Group Two

"Group two, move in." Li Wuhan sent a voice transmission to the team to his left. He watched as shadows left the bushes near the clearing where two stone lions were dining on a shadow panther. He watched as the attack plan they had rehearsed for this moment went through his head. They were meant to split up through the bushes and surround the beasts without being seen. He could see two of his men silently making their way from branch to branch in clockwise and counter clockwise positions. They were meant to use qi shots to spread confusion while the team below laid their qi balls. When the beasts reared up to charge at the cultivators in the trees, the others within the bushes would set off their qi explosions.

As he waited, he had to admit that the number of stone lions they had run into surprised him. He remembered Hong Zhao mentioning that he had destroyed all of the fierce beasts within the dungeon, yet when he went there, it was still filled to brim with more. The only logical reasoning was that there was a formation within the dungeon that transformed minerals within the ground into new fierce beasts. He had only heard rumors from other travelers when they talked to his father about such formations. If they could find it, they might be able to destroy it, but that would only be a waste.

He watched as the meticulous drill was laid out perfectly. As the beasts reared up, the qi balls exploded, blowing chunks of the stone hide off of them. Li Wen dropped from his own spot and activated his qi sword. As he dropped, two men from the bushes mimicked his own move. As his pearl white sword landed in a large crater of hide, the other two swords felled the other. His grip on his sword tightened as the stone lion thrashed, trying to dislodge him. He pushed the sword in further, lodging it in the ground to hold the beast where it was in its death throes. At the end, he put both corpses within his storage ring and signaled them to continue on.

Hong Zhao had told him not to introduce his group to the stone lions yet, but they seemed to be holding their own. Since he had become a second star disciple ranked cultivator, it seemed that what used to be a life of constantly looking over his shoulder became child's play. He remembered the months leading up to his rank up to the disciple realm. The times that he had spent training his own qi explosion and qi shot had been filled with struggle. When Hong Zhao told him of his own time training qi explosion, he had first laughed. After having to train it himself, he grimaced at the memory.

The men he had with him now were around the same rank he was when he had first trained in qi explosion and qi shot. Hong Zhao had made sure of that. When they had the new abilities down, they would be placed in an advanced group which would go further into the forest. As far as he knew, the deeper one went into the forest, the more difficult the fierce beasts they would encounter. Hong Zhao had even run into a magical beast within the stone lion dungeon. He still shuddered when he thought of what Xi Bai would have done to Hong Zhao had Shadow not found him and helped bring the magical beast to the ground.

"I think that's it for this area." Li Wuhan said as he met with the others at the rendezvous point. "Either we turn back now, or we continue into the next location, up to you." He looked from one cultivator to the next. He himself was itching to move forward. If they could uncover another dungeon like the one Hong Zhao had uncovered, they might be able to find more cultivation materials, or spirit weapons like the sword he had found in the stone lion dungeon. The further in they went, the more bounty they might uncover.

"I believe your father told us not even to go against the stone lions today." A boy a little older than him said.

"He also said not to take on anything if we don't have the confidence to come out on top, right uh.." He searched for the boy's name in his memory. "Cheng Qigang, correct?" He was still getting used to this group's members names. It wasn't his fault he seemed to be paired up with a new group almost every month. The names began to meld together after a while.

Cheng Qigang smiled as he nodded. "You are correct, that is what your father said. But I believe he meant that towards the panthers and snakes. I don't think he meant to give us express permission to move forward."

"So what you are saying is that you wish to wait until we have enough members trained up to the extent we are so we can make our way further in on a scouting mission, report everything we see to my father, then wait even longer instead of just doing the scouting now?" Li Wuhan raised an eyebrow. "Would it matter if I said that we don't have to attack anything?"

Cheng Qigang sighed. "If I don't say yes, are you going to go anyway?"

"Most likely."

He raised his hands in defeat. "Lead on, fearless leader."

Li Wuhan smiled as he activated vortex thrust. He had learned the ability quite some time ago, yet he hadn't had quite the handle on it that he did now. A burst of qi went through him to his feet as he propelled himself forward. He could hear the others following step in formation all around him. "Whatever I was doing before this moment means nothing." He grinned as he looked at Cheng Qigang and the rest of the men. He had finally gained a group of men that wouldn't mind a little exploration. Who knows, he might even find something to bring back to Li Wei. The thought made him smile as they leapt even further into the unknown.