The Fire Beast (2)
Cheonhwa descended Zhongnan Mountain alone and set out at once.
His destination was, of course, Lintong, where Lishan stood. The others who would join him in the spirit beast subjugation were to meet him there.
Combining the Wind-Cloud Divine Steps with the Axis Cloud Leisure Scripture, he quickened his pace. The agreed meeting place was an inn in Lintong — almost certainly one belonging to Haomen.
"We've reserved a seat for you. They said three great gates would be gathering."
"This way, honored guest."
At those words, the waiter guided Cheonhwa to the prepared table. Two people were already waiting. One was a Taoist in white robes embroidered with plum blossoms. The other wore rough clothes fashioned from cured animal hides. Yet the sharp presence radiating from both made it plain that they had stepped into the realm of Peak Experts.
"It seems I've arrived last. My apologies for being late. I am Cheonhwa, a third-generation disciple of the Zhongnan Sect."
Cheonhwa greeted them first. The Taoist smiled faintly and answered.
"I only arrived a short while ago myself. I am Hyeonmyeong, a second-generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect."
Refined breathing, disciplined movements. Outwardly he seemed a courteous Taoist, but the flow of the Six Harmony Sensory Path told another story entirely — the bearing of a swordsman ready to draw at any moment. It meant his martial arts were so thoroughly internalized he could unleash them at will. Anyone capable of that would rank among Mount Hua's elite.
Cheonhwa carefully examined Hyeonmyeong's sleeves.
Plum blossom embroidery worked in purple thread. The unmistakable mark of a Plum Blossom Sword Master.
Plum Blossom Sword Master. Mount Hua's absolute elite, the counterpart to Zhongnan's Tae-eul Sword Masters. Proof enough that Mount Hua was taking this matter seriously.
When Hyeonmyeong finished introducing himself, the man draped in animal hides spoke.
"Name's Neungpung. Hunter affiliated with Haomen. I'm here to track the spirit beast for this mission."
At the word hunter, Cheonhwa's gaze naturally drifted to Neungpung's waist. A bow stave, unstrung and rolled, showed heavy use — clearly a practitioner of archery.
To reach Peak Expert with archery, a method rarely used outside military camps... This man is no less formidable than Daoist Hyeonmyeong.
Bows were uncommon weapons in the martial world. Useful in war, their environment of use was limited in the murim. Regardless of stamina or willpower, you could fight only as long as your arrows lasted, and constantly replenishing spent shafts was bothersome and burdensome. Infusing arrows with internal energy was no easy feat either. Because of all these difficulties, Peak Experts who had risen through archery were rare outside well-supplied military gates.
"Now that everyone's here, we should set out at once. This is too urgent for us to leisurely recover from travel fatigue."
Neungpung looked between Hyeonmyeong and Cheonhwa, silently asking with his eyes whether they objected. Both nodded in agreement.
"We'll follow Senior Neung's lead."
"Likewise."
"My thanks."
Once they accepted, Neungpung called the waiter, settled the bill, and rose from his seat. On the road to their destination, he began explaining to the two of them.
"We're heading to a village destroyed by the spirit beast."
"Because that's where it was last sighted?"
"That's right. We'll pick up the trail from there and track it."
Neungpung then shared the information on the spirit beast gathered from the village survivors. It could command fire. It had glossy black fur like obsidian. Its form recalled a dog or wolf, but its body was more than twice the size of a human.
"Based on that information, further investigation confirmed the creature's identity as a spirit beast called the Fire Beast — Hwadu."
"I've never heard of a spirit beast by that name. What are its traits?"
Hyeonmyeong asked, and Neungpung answered.
"A disaster that appears suddenly. As the name suggests, it's a spirit beast that often shows its face at sites of fire."
"So it's a beast that frequently starts fires like this?"
"No, not quite. The Fire Beast feeds on burning firewood, charcoal, and flame itself, so it appears where fires break out. It doesn't go out of its way to start them first."
The Fire Beast could spit and manipulate fire, but incidents of it burning civilian homes were rare. It occasionally ate people, but that was a last resort when nothing else was available nearby. Even wild beasts knew that touching a single human brought a swarm of hunters — a spirit beast smarter than them not knowing this would be strange.
"Then the fires this time...?"
"It may have woken from hibernation starving and gone on a rampage. We'll know more once we examine the site."
Before long, the party reached the fire site. What had been a village was now nothing but black and white ash. No trace of its original form remained. Even though considerable time had passed since the flames died, a stifling heat still lingered — residual warmth from the power invested in the Fire Beast's fire.
The three walked the ash-choked village searching for the Fire Beast's trail. Along the way they found several human corpses that looked half-eaten by a beast. Neungpung examined the marks on the bodies and frowned.
"Looking at these tooth marks, something far larger than any ordinary predator did the tearing."
"Meaning the Fire Beast definitely fed on people here."
"It left the firewood and charcoal alone and only ate the charred corpses. Its appetite seems to have changed after demonic corruption."
A spirit beast once mistaken for an omen of disaster because of its peculiar diet had, after demonic contamination, become a walking catastrophe in truth.
"Silver lining — I found its trail. It headed this way."
The moment Hyeonmyeong saw the direction Neungpung indicated, his expression darkened sharply.
"Daoist Hyeonmyeong, do you have some idea?"
"Yes. That way lies Lishan's famous hot spring, Huaqing Pool."
"Trouble. A hot spring draws crowds even in winter — for that beast, it's a hunting ground overflowing with prey."
The three immediately resumed pursuit along the Fire Beast's trail. The creature had burned an entire village and gorged itself, yet showed no sign of returning to hibernation. Its tracks led unmistakably toward Huaqing Pool.
They had no way of knowing why its gluttony ran so deep, but one thing was certain. If left alone, Huaqing Pool would burn like the village they had passed through, and countless people there would die horribly.
So the three poured everything into their lightfoot arts and raced through the mountain forest after the trail.
Then, without warning, an inexplicable chill raced down Cheonhwa's spine. The survival instinct that had saved his life countless times was sounding the alarm.
"Get clear!"
Cheonhwa shouted as he threw himself aside exactly as instinct demanded. Hyeonmyeong and Neungpung, Peak Experts both, reacted with equal swiftness. The instant they dodged, searing heat and a deafening blast erupted.
BOOM! CRACK! THUD!
Flames from the explosion incinerated the surrounding trees. The heat toppled several smaller trunks with dull crashes. Had they been even a fraction slower, they would have been caught in the blast and crushed under falling timber.
"What in the world was that just now?"
"I don't know. But one thing is certain — it means to kill us."
Neungpung bit out the answer as he gripped his bow. Cheonhwa and Hyeonmyeong drew their weapons and took defensive stances.
Cheonhwa pushed the Six Harmony Sensory Path to its limit and scanned the surroundings. Sharpening his senses to the extreme, he uncovered what had been so carefully hidden.
Compressed spheres of fire qi?
Spheres cleverly concealed among the trees, invisible to the party's eyes. They were hidden so thoroughly that even their heat was nearly undetectable — and there weren't just one or two. Dozens littered the area.
Who set these up?
Grrrrowl.
As if answering Cheonhwa's question, a beast's roar echoed through the forest. Their gazes turned toward the sound as one. And then they locked eyes with something lurking in the tree shadows.
Crimson pupils gleaming clearly in the dark. Fur darker than soot. A wolf of oppressive size stood there.
At a glance it resembled the shadow-melting leopard spirit beast once handled by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace. But the dread in its gaze was of an entirely different order. This creature was no silent assassin that cut throats quietly.
If I had to put a name to it... closer to a madman.
Those red eyes held a faint joy at having found toys to play with.
The explosion just now and the spheres planted throughout the forest — all this beast's doing.
As if affirming Cheonhwa's guess, the planted spheres detonated in a chain reaction. Searing heat surged as the surrounding area burst into flame, a ring of fire fencing the three in.
They raised protective qi to ward off the pouring heat, but with their escape routes completely sealed, Hyeonmyeong asked Neungpung:
"Senior Neung, can a Fire Beast normally wield fire with such cunning?"
"Records say it can swallow and spit flame. Nothing about controlling it with this kind of finesse."
Listening to them, Cheonhwa carefully examined the surrounding flames with the Six Harmony Sensory Path. In sphere form it had been hard to tell, but once they exploded and spread, the demonic energy was unmistakable. The structure of that true qi felt familiar in several ways.
"This is... Heavenly Yang Divine Art?"
"You mean the spirit beast has learned a demonic art?"
"As far as I can sense, yes. How else could a spirit beast born with the power of fire set traps like this unless it had also cultivated a demonic art?"
Cheonhwa fixed the Fire Beast with a hard stare. The beast bared its fangs in something like a grin, mockery plain on its face. That reaction solidified Cheonhwa's conviction.
"It knew it would be tracked and laid this trap in advance. Hiding the fire orbs so we wouldn't easily notice them, deliberately leaving a trail — all of it was for this."
"...If it were any ordinary beast I'd deny that out of hand, but with a spirit beast it's possible. That's the headache."
Neungpung had no choice but to nod at Cheonhwa's assessment. There was no other way to explain their current predicament.
"So what do we do? If we stay like this we could die in the flames."
"Even if we try to run, that thing won't let us go quietly. After preparing a trap like this, it'll want to finish us for certain."
"Then there's only one way."
The three gazes converged on a single point. There was only one solution to this desperate crisis — defeat the spirit beast that had prepared this trap. The Fire Beast.