Chapter 24
Huo Feng ran as hard as he could. His legs pounded the earth as quietly as he could manage.
He could hear them behind him. Laughing like jackals. He wouldn't be able to run for long.
He had to hide.
Of all the useless things he had been taught by Elder Bai, that powerless elder, he had at least learnt one useful thing.
Mantis Immortal Hidden Art!
With this art, he could suppress his qi, so as to make himself unnoticeable to cultivators. There was only one problem.
He had to remain completely still, and he would only be able to perform it for a few minutes.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
He wasn't yet at the point where he could easily keep his qi within himself. All cultivators naturally emitted qi, and as they got more powerful, the less and less qi they would emit, and the more conscious the act was.
If he tried to use the technique for too long, not only would he be doing the equivalent of putting explosives in his belly and praying for them not to go off, if he wasn't able to pull it off, he'd be completely weak in front of the people who were trying to kill him.
First, he had to lose them. If he used the art while in front of them, they'd immediately know where he was.
He sped up, looking for something. Anything to lose his pursuers.
Quickly, he singled out a spot. A small, 3-foot-wide hole in a mound on the ground. Great Skies, he was saved!
He looked behind him to check that they weren't yet upon him. They were still behind. Revelling in what they assumed was a guaranteed kill.
They could almost imagine the kind of rewards Hung Lee would give them. With such connections, they would have really made it in the cultivation world.
Huo Feng quickly dove in, not caring for his body as he smashed into the den. Quickly, he activated the technique.
His body started to look like his environment, even copying the scales of the snake on his leg.
'Snake!' Huo Feng thought, hopefully, it wasn't able to cultivate; there was no way he had jumped out of coals into fire.
Suddenly, a small pulse rang out around them. No! Qi!
He almost moved to do something, but then the assassins came.
He stilled himself as the snake slowly coiled itself forward towards his head.
In this position, his head was facing out of the den and his legs inwards, so he could see the snake and the assassins at the same time.
"Boss, did you feel that? I'm sure it's that bastard we came here for."
"I felt it as well. The pig is trying to run from the farmer. Not knowing his muddy feet are leaving tracks."
Everyone laughed. Huo Feng, trying to keep himself as still as possible, could only move his eyes.
The snake, he did not know what type it was kept coming closer, quiet. As if it too did not want to raise the alarm of the assassins.
"Mu Qi, where do you think he went?"
A short man came forward, thin as a stick with a long nose. "Boss, leave it to me."
He started sniffing, moving around. Slowly coming towards the den. The snake started moving back.
Huo Feng still kept still. His life depended on it.
"Boss, look at this. Blood."
Huo Feng almost cried out loud in frustration. 'That damn, Elder Bai, the day I grow more powerful than him, I'll make sure he regrets this. And that golden child Hung Lee, too!'
The boss came and saw the blood, right next to the den, the snake barely out of sight, coiling itself tightly around Huo Feng's leg, which kept it concealed even further.
"He must have passed through here, let's go that way," he pointed above the den, north, the path Huo Feng would have taken if he had not noticed the den.
He almost sighed in relief.
Whoosh, whoosh…
The pursuers leaped over the den and went north as quickly as possible. Now that they thought he had escaped, they started moving quickly.
Huo Feng waited, almost forgetting the snake. But the snake didn't forget him. It uncoiled itself more as the assassins got further away.
Huo Feng slowly turned to face the spirit beast. Now that he didn't have to keep up his technique, he could expel his energy safely.
What better way was there to expel it than to expel it on the spirit beast? Slowly, he angled his arm and palms together properly, right below the snake's head.
There would only be one chance.
2.
1.
He expelled the qi he had gathered into his hands, channeling it through his veins onto the spirit beast. This snake was at least at the peak of the first stage of the mortal refinement realm. Not yet powerful enough to tell the difference in cultivation strength- A small mercy, especially as Huo Feng was severely weakened.
Huo Feng calmed himself and made sure the qi was aligned properly, he didn't want it to backfire on him.
If it did, the running would have been for nothing. Maybe the old coot had known what he was talking about after all.
Most of the sect barely tolerated Elder Bai. Too young to fight, too inexperienced to scheme, and too stubborn to flatter, he had long been an outcast. But maybe he had just been overlooked?
Huo Feng shook his head in doubt. 'Not a chance under the skies.'
The blast shot forward toward the snake. With the snake trying to dodge, but it was only able to move enough so that its head was now the only thing in the way of the beam of qi.
The snake was only a body and a smoking hole by the time the qi beam had finished, still moving forward.
North.
Huo Feng got almost immediately to run away, but noticed something. A cracked sword, short and thicker towards the hilt, with only the hilt being brown, with purple hues, the rest of the sword being silver.
'What was this?' But Huo Feng knew what it was. He had heard stories, read tomes and scrolls.
He had even dreamt about finding something like this.
It was a treasure.
He had to leave.
He picked it up, not bothering to check on it, and ripped off his shirt to function as a makeshift scabbard.
The only thing keeping the den bright was the beast's core in the snake.
'Beast core!' Were the skies truly looking on Huo Feng?
He took the snake corpse and started running, making sure he had everything with him.
Not too far away, a band of assassins hurried through the terrain. One got down on his hands and knees to sniff the ground, not aware of the danger in his future.
"Mu Qi—move!"
"What?" He moved to hear better, but it was too late.
The qi beam rapidly surged forward. Blasting through trees and shrubbery. It struck at the cultivator Mu Qi.
Right above his heart. Taking a piece of shoulder as well.
"Mu Qi!"
Everyone was suddenly on a high alert. Looking for any more dangers. When it was clear there were no more coming their way, they turned back to Mu Qi, who was desperately trying to uncork a healing potion.
"Help me!"
They just stood there. Watching.
"Please"
The boss answered. "You know how it is."
"No!"
One of his assassins took out a small dagger and finished the job that the qi beam did not.
Mu Qi dropped the healing potion, it uncorked as it hit the earth.
"Good job, Li."
"Yes, boss… can we…?"
"Go ahead."
They all immediately scavenged whatever they could from Mu Qi. Not a flicker of emotion on their faces.
After they were done, the boss stated, "He must have been behind us." He kicked the body, "Dog bastard! Good for nothing."
"Let's go back!"
**Khan**
"What do you mean we are leaving tonight?"
"Exactly what I said. We cannot stay here anymore, I don't know how far his influence reaches."
"Since when did you start giving orders around here?"
I paused. I had overstepped my bounds, but I was right.
Someone had to do it.
And Huo Qianlei wasn't in the best condition of his life.
This was my fault, I couldn't let them stay here. Who knew what would happen? Especially for the girls.
I met his eyes, steady now.
"Because if we don't leave tonight…"
I took a breath.
"…we might not get another chance."