Tracking the centipede's impressions in the soil, I forced through the final stretch of thicket and reached an open space where the trees lay broken.
Two enormous shapes clashed in the clearing ahead of me. I paused at the edge and observed with wide eyes.
Then I noticed Chen Wu's group.
"What luck." I had made the right decision coming this way rather than searching the open field.
Keeping low, I approached them from behind.
Their senses caught me and every head turned at once. Their expressions flickered through several stages before landing somewhere between disbelief and uncertainty.
Wei Peng spoke first. "How... are you alive?!"
I shook my head slightly. Then my eyes found the bag beside them, heavy and half-sealed, the edges of crystal pieces catching the light through the gap in the cloth.
(They already had them. As expected.)
I sighed. "Well, I am disappointed, disciples of Clouded Peak… Righteous cultivators, blah, blah." I let the words sit for a moment. "And you play a trick like that."
"Shut up." Su Ling's voice was flat. "You're still breathing. Enjoy it instead of complaining." A short laugh slipped from her.
I looked at her, then at the rest of them. "That's right. Still breathing." My tone dropped. "If it weren't for this trial and its rules... it wouldn't take me a minute." I pressed two fingers against my temple, trying to ease the stress gathering in my head and said nothing further.
"Look. The fight is almost—" A disciple near the outer trees turned.
All of us looked over at the same moment.
The Antler King had one section of the centipede pinned beneath its front hoof and the forward portion caught between its teeth, both ends held simultaneously while the centipede's remaining coils tightened around the thick neck in a last sustained effort.
The Antler King's face had darkened considerably, the skin around the eye socket and across the jaw carrying the deep discoloration and erosion of Gu poison working through the tissue. However, it was still standing.
CRACK.
Suddenly, the section pinned beneath the hoof was crushed.
SCREE!
The centipede's body jerked violently, its grip around the neck loosening in the same instant as the movement of the front and rear sections fell out of sync.
The Antler King released its bite and whipped its head sideways.
The centipede's body left the ground. It was thrown across the clearing and crashed down among the fallen trees.
It tried to move the moment it landed, its legs working against the soil without direction, the body curling and uncurling without pattern.
The movements gradually slowed before stopping altogether.
It was dead.
Silence settled over the area.
The Antler King lowered its head, its legs trembling from the effort of staying upright.
Then its knees touched the ground.
The offspring emerged from behind its mother.
It rushed and pressed itself against the lowered head, and the Antler King made a soft sound.
"What a heart-touching scene," I said, and walked out from the trees into the open space.
My eyes were not on the Antler King, but on the dead centipede and the crystal pieces scattered over the ground.
I moved to the nearest cluster and crouched, picking up a piece and turning it once before it disappeared into my inventory. I collected a few more before glancing back.
Behind me, Chen Wu's group remained at the forest's edge, unwilling to leave the cover.
(Come on, just come out,) I thought. Their caution was becoming irritating, but it was also telling me exactly what kind of people they were.
"Heh."
I straightened and shouted. "Cowards of Clouded Peak. Why are you still hiding? Truly impressive. I begin to think your sect produces nothing but pieces of shit. "
The words hung in the air for a moment.
I let out a sigh and headed for the centipede's body.
The body lay where it had fallen, its shell still intact along most of its length.
A beast of this level was just too valuable. Its core alone would clear a hundred thousand spirit stones at any auction.
And the poison glands were worth even more to the right person. As a medical practitioner, I knew exactly how useful they were.
And also I didn't want to leave anything useful for Chen Wu or its group. I was well aware of how troublesome that could become later.
I approached from the head end and first extended three spectral threads, pressing them lightly against the shell near the neck segment.
There was no reaction.
"Haaah… it's really dead."
With that confirmed, I crouched beside the head and began the extraction.
I worked at the mandible, finding the anatomical joint between its base and the ventral plate, following it inward to where the glands sat in dense clusters.
The extraction required patience rather than force. I took my time and the glands came free intact, the Gu poison contained within the unruptured sac walls, and I sealed them carefully as they went into the inventory.
With the poison sac dealt with, my attention shifted to the core.
I moved along the length until my spiritual sense found the dense concentrated point near the center segment and worked inward from there.
"How much longer are we going to stay here?" A voice came from the undergrowth. "He is taking everything."
No one answered him.
"OK! Hide all you want," Frustration snapped in his voice, "I can't watch that bastard take everything."
He stepped out from the hiding spot and came straight toward me.
"You." He stopped a few feet away. "Leave the core or I will…"
The green core sat in my palm, roughly the size of a human head, its surface smooth, cold and faintly luminescent.
I turned to face him.
"Go on," I said, keeping my tone light. "Do what you were going to do."
His eyes met mine and something behind them hesitated. He reached forward but then stopped on his own. His arm dropped back to his side, and he just stood there as if an invisible barrier stood between us.
The rules, of course. What else could it be?
From behind him, the rest of the group approached. A voice called his name. He hesitated, teeth clenched, but he pulled back.
And I watched him go.
"Hah, what a coward."
Then I turned back toward the Antler King, and the idea that had been forming since the moment I saw this creature settled completely.
A small smile crossed my face. "What a sweet phrase. Pay you back a thousandfold."
It was risky, but worth it.
Chen Wu's group had begun moving into the area, collecting the scattered crystal pieces from the ground, and by the time the first of them reached the nearest cluster I had already moved past the treeline and into the forest beyond.
Not far in front of me, the offspring sat beside its mother, pressed against the lowered head, making small sounds.
Slowly I extended my fingers, through which the spectral threads emerged one by one, and the dark blades connected to them slid out close to the ground like small rats moving through the undergrowth with almost no disturbance.
I had a fear that these blades might not be able to pierce its skin, but in the end, it was just a baby, not on the level of its mother.
When they were just close to it, I took a breath and checked the Antler King first. It was exhausted and seriously injured. Taking the life of her dear one right now… what was she going to do?
Some might break here and think—what are the fuck are you doing, taking such a small life?
For what?
Revenge.
This is sick. But hell, they know nothing about how fucking sick I have become.
I used the blades with perfect momentum and attacked. The blades shot from the ground toward the thick neck.
SLASH.
AU AU AU.
The offspring screamed. The mother immediately stood up, but the next moment blood splashed onto the ground.
The blades were still digging in, but they stopped as I had already started running away.
From behind me, a sorrowful roar echoed out, and a strange pressure pressed down on my head. But by then I was already too far for it to have much effect.
I increased my speed as much as I could. After all, I had to go back to the spirits for a small deal.