Crossing the Darkhorn Plains

Truthfully, what I was sensing was stronger than the 8th Realm monsters I'd sensed in the Labyrinth before. Whatever it was, I doubted direct combat would favor me.

A good thing, then, that I had arguably more options that didn't involve directly fighting it than options that did. In particular, I was a big fan of kiting, to the point of being a little infamous in my Dive Gaming days for successfully employing kiting in any PvP event with a large enough playing field for it. It was one of the biggest reasons I hadn't been very popular as an arena player.

I got my bow ready, long before I spotted the magical beast as a small dark shape in the distance. Judging from the distance, whatever it was, it was pretty big. Now, they may have focused a lot on shoring up my swordsmanship at the Academy, but as I advanced higher in the Earth Realms, they started focusing more and more on improving my archery as well. Since I had acquired the Lamentation Bow in my first year, I'd been able to shoot accurately at greater ranges while working with its property of shooting arrows that didn't arc. Actually, they did arc after much longer than a normal arrow, but so far, that didn't prove true for Spirit Arrows.

So, between that and having enough Qi in me to shoot literally thousands of Spirit Arrows, I felt confident in starting to shoot when the magical beast was still more than half a kilometer from me. And since, as I'd experimented, I didn't have to fully, half, or even quarter draw my bow for each one, I was able to fire quite a number of Spirit Arrows by the time I could make it out more clearly. If it weren't for each arrow generating an ethereal explosion, it would have resembled a pincushion, but it did look quite the worse for wear. In fact, from its aura I sensed it was near death, so I kept firing until it was no longer only near death.

For now, I didn't cut up the body to look for a core or attempt to cut out useful parts. I physically dragged it so that at least it wasn't actually on the road, and hurried back to the carriage as fast as I could.

"That was fast. Are we good to continue?"

"We are," I said, making more eye contact with Zin Long than usual, "but tell me something. These Dark Horned Bison, do they sometimes have one or two that stray from their usual field, for whatever reason?"

"Hmm, sometimes, I think. There are wards to prevent it, but sometimes one or two push through them. But they don't stray far, and if they tried to go up the road, there are cultivators at the way station who would stop them. So if you're saying you just killed one…"

I nodded. "We may have a problem. But take a look first; I had to leave the carcass by the side of the road since it was too big for my spatial storage. And it did have black horns."

Zin Long nodded back. "The way station will need to know about this, and they likely won't believe us unless we haul the body over there. I have ropes, we can tie it to the top of the carriage."

But when we got to the mile marker nearest where I'd brought it down, the body was nowhere in sight. "But…this isn't possible. It was right around here, I know it was!"

"I believe you," said Zin Long gravely, "this raises a lot of questions, and I doubt they have answers either of us will like."

"It would take a Spirit Rank cultivator to manipulate a 9th Realm magical beast, but what kind of cultivator could also avoid Aura Sense so thoroughly that I didn't suspect a thing until this moment?"

"If there really is someone like that, they'd have evaded the way station too. I think it's more likely the wards on Darkhorn Grassland have somehow started to fail to some degree," said Zin Long, "I just hope we don't arrive at the way station to find it overrun."

The journey became uneventful again, until we approached the way station to the Darkhorn Grassland early on the 5th day. "Well, they haven't been overrun," I said, "I sense 2 cultivators, both of them stronger than me up ahead where the way station should be."

Zin Long grunted thoughtfully. "Well, that should be good news for us then."

The two cultivators, both in subordinate sect uniforms, halted us at the way station. "The station chief is currently driving a herd away from the road. When he returns, you can go."

The station chief, who turned out to be an Inner Court Disciple of the Library, arrived after about an hour. After a bow to them from me and a quarter-nod back from them, they urged us on. Since a herd had just been turned away from this end of the road, Zin Long was confident enough to send the driver along at a normal fast pace until we passed the 10th mile marker. Not far from there was the responsibility of the other side's way station, and we couldn't know for sure that the road was clear by them at the moment. "Bison shouldn't come after us unless they see us, and they won't be able to see us unless they get within 3 miles. You said you can sense up to 10 miles?"

"Ten or eleven, give or take," I replied, since I'd progressed my Aura Sense a little with training.

"All right. If you sense any groups heading for the road, ones that you think might pass within 3 miles of us, tell us quick."

I nodded. Zin Long gave the command. "All right, bring it up to full speed, driver!"

The ride got quite bumpy. For about 5 minutes, the 3 groups I sensed were mostly stationery, but at that point, one started moving west and a little south, closer to the road. In another 5 minutes, I judged they were about a mile from the road when they suddenly started moving parallel to it. "There's a herd getting closer! North of us, moving parallel to the road!"

"We're close to the far way station!" Zin Long shouted, first to me, then to the driver, "run 'em like the wind, they're gaining on us!"

When we were one mile away from the way station, we saw another Inner Courtier blow past us going the other direction. "That'll be the far side's station chief going to turn this group away too." Noticeably, he didn't say anything like we were home free, or have the driver slacken the pace. He did, however, bring us to a stop when we reached the way station, where he had the driver feed the horses and rest them for a few hours.