Chapter 123

Chapter 123: A fight with the Black Bear at Nascent Soul Early Stage

Following the path of broken trees, they searched for half a day.

They reached a huge cave whose surrounding trees had been snapped clean in the middle. The eerie aura rushed out to meet them, and now and then a roar boomed from inside, so loud it hurt their eardrums.

Listening closely, Shen Sang Ruo judged the beast within and said: “A bear.”

Fang Yu stared at the swath of fallen trees and wondered aloud: “Is it wrecking everything because that aura is affecting it?”

A beast this strong should have some wit; under normal conditions it would never make such a racket at the mouth of its own den. This fit what he had said about losing reason, and the signs were not subtle.

He asked, cautious but excited: “Sister Sang Ruo, what now? Do we wait for the bear to come out first?”

Shen Sang Ruo kept her eyes on the dark cave and said, flat and sure: “We act now.”

Fang Yu blinked at her, surprised, because her careful aura until now had been strong.

She explained calmly: “If it still had its reason, we would plan carefully. But if the eerie aura has pushed it into madness, we don’t need to consider that.” A Demonic Beast with a mind was troublesome; a mindless one was just a giant boulder with brute force.

Fang Yu clenched his fists and grinned: “Got it. I’ll put my life on the line.”

Even so, they scouted the area first. After confirming this was the only Great Demon nearby, they moved toward the cave.

The closer they got, the harder the ground shook with the bear’s movements.

Fang Yu’s heart thumped, but when he saw the calm in Shen Sang Ruo’s eyes, he took a deep breath and steadied himself.

Inside, Shen Sang Ruo raised a little flame in her palm to light the way.

The cave was choked with the eerie aura, and she could not be sure it would have no effect on people. She took two Clearheart Pills from her Cosmos Pouch, swallowed one herself, and held out the other: “Clearheart Pill. Take it or not, your choice.”

They had just met, so some caution was normal.

Fang Yu accepted the pill and instantly saw its quality was far beyond ordinary. He pretended to hesitate: “Oh, I shouldn’t…” but his hand popped it into his mouth right away and he mumbled, “Thank you, Sister Sang Ruo,” like he feared she might take it back.

He never even wondered whether she would poison him; all he could think was that she had given him a pill of such quality. He whispered, awed: “This Clearheart Pill must have cost a lot of Spirit Stones, right?”

“It was a gift from my Fourth Senior Sister, Su Xi Yu,” Shen Sang Ruo said. At the name, her gaze turned softer.

“Oh.” Fang Yu nodded, then praised honestly: “Sister Sang Ruo’s Fourth Senior Sister is amazing.”

Anyone who could refine a pill like that would not be ordinary. His curiosity about the Ninghua Sect only grew.

“I think so too,” Shen Sang Ruo agreed.

They still had time to chat then, but as they moved deeper their focus locked onto the frenzied bear. The trembling walls told them they were close.

Judging the distance, Shen Sang Ruo lifted a hand to stop Fang Yu and motioned him back. She summoned the Luan Feather Fan, firelight painting her cheeks as a hard glint flashed in her eyes.

She swung three times in a row; fire clouds gathered along the cave roof, and tongues of flame raced inward. The pitch-black cave lit up in an instant.

Anyone who had seen Shen Sang Ruo fight would be stunned, and Fang Yu was no exception. He whispered in awe, half-joking, half-sincere: “What a perfect ‘charcoal-roasted bear,’” then silently thanked himself for backing away fast.

Standing in the glow, her black hair lifted by the wind from the fan, Shen Sang Ruo fixed her gaze on the depths and tightened her grip on the Luan Feather Fan, ready for battle at any moment. Fang Yu did the same.

Moments after the flames surged forward, the bear erupted in frenzy, its roar nearly splitting their eardrums.

The cave shook under its wild charges, and chunks of rock rained from above.

After several bone-rattling collisions it seemed to find the right direction and thundered straight toward them.

A huge Black Bear burst from the dark. Without the firelight, it would have melted into the cave’s shadows. Now they could clearly see its eyes had no pupils, only a foggy gray.

Both of them felt how wrong it was compared to a normal Demonic Beast. It truly did not act like it had a mind.

As the distance closed, they could also judge its realm: it was equal to a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator.

Fang Yu froze. He had prepared himself, but he had leaned toward Late Golden Core in his hopes.

Normally, even a Late Golden Core cultivator plus a Mid Golden Core cultivator would be far from this Black Bear’s match.

But Shen Sang Ruo was not “normal.”

Since she dared come, she had full confidence.

She raised her hand and swept the fan twice. The charging Black Bear, massive as it was, staggered back again and again under the wind from the Luan Feather Fan.

Fang Yu let out a breathless sound of surprise and tried to help, but the bear was trapped in a sea of fire and there was nothing he could add.

Glazed Flame fell in sheets. Even with its thick hide, the bear could not withstand that heat. Its gray eyes suddenly flared red, and it grew even more violent, straining to break out.

What met it was another two clean sweeps from Shen Sang Ruo’s fan.

This time, though, the distance it was forced back was clearly shorter.

Her eyes flicked to the ceiling, and her gaze sharpened.

In her off hand, she quietly gathered a ball of fire-red Spiritual Power and blasted it into the roof of the cave, then shouted one word: “Retreat!”

Cracks split the ceiling at once, and collapse was only a breath away.

They rushed out. The cave fell in behind them with a thunderous crash, then the noise slowly faded.

Fang Yu stared at the blocked entrance and asked, hopeful and nervous: “No more movement. Is the Black Bear dead?”

Shen Sang Ruo watched the rubble too. Even if the bear was not dead, the collapse should have hurt it badly.

But as soon as he finished speaking, a huge black shape appeared out of thin air less than a hundred meters in front of them.

It was the same Black Bear. It showed only burn marks from the flames, no signs of stone crushing it at all. Its pupil-less eyes blazed red as it locked onto them, already in a berserk state.

Shen Sang Ruo reacted at once, eyes narrowing as she said: “It can use Teleportation!”