18 Wind-storm bat
Li Zhu and Hua Shu glanced at their surroundings, trying to figure out where the noises were coming from.
Although they both had very high cultivation compared to the spirit beasts in this area of the forest, some beast specialized in speed or stealth, meaning it was still hard to spot them.
Buddy, who had followed Li Zhu, had his ears raised high, as he also attempted to find the location of the spirit beast that was circling them.
Generally, summoners could store their spirit beasts within their Dantian, and could then summon them at any time by just willing the beast to come out. The spirit beasts were still conscious in the Dantian, though they could not use their physical body and could only act as bystanders of the summoner's life.
Li Zhu did not like the idea of confining spirit beasts, since he believed it was basically worse than death for them. Because of this, he had decided to only use this method of spirit beast storage in extreme scenarios, such as when the spirit beasts were about to die.
Because of this ideology, Buddy had traveled with Hua Shu and Li Zhu, occasionally taking a few breaks or detours, which made him respect his new summoner much more, though he was obviously still unwilling to be under someone else.
As the three were alert, a light suddenly flashed, headed straight towards Li Zhu, who could not react in time, as the flash of light had already disappeared again.
The result of the clash: a scar on Li Zhu's chest, about a foot long. The spirit beast was so fast it had been able to strike through his clothes and injure him before he could even react, and it had retreated equally fast, with not even Hua Shu, a ninth stage Qi gathering realm expert, being able to stop it.
"Hua Shu, we need to be careful with this one, I think we may have already stumbled into a worthy adversary!" lightly said Li Zhu, his face now very serious, realizing the potential danger of this encounter.
"Yeah, let's get back to back so that we can each check one side" replied Hua Shu, who realized they needed to change their tactics if they were going to catch this spirit beast.
Hua Shu and Li Zhu slowly backed into each other, with their fists raised up high, ready to punch at the first sight of the light.
Buddy, who also wanted to be back to back, suddenly realized he had been excluded from the formation, so he grew frustrated, barking insults at the two.
The moment the brief distraction was caused by Buddy, a light flashed again, now headed towards the dog, who was totally unprepared.
Li Zhu, having seen the light from the corner of his eye, instantly jumped in front of Buddy, though with the speed of the enemy, the dog had already been hit, and Li Zhu simply fell onto the ground, having accomplished nothing.
'This won't work, I need to use all my skills' thought Li Zhu, who was growing more frustrated, seeing the large cut on Buddy's face.
There was only one way for him to match the speed of this beast… shadow lurk!
Although he had not wanted to reveal his power in front of Hua Shu, there was now no other choice, since they would slowly be killed off if this fight continued.
Li Zhu placed his palm on Buddy, willing his soul into the dog. He was now using the summoner fusing method that was given to him by an old man years earlier (Chapter 2).
Although the Undying Beast Soul method and this fusing method had no correlation, they both involved connecting the soul of the summoner and spirit beast, so they worked well together. Since Li Zhu even had a portion of Buddy's soul, their connection was very strong, and the fusing was seamless.
Li Zhu's soul entered the demonic territory of the demonic Shadow Wolf once again, as he jumped into the projection of the wolf, opening up his soul completely.
Buddy and he had trained the fusing technique many times the day earlier, so they both opened up completely, allowing a quick fusion. If either side did not have trust, then the process would fail, as had happened to them many times.
With a flash of red light, Buddy's body disappeared, and Li Zhu began to shine red and black, as his body began to shift.
Black fur began to grow on his arms, and wolf ears replaced his regular ones, forming a strange sight. As the transformation neared the end, Li Zhu looked like a pitch-black werewolf, though he had blood red markings all over his body.
In this state, Li Zhu surprisingly discovered he had a desire to kill. The bloodlust was caused by the fusion, and this feeling was probably less than half what buddy felt in his wolf state.
The whole transformation happened in less than a second, as Hua Shu stared with a dumbfounded expression. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined a human fusing with a spirit beast.
The enemy did not leave them time to talk, though, as the familiar light flashed once again, straight towards Li Zhu, who was still glancing at his new body.
He was no fool, though, and he instantly sensed danger, as his body instinctually dodged. It was no simple dodge, though, as Li Zhu was now invisible to Hua Shu and the enemy. He had unknowingly activated Shadow Lurk, which felt surprisingly intuitive, as though he had always known how to use it.
Li Zhu was in a strange state at the moment. Shadow lurk could only be used in shadows, and he was currently staying in the shadow cast by a nearby tree. He did not feel his physical body, and he could rely on only four senses since touch was not included. At the same time, he somehow had the knowledge of how to move around, as he happily flowed around.
Shadow lurk was not an unbeatable skill, and it did have a time limit, so Li Zhu focused up as he began to cruise the shadows, which were currently abundant, since there were trees everywhere.
As he moved around, from shadow to shadow, Li Zhu paid attention to his surroundings, trying to spot the beast, which was undoubtedly preparing for another attack.
The spirit beast, a small brown bat, was completely unable to sense Li Zhu, who, after frantically going around in circles, was now nearby.
Spotting the animal in the tree, Li Zhu was surprised, 'That is a Wind-Storm Bat, a ninth realm qi gathering stage beast!' Although the forest did have many such spirit beasts, one in the outskirts was very uncommon, since the inner forest had rarer plants, which spirit beasts preferred to eat because of the greater strength they could provide.
A ninth stage spirit beast could usually kill Li Zhu in one strike, but the Wind-Storm Bat focused on speed, so its attack power was fortunately lacking. That said, it was no easy enemy, and these beasts killed many ninth stage human cultivators each year, by slowly killing them with weak strikes, from which they were unable to escape or even dodge.
Having identified his target, Li Zhu wasted no further time, as he immediately jumped out of the shadow, fist already headed towards the bat's face.
The spirit beast, who was used to being the one doing the sneak attacks, did not expect this turn of events, and was unprepared, so it did not even have the time to understand what was happening, before a powerful fist crushed its head instantly ending its life.
Seeing the dead bat, Li Zhu let out a breath of relief, as he exited the fusion with Buddy, by willing his soul to disconnect with that of the dog, who was now proudly raising his paws, as though he had killed the enemy.
"Okay Hua Shu, let's move on, and let's be even more careful about staying in the outskirts of this forest, since apparently the spirit beasts have been moving." After gathering the small nucleus core from the bat, Li Zhu returned to where Hua Shu was standing, staring at him in shock.
Not only had he somehow fused with a beast, but he had also managed to somehow disappear and kill the enemy… this man was full of secrets!
"So…"
"Don't worry about it. I can fuse with my spirit beasts and use their skills. That said, I hope you understand how important it is to me that this information be kept secret, and that you don't talk to anyone about what you saw here today." Interrupting her question, Li Zhu cleared the awkwardness by being frank, hoping it would pay off.
Although the fusion technique would not reveal his identity, he still wanted to keep it as a secret, and possibly surprise his enemies with it. Although the information would not be held secret for long, he still wished to have this trump card as long as he could.
Respecting his decision, Hua Shu did not speak anymore about this, as they continued to walk in the forest, alert as ever.
Li Zhu realized that although he had killed a ninth stage spirit beast, it was only because the beast focused on speed, rather than attack or defense, and the fight could have ended differently if it wasn't for a number of factors.
He would not become complacent due to a single victory, though the excitement at using shadow lurk for the first time in a fight could be seen in his eyes, which were lit up.
At that moment, the duo heard some voices, and from the tone and volume they could tell it was an argument.
"Hua Shu, you want to go see what the yelling is all about?" asked Li Zhu, who was very curios who would dare yell in Moon-Death forest without worry about spirit beasts attacking them.
At the same time, he thought, 'Finally, something interesting has come up. Time to see if this fight is worth my time!'
