Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

After coming to an agreement with the hunter the group Liu Zhu was with met up with the rest of the cultivators and prepared to set out. Once everyone was gathered Yan Da asked the hunter how they should proceed from there. The man, whose voice was only a tad less raspy than before, began explaining their next steps. "Head into the forest, go to where you found the Reed Panther, search from there. If you guys stomped round there too much it'll be troublesome but I'll manage. First you all need to cover yourself in Reed Panther blood though. We have a corpse, the blood isn't worth much, I'll get the blood so you can all smell nice and bloody without damaging anything valuable. I'll start butchering, someone get a container."

The hunter immediately took a few items from his pack and prepared to dismember the Reed Panther they'd killed. A few people loudly objected, complaining about having to stain their clothes in blood, but upon being told that they'd have to leave if they didn't and that it was 'better than urine and feces at least' they quickly capitulated. The rest of the group watched as the hunter skillfully cut up the body into different pieces, letting all of the blood drip off into a large container held beneath whatever part of the corpse he was working on. After around half an hour his work was done, and everyone was told to come up and use a little over a cup of blood each to mask their scent.

Once everyone was doused in Reed Panther blood the dismembered corpse was turned over to the village and the cultivators left. Their first stop was at the stream where Liu Zhu fought against the Reed Panther, and from there they followed the path the Reed Panther took from the stream to where it stopped and rested. Once they reached this area the hunter simply told everyone to 'stay far, far away and not to touch anything' before leaving the rest of the group behind to examine the area.

The hunter spent half an hour looking over the area before returning to the rest of the group. As far as he could tell the Reed Panther had been living there for some time, at least a week or two, and it was alone. The lack of a mate made sense given that the animals generally only socialized during mating season and the male would usually leave shortly after mating, but it was unfortunate that they were too late to catch the Reed Panther together with its mate. With the male missing it meant they had quite the search ahead of them.

Their best bet now would be to search around any rivers or streams in the area, especially any with dense underbrush nearby. As the name implied Reed Panthers tended to make their home very close to water, and their coloration was similar to that of reeds and many other plants, allowing them to stalk prey more easily. If there was one in the area then they'd be living in that sort of habitat since there weren't any marshes nearby. The groups split into two once the hunter went over what signs they should keep an eye out for and where to search. A smaller group of around six people left with the hunter. Liu Zhu was part of this group. The rest of the cultivators went with Yan Da. With a Meridian Opening cultivator in each group everyone would be relatively safe, and according to the hunter both should have a good chance of running into any Reed Panthers nearby. The other cultivators initially thought this was a compliment, but after the hunter added on "you all might not find much without me, but if the Reed Panther smells you it'll come looking. Maybe it'll be hoping for a mate, maybe it'll be trying to get rivals out of its territory. Either way it'll find you." they realized they were more or less just non-sacrificial bait.

Once the 'bait group' left, Liu Zhu's group began their search. Or more accurately, the hunter began his search. Everyone else followed a short distance behind and chatted as he did so. Their role was to serve as backup if things got nasty and to help attract the Reed Panther. Liu Zhu tried to spot any signs of a Reed Panther throughout what felt like a glorified hike, but knew that doing so wouldn't serve much use- if he spotted anything than the hunter going along with them probably would've saw it first.

After several hours of searching along any stream or river in the area, the hunter leading the group paused for a moment. Upon stopping he whispered "Act the same as before but get closer to me." and then resumed walking. This order put some people on edge and made others excited, but no matter their emotion the cultivators did their best to hide them and 'act the same'. They just continued their conversations and gradually shortened the distance between them and the hunter leading them.

A few minutes after the hunter gave that order, a nearby bush exploded into motion. A green-coated panther suddenly appeared and darted towards the hunter, claws ready and jaws open. A split second later the panther stopped moving as it was suddenly skewered by a sword the hunter had been holding. This sudden interruption caused everyone to quiet down before the hunter broke the silence with some light laughter. "Could've lived a bit longer but it had to choose the strongest one here." After saying this the hunter roughly shook the panther off of his sword, letting it drop onto the forest floor.

The hunter stared at the panther's corpse for a few minutes before sighing. "It's a Reed Panther and it's a male but it's not the one we're looking for. Too young. I guess that means it's one of the children. We'll keep looking around for a couple more hours before meeting with the rest." This statement signaled the start of the second part of their search. This search yielded nothing except boredom for most of those present and the occasional happy surprise for Liu Zhu when he noticed a medicinal herb growing nearby. Once the sun set the group stopped their search and went to where they'd agreed to meet up with Yan Da's group.

Yan Da's group hadn't come across a single Reed Panther, much to their chagrin. As everyone settled down for the night, setting up camp, making food, and continuing their conversations from earlier, the hunter and Yan Da disappeared. When they reappeared Yan Da spoke to the now eating cultivators to explain their next course of action. "According to the expert here there probably aren't any more Reed Panthers in this location. We searched along most of the running water sources in the area and three Reed Panthers living in such close proximity seems unlikely due to the amount of prey or something like that. Tomorrow we're gonna head west a bit and cross the gorge. The hunter says that's our best bet and I'll listen to him on this one."

This announcement was followed by a quick rundown of who would be on watch when just in case something did show up. Those who were spared from staying on watch that night started drinking, eager to party a bit after picking up some alcohol at Thornbrush Village. Liu Zhu had the last watch and went to bed early, hoping to make up for the sleep he'd lost the night before.

Much to Liu Zhu's annoyance, he once again woke up to the pain of his antlers trying to burst out of his skull. Being spotted with antlers wasn't much of a concern even with a few people on watch since he'd hidden his head under a spare blanket he'd kept in his bedroll beforehand, but the half an hour spent in extreme discomfort was. After this interruption Liu Zhu went back to sleep, took the last watch still a bit out of it, and then come dawn ate and gathered his things before heading to the gorge with the others.

That morning everyone got some good news and some bad news. The good news was that the gorge was only a short distance away and that there happened to be a rough trail they could take for part of the journey. The bad news was that the wooden bridge across the gorge was broken. There had been a thunderstorm the week before, and apparently the bridge had been struck and no one had been able to cross since then. As the group of cultivators stood there, trying to figure out what to do, Yan Da and the hunter parted from the group once more before Yan Da made yet another announcement.

"Finding another way across would take more than a day, so it'd more than a bit of an inconvenience. Fortunately the gorge isn't very wide here and I've thought of a way to get across." This statement improved everyone's moods, and they quieted down as Yan Da continued. "Somebody should have a rope, so as long as we have one that's long enough we can make a zip line. We can take a boat down the river after we're across so we don't have to worry about getting back to this side afterwards." A few people began digging around in their packs for ropes after Yan Da said this, but one of the cultivators, confused, asked a question. "If we're on this side how exactly do we tie the rope on the other side?"

Yan Da nervously smiled upon hearing this. "That's a very good question. The answer is, uh, we need someone light. We'll tie the rope to a tree on this side of the gorge, give the rope to them, and then throw them across to the other side so that they can tie it." Liu Zhu frowned as he heard this, and this frown only intensified as he saw Yan Da direct his nervous smile towards him. He didn't like where this was going.