Chapter 128 Ambush!



"What's going on? Why are there no stars? Where is the moon? Even when clouds covered those hilly regions, there were indication of stars hidden behind them. That place never became this dark. Something feels off," Duncan mumbled looking around warily.

Suddenly, his danger sense started screaming and he acted on instinct. He vanished from the spot he was in and appeared a few paced above the ground and looked down. Duncan was currently executing <Wind Chasing Steps> with his qi, enabling him to step on air and be safe for the moment.

As Duncan looked from above, the mound he had been sitting upon split into two suddenly, causing Duncan's eyes to widen in shock. In the exact spot, he had been sitting until a moment ago, a tail with a pointed end pierced into it with force. There was no sound or indication as to the arrival of the tail.

Duncan's hair stood on end as he saw the origin of the tail. 

A humongous scorpion was currently shaking away the sand and revealing itself! And from its aura, it was clear that it was a Level 2 beast at the least.

Duncan swore not believing his own eyes. The place where the scorpion appeared was just right behind Duncan and beside the mound, he had been sitting for the past few hours. And from the looks of it, the scorpion was emerging from underground.

Either it traveled to his location silently and burrowed itself underground, or the beast had been underground at this place all along. Duncan felt that the second one was the most likely case, considering how sharp his senses are.

The most worrying part was that he hadn't felt the beast coming this near to him in both cases. If it was the second as he suspected, then it was even more alarming. The beast had given off no aura or made any noise causing Duncan to be unaware of its existence the entire time until it attacked.

Only when it attacked did Duncan feel its bloodlust and his senses started acting. Before that, the beast had been completely hidden right under his nose. After being in the wilderness for two weeks, Duncan's senses have become very sharp.

He was able to sense any ill intent or bloodlust easily. Not just his mental senses, but even his physical senses like eyesight, hearing, and other aspects have also been honed to the maximum possible limit due to his experience in the wilderness.

Someone who couldn't perceive danger will not last long in the wilderness. Too many beasts excelled in stealthily killing their prey in the wilderness. Most importantly, his cultivation technique being so closely linked to slaughter, Duncan has always been able to sense bloodlust easily.

If not for that, then his reaction time wouldn't be enough to escape from this scorpion's attack. This was a deadly attack that didn't leave much room for the prey to escape. Being so close to the predator, it would be hard for any other prey in his place to escape alive.

SCREECH

The scorpion shouted in anger at missing its prey and looked up at Duncan. Duncan could feel the malice radiating from the beast up in the air. It was like a physical thing that could hardly go unnoticed.

The scorpion freed its stinger, which looked more like a long tail with barbed ends, from the mound causing it to collapse easily, and waved it at Duncan angrily. Duncan could already feel the threat of this beast clearly.

The baleful aura the beast gave off almost froze Duncan on the spot. However, it was far lesser than the aura given off by the demonic snake he met in the past. That gave Duncan an estimate of what level of strength the scorpion was at.

Duncan used the <Wind Chasing Steps> to step constantly on air and hover above the beast. The beast and Duncan looked at each other. The beast looked a little indignant that it wasn't able to kill Duncan easily. It was clear from the beast's agitation that it had expected to kill Duncan with its sneak attack.

Duncan sneered at the beast thinking he was safe from it. In response, the scorpion stinger shot off an arrow aiming at Duncan, causing Duncan to hastily avoid it in a hurry. Duncan stabilized himself once more and curse himself for forgetting that Level 2 beasts and Spirit Sea realm cultivators were able to use qi attacks to perform long-range attacks.

That was one of the major differences between cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm and the Spirit Sea realm. A Spirit Sea realm cultivator can project their qi outside of their body and shape it according to their will to attack long-distance targets. The same could be said for Level 2 beasts compared to Level 1 beasts.

This made the prospect of jumping cultivation levels and fighting a ludicrous affair. Only the rarest of geniuses can perform it. It can be only done if the cultivator in question had grasped a concept or was able to close in fast and kill the Spirit Sea realm cultivator in close combat before they could attack.

Usually, cultivators are only able to perceive concepts once they step in the Spirit Sea realm, this made it nigh impossible to fight on even footing against a Spirit Sea realm cultivator as a Qi Gathering realm cultivator. 

In a close combat scenario, the reactions, power, and qi of a Spirit Sea realm cultivator would trump the one on the Qi Gathering realm easily. Thus, only the demonic geniuses who were blessed with either an innate advantage via a physique or some abnormally freakish comprehension ability can contend with and possibly fight above the level disadvantage.

Duncan was only able to perceive concepts due to his soul sublimation. If not, he would already be killed at this moment. If he hadn't gained the concept of chasing the wind, he would already be under the fierce attack of the beast on the ground. 

Duncan's face turned solemn as he mulled over his options. He could either duke it out with this beast by using his absolute cut sword concept, or he could just retreat. Duncan was confident that the beast wouldn't be able to follow him if he escaped using the <Wind Chasing Steps>

While the concept of fighting the beast was tempting, Duncan realized that his qi levels would never allow for a prolonged fight at this stage. Even using the <Wind Chasing Steps> constantly to hover in the air was already eating up a lot of his qi. If he ran out of qi, then he would be forced to fight with the beast on the ground.

Looking down, Duncan wasn't really sure that area was safe. The scorpion had come out of the ground and he didn't know if there were any other dangers lurking below to capitalize on him and sneak attack him.

As Duncan was mulling over his options, the scorpion got enraged seeing Duncan escape its attack once more. It waved its stinger madly and started shooting off qi arrows in dense quantity trying to cover the area with its arrows.

Duncan let out a curse and immediately retreated from the area. He didn't want to fight a battle with the scorpion without having sufficient confidence in emerging as a victor. 

Seeing Duncan escape, the beast tried to give chase. But, Duncan's <Wind Chasing Steps> almost made him the embodiment of wind. So, he soon escaped from the region and ran away in a hurry, causing the scorpion to fall behind very soon.

Duncan heaved a breath of relief after putting some distance between himself and the scorpion. He felt vexed with the situation and was even wondering how such a weak Level 2 beast came through the gates. As per his senior brother, those beasts would not enter as their strength wasn't enough.

Just then, Duncan's eyes shrunk and he swung his sword downwards deflecting an attack from below. Duncan watched the stinger of another scorpion whizz past him and looked below. 

Another scorpion was looking up at him from below with hunger in its eyes. This one felt a little bit stronger than the first beast causing Duncan to feel a bit troubled. However, Duncan swore the next moment as he realized that there were several other scorpions emerging from the sand from below and all of them had locked onto him as well.

Duncan knew that his situation wasn't ideal. He couldn't escape if he was busy fending off attacks from every direction. As if on cue, all the scorpions from below started shooting qi arrows at him from all directions. 

Duncan hurriedly activated his movement arts and tried to escape from the encirclement. But, it was a hopeless endeavor. He couldn't run away from the area as he had to repeatedly deflect the qi arrows with his sword to stay uninjured.

Despite Duncan's efforts, a few managed to get past his sword and injure him. A burning feeling came from the injured regions causing Duncan to take note that these scorpions had fire qi embedded in their qi arrows to hurt their opponents and give them pain.

Letting out a deep breath, Duncan prepared himself for battle mentally. He knew that there was no use in delaying anymore. He couldn't escape without taking care of at least a couple of these scorpions.

Duncan channeled <Absolute Cut Sword Arts> and unleashed a blinding sword light in an arc at the incoming qi arrows.

*****

A/N: Hey folks!

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