Vindicator’s Wrath - Chapter 33

Hu Huan’s extensive information network had profiles on nearly every cultivator in the sect. From what he knew of Du Hu there could only be one conclusion drawn about the man. Du Hu was an opportunist, not a fighter. Du Hu preyed on the weak and fawned on the strong, never going into battle alone when he could use numbers to succeed.

Going back two years to his early days in the sect, his behavior was in stark contrast with the current Du Hu. Du Hu established himself quickly as a subordinate to a rather famous cultivator who made it to the fifth layer of Qi Condensation. This cultivator was unable to breakthrough further and deemed one of the sects many eternal outer sect members. This cultivator knew he would never be able to break through to the inner sect and focused his resources on cultivating his subordinates over himself. By his logic, if he was able to push one of them into the inner sect then the gratitude they owed him would allow him to live the rest of his life comfortably within the sect.

Du Hu inched his way up as a faithful and subservient subordinate to this man, slowly earning his trust. Once Du Hu reached the fifth layer of Qi Condensation himself, he informed his supporter of a rare spirit beast he found in the forest and asked for his assistance in capturing it, offering to split the profit evenly. The next day Du Hu walked out of the forest alone with a tearful story of how his senior brother fell victim to the spirit beast they were hunting.

Many other sect members held suspicion over what was true and what was false, but without evidence proving anything contrary to what Du Hu said, the sect’s higher ups took him for his word. After the death of his benefactor, Du Hu swiftly moved to grab opportunity in the power vacuum the other cultivator had left. Seizing all of the old cultivator’s assets in the name of “brotherhood,” Du Hu quickly established himself, roping in his first subordinates. A far more selfish leader than his predecessor, Du Hu press ganged anyone who entered his territory into service.

Word spread throughout the sect and disciples learned to avoid his section of the forest, opting to scavenge in the lower altitude locations on the mountain. Resources were less common and less valuable the further down the mountain you went, but the risk of encountering Du Hu in the wilderness proved to be too dangerous.

After consolidating his power, Du Hu made multiple attempts to expand his territory, but he ended up kicking a steel plate. Ding Kun was one of the sect’s undisputed stars. His cultivation base and strength of character were unquestionable. Ding Kun garnered great respect from the other outer sect disciples and even caught the eye of some of the higher ups. Ding Kun was able to gather a strong following of supporters who were fiercely loyal. Ding Kun’s unshakeable position within the sect made challenging him a pipe dream for Du Hu.

Seeing as south of his territory was claimed by the patriarch’s son, the only other direction he could move was to the west. In doing so he had his first encounter with Shen Shuren. Similar to Ding Kun, Shen Shuren’s position in the sect was well established. Her beauty joined with her peaceful nature earned her many admirers. She mostly kept to herself, allowing these admirers to collect resources on her land, so long as they offered a portion of the profits.

Captivated by her beauty, Du Hu decided to make her his. Little did he know that Shen Shuren was the daughter of one of the Foundation Establishment Elders. After multiple attempts to take her land and advances on her person, the sect elder sent an inner sect subordinate to deal with Du Hu viciously.

The blue robed cultivator Shen Shuren’s father sent to deal with Du Hu nearly destroyed Du Hu’s cultivation base. Forced to retreat, Du Hu spent three months recovering from the incident. Afterwards, Du Hu became highly reluctant to further rock the boat and stayed in his own little corner. Aside from his occasional scuffle with Ding Kun, Du Hu acted with a great reservation only making a move when he was confident in its success.

For these reasons, Du Hu knew he had made a mistake when he heard the reprimanding tone of the person who just chastised him. Removing his attention from Yan, Du Hu turned to see Shen Shuren’s cold expression emerging from the forest followed by a group of fifteen men and women with similar looks of disgust.

Hastily shifting demeanors, Du Hu put on a display of supplication bowing deeply. “Sister Shen! Your beauty even more dazzling then when I last saw you. I am in awe of your presence.”

“Cut the crap Du Hu. What do you think you’re doing bringing so many people into my turf?”

“Sister Shen this is not what it looks like. This girl heavily injured many of my subordinates and I was-”

“A likely excuse,” Shen Shuren interrupted, “you never learn Du Hu. Allow me to hammer home the lesson you are so quick to forget.”

“Sister Shen please-” Du Hu began, but Shen Shuren already signaled for her subordinates to attack.

The two gangs clashed in a flurry of blows and magical spells. All of Du Hu’s subordinates were pinned down, leaving Du Hu to face Shen Shuren himself. “Sister Shen I do not wish to fight you,” he appealed.

“Then stand there and receive your punishment,” Shen Shuren coldly replied.

Du Hu was forced into a constant retreat thanks to Shen Shuren’s pressuring attacks. He defended without retaliating, instead waiting for a chance to disengage and escape.

Yan and Hong Wu were not given any chance to act either. Shen Shuren’s subordinates did not distinguish between them and Du Hu’s followers, attacking everyone in sight.

The cultivator fighting Yan was a young female cultivator of the third layer of Qi Condensation. While Hong Wu had the advantage in cultivation, this girl was clearly more experienced in large scale battles such as this. Hong Wu’s opponent kept the pressure on by herding Hong Wu into the line of fire of her companions’ attacks. Every time Hong Wu dodged one spell, another would rocket towards her from a blind spot.

Using her divine sense to its limit, Hong Wu narrowly dodged a fireball that was hurtling towards the back of her head and glanced over to Yan. Yan was having similar issues with her opponents. Two cultivators had ganged up on her and were pushing her into a corner she couldn’t get out of. Her flying sword flew about madly as she attempted to deflect the incoming attacks, but she was unable to escape the deadlock between herself and her two adversaries.

Before Hong Wu could think about how to help Yan, a small explosion knocked her off her feet. Seeing her opponent rapidly closing in on her Hong Wu rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a powerful stomp that cracked the earth.

Gritting her teeth Hong Wu, turned from her opponent and rushed to Yan’s side. Seeing her opponent running from her, the female cultivator fired off a blast of pressurized air that smashed into Hong Wu’s back. Hong Wu coughed up a mouthful of blood as she attempted to borrow the momentum of the attack to reach Yan’s location. Slamming into the ground just shy of the part of the battlefield where Yan was holding off the two cultivators, Hong Wu desperately crawled back up on her hands and knees and cast Frozen Blade in the direction of the two.

Thanks to Hong Wu’s distraction, Yan was able to break out of their encirclement casting her own Frozen Blade attack in the direction of Hong Wu’s pursuer. Reunited on the battlefield, the two stood back to back as they faced the oncoming assault.

At the same time Du Hu had found a gap in Shen Shuren’s attacks and wormed his way out of the battle. Du Hu went into a mad dash for his own territory, cursing his luck. Looking back he made brief eye contact with Hong Wu, before coldly snorting and turning back to his own turf.

“He’s getting away!” Hong Wu cried.

“Come on, we’ve gotta catch up before he can regroup with his lackeys.”

Spiritual qi fluctuations accumulated around the two girls as Hong Wu cast Shrouding Fog to mask their retreat, while Yan defended her from those that wished to interrupt the spell. The location quickly filled with a dense cloud of fog, limiting everyone’s visibility.

The battle ended shortly after it began. Du Hu’s men escaped in many different directions, each one looking out only for themselves. Shen Shuren’s subroutines continued to chase away Du Hu’s people, but Shen Shuren herself did not pursue. She had shown her strength was not to be trifled with. Pushing things further did not suit her personality.

Hong Wu and Yan ran headlong out of the cover of fog and in the direction Du Hu took. Further ahead, Du Hu was cursing his luck that he ever encountered the two girls from the Drifting Cloud Quarters. He swore to himself that he would make Hong Wu regret ever crossing him.

Before he could ruminate further upon how he would make Hong Wu suffer, a powerful frozen blade so dense the body of it was tinged blue shot straight at him from the front. Quickly defending with a spurt of flame, Du Hu stopped in place, cursing his luck further.

Out in front of him stepped a slender figure completely shrouded in a black garb. Three more frozen blades hovered around the person blocking Du Hu’s way.

Today had not gone well for Du Hu at all. Furious and unable to contain his emotions any longer, Du Hu exploded with killing intent, “Get the fuck out of my way!”

I kinda info dumped at the front end of this chapter. I wanted to avoid doing that, but I ended up writing over a page on Du Hu’s background anyways.

I was initially dismissive of the badge system that Webnovel introduced a while back, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want that tier 3 author’s badge. I should be getting it after this chapter, if not the next one for sure.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.