After slaying several beasts and gathering their cores, Lan Xue's party had beast cores worth four hundred points.
Along the way, she learned the names of her two party members, "Ying Yue" and "Li Hua." They were childhood friends from the Ying Merchant Family; Ying Yue was from the main branch, while Li Hua's father had married into the family years ago and now holds a respectable post there.
As the three of them moved through the dense forest, Li Hua suddenly slowed down her pace and said, "Look. There are signs of a battle ahead."
Lan Xue and Li Hua also stopped right behind her and started scanning the nearby area. The trees had rough claw marks, and the ground was marked by footsteps and signs of battle. Ying Yue bent down to examine the signs. "Judging by this, the beast must've been strong than the ones it was fighting with. That is why they couldn't kill it in one spot and fought while moving and searching for advantage."
Lan Xue nodded and said "Let's follow the traces and if they are still fighting and need our help, maybe we can help them in exchange for some points." Both of them nodded as having more points would only be beneficial for them, so they agreed to the plan and started to advanced cautiously. Eventually, they found a clearing where a massive beast lay dead, and one person near it was cautiously looking at us.
That was when they saw me.
I had just finished my fight, was a little exhausted, and barely noticed their approach until the faint rustle of leaves reached my ears when they reached near us, I told Luo Cheng to hide behind a tree because if the ones we were gonna encounter came with ulterior motives, then having a weak and injured teammate may make us the best target. Instinctively, I looked towards them and, seeing the first person, my heart started beating faster, and my thoughts went spiraling.
A girl with calm, piercing eyes stepped forward, Lan Xue. She looked cautious yet gentle, her presence steady like flowing water, and when she noticed my dazed look at her,
"Um… are you alright?" she asked.
Her soft voice snapped me out of the storm of thoughts swirling in my head. My heart leapt, beating far too fast. "Umm… y-yeah, I'm okay. And you're… Lan Xue?"
She blinked, surprised but composed. "Yes. I'm Lan Xue. Nice to meet you and you are…"
"Xuan Yuan!" I blurted out before she could finish. Even the other girls smiled faintly at my flustered and stuttering tone, but I didn't care. She was talking to me and no one else mattered to me right now.
The world seemed to be quiet. Leaves rustled softly. Her hair shimmered faintly in the light filtering through the trees. Then she asked, "Would you like to join us? We're planning to hunt a Stage Seven beast."
"Yes, I do!" I answered before thinking, like an idiot as if she was asking to go on a vacation. Till this time, I hadn't even noticed that Luo Cheng had already come out from behind the tree and had already introduced himself and was now looking at me strangely.
Lan Xue seemed a little surprised at my instant acceptance, but she immediately replied a little excitedly. "Good. With me at the fifth stage, three of us at the fourth, and one at the peak of the third, we have a fair chance as I also have a sure method to injure it. Each of us will still earn three hundred points after splitting the reward."
I nodded and asked, "Should we start searching now?" I had gradually calmed down my heart after some time.
She shook her head. "Let's rest for about twenty minutes. Your friend is a little bit injured, and we've been fighting beasts for hours, so my party also needs a little rest."
We sat together in a loose circle, introducing ourselves by telling our names and then planning our strategy. My nerves finally calmed as the conversation shifted to battle tactics. When it was my turn to speak, I said, "If you need time, I can create an opening for two or three seconds. That should be enough for you to strike."
They all looked at me in surprise. Ying Yue frowned. "Are you sure? That's extremely dangerous for a fourth-stage cultivator."
"I'll manage," I said quietly. "Even if things go wrong, I've got… artifacts for escape."
I didn't, of course. But I believed I could handle it and honestly, the one who should watch out should be that poor beast. I thought as I smirked in my mind.
After resting, we started searching through the forest while being spread out fifty meters apart, sweeping the forest to cover more area to search for a 7th-stage beast. We also found a lot of 4th and 5th-stage beasts, but ignored them and moved around them to prevent battling them. Nearly an hour later, Ying Yue's shout broke the silence. "I found it! Come quickly."
We rushed toward her and after reaching near her, we saw it, the creature before us was colossal—like a white-haired gorilla fused with something reptilian, its body brimmed with very strong killing intent as it looked towards us with its menacing eyes.
We exchanged nods. No one had any second chances to waste on. One chance, one kill, that is our only way to take it down.
Lan Xue charged first, her sword flashing. The beast's claws clashed with her blade, sending shockwaves through the clearing. After fighting and exchanging some quick slashes, she managed to wound it slightly on its chest, but was forced back by its overwhelming power.
That was when I found my opportunity and moved towards it from behind.
As the beast roared and was gonna attack Lan Xue, it sensed something was late to turn behind as I focused my Qi and activated my power-up card. Energy exploded through me. My body surged past its limits—beyond the fifth stage, beyond the seventh—touching the beginner-eighth-stage prowess of a cultivator.
I leapt forward, took my staff out of my ring, kept it in hand, and channeled the Iron-Bending Monkey Staff Manual, which was at intermediate mastery. My strike crashed into the beast's neck, bending it at an unnatural angle. The impact shook the earth and caused the beast to roar because of the pain it suffered.
Everyone froze for a heartbeat, then unleashed their attacks at once. Ying Yue's fan summoned a violent air sphere that struck the beast's neck, attacking the same wound caused by my staff.
The creature roared in agony and turned toward me, fury burning in its eyes as I was the one to seriously injure it, which made me the first pest to be killed in its eyes, but before it could charge, Li Hua and Luo Cheng attacked its legs but their speed was a lot slower than the beast but it still couldn't interecpt them as it couldnt freely move its neck as it wished after my and Ying Yue's combined attack, forcing it to its knees.
Lan Xue saw the opening and instantly dashed forward, her talisman was glowing like the sun on her sword, when she reached near the beast, she spun on her feet, jumped and drove her sword into the same wound I'd created. The blade pierced cleanly through its neck, severing the beast's spine as some brain juices started flowing out of it.
It roared once in defiance as it couldn't accept its death by what it thought of as mere pests, but then fell still.
Silence followed for a second. The air was heavy with the scent of blood and crushed earth which showed proof of our battle.
We had done it—we had taken down a Stage Seven beast all by ourselves.
Lan Xue's gaze met mine, a mix of relief and disbelief in her eyes. She knew the truth that without my strike, that beast wouldn't have fallen down so easily and there would also be chances of deep injuries to some of us.
That battle was the first time Lan Xue and I fought together. The beginning of something neither of us could yet name.
And somehow, against all odds, all five of us not only survived against a 7th-stage beast at the Qi Gathering Realm but also defeated it.
Now, our individual points have increased by 300 for each of us. I was moving slowly yet surely towards my goal of being in the top five in the results.