Chương 70: Wenhai Curses!

Ren flew slowly, his senses stretched to their limits. The forest remained dim as he began to encounter other animals and some beasts. A pack of wolves was hunting an elk, while a lynx was hiding atop a tree, watching them. Rabbits scurried around, and countless snakes slithered— far too many of them were around. Strangely, every snake had the same white scale pattern, even the different species. The giant serpent that attacked him had the same pattern, too.

A bad feeling lingered within him as he took in more and more details. Although his bloodshot eyes had already returned to normal, the sharpness in his gaze didn't lessen. This is still the outskirts, yet the danger is almost enough to overwhelm any beginner cultivator. And that's not even counting the forest fucking with your head. None of these animals carried spiritual energy, yet their sizes and strength would give their Earth equivalents a run for their money.

Even the rabbits at the very bottom of the food chain had teeth as sharp as blades. One bite broke apart a rock, and then it chewed on it happily. As for the beasts, even without awakening their spiritual wisdom, their crude use of spiritual energy was enough to crush most cultivators at the same stage.

"You're late," Demoness's voice cut through his thoughts. Perched on a branch, she was idly swinging her legs.

"I was starting to think something gobbled you up on the way."

"Tried but failed," Ren answered, his tone flat.

"Where's Wenhai?"

"Poor soul," she chuckled, then motioned forward with her head. Ren landed beside her and immediately saw Wenhai crouched behind a thick shrub, visibly trembling. A few meters in front of him was a wide opening, filled with lush but short grass. A beast snored thunderously on the grass, its head covered entirely with its four arms. A Four-Armed Gorilla, better known as the Skull-Crusher Demon among mortals. In terms of appearance, it truly resembled a silverback gorilla; it was just one on steroids.

Ren carefully inspected it, his lips curling faintly. Yeah… the winner of a one-gorilla-versus-a-hundred-men debate is pretty damn clear. Even while lying, it was roughly two meters. Its entire body was packed with bulging muscles and worm-like veins slithering along them. Compared to it, Wenhai might as well have been a kindergartener.

"You're quite ruthless, you know," Demoness snickered.

"It's just a First Stage beast, Wenhai is already approaching the Fifth. What part of this makes me ruthless?" She rolled her eyes, but did not argue. Ren settled beside her and focused on the boy's first hunt. Wenhai drew a deep breath. Two waraxes appeared in his grasp, and the trembling in his arms subsided. Still crouched, he crept toward the sleeping beast. The Gorilla shifted slightly. A flash of red lightning flared instantly, and Wenhai threw both axes.

With a clean spin through the air, they buried themselves deep in its left thigh. A sickening crack rang out as blood splashed around. A pair of eyes snapped open. The abyss-like black pupils found the intruder as a cruel light flashed past. The beast surged upright, its roar piercing through the calm of the forest. Wenhai's face brightened. He opened his hands immediately and activated the recall runes. The axes heeded his call, yet they took too much time to free themselves.

The gorilla slapped them aside with its two arms on its left, while the two on its right side clenched into fists.

"Fuck…" Wenhai muttered as a massive shadow loomed over him. The happiness on his face faded as quickly as it came. Then the mutter turned into a scream, and he ran! He didn't even look back.

"Shit— Fuck, fuck, fuck! AHH!" Ren felt an urge to go down and smack some sense into the foolish boy. Demoness waved her hand, and a transparent bubble covered them quickly, shielding their voices and sight.

"Looks like you're an amaaaazing teacher," she commented, chuckling lightly. Ren refused to answer, the urge getting stronger with each passing moment. Wenhai didn't stop until he arrived underneath the tree they stood under, frantically looking around. His face fell.

"Senior Brother! Where are you?! Help! I'm gonna die!" he shouted, but no reply came. Right then, he gulped, a strange expression on his face. Finally noticed, huh? He stiffly turned around, only to see that the beast wasn't on his tail. It had stumbled and had to support itself with one arm. Even so, its menacing gaze never left the perpetrator.

"Oh…" He scratched his head sheepishly. Demoness burst into laughter. Ren's intense gaze drilled holes into her.

"Ahh, no, I shouldn't be laughing… hahaha, but it's too funny… HAHAHA…" she could barely speak, clutching her stomach. His frown deepened, but right at that moment, a pale hand entered his view. Demoness gently put two fingers on his face and fixed his frown by pushing them up.

"You met the curse, didn't you?" she asked, stifling her laughter. Ren stopped. His breath caught in his throat.

"It's as terrible as rumors, hah?" she continued, leaning back. She stared at the canopy.

"Even affecting you… Your plans might backfire, you know." Ren shrugged, holding back his sigh. He was starting to feel like an old man these days, constantly sighing and all.

"We'll see when the time comes," he muttered. She just shook her head.

"You are acting like those old farts, already envisioning all the bad scenarios. I don't think we need to see anything at all." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. He couldn't help but point at himself.

"Who? Me?" She threw a disinterested glare at him, and that was all it took for Ren to give up and sigh in defeat. Damn, did I really become that grumpy… The last few days flashed through his mind. Fine. I accept, I might be such a pain in the ass lately. Staring at the pup who was struggling to call his axes but failing every time, Ren raised his hand.

"It's already injured, Pup," he said at last, disturbing the barrier with a wave.

"Senior Brother?! I can't get my axes, help!" Wenhai's eyes glimmered like stars, seemed to find his backbone. The Gorilla once again slapped the axes aside, then grabbed a small rock and threw it. The light faded from Wenhai's eyes, and he dodged instantly, blue lightning sparking from the soles of his feet. What is this, circus play? Ren grumbled inside, but he still kept his voice steady. He is just a kid, be patient.

"Don't activate the runes directly toward yourself. First, move them out of its reach, then call them. At the same time, try to distract it." Wenhai's chin tightened. Fortunately, he acted a bit more decisively this time, the blue lightning around him flaring. He raised one hand toward it, and the other drew a slow circle. A thin lightning line shot toward the beast as soon as their gazes met in midair.

Thereafter, Wenhai lifted his foot, the lightning converged into a ball, and the moment he stomped, he flew forward. The Gorilla subtly flinched, bracing itself as its muscles gained a slight sheen. Right before he entered its attack range, Wenhai suddenly shifted direction and started to circle around it like a wolf searching for an opening. He had already moved the axes out of its sight.

The runes pulsed, and they immediately skimmed behind the beast, went out of the opening into the tree lines, and only then flew toward Wenhai. He grabbed their shafts out of the air right before he stepped onto the beast's range, dashing straight to the beast's injured side. A roar erupted, and the Gorilla sent one punch that slid off the crossed double axes. It tried to turn quickly, yet its supporting hand wasn't agile enough.

"Take this!" Wenhai chopped its fingers on the ground with one axe and drove the tip of the other axe through the back of its hand, pinning it to the ground. He then ran back out of its range, dodging its furious punches. The beast growled and tried to chase, yet faltered at the critical moment, crashing onto the ground. Its gaze found the axe stuck in its hand—"AHHH!" Wenhai lunged at the opportunity, his axe finding deep purchase on its neck. The black shimmer flickered, but got eaten by the red sparks.

The beast roared right at his face, his hair fluttering madly, its huge teeth almost touching him. The boy's pupils contracted, yet he didn't let go. On the contrary, he pressed on until the light faded from its eyes and it collapsed fully. Letting out a trembling breath, Wenhai wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, then slumped on his back.

"Huff… huff… finally… I did it. Senior Brother, I fucking did it…" he muttered, his voice shaky, unbelieving.

"It wasn't that bad, right?" Ren said, a smile finally blooming on his face. His expectation surfaced. A moment later, the forest didn't fail him. Heavy footsteps echoed. A shiver ran through Wenhai's body. He raised his head so slowly, eyes widening until they almost popped out of their sockets.

"S-S-S-senior Brother…?"

"Ah, I forgot to remind," Ren's voice reached into his ears.

"Four-armed Gorillas always stand together as a family, just like wolf packs. Also, only the cubs would be left behind while the adults went hunting. So… guess how upset they are going to be when they find their cub dead." With every sentence Ren uttered, Wenhai's face twisted more and more. He shot to his feet, pulled his axes free, cracked open the beast's skull, and took out its beast core, moving with shocking fluidity. Just as he turned, six giants stepped into the opening, their eyes locking onto him.

"Escape their pursuit within half an hour, that's your mission. I wish you good luck, Pup." Ren's smile widened. You'll need it. Roars erupted at the same time. Wenhai gulped, his throat moving in slow motion. Blue lightning engulfed his legs as he stomped and launched himself toward the tree line like a cannonball. His second-best skill— running for his life!

"Being a loudmouth has its advantages," Demoness said, chuckling lightly.

"At least he knows how to escape."

"Yeah, he knows that." Ren chuckled.

"Real question is," he said, throwing a knowing glance at her, "whether he knows how to avoid being tracked." He ignored her glare and stepped into the empty air, free-falling.

"I'll take the ground. Let's go." He dived right into the wretched roars piercing through the eerie peace of the forest. The wind hit his face, harsh like the teacher he was. And it felt… right. Not perfect, but fitting. If he wanted them to survive. His thoughts, sluggish for a while, finally pulled themselves free from the quagmire the curse dragged them into, and he let the wind cleanse them. Only his purpose remained. An armored hand stabbed deep into the tree bark, stopping his descent.

With a kick, he closed the gap with the boy, a faint barrier cloaking him from sight. Wenhai was zigzagging between trees, all his muscles taut, sweat pouring down his face. His eyes swept wildly around, alert as a cunning fox, somehow finding the least obstructed way to pass the greatest distance. Something split apart the air with a sharp whistle as he ducked beneath a thrown rock. It crashed into a tree, causing it to fall. Wenhai didn't even bat an eye and slid under it.

Blue sparks flared frantically, singing a dangerous song composed of sharp cracks, sizzling, and clattering echoes. The debris raining toward him was reduced to dust. He came out of the slide and kept running. Ren sauntered alongside, his longer strides eating up the distance anyway. A silver light covered his skin at the same time, flickering at an extremely low frequency. It was a new way he had learned to keep Phantom State almost active without letting it devour his energy like the hungry beast it was.

He watched the kid struggle with a small smile stubbornly lingering at the edge of his lips. A Gorilla, towering among the family, bulldozed its way forward, destroying the fallen tree. Its arms worked with terrifying efficiency— lower ones grabbed rocks, broken branches, even small snakes, while upper ones hurled them without so much as aiming. One snake, no longer than an arm, crashed hard into the axe hanging on his belt and burst into blood mist. Wenhai stumbled, his body painted red.

Another branch clipped his cheek, missing his eye by millimeters. Yet he didn't scream. Pushing off a tree to regain his stability, he bit his lip with enough force to draw blood and moved forward. More and more Gorillas started using the same tactic, intent on bombarding this daring intruder into oblivion. The small snakes bore the brunt of their attack. Their blood and dust formed a thick curtain around the boy. However, this chaos also impaired their sight.

More than once, they bombarded the one place only to notice Wenhai had quietly slipped to the opposite side. The distance between them was slowly but steadily increasing. He hurled a random, hefty branch he had slammed into toward the densest patch of the mist, then hit the brakes and ran back, parallel to the beast's pursuit. He's doing better than I thought. Ren's hand phased through a thick branch further along the boy's path, clutching a purple-spotted white snake's head.

He clasped his hand and a satisfying crack answered. Violet blood hissed over the metal, yet failed to leave a mark. Only the final hurdle remained. His eyes narrowed. Wenhai quickly covered the distance between him and the Gorilla family. Bending low behind a tree, all the sparks faded into nothing. He closed his eyes as his breathing slowed until it became so faint that it was impossible to sense. Hmm, Liuxue taught him that? The first Gorilla passed him, the distance between them less than a few meters.

Then others came, still busy throwing things, not even one getting suspicious. Only the towering Gorilla stopped in place. Its dark eyes swept around, its face twisting faintly. Wenhai's ears suddenly twitched. Eyes snapped open, he turned but stopped short of showing his face. Ren's steps froze on the spot. Right at the same time, he sensed a faint, unfamiliar heat over his chest. It didn't belong to the words or his spark, no, this was something new. Yet he had no time to dwell on it.

He lifted his head, his gaze meeting Demoness's at the top. The Curse had found Wenhai right at the last hurdle. She gave a slow nod, her hand already opened like a claw, palm aimed at the Gorillas. Come on, kid. Resist. Resist! Ren clenched his fists, nails stabbing into his palms. Wenhai's face went pale, the crimson blood smeared across his face painting a jarring sight. Yet he didn't move. Clasping his robe to his chest, he shut his eyes and slid down to the ground.

The towering Gorilla sniffed at the air, every second feeling like hours, until it finally gave up and followed its family. Ren finally let out the breath he was holding. The first hunt was… successful.