Muchen didn't recognize whatever treasure the beast was carrying, but he could see its effect on the rest of the team. Shuchang, in particular, reacted as though he'd been electrocuted.

"Hurry!" Shuchang said, breaking into a run. He barely broke stride as he leaned down to scoop up his spear in passing. Muchen sprinted after him. The rest of the team followed, their cultivation and conditioning not quite up to the same standard.

Muchen felt his legs start to burn. He could keep up a jogging pace all day long, but this kind of sprinting in hot pursuit would wear him out sooner rather than later. He was gratified to find that he was keeping pace with Shuchang. The problem was that the two of them weren't able to close the gap despite the monster's injury.

It had adapted, now, to an odd legged gait that ate up distance at a surprising rate. If it was in full health they never would have had a chance to catch up.

"What," Muchen said, gasping for breath as he forced out the question, "what is it carrying?"

He assumed anything glowing on the Qianzhan Continent must be valuable. In order to send their whole team racing pell mell through the dangerous northern wastes like this, though, it had to be more than just a little valuable.

"Spirit stone," Shuchang said, grunting with effort. Even in the foundation building stage, keeping up a full sprint for so long was no easy matter. "Maybe medium grade."

Spirit stones themselves were rare and precious. They were a universal cultivation aid and served as a common currency between cultivators. High quality pills and spirit tools rarely changed hands in exchange for silver, but most things could be bought if you had enough spirit stones.

Like anything else, spirit stones came in different grades of quality. It had to do with how much spiritual energy was packed inside. Denser energy was far more useful to more advanced cultivators. Muchen hadn't seen enough of the things to judge them at a glance, but if Shuchang thought this stone was unusually bright, he was probably right.

Muchen grit his teeth and ignored his fatigue, pushing through the pain to keep running. He desperately wanted to wring out the last bit of speed that would let him close the gap, but the monster simply refused to slow down. It stayed about twenty paces ahead of him no matter how hard he ran.

Spirit stones usually traded in gems the size of a fingernail. And by far the most common stones were low grade. A fist sized medium grade spirit stone... Muchen couldn't calculate offhand just how much it would be worth. Unfortunately, it would be worth nothing to them if it vanished into the depths of the northern wastes.

Muchen almost tried throwing his knife at the retreating monster. He'd never practiced such a thing, but at twenty paces he thought he could make the throw. If he missed, though, he'd be unarmed and out of the hunt. He frowned and decided against it for now. He might be getting tired, but the monster had taken a spear to the leg. Surely time was on his side.

Against all logic and all of Muchen's hopes and dreams, the monster refused to slow down. He could see blood oozing out of the hole the spear had punched through its rear leg, but once the monster had adapted its gait to skip the missing leg it was as if it had stopped being affected by the wound entirely. It stood to reason that anything with a delicate physique wouldn't survive long in the northern wastes, but Muchen still couldn't hold back a growl of frustration.

The monster kept going, heedless of Muchen's anger. It raced between a pair of trees and he followed, bursting out into an open area. The forest had come to an end, leaving about a hundred feet of open terrain before his path forward was blocked by a narrow canyon. Muchen dug deep and put on a burst of speed, hoping to catch the beast before it dropped out of sight.

He managed to close almost to within arm's reach, but before he was able to get close enough to attack he had to put on the brakes for fear of tumbling over the edge. The monster didn't care, running forward without breaking stride and adjusting itself to the steep slope of the canyon as though it were running on level ground.

Shuchang blew past Muchen, charging down the slope without hesitation. Muchen watched for a moment as he scrambled down, using the scraggly bushes clinging to the canyon wall as handholds to keep himself barely under control. After a moment of hesitation, he shrugged and started making his own way down the slope.

He was able to keep his eyes on Shuchang and follow his trail, barely keeping his descent under control without ceding any more distance between them. The wind rushing through his hair was exhilarating, and the mad dash down the slope didn't feel nearly as dangerous as he'd expected. In the heat of the moment, Muchen wasn't sure whether to put it down to an adrenaline rush or another benefit of cultivation.

He put that thought out of his mind when he reached the canyon floor. Shuchang was still twenty paces behind the monster, and Muchen was now another twenty paces behind him. There was nothing for it but to force himself onward. He'd managed to narrow the distance to Shuchang by half when they reached the other side of the canyon.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Muchen didn't pause this time, throwing himself at the sheer slope and scrambling upwards, barely slowed by the weapon in his hand. Again he was able to follow Shucang's lead in choosing his path. He managed to pull almost even by the time they returned to level ground.

There was no forest waiting for them on the other side. Instead, they chased the monster over a series of rolling hills. Every time it crested a rise it would vanish from sight for a moment, only to come back into view once they topped the hill and started down the other side. The beast was finally starting to slow, the blood loss too much for even such an unnatural creature to ignore.

Muchen could almost feel the silver in his hand from his share of their prize. Could he even carry that much silver? Not that he would sell a medium grade spirit stone for mere silver, but the image spurred him on. After a long chase, their moment of triumph was finally at hand.

The monster ran over one last hill. This was it, they'd definitely catch it before it reached the next one. Then Muchen reached the top himself. Down below, in a line along the bottom of the hill, he saw a series of standing stones.

Even his unpracticed senses could feel that there was something powerful about the old monuments. His instincts were telling him to stop, to run away. He forced those thoughts away for the moment. If the standing stones were the boundary to the forbidden zone, then he would just have to catch the monster before it ran past them.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Muchen had pulled a couple steps ahead of Shuchang and almost to within reach of the beast, but it managed to pass the standing stones without feeling the bite of his knife.

Muchen slowed to a jog, then a stop, just a few paces past the stones. He wanted to get rich quick as much as the next person, but as long as he stayed alive he'd get rich eventually. No need to do anything foolish.

Shuchang blew right by him. Muchen acted on instinct, chucking his knife low so that the flat of the blade would catch him around the ankles. He immediately regretted it, but was lucky enough to pull off the martial feat without a hitch: Shuchang went down in a tangle of arms and legs, but no spray of blood.

Muchen ran over to help him up. Shuchang ignored his proffered hand and leapt to his feat by himself. He looked angry enough to spit blood.

"Are you crazy? I almost had it!" he said, gesturing angrily at the disappearing form of the monster.

It had, of course, taken advantage of Shuchang's tumble to put a great deal of distance between them. As Muchen watched, it neared the crest of the hill that would put it out of sight for good. Just before it made good its escape, though, the entire top of the hill moved. A giant mouth swallowed the monster whole. Muchen could feel the ground shake beneath his feet. A massive cloud of dust obscured the entire top of the hill from view.

The only good news was that the giant figure dimly visible through the dust wasn't heading their way. Yet.

"We should go back," Shuchang said.

ooOoo

The protection of the standing stones held up. Or perhaps the giant monster was too busy processing the massive spiritual power contained in the stone it had just swallowed to worry about two cultivators who were already leaving its territory. Either way, they were able to make it back to the campsite safely.

By the time they were sitting around the fire, enjoying a good meal and sharing a bottle of wine, the frustration from the failed chase had largely bled away. What was left behind was the simple joy at surviving another day. Not to mention the haul they'd get from the big pile of monster corpses they ended up dragging back to camp.

Once everybody had enjoyed a reasonable amount of social lubrication, Muchen judged it was time to bring out his hole card. He'd held back a jug of spirits from his sale to the bar with the idea of just such an occasion in mind.

"This wine is good," he said, before holding his own jug up for the others to see, "but I think it's time to drink something stronger."

"Oh?" Shuchang sasked. Muchen just smiled at him and poured a generous measure into his empty cup.

Shuchang took a swig, then coughed as the burn hit him. "Not bad."

Muchen shared the jug around with the rest of the group. It took a while for them to adjust, but by the second round they were attacking their drinks with the fervor of high functioning alcoholics.

The general merriment kicked up a notch with Muchen's hard alcohol for fuel. He waited for a moment when the bulk of the group was distracted by relaying their own tall tales of the day's combat before pulling Shuchang aside.

"I hate to impose," Muchen said, "but I was hoping to ask a favor."

"Don't be like that," Shuchang said. "We've faced life and death battle together. Ask, ask."

"That serving girl over there," Muchen said, nodding in the direction of the girl he'd spoken to the day before. She was busy cleaning up the remains of their dinner. A group of hunters coming back from a successful fight could put away a lot of food, even for cultivators. "Could you make an introduction?"

"Why's that?" Shuchang asked. Much of his drunken good cheer had evaporated, but he still managed to keep a friendly smile on his face.

"Well, I've made a fortune, but I'm lacking a wife," Muchen said. "Of course, if she's more interested in something short term, I wouldn't say no."

"Careful what you say about Xiaomei," Shuchang said, "you could get in trouble talking that way about a woman who's engaged to be married."

Muchen hid his smile. Shuchang had told the lie about an engagement so smoothly that Muchen would have believed him if he hadn't done his research ahead of time. He wasn't as oblivious as Xiaomei thought. Or as unfeeling.

"Thank you for the warning," Muchen said, before pouring himself another cup. "Safer to stick with a more reliable companion for tonight, then."

Shuchang smiled back, his serious demeanor melting away as though it had just been an illusion. The group of them ended up polishing off Muchen's remaining stock of liquor. It was an expensive way to make friends, but at least it was reliable.