"I sense other presence in this forest," the fourth prince remarked on their way back

"No one has dared to enter this forest for years, who would be so brazen to enter the forest," Xi Feng responded.

​​

"In my opinion, we shouldn't wait to find out, treating your ailment is more important than anything else," she was sure that if she let him continue, he would surely want to get to the bottom of it and she wouldn't risk letting that happen so it is better for her to caution him quickly, knowing her intentions, he pursed his lips and nodded approvingly at her.

With a good sense of hearing, he could hear the sound of someone fighting or people but the sound seemed to get louder as they walked further out of the forest, like the cold and yet kindhearted person he is when the situation calls for it, he couldn't help being concerned over the noises he was hearing.

"They are fighting," he remarked while both of them turned to him with a quizzical look on their faces, it has been long since he mentioned the other presence in the forest so they had already forgotten about it.

"What is your highness talking about?" Xi Feng asked in confusion

"They are about four of them ahead but they seem to be fighting with other presence which I am not sure of," he answered, stopping his tracks, he looked ahead with a serious look on his face, he wasn't well aware of the situation so he didn't want to lead them to jump into a situation that might go wrong.

"That is strange, apart from the daughter of the city governor, no one has ever dared to enter into the spirit forest, who could be so crazy to have the guts to enter the spirit forest," knowing how good their master's sense of hearing is, they couldn't doubt his judgement but at the same time, entering the spirit forest for normal people means death and of course with the exception of the fourth prince who is no normal person so they didn't think that any sane person would enter the forest.

"That's right, even cultivators find it hard to enter the forest," they all furrowed their brows as they fixed their eyes on the road ahead of them, both of them were worried that they might end up wasting more time even though they don't have much to spare considering how much blood the fourth prince vomited while they were in the forest.

"That is the direction where the stone statues are, of all the problems in this forest, the stone statues are the hardest to overcome, mother must have made it this way because she knows I can use my ice power to freeze them,"

"But your highness...by freezing the statues, you must have left a trace there, what if those people..." Xi Feng speculated with a worried look on his face but the fourth prince smiled.

"You don't have to worry about that, I am in a weak state so I didn't use my true ice power, I only freezed them for some seconds, if we hadn't left in a hurry, the statues would have melted before we left,"

"That is a relief then," he sighed his relief following Xiaodi who was also worried about it, now they understand why their master was so careless to use his powers in the forest and also leave traces of it.

"Let's go, we can only see the situation to find out what is truly going on,"

They continued on their way out of the forest knowing that the trouble is waiting ahead for them to come, although the trouble isn't meant for them.

"What do we do now?" Ke Yang asked in a panic, they have been fighting with the statues for some time now while trying to protect the two ladies but things were already getting out of hand, no matter how capable their martial art is, they still couldn't stop the statues or decrease their number.

"I don't want to die like this, I really don't want to die!!!" Xixi cried aloud with tears welling down her cheeks, she was already starting to doubt that she is actually going to make it out of the forest, both men couldn't be bothered with her since they were busy with the statues but Ruo Rufei glared at her angrily, she couldn't believe that something so serious is happening and they might lose their lives at any time but her maid who is supposed to show the same braveness as her is actually wailing.

"I just knew something was going to go wrong today, I just knew it...." she increased the volume of her wailing to Ruo Rufei's irritation.

"Won't you shut your mouth right now?!!" Ruo Rufei roared in frustration, she has already had enough of her maid who has been shouting, crying and wailing ever since the statues came at them in full force.

Xixi quickly closed her mouth but her body was still shaky, as she watched the swords clashed while the men tried their best to guard them.

"Miss Rufei, don't you know how to get rid of these statues?" Wei Xianlu inquired as he was now tired of having to fend off the statues which seemed to be forming a maze around them, no matter how hard they fought to make their way out of the area, the statues kept surrounding them and attacking them at the same time.

"I...I" she couldn't possibly tell him that she didn't actually get the fire element grass with her own effort, she has spent years trying to find out what is beyond the trigram puzzle into the spirit forest but she has never found anything since all those who reached that point never returned.

"It has been years and I didn't even remember how I got through this place," she lied but her answer seemed doubtful to Wei Xianlu, he was about to pursue the matter further when he turned back to see a statue heading towards her direction, he quickly dashed towards her and blocked the statue's sword with his sword then he used all his power to push the statue back while Ruo Rufei quickly moved back, realizing that this is the tenth time he is saving her life since the statues appeared.

He did a backflip behind the statue which turned to continue attacking him, he spun his body around and propelled his body into the air before landing on the shoulder of the statue but another statue came to attack him whilst he was still standing on the statue's shoulder, he jumped into the air to dodge the attack then he landed in between the multitude of statues.

Many of them focused their attention on him as they all gathered around him wielding their swords to their sides, the first statue that raised its sword gave him a cut on his shoulder but he turned around and cut off the statue's hand, ignoring the cut on his shoulder, he continued fighting with them, although Ke Yang wished to assist them, there was nothing he could do as he had to fend off the ones that were coming for him first.

"Master!" Ke Yang called while the ladies widened their eyes seeing all the statues attacking him at the same time with their swords intertwined on his shoulder as he blocked their attack with his sword but their strength was too much for only him to handle, he slid back while they followed after him with their swords on his shoulder, he shouted as he tried to gather his strength.

Ke Yang was about to leave the other statues to help him but...

"Don't come here, you must protect miss Rufei, I have been on many battles, this is no less than what I have experienced,"

"Al..." he hadn't even finished his response when the statues he had abandoned appeared at his back and were about to cut his head off, he quickly tilted his head to the side, he swung his sword around as he tried to fend off the attacks of the statues on the ladies and protect himself at the same time.

He pushed his legs back, creating a drag on the ground until his legs touched the tree, he stopped and used all his strength to raise their swords from his shoulder, he pushed them back with all his strength and did a spin around kick on them causing them to fall to the ground.

He landed on the ground and dashed towards the other statues.

Clink!

Clink!

Clink!

Ruo Rufei was now starting to think highly of his ability, seeing how he fended off over a hundred statues with their swords on his shoulder on his own, she was now sure of his strength, even though he sustained some cut, his ability was still praiseworthy to her.

Both men were now back to back against each other, they turned to face each other then they sighed in relief knowing that it wasn't a statue behind them, they turned back to face the statues with their swords wielded at their side.

"It has really been long since we have had such a noteworthy combat,"

"You are right, master"

"Then why don't we make this one another memorable combat,"

They swung their sword around and dashed towards the opposite side with full speed, they sliced the statues from their waist down causing them to fall to the ground but they continued multiplying.

They were both focused on the statues before them that they didn't notice the statues going towards the ladies but it was too late, the statues had already raised their swords accompanied by a scream from Xixi, the men quickly turned towards their direction and dashed towards them as fast as they could but it was too late, Ruo Rufei had already closed her eyes in preparation to die...

"You can open your eyes now," she didn't believe the voice telling her to open her eyes, perhaps her soul has already arrived at the gate of hell, she slowly opened her face only to see...