Chapter 26 - Travelling South

Yaan departed from the Heavenly Path Sect, with no intention of turning back. In fact, he was uncertain if he would ever return to the Greenwood mountain range. He headed South, delving deep into the dark forest, braving the dangers of the beasts within. Compared to the Qi masters in the Heavenly Path Sect who would now be able to see through his identity as a member of the demonic races, he would rather face the beasts.

Despite the complicated emotions Yaan held towards Rui, when he thought back to the resolute look in her eyes as she spoke those final words, he understood that she was someone who had seen far too much suffering in this world. She was a person who valued her own survival above all else and cared for almost nothing else, not even her own heart. Feeling anger towards such a person almost felt meaningless.

The months flew by quickly. Yaan continued travelling South during this time without pause. He didn’t stop to think about anything, instead focussing all of his attention on staying alive. Not only was he concerned that he might be followed by the Heavenly Path Sect Elders, but he also needed to deal with the harsh conditions in the dark forest.

Yaan only roughly understood the geography of the Ghu province and the surrounding area.

The Ghu province was a massive area of land. For all of his life, he had lived on the Northern border of the province. The nine spiritual mountains in the Greenwood mountain range separated the Ghu province from the Northern wilderness, an endless wilderness that only became increasingly dangerous the further you delved into the deep Northern lands.

The Northern border measured around 1,500 miles across. As for the total size of the province, Yaan had no idea. What he did know was that South of the mountain range lay the dark forest, and supposedly, he should find a cultivation society after travelling even further South.

Yaan wasn’t entirely sure about what a cultivation society was exactly, or what moving to such a place might entail, but it couldn’t be any worse than this forest.

He was somewhat familiar with the dark forest already, since it surrounded Lightstone Village, Zong Village, and was also the place where he found the black stone ring. The edge of the forest wasn’t too dangerous, but deeper in, it became all too easy to find demonic beasts.

These beasts were mostly at Rank 1, but Yaan would encounter a Rank 2 beast every few days or so. As for Rank 3 beasts, he only came across one so far.

That beast was far too terrifying, both in terms of its appearance and aura. It looked something like a massive centipede, though it was difficult to be certain in the darkness of the forest. Because of the ever-low light in the dark forest, it was impossible for Yaan to discern its features, but neither did he have the desire to do so. As soon as he saw that monstrosity, he hid himself beneath the cold muddy waters of a small swamp, holding his breath for as long as possible before emerging. Luckily, the beast was nowhere in sight when he resurfaced.

His progress was slow as he progressed through the forest.

Yaan’s eyesight was superior to a Qi master at the same level, but still not as impressive as these nocturnal beasts that lived in eternal darkness. He needed to be cautious along every step of the way, or else he could easily lose his life to a more powerful Rank 2 beast, or even a Rank 3 beast if he was unlucky.

All he had with him was his red robe from the sect and the sword that his teacher gifted to him prior to the start of the beast tide. Yaan still felt a sense of grief every time he held this sword, yet he was also glad that he had something to remember his teacher by.

Yaan came to accept that when Great Elder Wan took him in, the old man truly intended to refine him into a puppet. However, his teacher’s feelings changed with time. He eventually developed feelings for his talented pupil and even second guessed his initial decision, leading his heart astray.

For Yaan, he found it difficult to hate his teacher, yet he also felt betrayed at the same time. He hoped that given more time, his teacher would have changed his mind and instead raised Yaan as his student honestly, but it was impossible to be sure now that the Great Elder was dead.

However, Yaan wasn’t naive. He also understood that his viewpoint was warped by emotion and by the fact that his teacher had only ever showed him ‘kindness’. When he thought about it and assessed the situation objectively in retrospect, he came to the depressing realisation that the ‘kindness’ shown by his teacher was simply a method to get him to lower his guard. He now understood that he couldn’t really blame Rui for her actions.

In all, his feelings towards pretty much everyone in his life were defined by a single word: complicated! In that regard, living in the dark forest, away from all human life, was actually somewhat refreshing. He didn’t need to worry about scheming people or maintaining relationships here, he only needed to survive.

After three months passed by, Yaan had mostly recovered from the shock of all the death and insane events from before. He still felt pain when he thought about it all, but he was able to suppress this pain, and even used it to drive him forwards.

Time continued to fly by.

Yaan was sat down inside of a hollowed out tree, cultivating quietly. Whilst his dantian became totally crippled after he was attacked by that Yuso Clan young man, he could still cultivate his demonic body. He had no medicinal pills, but with the abundance of beasts that relentlessly attacked him on a daily basis, he had plenty of beast meat, blood, organs and bones at his disposal.

He made it a habit to consume as many demonic beasts as possible during these past three months. After surviving in the dark forest alone for so long, Yaan was now able to assess which parts of the beast would be most beneficial to his cultivation.

The hearts were often the most valuable organ, whilst the blood was also good since he could drink a large amount of it. Certain bones could hold dense spiritual energy, whilst the bulk of the meat was rarely of much value.

As for the taste, since this was demonic beast meat, every part of the body always tasted vile.

As Yaan sat inside the tree and absorbed the energy from a Rank 2 beast’s spinal marrow, he opened his eyes with a faint smile.

“Finally, I reach the Mid 2-Star realm!”

He could estimate that he had reached the half way point for the 2-Star demonic body. Vital energy was stored within every part of the body, and Yaan’s vital energy was now at 50% of the total amount required to reach the boundary of the 3-Star realm.

This kind of cultivation speed was even faster than it had been back in the Heavenly Path Sect!

Since he was constantly engaging in battle and fighting for his survival on a daily basis, it was natural that he was able to absorb more energy every day, compared to when he had lived a less dangerous lifestyle in the Heavenly Path Sect. On top of that, he had no shortage of resources with Rank 2 beasts appearing every few days. By eating all of the essential organs of a Rank 2 beast every day, he was able to quickly increase his vital energy to its current point.

Yaan opened his eyes and sighed. Rui had once told him that cultivating his Qi would be preferable to his body. At later stages, the amount of resources needed to improve the body became increasingly unreasonable. Right now it wasn’t too bad, but at the 3-Star realm it would become far more difficult.

After reaching the 4-Star realm, he would encounter serious problems. At that stage, he would need to consume some heavenly medicinal pills to progress even a single step further.

There was also the fact that he needed boundary ascension pills if he wanted to increase his chances of crossing the boundary between each star realm. The boundary ascension pill was originally intended for Qi masters to feed to their tamed spirit beasts to help them cross the rank boundary, but demonic body cultivators also used these pills to maximise their chances of success.

Yaan used the Rank 2 boundary ascension pill to reach the 2-Star realm, but he would need to find a Rank 3 boundary ascension pill to reach the 3-Star realm.

For now, he pushed this problem from his mind. What mattered the most was continuing to head South.

A week later, Yaan finally arrived at the edge of the dark forest. He squinted as the sunlight bore down from the sky, entering his eyes for the first time in months. He only adjusted to the now unfamiliar brightness after a few minutes. As Yaan looked around, his gaze landed on a faint structure in the distance.

Just outside of the dark forest, there was farmland all around. Further along, Yaan saw some small and quaint housing, reminding him of Lightstone Village. The simple housing and the mortals coming and going about their lives made him feel a sense of nostalgia.

Another mile down the rough dirt path was a wall. He narrowed his eyes, then decided to investigate. That was clearly a man made wall, but he couldn’t tell the size of it from here.

Every now and then he would encounter a farmer or other mortal. Some people glanced at him and ignored him, others were more friendly and directly greeted him. He was a bit out of practice, but Yaan’s natural polite smooth talking quickly came back to him as memories of his time spent in the core Heavenly Path Sect flashed through his mind.

Eventually, he stopped and looked forwards at a large wooden arched gateway. The two gate doors were wide open and guards stood on either side. Some people were going in and out, but it appeared that they were paying some sort of local currency to enter.

Yaan had never seen any guards like this before today, causing him to examine them curiously. They wore steel plate armour and carried metal swords at their waists, but they were clearly mortals, Yaan could tell this at a glance. He had never imagined that there would actually be mortals guarding such a strange wall!

As his eyes turned to the side and he gazed past the gate, Yaan became dazed by the sights ahead.

Bustling streets, built up stone and brick buildings, with mortals coming and going all around. He knew that there were some small mortal towns at the Northern border, but he had never seen mortals operating on this sort of scale before! Yaan felt intrigued by this place and made his way forwards.

“Scram you little beggar!” One of the guards pointed his sword at Yaan and stared down at him with an arrogant sneer.

Yaan glanced down at his clothing and smiled bitterly. He really did look like a beggar. After travelling through the dark forest for three months, his previously splendid silk red robe was now torn to shreds and soaked in blood and dirt.

He looked back up at the mortal guards who were acting like his superiors. Seeing that he still wasn’t moving, one of the guards stepped towards him with the intention of pushing him away.

Clang!

The guard was dazed as he was thrown backwards for a few feet before hitting the ground with a clanking sound from his armour. The other guard stared in shock, then turned back towards Yaan with wide eyes, who was standing casually with one hand stretched out.

“Our apologies, esteemed immortal! Please forgive our offence!” The guard quickly got down on his knees and lowered his head. His body was trembling violently, he feared from the depths of his heart that he had offended a powerful character! These guards knew that if the person before them desired to take their lives, he could easily do so, and nobody would even dare to criticise him for it!

“It’s fine.” Yaan said this causally and walked past the guards without sparing them another glance. As he entered the streets, many people made way for him, feeling fear since they had all witnessed the scene outside.

‘So people here know about Qi masters, but they are ignorant and think that all Qi masters are immortals.’ Yaan assessed quickly.

‘I wonder if there are any Qi masters in this place. It’s so large, there must be at least one or two!’

Prior to his arrival in this city, Yaan was merely wandering about without direction, with no clear goal in mind. However, if there truly were Qi masters living in this city, then that at least gave him somewhere to start!