The team followed He Shan's instructions to the tee. He Shan led the front while Zou Yi held up the rear and Zou Liqin and Yu Mei were placed in the center.
Yu Mei was the weakest of the group with no cultivation base, therefore it was safer to have Zou Liqin next to her in case something unexpected happened.
Since they were a freshly formed team, their coordination wasn't up to par, but the trio still tried to heed He Shan's instruction, while He Shan adjusted slowly adjusted his movements to sync up with them, while he guided them on how to synch up with each other, especially with Yu Mei on the team.
Every time he saw her slow labored pace, he couldn't help but sigh. Despite hearing from Zou Liqin about how Yu Mei had saved her life, He Shan still felt that Yu Mei would be a burden to them going forward, and seeing her current performance, only solidified that thought.
He even saw Zou Liqin as another added burden too, especially with her confession of how she almost failed the first test. He Shan found it difficult to understand how someone could fail such an easy test. He had the easiest hunt of his time in the test, barely even breaking a sweat doing it, he couldn't understand how someone could almost fail such an easy test.
The only person in his eyes who seemed reliable was Zou Yi, however, Zou Yi felt too cunning to him. Every time he saw him, he would feel like he had the same sensation as that viper that almost killed him during his first years of learning to hunt.
This was why he was extremely hesitant at first in forming a team with them before he agreed to it. Part of the reason was, despite the cunningness he felt from Zou Yi, he also felt a staunch determination from him, that reminded him of his grandfather.
And if Zou Yi did try to stab in the back, well He Shan had experienced countless cunning opponents than the mahogany cloud lustre viper, he was confident he could carve himself an escape path from a human that didn't have the same explosive strength and abilities as some of the spirit beasts he fought against. He also knew of Zou Yi's weakness which was his sister. If worst comes to worst, he could always use her, which was why He Shan conveniently positioned himself closer to Zou Liqin than Yu Mei.
Of course, that distance wasn't noticeable to anyone else but him.
"Is He Shan scheming something," thought Zou Yi as he frowned. Years of surviving insidious schemes of the Purple City made him hyper-aware to the point his subconscious would register things that he couldn't yet make sense of.
However, he decided to shelf those thoughts and chalked them up to He Shan's paranoia rubbing off on him. At the moment he couldn't afford to be distracted by one iota, especially in a place where he felt he was completely out of his element.
They had been steadily running for close to ten minutes and in that time, they had not stumbled onto anything remotely threatening.
The west was densely packed with trees. It had the air of autumn to it. A faintly chilly breeze brushed up on their skins, above them were towering trees from red oaks, to maples, to fothergilla, to flame leaf sumacs and to sweat gums.
They all had the fiery red radiant beauty to their leaves that heralded autumn was here. Every time the wind blew and the leaves dropped, Zou Yi felt like shooting stars were dropping from those trees gently cascading down to the ground, adding a carpeted beauty to it, which was further enhanced by the gentle cascading sunlight glow that passed through the canopy.
The blowing wind, the rustling of the leaves, and the critter noises, all distinct combined together to form a gentle melody that would almost put you to slumber.
Zou Yi couldn't help but gasp at the beauty. He wasn't the only one as Zou Liqin and Yu Mei had eyes that glimmered to the picturesque landscape beauty around. Even He Shan despite scoffing in contempt at the amateurish display of the lot, would occasionally deep whiffs of the chilly air.
Who could blame him, it had that earthy autumn scent that seemed to calm their nerves every time they breathed it in.
The season of transition huh? Seems rather appropriate for the weather to be this way during the test. A transition of two extremes; those who pass the test will gain the opportunity to be reborn into dragons from lowly carp, and those who fail get thrown to the bottom forever doomed to be pitiful and forgotten.
I wonder which I will be at the end of it all.
Zou Yi smiled ruefully as he felt his inner poet being drawn out by the environment around him.
However, time for indulging and digging out his inner poet was cut short when He Shan drew his arrow without warning and fired at something to the left of their direction.
Almost simultaneously they had a clang sound like the sound of metal hitting metal.
Before the gang even registered what was going on, He Shan immediately yelled
"Liqin, Mei, drop to the ground!!" yelled He Shan as he simultaneously fired two arrows in their direction.
The two girls still couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening around them they were therefore in a fluster, but despite that they obediently followed He Shan's instruction and ducked to the ground.
It proved to be the right choice because almost instantaneously, Zou Yi had a swooshing sound above their heads, with strands of hair floating above them with singed edges.
He strained his eye and finally saw it, a tiny blurry scarlet object turning and immediately returning in the direction where He Shan had fired his first arrow.
What was that? Zou Yi fearfully wondered as he rushed towards his sister and Yu Mei to confirm they were okay.
That proved to be a reckless decision on his part because the moment he moved, he saw He Shan throw his axe at him.
"He Shan, you bastard?!" roared Zou Yi as he prepared to use his fist to deflect the axe.
The position he was in and the speed at which the axe was thrown made it hard for him to dodge. He could only hope his bronze body would be able to handle He Shan's rusty old axe.
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