"Are you telling me that she is alone?" One of them asked surprised.
"We followed her till here and so far, there was no one at her side."
"To think she would come to this side of the forest..." A male disciple murmured.
"Let's go, it's our chance. I must say, a heaven-sent opportunity hehe." Tao Yong started ordering his underling according to the plan he made.
They did not see the moment she met up with Seth. They were relatively far from her, trying to see where she would be going and following at a certain safe distance away from her. But suddenly, she entered a place that hardly anyone would go and headed to the forest. It would be a lie if they didn't find it suspicious. So, they ended up adopting safe measures.
The Tao Yong group of people were not so dumb to fully believe she would be all alone, so they proceeded with caution. Even if she wasn't alone anymore, they could probably deal with it.
Chun Meiyi sprinted though the woods bringing Seth along so they could get faster in their hideout. All this time he was making sure to leave some clues for the uninvited guests along the way. Seth wasn't trying in the least to hide his presence.
About fifteen minutes later they arrived at their hideout. There was a small hill with dense vegetation covering it. Going to the base of the hill and quickly squatting down, Seth started to push some stones and plants away.
That was a well hidden from view place. After some manual labor, an entrance was revealed before their eyes. It was a narrow road going underground with a lot of dried roots on the floor and walls.
Chun Meiyi quickly entered and he went behind her. A usual routine for them, only that this time he purposely didn't close the entrance and even left some stone debris behind before catching up to her.
The narrow road had almost zero to no illumination, but it was completely different when they got inside. A very big space came in front of their eyes and the ceiling was shaped like a dome that had some cracks, letting the sunlight drown the insides. A really enchanting view.
A cave, but one out of ordinary.
"Ah! It's beautiful!" Chun Mei beautifully smiled as if in agreement with the scenery.
"It really is." Seth said while looking at her.
She looked a bit shy after noticing his gaze but didn't pursue the topic, cause in the end she even felt a bit happy.
"Then, let's start your training." Seth went to a wall and got two wooden swords that were already left there before for training purposes and gave her them both: "If you want to use your elements separately one day, then you got to learn how to dual task."
She took both swords and looked really clumsy holding them. While making some inviting gestures, Seth readied his stance waiting for her attacks, but it took some time for them to come, because she was a bit lost.
She has never used two swords at the same time. It was actually way harder to control her movements. It would take a lot of time for her to get used.
For thirty minutes the sparring session went with no stops. Seth is not a swordsman but he has fought many already. With his enhanced strength and perception, he fought with his bare hands.
While they were sparring, he would often point the flaws at her swordplay, and they were many.
Meiyin couldn't land a single hit during the training, but her movements were getting less wide and more precise each time she would swing the swords.
"Phew... I'm exhausted." She dropped both swords panting from the constant fight.
"You should focus on practicing that the technique we've developed yesterday while you rest. I will bring us some fresh water."
"Alright" She sat with her eyes closed and channeled her elements into the simple technique developed earlier. The concept behind it was to actually focus on the flaws, trying to make it her strength. Basically, if she couldn't channel fire or water separately, then, why not make her "smoke", her main way to get stronger? If she can only transform her Qi and release it as smoke, why not use it at her advantage then?
After observing her for some time, Lexi told Seth that there was more to her "smoke" than people could think. At least she felt it could do more than water and fire combined, as the smoke carried her Qi very heavily.
Seth left trough the entrance heading straight to a river to grab some water, but his main goal was another thing.
The fastest one of the Tao Yong group was in charge of scouting and finding clues to where Chun Meiying went. He crouched down and observed two different footprints marking a trail through the forest.
After some time analyzing he ran back at his fastest speed to report to his leader, unaware of someone watching his actions.
"Very soon, they will arrive at the cave entrance." Seth was watching the scout from a good distance. Shadows enveloped his figure and he vanished in the darkness.
"Tao Yong!" The scout came back to his group to make his report.
"Say it."
"There were two different footprints marking the ground. It seems she is not alone now! While she may have found a partner inside the forest and is not alone anymore, from that person footprints I can tell he is an amateur. The heavy marks left behind and the space between the footprints are the signs I analyzed. It shows that that person is unexperienced and could not maintain his pace for a long time." He continued: "He or she must be tired."
"Hm, those are very good news then. Men, get prepared! We are advancing." The leader ordered.
They followed the footprints in a bit faster pace and shortly after they were at the end of the trail.
"The trail ends here." Four people approached the small hill and saw an open entrance with a narrow road. Some stone debris on the ground showing people passed through there not too long ago.
"What a great place, no one will hear anything that happens here."
"I'm already eager to hear her screams, haha."
"Ahahah."
"Quiet! Let's head inside."
Four men entered heading straight to the middle. They failed to notice a pair of eyes watching from the shadows. Soon the shadows moved at a fast speed following them inside.
Tao Yong and his underlings got past the entrance reaching inside the cave and saw Chun Meiyi sitting there with her eyes closed.
Tao Yong looked around and didn't spot anyone else.
"Get her." Tao Yong ordered in a low tone. He and two other disciples slowly approached from the sides, the wanted to get her by surprise. It would be better to knock her out first and then dispose of the other individual.
But they failed to realize that one disciple of their group was already missing. In fact, he hadn't even left the narrow passage.
Chun Meiyi was totally focused on her training and didn't hear them, but one of the key points of that technique was to observe the flow of wind and use it to spread the smoke filled with her Qi around her body. For some reasons she felt some minor changes on it. Opening her eyes, she saw three men about 15 meters away from her coming straight at her direction.
"Tie her up fast!" They rushed after she noticed them.
She was startled by what was happening and the first thing she did was to release the technique she was training right now as an impulse.
A thick mist started rising 30 meters around her, covering their vision and restraining their spiritual perception. It was impressive that Chun Meiyi developed a technique like this together with Seth in a short period.
They got lost inside the mist but while it was totally covering their sight, it was still an imperfect technique as they could lock on her aura that was moving backwards, only that the aura signal was so faint they were almost losing it from their grasp.
"Arrrgh!"
Just as they started chasing her a painful screech was heard from their left. Tao Yong and the man on his right gave up on the idea of chasing after her and focused on what was happening inside the mist.
Waiting for a chance to strike, Seth silently left the shadows and pierced one disciple's chest right through the middle with his right hand. It was so deep that his arm went through it, splashing fresh blood on the floor. The earlier noise was made by this unlucky fellow that got slaughtered.
His body dropped on the floor lifeless and when the other two saw it, they knew things were not so simple.
The stealth was undone but there were two less disciples now.