Legacy of Blood: Reclaiming the Lost Throne

Chapter Eight: Ravine spirit hunt part 11

Xuyi didn’t bother responding. He was already stepping ahead, spear in hand, every inch of him sharp and silent as the wind before a storm.

Kaien stayed back, watching the beast closely.

“I’ll draw it out,” Ping Bo said, snapping a twig and tossing it toward the thicket.

A low growl rumbled from behind the brambles, and then it lunged.

The wolfhound spirit beast burst forth, all sinew and shadow. Its fur was black, matted with streaks of violet qi, and its jaws gleamed like polished steel. It moved unnaturally fast for something its size.

Ping Bo rolled aside with a laugh. “Too slow!”

The beast snapped at the air where his head had been and whirled in mid-leap but it was already too late.

Xuyi’s spear made the next move.

A gleam of silver weapon pierced the beast’s chest with enough force to lift it off its feet and pin it clean to the bark of an oak tree. The trunk cracked from the impact, groaning under the weight.

The wolfhound twitched once, then fell limp.

Ping Bo stood and dusted himself off. “You couldn’t let me have that one?”

“You were bait,” Xuyi said dryly, retrieving his weapon.

Yiran moved without a word, slipping in as the beast’s body shimmered. She pressed her palm to the chest cavity, extracting a small core glowing with low blue light. With practiced movements, she placed it against a small black token strapped to her belt. The light transferred, and the token made a faint sound before fading.

“Split value across all tokens,” she said. “No arguments.”

Ping Bo groaned. “But I was the bait, shouldn’t I have a bit more.”

“Exactly,” Xuyi said.

Kaien didn’t expect them to share it with him even though he did absolutely nothing just then.

After sharing it equally amongst themselves, they continued moving deeper.

Until they bumped into a boar beast.

It didn’t waste time after seeing them, it charged immediately.

The razor-horned boar barreled from the treeline, tusks lowered like spears.

Xuyi jumped back, but not fast enough.

The edge of the beast’s horn grazed his side, tearing a gash in his robe. Blood sprayed across the moss. Ping Bo shouted and leapt, drawing both short blades in one smooth motion. He aimed for the boar’s eyes, but the creature twisted mid-run.

Ping Bo hit the ground hard.

“Back!” Kaien barked, stepping forward.

The boar was massive, its hide plated with spiritual steel, qi lines etched into its back like living armor. Blood leaked from a gash near its shoulder, Xuyi’s strike had landed but it only made the creature more angry.

Yiran threw a powder-doused cloth onto the ground in front of it. The moment the boar stepped on it, the earth erupted in a burst of blinding white smoke.

It screamed. A horrible, gurgling sound echoed out.

Xuyi didn’t hesitate. He slid in from the side, dodging its wild tusks, and rammed his spear into the exposed wound.

The boar roared and thrashed all around.

Kaien stepped forward and placed a palm on the ground. Even with what little cultivation he had recovered, he could feel the qi lines in the earth. He coaxed them gently.

“Collapse,” he whispered.

The boar’s hooves suddenly sank, barely held together by his thread of energy. It stumbled, and Xuyi drove the spear deeper.

Then it finally fell dead.

Yiran extracted the core again, and split it. “Minimal damage this time,” she muttered. “Good coordination.”

Ping Bo, limping slightly, scowled. “I was fine.”

“You were nearly injured.”

“You should give more concern to Xuyi, he’s the injured one right now.”

They were still bantering when out of the blue a bunch of poisoned rabbits came running but then they passed by quickly. What were they running from?

Kaien’s instincts sharpened.

Something was wrong.

“Beast ahead,” Xuyi said suddenly, raising a hand.

The others froze.

Kaien could hear it too now. A faint dragging sound—branches scraping, bones clicking.

Then it stepped out.

It wasn’t like the others.

It stood twice as tall as a man, with a black chitinous body, six thin legs, and a head like a skull lantern lit from within by sickly green fire. Its breath reeked of rot. Its presence pressed on the air like a stone pressing down on flesh.

“…What is that?” Ping An muttered.

“Spirit Devourer,” Kaien said quietly, narrowing his eyes. “Mid-grade. Near core rank. It’s very smart and fast. Eats more than flesh.”

They looked at him.

But there wasn’t time to ask more questions.

Because the moment it saw them—

It charged.

Its long, skeletal limbs cut through the earth like scythes, body slithering forward in jagged, inhuman lurches. The green flame behind its skull-face pulsed brighter as it moved and its gaze fixed directly on Kaien.

“Scatter!” Han Xuyi shouted. “We flank and strike from all sides!”

The group reacted instantly.

Ping An and Ping Bo vanished into the trees on either side, blades flashing as they launched their twin assault from the flanks. Lan Yiran’s bells rang in short bursts, sending disruptive sonic waves toward the beast’s legs. It didn’t do much.

Han Xuyi lunged from the front, his spear glowing faintly with spiritual force as he aimed for the beast’s chest.

The attacks hit the beast one by one.

But the Spirit Devourer didn’t flinch. It lunged straight at Kaien.

He dodged, barely, rolling behind a fallen log as its razor limbs struck where he’d stood, splitting stone and dirt.

“What the—why is it ignoring us?!” Ping Bo shouted, leaping in to slice at its legs.

Yiran’s bells chimed again.

Xuyi’s spear struck again, this time drawing a black ooze from its side.

But the beast didn’t respond.

It turned, fluid and furious, its burning skull-eyes locked onto Kaien.

“Why is it only chasing him?!” Lan Yiran shouted, panic flaring in her voice.

Kaien leapt to the side again, narrowly avoiding a thrust of its serrated forelimbs.

“Split its legs! Now!” Xuyi commanded.

The brothers obeyed, blades flashing again.

But the beast adapted this time—twisting, lashing out with a bladed limb that sent Ping An flying into a tree with a sickening thud.

“An!” Ping Bo shouted.

Kaien gritted his teeth.

I can’t let this continue.

They were risking their lives, and the damn thing didn’t even care they existed.

Its fire-filled skull flared again. It was another charge straight at him.

As he shifted to dodge, he felt a faint pulse in his chest.

The fragment.