fate. If he ever ran into him again then he'd get his revenge, but if they never met then that was fine too. It'd be petty to think about it more than that.

As the beast horde began to approach, the village filled up but quieted down. Along with the new cultivators arriving, the last of the farmers had retreated into the village. Their mood was downcast, and this caused the discussion among many of the newer cultivators to die down, Liu Zhu included. Only veterans like Feng Jun stayed unfazed in the face a massive battle like this. It wasn't like they had a huge stake in the outcome, so why be glum over it? If they lost, then they might not get paid, but that was the worst of it. Unlike the villagers, neither their family nor their property was at risk.

Eight days after Liu Zhu's arrival in the village, the sound of a horn filled the air. After a moment this was joined by another one, and eventually five were sounding out at once. This indicated that the beast horde had been sighted, and was the signal for all of those fighting to get onto the now-finished palisade surrounding Wolfden Village. It was time to fight.