In the body of the devil, the shine of a silver light glistened in the darkness. The night sky stood eternal, and within the shadow of the night stood a shining silver man, as if he were a living sword. An incandescent light.
It was like a stream of cuts was going through his arm. A thousand blades running wildly in his blood and muscle, cutting out of his arm in the form of Qi to stab into the devil, inside out.
The creature bloated from the indulgence of Qi. It's sustenance. Streams of silver light poked from corners of its body, with dark purple blood gushing out from them.
Its mouth remained wide open, like it was in a state of utter fervour and exhilaration, enjoying every sip of Shuren's move.
Shuren gritted his teeth to the point he felt creaks in his jaw. But he had to.
Otherwise, he would be screaming from the intense pain and sensation.
This was no normal pain. It wasn't the pain of being cut, or being flayed, or burnt, or ripped, or torn.
It was the pain of forging his body into a living sword, fighting against the voracious hunger of the forlorn devil.
Yet, in the end, even he couldn't help but roar. Roar to defy his death, to continue fighting, even at the risk of crippling his right arm!
Even if his journey as a swordsman would end now!
He wouldn't die here! Not by some unnamed random creature of the abyss! His story couldn't end here, not when he hadn't yet become the patriarch of the Liu Clan! Not when he didn't take his vengeance on those who usurped his right and power!
Not until he could surpass his grandfather!
The guttural and primeval roar of one man shook across the Dezuan Forest.
Silver light continued to stab out of each pore of the devil. Burning away each auspicious eye, tearing apart the shadow of its body, destroying each proof of its existence.
Then Shuren heard it.
A gargled voice, coming from the depths of its body.
It wasn't a demonic sound of a monster. No, it was anything but that.
It was the sound of a crying newborn.
"Die."
It exploded into a mess of dark blobs of slime. There was no muscle, no blood, no bone or flesh.
Under every law under the Grand Paths, beneath the reign of the Heavens, this was no creature.
But Shuren had a feeling. Whatever it was, if the true origins and nature of this thing were to be revealed.
Then it would be information that would cause the world to fall into chaos.
Just a gut feeling.
At its core was a pulsating wretched mass of dark matter.
Shuren didn't even have the capacity of thinking to collect it for investigation. He stepped on it, crushing it like a bug, then kicked it over the cliff side.
The silver aura of Qi diminished around him. The steam that came from every breath dissipated. But the burning pain of using the technique didn't disappear.
With all of his Qi used up, the Sword Forge Stance had ended.
He used his left hand to grab for some pills in a pouch around his hips. A high grade pain killer. A Spiritual Qi Pill that acted as emergency rations of Qi, fuelling his body with just enough Qi to function. A Rank 3 Natural Rejuvenation Pill gifted from his father, to use in dire straits like this.
Shuren looked over to his right arm. It was entirely bruised, with cuts of flesh across every patch of skin possible. Blood continued to flow to his fingertips, dropping to coat the grass blades crimson.
At the very least, the cuts of his skin slowly sew itself with the help of the pill, advancing his natural regeneration.
He unruffled his rolled-up sleeves, covering the ravaged state of his right arm.
And he still didn't just walk back. He forced his legs to jog, to return to camp.
In the beginning, this thing attacked my right arm immediately, to the point of traversing at inhumane speeds. At that time, I had just used Staff Purge alongside Qi Tether. And when it caught my staff, it also followed the same logic.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Knowing its weakness, the way to defeat it had become so simple.
He chuckled, "Indeed, as the Immortal Reverend Seraphim All-Seer says, the greatest weapon wielded is words of wisdom."
This was the power of information. Knowing the weakness of any opponent was enough to turn the tide of battle. Even such a crazy devilish being, which seemed impossible to deal with, had such a glaring weakness.
Realising that, it was no wonder the First Grand Era started with a scholar.
Picking up the Ruyi Staff, even the act of reaching over to grab it was excruciating.
And that was with the effects of a high grade pain killer.
Shuren was afraid if he didn't use it, he'd have collapsed on the spot.
For now, the missive had to be aborted immediately. They had to return to the sect and write up a report. Any further would be endangering everyone else's lives.
Right before he entered the clearance with the camp, Shuren took out a handkerchief. He cleaned up the blood off his face to look as representable as possible.
By the time he returned to camp, Shuren could only sigh in relief.
Junyu and the rest had just managed to deal with the remainder of the flaming horses.
They noticed Shuren, clearly exhausted, and Junyu ran up to him with a worried expression.
"Shuren, what happened?! Did you get that kid Tez?" Junyu said.
One of the Outer Disciples, Sarya, also followed. "Where's Tez? You couldn't find him?!"
Luo snorted.
Shuren coughed, trying to stop himself from wheezing, but failed. He only shook his head. "Pack everything up. We're leaving after we check up on the grove. Move together with me. Do not move away for even a second," Shuren said in a strained and stern voice. But they took him as seriously as they could.
After all, the leader of the expedition had returned with a face as if he had just seen a ghost.
Shuren and Junyu led the way, walking towards the grove. "At first, I thought this may have been a ruse. The intel may have been leaked on purpose, with a force trying to figure out the spy's faction. But that thing couldn't have been sent out by any human."
"What did you see?" Junyu asked. Even he couldn't help but sweat.
"A devilish thing. It had no organs, no muscle, it didn't bleed or have bones. Yet it eerily looked like a human. That thing should not exist in this world." Shuren's eyes trembled, remembering the dread feeling up his spine. It was almost ingrained in his body, a primal fear.
As they neared the grove, the other Outer Disciple, Arene, whimpered. "B-but what happened to Tez? Is he…"
Shuren sighed. "He was thrown off the cliff by that thing. I don't know anything else."
The group turned quiet at the harrowing situation. That one of their own may have already died on this night.
Sarya and Arene, in particular weren't taking it well.
Shuren thought back to that moment. He frowned when a realisation dawned on him.
That thing was desperate to eat me. It had an intrinsic hunger for anything with Qi, with its only feature even being just teeth made for devouring the living. But back then… It just smacked Tez out the way, without even trying to take a bite. Like he was an unappetising meal. Is it just a picky eater?
The team made it back to the grove, this time walking together. "We need some sort of intel before we leave. But I doubt another such creature was back here. I saw the wounds on the corpses," Shuren said, leading the way.
"They were definitely made by a human."
Pushing away the branches and leaves of the forest, they made their way towards the heart of the grove. There was a caravan with its doors busted open. The wood itself slightly charred.
"We know the answer to why those beasts appeared. A dozen flaming horses packed into such a tiny caravan, transported over days. No wonder they weren't hard to defeat." Shuren continued to walk, seeing where the pool of blood led to.
"I thought so. They were disorganised, and clearly weren't natives of the Dezuan Forest. It worked out well for us, dealing with a bunch of malnourished horses. There's our evidence as well." Junyu finally took out his signature fan, trying to stave off the heat from the battle.
The rest were muted, nervous, and waiting for the Inner Disciples to lead them.
But when they all walked around the caravan, to see the group of corpses Shuren had mentioned.
They were all gone.
Not a single one remained.
"Impossible! How can this be?!" Shuren stammered out. "You're telling me someone was here the entire time, watching us fight and flounder about, and still managed to take all these corpses away?!"
Junyu put a hand on Shuren's shoulder to calm him. "Is it wise to continue investigating? There's only one way such a massive amount of corpses could disappear."
"A spatial storage," Shuren replied with the obvious answer.
A spatial storage not only required an incredibly expensive item, such as a spatial ring, it also mandated that the user had to be at least a Rank 2.
Even then, at Rank 2, the amount of space you had could only be about the size of about ten metres in volume.
Path Foundation was where you unlocked the potential of the Talisoul, being able to control a minor aspect of the Space Path, and also see the first form of your inner world. Even then, using it to store beasts, even dead ones, was difficult. This was because those creatures, even dead, had their own aspects of the Path marked in their body. It was far too difficult for a Path Foundation cultivator to store even corpses of beasts.
For someone to be able to collect dozens of human corpses, all clearly cultivators strong enough to survive and traverse through Dezuan Forest…
Shuren clenched his jaw. To think his first expedition would end in such a failure. Every second he wasted contemplating would only increase the risk for his entire team.
The safety of his team was the first priority. Getting a bunch of Cloudsigils was worthless if you came back with everyone else dead. That was far too much of a price for the Seven Clouds Sect to look at Shuren at the eye and say 'good job' for doing his missive.
"We're leaving now. Don't even bother collecting anything back from camp. Release the blue flare once we walk even further out, so our helmsman will prepare to head towards our meeting point." Shuren slouched his shoulders in shame.
The team headed back past the camp, with the dawn of day coming through. Junyu set off a blue flare to signal the Flaiten and helmsman.
The Vulfoan team members had the worst reactions. Sarya was trembling with every foot, unable to believe that Tez had disappered just like that.
"All of you head to the meeting point. Hang around the edge of Dezuan Forest on the Flaiten for half a day to wait for me." Shuren stood, facing everyone.
Junyu's eyes twitched when his eyebrows were slanted. "Don't play around. Why aren't you coming with us, Shuren?!"
Shuren grinned to ease the mood, but only showed everyone his bloodied gums. "I'm still the leader of the group. And I have one lost brat to pick up."
Shuren felt his robes tighten as Junyu grabbed his collar. "Don't be crazy trying to play the righteous hero! Don't you realise some Rank 3 bastard is prowling in the area, and don't even get started on that thing you fought! Don't risk you life for something so stupid just for some random Outer Disciple!"
"Get your hands off me." Shuren glared at Junyu with cold eyes. Why's he so worked up over this?
"It's daylight. I need to at least give it a try before giving up. Think, if that Rank 3 really wanted us all dead, do you think any of us would be standing right now? They clearly left after finishing off their business. But, one of our own is still waiting around, hoping for us to come help him! How can I, as the leader with responsibility over your lives, walk away just like that?!" Shuren grabbed Junyu's arm with his hand, taking it off his body.
"You know why I pushed for this expedition, Junyu. I have a reputation to build in the sect, and if I come back on my very first one with a casualty, I'll become a joke in front of the elders. You think they'll bother asking me, the newcomer disciple, for even more urgent requests like this again? Or do you want to sip tea and wave your fan in the comfort of your home? Is that why you chose to come with me?"
Junyu clicked his tongue. "Fine. Do as you want. Leader."
Shuren watched his team walk away, but both Sarya and Arene bowed to him in return.
He waved them off. This is the responsibility of a leader. The time will one day come when I become the Patriarch of the Liu Clan. Now that, will be far harder than this little expedition, with the hopes and livelihoods of an entire city and clan on me.
Shuren faced towards the hill that led towards the heart of the Dezuan Forest.
"Now, let's go find that idiot Tez."