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Chapter 153 – Attack a Creature a Major Realm and a Half Higher Than Me? Sure.
🕑 Added 2024-12-08 12:55:18 +0000 UTCYang Ru was a step away from the shadowed alley when he heard the call to stop. Already primed to react to the slightest stimulus, Yang Ru halted. Cupping the shaft of his spear around the pile of spirit coins in his hands, he brought his weapon up into a guard position.
“Why?” he yelled.
“It’s right in front of you,” Zou Tian called.
Good. That was exactly the result Yang Ru wanted. For the badger to attack him and be drawn out into the open.
But the implications of what the younger boy said immediately hit. Zou Tian could sense the beast.
Yang Ru stepped back, keeping his spear at the ready.
###
The badger snarled. So close. One of the less weak humans had been walking toward the alley, holding a source of consumable qi that, though not nearly as big as the first, might be enough for it to advance.
It was all the beast could do to not rush out into the sun to attack.
But it was injured. One of the sticks the humans used for attacks had impaled it. The wound wasn’t deadly, but it hurt. And it couldn’t work the stick out of itself without making the injury worse.
Though the humans were all much weaker than it, they were not without teeth. The badger had seen them kill two of its fellows. And it was not nearly at full power. If not for the orders it could not disobey, it would have retreated to try for the qi source at night when it could make better use of its stealthiness.
Instead, it had to make the best of a bad situation and find a way to win even with the humans actively on alert. It had to be careful moving, or the stick would move around, jostling its insides and worsening the wound.
None of that would have mattered if it advanced, though. So much power. So close.
As soon as the human stepped into Shadow, it would have attacked, keeping itself hidden from the stick flinger.
But at the last instant, another human had called out, and the less weak human had stopped.
The badger almost ran out, exposing itself. But it hesitated, and the choice was soon taken from it as the less weak human retreated.
It wished it understood human speech. It wished it knew why the weak human had yelled and why the less weak human had left.
The badger wanted that qi. It wanted to advance and kill every human in the gathering, consuming every bit of qi.
There was so much. It would ascend as high as…
Best not to think about that.
All it could do was to wait and to watch. The humans would make a mistake. It was sure.
###
Zou Tian, Yang Ru, Kang Lin, and Ye Zan huddled below the allure with Yang Xiu above keeping watch with her bow ready.
“You can see it?” Ye Zan said.
“I can sense it,” Zou Tian said.
Kang Lin grimaced. “How accurately? Is it like a general direction or something more precise?”
“Very accurate, but it requires concentration. It’s a new ability. I’m not sure how long I can keep it active if I’m not meditating.”
“If we go into the alley, can you direct our attacks from here?” Yang Ru said.
Both Kang Lin and Ye Zan looked doubtful.
Zou Tian shared their hesitation. “I don’t see how, Senior Brother. I’d tell you to attack your left, but you wouldn’t know exactly where left. And the beast is fast, hard to hit even when we can see it.”
“We need to get it into the sun,” Ye Zan said. “That way we can all see it.”
Kang Lin looked at him like he was an idiot. “Obviously, but how? If Yang Ru or I could sense it, maybe we could go into the alley, survive its attacks, and push it out.”
The implication was that Zou Tian was too weak to do the same. Which stung. Especially since the assessment was accurate. He was at Qi Gathering minor realm five, almost a full major realm and a half less than the badger’s equivalent of peak Foundation Establishment. There was no way he’d be able to beat the beast one on one.
But he didn’t need to beat the creature. He just needed to push it into the sun.
A plan began to form in his mind.
“Do we have a pike?”
###
No one had wanted Zou Tian to carry through with his plan, but neither could any of them come up with a better idea. He was the only one who could sense the beast. Thus, he had to be the one to go into the alley.
One of the village guards had found a pike with a sixteen-foot-long haft. It was a mortal weapon, and the metal piece on the end combining a half-moon blade with a long spike was rusted.
Zou Tian had never even held such a weapon, much less fought with one. Walking into a fight with a vastly superior foe holding an unfamiliar armament did seem pretty darn stupid. He was very glad that Wan Ai wasn’t aware of what he was about to do. She was going to be so very upset with him when she found out.
There was literally no one else for the job, though. Yang Xiu’s Qi Gathering level perception skill simply wasn’t strong enough to detect the higher ranked beast. The only reason he could do it was because of his high affinity with his Shadow qi aspect. If the beast had been using a different element for concealment, he would have been useless.
The only saving grace for his plan was that he didn’t need to defeat the creature. He had only two goals. One, survive. Two, get one good hit on the badger.
That was it. Easy.
He snorted. If only.
The problems with his plan were many, starting with the newness of using his technique in such a manner. Hide Presence wasn’t envisioned as a way to detect other beings cloaking in Shadow, and forcing it to perform that function required great focus. He wasn’t even sure he could do it while walking, much less fighting.
Almost as worrisome, the badger was both fast and tough. It took both the twins’ efforts to injure it, and both had used techniques or experience that far outstripped Zou Tian’s just to hit it. Senior Brother had been able to convert his Momentum into speed, making him faster that the beast for a short while. Senior Sister’s shot had almost been prescient in anticipating where to aim.
Worst was just how much lower in cultivation level he was than the beast. Senior Sister and Kang Lin had told him about a buffalo and how they’d been hesitant to attack such a high ranked creature. They were both already in the Foundation Establishment realm at that point. He was so far below even them that it wasn’t funny.
Zou Tian did have tiny advantage in that he was at the peak of Bronze Body Cultivation, and if he were facing a rank three beast, that fact would have made him feel confident indeed. Against a rank six? The badger could tear him to shreds in an instant.
His vulnerabilities were extreme, but the beast was not without flaws to exploit. For one thing, it had been injured by the twins. From what Zou Tian had sensed, it was not moving nearly as fast as it previously had. Second, he knew what it wanted—spirit coins.
Five of the ten-thousand qi ones that Jin LiJuan guarded were in a pouch tied to his waist. It was a lot easier to predict an opponent’s movements when one knew what they would be targeting.
###
The badger watched, amused and eager, as the weak human who had yelled walked toward the alley. The young human was so far beneath it that it could kill the youngster with a single swipe. Even better, the human carried consumable qi. A lot of consumable qi. More than the less weak human had.
It licked its lips.
Advancement was so close and growing closer by the step.
The badger sensed Shadow on the weak human. Even better. A stealth-focused opponent would have no chance against it. Such low ranked prey would not be able to hide from it.
It stared, transfixed, at the pouch swinging from the weak human’s clothes.
###
Zou Tian swallowed hard. He felt really, really stupid for suggesting a plan that put him in so much danger. But there was no use going over the reasons again. It had to be him, so it would be him.
He glanced back. Kang Lin, Ye Zan, Huang Yimun, and Senior Brother stood in a semi-circle in the center of the plaza. Further back, Yang Xiu had an arrow nocked.
The sight gave him heart. His sect members had his back. Literally. And he had both a Major Healing Pill and a Minor Healing Pill in easy to reach pockets in his robe.
Anything short of death could be healed, and his Body Cultivation should hopefully be helpful in slowing his demise long enough to consume one of the miraculous drugs.
His nerves somewhat settled, he focused on the plan. The badger would logically go for one of two targets. The coins were the beast’s primary goal. Master had said the beasts would fixate on them, and the badger’s actions had done nothing to dissuade Zou Tian from believing the statement.
Rank six beasts were smart, though. It might decide to go for his throat as killing him would make taking the coins easier.
Zou Tian realistically only had one shot at accomplishing his goal. As soon as the beast moved, he’d need to react by swinging his pike. But the beast was so fast, that he would have to anticipate where it would be, just like Yang Xiu had.
That meant guessing. Coins or throat. Choosing wrong meant failing and maybe his death. Maybe all of their deaths.
He had to guess correctly.
As he neared the alley, Zou Tian slipped into what he thought of as walking meditation. He cleared his mind and sensed the Shadow.
Ahead of him, waiting just inside the alley, was the beast.
That was good on two fronts. First, his ability worked. He was able to walk and detect it as the same time. Second, he needed for the beast to be eager to take the bait for his plan to work.
That the badger was on the edge of the plaza was an important clue.
Zou Tian tried to put himself in his opponent’s head. It was injured and desperate to advance. The human approaching it held the means for that advancement. But so had a previous human, one who had retreated before entering the alley.
It was desperate. The wound combined with the source of qi being so close must be overwhelming its intelligence. In such a situation, instinct prevailed.
He tensed as he drew within what he estimated to be leaping range of the beast.
The badger surged forward, and Zou Tian almost committed, which would have been a huge mistake. The creature moved only an inch, clearly wanting to attack but holding itself back from entering the sun.
Trying to calm his heart hammering against the inside of his chest, Zou Tian kept walking slowly forward.
The badger retreated further into the alley.
That was good. A predictable enemy was a beatable enemy.
Zou Tian was positive that, as soon as he fully entered the Shadow, the beast would attack. He steeled his resolve and took another step.
Comments
Eder Lvanon
Hey thank you for great book I have problem you have a lot of great people in the book but I don't remember everyone. When you have time can you please create file of everyone so I remember ?
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
