Chapter 77: Chapter 77

"Which direction did he go after Willow Creek?" Hunter’s voice came out sharper than intended, concern breaking through conversational tone like ice cracking under pressure.

"Southeast toward smaller settlements," Zhang Wei said, fear evident in his trembling hands. "He mentioned targeting isolated communities that can’t call for sect help quickly. Places where harvesting can happen fast before reinforcements arrive and interfere with his breakthrough preparation timeline."

Southeast meant lateral to Shadow Rest’s position. Not directly threatening yet, but deeply concerning given their affiliated status making them responsible for regional security monitoring and reporting. They needed to inform the sect immediately. Let them dispatch proper elimination team equipped to handle Core Formation Peak Blood Path cultivator with harvest-accumulated power boost.

But reporting meant increased sect scrutiny during winter when they were vulnerable. Double-edged sword of legitimacy cutting both ways as usual. Protection came with oversight. Benefits came with obligations. Standard cultivation world transaction where nothing was free and everything had hidden costs that materialized at worst possible moments.

"We’ll report this to Azure Cloud Sect immediately," Hunter said, trying to project more confidence than he felt given his recent near-death experience and current bedridden state. "Blood Path elimination falls under their jurisdiction and capability. Core Formation Peak demonic cultivator would destroy Foundation Realm cultivators in direct confrontation. We’re not equipped or authorized to handle threats of that magnitude without getting everyone killed spectacularly."

"You’re affiliated with Azure Cloud Sect?" Zhang Wei’s expression shifted to relief mixed with desperate hope lighting his exhausted features. "Then you can help coordinate proper response. You have authority, connections, resources we lack as scattered refugees without homes or village protection."

"We’ll do everything within our capabilities," Hunter promised, knowing it was inadequate but unable to offer more given current limitations. "For now you’re safe here. Storm provides temporary protection since Blood Path cultivators avoid traveling during killing weather same as everyone else with functioning survival instincts. Core Formation can technically ignore storm effects but moving through this weather to hunt villages is inefficient when he can wait for clear conditions. When storm passes, we’ll coordinate immediate sect intervention and establish warning system for other settlements in his projected path."

The refugees thanked him with effusive gratitude that made Hunter increasingly uncomfortable because he’d literally just been following mandatory mission under threat of foundation collapse. They were treating him like a hero when he’d simply had no choice except save them or lose everything. Eventually they left, returning to fires where Wei Suyin continued treating their cold exposure injuries and frostbite damage that would take weeks to fully heal.

Hunter lay back against his bedding, exhausted despite eight hours of unconsciousness. His meridians ached with that particular discomfort of healing damage that shouldn’t have happened. His mind raced faster than his damaged body could support.

Blood Path Core Formation Peak cultivator. Operating in their region. Harvesting villages systematically. Moving southeast but eventually running out of easy targets. Shadow Rest represented affiliated territory. Protected by sect authority. Which also meant potential challenge to demonic cultivator wanting to prove strength against official cultivation world power structure.

The math was bad. Really bad. And getting worse with every passing hour.

[LUNA] BLOOD PATH CULTIVATOR DETECTED (◕‿◕✿)

[LUNA] CORE FORMATION PEAK STAGE

[LUNA] APPROACHING BREAKTHROUGH REQUIRING MASS HARVEST

[LUNA] THIS IS VERY VERY BAD ♥

You think? Hunter thought back with maximum sarcasm.

[LUNA] GOOD NEWS: STORM PREVENTS HIS MOVEMENT

[LUNA] BAD NEWS: STORM ENDS IN FOUR TO SIX DAYS

[LUNA] VERY BAD NEWS: BREAKTHROUGH REQUIRES YOUR REGION’S MORTAL POPULATION

[LUNA] EXTREMELY BAD NEWS: YOU’RE RECOVERING FROM TORN MERIDIANS WITH HIDDEN INJURIES

[LUNA] MISSION INCOMING AFTER STORM ENDS (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧

[LUNA] HOPE YOUR HEALING GOES FAST!

Can this possibly wait until I’m not bedridden with compromised cultivation and the structural integrity of wet paper?

[LUNA] CULTIVATION WORLD DOESN’T WAIT FOR CONVENIENT TIMING

[LUNA] THAT’S WHY IT’S CULTIVATION WORLD INSTEAD OF COMFORTABLE RETIREMENT HOME WORLD

[LUNA] ADVERSITY BUILDS CHARACTER ♥

[LUNA] ALSO MAKES GOOD STORY PROGRESSION WITH DRAMATIC TENSION

Your concern for my wellbeing is touching in the most terrifying way possible.

[LUNA] I’M VERY CONCERNED

[LUNA] CONCERNED YOU’LL MISS IMPORTANT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY

[LUNA] BLOOD PATH CONFRONTATION IS CLASSIC WUXIA PLOT POINT (◕‿◕✿)

[LUNA] WOULDN’T WANT YOU TO MISS OUT ON TRADITIONAL GENRE EXPERIENCE

Luna faded, leaving Hunter with knowledge that crisis approached in four to six days maximum. Blood Path cultivator. Core Formation Peak. Needing mass harvest to break through. Storm was temporary protection at best. When weather cleared, demon would resume hunting with increased desperation and ruthless efficiency.

And Hunter would be barely recovered from torn meridians with foundation still rebuilding and physique still sealed and hidden injuries waiting to manifest at worst possible moment like a terrible surprise party. Fighting Core Formation cultivator was suicide. Even Liu Mei might struggle against Peak stage Blood Path practitioner boosted by harvest-accumulated blood qi and breakthrough desperation making them unpredictably dangerous.

This was going to get complicated in ways that made previous disasters look simple by comparison. Probably with more near-death experiences. Definitely with property damage.

Mei reappeared at the door like a tiny messenger of doom. "Liu Mei wants to see you immediately. Says refugee testimony about Blood Path cultivator requires emergency discussion and comprehensive threat assessment. She’s extremely concerned. Her spiritual pressure is fluctuating wildly. Emotional response to major threat near protected assets and territories under her monitoring jurisdiction."

"Protected assets meaning this settlement?"

"Protected assets meaning this settlement but particularly you based on fluctuation patterns correlating directly with mentions of your name specifically." Mei’s wisdom exceeded her years constantly. "Pressure continues building beneath ice surface. Eruption becoming increasingly probable despite glacial resistance to admitting obvious thermal dynamics."

"You need to stop reading romance into professional monitoring relationships."

"If you say so." That tone. The one suggesting adults were completely blind to obvious patterns children recognized immediately. "She’s waiting in main hall. Can you walk or should I help you avoid falling over and triggering her monitoring formations plus medical concern plus potential emotional outburst?" Dıscover more novels at novel·fire.net

"I can walk." Hunter pushed himself upright carefully. His body protested with theatrical enthusiasm but sealed tears held. Foundation remained stable even if damaged. He could move without risking immediate collapse.

He made his way to the hall slowly, every step a negotiation with his angry meridians. Found Liu Mei standing near central fire. Her expression was controlled with professional precision but something underneath suggested she was deeply concerned about Blood Path revelation in ways that went beyond standard regional monitoring protocols.

"The refugees described demonic cultivator," Liu Mei said without preamble or social niceties, professional efficiency engaging immediately. "Core Formation Peak stage. Blood Path methodology focused on mass harvest for breakthrough. Approximately one thousand mortal victims required. This falls directly under my regional monitoring jurisdiction requiring immediate sect reporting and emergency response coordination. I need complete details immediately without omission."

Hunter relayed everything. Willow Creek Village attack. Formation arrays carved into stone. Blood grooves channeling life essence. Thirty confirmed dead minimum through blood qi extraction. Demon moving southeast toward isolated communities. Need for one thousand mortals total to force breakthrough to Core Formation Perfection stage through accumulated blood qi rather than proper cultivation advancement.

Liu Mei’s spiritual pressure dropped noticeably with each detail. Temperature in immediate area decreased by several degrees despite fires burning mere feet away. Frost formed on nearby surfaces through unconscious spiritual energy release. Her ice blue eyes carried cold that suggested professional control barely containing significant fury underneath.

"Blood Path Core Formation Peak attempting forced breakthrough through mass mortal harvest," she said, voice becoming glacier given speech capabilities. "This represents major demonic threat requiring immediate sect response and specialized elimination team deployment. This exceeds affiliated territory response capability by several orders of magnitude."

She pulled out her sect communication jade slip with controlled movement that somehow conveyed barely restrained violence. "I’m contacting Elder Feng now. Requesting emergency elimination team. Blood Path eradication isn’t simple assassination mission. Requires prepared specialists with specific counter-techniques for harvest disruption, blood qi purification methods, and formation breaking capabilities."

"How long until sect responds?" Hunter asked, knowing the answer would be bad but needing to hear specific timeline anyway.

"Two to four days minimum for team coordination and deployment," Liu Mei said, pressing spiritual energy into jade slip. Message flowing outward through sect communication network with priority encoding. "Storm clears in four to six days based on current patterns. Coordination requires identifying appropriate cultivators with Blood Path elimination experience, verifying availability during winter operations, establishing team composition with complementary skill sets, arranging spirit beast transport capable of winter travel. Assuming storm clears in five days as middle estimate and demon resumes harvesting immediately, sect team arrives two to four days after that. Seven to nine days total timeline before intervention reaches this region."

"That’s a long time for demonic cultivator to operate freely and harvest entire villages."

"That’s reality of cultivation world response times during winter when geography and weather create operational delays nobody can avoid regardless of urgency," Liu Mei’s voice carried cold professional assessment. "The demon won’t reach this immediate region instantly. He’s currently forty-two miles northeast. Moved southeast two miles during storm approaching, now hunting different village based on refugee testimony timing analysis. Moving southeast means lateral trajectory relative to our position. He’ll harvest other villages along that path first before potentially approaching Shadow Rest."

She paused. Something shifted in her expression. Professional mask cracking slightly around edges like ice under stress. "But if his trajectory changes. If he decides affiliated territory represents better harvest target than scattered villages. If he learns you’re Foundation Realm cultivator with potentially valuable sealed legendary physique worth harvesting for cultivation resources. We develop significant problem requiring solutions I’m not confident we possess."

"You’re currently recovering from torn primary meridians. Your foundation barely stabilized from near-complete qi deviation collapse eight hours ago. Your physique remains sealed preventing full power expression during combat. You have hidden injuries that will cause technique failure at unpredictable moments." Liu Mei met his eyes directly with intensity that felt almost physical. "I’m Peak Core Formation but Blood Path cultivators punch well above their actual realm through harvest-accumulated blood qi boosting their capabilities significantly beyond normal parameters. Fighting Peak stage Blood Path cultivator enhanced by multiple village harvests while simultaneously defending forty-eight people plus seven refugees creates tactical nightmare with very poor survival odds."

She was scared. Not for herself based on her tone. For everyone here. For him specifically based on how her gaze kept returning to him while calculating survival probabilities and combat scenarios through multiple variables.

"What do we do?" Hunter asked simply, trusting her two hundred years of experience over his four months of improvised disaster survival and lucky escapes.

"We prepare defensively. We pray storm lasts long enough. We hope sect elimination team arrives before demon discovers our location or changes trajectory toward us. We survive through preparation, defensive tactics, and whatever luck hasn’t abandoned us yet." Liu Mei’s voice was cold but brutally honest. "Same survival strategy as always in cultivation world. Just with significantly higher stakes and notably worse odds than previous crises you’ve survived through combination of luck and stubborn refusal to die properly."

She pulled out formation plates from her storage pouch. Spirit stones gleamed in her hand, high quality materials that cost serious money. "I’m establishing defensive formations around waystation perimeter. Early warning arrays that detect Core Formation spiritual pressure within two mile radius. Won’t stop him if he attacks but will make assault costly and obvious enough that easier targets look more appealing to rational demon planning efficient harvest route."

Hunter noticed the quality of materials. Formation plates were expensive. Spirit stones even more so. This wasn’t standard sect-provided equipment. "Those aren’t cheap. Sect doesn’t provide defensive budget for affiliated territories normally. You’re using personal resources."

"I’m using sect-earned salary and personal reserves accumulated over decades to ensure my professional judgment proves sound," Liu Mei corrected quickly. Too quickly. Defensive tone suggesting she’d been expecting this question. "Three months of income in formation materials and spirit stones. Completely justified allocation of personal assets for career preservation purposes ensuring my affiliated territory assessment maintains validity. Nothing remotely charitable or personally motivated about protective investment in monitored settlement."

Her spiritual pressure fluctuated unconsciously. Temperature dropped five degrees. She didn’t notice her own emotional response bleeding through professional justification.

Hunter was too dense to interpret the meaning properly. Or possibly too recently near-death to process romantic subtext when demon cultivators were harvesting villages.

"The demon is forty-two miles away currently," Liu Mei continued, changing subject with obvious relief. "We have time before potential threat materializes. Focus on recovery. I’ll handle preparations."

She turned to leave, reached door, then paused. Voice dropping lower. "Your meridians healed remarkably well. Better than they should have even with extraordinary pill intervention. Part is medicinal quality. Part is your Void Shadow Physique working through seal. Part is probably characteristic stubborn refusal to stay injured when crisis approaches requiring functional response."

Another pause. Longer this time. More significant. "I’m pleased you’re functional again. Professionally pleased because additional Foundation Realm cultivator improves defensive calculations and survival probability significantly during potential confrontation."

Then she was gone, disappearing into the hallway.

"She’s spending three months salary to protect us," Han said from observation position near the fire where he’d apparently been listening to everything. "That’s not professional investment. That’s personal."

"She said it’s career preservation," Hunter replied automatically, brain too fried for deeper analysis.

Han smiled knowingly, the expression of someone who’d seen this pattern before. "Her spiritual pressure drops temperature fifteen degrees every time you’re mentioned. Purely professional behavior obviously."

"Obviously," Hunter agreed, missing the point entirely.

"Right. And I’m secretly the Jade Emperor in disguise." Han’s dry sarcasm was almost palpable. "Recovery well. We’ll need you functional when the demon comes. Because he will come eventually. They always do."

Progress. Maybe. Possibly.

The next several days would tell.

Assuming they survived that long.

Which was admittedly a significant assumption given their track record with survival and disasters.