I moved left to dodge an arrow, then sent a spiritual hand forward to block several more. Since the attacks were from Foundation Establishment cultivators, they easily pierced through my technique, but their trajectory had changed enough to avoid us.

Little Spring and Clear Eyes dodged the few projectiles that avoided my technique. The assassins in the lead attacked while the archers took potshots at us.

Suddenly, the thunder from the middle of the forest grew louder as if it was getting closer. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

I grimaced when an arrow pierced my sleeve.

This was no time to become distracted by Nascent-Soul-level problems. I had to solve this issue or get us the fuck out of here; especially if, whatever that was, came near us.

I split my mind in two so I could focus on the fight while simultaneously considering our options.

I immediately threw out the possibility of calling down my tribulation. While it was a classic Xianxia trope, it only happened when it was going to be a normal size. If I called down my overpowered one, it would see all these cultivators as people trying to interfere and turn from a near-deadly tribulation to a nuclear bomb that would flatten half this forest. I wasn’t the type of person to needlessly destroy the environment when there were easier ways.

We could hide in the space, but I decided against that. As much as I liked Clear Eyes, the space was not mine to expose to him. And I wouldn’t abandon him while we had other options.

I could ask the Neck Scar Guy to help us in exchange for the rhubarb... which would only work if he wasn’t battling for his life against a Golden Core expert. Sadly, his fight was still very much in progress.

Our best option was to call Shadow Gopher back over. Unfortunately, that would be embarrassing as fuck. I’d told him that he wouldn’t have to babysit our asses. It hadn’t been more than two hours since we left his side! But, I could deal with a little embarrassment if it kept us alive. Fortunately, he likely wasn’t too far away.

Even as I cut several arrows out of the sky, I sent a secret sound transmission to Gopher, “Are you busy?”

“Oh! Senior Lin! Everything is a mess over here. There are two massive Spiritual Tigers who have been fighting in the deep forest, but recently they’ve been heading toward the middle ring. If you’re still around there, please escape to the entrance as soon as you can.”

Goddam it! Shit just kept getting worse.

The loudest thunder we’d heard yet echoed through the air and the ground rumbled.

I stretched my divine sense out. A massive creature came tearing a path through the forest like a giant, unstoppable meteor.

Mother fucker!

“Run!” I yelled.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Several of the Foundation Establishment assassins made a run for it. Then all three red-robed cultivators took this distraction and ran away. Ah, there went my chance to offer Neck Scar Guy the Rhubarb. Whatever.

A few more arrows rained down on me while a leaf attack from a Foundation Establishment enemy aimed toward my face. These assholes really wanted us dead. With a special hand seal and a push gesture, I created a spiritual shield that blocked those strikes. Unfortunately, it destroyed my technique. My throat soured and I coughed up a mouthful of blood from the backlash. I stepped behind Clear Eyes, downed a bottle of spiritual spring water and a Qi Recovery pill, and returned to fighting.

Here we were being attacked, and now we had to deal with this massive beastly disaster!

I ducked under a Qi Condensation cultivator’s hidden dagger and sent a slash into his face. He fell and didn’t get back up.

The path I sensed the beast take through the forest looked familiar. Actually, I’d been to this forest a couple hundred years in the future. A long, unnatural depression twisted through the forest. I hadn’t thought much of it since it had been covered by trees and grasses. If it was the place I was thinking of then, I knew the path this monster would take.

If I estimated correctly, this was our chance to escape these fuckers!

I punted away two leaf attacks from a Foundation Establishment cultivator who’d wrongfully assumed I was the weakest target. Then I grinned.

I sent Little Spring and Clear Eyes the updated map with the path where the beast would land.

::We’re going to use this monster as a distraction to get the fuck out of here.::

::Yes, Senior Lin!::

I swiftly slashed toward our enemies while using four consecutive Thousand Cuts to force the remaining assassins back. This drained a significant portion of my remaining energy, but it gave Little Spring and me enough time to turn and run. We put thick trees between us and them.

Clear Eyes Sent one final powerful slash at the Foundation Establishment cultivators he’d been fighting. His lips looked bloodless as he joined me. While he was mostly uninjured, his energy levels were significantly depleted.

We practically flew, interspersing impossible leaps with our continuous steps to make it more difficult for the assassins to come after us. Just as we crossed the place I’d indicated on the map, a giant black and white ball came visibly barreling toward our location. The ground and trees flew away from the beast as easily as a child’s finger creating a mini trench through the sand.

The Golden Core cultivator sent his long, stretchy crimson rope after us. I dodged it, but it wrapped around Little Spring, who had been trailing behind me by a single foot.

His eyes widened and he suddenly flew backward toward the path of the beast. “Sister Lin!”

Faster than I’d ever cast it before at my current stage, I sent a spiritual hand grasping towards the kid. Before my huge fingers could grab him, both my technique and Little Spring were hit by the gigantic creature. I coughed up another mouthful of blood from the backlash of my technique getting obliterated. The noise it caused as it barreled through the forest was deafening. If the kid made a sound when struck, I couldn’t hear it, but I saw a vague figure flying off to who the fuck knew where.

What had once been flat ground had turned into a small wall of dirt and fallen trees. This would briefly separate us from our enemies as I’d planned. I had even guessed that the beast’s energy would hide our own, aiding our escape. But that wasn’t important. Because I couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Then I mentally checked the space to see if he’d entered it. The kid wasn’t there.

Fuck. I thought the brat had been training to use it in an emergency!

“Excuse me, Senior!” Clear Eyes picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and bolted away. I tapped his back to get his attention.

“You’re going in the wrong direction! We have to go grab my martial brother!”

“Do you honestly think he survived that?!”

He was the universe’s favorite. “Of course he did!” Somehow. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t need help. But he would be alive. He had to be. This world could not exist without him.

“You’re delusional! Wake up! If we don’t run away right now, they’ll come after us. If he’s not dead, he’ll be in a far safer place than we are!”

That was when a massive orange tiger, a spiritual beast of at least the low end of the 6th stage, strutted toward where the giant alabaster ball crashed.

The air crackled with energy. Storm clouds spread through the forest.

The head of a white tiger rose above the treeline. It roared. The sound sent everyone to their knees, including Mad Tongue, who was carrying me. A strange feeling came over me that I never would have picked up if I hadn’t been at the peak of the world. This was the feeling of watching a dragon and a god fight. These two tigers looked similar, but they were completely different species.

It struck me that there really were things that even my jaded thousand-year-old ass hadn’t seen.

Regardless, if we didn’t get out of here, we would be beyond fucked.

Mad Tongue struggled to a standing position, then began running again. ::Even if he isn’t safe, we can’t help him where we are!::

Why the hell did this clear-eyed teenage motherfucker have to be so goddamn right?! If we wanted to save our own asses, we had to reach a defensible location, or some place the assassins couldn’t find. Somewhere that could shield us from this fight between two monsters.

It was my responsibility to take care of myself and my junior first.

As for Little Spring... I just had to trust that he had plot armor and that all that training I’d given him had done him good.

The kid would be fine! He would be. Even though a Qi Condensation cultivator would never actually survive that.

Fuck, I must have gotten dust in my eyes because they stung.

The tigers swatted at each other and likely sent telepathic messages, excluding the bystanders like us from knowing why the hell this fight was taking place.

Before they started seriously attacking each other, I needed to remember the terrain from three hundred years in the future.

The massive crater where the white tiger originally touched down would later develop into a tiny valley. There was a small hill in the east that would become a plateau. That was where the fight would move.

Think, where did this battle not touch?

The river! It was deeper during that time period, but it never changed course. There also hadn’t been any large lakes along it. If we could find a cave near it, then we’d be able to hide within and create a base.

I spread my divine sense out. In the south, the assassins started moving in our direction once again. They seriously didn’t give up during this disaster?! Really? Was their boss a brainwashing cult leader? What was wrong with them?

::Follow the river!:: I pointed.

::Are you kidding me? That area is more open. You know they’re still after us.::

::What’s more dangerous, those two beasts or some scattered assassins?::

::I don’t see—::

::Their fight won’t reach the water. If we want to have a chance at survival, fucking follow it!::

Apparently, he didn’t have to be told thrice and started running.

I needed a deeper look at the area to find a hiding spot. Since I was still stuck using a Golden Core level divine sense, that meant we’d have to move closer.

::Also, you should put me down. I can run on my own.::

::Well, you weren’t moving when Little Spring d—::

::—Don’t think that. He’s alive.:: I couldn’t blame him. If I didn’t know we lived in a Xianxia story, and that kid was the protagonist, I’d assume he was dead, too.

::Senior Lin... he’s only a Qi Condensation cultivator. That beast that hit him was at least a stage 5.::

::Actually, it’s probably a stage 3.::

He set me down. ::How can it possibly be that low?!::

::This is my first time seeing one, but I think that white tiger…:: I pointed to the massive fluffy tail, the only part visible from our location. ::…is an Ascendant beast.::

He sputtered. I grabbed his sleeve and forced him to start running.

::A stage 3 Ascendant beast is basically the same thing as a stage 5 or 6 spiritual beast!::

::It’s not. The only record of a pinnacle stage 3 Ascendant beast getting killed was by thirty Immortal Ascension practitioners. And after that fight, only a handful were still alive. Meanwhile, it would only take one to three Immortal Ascension masters to slaughter a peak stage 6 spiritual beast. They are not the same.::

“Are you serious?!”

::Save your breath for running. And of course, I am.::

While I could never get a spiritual or mystical beast to like me, I always hoped I could befriend a beyond-human-intelligent Ascendant beast. Or at least, I believed it wouldn’t kill me on sight. The only thing was — they were very powerful and impossible to find. This was my first time seeing one.

According to my research, Ascendant Beast babies started out at stage 1 — the equivalent of low Golden Core. Frankly, the records about these creatures weren’t clear.

Some said that they could shapeshift. I’d heard colleagues say that it wasn’t shapeshifting, but natural defenses that tricked people into seeing a different reality. From the fiction I read in my past-past life, I always suspected that they had the shifting ability but could only take on human form when they reached level 2.

Well, whatever. The kid wouldn’t suddenly bring one home. Not when his destined main contract beast was a nine-tailed fox Mystical beast. The one that joined Bloodsword’s harem. Wait. Maybe Little Spring would avoid that bitch since he was a different person with an unfucked soul.

Booms echoed through the forest like thunder. Spiritual energy blew around with the wind. The natural laws bent where the monsters fought.

We continued to run, reaching the river and going towards the mountains.

Finally, my divine sense picked something up. A shallow cave underneath a waterfall. Perfect! I sent directions to Mad Tongue.

***

After we entered the small damp stone cave, I had the teen keep watch on our surroundings while I quickly set up an obfuscation array. Next, I put together a defensive formation.

“Done!”

Mad Tongue immediately sat down and leaned against the wall. He covered his eyes with his hand.

By this point, I didn’t have the energy to use my cleaning technique, so I sat on a blanket to cultivate. I needed to replenish my energy so I could contact Little Spring and attempt to help him. Before I could get into the proper mindset, the grump interrupted me.

The teen lowered his arm. “Senior Lin. I tried to hold it in, but I can’t.”

I raised a brow at the sword cultivator. "You were wrong. You were so very-very wrong.”

Okay, that was it. Once I reached Foundation Establishment, I would kick his ass. “How?”

He glared. “You said it wouldn't be like the crab mission!”