Dual Cultivation In Martial Peak

Chapter 62: A Little Bit Scary

"How much longer do we have to wait here?"

"Until someone comes to hunt the Phantom Lightning Wolf Monster Beasts."

"It has been a while since we arrived at this place, and now, I don't think we'll run into any other cultivators."

"Let's just listen to Senior Brother Wu and stay still. If someone comes to hunt the Phantom Lightning Wolves, not only will we get two 5th Order Monster Beasts' Blood Beads, but also the Blood Beads of a True Element Realm Cultivator."

Within the dense forest of the isolated world, four disciples of the Thunder Valley concealed themselves, observing the movements of the two Phantom Lightning Wolves, Monster Beasts that were equivalent to 3rd Stage True Element Realm Cultivators.

As long as someone came into conflict with the Phantom Lightning Wolves and defeated them, the four of them could ambush those cultivators together and collect their Blood Beads, too, and while their group was more than enough to kill those two Monster Beasts, why would they want to put in extra effort when someone else can do it for them?

Not only will they get the cultivator's Blood Beads, but also the items that they had, like Artifacts and Pills, for themselves.

While artifacts were useless in this isolated place, their value remained the same in the outside world.

Coupled with how easy it'll be to deal with someone who was exhausted after their fight with the Phantom Lightning Wolves, it was a simple decision to move forward with such a plan to gain a big harvest; from the moment they had arrived, the four disciples of the Thunder Valley had concealed their movements, so they were sure that no one was aware of their position.

"Shh! Someone's coming."

The leader of the disciples of the Thunder Valley—Senior Brother Wu, who was at the peak of the 6th Stage of the True Element Realm—silenced his junior brothers and sister, and the three of them frowned, turning towards the Phantom Lightning Wolves as the forest grew dead silent.

"Isn't that...?" Senior Brother Wu muttered to himself, looking at the beautiful girl that was walking through the forest alone, seemingly confused and somewhat exhausted. With her clothes being slightly dirty, everyone present guessed that she had escaped from some enemy and had no idea where she was.

But even her dishevelled clothes weren't able to hide her astonishing beauty.

"That's one of the twins from the High Heaven Pavilion..."

"But where are her companions?"

"From how she looks, I believe they encountered some threat and ended up running away on their own, abandoning each other."

"But the question is, which one is she?" Senior Brother Wu remembered what their Valley Master had told them about the disciples from the High Heaven Pavilion.

Within the twins, the girl with the sword was in the 7th Stage of the True Element Realm, while the other one was in the 4th Stage of the True Element Realm, and their last member, the only male member of their team, was in the 2nd Stage of the True Element Realm.

"Since she doesn't have a sword, she should be the weaker one of the two sisters, the one who is a 4th Stage True Element Realm Cultivator, right?"

"It could also be a trap to lure others out, so the two of you should go and check our surroundings, and while you're doing that, make sure to return as soon as possible."

It was possible that she simply handed over her sword to someone else, so without completely knowing what was going on, Senior Brother Wu decided not to act hastily.

"Yes, Senior Brother Wu."

After hearing Senior Brother Wu's call, the two junior brothers, who were at the 5th and 4th Stages of the True Element Realm, disappeared from their positions, leaving him alone with his junior sister, who was the weakest among them, being at the 3rd Stage of the True Element Realm.

"Senior Brother Wu, what should we..."

"From the looks of it, that girl isn't aware of the Phantom Lightning Wolves, so if she keeps moving, they'll eventually end up fighting." Phantom Lightning Wolves were hostile Monster Beasts, and the moment someone entered their territory, they'd attack them regardless of who they were. "And after watching her fight, if she ends up being the weaker one of the twins, we'll kill her and collect whatever she has."

Everyone who came to this isolated place was ready to kill and be killed, and naturally, Senior Brother Wu was no exception.

And so, the two of them watched as the girl came into contact with the Lightning Phantom Wolves, and as they had previously expected, the wolves attacked her without the slightest hesitation.

"Hmm."

Senior Brother Wu closely observed the girl's movements with great precision, watching as the latter struggled against the two Phantom Lightning Wolves, having some difficulty even defending herself from the Monster Beasts' continuous onslaught, which was most likely due to the exhaustion she had while running away from whatever separated her from her companions.

The two Monster Beasts were very experienced hunters, as they executed their staggered attacks from both her left and right perfectly, making it hard for her to dodge.

The girl's cultivation was a realm higher than the Monster Beasts, and if it weren't for her being exhausted, her performance could've been a lot better.

Senior Brother Wu watched as the girl gritted her teeth before clenching her fist to punch one of the Phantom Lightning Wolves with all of her might.

Awoo!!*

A howl of pain rang out as the Phantom Lightning Wolf rolled on the ground several times.

From the looks of it, her punch had injured the Phantom Lightning Wolf to a certain extent, and after the wolf stabilised itself, the two wolves howled even louder, charging towards the girl with ever greater strength.

While the wolf had yet to recover from her previous punch, the girl attacked again, engaging in a desperate close combat struggle with these two Phantom Lightning Wolves, trying her best to kill them.

After a good while, Senior Brother Wu's junior brothers returned from scouting the area.

"Senior Brother Wu, even after searching for several hundred metres, we never found any traces of another person being there."

"The only traces left were from that girl who was trying to run away from something."

"I see."

Senior Brother Wu once again glanced at the girl, who had just finished defeating the two Phantom Lightning Wolves with great difficulty.

Although it took her an hour, the girl was able to kill the wolves by hurting them little by little for an entire hour, and Senior Brother Wu had to admit that her persistence and willpower were commendable, not giving up even in such conditions, thanks to which, he was able to conclude that her cultivation was indeed in the 4th Stage of the True Element Realm.

But the same couldn't be said for her luck.

The numerous scars she had received from her battle against the two wolves were still fresh, and it was easy to tell that she felt great pain while moving.

By now, she had already collected the Blood Beads from the Phantom Lightning Wolves' corpses, and from the looks of it, she was about to go somewhere and recover by consuming some pills.

"Let's go."

At Senior Brother Wu's callout, everyone moved while not even trying to hide their blatant footsteps, alerting the already injured girl, and she turned towards them, worry apparent in her beautiful eyes.

"What's the meaning of this?" The girl asked, biting her lower lip, a small action that showed the fear she felt during this situation.

"Let's not make this any longer than it has to be..." Senior Brother Wu stepped forward as his companions surrounded the girl. "... if you comply, I'll make it as painless as possible."

"If it's the Blood Beads that you want, I'll hand them over." The girl took a step back.

"Everybody knows that when a person dies, they condense a Blood Bead of a higher quality when compared to a Monster Beast of similar strength, so you should give up on the thought of escaping." One of Thunder Valley's disciples explained.

"All of us were prepared to kill and be killed the moment we entered the isolated world, so the only thing you can blame is your choice for coming here." Senior Brother Wu condensed his True Qi into his hand, planning to end this in a single, precise and painless strike.

They had no grievances with the girl, so going out of their way to make it extra painful would be unbecoming of them.

"My companies are nearby, so if you do anything..."

"We checked several hundred metres around us, and there are no signs of your companions being anywhere." Senior Brother Wu didn't even let the girl finish.

"Only several hundred metres? You should've checked at least a thousand metres because..." The girl smiled at Senior Brother Wu, confusing him. "My little sister can be a bit scary sometimes."

"What are you—!"

Thud!*

Thud!*

Senior Brother Wu's words were cut short by the two weakest members of his group, who fell face-first on the ground with blood pouring out of their heads, which had arrows made of True Qi embedded into them.

At that moment, Senior Brother Wu was too shocked to react, and the next thing he noticed was that the scenery in front of him started to change.

Soon, he realised that his head was severed from his body, and his eyes fell on the girl who was standing in front of him with a sword in her hand.

'Where did that sword come from?!'

But alas, no one answered Senior Brother Wu's question as his consciousness slowly disappeared.

---

"So this is what Su Mu meant when he said that a moment of shock can decide the outcome of a battle."

Standing in the middle of the four corpses, Hu Jiao'er looked at them for a few seconds, watching as all of their blood and essence started condensing into a blood-red bead, leaving behind only dust and some withered bones.

"Blood Beads from Cultivators from the 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd Stages of the True Element Realm."

"If Mei'er and I absorb all of these, coupled with the ones from the Monster Beasts, she'd be able to break through to the 5th Stage of the True Element Realm."

It was a huge harvest.

The amount of strength they had used to deal with the disciples from the Thunder Valley was negligible at best, so the Hu Sisters weren't exhausted, not in the slightest.

The first two weaker disciples were killed by Hu Mei'er's arrows, and Hu Jiao'er took the other two at the moment they were too shocked to react, making the task incredibly easy.

"But to come up with such a plan, along with the ability to execute it even from more than a thousand metres away; Mei'er has grown a lot." Hu Jiao'er smiled, placing everything she had gained inside the Universal Bag before leaving the scene, and after a few minutes, she reached the point where Hu Mei'er and her had previously decided to meet, noticing that her little sister was already there.

"Big sis, I am—"

Thud!*

"Why did you hit me?!"

Hu Mei'er rubbed her forehead, tears building up in the corner of her eyes after getting smacked in the head by Hu Jiao'er, who then continued.

"You took too long to shoot your arrows. Do you have any idea how hard it is to act all scared and unwilling? You were watching the show, weren't you?"

Hu Jiao'er was sure that her words had hit the nail, causing Hu Mei'er to avoid eye contact with her, and she replied.

"I'm sorry."

Looking at her little sister's behaviour, Hu Jiao'er signed, placing her hand on Hu Mei'er's head.

"But you did well. Even I couldn't have done this alone, not with such ease, at least."

"Ehehe." Hu Mei'er giggled. "It's just as Su Mu previously said—when the two of us are together, our strength doesn't add up, but instead, it multiplies."

"You're right."

***

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A/N:

I swear this is the most cultivation-ish chapter I've ever written, but hey, regular chapters. Might post tomorrow as well, who knows? This arc might end in ten days rather than twenty.

Right, I marked all the lemon chapters for easier access.

(*) for small lemons or semi-lemons, and (**) for full lemons.