Sect Token Retrieval

The shrouded figure remained rooted in Du Hu's path without offering any response. "Playing deaf hugh? Fine!"

Before Du Hu even finished speaking, he had already slapped his bag of holding, taking out a stack of thin paper slips. Performing an incantation gesture with his hands and mumbling a few words, Du Hu tossed out the slips of paper. As soon as they left Du Hu's hands, the paper slips transformed into four raging fireballs. Before the fireballs were even halfway to their target, Du Hu rushed forward in the same direction and tapped his bag of holding once more, equipping a pair of short swords. The swords' treacherous edges complimented the cold gleam in Du Hu's eyes. Today's setback had thoroughly enraged him to the point of murderous intent that he was now going to vent on this person standing in his way.

The figure in front responded in kind, sending the three frozen blades to intercept the fireballs. The spells met midair causing an explosion of fire and ice. Two fireballs found their way past the initial collision and hurtled straight for the mysterious cultivator. The shrouded figure then pulled out an old silver medallion with an image of a mountain pressed into one side and the name 'Lan' inscribed on the other. Holding the medallion in her hands as if in prayer, the shadowed figure muttered a few unintelligible words and then held out the medallion in the direction of the incoming attacks.

Just as the fireballs were about to make contact, a silver-tinged, transparent barrier surrounded the cultivator in black. The fireballs erupted upon the spherical barrier and just as quickly faded away. The barrier remained unshaken.

"Tch," Du Hu clicked his tongue in disgust. He continued his forward assault, muttering a spell as he neared the cultivator behind the barrier. Finishing his incantation, the two blades began to glow in a golden light. Using all his built up momentum, Du Hu brought both the swords down in a heavy blow against the silver barrier. The barrier shuddered under the impact, its silver light flickered as if it was about to shatter, yet the barrier held, albeit dimmer than before.

Du Hu let out a shout of frustration as he continued to slash at the barrier with his twin blades. The cloaked cultivator did not sit idly by as this was happening. Three more frozen blades materialized in the sky and pointed directly at Du Hu. In these close quarters, it would be difficult to avoid the spell. Du Hu realized this and was forced into a retreat. The three frozen blades followed Du Hu as he hopped backward. Two of the frozen blades missed, freezing the ground near Du Hu's feet. The third blade of ice was deflected by a swipe from Du Hu's short swords.

Du Hu halted his retreat fifteen meters from his opponent and stared them down viciously. The shrouded figure cast Frozen Blade once more summoning three more icicles. Instead of continuing to press Du Hu, the combatant remained rooted in place, waiting for Du Hu to make his next move. Clearly this person was not willing to let him leave. Du Hu did not want to get bogged down allowing Shen Shuren's group to catch up to him. Seeing as how force would not solve this problem quickly enough to suit his tastes, Du Hu wracked his brain trying to find another way around.

While Du Hu was busy contemplating his escape route, noises of pursuers began to rustle behind him. Cursing his rotten luck, Du Hu made one last effort of breaking through the cloaked cultivator's blockade. Summoning ten slips of paper from his bag of holding, Du Hu sank into a state of severe concentration. Veins bulged from his temples and his eyes grew bloodshot as Du Hu strained to cast multiple spells at a time. Du Hu held the slips of paper spread out like a fan; the slips began to ignite at the top one at a time until Du Hu was holding a fan of flames.

His opponent, who had remained cool and collected for the entire encounter, now showed signs of hesitation. The mysterious figure took one step back, showing a hint of fear.

Du Hu raised his hand holding the paper fan of fire, preparing to hurl an onslaught of fireballs towards his opponent. With a vicious, cold sneer Du Hu spat, "Die!"

"You first!" someone called out from behind.

Before Du Hu had a chance to toss out his prepared attack, a streak of gray steel grazed an unsuspecting Du Hu's wrist, slashing the tendons. Du Hu howled in pain as he involuntarily let go of the burning slips of paper. The papers scattered around Du Hu floating down at a leisurely pace burning up as they fell. Du Hu's face drained of blood as he attempted to retreat from his position. He made a valiant effort to move out of the way, but he was not fast enough.

As soon as the remnants of the first slip of burning paper touched the ground, it exploded in a burst of flame, setting off a chain reaction. Caught up in the periphery of the blast, Du Hu was sent flying in the air. His body rag-dolled smashing into a thick tree trunk and knocking him out cold.

Du Hu was in a sorry state. The upper half of his clothing was torn to shreds. He remained unconscious even with the severe burns all over the right side of his body still sizzling from the burning flesh.

Shortly after the explosion Yan and Hong Wu stepped out from the forest. Yan recalled her flying sword while Hong Wu went over to Du Hu's body. "Is he alive?" questioned the mysterious figure.

"He'll live," Hong Wu replied, "less than he deserves though."

"We should finish him off, I don't like leaving loose ends like this," Yan muttered in a detached manner.

The hooded figure removed her cowl to reveal a look of shock on Lan Cixi's beautiful and elegant visage. "Don't push things too far. Even if we are outside the sect proper, Du Hu still has a lot of supporters. Killing him would be impossible to hide forever. We would only be inviting calamity upon us."

Hong Wu sighed in agreement, "She's right Yan, we can't kill him, but that doesn't mean we can't clip his wings."

Reaching down Hong Wu pulled Du Hu's bag of holding off of his belt and inserted her divine sense to search through its contents. To her delight inside the bag was her sect token, along with many others, a modest pile of spirit stones, and some other valuable treasures that she couldn't identify right away.

Hong Wu smiled, "I'll be taking your bag of holding, thank you very much. Consider it back taxes for past grievances," she sneered, returning Du Hu's word from when their roles were reversed.

"Thank you for your assistance this time Sister Lan. Without your family's heirloom we would not have been able to succeed in holding Du Hu long enough to catch up and outnumber him."

Lan Cixi showed an elegant smile. "Please do not mention such things Sister Hong, it is only a trinket I took before leaving city hall. I am just glad it was able to help."

Turning to Yan, Lan Cixi shifted to a more complicated expression. "Ren Yu," she started before self-correcting, "Yan, it was good to see you again."

"Mmph," Yan grunted without even making eye contact.

Lan Cixi showed a dejected expression. "I better get back to the Drifting Cloud Quarters. Hao Ru might get suspicious if I am gone too long."

With that, Lan Cixi moved to leave, offering one last weak smile to Hong Wu before turning away and out of sight. After she was gone, Hong Wu turned to Yan and scolded, "You didn't have to be so dismissive of her. She really helped out this time. I don't want to even pretend to know what really happened between you two, but she is sincerely trying to make amends. You should at least let her try."

Yan furrowed her brows. Beyond that, she didn't seem to acknowledge Hong Wu's advice, though Hong Wu knew Yan well enough at this point to know when Yan was considering something. Brushing past the topic, Yan gruffly intoned, "Come on, let's go home."

'Home,' Hong Wu thought to herself. 'Yes, now I can finally go home!'

Hong Wu merrily skipped behind Yan on their way back to the cave, leaving the incapacitated Du Hu to his own devices.