One Hundred and One Kills
Hong Zhao raced with the max speed vortex thrust would allow. He felt the trees blurring past him more than he had seen them. As he flew past, many other shadow panthers saw him, blinked and he was gone. There was no one in that group that could possibly be a match for him. Instead, he went deeper still, until he reached an unfamiliar part of the forest.
Keeping his vortex thrust activated, Hong Zhao scouted out the area. He could sense fierce beasts around him, yet none of them approached. "Come on!" He yelled to no one in particular. "There must be one of you left with the balls enough to take me on!" His voice rang out in the forest in a way it must not have heard in hundreds of years. Here was a five year old boy challenging the forest, yet it remained silent.
Suddenly, he felt movement. He still couldn't see it, but he could tell that the shadow panthers were surrounding him. It wasn't even a number he could count. A wall of panthers at every side approached him. He gave a feral grin as he rushed then. "If you are hesitant, I'll just come to you!" He allowed his vortex thrust to reach max speed as he activated his devouring qi claws. Before he reached the wall of black, he launched himself upward and spun upside down. His claws ripped a shadow panther in half in seconds. Finishing the flip he turned his other claw and decapitated another. "Come at me!"
The shadow panthers roared in anger as they charged at their source of fury. Wave after wave of shadow panthers assaulted Hong Zhao. There was only one of him, yet hundreds of them.
Hong Zhao backpedaled on his vortex thrust, weaving in and out of trees while keeping the oncoming panthers in front of him. Knowing it was behind him, Hong Zhao leaped onto a tree and used it as a catapult to launch himself into the horde with a bloodthirsty howl.
Heads and blood flew in the dark forest and he spun himself like a drill through the wall of panthers. Many of them gained shots at him. Biting him in the arm or clawing him in the side, yet the more they attacked, the more he retaliated. He was not going to lose this fight. Twisting to a panther that slashed at his robes, he decapitated the fierce beast before it was able to gain the upper hand.
Knowing that he was now dead center in the enemy horde, Hong Zhao used his vortex thrust and jumped thirty feet in the air, catching a branch and hauling himself up. Using eagle vision and qi blast, he began thinning the herd a little. One after another fell as he pointed his finger at them, but soon he became bored. Launching himself back out of the tree, Hong Zhao raised both hands over his head and gathered his qi into one large attack. As he dropped, he brought his arms down, unleashing the largest qi shot he had ever made into the maws on twenty shadow panthers.
Sweating and covered from head to toe in blood, some of it his, some of it not. Hong Zhao looked at a hundred or so shadow panthers which littered the ground. He could see bloody stumps where there used to be heads or legs. Others were either blown to the earth with nothing but a bloody stain to show that they once existed, or intestines pouring out of one remaining half of their bodies.
Hong Zhao panted with the effort of his assault. "Not enough." He said as he shook his head. "Give me more! You have to have something else!" It sounded more like he was pleading at this point.
Suddenly, a much larger panther appeared in the clearing. It reminded him of the mother shadow panther that he had taken on one time before, but it seemed much larger than that.
Before he had a chance to prepare, the panther lunged forward and smashed him against a tree, knocking the breath out of him. Hong Zhao looked up at the fierce beast, his heart racing and a manic grin appeared on his face. "That's what I'm talking about!" Using vortex thrust, he launched himself upward and used the tree as a spring board. Activating his devouring qi claws once more, he sprang to the fierce beast and stabbed a hand through its side.
Growling, the panther threw Hong Zhao off, slamming him to the ground. A paw came down to crush the child, yet he moved out of the way just in time. Hong Zhao then brought his claw to the paw that almost claimed his life and slashed at it. Three large claw marks appeared, almost severing the paw from its leg.
Hong Zhao rolled backwards and to his feet, his devouring qi claws at the ready. "You have to have more than that for me!"
Almost as if the fierce beast understood him, it opened its mouth. Dark energy seemed to appear, forming a small ball of qi. "You can use qi attacks?" Hong Zhao looked astonished as he activated his vortex thrust and dodged the first incoming blast. He then had to keep running. The panther was unleashing one blast after another, each one at the heels of his feet. He could feel the concussion of each blast almost rock his feet underneath. "Faster!" he sent a silent prayer to his feet. "I have to go faster!" He knew he was already at the limit of his vortex thrust, yet he knew he had to push past that limit. That was why he had come out to the forest in the first place!
His silent pleas were answered with an extra burst of strength that he didn't know he had anymore. Instead of running in circles to find an opening, in a split second he found another tree to use and catapulted himself forward, cutting through the beast's qi blast with his claws. With a fierce yell, his claws sunk into the eyes of the panther. Hong Zhao found footing on the side of the beast's face and used it to run the course of it's skull, smoothly taking off the top of it's head. Blood and viscera splattered on Hong Zhao's face as he was introduced to the beast's brain. Slowly, the large shadow panther was lowered to the ground in its death throes.
Panting with all the effort of one hundred and one kills, Hong Zhao roared one last time and slashed at the shadow panther again and again. He slashed until there was nothing left but the head. He roared all his frustration out from being stuck in a child's body. He roared at the fact that he was being targeted by a seven year old. He roared at the way everyone looked at him when he had first entered the village. Finally! He was able to vent how he truly felt! His mask faded away and all the embarrassed rage of a seventy year old special forces spy leaked through. "ENOUGH!" he roared into the forest. "If you have anything left to throw at me, give it to me now, if not, SCREW OFF!"
As Hong Zhao's voice echoed through the forest, it was met with silence. He had finally overcome everything there was within this area. He could always go deeper, but that was a task for another day. Instead, he inspected each corpse and took the small black pearl from each one. Before he left, he felt him before he saw him. Shadow had finally caught up with him. Hong Zhao turned and gave a smile to his companion. "I'm glad you finally caught up!" His childlike glee was short lived. His legs came out from under him, but he caught himself before toppling to the ground. Before he could right himself, Shadow nudged his hand making one of the pearls fall from his hand. With lightning speed, Shadow dove for the pearl and swallowed it whole.
"Shadow what the hell?" Hong Zhao put the rest of his treasure into his ring. He then observed his friend. He knew shadow's cultivation level was still at student third star rank, but he felt the qi shoot up to the second star in only moments. "These help your cultivation level?" Hong Zhao mused. He wouldn't mind having a seven star student ranked mammoth of a shadow panther keeping an eye on him, yet he didn't know if he could trust his friend fully with that kind of power yet. Then a thought hit him. "Could I also get a cultivation boost from one of those?"
Taking out one of the pearls, Hong Zhao studied it for a moment before swallowing it. Sitting in the lotus position, he began cultivating when he felt an incredible surge of qi assault his dantian. Suddenly, he was gaining qi much faster than he was refining it. If he didn't keep up, the purity of his qi might go down! Struggling to keep up the pace, he refined thread after thread until his dantian couldn't hold any more, and then it stretched and he shot right through the bottleneck!
"Third star student rank!" He yelled into the forest, yet nothing responded. His qi was still growing, and he didn't have the time to celebrate. He could tell that he was now able to hold at least a third more qi than he had before. Now his dantian had plenty of space, and he was able to cultivate through the night and long into the morning.
When he finally opened his eyes, he didn't notice, but they flashed a brilliant white light before settling back down into their usual hazel.
In one night's cultivation, he had risen to an entirely new level. He knew that if he were to continue the path of cultivation, he would have to follow the path of blood and chaos in order to reach the next rank. Though it was not a path easily tread, he was willing to do it. "I will sit atop a throne of corpses if it means putting away the corruption of this world." He clenched his fist as he thought of the brat grandson of the village elder. All of the village feared that he would tell grandpa on them, so he is able to do anything he wants. Because no one speaks up, the village elder allows it to happen. Hong Zhao thought again about the secret entrance to the Huang elder estate. He knew that the time was quickly approaching when he would have to make up his mind. This seven year old boy could easily become a corrupt village elder, or have his influence grow much higher than that. Was he really going to allow such reckless stupidity in a world he wished to change?
"He will have to learn soon, or he will have to go." Hong Zhao pledged to help the young master make the right choice, or deal with the consequences of continuing the path he was on. With this pledge, the five year old boy made his way back to the village.