Chapter 29:

Chapter 29

~~~~Ya Xue~~~~

I have not been in many forests, no I have not been in any forest until now and yet they have been excellent teachers to me. They have taught me how to hate in a single lesson. I hate trees, I hate the filthy roots, I have the leaves and I hate every single non-human thing one can find in them.

The forest is a mighty teacher, for it teaches you how to hate and hate is a cold thing that coils around your heart gently and feeds on your misery and it grows ever tighter and ever more comfortable around it.

"I can hear the river now myself." The Ice Blooded said as she broke me out of my ruminations.

She, unlike most of this infernal forest was silent, her humming a soft thing compared to the cacophony of the forest because to my new sense the forest has been getting louder and louder. It is enough to make one wish to rip out their ears, and the notion was becoming more and more appealing by the hour.

"Good, this means we're getting closer, I still can't hear it but at least we know we're no longer stumbling with no clear path.." Tai Su replied softly.

I heard a tone coming form him that felt like caution.

"I just want it to stop, you can't smell it Tai Su?" I whined.

My ears have started to hurt as they felt a weird cacophony which we took to mean we are getting closer to the river. If only it wasn't as loud, or if it was just one song or something that made sense. No it couldn't be any of that, instead it was a constant clash of a thousand screams, clashing metal, falling rocks, thunder and screams.

I felt myself embraced in a soft hug as his melody started to cover up the cacophony that made me wish I was born deaf. I relaxed in

"No, whatever my new senses are feeling is different from what you are feeling." He answered.

Mei Lin joined into the hug too. She wasn't adding to Tai Su's melody, but she also wasn't doing any harm which I suppose was good enough. Tai's melody was a warm fire, occasionally cracking with the sound of a blade being un-sheathed.

The Ice blooded on the other hand was almost mute, only a soft hum could be heard from her and it was so soft that even just being near her I could miss her being there.

"I guess it would be strange if I could hear what you smell. I really wish the manual would have told me how to stop hearing what I am hearing or tell me it would have been an issue." I muttered.

If I knew cultivating would have made my Qi hearing this loud and not have a way to cover up the noise I would have saved it for after we've reached the sect.

"Yes it would be I suppose. Come, now that we have a direction we can go towards and rush there and back towards the camp before sunset." Tai Su said plainly as the sword unsheathed itself loudly.

The hug ended and the cacophony returned and I shuddered. The sound of a sword being unsheathed was growing more frequent and louder and while I am unsure as to what it could mean as I can't hear what Tai Su smells, I think it means that Tai Su is more and more prepared to fight or get violent.

The last thing I want is to be the target to that desire for violence and I am scared that I might be.

"You are not in any trouble Ya Xue, this forest is wrong and it's starting to get to me." Tai Su assured me as he noticed my fear.

Mei Lin to our side was drawing on the tree two arrows, the one above where we're going and the one below where we came from.

"Wrong how?" I asked.

Beyond the endless noise, nothing seemed wrong.

"There's no insects, well more like there's very few of them." Mei Lin answered instead.

"That too, there's no bird song either, hasn't been any since we entered the forest. There hasn't been any rats, insects are a rare sight and all of that continues as the forest is too quiet to normal senses."

I realized that she was correct. I've seen and heard few insects and there was not even a cat here. The book guides said there were animals in this forest and yet we barely even saw insects.

First there's no bamboo, then there's no insects or animals? Does this forest have anything but trees in it?

"I hate this forest more and more by the hour." I muttered.

The others remained silent as we moved back into formation with Tai Su in the front, Mei Lin in the center and me in the back.

I spent my time mostly trying to filter out the noise or at the very least try and figure out what is what.

Tai Su's burning flame is an obvious shelter and safety and the sound of a blade leaving it's sheath a preparation for violence. I've spent enough around him to say that much, but what is it exactly that I am hearing?

Tai Su smells emotions through his meridians in his nose, this we've been able to verify easily enough, but that's not what I am hearing.

Am I thinking too hard about it? Tai Su wants to protect me, a look in front of me makes me rectify that, protect us. Maybe what I am hearing is intent carried by Qi?

If so, why is it so loud? The sound of a crashing mountain hit me and it felt as if it was the mountain itself that did so. Each falling rock hit my brain with the power of a divinity as my world became a falling mountain that was falling on me and each one was deafening.

"Aaaah!" I screamed and put my hands to my ears as everything was subsumed by the scream of a mountain.

~~~Tai Su~~~

Ya Xue's scream startled me, but I didn't have time to check on her. Her scream was quickly matched and surpassed by a porcine hateful cry.

"Take Ya Xue and hide or run back to the camp, I'll keep it distracted!" I shouted to Mei Lin and turned towards where the porcine shout was coming from.

It wasn't hard to find out where it was coming from, a falling tree tends to be hard to miss. I was thankful it wasn't falling on me at least as it fell to the side.

It wasn't a large tree by any means, I've felled greater ones for wood, but those operations were the stuff of hours for each tree, even those smaller than it. And yet whatever creature is in front of me brought one down in a single charge.

Maybe the creature wasn't here for me at least, or if not I could just leave and it'll let me be? I looked at it and that hope died faster than Mei Lin could run.

At least she took Ya Xue with her without complaint.

The creature was large, easily as tall on four limbs as I was on two and probably larger. It was dark brown in color, with tusks on its face that wouldn't look out of place on a spear and red beady eyes that threatened murder. There was also something else on it, a huge hole running through its side that one could clearly see on the other.

The hole was also dripping with boiling blood. One drop fell down and I could both hear and see the sizzling blood evaporate from its own heat. The hole was around its stomach, no it was made through it's stomach and there was even some bits of intestines visible at its edges.

The most striking thing about it however was the Qi smell it emitted , it was a revolting thing that made me think of Malicious Nihilism.

'I am dying so I am taking whatever I can with me.' It's eye balefully promised as its body turned towards me.

It cried bloody murder and charged towards me with terrifying speed and I barely dodged and it hit a tree behind me.

This one was thicker than the other one and yet it too fell in one hit as the boar ploughed through solid wood and made it to the other side. The tree followed the boar's trajectory somewhat and fell at its left side but did not touch it.

I gripped my spear tighter in my hand as I considered how to deal with this thing.

Despite it being able to punch through thick trees it was dying. The boiling blood falling from it's side still confirmed more than anything. The boar was on its last legs, all I needed to do was outlast it.

It turned back towards me for a bit, but its eyes started to wander around and my blood turned cold.

"Sausage guts! Stop wandering around, your fight's with me!" I shouted and gestured wildly with my spear.

The thing saw that there were three of us previously and now there was only me, I could not allow it to start hunting for the girls, or worse follow them to the others. I would have to keep it company until it died it seems.

The creature stopped looking around and refocused on me alone. It was swaying a bit now which made me grin. I also saw something else close to it which made me grin even more.

It snorted and started walking towards me now as it grumbled and oinked at me. It sounded, no it smelled annoyed.

"Oi I am going to eat your heart, or maybe give it to my wife to eat for looking down on me swine!" I shouted indignantly as my smirk was replaced with anger.

It may be more powerful than me but looking down on me like that? That was downright insulting for something that can't even become a sausage properly.

The thing snorted and gave a warcry as it started running at me. This charge was much slower, which meant now it was more prepared for a sudden turn.

It would not allow me to escape it by dodging to the side. Not that I wanted to now that is. Becoming predictable is how one loses a fight and this creature seemed experienced at it.

I prepared my spear and pointed it in front of me as the pig grew faster and I started charging at it myself.

My spear charge was not meant to kill it, my spear was no boar spear meant to stop a charge, and even if it was, a tree can't stop one of the boar's charges, nothing I could carry could stop it but it could do something useful still.

My spear met it's right eye and dug through it. The beast started squealing as I was using my momentum to roll to the side right towards Ya Xue's dropped spear.

She couldn't keep on to it as whatever caused the cry of anguish made her unable to hold anything and Mei Lin only took her and whatever bags both could carry. This meant that they left the big spear behind.

The creature trashed around as I was looking for the opportunity to stab it with my second spear and make it fully blind.

It trashed and squealed around and eventually it hit the shaft of the spear on one of the trees and squealed louder than anything I've heard from a pig before as the spear fell from its eye socket.

It turned towards me and gone was its condescension, all that was left was hot fury.

"That will teach you to look down on me swine!" I shouted.

If the thing was somehow capable of understanding my words before it lost that ability now.

Blood and saliva were dropping from its mouth, it's right eye socket was bleeding blood and brain and it's left eye was showing me it's whites as the thing struggled to remain cognizant from the pain it was in.

It charged once again and this time it was running at full force to not allow me the chance to stab it. This time it was far too close for me to dodge the same as before, and so I did the first thing that came to mind.

I empowered my feet and jumped. My left foot hit it's forehead and I used as a spring board despite the two of us almost being head to head in height.

The boar did not stop until it hit a tree this time as well, but now the tree held.

The boar was swaying once again and its stumbles ended with it on the side with it's left eye looking up to the sky.

It's red eye turned back into a natural black color and it turned glassy in seconds as life suddenly left the pig and I was now alone on the battlefield.

I approached slowly and stabbed my spear into its second eye to make sure it's dead. but the thing didn't so much as twitch and only when I saw that did I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Now, I need to find the others' hopefully the girls are safe and the others found the river." I mumbled.

I was probably close to it as well, but I am not staying here to check, not alone that is, especially as the darkness was slowly approaching and the sun was slowly moving beyond the horizon.

I looked numbly at the tree leaves and the holes in the canopy the boar left as a realization came to me.

"Someone could have just climbed a tree for us to see where the mountain is and go towards it." I said tiredly.

I am starting to hate this forest.