Black River’s snakes and lizards loved to burrow under the muck. To flush them out, the six from Chu Qin spread into a wide fan, skimming just above the swamp, slow and thodical. Each had a short bamboo whistle clenched between teeth. A sharp puff produced a shrill, hissing note; harmless to human ears, but pure panic to anything hiding below.
Zhang Shishi flew point, highest cultivation and thickest skin. His first-grade mid-tier treasure, the Azure Spirit Stone Cushion, hovered before him like a floating shield of green jade. Yu Denou, as hired help, was spared the grunt work; Qi Xiu asked him to circle high on his flying sword, keeping the whole team in sight and ready to dive if things went sideways.
This was a cleansing sweep; no corner left unchecked. Orders were absolute.
They advanced at walking pace, whistles shrieking. Soon enough the swamp answered.
Ordinary beasts burst from the sludge first; perfect live targets to test months of frantic drilling.
A flash of frost.
“Snare.”
He Yu’s ice spike punched clean through a gray lizard’s skull and kept going, burying itself in a coil of black creeper with a dull thunk.
“Fifteen!” he crowed under his breath, eyes blazing. “Nothing teaches aim like real heads rolling. My Ice Thorn just jumped another level!”
Nearby, Qi Xiu flicked the Black Wind Banner. A howling vortex of dark wind swallowed so naless rodent, then shredded it into red mist. His spirit monkey had long defected to Gu Ji’s shoulder and refused to return; too bad. The banner was ant for cutting through mist, but wind blades didn’t care what they cut.
Zhang Shishi solved problems the simple way: stone cushion, full speed, impact. Whatever he hit stopped being a problem and started being paste. The gentle sutras he murmured while pulping things felt deeply ironic.
Then Huang He’s voice cracked across the marsh.
“Look! Over there; huge freaking lizard!”
A dozen zhang of matte-black muscle lay half-subrged ahead. Thick reversed spines ridged its back like a sawblade. Legs short but trunk-thick. Head narrow above, absurdly wide below, ending in a duck-bill cramd with needle teeth. Slitted green eyes were opening, slow and hateful, fixing on the flying snacks above.
Qi Xiu’s mory flashed to a certain jade slip.
“Black River Lizard! Climb, now!”
Too late for Huang He. The monster’s maw gaped; a fountain of stinking black venom jetted upward. It missed the boy’s spirit boat by inches, splattering the underside with a vicious hiss.
A golden sword-light plunged from the heavens; Yu Denou’s full-power strike. tal-aspected Qi slamd between the lizard’s shoulder blades. Sparks flew, the impact rang like hamr on anvil, and the beast didn’t even bleed.
That did it.
The lizard roared; more snake than lizard; and its back arched like a drawn bow. Seven bone spines fired in perfect unison, streaking toward every single person in the air.
Pure reflex saved them. Everyone shot upward. Yu Jing wasn’t fast enough. One spine punched through the bottom of his boat, punched out the top, and kept going. Green smoke boiled from the edges; acid eating wood like fire.
The boat lurched, drunken, ready to drop out of the sky.
“Fall back!” Qi Xiu bellowed, voice cracking for the first ti. “Retreat, damn it!”
They fled like startled pheasants, robes flapping, hearts in throats. Dao sect cultivators were good at killing mortals and minor pests, not this. The lizard thundered a few mocking steps after them, then stopped, content to hiss victory at their retreating backs.
Several li later they dropped behind a low ridge. Yu Jing landed first; his boat was done for. The hole had already spread into a gaping, smoking crater.
Yu Denou caught the ruined craft, examined the corrosion, and said nothing. His face spoke volus.
Zhang Shishi landed beside Qi Xiu, pale. “Sect Leader… what do we do?”
Qi Xiu forced his breathing steady, checked that no one was bleeding, then exhaled.
“First real spirit beast we et and it’s a peak first-grade Black River Lizard. The fact we’re all still breathing is a miracle.”
Yu Denou, old swamp rat that he was, only frowned. “Never seen one in ten years wandering here. Those flying spines are accurate as a ballista and the poison eats anything water- or wood-aligned. Nasty custor.”
Even a late Qi Refining cultivator sounded grim. Despair rippled through the disciples.
Qi Xiu swept his gaze across frightened faces and spoke with deliberate calm.
“It’s still only first-grade. Six of us, proper plan; we kill it. Simple as that.”
Yu Denou shot him a strange look; how did a man entering the black mist for the first ti know a beast even locals rarely docunted? But he held his tongue.
Qi Xiu didn’t give him ti to ask.
“Listen close. Back spines and venom spray; those are its big moves. Both laced with corrosive poison that wrecks water and wood aspects, useless against tal and earth. Back armored like iron, belly soft as silk. Bite pressure is weak; duck-bill, not wolf jaws. Tail long, likes to whip. Biggest weakness?” He allowed himself half a smile. “It’s slow as winter molasses.”
He Yu recovered first. “Slow on the ground, but those spines make up for it.”
“Exactly,” Yu Denou muttered, stroking his beard. “And the belly’s almost impossible to reach unless it rolls over and begs.”
Qi Xiu’s eyes glinted.
“Then we make it beg.”
Ideas began to fly; fear burned off by the prospect of turning hunter instead of prey.
One voice, then another, then a chorus.
“We do this…”
“Hit it here…”
“Lure it there…”
By the ti the weak sun climbed higher, a plan; rough, and very much Chu Qin style; had taken shape.
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