75 Seeing that Satyr

Ye Xiu had placed Qi imprints on each of the seeds that he had thrown out together. He was waiting for an opportune time for him to use them so he continued to dodge the attacks that the beast threw at him. He had tried to catch one of the punches that the monkey had thrown at him and he noticed that the punch wasn't as heavy as he thought it would be thought it still certainly strained him to block it.

Once he figured out that he could block the attacks albeit with effort, he was quick to monopolize on the fact that the monkey's body was massive and that it would be hard for it to be able to move its body faster than he could strike it. The monkey's skin was relatively tough and he could see that his attacks were barely making substantial injuries. Ye Xiu could smell the blood which also meant that it was possible for the other Qi Beasts to smell it.

He knew that if the smell of blood travelled then he would have multiple Qi Beasts against him. Knowing this, he started to use his 'Mirage Swallow Steps' solely to help retreat after making an attack whilst using 'Basilisk's Gaze' to close the distance quickly. This used his Qi pool at a reasonable rate. He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep this up and the only attacks that he knew would work against the monkey were those that were directed to its eyes and head.

With 'Basilisk's Gaze' helping him, it was easy for him to aim for the eyes but Qi Beasts were smart and doing the same thing over and over again was bound to have the monkey be able to predict his movements eventually. As predicted, the monkey had caught on to what Ye Xiu was doing which made things much harder for him.

He looked around the area as he continued to dodge, he saw that there was a particular area that was a forest of vines. If the weasel-sized Qi Beast was here, it could possibly get through the area but with Ye Xiu's and the monkey's sizes, it would be impossible without being trapped by the vines. He threw the last of the seeds that he had and continued to dodge as he made his way towards the area that he had seen.

It didn't take long since both he and the monkey were moving at relatively fast speeds even with all the obstacles on the forest floor. Whilst Ye Xiu could smoothly move past the obstacles due to his smaller size, the monkey broke through every single obstacle through brute force. It ran through everything and it seemed like it was using Qi to clear the path for it.

Ye Xiu's observations didn't affect his combat state due to how efficient he was when he was multi-tasking. To him, fighting whilst thinking of things completely irrelevant to what he was supposed to be thinking of was easy since he was able to practise alchemy whilst being attacked. He managed to do this because he had wanted to practise multi-tasking and his friends found it amusing every time his failures exploded in his face as he dodged.

Once the monkey was led close enough to the area, he sent multiple Qi needles to the spots where his imprints were so that it would explode. The reason to why he used Qi needles was due to the fact that he hadn't mastered the remote detonation, apparently, the technique for the remote detonation required more refining since it took too long for Ye Xiu to gather up the Qi and send it to the imprints. Due to this, he used the method that he had suggested to Shang Yang to use so that she could detonate the imprints.

The seeds that Ye Xiu had thrown were infused with Shang Yang's Qi in a way that would make sure that it wouldn't escape until it was exploded, it took several trials before they managed to accomplish it and they were proud with what they had accomplished. Though what was hardest during the infusion was to get the correct ratio of wood Qi and water Qi to mix together so that the seed wouldn't explode. Each type of seed had a different ratio and it took two weeks of tests for them to find the ratios for several types.

Ye Xiu had practised controlling the plants but he could only do it if they acted similarly hive mind which meant that the only thing he had to do was control all the plants at the same time and have them do one thing and every single one of them would do it.

He had to do this because controlling every single individual plant was ridiculously impossible because no matter how good you are at multi-tasking unless you are solely concentrating on moving the plants and not moving, it would be hard for you to be aware of anything at all in a battle.

He started the acceleration of growth on the seeds and they promptly started to grow rapidly. They were vine seeds because Ye Xiu and Shang Yang had taken the time to infuse the vine seeds because they were more likely to use them for constriction or immobilisation purposes instead of having plants to attack.

Ye Xiu had used up his other types of plants when he immobilised groups of Qi Beasts by using a variety of plants that could paralyse through their spores or through the poisonous gas that they release. He would've kept a few for this occasion but that particular incident was a one-off chance for him to kill huge groups of Qi Beasts in a single go.

He kept the rapidly grown vines stationary so that the monkey wouldn't realise anything was wrong as he tried to lure the monkey into the jungle of vines. The monkey was obviously smart as it hung around the outside of the area, swinging its way through the vines, doing it's best to try and destroy the obstacles. Ye Xiu had cut himself a path but it wasn't big enough for the monkey which meant that as the monkey itself was attacking the vines, he was attacking it where it wasn't protected.

The vines that were previously stationary were now tangled around the monkey's entire leg and had a firm hold on it. They had chosen this particular vine for its ability to withstand huge amounts of force and had strong gripping power. The vines were sentient when fully grown but because it was grown using a portion of his own Qi, he could control the plant by using a technique that was similar to one that puppet masters used though the technique was nowhere as complex.

Ye Xiu was lucky that he had only seen the monkey use metal Qi, this meant that it would either strengthen his attacks or body but it wouldn't do anything to help him get rid of the vines that were binding him. If the monkey was able to use fire Qi, the entire plan would've been blown into pieces.

The monkey was stopping its futile attacks on the vines in front of him and instead concentrated his efforts on getting rid of the vines that were holding him in place. Ye Xiu didn't give the monkey the chance to continue doing so because he wanted to end the fight quickly. He had heard the sounds of the other Qi Beasts searching the forest and he knew that they were getting close.

Since only the monkey had sustained injuries, he was sure that he could fight a second Qi Beast afterwards because he hadn't used up too much Qi in the battle so far. Whilst the monkey was distracted by the vines, he activated the second movement of "Lonely Peak of Thirteen Dragons.' The name of the move was "Despairing Roar' because of the sound it made when it was being activated and as it was used.

The move itself was definitely not a move for assassinations due to all the noise that it made but the strength behind the attack was much stronger due to the multiplicative effect. The katana managed to strike the unprotected neck of the monkey and though the muscle was slightly hindering the katana's movement, it was still able to cut off the head in one fell swoop.

Ye Xiu knew that he had no time to waste and quickly placed the body into his inventory, forgetting about the head because it had rolled too far away. He had blood splattered over him and the exit for the final area was now relatively far away since Ye Xiu and the monkey had been moving around from their original position to get to where they were. He sprinted through the forest with his katana cutting the obstacles in his way when he managed to get to the exit.

The exit was blocked by a single Grade 3 Qi Beast and it was a beast that he was made familiar with after his father warned him of the dangers of facing the beast. This particular Qi Beast could be considered to be a Grade 4 Qi Beast due to its abilities and the intelligence that is displayed. This particular Qi Beast was of the same species that had kidnapped him when he was younger.

Ye Xiu had been taught to recognise it instantly because he never wanted to be fooled again. The Man-eating satyr was definitely going to be a tough fight for him, probably harder than the Grade 4 Qi Beast because it didn't have that many abilities. The Man-eating satyr wasn't a natural existence but one that was actually born using the grief, deceit and anger from sentient lifeforms. This meant that it could take up to hundreds of years for it to form or it could form in a matter of years.

Its normal ranking was considered to be a Grade 3 Qi Beast but it could definitely evolve if it continued to absorb the emotions in an area. The higher the grade the Qi Beast is, the bigger the area that it could take in the emotions. Ye Xiu was definitely wary of the satyr and wanted to get out of the area immediately. He knew that the two other Qi Beasts were probably on his tail which meant that he had no time for another fight.

Ye Xiu prepared himself to use all of his Qi for a single instantaneous burst of speed using 'Tyrant's Physique' and 'Basilisk's Gaze.' He was betting his luck that he could move faster than satyr could teleport and attack but he held no expectations. He was also hoping that whatever kept the Qi Beasts in their particular portion of the valley would keep the satyr from teleporting outside as well.

He tensed his leg muscles and sprinted past the satyr. The satyr was able to attack him just as he moved past because it had started its attack just as he had started his sprint. It was a shallow cut on the side of his thigh and Ye Xiu knew that he would have to continue running and not look back. He made it past the boundary line that defined the two regions and he could see the satyr's miasma around it as it stared at him.

He sighed in relief and went back to his camp so that he could tend to the injury with a pill. He was lucky that the valley was abundant with herbs, plants and rare materials but was sad because he didn't have enough time to harvest everything. He sat down and took the time to think of a plan so that he could fight the satyr.

He looked up into the night sky in the Dimension and hoped for the best. 'I still have ten days. I should be fine.' He comforted himself before setting himself up in a meditative trance.