DC 71

The sun finally set over the God Tree Sect’s mountain ranges, something that seemed much sooner in the day now that Feng Jiao resided in a valley rather than a mountain top. Looking around, Feng Jiao saw a barren field of mud covered in thinly veiled pitfall traps, sharpened wooden stakes, and tripwires. All in all, he figured they would have just as much trouble avoiding the ‘traps’ they set for the beast as the beast would itself. He couldn’t help think to himself that this was the result when a bunch of children with no experience tried to go hunting for an unknown threat.

As far as manning went, apart from himself, Feng Jiao had Bai Fu, his cousin Feng Lou, the famous beast tamer’s son Xin Lee, Jixiang Yun. In addition to his friends that he’d traveled with, Weiwu De surprisingly decided to come and help. After rescuing the man from the girls harassing him the previous day, he seemed determined to hug Feng Jiao’s knee or, without Feng Jiao providing the opportunity, throw in his lot with Feng Lou. He’d heard of the Rat Field and its previous prosperity and figured that, should they succeed in the hunt, an all male group of nominal disciples with two ready to step into the Mortal Condensation stage at any point would be more than able to protect him and his. Doubly so when you considered, what was in his mind, their elder Sister already within the Outer Sect backing them.

With him, he’d brought three more male disciples, whom Feng Jiao couldn’t be bothered greeting. Instead, Feng Jiao mentally referred to them as Spiky, Bowl Cut, and Curly. At the moment, Bowl Cut was helping disseminate and apply the scented powder that Tan Sai had given them. Not knowing if the beast was reliant on its sense of smell, Tan Sai came up with the idea of spreading a powerful yet light scented powder across the would-be battleground, and applying the same powder to the fighters to help them blend into the smellscape. Spiky and Curly were instead cleaning their blades, which looked so low quality that they very well may have been reforged from their parent’s farming tools before leaving to join the sect, with a cloth and a nervous look in their faces.

Tan Sai had not chosen to attend the actual battle, due to her light frame and lack of battling experience, but had helped supply many herbal remedies and poisons for the battle to come. She’d even gifted Xin Lee with a tranquilizer to coat his arrows in. He was positioned on top of the shack with a bow and a quiver of the lightly-coated poisoned arrows, with his beast treasure beside him. 

Before leaving home, Xin Lee’s father had crafted a family treasure for his son. It took the form of an oddly colored leather pouch tied to the inside of his left wrist. Xin Lee called it a Pseudo Artifact and explained that, so long as there was a beast below core formation, he should be able to consume the artifact to tie their souls together and forcefully create a bond. The only reason he hadn’t used it yet was that, before the Foundation stage, Xin Lee had a hard time interacting with his own Aura and would have a lot of trouble mobilizing the Pseudo Artifact during an active battle.

On the journey over, they’d scarcely ever run into a beast, mostly finding animals when they hunted. Although it doesn’t seem like much of a difference between the two, until an animal learned to interact with the essence surrounding them, they could only be an animal and not a beast. Every beast they had seen was too weak, or too powerful, to bond. Xin Lee knew that with his family’s abilities, he’d only be able to bond one beast per realm and was therefore very picky about it. From all the stories he’d heard about this beast, however, it sounded like it would be one of the best beasts he could bind during the Mortal Realm anyways. 

In addition to the wealth they’d be able to generate after cultivating the valley, it didn’t take much to convince Xin Lee to become their trump card during the battle. Several of the kids there were smoking Ardour Cigarettes to calm their nerves before the battle, causing Feng Jiao to shake his head. Back home, children under the age of 16 weren’t supposed to have any access to the herb. Although it wasn’t addictive itself, the feeling of calmness it inspired when ingested or smoked was. Obviously either Feng Lou or his father had shared Feng Jiao’s idea of bringing the home grown herb to the sect in an attempt to cultivate and sell it. 

Whereas Feng Lou had brought readily grown products with him to start generating interest, however, Feng Jiao was only able to get his hands on some seeds to grow due to his age and his father not having much of an active hand in the financial side of the family. 

At this moment, however, Feng Jiao was thankful that Feng Lou had shared his idea of bringing the Ardour grass along with him. Although most of the boys there were near the age of 16, they were still children who had never faced a real life or death battle in the past. In all honesty, even Feng Jiao was so nervous that his stomach felt like it was doing backflips. The only thing that kept him grounded was his confidence in his explosive power and the knowledge that he’d already survived reincarnation once, twice if Aideen’s story of him being a human in the past was true, and felt like he could do it again. 

“It’s time, spread out.” Feng Lou, this hunt’s elected leader, took command and barked out. 

Spiky, Curly, Bowl Cut, and Unibro-no wait, I know that one’s name- Weiwu Du, grouped together and started walking around the perimeter of the now darkening field counterclockwise. As they went, they lit the herbal torches that Tan Sai had helped cook up at the last minute. Similar to the torches decorating her mountain, Tan Sai had used a custom combination of herbs and poultices to cause the flame to smolder slowly and release a smoke that sunk back down to the earth instead of rising. 

Feng Jiao, Feng Lou, and Jixiang Yun did the same while walking clockwise. The new torches were designed to attract most beasts, smelling like safety and a warm meal to them. The hope was also that the smoke would help to overlap with the lightly scented smellscape she had crafted, making it difficult for the beast to spot the groups. 

By the time they’d finished lighting half the torches, Feng Jiao was starting to wonder what they were doing wrong. From the stories they’d heard in the past, the beast always struck right after sunset and didn’t discriminate between groups and individuals. Just as he was wondering if the beast had gone so hungry it decided to migrate, Feng Jiao heard a shout.

“Brother ????!” Shouted Spiky. Looking over, Feng Jiao could see that Bowl Cut was missing from the group. A cold sheen of sweat started to coat the group’s neck as they realized they hadn’t even seen when Bowl Cut had disappeared. The only sign was a hole in the ground a few torches back from where they’d currently stood. A pitfall that the group had not dug or seen during the battle prep. The most upsetting thing was that nobody in the group felt or heard the digging while they were walking. It was almost as if the earth had decided to open its mouth and swallow the boy whole, like some sort of divine justice for the crime that was his haircut. 

As they stood there watching, Feng Jiao felt an erosion under his feet. It was so light and silent, he likely would have never noticed had he not been barefoot unlike his companions. 

“Back!” Feng Jiao grabbed the shoulder of his two companions and lept backwards just as a hole opened up under Jixiang Yun’s feet. Due to his vigilance, Feng Jiao managed to spare his friends from following Bowl Cut’s fate while at the same time confirming that, whatever the beast was, it had the ability to mould the earth the way it wanted. 

Responding to the sound of Feng Jiao’s voice, Xin Lee expertly shot an arrow down the whole from a large distance away, using his years of practice hunting with his father and his vantage point from the shack to make what would have been a very difficult shot otherwise. Unfortunately, Xin Lee didn’t realize that the beast was not even present at the sight of the hole and had just shaped the earth subterranean. 

After making a few more failed attempts on Feng Jiao’s group, the beast seemed to have shifted its attention back to Spiky’s group who were making a very rapid retreat. Unfortunately for them, the beast didn’t seem to need to physically travel to open the holes. Although their speed helped them out pace the beast at first, the three boys were closer and closer to falling into one of the holes at every given second. 

As the three ran, the difference in their physiques became more and more apparent. Weiwu De had managed to get a solid gap on the other two. Meanwhile, Curly was beginning to catch up with Spiky as his endurance began flagging. Resolutely, Spiky turned and tripped Curly, tossing the boy backwards on his ass before turning back forward to run.

Hearing the sound of the boy hitting the ground, Weiwu De looked backwards just in time to see Curly on the ground attempting to get back up. Cursing his friend's clumsiness, Weiwu De turned back to help his friend. The guilt of Bowl Cut’s likely untimely death already weighed heavy on his conscience, and he was unwilling to lose another friend. Although he didn’t blame Spiky for not turning back to help, the grin that Weiwu De saw in Spiky’s eyes and on his face hurt him deeply.