AIR Chapter 177

Chapter 177

Tai Lui flew with the beast brothers. There were four of them and he was the latest to join.

There was Bear, Owl, Wolf and now him, Lion. 

The names were strange at first. If they were a symbol of strength then why would they be animals of such varying strength. After his demonstration, he understood the names had nothing to do with strength.

It was about the style and technique of each person. 

First there was Bear, his presence was overbearing. He was strong and flashy, so much so that you couldn’t ignore it. He wielded two large gauntlets with long blades protruding out of their knuckles. His clothes were large and gaudy, showing off their worth, without matching each other in the slightest. His robe was verdant while his shirt was gold, and his pants were red while his shoes were violet.

He had too much hair and a disgusting breath and his yellowed teeth shined like they were jewlery of their own. 

The man was arrogant and demanding, bigger than the other three and taking whatever he chose. 

Then there was Owl, a shorter man with a long black beard. He wore matching clothes and said things that seemed profound. He was the leader of the group, and he was always playing go at every stop. He played against wolf, and one time against Tai Lui but mostly against himself. 

Wolf was silent, but deadly. They hadn’t met any humans yet. They were just about to exit the greater wilderness. It was all forest for millions of miles where they were and the deeper they got, the stronger their chances of meeting an immortal rank spirit beast, or possibly something even stronger. 

Wolf had done all the fighting up till then. 

He was quick and brutal, possibly the strongest fighter in the group, aiming for the most obvious weakness of his opponent and striking true with every move. They had only run into fifth rank beasts until now but even then Tai Lui was impressed. He had moved so quickly, so efficiently that Tai Lui would have assumed he knew where the beasts would go before he even took a step. 

And then there was him.

They called him the Lion because of how he fought. It was showy and prideful, much like the lion’s roar. 

Bear had teased him with the Peacock, but he just ignored the man’s provocation for now. He could do nothing to him at the moment. 

They all moved through the forest. According to Owl’s estimates, they were half a day away from civilization.  That was about half a million miles for them. They could traverse it faster and easily cut down travel to three, maybe two, hours. 

But that would attract attention and use too much qi. One had to mind their surroundings in the wild. You couldn’t run around and make yourself a target. You had to sneak through. 

At least that was what Owl believed. 

“This home of yours, where exactly is it?” Bear asked. 

“About three hundred thousand miles away from here. That’s my estimate based on how fast I was moving.”

“And the immortal, there is only one?”

“Yes--”

“No,” the Owl interrupted. “There are at least two immortals in that region. I remember hearing of it on my way in. Some new monk ascended over there.”

“A monk?” Tai Lui asked. “What’s his name?”

“Gai Jin of the Bloody Fist.”

Tai Lui closed his eyes. 

“You know him?” The Owl asked.

“Yes.”

“Will he be a threat?”

“He will.”

“Its not a problem. A fresh immortal is like a newborn, small and squishy! An immortal of the first step will be nothing for my brethren.”

“We still don’t know what step that first immortal is at,” Owl reminded. 

“If he’s at the ninth step, we can back down. All three of us would make an immortal of the ninth step from the Imperial Army think twice,” Bear said nonchalantly. 

“Yes, though I doubt he’s near that rank. I just hope we can put him down easily. I don’t doubt our victory so much as our potential losses during the fight.”

“Only the weak get injured and they can only blame themselves for that. Isn’t that right Peacock?” Bear said with a slight grin on his face. 

Tai Lui said nothing and Bear let out a hearty laugh. 

“Tai Lui and I will go for the monk and Wolf and Bear will attack the unknown immortal, focus on defense and stalling until we can get to you. We want to put our full force behind the attack and not draw out this battle longer than necessary, but it would bode better if we all just attacked once.”

“I’ll have him screaming before you get there,” Bear giggled. 

And it was a true giggle. It had all the tones and vocalizations of a small girl laughing about a box of sweets, but it came from a grown man chuckling about the idea of killing. 

Animal. Tai Lui thought. 

Then, as if he had heard his thoughts, Bear turned to him, eyes wide open and teeth bared brazen and yellow.

Tai Lui just stared back for a moment and said nothing. 

“Try not to die, little Peacock.”

“I won’t,” Tai Lui grimaced. 

Soon the massive wave of trees beneath them gave way to valleys and meadows, and eventually, people. 

“I’m hungry,” Bear spoke. 

“You won’t find food here, nothing that can fill an immortal,” Tai Lui replied. 

“Oh I don’t want food,” Bear smiled. 

Things happened fast once he landed in the small village. It took him about thirty minutes. And that wasn’t because it took him thirty minutes to kill all of those people, no he could have done that in a second. But Bear liked to play with his food. 

Tai Lui watched, horrified by the messiness of it all. It was grotesque, unperfect, messy.

But he supposed that was the nature of a man with such a dao. This overindulgence, this bloodlust. It was who he was. It was what he chose to be.

And when all was said and done, Tai Lui was just the same.