Calculating Cultivation

I was killing a beast every half minute or so, and that time was decreasing as more beasts rushed into the area. I had lost track of the pursuing cultivators, but I wasn’t about to just leave the area. I had no doubt that my pursuers were attempting to surround me and would attack the moment I attempted to leave the area.

That was why I needed to circle around more to lose any type of pursuit. A large amount of clouds had swept in across the sky as well, blocking any attempts I had at navigating without the sun. I swung out with my blade once more, killing another beast.

It pained me to leave behind all the spirit stones, but there was no time to even think about gathering them up. I was also getting tired. While my blade was a high rank, and my cultivation gave me a tremendous amount of strength and endurance, I had been cutting down beasts constantly, while having to keep moving.

I had been circling around the beast tide in a counter clockwise fashion, so I had been constantly turning to my left. It was time to take a big chance. I could tell where the center of the beast tide was, due to the growing number of beasts in that area. It was constantly moving and adjusting. A beast tide wasn’t a tea party where the participants all gathered in one place.

In preparation for killing beasts and gathering spirit stones while I had been in the second stage, I had read quite a bit about the beasts and beast tides were a part of that knowledge. They were described as living things unto themselves. There was also a lot of chaos involved in how they acted while not under the command of a higher ranked beast. Even then, it was more about pointing the beast tide in a direction, than giving specific commands.

I was about to be overwhelmed as the number of beasts rushing to the area kept increasing. I made a sharp right turn to begin putting distance between myself and the beast tide. I cut down another beast in my path, while looking around.

Without my experience killing beasts in the wilderness before, there would be no way I could have handled them so efficiently. The real challenge was to face them one at a time. I had been managing so far, but there were five beasts behind me and another three rushing towards me in the direction I was heading.

While they were staggered, I could easily think through how the fights would play out. I would kill four, but then be pincered by the fifth and sixth at the same time. Unlike cultivators, their mindlessness made this fight one I would prefer, which was why I had started a beast tide.

I heard a loud explosion in the distance and felt a blast of hot air. Some other cultivator had used a technique most likely. While the beasts turned their heads slightly, that didn’t stop or divert the nearby ones from rushing at me.

One after another, I cut the beasts down, while trying to escape. When I killed the fourth beast that was part of this wave, I pulled out my gun and shot the fifth one, put my gun away, and cut down the sixth beast. I winced at the expense of a rank 4 bullet, but there was no other option. It wasn’t wasted, but it was one less bullet I would have on me going forward.

I spun in the air and cut horizontally, cutting the head open of a beast chasing me. I spun back around as I touched the ground and kicked off again. I was putting distance between the core of the beast tide and myself, but the deaths would drag the beast tide after me.

That was the biggest reason why cultivators did not start up beast tides. They would get dragged down, and escape was difficult. While I could have tried to dodge, the beasts would have quickly turned around and chased me. The dead bodies of their fellow beasts would slow many of them down to gorge themselves on their fallen comrades.

Even with my level of cultivation, I was about the speed of a rank 3 beast, and they had far more stamina than I did. I was also exhausted from staying up for so long. I had escaped the immediate wave, but more beasts were headed in my direction.

I pulled out scent concealer, repulsion, and bait. I used the concealer on myself, tossed the vials of beast bait to the sides after opening them. I did the same with the repulsion, but in front of me. The beasts rushing for me began to divert. In the next minute, I used up my entire stock of alchemic beast products in order to divert the beasts to my flanks, so I didn’t have to kill any more as I escaped.

Getting away from all the beasts was the immediate priority. I had cut it very close to my limit of how many beasts I could handle. Any longer, and I could have been easily overwhelmed. One serious hit and I would get swarmed as I slowed down. I had to keep moving, and timing my engagements, so I didn’t get piled on by the beasts.

I raced away from the growing beast tide, adjusting my course to try and avoid running into any more beasts. I had to kill a few while rushing by them, but I had escaped the vortex. Looking up at the sky through the trees, it was still all a gray mess and a light drizzle had started as well.

Shaking my head, I kept moving in as straight a line as possible. It didn’t matter too much which direction I was headed, just that I needed to put as much space between me and the enemy cultivators as possible. The beast tide would move in a direction, but there was a very small chance it would head the way I had gone.

I took the chance to reload my gun as I kept retreating. Hopefully the beast tide didn’t head in the direction of a city. That would be a complete mess if it did occur. The outer wall would hopefully divert the beasts to either side, while the inner wall would be for protection as people fled inside the city. That was if there were no cultivators to handle the defenses and stomp the beast tide out, which wasn’t easy. The more beasts that were killed the more that would be drawn to an area.

If a city was lost, that would actually generate a lot more drama and attention than the Cloudy Moon Sect being destroyed. The high sects wanted the mortal and cultivator aspects of civilization to be separate, and not overlap. Also, it was a pain rebuilding an entire city.

There were stories in the past and it did happen. The high-ranking sect would assign a mid-ranking sect in the nearby area to take over the city’s management and defense. The sect that lost a city, would get a lot of negative attention.

The Cloudy Moon Sect had been attacked, and there was no way all these demonic cultivators could escape attention. While my sect might get looked at, the negative attention would fall on the demonic sect much more. It wasn’t like they could go and complain about me setting off the beast tide.

Still, it wasn’t something I would want known. As the sky grew dark, my eyelids began to sag and my body felt even more tired, but I kept running through the forest, and over a couple large hills. No one intercepted me throughout the night. The drizzle turned into rain, making everything more miserable.

It was hard to tell when dawn arrived, as the sky had become much more overcast. I eventually found and collapsed in a small crevice in an oversized rock. I closed my eyes and went to sleep. Water was pouring down in front of me, and everything was damp. I didn’t dare light a fire, and this was the best I had found in the last hour or so, since I had started looking.

I pulled out some food from my spatial ring. I ate and drank before falling asleep as the storm got worse, there was lightning in the distance.

When I woke up, it was still raining heavily, cold, and my neck was stiff. I hadn’t been ambushed in the night and at least some of my exhaustion was gone. The biggest issue now was, that I had no idea where I was.

It would add time onto the time needed to get to Imperial City, but at least I had escaped the enemy cultivators and the beast tide. I stretched a bit while looking out of the crevice. It was miserable to travel in the rain, but I had done it many times in the past.

I set out from my crevice, trying to pick the direction I had been traveling the night before. If I kept heading in a straight line, eventually I would run into road, which would lead to a city. I thought about the general layout of the nearby cities and frowned as I traveled up a small mountain.

It was possible I had missed a road last night. I had just kept traveling and was too tired to look for anything other than beasts and enemy cultivators. It would just take a split moment of distraction and I would have missed a road.

While the roads, cities, and major landmarks were labeled, there was no topographic map of the wilderness. I had to mentally work out the layout between cities based on the listed travel times between cities.

If I hadn’t crossed a road, then I was fine. I was in a fairly small loop. If by some chance I had crossed a road, then I could be in a much larger loop. If that had happened, then there was a chance, I could be heading towards a landmark, the Blood Forest.

While it was incredibly unlikely, there was a chance that I could be going in that direction. It was a forbidden zone, like the Flying Island of Death. But with less treasures, and more death. There was a tree that had somehow been altered to draw out blood.

Some speculated that it had been created as a cultivation resource in a past age. Regardless, that tree had little trees which created a forest, the Blood Forest. The trees themselves were useless, since they would combust if damaged enough. Also, they couldn’t move and got weaker the further the generation they were from the main tree in the center.

The reason it hadn’t been wiped out, was that it was the risk and the fact there was no profit. If the forest had been spreading out more, then there would have been a response to wipe the place out. For the most part it was a curiosity of the cultivation world with no value.

There was nothing indicating such a place either. No landmarks or any thing distinctive. Perhaps an expert in trees, or someone who had seen the blood trees could pick them out from the forest. But I had very little chance.

I reached the top of the mountain and looked up. I hadn’t heard any lightning for a while. I leapt up in the air and looked around. It was raining too much to make anything out. I did spot some beasts in the distance and a glow of energy in the direction I was heading. I leapt up again and looked in the distance.

My sight had saved me once more. If I had kept going in the same direction, then I would have run into the Blood Forest. The tree’s energy couldn’t hide from my sight. I considered where I was based on that evidence. I adjusted my course to aim for the edge of the Blood Forest. I would circle around the edge.

With my sight I could risk going closer than other cultivators would dare to. I paused and realized I was being an idiot. The forest could easily be the hide out of demonic cultivators. It would be a perfect place too. Since there was nothing of value to be taken, but both beasts and people avoided it. One just needed to figure out how not to have the blood sucked out of them by the trees and it would be a perfect location.

There was also the fact that Aoyin was the Sect Leader of the Demonic Blood Sect, this place was called the Blood Forest. While both things having the word blood in them might be a coincidence, I had a bad sense about the situation. Gut intuition was something that was tied to a cultivator the more powerful they became. It was similar to danger sense, but less immediate.

The subtle warnings were much harder to pick up on. Cultivators struggled to hone that aspect of themselves, with varying degrees of success. It was also hard to say if my intuition was just my thought process or something to do with the subtle tides of energy. Differentiating the two was incredibly hard.

I spent a minute in the rain, mentally thinking over what I should do. I rubbed my stiff neck and considered turning back. While tempting, the risk of running into a demonic cultivator was too high. I wanted to keep running away, getting as much distance as possible. I had broken out of one encirclement I didn’t want to run into another.

The second option was to head and circle around the Blood Forest like I had initially thought. That wasn’t good either, in case the place was a hideout of some kind. It felt very likely. I would take a third path. I turned about 45 degrees to my right from the Blood Forest and then set off again.

I would mostly keep heading in the same direction, just take a sideways jaunt to avoid the Blood Forest by a fairly wide margin. I still felt a sense of unease, but this entire situation was completely messed up. I still had no idea how these demonic cultivators had stumbled over me.

It wasn’t like they would be sharing techniques, and I didn’t have a real counter until I could use techniques of my own. Even then techniques were quite rare. Getting good enough in a technique to use it combat took time. Time that could be spent cultivating instead. That was why most cultivators only learned up to three techniques.

The rain wasn’t stopping as I glanced up at the sky. I rubbed my neck, it still felt stiff from having slept in a crevice. While I had gotten some sleep, I still felt tired. I needed a proper rest sometime soon. I heard the distant sound of thunder.

I paused when I saw a group of three people moving slightly parallel to me but angled towards me. I quickly came to a stop while checking all around me. I could just spot those people’s energy and there were no beasts around either. The group kept going, either ignoring me, or trying to trick me into a false sense of security.

While tempting to follow them, it might trigger something in their senses. But I didn’t want to turn more to the Blood Forest, but I also didn’t want to turn more away either. I kept moving to keep the group in my sight while considering my options.

This game of cat and mouse was much easier if I had complete information. The problem I was facing was that I was lacking a tremendous amount of information. One mistake would see me dead. The most important thing was to avoid detection of any kind. That was the first priority. By keeping the group at the edge of my sight, it let me know if they made a sudden change in direction or tried to ambush me.

I could counter ambush, retreat, or do something else, but at least I would have that information. Also, I was loathe to change the direction I was traveling. While very unlikely, the beast tide could catch up with me. There was also the very rare chance that super high rank cultivators would deal with the entire situation and I might get caught up in such an event.

There was also the fact that I needed to get to Imperial City as quickly as possible. That meant going around the Blood Forest. Making a hard turn would delay me by quite a bit. Also, the Blood Forest was the best landmark in this weather, by the vague cloud of energy hanging around it. If moved directly away from the cursed forest, I would be delaying my trip as well.

That was why I kept my distance and kept following the other cultivators. While I couldn’t prove they were part of the group that had ambushed me, it was incredibly likely in my mind that they were. To be coming from the same general direction that I had was the biggest indicator they had been part of the plan to entrap me.

After an hour of traveling, they disappeared one after another. I quickly came to a stop behind a tree and checked around me. No beasts, or other cultivators. I had no idea where they had gone. Now I could avoid the spot where they had disappeared or investigate.

It was probably smarter to retreat but being aggressive had benefits as well. I got out my gun and checked my ammo. I still had quite a bit, including the single rank 6 bullet and just over 40 rank 4 bullets. I also had a decent amount of rank 3 spirit stones to fire them all. My sword was in good condition as well.

I advanced slowly and carefully towards the spot where the cultivators had disappeared, while constantly checking my surroundings and the ground. I had gotten quite good at spotting arrays and formations after the Floating Island of Death. I kept my sword outside of my spatial ring instead of my gun. If I needed to ambush or was ambushed, a melee weapon was preferable.

Reaching the section of the forest where they had disappeared, I found a stone building, shaped like the entrance to a bunker. Unless someone ran directly into it, there would be no way to find this in the middle of the forest. Whatever arrays or formations were used, there was something concealing things behind the metal door and stone walls.

A hidden base. I carefully approached, checking every step, as well as below and above me. The way the door was facing was towards the Blood Forest. A hidden entrance, one of many most likely. With how big the wilderness was, unless there was energy involved, it would be impossible to spot anything at a distance.

I carefully checked the door, and after a couple of minutes of not spotting anything, I decided to try and open it. It opened easily. It wasn’t locked and there was no trap. The safety was in obscurity with the actual traps and locks being closer to the main base, which was hidden under the Blood Forest. It was a clever way to avoid detection.

The stone the entrance and the walls of the tunnel were made of, blocked my sight. A passive kind of defense, which was most likely incredibly expensive. But for someone of Aoyin’s rank it wouldn’t be impossible. I also had no idea how big the Demonic Blood Sect actually was, but you didn’t last for millennia as a demonic sect by being weak and not having members.

That was enough information for now. I could visit this place again once I got stronger. I had enough answers. The group that I had followed, were returning to their base, they weren’t pursuing me or leading me into a trap for this encounter.

I began to close the door, when I noticed four more figures rapidly approaching from a distance. I would have to retreat towards the Blood Forest, but I saw two people, approaching from opposite directions. Why?! I left the door ajar and quickly raced down the stone steps and into the tunnel scanning ahead of me. There were glowing lights created by formations lining the tunnel.

I must have triggered something. Perhaps a purely mechanical trap. That would make sense. I could have easily missed a trigger or procedure of some kind. The group of four was probably returning from trying to entrap me and the beast tide. The other two individuals were probably monitoring the area. A demonic sect would have less chores and more people keeping an eye out on the surroundings, ready to send up an alarm if attacked.

There might not have even been anything mechanical, but a prearranged signal to give, so they didn’t come investigate. After the initial stairs, the tunnel was sloped downwards. There were no turnoffs and continued for a long time. In fact, I could see the group of three in the far distance, if barely.

That meant the people coming in behind me would spot me. The tunnel only had the occasional indentation for a light source, nothing else. There was just enough light I could barely see. So even if the group behind me entered the tunnel, they wouldn’t be able to easily make out who I was at a distance. I wished I had some kind of bomb or trap.

I could turn around. In a narrow tunnel, my gun would reign supreme. I didn’t want to go into a base controlled by a demonic sect. I should have never investigated. I let my curiosity get the best of me. The most important thing now was to avoid detection, escape, and not die.

With how the stone making the tunnel blocked off my energy sight, it was hard to tell when I arrived under the Blood Forest. The group of three in front of me went through a door that was covered in arrays and formations. A glance over my shoulder, showed the group of four was behind me in the incredibly long tunnel.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, I was confronted with a trap door. Thankfully I had been watching the group ahead of me carefully, and they hadn’t been careful. I could also spot the scuff marks. I pulled out three rank 1 spirit stones and quickly put them in the appropriate slots. Certain formations activated and the door swung open.

The spirit stones were consumed, and I quickly entered before the door could close while looking around. I was on an upper level of a five level cylindrical cavern. The middle of the cavern was open, with a walkway around each level. I noted other doors like the one I had come through at other locations around the cavern. There were also other doors built into each level. I also noted that there were roots at the top of the cavern. One was pointing downwards and dripping red fluid.

Probably the main tree of the Blood Forest. Looking around, there weren’t many people either. I quickly turned to the side and began walking around the top walkway towards one of the other doorways. I should be able to open them from the inside without much of an issue. These kinds of doors and locks were quite strong in one direction, but easily opened from the other direction.

At least there was no one on my path or anyone staring in my direction. It made sense that a Demonic Sect wasn’t big about greeting people or friendships. If I hadn’t entered between two groups, I most likely would have been caught as well by the watchers outside. I didn’t know if I was lucky or unlucky, entering this place without being caught. Now I needed to get out right away before I was found out.

I circled the top walkway to reach one of the paths to leave. But just as I was about to reach it. I had put my sword away to not draw attention. There was a loud gong that resounded throughout the base before a voice followed after it.

“We will be performing another large scale tracking technique. All cultivators gather on the main floor to witness and support,” the voice called out. A dark robed cultivator came of the room I was just going by and looked over at me.

“New member or from another branch?” he asked me.

“Another branch, you?” I asked.

“Assigned here. Let’s get going, the Master doesn’t like people keeping him waiting,” the demonic cultivator said.

“Of course,” I replied without hesitation and mentally winced.

“You can change your robes later. Everything is a mess, since we raided that sect. And we don’t have a spare in your size. Were you part of the battle?”

“Only near the end,” I replied since I couldn’t know if there was a passive truth telling technique. “What about you?” I asked, so I didn’t have to keep answering questions as we made our way to a staircase.

“No unfortunately. I was left on guard duty. Now there is another operation going on. There hasn’t been this much activity in decades,” the man said.

“I heard it was some cultivator we are after?” I asked.

“Maybe. One thing you learn here, is that most people don’t share important information easily,” he replied.

“I get it,” I replied as we walked down the stairs as other cultivators all moved to the bottom floor and to the central pool of thick red liquid that looked like blood, had a lot of energy stored in it, but was some unholy concoction made from the sap from the trees above.

“Well we will stay in the back, and watch,” the man said. I nodded at this. I counted at least 40 cultivators, with 5 of them being rank 5 or rank 6. The big shots gathered near the pool while the rest of us hung back. I can’t believe no one recognized me. But I spotted other cultivators in dirty robes, who looked worn down.

Everyone quickly became silent once we had all assembled. I could only wonder what craziness would happen now.