Missing Hunters

But what if it is?What an interesting question. What if at some point, a Cultivator could survive a nuke? What possibilities would present themselves then? What could he do?Surviving the vacuum of space should be relatively easy in return, right? And while the pressure difference wouldn't kill you, the lack of oxygen should. And what if you didn't need to breathe? Could you travel among the stars?But then again… Doubts appeared in my mind. Even with gravity manipulation, a massive amount of Qi would be required. And people refer to the vacuum of space as the Void. And I can guess what it is devoid of. Qi is where life is. No life, no Qi. That would be quite a problem.But every problem had a solution.Spirit Stones then. A massive amount of them. Then you should be able to visit the galaxy.1G acceleration. 1 Base Qi point every second. I did a quick calculation in my mind. In just one week you could travel from Earth to Mars, or thereabout. That's only… 600 thousand Base Qi points? That's… I paused. That was not a lot. It didn't seem right. That was…I frowned deeply. I had about 900 Qi. The first compression came in Spirit Accumulation Realm, so maybe 10X that. And then 10X again for Nascent Soul, plus increased efficiency of use…No, no, no… This couldn't be right. I made a mistake somewhere, I had to! But even if I slash these numbers in half as some of them are just a conjecture…I took a Spirit Stone Shard into my hand and looked at it. A grain of rice. That's how big it was, and looked just like it too. A tiny white shard. It contained just as much energy as I had, possibly a bit more.I took a step outside as my head started spinning and took a few deep breaths. I was feeling sick from the realization and excitement.I held the Spirit Shard between my fingers and lifted it in front of my face, with one of the moons behind it.Just a few of these tiny little things… contained enough power to bring a person to Mars in one week. I subconsciously glanced at my Space Pouch containing two Spirit Stones. My throat went dry and I gulped. Such power. I never realized. I never thought about it that way before. How could I have known that such a simple calculation would reveal such deep secrets?I paused again. How exactly was I able to do that calculation in my mind? It shouldn't be possible. I would at least need a paper to write it down. I didn't even notice. It was so easy. I knew increased Cultivation enhanced mental abilities, but this…I frowned. My head was spinning from all the thinking I had done. I needed rest. I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly, my rest without dreams.***An explosion shook the air. A thunderous one. And soon after, another. It came from the Inner Sect. I heard screaming and people began running toward it. I was no different. Having abandoned the food stall I was standing at, I ran towards the source of the sound. There had to be something big. In all my time in the Sect, I have never heard a sound like that. It was too distinct. Too rare.I arrived at a plaza I never saw before, and a crowd of people had already gathered, most of them Inner Disciples, with some Outer Disciples and one or two Core Disciples. I doubt they came so quickly just to see what was going on. They were probably just in the area and came to see what was happening like everybody else.I elbowed my way through the murmuring crowd and came to the front where I stopped. I felt my eyes go wide as I saw something straight out of science fiction just as another thunderous clap split the sky, accompanied by a beam of light.***The platform was circular, about three meters wide, and made of gray stone, looking as unassuming as it could be. Three large stone steps lead up to it, putting it to about chest height. The gray stone had geometrical patterns carved into it, and for a moment, I thought it was just for decoration.And then they flashed blue, accompanied by the sound of thunder and a bright light on top of the platform. I squinted my eyes from the bright light just enough to be able to see a person materialize on the platform in a split second.He stood there, bathed in the blue light for a second, appearing confused. And then he suddenly stumbled forward as the light faded and barely caught himself from tumbling down the steps. He frantically looked around as people took a step back to give him space, and seemingly found what he was looking for as he ran to another pair of Inner Disciples with worry in his eyes."Sing Song, you're here!" The two jumped forward and hugged him. "By the gods… That was terrifying!""Where is Ding Dong? Where's my brother?" The other one frantically said, looking around, unable to find his target."He stayed behind to give us time." Sing Song said with a heavy voice and looked back at the platform nervously. "He should be here at any moment…"Dozens of eyes turned towards the raised platform expectantly, including mine. Well, I guess I should call it anchor since that's clearly what it was. I pulled out the Thunder Translocation Talisman from my pocket and looked at it up close.It kind of reminded me of a circuit board, and I had no clue what all those Runes and symbols meant. Maybe if I took some time to learn everything, I could decipher it in a few months. I knew what one of them meant though. There was a symbol in the center of the scroll, and it was identical to the one in the center of the platform. Possibly used to sync the two, in some way. Other than that, I had no clue.I considered buying another talisman just in case. Three people had already saved their lives, and we were still waiting for the fourth. Ah, wait, no, we were waiting for two more. I managed to catch they were five remaining in total. A girl was still missing too.I stowed away the talisman into the inside pocket of my sleeve, very convenient, and looked back at the anchor.Minutes already passed and there was still no movement. The trio was becoming worried."Where is he?" A guy said nervously. "He should be here already!" He was an Inner Disciple, but compared to the other two, he looked young. Maybe a few years older than us Outer Disciples."Rong Dong, you need to be patient. I'm sure he will appear at any moment. Have some fate in your older brother!""Mhm!" Rong Dong nodded slowly while nervously tapping the ground with his foot.More time passed and still, nothing happened. The crowd of people began to thin. The trio was showing signs of rising anxiety such as being restless, walking around nervously, their breathing hastened and I could see beads of sweat gather on their brows, especially the younger brother of the missing person. He looked like he was about to go into a panic at any moment."Where is he? It's already been so long!""They are going to be fine, I'm sure. Your Senior Brother is a great warrior, even if it's against a Shadowbeast, he's going to win!" Sing Song said encouragingly."Really?" Rong Dong said with tears forming in his eyes. "He's going to be okay?""Oh, I'm sure of it!"I didn't feel my Soul tingle, but he was definitely lying. Though I didn't even need my Soul to tell me that. His expression was dark and you could hear him holding back grief in his voice. As each second passed, the chance of their friend coming back was rapidly diminishing. But they didn't want to believe it, even if the truth was self-evident.The somber atmosphere was suddenly shattered by a thunderous boom and a flash of light on the platform. Everyone looked at it wide-eyed as the blue light faded and a person stumbled down the steps."Brother!" Rong Dong ran toward him with tears in his eyes and tried to hug him. It was a moment of a touching reunion between two brothers. But the person dodged."Ah?! Who are you? Get away from me!" The man shouted and jumped to the side."It's not him…" I heard Sing Song sigh as the light of hope dimmed in his eyes."Rong Dong, calm down, it's not him…" The other guy said, trying to hold back the now hysterical guy."No! No, it can't be! Brother! Where's my brother!" His pained wails cut to the heart and people began leaving one after the other as it was becoming abundantly clear the person was not coming back.The new arrival was the first one to run away, murmuring about lunatics and crazy people under his breath.I wanted to see it all to the end, so I stayed, though I got a bit of distance between me and the grieving team. I also noticed the two Core Disciples were still there, quietly chatting with faces that carried no emotion.It had been at least half an hour since the first thunder when finally came another. There was nothing different about that one, though the person coming through looked anything but normal.For one, his robe was red and completely torn. Actually, upon closer inspection, I realized that was blood. He was also missing a hand, and as the light faded, he stumbled forward and fell, tumbling down the steps, painting them crimson."Brother!" Rong Dong shrieked and ran to help him. The other two also moved, quickly running to help.They began shouting over each other as they tried to stabilize the bleeding man. It seemed he was the one they were looking for, but whether he was going to make it, was another question else entirely.That's when the two Core disciples acted. As they came close, the trio naturally moved to the side and kowtowed, seemingly begging for their help.The two didn't answer, but instead just extended their hands and began making some kind of spell. Healing Mystic Arts, if I had to guess.Their bodies glowed with a gentle golden light, and then moved around the extended hand, forming some sort of geometric shapes and runes around it. Like clockwork the shapes rotated, collapsing into each other and forming a singular ring. The two rings from each of the Core Disciples then went over the wounded Ding Dong, one from top to bottom, and the other from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. They then contracted and went into him, encasing his entire body into some sort of golden membrane.About a third of the blood was drained from his clothes and the floor and made its way back inside his body through the many wounds on his chest, hand, and legs. His right arm was completely gone, including the shoulder, as if someone tore it off, and was bleeding hard. The golden light was brightest at that point and pulled on the skin around it, stretching it and merging over the wound. Soon his body appeared as if it had aged a few weeks, and where the wounds once were, only scars remained.During the entire process, the man didn't say a word, but that's just because he was unconscious."We've stabilized him, so he won't immediately die, but I would suggest you get him to a proper healer as his body is still really weak and his Soul was nearly shattered." One of the Core Disciples said."Thank you, thank you!" Rong Dong cried while banging his head against the floor. "This Rong Dong will never forget the help Seniors have given him today!"The Core Disciple just waved his hand like it didn't concern him, but then spoke. "Tell me. You mentioned a Shadowbeast. Where was it?""Senior, we have gone about a day's worth of walking to the northeast where we discovered the Shadowbeast battling against some other creatures. It was wounded and we thought we could take it, but it was too strong! Three of our teammates were torn to pieces before we managed to escape. Ding Dong here distracted the beast since he was the strongest and the fastest among us, giving us the chance to escape. However, we are still missing-"The Core Disciple lifted his hand, gesturing for him to stop talking. "The Shadowbeast, what rank was it?""It must have been early Golden Core, Senior. First level, most likely. We foolishly thought we could stand against it just because it was wounded.""Size?" The other Core disciple asked, appearing somewhat annoyed."It was over three meters at the shoulder and at least five long, excluding the tail, Senior! It all happened so fast, we didn't get a good look at it.""A young one then… Good. Take your friend away to be taken care of. Hurry, time is of the essence!""Thank you, Seniors!" The trio bowed and ran away with Ding Dong. I just watched from afar while straining my ears.The Core Disciples looked at one another. "A young one… Could be worth checking out. Shouldn't take too long to find.""Agreed. If it is already wounded so much that it couldn't take out even a group of Nascent Souls…""Easy money.""Indeed. Let's get the rest."By then they were already too far away from me to hear anything more. Still, what information I got was already very interesting. The girl was clearly dead, and so were a few other members of their team. All of them Nascent Soul.I couldn't exactly feel how high the rest were, but the wounded one was leaking Aura all over the place. Even without trying, I could feel it. It was Nascent Soul VIII. That was about the same as Ren Kong. And they got slaughtered.I shuddered. These creatures were scary! And if the Shadowbeast was the same one that the Elder talked about and the same one I already knew about from before… I really didn't wanna meet it.It was a different evolutionary path of a Wind Tiger. A much, much stronger one. And those Core Disciples spoke about it as if it was a wounded deer, ready to be harvested. They sounded as if they could barely be bothered to go and collect it. A small catch. Like a coin they would pick up only if it was at a hand's reach, but bending down to pick it up was out of the option.Heh, wish I could act like that.General knowledge told that a Shadowbeast had to be worth at least dozens of Spirit Stones. If that's what was needed to just barely motivate them…[Damn rich people! Flaunting their wealth without even doing anything!]It irked me how some could be so emotionless about a pile of money. But if they were swimming in cash every day, I guess anyone would become desensitized to it. It's just how the world was. And they were clearly older than the guys from Predator's Bane, so the wealth they had gathered over the years had to be significant.I just realized how right I was to try and join an older hunting group, even if it was just as a lowly servant. Simple crumbs from their table were treasures to me. Even just a bit of blood would be priceless. I could use it to craft powerful spell scrolls, I mean talismans. I was severely lacking in that regard. All those Mortal and Spirit Accumulation beasts I killed weren't worth making into talismans. My magic alone was much stronger anyway, and I could use it faster and with greater accuracy.I just had to wait a day more and I would find out if I was accepted or not. Hopefully, I would be. Having had a bit of time to think things through, I realized that my bold decision in a fit of mental instability was actually among the best things I could have done.[Hey, Long Dong?] I called. I had nothing to do and was a bit bored. [Are you dead?]Still no answer. I was seriously starting to think he was dead. I didn't exactly know how to peer into the Thousand Faces Mask. It was a Spirit Artifact after all. If even the Elders couldn't detect what was inside it, how could I? And since it wasn't something vital that required my immediate attention, I just kind of… ignored it.I would pretend he doesn't exist, and when he decided to show himself again, I would speak to him on the topic.