Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Chún set a fast pace straight back towards the Heaven and Earth Vine clearing. The Golden Crow was almost completely behind the Mountain now and despite his recent cultivation improvements, he was not too happy with the idea of travelling during the night in a forest filled with Earth or even Sky ranked Essence Beasts.

Bounding off a couple of branches, he pushed himself faster. This particular trip had carried him a great deal further than he had been before, though in a different direction than the waterfall. Something was bothering him, an instinctive feeling of being watched.

The next large branch, he halted on and mentally pushed a request to the cloak to hide him, while he concentrated on drawing his Essence inward away from anything that might be using Essence to track him. Already difficult to see in the falling dusk, the cloak rippled and then changed to match the appearance of the branch he was in, visually hiding him.

Without his Essence sense out he felt blind though, so he thought about the mist the Cloak had become in the cave. "But subtle," he thought at the cloak.

Within moments, fine wisps of mist were spreading outward from the tree and Chún relaxed slightly as he felt everything they brushed against.

"Mountain? Am I imagining things?" he thought down the link to his locus.

"No sounds," pointed the Mountain tersely.

Chún blinked and some of the undefinable tension he was feeling eased, as he realised the usual sounds of the forest, which at dusk were normally quite loud - with the day time creatures going to bed and the night time creatures waking up - were absent.

"That was what was making me uneasy," he pushed down the link. "What is going on?"

"I… am not sure," responded the Mountain after a moment.

"Nèige... what? You are literally the Mountain, how can you not know what is going on?" Chún hissed urgently into the link, his tenseness increasing again.

"I can see what is going on - it just does not make much sense," explained the locus. "Look."

The familiar Essence illusion map floated in front of Chún's eyes and he examined the image, before doing a double take.

"What are all those dots?" he asked referring to a large scattering of pulsing motes that seemed to be generally travelling towards his location from all directions.

"Essence Beasts. They all started travelling in your direction after the fight with the Lingzhi almost simultaneously. At first it was focused on the area where the fight was, but then it started to shift to follow your path of travel - they have slowed since you requested the Cloak to conceal you, but they are clearly moving in a searching pattern as they move closer."

"Why would all the Essence Beasts in the nearby forest suddenly take notice of me? I have been travelling all over the forest for the past month and only encountered Essence Beasts when I stumbled over them," asked the teen in puzzlement.

"Whatever the reason, they appear to be gathering numbers. This is concerning…" responded the Mountain, sounding distant as if its attention was elsewhere.

"These are not all evil Essence Beasts like the damned mushroom, right? Can you not just request they disperse?" worried Chún.

"I am attempting to do so - but Essence Beasts are not under my control, especially the Higher Level ones - I can only make strong requests. I am detecting at least one Sky Level beast, possibly two… this is not good." The locus' mental 'voice' was sounding strained.

"I take it they are not listening?" sighed Chún.

"There are enough Essence Beasts gathered in the immediate area to form what humans normally call a 'Beast Wave'," explained the Mountain hurriedly, "What a Beast wave actually is - is more of a Collective Mind of all the Beasts in a group, especially if it has a few High level beasts involved. Higher levelled Beasts act like generals - the group becomes self-directed, moves like a single creature and attacks intelligently via coordination through the Higher level Beasts. The more Beasts in a wave, the higher the level of intelligence and danger."

"A, a… what? Those wipe out Empires!" stuttered Chún, nearly falling off his branch in shock.

"This is only a small one," reassured his locus, "I am actively persuading individual Essence Beasts outside its range of effect to leave the region, so it will not grow too much larger except from any Beats that get caught inside the encirclement. Maybe a low Mortal rank wave? A couple of Sky level Consumers could deal with it."

Chún hissed in frustration. "I do not have a couple of Sky Level Consumers to fight for me - and if this Beast wave is actively searching for me - they will find me, because there is no way to avoid crossing paths with it."

"Actually between the Staff and the Cloak you probably - do - have the equivalent of a couple of Sky Levels, but as you can only be in one location at once and do not have the techniques to match a Sky level or even multiple Earth level Beasts, I suggest you do not attempt to make a stand," pointed out the Mountain.

"Thank you so much for the obvious advice," Chún said sarcastically.

"What I do not understand is why this Beast Weave suddenly formed. The Essence herbs you carry together are a tempting reward for any Essence beast, but at most you should have attracted a couple that happened directly across your path," mused his locus, clearly distracted.

"Excuse me? The herbs are what?" Chún ground out through the link while studying the map. The progression of the wave had slowed, but the ring of creatures was still closing around his location.

"Essence Beasts like to eat and consume herbs for advancement as much as Consumers do. Sometimes they will even guard them until the plants advance to gain a larger benefit - that is common knowledge - so healthy, low to mid rank Earth level herbs in ideal growing conditions like you are currently carrying are very attractive to similarly ranked Essence beasts ," answered his friend, "but even with twice as many more valuable Essence herbs, it should not have attracted Beasts over such a wide area."

His locus paused, then continued, sending pulses of confusion down the link, "Even more puzzling is that Sky Level Beasts and even True or Peak Rank Earth Beasts should not be interested in the herbs you are carrying - they are too low level. I do not..."

"What about the damned mushroom?" asked Chún, a thought occurred to him.

"It is very… specific. It is Sky rank, but would not help Beasts that could not handle the excess of Yin it has collected… however…" The Mountain's voice trailed off.

"It is those damned cries it made, right? They carried out over a wider area - hells - it probably planned this." Chún growled.

"That is a likely scenario," admitted the Mountain.

"En. Well, let us make sure it gets ground up." Chún pointed to a section directly in front of him that in comparison to the areas around him seemed to have less Beasts approaching from it. It was also the area with the least coordination in the movements between the beasts. "Why do you think there are less Beasts in that area."

"Because of the Heaven and Earth vine. She has killed most of the Beasts that live in the area near her - the direction you were heading, so there were less Beasts to be attracted towards you - and there is almost no connection to the rest of the collective group as they are too sparse," answered the Mountain.

Chún grinned fiercely as he leapt off the branch as hard as he could. "Cloak, conceal as much as you can. We are going through that gap." After bounding at high speed off several trees, his locus warned urgently, "Some of them must have sensed your movement or Essence - the circle is contracting fast now - a couple are converging on your position from directly ahead and the others are pursuing."

Chún laughed. "We just have to take out the ones in front and outrace the flankers. If the rest of them want to chase us into Her Highness' clearing, I suspect she would thank us for dinner."

--

The Staff in Chún's hands crackled with energy as he slammed it into a raging Iron-Backed-Ape that had leapt out of the tree ahead of him. The Beasts in the trees were one of the things that he had not anticipated and they kept trying to force him down to the ground, where he could see racing forms and flashing eyes keeping pace.

"Son of a…" using the momentum from the impact, he hurled himself upward as the ape choked on blood and crashed into the forest floor, prompting a chorus of pained howls as the several hundred catty body smashed into his ground bound pursuers.

"Cat on the right…" warned his locus as he landed back in the canopy. A form hurled itself towards his back from a tree behind him. His Cloak twitched and the barbs of the Ganoderma that it had collected during the fight sped through the air, impaling whatever it was with audible meaty thunks as he brought up his staff to block the glowing purple claws of the huge black Panther that had clawed its way up the tree trunk to attack him.

"Another of you bastard... ugh," he grunted as the Essence on the two sets of weapons clashed together and detonated with a bright flash and concussion that sent him rolling off the branch and the screaming cat in the opposite direction - the squalling cutting off with a sickening cracking sound - even as he slammed into another tree at the same time.

His Staff changed into a set of metal tiger claws over his right hand that he jammed into the tree stopping him from falling and he desperately boosted himself upward as a snarl told him another panther was close by.

"Less talk, more fight!" urged the Mountain, "Actually, less fight, more moving towards the clearing - you are in danger of getting surrounded!"

Chún pushed as much Essence as he could manage into both Cloak and Staff simultaneously. The cloak exploded into an enormous wave of billowing mist in all directions; a change obviously unwelcome as cries of rage and pain sounded out from all around him. The staff flashed brightly - then with a sizzling snap a giant bubble of lightening blasted out of the staff and jumped into the mist in all directions, lighting up the mist like daytime.

The cries of pain and roars turned to screams of pain and the tree Chún was currently traversing shuddered, g.r.o.a.n.e.d and glowed as a massive amount of lightning flowed through it, a loud sound of frying beans coming from the wood.

"JUMP OFF…" Chún had already leapt as the tree started glowing, his senses telling him this was suddenly a bad place to be, before the Mountain shouted in his head.

The Cloak suddenly snapped into its water armour form, covering him and the pots in a thick bubble of water and clamped over his ears as the tree he had left behind exploded like an oversized firework, sending a storm of raging Life Essence, boiling sap and wooden shrapnel out in all directions, a concussive wave of force slapping him and other smaller trees, soil and plants into the air.

He came down hard, the Cloak turning back into billows of mist to cushion the impact. Trees and Essence Beast bodies were strewn everywhere like a giant hand had flattened the forest.

Chún m.o.a.n.e.d in despair as he struggled dazed to his feet. "This is going to be a nightmare to clean up."

"I am growing an Essence Crystal here, like you suggested the other day - it will deal with the excess wild Essence. I have been growing them all along your fight path, actually." His locus paused, "I suggest you run. The rest of the Beast Wave that was out of range of the explosion is catching up… it is not too happy."

"Bunch of egg layers…" Chún cursed. He started running towards the nearest trees left standing in the right direction as a veritable rainbow avalanche of long range Elemental Essence attacks, screamed, whistled, hissed, sizzled and crashed out of the forest behind him accompanied by howls and screams of rage.

Barely dodging fireballs, icicles, pure Essence bolts and various other unidentifiable flashes of energy, he zigged and zagged like a demented chipmunk as dirt fountained under the impacts and small Essence explosions crashed into the forest floor around him.

He was more or less completely deafened and blinded by this point, operating almost purely on Essence sense. "En, they are pissed…" He cackled madly as he reached the trees and his Cloak flung out waves of ice blades out behind him as he bounded up the nearest forest giant. "Catch Me If you can, bastards!"

---

It was completely dark as Chún panted behind a large boulder, his wounds mostly healed, but exhausted. "So much for getting back before the Golden Crow went to his nest," he grumbled as he looked cautiously around the boulder and seeing the moving shapes.

"It is only a li to the treeline of the Heaven and Earth clearing, said the Mountain, but some of them are getting between you and the edge. You will not be able to sneak past them without being spotted - you will get tied down before you get there."

"Then we do not sneak. And we do not stop to fight." Chún said decisively, "We go through the scouts like that Bear did to the trees - you remember, that first 'fight'?"

"You are not built like a Bear," objected his locus, "You do not possess enough body weight to replicate that charge."

"Speed and Momentum - and I am pretty tough right? If the Cloak and Staff add as much power ahead of me as they can - I should be able to plow through or jump over if I can." Chún charged as much Essence as he could into his body, Staff and Cloak and threw himself over the boulder, pushing off so hard from its surface, he heard it crack.

He turned into a blazing comet of Essence, the air cracking with his passage as he moved faster than he ever had before. He felt the cloak changing into an arrow like shape around him, making the air easier to move through. A massive tail of displaced earth, plants and roaring wind blasted out behind him as he bolted in a straight line towards the clearing.

Needless to say, this action immediately attracted the attention of the beast wave and enormous attacks of all shapes and colours thundered out towards him adding their own cacophony to the mix. He ignored them, trusting in his speed.

A few creatures appeared in his path, but they burst into a bloody mist as he literally blasted straight through them. Within a shùn, he had outpaced all his pursuers and had torn through the beasts blocking the way - the howls and Essence attacks coming purely from behind him.

Another shùn and his body abruptly stopped channelling Essence, his meridians tingling with the burning sensation of having over strained his channelling capacity. As the comet of Essence vanished his speed dropped precipitously and he was basically flung through the air on the remaining momentum.

The howls rose triumphantly as the beast wave began to overtake him, Essence attacks blasting into the ground all around him as he literally crashed across the treeline and was flung like a rag doll into the air, crashing heavily into the familiar grass. The maddened creatures poured out of the treeline behind him - only steps away.

There was a loud sound of ripping cloth as the ice-crack reeds flung their shards at the raging tide; the visible creatures burst into shredded meat, even as more poured out of the trees behind them - crashing into the clearing, only to be swallowed by enormous vines that burst out of the grass and ripped them apart.

"They are not stopping! Her Highness says get into your cave, she will deal with them." The Mountain's order shook him out of his daze as a truly horrifying figure appeared at the treeline - it looked like a giant earth black worm curling and casting around almost a quarter li into the sky. "Sky Level beast! She needs you out of the line of fire!"

Chún crawled to his feet and staggered as fast as he could for the cave as the clearing filled with the sound of ripping cloth and screaming - the stench of blood filling the air. Overhead, Chún saw massive balls of different coloured Essence blasting across the clearing from the Vine, resulting in thunderous concussions as they hit the attackers, making him stumble.

Suddenly he felt himself being lifted and carried towards the tunnel entrance. Looking down, he saw a familiar, if much larger than he recalled, silver and gold pattern of scales.

"Silver snake? Thank you…"

There was a mind bending scream similar to the mushroom's, but much more forceful and Chún looked around to see the giant black worm thing outlined in sickly yellow green Essence, spitting odd globs of glowing fluid towards the vine as the other creatures got shredded by the ice-crack reeds and the attacking vine roots. Essence patterns in the mist flashed and discharged as they stunned and blinded Beasts, who rolled and howled, pawing at their eyes.

The wave might have been more formidable if they had not been so focused on catching Chún and had not run straight into the Vine's clearing and defences without setting up a proper attack. The worm's attacks were being intercepted by floating Essence balls of crackling energy of different elements - fire, ice, lightning, metal, water, earth - from the vine, none of them getting through.

"The Beast wave's collective mind is losing cohesion," the Mountain informed him. The creatures not maddened by blood l.u.s.t or without a personal stake in attacking are breaking free and retreating."

He was unceremoniously dumped at the tunnel entrance as the Silver Snake rushed back towards the battle line, evidently eager to score some kills and resources. Chún propped himself up into a sitting position at the entrance to the tunnel, chuckling coldly as he watched the colourful massacre.

As a mass of vines burst out from under the massive Sky level worm and began crushing it, he laughed darkly and coughed, wiping blood from the corners of his mouth.

"Come to Mother, bastards. Dinner is served."