The Wu Ji Forest (2)

In the Wu Ji Forest, a plump rabbit with soft, snow-white fur clutched a pile of grass to its chest. Its head swiveled from side to side in great angst, the body rippling and trembling in preparation to flee upon the first sight of danger.

And for good reason, for a handle-less blade brimming with a malicious intent, soared through the sky towards its back.

The sword formed from the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> screamed a cry beseeching death, the abstruse characters printing along the length of the blade gleaming with an uncanny, scarlet light. The fluctuating blade blazed through the air, the tip of the sword's edge directly aligned with the poor creature's head.

Whoosh!

The snow-white rabbit suddenly leaped into the air towards the right, its hind legs glistening with sweat as it narrowly evaded an instantaneous death.

As the rabbit dashed through the tall grass, the creature's eyes remained locked onto the blade formed from the a lotus petal, brimming with an overwhelming fear towards the sword's desire for blood.

Standing afar from the rabbit, An Fei pursed her lips in disappointment, her mood soured by the unexpected failure. The young girl swiped her hand towards the rabbit's obscured figure, a soft voice accompanying the silent breeze.

"Chase and kill!"

The dour blade vibrated the instant the young girl's voice reached its location, the characters dashed along its length faintly increasing in acuity. The soundless howl struck the peaceful atmosphere of the forest, ripping apart its preciously constructed façade to reveal the distorted reality underneath.

Squeak!

A snow-white rabbit fled through the forest's undergrowth whilst chased by an unknown and unusually deadly and persistent predator.

Even having departed from the maximum range of vision An Fei's eyes could support, the blade of spiritual essence continued to pulsate with maddened anger, soaring towards the back of the rabbit with the pure intention of reaping a life.

Regardless of any evasive maneuvers the rabbit undertook, the sword continued to nip at its heels, grinding the pitiful creature's remarkable speed to a crawl.

An Fei could only jog behind nearby, the soft impact of a steel sword plunging into the ground and a dull sensation prickling at the index finger of her right hand serving as her only indicator of the sword's existence. As she ran underneath the dense sea of branches, the young girl couldn't help but sigh at the forest.

"Even a small rabbit as this one has this much… speed…" she complained, wiping away a few beads of sweat with the back side of her palm.

"Don't tell me the other creatures living in this forest will surpass it? Then… wouldn't I be in great trouble?"

The unnatural rustling of leaves continued to filter into her ears without any inclination of a resolution either peaceful or violent. If An Fei dared to focus on her hearing for a brief moment, she could even faintly grasp the barely audible emission of sound caused by the sword slicing through the wind.

"To… the left?"

The young girl muttered, resting her palm against the bark of a nearby tree to catch her breath. She continued to remain in her position for a few breaths of time, not daring to hesitate for another moment.

If she got too far away from the sword, who knew what would happen?

Even now, An Fei couldn't comprehend how the sword formed from the lotus petal of her modified version of the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> could survive for such a long period of time.

Pitted against a combination of the world's suppression on her reserves of spiritual essence and rendering what used to be a satisfactory amount to a quantity that she only possessed at the initial stages of cultivation and a long distance, the fact that the handle-less blade was surviving for more than an incense stick's worth of time without diminishing in vigor or malicious intent was praiseworthy, perhaps even miraculous.

When she attempted to project spiritual essence from her body, it would always fizzle out into a myriad of sparks the moment it departed from her –

Swoosh! Thud!

A muted crash rang out from the depths of the forest, resounding with an impact far greater than before. The young girl paused her jogging motion, tilting her head and pondering in silence for a brief period of time.

The sound of the impact… was it from the left or the right?

An Fei pushed her bottom lip into a pout, before throwing her caution into the wind. She readjusted her grip on the leather bag slung over her shoulder, before redirecting her jog at an angle towards her left.

While wading through knee-high grass, the young girl had never expected that to hunt for a single plump rabbit, she would have to cover an abnormally long distance of five kilometers total…

As a matter of fact, it was impressive enough for her physique to have improved to this extent that five kilometers was only a faint sheen of sweat on her brow, even if An Fei was jogging at a relatively slower pace.

When she had passed by the thin trunk of a begonia tree, the young girl found the carcass of a plump rabbit with snow-white fur.

A sword missing its handle had pierced it completely through from the back, and the ground surrounding the pitiful creature had become anointed with a visible layer of scarlet. The snow-white rabbit lay on the ground, the pair of eyes outstretched to their utmost limits in a mixture of pain and shock.

It was… quite the pity.

"This…" An Fei whispered in a quiet voice, her heart tinged with pity.

Shaking her head with a muted sigh, the young girl allowed the detached blade to return to its form of a lotus petal. The girl wrapped up the pitiful animal within a bundle of large leaves, turning to depart from the area.

The lotus petal flitted back to merge with the fingertips of her right hand, the sword humming in pleasure and joy from its first offering.

"I've… secured food in quite the unreasonable manner…"

An Fei murmured to herself whilst roaming through the depths of the forest, a shade of worry darkening her complexion. The young girl continued to pat herself on the bosom to calm her rampant emotions, rattling her head from side to side to drive the unnecessary thoughts out of her mind.

"You've simply returned to a few years ago… you've simply returned to a few years ago…"

Gradually, the pair of scarlet irises regained their ordinary dull lustre, no longer fluctuating with panic and discomfort. Allowing her gaze to examine her surroundings, An Fei became cognizant to her previous life's experiences, and most particularly, the worries upon reaching a circumstance as this.

Water.

By relying on the mooncakes stored within the Empress' blue silk satchel, she could temporarily allay her need for food until she departed from the forest. However, combined with the rather dry and water-absorbent pastry and a general lack of water within the vicinity, the young girl couldn't guarantee her survival for more than two days at the most.

"A stream, creek, or pond," An Fei rationalized, her lips pursing in thought.

"Lakes would contain detrimental bacterial due to having pooled and amassed far too many… nutrients and compounds; a pool would only reduce such risk. I need to find either a creek or a stream, and quickly at that…"

But how?

"Determine a path by measuring the dewdrops on various plants in differing locations? But it's already close to the afternoon, all of it would have evaporated by now…"

"Wind? The breeze would generally become more directional and humid when near bodies of water… but the breeze here is rather weak and considerably dry…"

"I could listen for the sounds of a stream or creek, but that doesn't help in searching for one…"

"Head forward in a straight path until I find one…" the young girl wracked her mind, only to return in dismay.

Head forward in a single direction without stopping… it was quite the questionable notion and increasingly devoid of intelligence, but she couldn't think of other ideas that seemed capable of assisting her in locating a suitable body of water.

…An Fei could only resign herself to roaming the forest once more, this time keeping herself wary and alert at all times.

Furthermore, she didn't seem to be privy to much more daylight, for beyond her expectation, the sunlight passing through the great mesh of leaves had gradually adopted a golden-brown hue compared to its clear radiance. Though the temperature did not change, An Fei couldn't help but become increasingly anxious to determine a water source.

If night were to descend before she had secured a shelter, it didn't take much of her currently impoverished mind to discern that her ending would not be as satisfactory as the incident with the leaves and the tree roots.

Thus, the young girl began walking, maintaining a constant pace towards the front without bothering to take any rest.

The sun accompanied her toils, the golden rays bathing her back with a gentle persuasion to rest and relax in indulgence. However, the girl could only wipe the sweat from her brow and neck, grit her teeth, and continue to breach through the forest.

Walk whilst straining her ears for the slightest inclination for flowing water.

Time seemed to crawl at an astonishing yet excruciatingly slow pace as An Fei trekked through the forest. The sun had long since descended into the horizon, causing the undergrowth within the forest to plummet to a melancholy, dim world.

…she still had not found any source of water.

"How many… kilometers… has it been?" the young girl murmured to herself, exhaustion evident on her countenance.

"I've walked… for… the whole day… and yet still couldn't-"

An Fei abruptly paused, her brows furrowing deeply in confusion. Towards her right and hidden behind a dense, indomitable wall of grasses and trees… two animals seemed to be locked in combat?