Chapter 54: Facing A Pack Of Beasts

The residual pressure reached them before the node itself came into view. Yu Mei slowed, then stopped completely behind a dense curtain of hanging roots. She raised one hand. Lin Feng halted half a step behind her. They eased forward until a gap in the roots gave them a clear line of sight.

The node sat on a wide, slightly raised platform of black interlocking roots surrounded by deeper water on two sides. The residual hostility saturating it was dense and high-quality, the kind that would feed his method extremely well. Unfortunately it was also occupied.

With a pack of creatures. Lin Feng counted seven of them at first glance, then revised the number to nine as two more shifted out of deeper mist near the back. They were low slung, heavily built marsh predators with overlapping dark plates. They moved in loose patterns across the platform, occasionally snapping at one another over the residual field, yet always maintaining a rough perimeter. Stronger than anything he had faced in a group since the carnivorous flower field and far more mobile.

"We should observe before coming up with a plan. A mistake here will get you swarmed."

Lin Feng nodded.

They settled into a low, concealed position with good sightlines and a viable withdrawal route behind them. The pack continued its slow, irritable patrol of the platform. Every so often one of the larger individuals would force a smaller one away from the densest part of the residual field, asserting hierarchy. Their coordination was imperfect but real, if one locked onto a target, the others would orient quickly.

After a long stretch of silent watching, Lin Feng leaned slightly closer.

"Waiting for a better window?"

"Yes," Yu Mei replied. "Or for enough information to decide the window isn’t worth it. Be patient."

He was.

While the pack continued its patterns, Lin Feng turned part of his attention inward and opened the System Shop. The residual hostility in the air made the interface feel slightly sharper than usual.

[Current Rage Points: 22,971]

A single target power would not solve a pack. He needed disruption, area interference, and something that could break their coordination.

First priority: Pungent Ward.

[Pungent Ward – Advanced Upgrade Available]

[Effect: Expanded area burst / Stronger disruption of scent and residual-qi tracking / ]

[Cost: 2,600 RP]

He bought it.

[Rage Points remaining: 20,371]

Next he searched for smoke or sensory disruption tools.

[Choking Blacksmoke Pellet ×3]

[Effect: On impact, creates a dense, lingering smoke cloud that interferes with vision ]

[Cost: 1,800 RP]

He purchased the set.

[Rage Points remaining: 18,571]

He considered one more mobility or defense option, then decided against it. The remaining points were better saved for recovery or the next major escalation. He closed the shop.

Yu Mei glanced at him when he shifted.

"You’ve thought of something."

"I do have some items to break their tracking and coordination when we move. Smoke and a stronger scent interference burst. Won’t kill them, but it should create a window."

She narrowed her eyes at him, then gave a small, pragmatic nod.

She might be wondering where i got the from. Lin Feng thought.

"Acceptable. We wait until three of the outer ones drift farther from the main cluster. You will use the disruption tools to break their formation, draw the nearest ones onto the narrower root section to our right, and deal with them before the rest can fully reorganize. If the residual field’s quality drops too much during the fight, we leave. The node is not worth dying over."

The window would open eventually. When it did, the pack would discover that the residual field they had claimed was about to become very expensive to keep.

Eventually, three of the outer predators drifted farther from the main cluster, drawn by a minor dispute over a denser patch of residual hostility. The gap between them and the core group widened just enough.

Lin Feng triggered the upgraded Pungent Ward first. A dense, foul burst of odor and residual-qi interference exploded across the near side of the platform. Almost simultaneously he snapped a Choking Blacksmoke Pellet against a root at the pack’s edge. Thick, clinging smoke billowed outward, mixing with the mist and scrambling both vision and residual sensing.

The pack’s coordination shattered and everal creatures recoiled, heads snapping side to side as their tracking broke. Two of the closer ones lunged in the wrong direction. Lin Feng was already Dashing onto the narrower root section to the right, knife ready, residual hostility flaring around him like a challenge.

"Come on then," he called "Plenty of seat left. "

[Multiple hostility sources detected]

[Rage Value +180]

[Rage Value +210]

[Rage Value +195]

[Cureent Rage Points : 19,156]

Three of them took the bait and they came in a ragged rush. The smoke and Ward interference kept the rest of the pack from immediately following in good order. Lin Feng met the first attacker with a short Counterstep that redirected its momentum past him and into the partially obscured water edge. The second closed faster. He slipped under a sweeping limb, scored a deep cut along a softer seam between plates, and used Blackroot Traction to keep his footing when the third slammed into the roots hard enough to make the whole section shudder.

[Target killing intent rising]

[Rage Value +240]

[Current Rage Points : 19,396]

The fight turned ugly immediately. These were not single territorial beasts he could isolate and provoke at leisure. Even disrupted, the three pressed him with overlapping angles. A clawed limb raked across his shoulder and a heavy shoulder-check drove the air from his lungs and nearly sent him into the deeper water.

He answered with a Dash to create half-steps of space and counterstep to punish overextensions. Residual hostility poured off the exchange, feeding the edge he needed to keep his reactions sharp.

Behind the smoke, the rest of the pack was starting to reorient. Yu Mei remained in her overlook position, spear in hand but still uncommitted. Her eyes tracked the wider platform, watching for the moment the disrupted group regained enough coordination to swarm.

[Pack hostility surge detected]

[Rage Value +320]

[Rage Value +280]

[Cureent Rage Points : 19,996]

[Note: Multiple overlapping sources. Conversion efficiency high.]

Lin Feng killed the first of the three with a precise thrust up under the jaw when it overcommitted. The second took longer, he had to give ground twice and take another shallow cut along his ribs before he found the angle to drive it off the narrow roots and into a position where its own weight worked against it. The third tried to disengage when the other two fell. He refused to let it, using a final burst of the Pungent Ward’s residual interference to keep it disoriented long enough to finish the job.

Blood and dark residual energy soaked the roots.

The smoke was thinning and there was five or six creatures remaining. They had pushed through the worst of the disruption and were advancing on him.

Lin Feng’s breathing was already ragged. Fresh blood ran down his arm and side. His qi reserves had dropped noticeably. Standing still to face the full remaining group on open roots would get him surrounded and torn apart.

He snapped the Blacksmoke Pellet again at the leading edge of the advancing pack and immediately followed it with another short Pungent Ward burst. The combined interference bought him seconds rather than a full collapse of their formation, but seconds were enough. He used them to force the nearest two into the same narrower root section where their numbers worked less effectively, cutting one deeply across the forelimb and driving the other back with a reckless Counterstep that left his own shoulder screaming.

The pack’s willingness to hold the node finally wavered.

Between the losses, the repeated sensory disruption, and the dense spike of residual hostility Lin Feng was generating, the remaining creatures began to break. One turned and plunged into the deeper water. Another followed. The last few hesitated, snarled, then scattered into the mist rather than continue bleeding for a residual field that had turned into a killing ground.

Silence rushed back in, broken only by Lin Feng’s rough breathing and the soft drip of blood onto the roots.

The residual hostility on the platform was still thick, high-quality and now heavily spiked by the pack’s collective rage and fear. Exactly what he needed.

He dropped into a sitting position before the field could thin, forced his focus inward, and pulled the dense residual anger into his meridians. It pushed the edges of his cultivation further than the previous node had managed. He held the cycle until the worst of the field began to disperse, then stopped while he still had the strength to stand if something else appeared.

Yu Mei finally approached, though her eyes moved thoroughly over the scattered bodies and the state of him.

"Your disruption tools worked. Good enough. We move as soon as we can as the noise and blood will draw scavengers, and possibly worse."

Lin Feng wiped the knife on a dead predator’s plate, forced himself upright, and tested his weight. Everything hurt but his foundation, however, felt denser than it had that morning.

He gave the ruined node one last look, then fell in behind Yu Mei as she chose a withdrawal path that kept them off the main trails.