The next week or so was entirely uneventful for the pair, not a spirit beast willing to fight to be seen, in fact it was looking more and more to Xu Long like his greatest enemy during this journey was going to be the persistent pain from his stomach. It wasn’t so much the pain that was the issue either, it was the persistence, it never went away, even when he was cultivating and his pain was lessened, it never truly left him, and it was driving him a little nuts.
When Old Wu had told him about the dropout rate and the large swath of cultivators that never even attempted this particular path, he was a little baffled, it seemed like such a no brainer, improve your cultivation foundations and carry around enough food to live on for years in a simple pill bottle. Now though, he was starting to understand, he wasn’t going to quit, in fact the thought never even crossed his mind, but he understood, and he wouldn’t ever think less of someone who chose differently than him where this decision was concerned.
Apart from the increasing severity of his stomach pains, their days and nights were the same as ever, to the point that they had fallen into a routine rather quickly. A routine that was capped off every night with a scene not dissimilar to the one they were in right now. Xu Long, perched high up in a sturdy tree, with his back to the trunk was cultivating and sleeping as required and Xu Xing was sitting on the same branch as him in a location that had sight lines to the stars above and was diligently training her spirit as she had been taught.
Her diligent cultivation was abruptly halted however when she felt something was wrong, very wrong. She turned around slowly and gingerly made her way back to the sleeping Xu Long, she crawled onto his lap and then gave his hand a small nip. Xu Long woke almost immediately, only lightly asleep due to his training over the last week to not fall out of the tree they were perched in. Which is why he knew that Xu Xing had woken him for a reason other than him potentially falling from the tree, because he hadn’t needed any help with that for a while now.
He scanned the area around them, looking for a reason Xu Xing might have woken him, but he couldn’t feel anything in their immediate vicinity so he focused on his companion.
“What is it, Xu Xing?”
She was looking down the tree, her hackles were raised, and she let out a low growl. Xu Long knew immediately that they had attracted the attention of a spirit beast, he just couldn’t detect it yet. Now that he knew what the problem was, Xu Long sprung into action, he picked up the agitated Xu Xing and placed her in the front of his robes, she acquiesced but let her objection be known. Then he unsheathed his sword as he stood up on the branch that was their refuge and started concentrating on the branches below them, he couldn’t feel the ground from their high vantage but that wasn’t important as he didn’t believe that Xu Xing would be so worked up over a spirit beast that was all the way on the ground below them.
Xu Long’s breathing slowed as his concentration peaked, but no matter how much he focused he couldn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Not doubting Xu Xing for an instant, he deduced that his only option was to get closer to whatever was stalking them in the dark, so he picked his next branch down and jumped. The moment he landed he felt it, a shadow on the edge of his perception, but it was so misty and ephemeral he could barely make out anything about it at all, only that it was not small.
The combination of a large spirit beast that utilizes stealth was a little incongruous and Xu Long’s mind immediately went back to his mother’s story about going into the Endless Forest to commit suicide and running into an Abyssal Tiger. Obviously a creature at that level of power would not be here at the very edge of the forest, and even if it was Xu Xing and he would already be dead, but it came to his mind because they did have a tangentially related little brother in this forest that he had been warned about, the Shadow Cat.
Now, a Shadow Cat also should not technically be anywhere near this part of the forest, but its presence here was far more conceivable than an Abyssal Tiger. The more Xu Long thought about the possibilities of what kind of spirit beast it could be that was apparently hunting them, the more convinced he was of his initial conjecture. Which was not great for him and Xu Xing, at their level of power there was no such thing as a weak Shadow Cat, though it did bode marginally well for them that both of them could actually somewhat detect it, it at least meant that the beast was not wholly out of their league. That being said, they did have a habit of persistently stalking their chosen prey until they saw an opening or their prey dropped from exhaustion, so their situation was still nothing to celebrate.
All in all Xu Long could not envisage a scenario where he did not have to fight the probable Shadow Cat, once he had concluded that, his decision making became much simpler. He pet the agitated Xu Xing on the head and spoke softly to her.
“Xiao Xing, this is most likely a Shadow Cat, very dangerous to us and not known to abandon prey it is stalking, so there is really only one path forward for us, I am going to have to fight it.”
Xu Xing stopped staring downwards and looked up at Xu Long and let out a low growl, no doubt in solidarity, Xu Long just smiled at her before he started descending the tree branch by branch, stopping on each one to try and get a clearer picture of their stalker. It was a difficult proposition, Shadow Cats were basically made for stealth and though Xu Long could get a vague sense of its position, certainly more than he could if he was relying on his eyes, he got the impression that he would need a lot more proximity to overcome whatever ability was messing with his perception.
But proximity was not going to be an issue for long, as the Shadow Cat had seemed noticed that it had been found out and that its prey was moving towards it, because it abandoned its stationary position and started to move, right in their direction. Xu Long had a decision to make now, fighting on the branches of this tree was extremely disadvantageous to his fighting style, but he assumed the same could be said for the Shadow Cat which was almost certainly a primarily ambush predator. Ultimately he decided that, given the importance of dodging to his fighting style and the size difference and body strength disparity between the two of them, a fight in the branches of this tree would be worse for him. So he ran.
Xu Long jumped from branch to branch at a breakneck speed, trying to keep the trunk of the tree between himself and the ephemeral shadow as he rapidly descended the tree in hopes of making his stand on the flat ground of the forest floor. The Shadow Cat followed at an astonishing pace, one that did not bode well for the coming conflict, but the labyrinthian mess of branches on this mighty tree provided enough cover that Xu Long was able to put foot to dirt before he was caught up to. As soon as he stood on the forest floor he turned around and faced the shadow as he started backing up slowly lest the Shadow Cat try and get the drop on him from its vantage in the branches of the trees.
He knew from that descent that his opponent was much faster than he was and given that it was a relatively large spirit beast, no doubt stronger as well, this fight was going to require far more from him than his two previous encounters with spirit beasts in this forest. As he continued to back up slowly to get out from under the branches of the tree he took a steadying deep breath as he focused on the sword in his hand and his perception of the world around him. HIs opponent had stopped chasing at great speed when it noticed that its prey had stopped running, it was now perched on a branch not far off the ground to the right of the trunk from where Xu Long was keeping watch.
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The more Xu Long was allowed to back away from the tree by the cautious nature of the Shadow Cat the more his initial plan to capitalize on the beast pouncing from a tree branch and taking advantage of its inability to alter its trajectory in midair seemed untenable. Ultimately his conjecture proved accurate as he backed out into a small clearing and the Shadow Cat gracefully landed on the forest floor with a leisurely jump, clearly not going to pounce from above on prey that was aware of its existence and was holding a sharp object.
“Well, looks like we have to do this the hard way.”
Xu Long was starting to get slightly concerned as the beast approached him, its image was not clearing up to the extent that he was used to with its increased proximity, he could make out the general shape enough to confirm his educated guess that the beast was a Shadow Cat, but its form seemed to shift slightly in his perception. Considering his disadvantages were stacking up, he had little choice but to take a defensive approach in this fight, much as he was loath to do so, at least it would allow him to continue analyzing the qi of the Shadow Cat and try to get a clearer picture.
After landing from its jump out of the tree the Shadow Cat took a beat to analyze Xu Long’s reaction before it started pacing towards him, he got the impression that it was trying to intimidate him into running again, Xu Long stood still and waited. By the time it had paced slowly into the clearing it was obvious that its patience was wearing thin, and Xu Long was pleased to note that he could glean its preparation to attack from its qi fluctuations despite the hazy picture he had of the beast, which alleviated his growing concerns about his perception being hampered to the point of uselessness.
Despite Xu Long having picked up on the signs of the incoming attack, he was still somewhat taken by surprise when it actually happened, the Shadow Cat bolted with a speed the Xu Long had never seen from it before and had he not been absolutely prepared would have certainly spelt the end for him. Normally he would wait until the last second to dodge in order to quell any attempt to adjust trajectories, but in this case his fastest reaction time had him moving out the way at the last second, he took a hasty step to his right keeping his sword edge facing the beast on his left in an effort to deflect the swipe of the paw that came at him with great ferocity.
Deflect it he did, but the strength behind the swipe almost took Xu Long off his feet and he skidded along the ground with his sword shaking slightly from the impact. Keeping his attention on the Shadow Cat that was now circling him at great speed he noticed something interesting, the paw that had swiped at him was actually injured by his sword. This was going to be a little different from his last two encounters where the beasts he faced were difficult for him to injure at all but easy to navigate around, now he was facing a beast that was stronger than him and faster than him but was far easier for him to injure.
The Shadow Cat continued to circle him, no doubt trying to confuse him so as not to repeat the previous engagement that left its paw slightly injured, it clearly didn’t understand that its efforts were in vain. Xu Long could feel where it was the entire time it was running in circles and it was no more disorientating to him than if the beast was running around in circles in his field of view the entire time. Finally after more than a few laps the Shadow Cat attacked from the direction that Xu Long expected, from his back and to his left, probably as far away from his sword as is possible.
Having been watching the beast intently and having gotten a reasonable idea of the speed it was capable of, Xu Long had a much easier time predicting when to react to the attack on his flank. In light of all these factors he decided to do something a little stupid to try and catch this Shadow Cat off guard. He kept his back to the beast hoping for a more reckless attack than the last time, and he was rewarded when the Shadow Cat lept at his back seemingly in an attempt to grab him with both paws and then finish him off with a savage bite. Xu Long responded as soon as he felt the beast leave the ground, he pivoted towards his attacker crouching as low as he could while flicking his sword so that it was vertical, bracing it with both hands.
The effect was almost instant, Xu Long held on to his sword with every ounce of strength he possessed as he was covered in the blood and viscera of the Shadow Cat as its own frighteningly huge momentum dragged its underside along the vertical blade. Xu Long didn’t have time to revel in his hasty plan coming to fruition though, as one of the back paws of the still high velocity Shadow Cat clipped his shoulder on its trip over his head causing him to be flung to the ground in a similar but thankfully not identical direction to the awfully messy spirit beast corpse that he just created.
Groaning as he picked himself up off the ground, Xu Long reflexively made sure that Xu Xing was fine, despite the fact he was certain that she was, as he had instinctively protected her when he was thrown. He turned on the function of his blindfold and looked down at the small spirit fox that was looking up at him covered in blood and apparently none too impressed with his idea to beat the Shadow Cat.
He had to laugh when he saw the look he was getting from her. “Sorry Xiao Xing, but you have to admit that despite being rather messy it did work exceptionally well.”
All he got in return was an angry yip.
Knowing that Xu Xing was never quite as angry as when her pristine white coat was defiled Xu Long decided to forgo the satisfaction of looking at his vanquished foe, the almost certain gruesomeness of the scene certainly helped, and concentrate on cranky spirit fox mollification.
“Alright, I hear you, we will get cleaned up. Do you remember seeing any lakes or ponds in the distance when we were up in the tree?”
She just slightly shook her head as she continued to stare daggers at him.
“Let’s do this then, we will pick a tree that is nearby, but far enough away from the corpse and use the barrel water to rinse off, then when the sun rises we can climb to the top of the tree and check for a place to have a proper scrub and refill the barrel. How does that sound?”
This suggestion at least bought him a reprieve from being stared at menacingly, so he took that as acceptance of his proposal and went to look for a nearby tree. Xu Long flicked his sword once and it was spotlessly clean, he really did love this sword, then he sheathed it and started walking through the forest picking particularly egregious chunks of viscera off himself. Despite Xu Xing’s annoyance with him, he was the one who copped the worst of it, simply by virtue of the vast difference in size between the two of them, not that he would ever say that out loud to her though. By the time he was happy enough that he was mostly chunk free he picked one of the larger looking trees that seemed healthy and started to climb.
He picked a branch with a sufficient thickness and proceeded to empty and fill nodes of his bracelet until he was left with only the barrel of water and the smaller container of water that he filled Xu Xing’s bowl with every day. He was starting to understand what his mother was talking about when she called this bracelet inconvenient compared to a proper storage artifact, taking up a node for each item was a quick way to use up all your nodes but the alternative item shuffling was not conducive to efficiency.
Xu Long first tended to Xu Xing in an act of appeasement, which seemed to work as she was a lot less annoyed with him when her white fur was largely visible again, he then took the barrel and turned it 90 degrees over his head and let a about a third of it wash over him. When he placed the barrel back down he looked down at Xu Xing and noticed that she had also been inundated with that huge volume of water…whatever forgiveness he had earned seemed to have been revoked judging by the way she was looking up at him.
“Whoops, sorry about that.”
Xu Xing just shook and then jumped to a higher branch and started looking at the night sky completely ignoring Xu Long.