A silver-fur ape flew through the forest crashing into trees that did little to stop its montum, breaking down and falling over. Two small figures leapt through the forest, swinging through the branches as they chased after the ape they’d struck and shot across the forest. The boys laughed cheerily streaks of thunder trailing behind them as they shot bolts of lightning one after the other at the injured ape.
“The one who beats the ape gets to keep all its treasure!” Yan Li exclaid, shooting off with a crackle of lightning.
“Unfair!” Lei shouted, chasing after his brother. The two rushed off, burning with Lightning Qi as they chased after the beast.
The silver-fur ape ran, clutching the spirit herb treasure close to its chest. Its brothers and sisters had all already fallen to the kids, and only he had remained to guard the treasure.
A bolt of lightning struck the injured ape at the shoulder, throwing it onto the ground. The spirit beast roared, as the herbs it kept in its arms flung off and scattered onto the ground. With a slam, Li landed upon the beast with a lightning coated kick that pressed the ape down into the earth.
Lei quickly followed with a punch that ensured the ape would never get up again.
“I won!” Lei exclaid, grinning at his brother.
“No, if I hadn’t caught up to the ape, you would’ve never been able to land your strike. I’m the one who won by catching it first,” Li replied, walking over towards where the spirit herbs were.
“Li said to beat the ape, not catch it. Lei won this round,” Lei said, stepping ahead of his brother as he picked up the spirit herb.
Li frowned, watching his younger brother. A mont later, he sighed quietly. “Fine, keep it. This one’s yours.”
“That brings up equal to you,” Lei said with a grin, pocketing the herb in his pouch. His brother didn’t reply, turning to look around the forest as he searched for another target.
“There seems to be very little left to find in the trial,” Li said, glancing down at the dead ape at his feet.
“We’ve been finding many dead spirit beasts and empty trials now. Do you think we beat them all? What about the other disciples? Are we the only ones left?” Lei asked his brother.
“Hmm. We got three other disciples, with the two of us included that leaves seven more. Even if they all beat each other, there should still be so left,” Li replied. A mont later, he closed his eyes, ditating to sense the Qi around him.
A haze of Qi rose to the boy’s senses, mixing in with one another. Yet a particular one stood out to him, the sense of it strange and unfamiliar.
“Brother, there seems to be sothing there,” Lei spoke up, snapping Li out of his ditating. Li followed the direction his brother was pointing at, seeing sights of destruction far in the distance. Focusing in the direction, the boy reached out with his Qi sense and found a large amount of residual energy gathered up right above.
“Lei, it seems there was a battle here. Not of spirit beasts, but disciples. A few of them too. And not too long ago,,” Li said, an excited grin rising on his face.
“Let’s go check it out? We might find the disciples, if any remained,” Lei said, with an equally amused smile.
With a nod from Li, the two brothers ran through the forest, trailing the path of destruction and fallen trees, and singed branches. Very soon they found themselves standing within an odd clearing, with swatches of scar marks on the earth and burned splotches.
“These… sword Qi. Potent sword Qi. And fire, a lot of it,” Li said, glancing around the area. He could still feel the lingering fire Qi perating the ground, mingling in with the sword Qi.
“Brother, look at this,” Lei said, pointing at an odd hole in the ground. The earth was fractured, a thick scar that brimd with the sword Qi running through it that abruptly ended into a crater from a powerful explosion. Li frowned as he walked closer to the creature in the ground, bending down to touch the earth.
“There’s no Qi in here… none whatsoever,” Li muttered, glancing at his brother.
“So kind of art?” Lei asked.
“I’m not sure, but this is starting to beco interesting,” Li said, before sothing caught his eyes on the ground. “Blood marks. Almost faded, but still fresh with Qi. They head in that direction,” Li said, pointing towards a side bush. He turned to face his brother, and nodded.
There was no need to exchange any words, as the two brothers silently began to follow the droplets of blood on the ground. Step by step, they walked, tracking the ever decreasing trail of blood before when soon, sothing made them pause.
“The trail abruptly cuts off here,” Li said, turning towards his brother. “Sothing is strange. Even if the wounds healed, the lingering Essence and Qi should’ve remained.”
The two brothers stood around the grove of trees, scanning the area when Lei found sothing on one of the tree branches.
“Brother, there seems to be a formation here. ‘Conceal’ it says. I can’t undo it,” Lei exclaid.
Li left the area of land he was inspecting as he walked over to his brother and checked the formation mark. Putting his hand atop the character, he flooded it with his lightning Qi, burning through the wood. A mont later, the wards lifted as the way ahead began to be visible.
“A hidden trial?” Li muttered out loud.
“There’s only one way to find out brother,” Lei replied, smiling and Li nodded.
“I’d thought we’d have no fun in here without any real threat or challenges. But perhaps I was too quick to speak,” Li said, thunder crackling around his wrists.
“The last one to reach the end will call the other Senior Brother for a week!” Lei shouted, dashing into the forest and Li quickly followed behind.
***
“This place is giving the creeps,” I said out loud, holding the torch high in my hand as I walked through the mist filled dark forest. I could barely tell that it was morning anymore, the area around drenched in darkness with the mist covering any gaps that may have been left for light to co in.
“This one did not take Lu Jie to be the kind to be spooked easily,” Liuxiang said, glancing at with a smirk.
“Only fair to be spooked when we got told that we could die here. Not to ntion, I dislike the way this mist clogs up my senses,” I said, waving the sword in front of to wave away the almost cloud-like thick mist that covered every inch of the forest.
“Chii!” Twilight chid, agreeing with my words.
“You’re the one who wanted to co here. I’d think a vampire spirit like you would enjoy being in a dark creepy and misty forest,” I said, glancing up at Twilight.
The little flower spirit bent as she sat on my forehead, as I t her deep red eyes. “Chii!” she exclaid once more, though this ti the aning was lost on .
“Labby feels like her nose is stuffed,” Labby complained, crackling with lightning briefly. She’d certainly not been enjoying our trip here.
“Children,” I heard Zhi Zhu speak, and I could almost hear the click of the tongue that would’ve accompanied the words, had the spider been human.
“So are you,” Liuxiang replied with a light hiss.
“Only in physique. Zhi Zhu is far more mature than that rat child and the plant-infant.”
“You don’t speak like this very often, Zhi Zhu. Sounds like the mist is getting to you too,” I replied, and found the spider suddenly growing very quiet.
“Apologies. It was.”
I saw Liuxiang nod lightly in thanks and I waved the gesture away. “Let’s focus on staying on this path. I definitely don’t think this mist is going to be the end of our troubles.”
We walked in silence afterwards, as I carefully held the torch up in front, lighting the way ahead. The forest continued to get darker and darker as we proceeded and soon, I could see only a few steps ahead of before everything was a blur of misty white.
I stopped walking when Twilight pulled on my hair, chiming as she pointed to a side direction off the path.
“I’m not so sure about leaving the path Twilight,” I said to the little plant spirit who let out a frustrated chi.
“Perhaps it might be worth a look? She was the one who brought us here after all,” Liuxiang said.
I gave it so thought, before turning to look at one of the trees nearby. Walking over, I sifted through a few broken branches before finding a decent one. I trimd off its branches, testing a strap of my already torn robes that I wrapped around the twig before I touched my torch with it, transferring over the fire.
“Hold this, I won’t go too far,” I said, handing the torch over to Liuxiang.
Turning, I followed the direction Twilight was pointing in, keeping the torch in front of to light the way. I kept one eye set on the path just in case so formation of misty wood shenanigans may happen, keeping a thread of Qi attached to the way back.
“Chii!” Twilight pointed excitedly. “Tasty!”
I walked through the bushes ahead and found myself stopping to gaze at the sight in front of . A field of flowers, growing around a massive tree that had fallen, that all glowed with a dim blue light, shining with sparkles like stars in the night sky. It was a srizing sight, made all the more powerful by the wave of Qi that was washing over .
I stared at the flowers. I had a feeling that a single bite from those flowers would fill with more Qi than any of the spirit herbs I’d gathered.
Walking ahead, I touched one of the flowers. Twilight jumped down from my head, landing on the ground as she bit into one of the petals of the flowers. I saw the glow of the flower she’d bitten start to dim, as the flower on top of Twilight’s head began to take on a shimr instead, lighting up with a dim red.
Crouching to my knees, I began to pick up a few flowers as well, deciding to leave so to not ruin whatever ecosystem had been ford in this location.
“If this counts as a spirit herb treasure then I probably just won the tournant,” I muttered out loud, as I set the flowers in my pouch.
I was so lost with picking up and gazing at the beautiful flowers that I didn’t sense the shivering mist that was swirling all around until the last second.
“Master! Behind!” Labby scread, shooting a bolt of lightning behind .
I rolled to the side, feeling a large sothing pass over the area I’d been standing in. Turning over, I saw a massive owl-bear of mist glaring at with glowing red eyes. A scar ran through the earth where it’d swept the earth.
“Chii!!” I heard a panicked chi. “Help!” the voice ca to my bond, slamming with a daze of panic and fear.
My gaze wandered in panic, before settling onto the bear's claw, as I saw Twilight clutched in them and my heart dropped into my gut.
With a roar, the beast lunged, as I rolled once more, dodging the attack. The owlbear dashed further into the forest and I rushed after it.
“Go to Liuxiang Labby!” I shouted, before I chased after the owlbear with everything I had, swearing internally.
If Twilight was hurt. I would make the beast regret every choice it’d made leading up to today.
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