The bear charged and the world seemed to slow down in that way it does when your brain realizes you're watching something that might kill you, every detail sharpening into perfect clarity even as time stretches like taffy being pulled.
The Feng and Liu disciples scattered immediately, their earlier standoff forgotten so completely it might as well have never happened. Survival instinct overrode clan pride and grudges and territorial disputes over valuable herbs in an instant, the way it always does when something bigger and meaner shows up to remind everyone exactly where they sit on the food chain.
Chen Yu watched from the bushes as all five cultivators ran in different directions like startled rabbits, no coordination or planning, just pure animal panic taking over higher brain functions. The bear's massive head swung to track movement, amber eyes locking onto the nearest target with predator focus that made Chen Yu's skin crawl even from thirty meters away and hidden.
It was one of the Liu disciples, the one who'd been holding the spear but had apparently dropped it in his panic to run faster. Bad choice, terrible choice actually, because now he had no weapon and the bear had decided he looked like breakfast.
The cultivator made it maybe fifteen feet before the bear closed the distance with a burst of speed that shouldn't have been possible for something that massive. One enormous paw came down on the man's back with a force that Chen Yu heard even from here, a wet crunching sound like someone stepping on a basket of eggs except a thousand times worse and far more final.
The cultivator's scream cut off mid-breath as his spine shattered and his ribcage collapsed inward, body folding in ways bodies definitely weren't meant to fold. Blood sprayed across dead leaves in a fan pattern that looked almost artistic if you could forget what you were actually looking at.
The bear didn't even pause to finish him off, just kept moving toward the next nearest runner who was another Liu disciple, this one still holding his sword but running too frantically to think about using it as anything other than deadweight slowing him down.
Xie Jun's hand clamped onto Chen Yu's shoulder with bruising force, his voice a harsh whisper right in Chen Yu's ear. "Don't move. Don't make a sound. Don't even breathe loudly."
Chen Yu nodded fractionally, barely moving his head, his entire body locked in place behind the bushes. His heart hammered against his ribs hard enough that he worried the bear might somehow hear it, which was irrational but fear made rationality take a backseat to primal terror.
The second Liu disciple made a different choice than his companion. Instead of just running blindly, he spun around and brought his sword up in a desperate slash aimed at the bear's face, probably figuring he was dead anyway so might as well try to hurt the thing before it killed him.
The blade connected with the bear's snout in a strike that should have split flesh and bone. Instead it skittered across the bear's face with a screech of metal on something harder than metal should be, spiritual energy reinforcing the bear's hide until it might as well have been wearing armor forged from the finest spiritual steel in existence.
The bear's paw came around in a backhanded swipe that caught the cultivator across the chest and sent him flying backward into a tree trunk with enough force that Chen Yu heard more bones breaking, a sound that was becoming sickeningly familiar. The cultivator slid down the tree leaving a smear of blood on the bark, his sword falling from nerveless fingers to land in the dirt with a soft thump that seemed too quiet for someone dying.
Two down in less than ten seconds. Three cultivators left, and the bear didn't look even slightly winded or injured beyond maybe a bruised ego from having someone swing a sword at its face.
The remaining Liu disciple and both Feng cultivators had made it to the tree line on opposite sides of the clearing, putting distance and obstacles between themselves and the spirit beast that was systematically killing their group. Chen Yu could see them through gaps in the foliage, pressed against tree trunks and breathing hard, their faces pale with shock and fear that had replaced all that earlier anger and pride.
The bear stood in the center of the clearing, its massive head swinging back and forth as it tracked the survivors, amber eyes glowing with intelligence that was somehow worse than simple animal hunger. It knew they were there. It was just deciding which one to kill next, taking its time because it could, because nothing here posed an actual threat to it.
Then its gaze landed on the Qi Sensing Herb still growing in that small patch of spiritually rich soil, completely ignored in all the chaos and death. The bear took a step toward it, clearly interested in the concentrated spiritual energy radiating from the plant in pulses that were probably like a beacon to spirit beasts.
One of the Feng disciples made a sound, maybe a gasp or a whispered curse, Chen Yu couldn't tell which. But the bear's ears swiveled toward the noise with frightening precision and its head snapped around to stare directly at the tree the cultivator was hiding behind.