14 Bait
Fresh cold air blew gently on the tall dark trees that surrounded Forest Will Tribe. On the east side of the woods, in a small opening, there was a young man concentrated in a cultivation session.
The feeble rays of dawn cascaded on his naked upper body. He was trembling lightly, invisible swirls of energy forming a faint distortion in the air around him.
"Fiuu"
The young man suddenly opened his eyes, a gleam of sharp energy reverberating inside them. He expelled a long breath of air, then he jumped to his feet with an athletic movement.
"It's almost time…" murmured the young man to himself, looking at the clear red skies.
His right hand moved, diving in a small leather pouch that was sitting a tree at his side. After some second searching, his fingers finally managed to catch what was trying to find.
He took out his hand from the leather bag, presenting to the cold light morning light a small iron ring. He looked at the ring with a complex expression on his face: this was his last chance!
Inside the ring, there was an incredible immortal abode, with a deep white pool that contained an incredible amount of energy. The energy he desperately needed to break out towards the first rank of cultivation, the Furnace stage.
His eyes fixed themselves on the iron circle with determination.
"There was no other way… I'm running out of time." He tried to cheer himself up.
Suddenly, three figures came out from the dense foliage at the est side of the clearing. The leading figure was a young man with a long aquiline nose, followed by a cold-eyed woman and a giant youth.
"Borther Yun, they're here…" said the long-nosed man, moving is thin body next to the topless young man sitting under the kiss of the morning sun.
The two other newcomers stayed far from the topless man. The woman had a cold, enigmatic look on her face, it was hard to imagine what she was thinking.
The towering man instead had a very skeptic expression and stood with both his log-sized arms crossed.
"Yun Sutao, I don't fear the Leaf family but they hold significant power in the village. Just meeting you here is a show a good faith… you better be worth it!" said the huge man with a deep, echoing voice.
"I agree with Ironboar, I know that you were considered very trustworthy… but that was in the past, when you still were the son of the tribe's great hero and the chieftain's grandson… now you're nothing." stated the woman.
"You people! How could you say this? Ironboar! The only reason why your father was accepted in the tribe was thanks to Yun's grandpa! Winter Leaf, don't you remember who saved you from becoming that disgusting fatty's concubine in the first place? You.." exclaimed the long-nosed slender man with righteous rage.
"People who lose so much will inevitably change even their previous behavior." Continued the cold looking woman, interrupting him with a plain voice.
"Pinochio, you're too soft. Are you even trying to become a hunter? Should I be grateful to the fake grandchild of someone that took in my father because he needed a strong warrior? Are you even hearing how stupid it sounds?" mocked him Ironboar.
"You dispicab…"
"Enough, brother P…" finally, Yun Sutao intervened, immediately stopping Pinochio from continuing his relentless defense of him.
"They're right, after all, despair can lead people to do absolutely crazy thing… you should remember that clearly before deciding to talk to me like that…" continued the topless man with a colder tone.
"Mph, do you think you can scare me Sutao?" snorted Ironboar.
"I didn't call you here to argue. I need your help. In exchange, I will give you the opportunity of obtaining great strength…" Said Sutao ignoring completely the huge man's menace.
"Your friend already told us that… what he didn't tell us was how. What makes you so certain that you can help us win the Ritual of the Hunt?" inquired Winter Leaf.
She was genuinely curious. Even if she said the contrary, she didn't think that someone as proud as Yun Sutao would ask them to meet him in secret for no reason at all.
First, when Pinochio had come to see her asking her to meet Sutao deep in the forest, she immediately thought the worst. Maybe he had developed a hate so profound for her Leaf family that he decided to try and to lure her outside the village to harm her.
In the end was a member of her bloodline that took control of the tribe after ousting his grandfather. Plus, his sister had been forcibly engaged to Sun Leaf, the son of the new chieftain. A renowned good for nothing and disgusting individual.
Even if he didn't want to kill her, he could be just wanting to kidnap her and use her as a bargaining chip to get the marriage contract between his sister and the chieftain son annulled.
Anything was more believable than Yun Sutao actually wanting to help her. If she didn't know that even Ironboar had been invited, she would have never agreed to come.
As for Ironboar and Sutao conspiring together to get her? Impossible. Ironboar's brain was thick as a rock, but his loyalty and honor couldn't be put in discussion. Plus Yun Sutao was too much prideful to do something like that, even to save his sister.
So, in the end, she decided to come and see what the fallen genius of the Forest Will Tribe was going to propose them.
"Yes. But I can promise you that if we succeed, the sole idea of participating to the Ritual of the Hunt will become a joke in your eyes" claimed the young man with the ring in his hand.
"What the hell are you talking about Sutao?! A joke? Did they broke your brain together with your arms or what?" said immediately the huge youth, reacting with fury to the words of the bare-chested man.
A cold gleam shined in Winter Leaf eyes, she didn't say anything but her countenance became even colder than before.
Sighing and shaking his head, Sutao moved his left arm and pointed it towards a distant tree, making a rapid push gesture towards it.
Immediately, under the shocked eyes of the others, a silver line of light emerged from Sutao's skin and blasted the tree's bark, forming a cut on the trunk.
"Cultivator!" said Pinocchio with widened eyes.
"I'm not a cultivator, but almost… it's all thanks to this" continued the bare-chested man showing the little iron ring in his palm.
Four pairs of eyes fixed themselves on the little object, three of them burning with astonishment and fervor. Cultivation! It was like a distant dream to everyone in the Extreme Wilderness Region.
The eyes of Winter Leaf passed from the seemingly common iron jewel to the man in control of it. "No wonder why he said that we wouldn't care anymore about the Ritual… he has a way to become a cultivator!" thought the woman.
"However, why would he be interested in sharing such an incredible resource?" continued wondering Winter Snow, suspicious.
"Why are we here, Sutao?" asked the giant man with a deep voice. "I don't believe for a second that you have given us this information out of simple good will.." Continued Ironboar.
"That's true… I need you to get inside the ring…" confirmed Yun Sutao.
"Inside?" this time was the aquiline nosed man to act surprised. Yun Sutao nodded to his friend, tapping the item in his hand with a single finger.
"Inside the ring, there is a cave and a pool of energy that can help cultivation… ." He explained. The eyes of Winter Snow, Ironboar and Pinochio widened in shock. A Cave inside a ring? What kind of madness was that?
"..naturally you will need appropriate cultivation technique, obviously. I will give you the technique I have and you will go in one after the other to cultivate…"continued the young man.
"Where's the catch?" asked slowly Winter Leaf. She couldn't put her trust in such an incredibly good deal. There was surely a catch.
"There is a barrier, that forbids things from entering the inside… however, it only works on cultivators I think. Before I broke the second passage of the cultivation technique I could enter and exit without problem…plus I tried to send in little animals, and they all manage to pass in without any problem…"
Yun continued to explain his supposition on why he couldn't enter the cave to the group.
"This means that you also will be able to pass inside. Once inside you will cultivate for two days and then come out, the next one will do the same, and so forth."
"What's the point of this Sutao?" wondered Ironboar.
"Simple: I can't break the barrier alone, but if the four of us have a decent cultivation base we will probably manage to do so… you can only enter one at the time, and without bringing anything with you" answered Yun, explaining his final plan.
"So? What do you think?"
