Night Hunt

The night in the West Suburbs was oppressively dark.

Li Tui carried a lantern, but the light could only reveal three steps ahead. He did not walk fast, his right hand pressed firmly against his waist, the short blade cold against his skin.

The lantern light flickered across the ridges, illuminating the Spirit Grain. The ears of grain were heavy; as the wind passed, faint halos of spiritual energy could be seen rising from them.

Li Tui stopped at the edge of an earthen bank and blew out the lantern.

Total darkness.

He crouched down, waiting for his eyes to adjust. After half a stick of incense, moonlight leaked through a gap in the clouds, barely allowing him to make out the contours of the fields.

No movement.

He sat cross-legged, steadying his breathing, his ears pricked.

The chirping of insects, the rustling of leaves, the sound of water in the distance.

And... something else.

Li Tui stood up, not rushing forward. He crouched beside a stalk of fallen Spirit Grain and touched the broken end.

It was jagged, as if it had been torn apart by force. The spiritual energy within the stalk was dissipating rapidly.

His eyes darkened. If a wild beast were eating the grain, it would chew the stalks along with it; why would it only tear them apart to drain the spiritual energy?

He straightened up and looked toward the southeast corner. An abandoned well stood there.

When he moved again, his footsteps were even lighter.

The closer he got to the well, the more fallen Spirit Grain he found. Large patches lay flat, the stalks withered into empty husks. There was a faint, fishy stench in the air, like something rotting.

The outline of the abandoned well appeared, its bluestone rim covered in withered vines. The ground around the well was ash-gray, devoid of any grass.

Li Tui crouched behind some wild shrubs ten paces away.

The mouth of the well was deathly quiet.

That fishy stench drifted out from within.

He waited for a quarter of an hour. There was no movement in the well; even the chirping of insects grew sparse here, as if all living things gave it a wide berth.

Something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

If there were something in the well, he hadn't been hiding his approach, so he should have alerted it long ago. Unless...

Li Tui's pupils constricted.

Unless it wasn't in the well.

It was waiting for him.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when a gust of wind rose behind him!

The sound didn't arrive first; only a violent, fishy-smelling gale lunged at him from behind and to the side! It was terrifyingly fast, the shrill whistle of air being torn apart reaching his ears a split second late.

Li Tui did not look back.

He pushed off with his left foot, his body lunging violently to the front right! At the same time, he drew the short blade from his waist and swept it backward with a backhand motion!

"Clang!"

The blade struck something hard, numbing the web of his hand. Using that momentum, Li Tui surged forward even faster, landed, turned, and held his blade horizontally toward the thing that had lunged at him.

The moonlight happened to break through the clouds.

The thing stood five paces away, upright, seven feet tall. Its entire body was covered in dark brown scales, with viscous fluid oozing from the gaps, glistening in the moonlight. Its head resembled a lizard's but was not quite one; its mouth was split wide, revealing two rows of interlocking fangs, and the saliva dripping onto the ground hissed upon contact.

The most chilling part was those eyes—crimson, vertical pupils staring fixedly at him.

Not a wild beast.

A demon.

Li Tui's heart sank. There was a Jing'an Division outpost outside Jinan Town, and the Zhao Family Spirit Fields had protective measures; where did this thing come from?

There was no time to think.

The demon moved.

It pushed off with all four limbs, the mud exploding as its body turned into a brown blur and lunged! Its two front claws were spread wide, the tips pitch-black, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek!

Li Tui did not retreat; he took a half-step diagonally with his left foot and turned his body to the side. The demon grazed his shoulder, the wind from its claws tearing his clothes and drawing blood from his skin.

At the same time, Li Tui swung his right arm, driving the short blade straight into the demon's right flank!

"Pfft!"

The tip of the blade sank in three inches but became wedged in the scales.

The demon roared in pain and twisted its waist violently! A massive force traveled through the blade, nearly ripping it from his grip. Li Tui let go of the weapon, retreated, and hooked a stone with his left foot, kicking it toward the demon's face!

The stone whistled through the air, but the demon tilted its head to dodge. In that instant, Li Tui retreated two yards, opening up the distance.

The demon looked down at its right flank; the short blade was still embedded there, dark red blood dripping down the length of the steel. It reached out with a front claw, gripped the hilt, and pulled it out by force! Granulation tissue writhed at the wound, and the bleeding slowed visibly to the naked eye.

It could heal itself.

Li Tui's gaze grew even colder.

The monster tossed the short blade aside and licked the blood from its front paw, the killing intent in its vertical pupils nearly solidifying.

It lunged a second time, faster and more cunning.

It no longer moved in a straight line; its four limbs pushed off the ground, its body darting left and right, carving eerie zigzag lines across the field ridges. Every change in direction left behind afterimages, making its trajectory impossible to predict.

Li Tui's mind tightened.

He could not let it get close.

His footwork shifted, treading on the narrow parts of the ridges, his body like willow catkins in the wind, narrowly dodging each time just before the wind of its claws could touch his clothes. But the monster was too fast; after a few exchanges, his clothes were torn in several more places, and new wounds appeared on his arms and back.

A foul, fishy wind rushed into his face.

The monster lunged before him once again, its blood-red maw wide open, aiming straight for his throat!

This time, Li Tui did not retreat.

He slammed his right foot against the ridge behind him, causing the mud to explode, and instead of retreating, he surged forward, slamming into the monster's chest! He bent his left arm, driving his elbow hard into the monster's chin!

"Bang!"

A dull thud.

The monster's head snapped back, its bite missing. Seizing the chance, Li Tui held his right hand in a sword-finger gesture, condensing his true energy at his fingertips, and jabbed at the monster's left eye!

The monster closed its eye, the scales on its eyelids as hard as iron. The sword-finger struck, sparking only a few flickers of light.

But this strike was never meant to break through its defense.

Li Tui's true energy exploded from his fingertips!

It wasn't an attack, but a burst of soft force. The monster's head was pushed aside by another three inches, revealing a patch of upturned scales on the side of its neck.

Opportunity.

Li Tui's left hand had reached his waist at some point, where a sharpened piece of hardwood, about a foot long, was tucked—something he had swiped from the woodshed before coming.

Without hesitation, he gripped the wooden stake, poured all his true energy into his right arm, and thrust it with all his might toward the patch of upturned scales!

"Pfft!"

This time, there were no scales to block it.

The wooden stake sank in to the hilt, piercing straight through the neck bone!

The monster's body shuddered violently, and it let out a shrill, miserable scream! It struggled frantically, its front claws flailing, and Li Tui was flung away by the immense force, crashing heavily against the stone rim of an abandoned well.

A pain like a fractured spine radiated through his back.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood and struggled to his feet. The monster was still rolling on the ground, the wooden stake embedded in its neck, blood gushing out like a fountain and corroding the ground until it hissed with green smoke. But it wasn't dead yet; its crimson vertical pupils were locked onto Li Tui, and it was struggling to stand up.

He couldn't let it get up.

Li Tui gritted his teeth and lunged toward the short blade nearby.

He picked up the knife, but as he turned, the monster had already staggered to its feet. Blood streamed from its neck, yet its movements remained terrifyingly fast as it lunged again!

This time, Li Tui did not dodge.

Facing the pounce, he lowered his body and charged forward. The instant the monster's front claws were about to strike his head, he dropped low, sliding underneath its belly! Simultaneously, he slashed the short blade upward, the edge slicing through the monster's soft underbelly!

"Riiip!"

It was gutted.

Warm, foul-smelling entrails spilled out in a heap. The monster let out a dying wail, its body crashing to the ground, twitching a few times before falling still.

Li Tui leaned on his knife, gasping for air.

He was covered in blood, his back ached terribly, and a deep, bone-exposed claw mark on his left arm was bleeding profusely. But at the very least, he had survived.