"What is it, boy?" Zhang asked the pups before he too heard the sound of snapping twigs.
Following their lead, Zhang also charged out of the clump of trees to find a shadowy figure lying on the ground with the two pups atop of it.
"Sto-sto-stop." A voice drifted into Zhang's ears as he arrived in front of the shadowy figure pinned down by the pups.
"Wenji! What are you doing here? Where's your group?" Zhang asked with a surprised look on his face as he saw the girl of his dreams appear before him in one of the most unlikely of places.
"Let's go, it's not safe out here." Zhang said as he helped Wenji up from the ground and handed her a handkerchief to wipe off some of the drool the pups had slathered her face with.
So after leading Wenji through the twisting vines and branches to his not so hidden hideout, Zhang helped prepare a bed of leaves for her while trying to strike up a conversation.
"They sure have." Wenji laughed as she rubbed Little Blue's head gently.
So as the dried leaves provided them with a hint of warm, and while the twisting vines kept them safe as the night grew darker, Zhang and Wenji fell into a deep sleep. But once their faces were covered in saliva thanks to their two furry companions, Zhang and Wenji awoke to a beautiful morning sun that was just peeking into the forest through small gaps in the canopy.
"If you'll have me then I'll stick around." Wenji replied with a smile after a moment of silence.
"Okay, you work on getting the food and I'll build the shelter." Wenji replied.
First, she gathered dozens of long tree limbs that had fallen to the ground and then leaned them against each other and bound them together with small vines. Once the branches were tightly tied together, she proceeded to cover it's outside with an abundance of leaves and branches.
"Now to make some finishing touches." Wenji said with a smile as she continued constructing the hut.
"You two keep your noses out, I want to make a good impression on her." Zhang whispered to the pups as he imagined himself dragging back a tiger or something of the like back to camp and showing Wenji how strong and courageous he was.
Before Zhang could draw his sword and run after them, Little Red jumped back out of the bush with a rabbit in its mouth. After it arrived at where Zhang was standing and dropping its prey onto the ground, Little Red gazed at Zhang with a triumphant look on its face.
"What is it boy?" Zhang asked as he made his way through the bush.
"Alright enough showing off, let's head back to camp." Zhang laughed as he looked at how silly the tiny pup was standing atop the deer that was roughly a dozen times its size.
As they were moving through the woods the pups suddenly stopped in their tracks and their fur stood on end. Soon the sound of tumbling trees was audible and echoed throughout the forest.
It did not take long for Zhang and the pups to arrive at the scene where all of the commotions wer originating from, while hiding within a bush and peeking out, Zhang and the pups saw a group of fifteen or so cultivators battling a sloth that towered above them.
From the looks of things, Zhang could tell that the sloth was at least at the Elementary Realm and that the cultivators were struggling to overpower it, since many of them had large gashes that were visible through their ragged robes while the sloth itself only had some minor injuries.
"Use the fire talismans!" One of the cultivators fighting the Snow Sloth said as he pulled out a red colored talisman from his robes and sent it flying toward the sloth.
Although it was coated in fire the Snow Sloth continued to attack the cultivators with a flurry of attacks, most of them missed but for the few unlucky people who were struck a massive amount of damage was dealt. There were even a few people who after being struck by the massive sloth losing consciousness and having streams of blood flow out of the corners of their mouths.
As the cultivators fell to the fury of the Snow Sloth, Zhang's anticipation continued to increase and his eyes began to shine. If everyone in this group of cultivators were killed then once the sloth left, Zhang would be able to loot all of their things or better yet if the sloth died too then he would be able to claim it's pelt. In the end, no matter the outcome he would not suffer any losses and only stood to gain.
If there was even a moment of hesitation in their moments, then a single strike from the Snow Sloth would prove to be disastrous.
But of course sometimes fleeing wasn't the best decisions, mostly because once someone started running away they would no longer have vision on their opponent, in this case, the Snow Sloth. As a few people were fleeing they had the misfortune of being pursued by the sloth.
"You two keep watch and tell me if anyone or anything comes around here." Zhang said to the pups as he bent over and began searching one of the dead cultivators.
Of the group of fifteen cultivators, a total of five of them had been slain by the sloth and from their bodies Zhang was able to recover a large variety of things. Some he could identify while others he could only guess their uses, but whatever Zhang could find he would stuff them into the sack that was slung over his shoulder.
Upon checking the last body Zhang and the pups began heading back to their camp after retrieving their deer that had been left in the bush they were in when the fight was unfolding.
Although the sloth was not slain and Zhang could not collect its pelt for the tournament, he had made a tremendous haul taking the treasures that the other contestants had.
To Zhang's amazement, a large warm looking hut came into view after he pushed past the dense branches and twisting vines that kept their camp hidden.
"We're back." Zhang said as he walked toward the hut while making sure the deer he hoisted over his shoulder was showing.
"I'll get to cooking if you can start us a fire in the meantime." Wenji said before she began preparing the deer for dinner.
Afterward, a large flat surfaced rock was lodged into the sides the hole and began to glow red with heat.
Once Zhang finished his task and Wenji arrived beside him with some deer meat, a sizzling sound could be heard as they placed the fresh deer meat on the fiery hot rock.