Harassing the Rabbit
At first, Yeop Pung took it for an innocent giant rabbit. In the next instant, the creature's mouth yawned wide and a terrifying wind blade screamed toward him.
"Wait! This isn't right!"
Yeop Pung flung himself sideways. His spine nearly folded in half, but he barely slipped the rabbit's attack. With a sound like tearing wind, the massive tree behind where he had been standing was sliced clean through.
Damn it! This rabbit is a monster!
Radiant gold coiled around his body as he twisted through the air, seeking the ground.
The instant he committed to a landing, another wind blade streaked toward that exact spot.
Is it having fun with this?
Gold light flashed through Yeop Pung's eyes. In midair he converted his Profound Qi into lightning and gathered the charge in both hands, then fired it full-force against the incoming blade.
Thunder cracked. Searing lightning shattered the Wind Blade to pieces.
The rabbit's ears pricked at the sound!
The gray rabbit blinked, apparently not expecting a frail-looking human to hit that hard, and tried to bolt on its long legs. A shadow faster than lightning cut it off in an instant.
Yeop Pung smiled, a chilling grin that bared every white tooth.
A short while later, Yeop Pung had the gray rabbit by both ears, dangling it in midair.
The plump creature kicked and thrashed without pause. Fury burned in its red eyes. Time and again it gathered Profound Qi, trying to hurl another wind blade at him, and every time Yeop Pung answered with a jolt of lightning. The rabbit's whole body went numb and tingling. At last it gave up, puffed out its cheeks, and glared.
"So this is a Profound Beast..." Yeop Pung studied the curious creature with genuine interest. Watching it attack with Profound Qi, he was certain it had formed a Profound Core — something he had only ever heard of in rumors. Unlike humans, Profound Beasts emitted Profound Qi through that core, which meant they could use Profound Qi Manifestation for long-range attacks from the moment they were born. The power, however, was relatively weak.
The rabbit in front of him looked to have roughly the fighting strength of a Three Meridians expert of the Profound Realm. No wonder it had ended up in Yeop Pung's grip.
"Human! Curse you, human!"
The rabbit kept struggling, fighting to the bitter end. It clearly harbored a deep grudge against humankind. Nothing else would explain why it had charged a complete stranger and started flinging wind blades the moment it saw him.
"Why are you glaring at me like that..."
Yeop Pung gave it a shake.
"Do you have a grudge against me?"
"Hmph!"
The way the rabbit whipped its head aside was uncannily reminiscent of Bone. Profound Beasts possessed a certain degree of intelligence — though this one was nowhere near Bone's level.
A thought struck Yeop Pung.
A soft rasp of steel. He drew a dagger from his waist. It was an ordinary blade, nothing more.
The rabbit flinched, visibly.
It's over. It's over. Is this what happens when a human catches you? Ah, hell. If I'm going to die anyway, I'll die a brave rabbit!
The rabbit drew itself up, squeezed its eyes shut, clenched its teeth, and faced Yeop Pung. Cold light flashed. Yeop Pung's hand moved. A wet puncture, and blood sprayed.
"Eek!"
Huh? I'm not dead?
The rabbit opened its eyes. A sharp sting bit into its right hand — no, its right foot. It looked down. The infuriating human in front of it was dripping its blood onto a white token.
What is going on?
The rabbit's fur stood on end at the thought of how close it had come to walking the road to the underworld. So why was this human doing this at the last moment?
What is he trying to do?
Yeop Pung was studying the jade token in his hand with close attention. The beast's blood had, as expected, drawn a faint red aura welling slowly up from the token's surface. The pace, though, was a little sluggish.
"Is it related to the quantity?"
He muttered it to himself and shook the rabbit by the ears. More blood ran down onto the jade token.
You bastard, stop shaking me!
The rabbit grew frantic.
You can kill a rabbit, but you cannot humiliate one!
"Doesn't seem related to quantity."
Yeop Pung, oblivious to the rabbit's tragic expression, was absorbed in his experiment.
"A Profound Beast of this level barely puts any red into the token. To dye the whole thing, I'd need to take down at least several dozen... This hunting mission isn't going to be as easy as I thought."
The rabbit in his hand thrashed even harder. That, at last, brought him back to the present.
"You ought to thank the heavens, Mr. Rabbit. You ran into a human who doesn't like killing — namely me. Otherwise you'd already be roasting!"
The rabbit, apparently not understanding a word, kept writhing.
"That's enough. Quit squirming!"
Yeop Pung set the rabbit down on the ground.
"You threw a wind blade at me, so I'll call us even with a little blood. And stop looking at me like that. You'd lose if we fought anyway, so what's the point?"
He smiled.
"Of course, if you feel cheated, you're welcome to come find me anytime. Bring all your friends, even. My name is Yeop Pung. Don't forget it. Yeop. Pung."
Yeop Pung used the rabbit's long ears to tie a butterfly bow on top of its head. He tied it tight, so it wouldn't come undone.
"Kyaaaaah!!!"
The rabbit wanted to die.
Why did it have to be this one! He doesn't even kill me, so why is he drawing my blood? And why did he tie my ears like this! This is completely uncomfortable!
Human, you're dead! Just let me survive this. You wait and see!
"There. Cute!"
Yeop Pung admired his handiwork and let go. The rabbit tumbled away in a rolling scramble and fled.
It turned back to glare at him.
Human! Don't you dare think I'll forget today! You wait!
Its head felt all wrong. No matter how it pawed at the bow with its forefeet, Yeop Pung's knot would not come loose. The rabbit grew even angrier.
Human, you and I are nowhere near finished!
Yes. That look, right there.
Yeop Pung watched the fleeing rabbit with a faint grin and waved, as if seeing it off. Then it was gone.
He had successfully released his first bait.
He did not, of course, place any great value on the lives of wild animals. What he had in mind were the packs of more intelligent beasts. Rabbits were social creatures that lived in groups. There would surely be more than that one rabbit — a whole warren of them. Yeop Pung had deliberately enraged it so the pack would come looking for revenge. Far more efficient than simply killing a rabbit and eating the meat.
That said, this was only a casual experiment. He did not actually expect the rabbit to come back for vengeance. He had to reach the hunting base at the foot of Taibai Peak. He could hardly sit in one spot waiting for a grudge to catch up with him.
Yeop Pung opened the jade token and spread the map. From his current position, even at his fastest, the hunting base below Taibai Peak was a three-day journey. Factor in time spent hunting along the way, and it would take at least four or five. He needed to get moving.
He circulated his Profound Qi and began weaving through the forest at a gale's pace.
As he had expected, the hunting was anything but easy. Ordinary beasts sensed a human — especially one carrying Profound Qi — from a long way off and wanted nothing more than to run. Only powerful Profound Beasts actively attacked people, and those were not easy opponents.
Yeop Pung ran for a long time. The sun had begun to sink, staining the sky with dusk, and he had not encountered a single Profound Beast. Then, at last, beyond a low hill, he spotted a massive black-furred wild boar ambling along at its leisure.
He was not about to let the chance slip. Facing the boar was no small task, but unlike the rabbit, this black boar had an excellent attitude. After Yeop Pung knocked it flying with a single blow, it immediately dropped to its knees and begged for its life.
And what a kind man Yeop Pung was! He collected the boar's blood, then neatly extracted one of its tusks. As he had with the rabbit, he said:
"Don't forget. My name is Yeop Pung. If you want revenge, come find me anytime. I'll be heading that way. That way — got it?"
The boar's cry rolled across the nearby woods. The black boar thrashed in pain, but its eyes burned with a fury to rival the rabbit's. The moment Yeop Pung let go, it bolted without a backward glance.
"Will this be enough...?"
He looked down at the jade token in his hand. The blood of two Profound Beasts had not even stained a twentieth of it. He needed to hurry.
But just as he was about to set off again, he felt a human presence in the distance. Someone was shouting, voice raw with terror.
"Run! Hurry!"
"Help me!"
People? And not just one?
Yeop Pung's eyes flashed. In the next instant, he was gone from the spot.
Yeop Pung reached the crest of the slope in moments. Looking down, he saw a group of four or five people fleeing for their lives a few hundred yards below.
They wore mismatched clothes. At a glance, they did not belong to the Three Great Families — just ordinary martial artists. How they had come together, he could not say, but luck had turned against them: black shapes clung to their heels. The eerie green gleam of those shadows made Yeop Pung's face go hard.
A wolf pack. Unexpectedly, the trickiest beasts in the forest were not solitary predators like lions or tigers. A wolf pack that hunted in concert was a nightmare no hunter wanted to meet.
Yeop Pung looked more closely. Though every wolf was a spirit beast, none of them was particularly strong on its own — at best, about the level of that plump rabbit. They posed no threat to him at all.
The problem was the people below. Their martial skill topped out at around Three Meridians, and the wolves far outnumbered them. They had already lost their nerve before a real fight could start, and now they were running for their lives.
"Hurry — up the mountain!"
Among them, a pale, scholarly-looking youth seemed the strongest. He fought to cover the others, but his stamina was running out.
Despair had begun to settle on every face when a golden afterimage shot down from the summit like a bolt. A rush of wind followed. The golden blur swept past the fleeing group and plunged straight into the heart of the wolf pack.
One of the wolves howled. The others joined in. Then the howls became death screams.
In an instant, the tide had turned. The once-swaggering wolf pack shrieked.