Chapter 18: Battle in the deep forest

Nearby, Wu Zhen did not bother with weapons as he encountered a Black-Fur Ape who ran out of the deep bushes  and roared while it swung its massive arm at him. Wu Zhen welcomed the blow as his body glowed faintly bronze while he revolved the Titan Vein Tempering Art.

The ape’s strike landed on Wu Zhen’s shoulder, but instead of shattering bone, he screamed in pain at the hardness his hand met. Wu Zhen stepped forward and drove his fist into the beast’s chest making it howl louder in pain. They kept striking each other till the Ape entered a mad state and Wu Zhen found a weak spot and struck it hard. The ape struggled a bit before it collapsed.

Wu Zhen flexed his fingers, grinning. “My bones feel stronger already,” he muttered.

Feng Xiang sat on the trees and watched over the others silently.Two Venom-Tail Serpents slithered toward Zhao Lian and Tang Bo, who were busy collecting herbs. Before the serpents could strike, a flicker of movement cut through the branches and the serpents fell in pieces before they could even hiss.

Feng Xiang landed lightly behind them. “You were distracted,” he said calmly.

Tang Bo adjusted his talisman sleeves, slightly embarrassed. “I was observing wind direction.”

“You were daydreaming,” Zhao Lian corrected with a soft smile before kneeling to harvest the venom glands. “Still useful.”

Not far away, Mei Ru stood before a pack of Greyfang Wolves. She closed her eyes, circulating the Illusory Mirage HeartScripture Lu Tian had crafted for her.

The wolves slowed and their growls turned uncertain. Before them, the single woman seemed to split into five identical figures, then ten. The wolves lunged at phantoms while Chen Ran whistled sharply from the side and his bonded Wind-Talon Hawk descended, claws ripping through exposed necks while a Stone-back Lizard burst from undergrowth at Chen Ran’s command.

Within moments, the wolves were nothing more than silent bodies on the forest floor.

Chen Ran exhaled, stroking the hawk’s feathers. “They’re responding better to my will,” he murmured, astonished.

By dusk, the ten disciples regrouped. Their robes were torn and blood stained some of their sleeves. Their breathing was heavier than when they had left camp that morning, but their eyes shone with unmistakable progress. They handed all the beast cores they harvested from their kills to Lu Tian who accepted them while struggling to hide his joy. Their hunt today brought him ten beast cores and when he ventured deeper by himself he was able to hunt five by himself. He got fifteen beast cores which meant more chances for progress in his cultivation

Lu Tian inspected them quietly. “You fought well,” he said. “But you hesitated when the pressure mounted.”

Han Yue frowned slightly. “You noticed?”

“You are strongest when calm,” Lu Tian replied. “But battle will not wait for calm. You must create it.”

He turned to Luo Qingshan, who had remained near the rear during the hunt.

“The formation you laid earlier,” Lu Tian continued, “its energy circulation was unstable.”

Luo Qingshan bowed his head slightly. “The third node collapsed when Wu Zhen shifted position.”

“Because you anchored it to his spiritual rhythm instead of the land’s,” Lu Tian corrected gently. “A formation master commands terrain, not teammates.”

Luo Qingshan’s eyes widened in realization. Lu Tian walked among them, offering each disciple precise, almost frighteningly accurate advice. It was as though he had fought beside them for decades.

When night finally settled, they returned to camp. The fire crackled softly as Zhao Lian refined medicinal paste from harvested herbs. Tang Bo etched new talismans by firelight, his brush strokes sharper than before. Wu Zhen meditated shirtless beside the flames, steam rising faintly from his skin as his body absorbed residual beast energy from the cores that Zhao Lian refined from him with some herbs for his cultivation.

Han Yue practiced slow sword forms under the moonlight, refining angles. Liang Jie mirrored her at a distance, their blades occasionally ringing when paths intersected.

Lu Tian sat apart from them, with a beast core resting in his palm. He started meditating as his void-core started revolving and started absorbing the energy from the beast core. When the one he was holding was spent, he took out another and continued to absorb it. He continued to absorb and after the fifth one, he felt his cultivation breakthrough to the third layer of void Initiate realm. He took out a fifth one to absorb but he felt pain in his meridians.

“so, there is a limit to how much I can absorb at my level” he muttered as he opened his eyes.

Across the camp, Mei Ru suddenly looked toward him. “Senior Brother… your presence feels different.”

The others paused their activities, sensing it too.

Lu Tian smiled faintly. “Just progress,” he said calmly.

He knew this was just the beginning of his growth journey. He still had a long way to go in his goal.

The next several days passed in a rhythm that gradually reshaped both their strength and their understanding of the forest. Each morning began before sunrise. They would pack their simple camp, and move silently through the towering forest toward regions where stronger spirit beasts were known to roam.By midday, the forest would erupt with the sounds of battle and by nightfall, they would gather again around a small hidden fire to recover and prepare for the next day.

It was a brutal but effective way to grow stronger. The battles became more frequent and more dangerous.

On the fourth month after leaving their original camp, they encountered a group of Ironback Apes near a rocky ravine. The beasts were large and powerful, their dark fur thick as armor while their backs were covered in hardened plates of bone that ordinary blades could barely penetrate.

Chen Ran learned that lesson the hard way. His first strike glanced off the creature’s back with a loud metallic crack that nearly numbed his entire arm. “Are you kidding me?!” he shouted as the ape roared in fury.

Feng Xiang’s laughter echoed briefly from somewhere among the branches overhead. “Try hitting something that isn’t built like a fortress!”

The battle was chaotic as the apes moved with surprising speed for creatures of their size, swinging their massive arms through the trees while launching themselves from branch to branch with violent bursts of strength.

Yet the disciples adapted. Luo Qingshan’s sharp commands cut through the chaos as she directed their movements with calm precision. “Separate them!”

Chen Ran drew the attention of one of the beasts, deliberately provoking it with loud shouts while leading it away from the ravine.

Meanwhile, Feng Xiang and the others circled the other apes, striking repeatedly at the softer joints beneath its armored back.

Lu Tian watched quietly from the edge of the battlefield. He thought that movements were still rough and their timing imperfect. But compared to the nervous outer disciples who had first entered the forest, they had already changed dramatically.

They fought like a team now, trusted each other’s movements and most importantly they were beginning to develop real combat instincts.