The dragon's harem

Chapter 1587: A Hidden Threat

In that moment, everything went south for a second. Master Han jumped in immediately to pick up the injured master and throw them back to the disciples.

Her moves were fast, but too slow to reach. The Dire Storm wolf moved like a lightning bolt, flying through the air with a thunderous flash, his open maw closing at her face.

And at that moment, a bullet hit the monster right in the eye, causing it to flinch for a brief moment. That was enough to spell its doom, because the grandmaster Tina called had arrived. In her hand rested the severed head of the fourth Dire Storm wolf, and soon she reaped the head of the third as well.

Dire Storm wolves were technically weak monsters, but they could call upon a lot of power by linking to the natural element of storm, the power that lingers in the air and causes rain, thunder, and lightning storms.

Tina didn’t fully understand that aspect of this world, but she suspected that those monsters were similar to spirits, pulling power from nature itself.

Masters were able to draw from that power as well, but to a far lesser degree. Even grandmasters weren’t able to draw as much power as a Dire Storm wolf could for two reasons. The first was that monsters barely cared for their own well-being, usually maiming themselves while using their harrowing powers. The second was elemental selection; those monsters can draw a lot of power from storms, but only from storms.

The first thing the grandmaster did when arriving was to sever the wolves’ link to the storm element. Sadly, her arrival had forced the two wolves hiding to attack, which resulted in the one master getting injured. Even then, the grandmaster still didn’t have enough time to finish severing the Dire Storm wolves’ link to the element, so she was willing to let master Han get injured or even die.

It was a simple choice. Risk the lives of two masters, or millions of people, by giving those stupid wolves a chance to summon a tornado or a thunderstorm.

But to the grandmaster’s surprise, master Han survived, all thanks to that rude and useless woman in the back. As the elder said, she probably isn’t as useless as she looks.

”I wonder, how can she see through the mist?” The grandmaster smiled and opened her palm. With a single swing, she blasted all of the mist away and revealed the location of the remaining two Dire Storm wolves.

”Little puppies, no more storm for you, and not life either.”

The two monsters didn’t spare her a second and immediately attacked. Seeing that a grandmaster was here, the masters started retreating back while fighting off the regular storm wolves.

At this moment, Tina had done all that she could to help. But now, she had to find an excuse.

The grandmaster didn’t waste any time and quickly flew across the battlefield, finishing off all of the remaining Storm wolves in seconds. By the time everyone realised that the fight was over, the grandmaster was already standing at the base of the watch tower where Tina was.

”You there! Come down.”

Tina looked down, gulped, and strapped her rifle on her back. As she climbed down, she started thinking of an excuse, but she couldn’t find anything.

”Don’t worry, I can drive her away.” Doma whispered into Tina’s ear. But Tina didn’t want her to do that; the grandmaster had just saved everyone’s lives, and driving her away might draw more suspicions.

”You shot at me, at the sect. You know that it is punishable by death.” The grandmaster glared at her, ”Or a hundred whips, pick your poison.”

”Shot at the sect? Isn’t it like several miles away?” Tina replied, looking back at the sect.

The grandmaster knew that it was impossible for a bullet to fly that far, but Tina’s bullet did reach her anyway, which was the main reason she was here asking questions.

”Then why would you even aim that way?” The grandmaster glared at her, and Tina took a step back.

”Well... the masters here saw two Dire wolves, I saw four in the woods. I tried warning them, but no one listened... beside him.” She pointed at the one guy who took her words seriously.

”I know those Dire wolves can wipe out a whole city, so I tried to get the attention of anyone in the sect. I aimed that way because I thought grandmaster, or probably someone stronger, would sense something and come check.”

Most grandmasters, saints, and elders can sense threats and bloodlust from far away; it wouldn’t be that uncommon for a disciple to think that an elder could sense someone looking at them from a hundred miles away.

Tina didn’t seem to be relying on her bullet reaching the sect, but more on someone sensing that she took aim and shot.

But that didn’t change the fact that her bullet reached the sect. Where did that power come from? Tina only had a five spirit energy; she shouldn’t even be able to handle the recoil from that rifle.

The grandmaster smiled. ”I see, it’s fine.” If the bullet didn’t reach her, the Dire Storm wolves would’ve killed the masters in an ambush and probably caused a disaster at the outer edges of the sect.

”I think it’s the will of the sacred tree.” Master Han approached, half of her body covered in blood. She looked at Tina, then back at the grandmaster. ”The World Tree actively protects us.”

Unlike everyone else, Master Han could notice the damage to the grandmaster’s clothes. It was so minuscule, but to her trained eyes, it was clear. Tina’s bullet reached the sect, which was either luck or the will of the World Tree.

The sect is protected by a barrier cast by one of the elders. That barrier is also made from the World Tree magic and responds to her will. The World Tree must’ve allowed it to pass.

The grandmaster sighed, ”Fine. I’ll let it slide this time. We’ve got bigger troubles to deal with. Dire Storm wolves this close to the sect is unheard of.”

The main reason those disciples was because the sect thought this area was safe. The disciples were supposed to camp, hunt small monsters, and test their powers in the open world, as well as earn a few crystals for themselves to cultivate.

The grandmaster looked at the makeshift fort the disciples had built and smiled. At least, the basic of their training seems to have gone well. They even did a good job fighting the Storm wolves; some talented disciples even got a kill.

Tina had also done a great job. Besides drawing the grandmaster’s attention, she did shoot a few of the wolves, which allowed the others to kill them. She even saved master Han with her shot earlier.

”As you might be able to guess, you’re going back to the sect. I’ll scout the entire forest and make sure it’s safe.” The grandmaster started floating, ”And you, little girl with a rifle. I’ll come visit you tomorrow to talk about this in further detail.”

Watching the grandmaster leave, Tina could finally relax for a second and put her rifle away. But only a few minutes later, master Han approached her with a worried face.

”Don’t do that ever again. You’re lucky that grandmaster Lina is quite lax. Any other one would’ve had you killed on the spot.” She exhaled, ”Taking arms against the sect is a serious crime; the reason won’t matter.”

Tina already knew that not all of the masters in the sect are friendly; most of them are arrogant and quite unpleasant to be around.

An hour later, the grandmaster returned with a massive wound across her back, a missing arm, and a face covered in dark, fetid blood. She didn’t even land, just crashed on the ground beside the half-disassembled camp.

The masters rushed at her while all of the disciples stopped everything they were doing to see what was going on.

As it seems, a powerful demon had appeared nearby and driven those Dire Storm wolves out of their habitat. What’s worse, it had killed all of the sect’s scouts in the area, which is why no one knew about its emergence in the past couple of days.

But the grandmaster also had good news; she had managed to kill the demon. The forest should be relatively safe now.

In the end, the masters decided to keep exploring the outer edges of the forest for the day. Which made Tina quite happy. She had one big reason for coming on this trip.

Energy Crystals are expensive, even with Arad hard at work cutting lumber; they could barely afford a couple of them for her to use. What made things worse for her was that, unlike the other disciples, who had an around 80% success rate, she failed nine times out of ten.