21

There was plenty of game to be hunted down and eaten when it was to fill the stomachs and entertainment factor of the young rank 1 gu masters. Sitting on their backs and leaning against the trees, Fei Mang, Fei Ban, Fei Kan, and Fei Lu held their hands over their stomach while Fei Cai had been purposely keeping him hungry slightly. Fei Cai, for a fact, knew that there is a shift in beasts who hunt at night. Not only are they dangerous to ordinary gu masters, but these beasts also have sadistic tendencies due to their very nature. Gazing at the four gu masters, their lips smeared with natural oils hidden within the flesh of these beasts, Fei Cai finally wondered if he should leave them be for their own risks.

Nobody could know for sure if what Fei Qing had said was true. But if rank 2 gu masters were keeping an eye out for the young gu masters, would they actually let the sons of elders and the Chieftain be at risk? Who's to say that Fei Cai wasn't being watched as we speak? Who could deny that if Fei Cai left Fei Mang, the words of his actions wouldn't reach his father and in return, tarnish the image Fei Cai has been building as a responsible gu master? There were advantages and disadvantages to most of the actions in the world. For Fei Cai to opt the route to grow as a 'righteous' gu master described by the Venerable, beings that focused on financial benefits brought by being an upstanding Gu Master in any clan or organization, he had the advantage of innumerable resources once his name became a form of brand. However, he would lose out on the direct and quick benefits brought by the path condemned by the righteous forces.

When Fei Cai read through the description of the two types of Gu Masters, his gaze couldn't help but reveal a complicated emotion. This world was too similar to Earth in these matters. Whether right or wrong, Laws always condemned criminals who sought out means unorthodox in nature. A person could lose one's virginity by raping or slowly progress in a relationship until the partner is willing for sexual interaction. The former, more direct, being condemned by the law and the latter, slightly more orthodox in nature quite appreciative by the world. This place was similar, too.

Shaking himself out of the more philosophical questions of lives and consequences, Fei Cai placed his arm on the ground to check his surroundings casually. He, at the moment, didn't focus as much on the air as he did towards the sky. Night skies were prone to be approached by flying beasts that could easily prey on sleeping and tired targets. The worst part was...

"A crowd of red-eyed ravens," Fei Cai woke the group from their satisfied stupor. If the raven wished to attack a group of gu masters was not known, Fei Cai made sure he got some of the action by fluently knocking his arrow and letting it loose straight within the drove of dark-feathered birds with one of the pair of red eyes disappearing alongside his arrow.

*Caww*

Screeches rang within the group. Their marks were set. And they swoop down only to find Fei Lu hurriedly taking a deep breath. Her stomach inflated at the speed of air held within her lungs and her brows remained furrowed in pain but the moment she had enough, the woman let out a torrent of gusts from her mouth, kicking a few ravens off to the air once again while Fei Cai had taken out his dagger to dodge the cruelly aimed beak of one of the ravens, his blade slashing alongside the stomach to cause the bird's death. He had been careful not to destroy the wings since they were sold at a higher price but they still ended up getting damaged when the raven crashed down. Unlike the two, Fei Mang, and the Fei Twins had trouble keeping up with the flock.

They slashed their blades while covering their eyes with one hand and Fei Ban's knife would glow with each slash and a blade of light would extend 1 centimeter. That was the twin's only attack gu worm— Slash Gu worm. The two had chosen speed type gu worm as their Vital Gu worm and had troubles keeping up with the crowd collecting over them.

Seeing their situation was turning desperate, Fei Cai let a small claw scratch at his tunic, tearing it slightly to sheath his dagger and stab a raven with the tip of his arrow before throwing the bloodied arrow akin a javelin with surprising strength that took a raven and subsequent birds along the path, easing the trio's situation.

"Agh!" Lu's pained shriek echoed as a raven's beak now stabbed into the back of her dominant palm firmly, moving its head around to injure the lass more but Fei Cai assisted once again. He wanted experience and pain, not injuries that could turn a teammate into liability and before the situation could turn out for the worse, he struck with his dagger again, a beak landing on his thigh, too. Biting his lips with a strange expression, Fei Cai continued slaughtering the ravens that were indignant by Fei Cai's attack in the first place.

Within a few minutes, the short-lived battle came to an end with the corpses of the ravens spread across their resting spot. The scent of blood lingered but Fei Cai knew it was only a matter of time that the puddles of blood would attract more attention and even if he wasn't an expert in medical attention and since he hadn't exposed the fact that a rank 1 healing type gu— Yellow Tongue Gu— rested within his aperture, Fei Cai simply took to the campfire needed to accommodate the eyesight of the group and placed his cleaned blade on the fire. As the flat of blade grew hotter, Fei Cai's hands glowed and a small lizard crawled out of his aperture through a mystical gateway. It opened its maws and surprisingly, the palm-sized lizard ejected a gourd double its size and retreated into the pathway.

"We should clean our wounds and those who can't stop their blood, they should cauterize their wounds," he suggested. Nobody told that they had a healing type gu and needed to dress their wounds. Fei Lu flinched in pain as she cleaned her hand with wet clothe and started bandaging it with a rag. She had been wanting to 'hunt' a terror horse from the bey beginning but now, her excitement seemed to have been satiated. Similarly, Fei Ban and Kan continued with their injuries. Nobody suspected Fei Cai to have attracted the attention of the Raven flock out of his need to gain experience. In their eyes, the group was already a target.

Not even many amongst the rank 2 scouts knew that the Red-eyed Ravens were omnivorous. Always seen as preying on the dead, fresh ones at that, the fiend looking beasts were categorized as dangerous amongst public Gu Masters. That wasn't the case, however. While Fei Cai tended to his own wound, his gaze turned strange once again. The moment a beak was embedded within his right thigh, a stream of pain affected him deeply but somehow, while such pain would have brought at least a few unconscious drops of tear to his eyes, the current Fei Cai didn't flinch at the moment. His body wasn't willing to.

The sting of the injury was harsh but somehow, to Fei Cai's surprise, he was managing through the pain quite well. "Why are you heating your dagger?" Fei Mang inquired after a few minutes. His figure disheveled and his breathing ragged, revealing the weakness of his physique as the young boy unconsciously clenched his fists. Shame breeding within his heart.

"For this," Fei Cai stood, flinching only by the slightest as he pulled the nearest Raven and clipped his wings with the hot blade. He slashed at the wings slowly so that the blade could also work to stop more blood from spilling since the corpses were fresh. And he had yet another hidden agenda for 'cooking' the ravens. Seeing his actions, after a few breaths, the group began following his lead, turning their resting spot as a den of cooked meat with the scent of blood and tantalizing flesh now spreading slowly, even enchanting the young kids but their thoughts were on different things. "Fei Lu! That was amazing!" Fei Kan, the younger twin who was beaten by the girl wondered in amazement. "Was that your Gust Breath Gu?"

"Yes," Fei Lu smiled happily, the admiring gaze of the twin brothers dampening the emotional pressure brought by the injuries. Nobody in the group was afraid of gaining scars. In the tribe, scars were proof of experimental and now Fei Lu could have some. Seeing this, Fei Mang's expression secretly worsened. His thoughts seemed in disarray but he continued to work through the ravens. Meanwhile, Fei Cai's senses grew alert. The frequency of Ground Eye Gu Worm's use increased and he kept an eye out for his surroundings regardless of illuminated trees. Fei Kan and Fei Lu finally hit it off with each other and reconciled with a skinned and cooked raven only for them to come to stunned silence when a soft snort followed by a gentle neighing of a horse interrupted their silent party.

Fei Mang's gaze snapped open, Fei Cai's lips curled with an anticipated gaze and the remaining trio stopped eating. Followed by the horse's snort, the crackles and snaps of twigs followed only to reveal a pitch-black monster with deep red eyes. While murder was not written on its face, the clawed, muscular legs of the beast revealed its terrifying nature.

Fei Lu was the first to gulp. All of her wishes of facing a terror horse up-close satiated and her gaze now fearful. Slowly, she began to fill her lungs with air and activated her gu worm. Meanwhile, Fei Mang, the closest to the horse enticed to the location with the scent now couldn't help but slowly crawl backward. His gaze, too, full of fear. It wasn't only the beast that made them fearful. It was the accumulation of their past actions. From battling a raven and getting injuries to realizing the dangers of the night and finally seeing salivating terror gorse eyeing them maliciously.

Gripping his dagger, Fei Cai waited silently. His expression was calm but his heart was anything of the sort. He planned to use the scent of the ravens to attract more and more beasts until a terror horse was attracted. In his mind, this was the most optimal situation where he could face a fierce beast in a battle. The baits not only included the scent of ravens but the four gu masters, too. He would either win the battle or escape quick enough to outrun the four of them. Aside from Fei Kan and Fei Ban, who had agility type gu worms, Fei Cai was sure he could leave Fei Mang and Fei Lu behind.

"Neghhgh!" it shrieked suddenly, the body of terror horse supported by its hind limbs while 'his' forelimbs now kicked in the air. The dangling of its equine member sheathed revealing the gender of the terror horse as a breeding stallion. The old scars over its leathery black body revealed the nature of the horse as an old yet experienced beast but that was all Fei Cai could observe. The horse hoofed forward, kicking a gust which only licked the campfire away, and at this moment, Fei Lu opened her mouth and let another torrent of airstrike against the horse's face harshly.

It's annoyed neigh echoed in the darkness but all of the gu masters retreated hurriedly, willing to stall out until their visions adapt to darkness. Meanwhile, Fei Cai hurriedly knelt and tracked the claws of the horse with his ground eye gu worm. None had fled the battle, which was partially expected by Fei Cai. The kids didn't value their lives and only after something extreme occurs would they freeze in fear or run away, which would be a cue for Fei Cai, too.

Seeing the Terror Horse moving forward cautiously, the twigs leftover by Fei Mang's gu worm crackling under its limbs, Fei Cai stood and deactivated his gu worm. The darkness allowed him to mobilize the yellow tongue gu to cover his injured thigh and finally, he decided to knock his arrow with a silent poison arrow gu worm and let it loose, the tip of which easily stabbed into seemingly visionless terror horse but it wasn't still known if the paralyzing poison would work or not. Worse, the arrow expended 20% of his essence, leaving him with a little over 30.

"I missed," Fei Cai whispered for all to hear as the horse's roar echoed. Feeling the dark and monstrous entity shooting towards him, the instinct gu worm kicked in with hurried bells as Fei Cai dodged timely. Finally, Fei Ban seemed to have adapted the quickest and he looked at the dark figure 'running' over Fei Cai without any blood or thump. Grimacing, he activated his vital gu— Shriek Limbs— a fuzzy fur covering his legs within his pants and stretching the fabric as he shot towards the slowing down horse fearlessly. "I'm attacking!" he roared while charging, "Kan'er, support me! Fei Cai might be injured so brother Mang, look after him!"

Surprised by the sudden leadership quality of the elder twin, the trio nodded, and even without any directions, Fei Lu charged towards the horse. She had expended her primeval essence but that didn't mean she had lost her methods. Her hard work and hunting experience had paid off as she, too, attacked the horse with her axe!

However, when Fei Mang reached out for Fei Cai, he found him uninjured and quickly helped him up. "Are you all right?" Fei Mang inquired as Fei Cai nodded slightly. Dirt marring his grim face as Fei Cai shook Mang off and charged towards the horse showing his 'fearlessness' while coaxing Fei Mang to attack, too. "Fei Mang, your poison palm gu!" He shouted as Fei Mang nodded with determination and followed. Under the veil of darkness, the horse would kick back and stomp with his heavy tail capable of attacking, too. Fei Lu was the first to fall. A moment of careless caused the thick tail to smack against her head harshly, flinging her off but he had causes enough cuts to the horse's hind calves to slow and wear it down.

Not enough apparently. Before Fei Mang could attack the bloodied regions with open wounds using a venomous green coat slathering his palm, a surprising kick made him fly back, leaving his fate unknown. With Fei Cai behind and the twins forward, showing stunning teamwork, Fei Cai conjured yet another poison arrow gu in his arms and stabbed it deep within the left thigh of the horse. At this moment, the horse managed to clench on Fei Ban's dagger-wielding arm only to let it go before it could tear the arm off due to pain and poison kicking in, making the horse tilt down diagonally at the loss of control of its left hind limb. Taking this chance, Fei Cai jumped by tugging the tail of the horse as support and under the Twin's stunned eyes, followed by an enchanting and glowing phantom of a ferocious wolf, punched the horse in its head, causing the horse to fall on the ground, surprisingly, with its head intact but this all turned out due to Fei Cai's greed.

At the very last moment, his nature was revealed and another conspiracy emerged within the heart, making Fei Cai use his fist and damage it instead of stabbing the horse with his dagger in the head.