Can’t Catch Up
After pushing away the person, Shao Xuan didn’t back away, instead, he firmly stood his ground and punched someone else as he turned.
He landed each punch with the strength he used to chop down a tree.
Facing an attack like this, Shao Xuan’s pursuers could only dodge his punches. They wouldn’t underestimate the young man’s strength after seeing the fate of one of their teammates.
People from Flaming Horn were all terrifying, strong monsters!
No matter how much the two complained about the strength of the Flaming Horn tribesman, they eventually reached their goal. They managed to slow down Shao Xuan enough to let their three teammates run away with the beast. No matter how much he chased them, he wouldn’t catch up, right?
As soon as the thought crept into their minds, Shao Xuan changed his target from them to the trio carrying the long-clawed squirrel monkey.
When hunting, speed is essential. Many prey were quick- even a seemingly heavy wild boar would be hard to chase after when it reached its maximum speed. Therefore, the Flaming Horn tribe never neglected the importance of speed when hunting. Many forget the other characteristics of people from the Flaming Horn tribe, they only remember their strength. Shao Xuan’s speed was already comparable to the tribe leaders, Mu Ta and Gui He before. Now that Shao Xuan had improved, he was even faster than before.
So, when Shao Xuan started to run, his pursuers were dumbfounded. They thought to themselves, The one that got the monkey, he should be fast, right?
They were right to be worried.
Looking at Shao Xuan slowly creeping up to the trio, the two could only chase up to him, hoping to block him.
Activating all his totem power, his tattoos lit up like flames, energy pulsed through his muscles, he lowered his body as he rushed through the dense forest effectively avoiding anything that blocked his path. His clothes let out a low growl as he ran through the wind. He was so quick that the birds on the tree could not see him passing through, they could only spot the two figures that followed him.
The two pursuers couldn’t help but mutter their frustration as they saw Shao Xuan running through the forest like an agile snake. When did Flaming Horn produce such a monster? If he hadn’t encountered them, when would they hide him until? Were they going to use him for an ambush later on?
Seeing as Shao Xuan got closer and closer to their teammates in front, the two got more nervous. They pushed themselves as much as they could to run faster, one of them even grabbed the weapon he originally intended to use to kill the monkey.
Unfortunately for them, Shao Xuan robbed them of the chance to kill anything.
The terrain in front was uneven, tree roots covered the ground, thick vines were hanging down each tree, anyone would get caught if they weren’t careful. Naturally, the three in front slowed down.
Shao Xuan thought of a plan to catch up to the trio. He could attack from the top.
While chasing after the monkey, Shao Xuan paid attention to how it moved and tried to mimic it. He could have ended the chase earlier but he chose to experiment with his movements. Every time he got close to the monkey, he would climb up a tree to scare it and then closely observe its movements without letting it out of his sight. He continued this cycle until he was used to the movements.
Shao Xuan held his black dagger and struck as he spun around.
The two behind him only heard a ‘chi’ sound as the figure before they jumped high into the air with the help of a tree. The tree he passed by now had an extra set of rather unnoticeable footsteps and a slash across it.
Chi! Chi! Chi!
In the dense forest, following a continuous noise, a figure travelling at lightning speed was completely off the ground. The shrubs, half-decayed leaves, roots hidden beneath fallen leaves were not a problem to Shao Xuan anymore. Even though he was slower than he was on flatter ground, currently he was quicker than anyone else pursuing him or he was pursuing. He could even quickly circle around a tree to dodge attacks from behind.
Noting the way Shao Xuan moved, the duo felt shocked to their cores.
No way ……
He was imitating the long-clawed squirrel monkey’s movements!
Quick!
Quick!
Not quick enough!
Fuck!
We failed!
This tribesman was too fast!
Looking at Shao Xuan get further and further away, the two felt a looming pressure rested upon their shoulders.
The trees in the forests had very few branches for its first seven or eight meters from the ground. The higher it is from the ground, the more branches it had. This was key to how the monkey could escape at such speed in this terrain. It could avoid the obstacles on the ground and the dense web of branches at the top. It didn’t need to follow the tree trunks for its route. But now, a tribesman from Flaming Horn learned its secret.
The duo tried to mimic its movements but they did not get the technique right so instead of gaining speed, they got slower. They didn’t have time to experiment with techniques now so they could only continue running on the ground. When they finally say their three teammates, they were all lying on the ground.
“No major injuries,” After checking the injuries on the trio, the leader felt a knot in his stomach eased.
“Should we thank that bastard for showing us mercy then?” said the other.
The others kept their silence. It was obvious, Shao Xuan did show them mercy, or else they wouldn’t be breathing now. Shao Xuan was superior to them in strength and in speed.
Shao Xuan did go easy on them, considering that these five only wanted to snatch something from him with no intention to kill them.
“Those, was it him?” The leader asked as he pointed at the toppled large trees.
“Yes.” answered the three with grimace. When Shao Xuan struck them to the ground, they wanted to get up and pursue him again but they heard the trees fall down as if he was giving them a warning.
They felt frustrated thinking about it.
“What should we do?” asked someone.
“What else can we do? Meet with the others and tell them our stuff was stolen by someone from Flaming Horn,” said the leader. This was out of character for the leader, he was admitting to his fault! Anything that had fallen into the hands of someone from Flaming Horn would be hard to retrieve. They needed to go back and have a good ‘talk’ with Flaming Horn
They could imagine the spat their tribe leaders would get into and how those from the other tribe would brag. This was all fucking great!
On the other side of things, Shao Xuan took a now spiritless monkey to a quiet spot. He patted its head, “Drop the act, take the thing out.”
The monkey stared blankly at Shao Xuan.
“You still want to act? Show me the thing,” Shao Xuan said as he used the butt of his dagger to tap its shoulder.
If that group of people wanted to bring back this beast no matter dead or alive, they wouldn’t do it without reason. This monkey had something they wanted.