Running in a new body was different.
Not bad different. Just different. Her legs were longer now and her stride had changed and the first thirty seconds were a little embarrassing because she kept overshooting her own steps. But after a minute she found the rhythm and then she was fast. Genuinely fast. Faster than she had been before the evolution by a significant margin even without Sacred Step.
'Okay.'
'Okay this is actually great.'
'I am very fast now.'
'...I am still being chased by Foundation Building cultivators.'
'But I am fast while it is happening.'
Wei Liang was running slightly ahead, cutting a path through the undergrowth. He moved like someone who had done a lot of running from things, efficient and unhurried even at speed, conserving energy in small ways that added up over distance.
Bao was just behind Wang Hui and slightly to the left, close enough that she could feel him through Group Sense. Mood: still extremely happy. She did not know how he managed that while running from trained cultivators but she was starting to think it was just his baseline state of existence.
'Group Sense readout.'
'Bao: extremely happy.'
'Chen: anxious. This is also his baseline.'
'Mei: focused.'
'Lin: unreadable.'
'Wei Liang: calm.'
'...How is he calm.'
'There are six Foundation Building cultivators behind us.'
'...Actually I think calm might also be his baseline.'
'These people are not normal.'
Behind them, through Night Sense, the team was still coming. They had not gained ground but they had not lost any either. Foundation Building cultivators were fast and they were organized, spreading out slightly as they moved to prevent the group from doubling back.
'They know what they are doing.'
'They are not going to tire easily.'
'We cannot outrun them forever.'
'...We need a different plan.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ NEW QUEST ★
║
║ [ Not Getting Caught ]
║
║ Escape the pursuit team.
║ Do not get separated from
║ the group.
║
║ Reward : Dignity +15,
║ Skill Point +2
║
║ Failure penalty : Dignity -20
║
║ (Please do not get caught.)
║ (｀・ω・´)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'Dignity minus twenty if I get caught.'
'...That would put me back below zero.'
'I refuse.'
'I have worked too hard for this Dignity score.'
'I am not going back below zero.'
* * *
"We cannot outrun them," Mei said. Not out of breath. Just stating facts.
"I know," Wei Liang said.
"They are spreading. Northeast route will be cut off in about ten minutes."
"I know."
"So what are we doing."
Wei Liang was quiet for three seconds. "There is a ravine about two kilometers northeast. Narrow. They cannot spread out in it."
"That is also a trap if they get ahead of us."
"Yes."
"...You want to use it anyway."
"I want Lucky to use it," Wei Liang said.
'...Me.'
'He wants me to use a ravine.'
'...For what.'
He looked at her while running. Not slowing down. Just turned his head slightly.
"Sacred Aura," he said. "Can you push it outward."
'...'
'He knows about Sacred Aura.'
'He knows it just unlocked.'
'He is asking me to use it as a weapon.'
'...Can I.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ INFO ℹ
║
║ Sacred Aura (Lv.1)
║
║ Passive: Constantly radiates a
║ faint aura that causes unease in
║ beings weaker than Host.
║
║ Active: Host can push the aura
║ outward in a focused burst.
║ Effect: Fear / Hesitation in
║ targets weaker than Host's
║ Sacred Aura level.
║
║ Cost: Significant energy.
║ Cooldown: 10 minutes.
║
║ Note: Foundation Building
║ cultivators may resist partially.
║
║ (•ω•)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'I can push it outward.'
'Foundation Building cultivators may resist partially.'
'But partially is not fully.'
'Even a few seconds of hesitation in a narrow ravine could be enough.'
'...This could work.'
'...This is either very smart or very stupid.'
'I have not decided which yet.'
She looked at Wei Liang and nodded once.
He nodded back. "Ravine first. Then you push. Give us thirty seconds of cover."
"Thirty seconds is a lot to ask," Mei said.
"She can do it," Wei Liang said.
'...'
'He said that like he was certain.'
'He has known me for four days.'
'He said that like he was certain.'
'...Okay.'
'Thirty seconds.'
'I can do thirty seconds.'
* * *
The ravine appeared through the trees like Wei Liang had known it would. A long cut in the forest floor, maybe four meters wide, the walls rough stone and exposed root. A stream ran along the bottom, shallow enough to wade but slippery from the look of it.
The group dropped in without stopping. Wang Hui landed harder than she meant to, her new legs still calibrating, and skidded two steps before she found her footing. The walls rose to shoulder height on the cultivators, which meant chest height on her new form.
'Narrow.'
'Good sightlines forward and back.'
'Bad sightlines from above.'
'If the team has anyone who can fly we are in trouble.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ SCAN ℹ
║
║ Pursuit team cultivation check:
║
║ All 6: Foundation Building stage.
║ None have reached flight ability.
║
║ (Flight requires Core Formation.)
║
║ Host is fine. (｀・ω・´)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'No flight. Good.'
'...The System scanned their cultivation level.'
'It did the same thing with Elder Zhao in the outpost.'
'...This is a useful feature.'
'I should use it more often.'
"Eighty meters," Wei Liang said. "They are closing."
"How do you know," Chen said.
"Qi sense."
"Your range is not that"
"Eighty meters," Wei Liang said again, patient.
Chen closed his mouth.
Wang Hui turned to face back the way they came. The ravine stretched behind her, stone walls, trickling water, and at the far end the tree line where the pursuit team would appear.
She could feel the Sacred Aura sitting at the base of her horn. Active now, since the evolution. A warmth she had not had before. She had been letting it just radiate on its own, the passive version, not thinking about it.
Now she thought about it.
'Okay.'
'In novels, characters always have some dramatic internal moment before they use a new power for the first time.'
'Meaningful reflection. Resolve. A sense of destiny.'
'...I am going to skip all of that.'
'How do I push it outward.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ℹ HINT ℹ
║
║ Sacred Aura is already radiating.
║ Host just needs to push more
║ of it in one direction.
║
║ Think of it like breathing out
║ harder than normal.
║
║ Aim for the entrance of the
║ ravine. Hold for 30 seconds.
║
║ (You can do this.) ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'Breathe out harder.'
'Okay.'
'Simple enough.'
'...I hope.'
The first figure appeared at the ravine entrance. Blue robes. Azure Sky. Young, maybe mid-twenties, moving with the confidence of someone who had done this kind of work before.
Then they stopped.
Not because Wang Hui had done anything yet. They stopped because they saw her.
A Qilin. Common grade now, visibly larger than the notice board drawing, horn glowing faintly, standing in the middle of a ravine and looking directly at them.
For a moment everyone was still.
'Now.'
Wang Hui breathed out.
The Sacred Aura went with it.
It was not subtle. It rolled down the ravine like a wave of pressure, not physical, not painful, but deeply and fundamentally wrong in the way that the presence of something very large and very old and very not-to-be-messed-with felt wrong. The kind of feeling that bypassed rational thought entirely and went straight to the part of the brain that said run.
Three of the six stopped moving completely.
Two took a step back without meaning to.
One held. Teeth gritted, visibly straining, but held.
'...It worked.'
'It actually worked.'
'...Do not get excited.'
'Hold it.'
'Thirty seconds.'
'Count.'
She held it.
Fifteen seconds in, two of the three frozen ones started to push through. Shaking but moving.
Twenty seconds. The one who had held from the start was advancing again, slowly.
Twenty-five.
'...Almost.'
"Go," Wei Liang said from behind her.
She released the aura and ran.
Her legs found the new rhythm faster this time, muscle memory catching up. She hit the bend in the ravine at full speed, the walls blurring past, and came out the other side into open forest with the group around her.
Behind them, the pursuit team was moving again. But they had lost thirty seconds. In the forest, thirty seconds was a lot.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: +8 ↑
║ Total : +48
║
║ For using Sacred Aura correctly
║ on the first try.
║
║ (System is genuinely impressed.)
║
║ (°□°)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'Plus eight.'
'PLUS EIGHT.'
'...I am very good at this.'
'I am a natural.'
'...Do not say that out loud.'
'I cannot say anything out loud.'
'...Right.'
* * *
They ran for another twenty minutes before Wei Liang called a stop.
Night Sense confirmed it: the pursuit team had dropped back significantly. Not gone, but far enough that they had bought time.
The group settled in a small hollow between three large trees. Nobody was breathing hard. Foundation Building might track but apparently all the running had not actually been difficult for them physically. Wang Hui was a little annoyed by this on principle.
'I was running fine.'
'My form was completely fine.'
'...I overshot three steps at the start.'
'Four steps.'
'...Nobody saw.'
Bao sat down next to her and said, very seriously, "That was the most incredible thing I have ever seen."
'...Thank you.'
'You are talking about the Sacred Aura.'
'...Right?'
"You ran so fast," Bao continued. "Your legs went so fast. You were like a blur."
'...He is talking about the running.'
'Not the Sacred Aura.'
'The running.'
'...I will take it.'
"The Sacred Aura was the impressive part," Mei said, not looking up from checking her supplies.
'MEI.'
'I like Mei so much.'
Chen was sitting with his back against a tree looking like someone who needed a moment. "I have never felt anything like that," he said. "Even from the outside. What was that."
"Sacred Beast ability," Wei Liang said.
"I know what it was technically. I mean what was it like from"
He looked at Wang Hui.
"Can I ask?"
'...He is asking my permission to ask a question.'
'Chen.'
'The Nervous One.'
'Is asking for permission.'
'...That is actually quite considerate.'
She dipped her head slightly. Go ahead.
"What does it feel like? Using it."
Wang Hui thought about how to answer without words.
She looked at the forest around them. Then she took a breath. Then she breathed out, slow and deliberate, like she was showing him the motion.
"Like breathing?" Chen said.
She nodded.
"Huh." He thought about it. "That is less dramatic than I expected."
'...It was plenty dramatic from where I was standing.'
'The dramatic part is on the receiving end.'
'...I cannot explain that.'
Lin, who had been quiet the whole time, said without looking up from her wood carving, "You held it for twenty-eight seconds."
Everyone looked at her.
"I counted," she said.
'Twenty-eight.'
'I needed thirty.'
'...Twenty-eight was enough.'
'...Lin counted.'
'She counted the whole time.'
'...I do not know what to do with that information.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: +2 ↑
║ Total : +50
║
║ Twenty-eight seconds is close
║ enough to count as thirty.
║
║ (This is generous of System.)
║
║ ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'Dignity fifty.'
'...'
'I started at zero.'
'Actually I started at negative ten.'
'I am now at fifty.'
'...'
'I need to not think about this too hard or I will do something embarrassing.'
* * *
They had been resting for about ten minutes when Wei Liang said, "I owe you all an explanation."
Nobody said anything. Which was probably agreement.
He looked at his hands for a moment. Then at the group. Then, briefly, at Wang Hui.
"The reason someone hired Shadow Broker to delay me," he said. "The reason there are assassins in Moonlight Forest. The reason the Azure Sky response team came so fast."
A pause.
"Three weeks ago, my sect master was poisoned."
'...'
"He is not dead. But he is not well. Someone within Blood Asura Sect did it. Someone who does not want him to recover." Wei Liang's voice was completely level. "I have been gathering evidence. I was bringing it to someone who could act on it. But whoever is behind the poisoning found out I had evidence. So they hired Shadow Broker to stop me from reaching that person."
"Who were you bringing it to?" Mei asked.
"Elder Zhao," Wei Liang said.
'...'
'ELDER ZHAO.'
'That is why Elder Zhao is at a tiny outpost in the middle of Moonlight Forest.'
'He was waiting for Wei Liang.'
'This was all arranged.'
'...And the Azure Sky response team that came after me.'
"The response team," Mei said slowly. "They were not just responding to the Qilin sighting."
"No," Wei Liang said. "Elder Zhao arranged an escort team to follow us at a distance. In case Shadow Broker moved again." He paused. "The evolution light told them exactly where we were. So they stopped following at a distance and came directly."
"...Which looked like pursuit," Mei said.
"Yes."
"Because it was," Bao said helpfully.
"It was escort," Wei Liang said. "Moving fast. In our direction. While we were already running."
"...That is the same thing from our end."
"Yes," Wei Liang said. Patiently. "It is."
'...'
'So the response team was an escort team.'
'They were following us at a distance the whole time.'
'Elder Zhao arranged it before we even left the outpost.'
'And then I evolved and lit up the entire forest.'
'And they ran toward us.'
'And we ran away from them.'
'...'
'This is entirely my fault.'
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║
║ Dignity: -3 ↓
║ Total : +47
║
║ The evolution light was Host's.
║ The running was Host's idea.
║
║ Just saying. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'I know.'
'...I KNOW.'
'I did not PLAN to evolve at that exact moment.'
'...Three points. Fine.'
Bao raised his hand. "So. We ran from the good guys."
"We did not know they were," Mei said.
"But we did."
"Yes, Bao. We did."
"...Okay."
Chen had his head in his hands. Lin was still carving wood, which Wang Hui was beginning to think was just how Lin processed information.
"So what now," Mei said.
Wei Liang was quiet for a moment. Then: "We go back to the outpost. Properly this time. Elder Zhao will be there. I give him the evidence. He acts on it."
"And the Shadow Broker people?"
"Once the evidence is with Elder Zhao, stopping me stops mattering."
"And Lucky?" Bao asked.
Everyone looked at him.
"The escort team saw her evolve," he said. Very calm. Very certain. "They know what she is now. Are we just walking her back to the outpost where people who saw that are waiting?"
'...'
'Bao.'
'You are not smart all the time but when you are.'
'You really are.'
Wei Liang looked at Wang Hui.
She looked back.
"That," he said, "is her choice."
'...'
'Her choice.'
'He said that.'
'He is not deciding for me.'
'He is not assuming I will follow.'
'He is looking at me and saying it is my choice.'
'...'
Wang Hui thought about it.
The evidence. Elder Zhao. The poisoned sect master. Wei Liang walking into something dangerous with information that could fix it if he could just get it to the right person.
The response team. Foundation Building cultivators who were, apparently, on the right side.
The outpost. The notice board with the bad drawing of her. The sect leadership who wanted to know where she was.
She thought about all of it.
'...'
'I am Common grade now.'
'My Sacred Aura is active.'
'I just held off six Foundation Building cultivators for twenty-eight seconds.'
'...Twenty-eight is close enough to thirty.'
'I am stronger than I was this morning.'
'And I can always leave.'
'If it gets too much I can always just. Leave.'
'...I have been saying that since day one.'
'...It has not happened yet.'
'...That is fine.'
'That is completely fine.'
She looked at Wei Liang.
Then she took one step forward.
Toward the outpost direction.
'...I am going back for the exp.'
'Foundation Building cultivators have better exp than anything in this part of the forest.'
'...That is not why.'
'...Okay.'
'That is not why.'
Bao made the sound he made when something went exactly the way he hoped.
Even Lin looked up from her wood for a second.
Wei Liang said nothing. But something in his expression shifted. Not quite a smile. But something in that direction.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ★ QUEST COMPLETE ★
║
║ [ Not Getting Caught ]
║
║ Reward : Dignity +15,
║ Skill Point +2
║ Total : +62
║
║ \(^▽^)/
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
'...Sixty-two.'
'I started at negative ten.'
'I am at sixty-two.'
'...'
'I need to not think about this.'
'I said I was not going to think about this.'
'...Okay.'
'Let us go back to the outpost.'
They moved out.
Wang Hui walked at the front with Wei Liang, which was where she had ended up on day four and had apparently not left since.
She did not comment on this.
He did not either.
End of Chapter 7
[ Dignity: +62 ] [ Sacred Aura: Active ] [ Status: Going back. On purpose. ]