18 Bad Things Never Absent
The cold moonlight with few stars couldn't stop the inky night covering the whole forest with complete darkness.
The team of East Mountain Sword Club had not found a cave for camp and had to sit together at a clearing between a couple of trees. Wei Gaoyuan climbed up a large tree not far from his teammates, hiding between the big branches and leaves to enter into his dream space for practicing the basic sword trick from the club.
A bonfire made on the open ground under the tree was burning, around which everyone sat in a circle and talked happily as one student got up and said, "excuse me...I'm gonna wash my hand..."
In addition to Wei Gaoyuan on the tree, one student of the team on another big tree now was looking around carefully as a guard, and that student leaving the team looked up and said, "Hey, younger Brother Meng, keep your eyes open, we're counting on you tonight… "
"No problem! Elder brother Zhou, I'll be watching you, in every details...hahaha…" younger brother Meng responded high on the tree.
The breeze from deep woods was fueling the campfire, whose strong flames just brightened a few glowing young faces in a relaxed atmosphere…
Suddenly, Wei Gaoyuan widened his eyes and showed a nervous look. Somehow, he felt that his surroundings had suddenly turned silent. In the darkness only the wind was whispering, accompanied by the rustling of the fallen leaves in the distance… no…the rustling was getting nearer…and...
"...Sound… just strange…"
Wei Gaoyuan sat up straight and stared at the darkness in the distance vigilantly as he'd realized that the rhythm of the rustling didn't match the frequency of wind whispering…
"Hey, guys! Look out! Something might be approaching!" he hurriedly warned.
"Uh?" Gu Qianqian frowned and looked up into the darkness ahead.
"What?" Hu Xiaoshu trusted Wei Gaoyuan most, immediately keeping alerted.
In the quiet darkness, the odd rustling sound seemed to be abruptly stopped. Everyone hadn't found anything abnormal except Wei Gaoyuan, who turned more vigilant— there must be something weird not far around.
"Gaoyuan, have you got something wrong?" Hu Xiaoshu asked.
"There was something unknown… getting closer… just watch out!" Wei Gaoyuan said.
"What? Where?"
All persons got ready, some even with their hands on the hilt, their swords would let out at any time.
There remained only the whispering of breeze through the woods…
Not far away from the team, elder brother Zhou had finished and stood up, "Ah? Something unknown? I've been here for a long time…found nothing…" He said as walking a few steps forward.
Suddenly, the sound of the leaves rustling came again, just not far ahead from elder brother Zhou.
"Be careful!" Wei Gaoyuan shouted to him.
Elder brother Zhou stared at the darkness in front of him, "It seems... something over therefore… let me…."
His last word not finishing, a black blur just swept fast past him and flashed away, then some liquid was seen spurting out from the chest of elder brother Zhou.
After a blink of an eye, a black shadow came to the front of a few students next to the campfire while younger brother Zhou made a heartbreaking scream.
The black shadow was almost as tall as an adult, but everyone hadn't got clearly what kind of creature it was because it was moving too fast.
Li Xiaochun responded very quickly, pulling out the sword to shot at the head of the black shadow. And the black shadow acted more quickly than his sword, moving its upper body to dodge it and meanwhile stretched its arm to grab the chest of a student near it.
Wei Gaoyuan had jumped down the tree and rushed toward here. He couldn't clearly see the face of the black shadow but its outline and limbs were similar to a human. He murmured, "Is it some assassin?"
It was too late for that student under attack to realize that the black shadow could act so fast, little time left to him to dodge that strike.
It was almost at the same time a long sword just emerged from the side and stabbed the black shadow into its palm.
Roaring...
The black shadow growled low in its throat as gripping the blade in its one hand and clawing the chest of the person holding that blade with the other hand.
The person with the sword was no other man but Gu Qianqian. Seeing the sword was caught, she tried to cut the palm and pulled back her sword with all her strength. Unexpectedly that palm was just as tough as metal, the sword couldn't move at all while its claw had almost got her chest! She had no choice but to leave her sword as bending her waist back to dodge that claw and kicking out, hitting her opponent's waist!
The black shadow was kicked heavily back several steps and the sword was pulled back in Gu Qianqian's hand finally. With a long sigh in its mouth, the black shadow was standing upright beside the campfire, gasping heavily like a fish out of water. At this time, all persons got its true appearance — it was an ape, with black hair and both eyes radiating a crimson fierce and devilish light. The fangs exposed out of the mouth were almost 1.5 inch long and the long fingers were like sharp blades.
The black ape seemed to be thinking for a while then turned his eyes from Gu Qianqian to other people around...
It was Lin! Instead of Gu Qianqian, his aim changed to the seemingly weakest girl standing by the side of Hu Xiaoshu.
In the face of such a fierce beast, Lin was so astonished that she froze motionlessly at that time!
"Lin!" Hu Xiaoshu took his long sword to stab the black ape's face but the sword was heavily slapped off his hand by the ape's claw and flew out into a nearby tree trunk. The black ape was literally not a common creature, seizing this right moment, its two claws respectively flashed at the chests of Hu Xiaoshu and Lin!
At this moment, Gu Qianqian, who was the closest to the two persons, stabbed the black ape's waist with a sword strike, However, the black ape seemed to have expected her intention, turning over and jumping high to dodge her sword, and a pair of claws changed the direction in the air to attack the top of the heads of Hu Xiaoshu and Lin.
Gu Qianqian's sword had missed the target, without enough time to change its track to save Xiaoshu and Lin!
The lives of Hu Xiaoshu and Lin were hanging on by a thread…
At that moment, A silver light suddenly flashed from the air, followed by a big sphere flying more than a foot high.
The fleeting silver light disappeared soon, leaving only a dozen pairs of horrified eyes staring at the big sphere falling to the ground and pouring out the scarlet liquid.
The claws of the black ape slipped from the foreheads of Hu Xiaoshu and Lin, the strong body of it fell plump onto the ground, its head was gone and the blood from the neck cut spattered on the clothes of Hu Xiaoshu and Lin, who were standing still with the blank staring eyes.
Seconds later, Lin made a sharp scream and burst into tears.
Hu Xiaoshu's legs still couldn't stop shaking, he pulled Lin close, hugged her and comforted her softly, "It's okay… it's okay…He's dead…we are …safe…safe..."
Then he remembered the silver light that had saved their lives at the crucial moment. He looked up, only saw Wei Gaoyuan near the campfire cleaning his blade and slid it into the scabbard.
Hu Xiaoshu now knew the silver light was the sword of Wei Gaoyuan. He quickly cupped his fist with a bow,"Brother Gaoyuan, thank you very much for saving us!"
"We are brothers and sisters in the same club, that's just what I should do…" Wei Gaoyuan responded with a bow.
Full of gratitude in his eyes, Hu Xiaoshu then turned his attention back to Lin.
Gu Qianqian and Li Xiaochun came forward to check the body of the black ape, both were in great surprise.
"That's the power of the warrior at ninth level of the Mystery…" Li Xiaochun muttered to himself, and then looked up at Wei Gaoyuan with a cupped-fist, "Thanks to your coming in time… or we'll have to suffer heavy casualties."
"Just don't mention it, elder brother Li… and how is elder brother Zhou's injury?" Wei Gaoyuan said as looking at elder brother Zhou who were dozens of steps away.
There was some student who had come forward to check the injury of Zhou and said in a low voice, "Still alive…such a serious chest injury… I am afraid…a early quit seems good for him…"
Silent for a moment, Li Xiaochun said, "The life just means much more than the trial, just let younger brother Zhou quit..."
Brother Zhou looked extremely painful as experiencing hesitation and struggle in his heart… Eventually he slowly nodded and reaching for his Escape Fu in his upper underclothing, slowly and painfully.
"I'll get it for you…" the student next to brother Zhou helped him to get his Escape Fu then put it into his hand. Brother Zhou rubbed it twice, then a bright yellow light flashed out to cover his whole body, at that instant he disappeared from where he was lying…
Brother Zhou's early quit weighing on everyone's mind, all students left fell into a silence.
Wei Gaoyuan broke the silence with the suggestion, "We'd better leave this place right now…before other beasts nearby were attracted by the noise we made just now."
That reminded others that they might not be that safe, so all the people immediately packed up their stuff, extinguished the campfire and prepared to move their camp.
The screams of brother Zhou and Lin did sound pretty clear on the silent night. It might take little time before other beasts or something traced here.
As it was expected, bad things were never absent. Just as everyone was ready to leave, a big noise with whispering of wind came from the woods. Wei Gaoyuan quickly said to others, "You go first! I'll follow you in the rear!"
The others knew that something in great danger would happen and left at the fastest speed without any hesitation, only Wei Gaoyuan wandered at the end of the team, neither too far nor too near. He had looked back into the deep forest in the distance and found that there were more than ten green light dots sparkling in the darkness.
Without any doubt, those mustn't come from the eyes of human beings.
