“There is a time in a scouts tenure when they can only report on what they are seeing, and perhaps make a sketch. This is one of those times. Everyone, get out your brushes and I need this captured.”
Part of the scouts kit was a way to record a sight that the scout could not show in any other way. The divine beast stirring was one of those things. Simply telling the elder that it was on the move again after almost a month had clammed up Jungs throat. It was dry again and he sipped from his waterskin, being careful to leave some for the return trip.
As fast as he painted, the image left his mind. He was underground when Rahelish had passed through, and even being called to find the one that the elder had summoned had taken a lot out of him. The image was right there, like a word on the edge of his lips. It wouldn’t pass unbidden.
He looked up to sketch it again, then looked down, dismayed. The tall beast wouldn’t conform to his brush and his scribbles were like that of a child.
Even from this distance, its power felt nearly oppressive. It wasn’t even paying them any mind and he found it a bit harder to breathe. The second realm scouts had taken refuge behind a berm, where it was easier for them.
“It’s on the move again,” Ki No said, “Isn’t it?”
Alone among the scouts, Ki No and Ah Le were unaffected. At least that was how they seemed. Even Sa Kon wasn’t too happy about it.
“Yes, yes the beast looks fuzzy and delicious, but what of it? It’s too powerful for any of these cultivators here to even attempt to fight. What a waste. I’ve always wanted to drink some rock soup.”
“Don’t pout, Sa Kon,” Ki No said, “It doesn’t look good on you.”
'What… direction is it moving?’ Jun said, trying to keep his voice calm.
“What direction is it’s shadow in? Is it turning?” Ki No said, his voice betraying his lack of confidence.
All of the scouts around them looked up.
“It’s moving. The only thing I want to know right now is which direction,” Hu said, “Ki No go west, Ah Le, go east. If it feels stronger in your direction, retreat. We’ll know based on that, I hope.” Ki No stuck the spear butt end down into the snow in the center of the scouts.
“I’ll miss all of the fun? Oh well. Does anyone see if there’s anything around for me to stab? I have a nice pointy tip!”
Jung held back a grimace.
Ki No flew off and then Ah Le took off in the opposite direction.
“Does everyone understand why this one just did that?” Hu said, addressing the rest of the group.
Awkward nods and shuffling greeted him.
“Apologies, Elder brother, but… why?” One of the newest second realm cultivators said.
“If the divine beast is going directly south, it will intersect with the school again, but since it’s so far off, if it is moving more east or west then, it will miss it. We must be hundreds of miles from the school, as it’s going to be dark soon, and we need to know if it’s going right back or in a different direction.”
A hand shot up, which Hu acknowledged. This new tool that Elder Jessica had implemented, allowing students to raise a hand to ask a question, wasn't worrisome but it did make Jung and Hu speak more often. Hu nodded for the cultivator to speak.
“Even a little bit off here, will mean miles of difference if it goes south east, or southwest, correct?”
Hu nodded.
Jung stood up watching as the divine beast, now fully standing up, raised a seven story tall leg to take a first step. He cursed that it wasn’t readily clear what direction. It was completely possible that part of its qi obscured its movements and that this would be something a lot easier for him to pierce through if he could finally make it to the fourth realm.
He could feel how close he was to the next realm. His core wanted to expand, he just couldn’t fill it up as fast as Ah Le and Ki No could with that spear. When Elder Jessica taught Blue the technique that got him to advance from qi gatherer through to the second realm in a week, he was jealous, but he took notes.
When Blue cultivated, he took notes.
And when An-Yong revealed the trick, he tried it out. He hadn’t found a target.
Yet.
But he knew how to use it.
“Scouts! On alert!”
Between the group on their little berm and the Divine beast, a large mangled spirit beast showed. It looked half goat, half yak and perhaps half human. It was bearing down on them.
“Hu, can this one take point?”
A short look between the two of them with raised eyebrows showed him everything that he needed to know. Hu grabbed the demon spear, and nodded for Jung to take point.
“Second realm, behind the berm, stay away from the divine beasts qi pressure, but support Junior Disciple Jung!” Hu barked, taking a position as a second behind him.
The goatman groaned at him as it bore down directly on the berm.
***
If there was one thing that was special about the scouts, for the most part it was that they traveled lighter and were more flexible in mind and body than the rest of the cultivators.
Goatmen? They were not known for their flexibility.
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Jung had followed the path of the open palm for the entirety of his time as a cultivator. Sure, he had trained with every weapon, but he preferred his own two hands and his feet in general. He could trust those, and he knew that they wouldn’t let him down.
So when the goatman went for a heabutt, he did what came naturally.
Popping into a split, he pushed the goatman up into the air.
The shocked beast tried to right itself in the air, and then landed on its strong hind hooves.
Jung gave it a come hither hand motion that would have melted a human competitor, enraging the goatman enough that it pawed at the ground.
It charged, faster than before and as he dodged left, it clipped his right shoulder. Qi radiated from it as it stopped.
Hu held out a hand, just as Jung shook his head.
No.
He was going to do this himself. Hu understood, stepping back, as the remaining third realm cultivators circled the battle, leaving enough space for multiple charges.
It was faster than him, darting forward and slashing its smoking horns at him.
The burns on his right shoulder flared up as he realized that it took far longed to turn and that he finally had his opportunity.
This time when it charged, rage filling its eyes, he was ready.
Placing one hand on top of the smoky head of the goatman, he vaulted, and then grabbing its hair, he flipped around and aimed at the beast's meridians with his fist. He was trying an old method to disable a qi meridian, cutting off a channel of qi that the beast would use, thereby weakening it.
He wasn’t expecting the beast to roll, and as it did, so did he. For the longest second, they both tumbled until the goatman was staring right at him.
It was at that moment that An-Yongs words came back to him, and he smiled.
Reaching out with his limited spiritual sense as the goat snapped at him, he found his target and pushed all of his qi into his fists as he punched straight through viscera, skin and hair.
The goat gasped, throwing up blood into his face, clawing at him with its hooves.
Five seconds later, it stopped, shocked as the qi in its dantian, tried to flood its core.
Its core was leaking like an opened drain and it scratched weakly at the cultivator.
Jung felt its panic as all of its qi drained, and then he felt the satisfaction of a core that was nearly overful. The beast had to have been an overconfident fourth level or greater cultivator, and it was only because it was under the immense pressure of the divine beast that he could take it down.
He pushed the dying goatman off his arms, taking the last sip of its qi, compacting it down even as his core screamed at him. It had never screamed at him, but now, it was fully ready to advance. He found himself so far from where he could cultivate for the needed hours that he was more upset about that than the other thing. The whole being covered with blood thing, really was a turnoff.
“Junior Disciple, are you unwell?” Hu said, as he approached the smoking corpse of the goatman.
“I have never been better in fact,” Jung said, “I am ready to advance now.”
Hu’s shock at the usage of the informal drew a smile across Jungs blood smeared face.
"Alright, let's get you back to someplace that you can safely cultivate."
***
Having attained the fourth Realm, Ah Le was loving every second of it. It had been years since she’d advanced to the third realm and she hadn’t gotten complacent, but she had gotten used to her ability. She was able to move a lot faster now and she found herself having to slow down for the rest of the scouts.
They moved like molasses in comparison to her as well. Only when she sparred with them did they feel on the same footing. Still she felt fast but for the first time in a long time, she felt like her body wasn't her own.
When the divine beast moved towards her, she was keenly aware of her limitations. As it took a slow plodding step, she jumped moving backwards away from it.
Farther back she moved as she tried to figure out exactly which flavor of east that it was going.
Hus words about triangulation echoed in her mind and she picked a tree.
Jumping up she stood on top of the tree. A light jump and landing found her balanced on a three story tall pine.
Ah Le held out a hand towards the beast and one directly in what she assumed was the other direction.
Then she pulled in qi, trying to get the notice of the scouts.
The signal was that she was supposed to send up a flare of qi and snow. She gathered an arm full of snow from the top of her pine tree and tossed it dozens of feet up. Then she made a force spear and she ran right through the clump of snow, causing a reddish flare as her energy ignited the heavily qi soaked snow.
As expected, it drew shouts and whoops from where she imagined the scouts were.
Scouts more than any other students at the school love action. In the long minute it took the beast to move one leg, she lanced two potential trees ahead of her to try and better understand its direction.
To her surprise, Ki No arrived with them. Well not with them, but ahead of them. He jumped to one of the marked trees in the path she’d guessed.
He smiled. He wasn't unhappy that he'd lost their bet, but who bets on the path of destruction? It was a little morbid, but the scouts were always a bit off what was acceptable.
The previously oppressive qi was no longer the same strength to him. He had advanced. He could use the spear on that thing, if he got close enough.
He would be ripped the shreds if he did but it was a fun thought experiment. At least then he would be ahead of his sister.
The beast stepped.
As it moved, Ki No reconsidered his bravado. He nearly flew back from the pressure. When he landed he jumped back another hundred meters. Just to have some breathing room, Ki No wasn’t one to back down even from a stupid fight.
The rest of the scouts converged a bit ahead of him, with two breaking off immediately in the direction of the school.
Ah Le landed next to him, always a bit kroe graceful with her fourth realm cultivators body than he.
"We have a good idea of the direction it is going in. The scout leader wants us to stay well ahead of it and follow its path in whatever direction it leads. It's not in the direction of the Cold Steel school at the very least."
Ki No nodded.
Though it looked to be going south, all signs pointed to it going in a more eastward direction.
"He wants us to stay well ahead of it and follow its path? Or all of the scouts?"
Two more scouts darted ahead, their packs nearly overflowing with supplies. They moved to be in line with the twins and then went out in that direction.
"Those two will run ahead trying to warn any people in the path, but you see how slow the beast is. I can see a small hill that is about in the right direction, that's a good place for us to track it from. At this rate it will take us an hour to get there and perhaps a few days for the beast to follow."
Ki No pointed out the lone hill in the snow covered forest. His sister nodded.
"Well then, I see that the scouts are getting ready to turn back. Are you prepared to track this thing for what could be months or weeks?" He said.
"It will be quiet without Sa Kon."
"Yes, it will be."
Both had gotten accustomed to the weapons off beat brand of humor. The humor that pierced even the worst mood had become a bit more infectious as they went. At least they appreciated it more.
"Let’s go," He said, waving to the scout as they all went separate directions.