In the darkness, a boy and girl stand above a crater, the looks on their faces are hideous.

In the crater is a pool of flesh, bones, and dried blood.

“Who could have done this?” Hilda’s face scrunches as she covers her mouth.

“I don’t know, but they definitely weren't at the Qi gathering realm to be able to do this" frowning he looks towards the east “The identification token Is still a bit away.”

“Do we head back?”

Charles lowers his head, silent for a moment. “A year ago, do you remember some guys who did a herb gathering mission?”

“what about it? Why would I know every mission people did?”

Charles side-eyes her “Four guys went on the mission but only two came back. When they split up to look for herbs two members were killed. When the sect found out that they left without even identifying the murderer, those two disciples were ostracized. No longer able to accept missions, banned from the Martial palace, forbidden entry into the Treasure pavilion, and not even allowed to buy from the shops.”

Hearing this causes Hilda’s face to go pale “They can't do that right!?!” pointing at the hole “Look at that!! Whoever did this is out of our league!!!!” her chest begins to rapidly rise and fall as she becomes agitated, emphasizing their large size.

His eyes travel around her body for a moment “You can go back if you want, but I'm going to check it out.” Charles begins to walk off.

Seeing him leave Hilda gnashes her teeth, she looks in the direction they came from, looks at the body in the hole, and finally towards Charles.

“Ahhh!” stopping her foot she chases after Charles “Wait for me!”

Marco's eyes shift about as he walks, looking for any demonic beast.

The cool night air blows across his face causing his hair to ruffle.

“What a beautiful night, but I really need water.”

Marco begins to walk a little faster.

“Maybe it's time I get to civilization, I don't think I can accomplish much all on my own.”

Suddenly his eyes dart to the side and a smile forms on his face. Resting his hand on his saber he moves forward slowly.

Creeping forward, he draws his saber and quickly slashes towards a bush.

“Graaa!” a black wolf jumps from behind the bush, dodging the blow. The wolf has black fur and red eyes, a blue crystallized substance grows from its back. Drool pours out its mouth as it's growling towards Marco.

“Awooooooooooo!” raising its head the wolf growls.

Tightening his grip he runs at the wolf. “Good, more cores for me!" Marco swings the saber at the wolf.

Jumping to the side the wolf begins to dodge.

Seeing this Marco smiles. His previous swing had no power in it, as he saw that the wolf was prepared to dodge. Using the first swing as a fake, with a simple twist of the wrist he is able to swing the saber with full force.

As the wolf is currently in the air it was unable to dodge, allowing the saber to slash its throat. Colliding with the ground the wolf rolls a few times and dies.

Walking up to the corpse he releases a few more slashes and removes its core. As he places it into his bag he hears more growling.

“Grrrrr"

“Grrrrrrr"

Looking around he notices he's surrounded by wolves.

“Hahaha let's go!” rushing forward he begins slashing wildly.

Wolves charge at him from all sides, slashing and biting.

With every few swings of the saber the life of a wolf is lost, but a new one takes its place.

This is not without cost, as the battle continues his injuries pile up causing blue flames to roar around his body. His eyes easily track the wolves in his field of vision but dodging them all is impossible with his speed. The wolves attacking from his back are the biggest problem because he is unable to dodge. This battle clearly points out the flaws in his martial arts.

“Ahh" even though the flames heal him, they don't prevent pain, with all the wounds he is receiving his Aura is rapidly dissipating.

His clothes become shredded and his bags are ripped from his waist. Gritting his teeth he dives for one of the bags, reaching inside he pulls out both cores. Swallowing them, he feels a warm current surge through his body.

“Awooooooo!” the wolves howl, and more wolves continue to flood the area.

Under continuous assault, his Aura drains as fast as it recharges. Suddenly the saber is knocked from his hand.

“Fuck! Why are there so many!” he has already cut down ten wolves, but dozens still surrounded him. Panicking he begins to throw out palm strikes.

“I need to run” not caring about attacking anymore he tries to run out from the encirclement. Wolves bite his legs and slash his body, but he bites his teeth and continues to run.

By the time he breaks out of the encirclement, his body is covered in wounds and his Aura is gone. As he runs away, all that's left are his shredded shirt, pants, and cloth shoes.

“Damn, if I transformed I can easily get away, but if I transform in every tough situation I will be exposed too easily! Relying on it will only bring me more disasters.”

His stamina is so drained he can no longer gather Qi. Healing with fire burns way too much out of him, a lesson for the future. His Sharingan deactivates as he can no longer supply it with Qi. Using everything he has, he runs from the wolves.

After running for a couple minutes he arrives back at the dead boar, but next to the boar stands two people.

“People?” seeing their robes the look on his face becomes ugly. Suddenly the male rushes towards him.

Glancing back he sees the wolves, and in front of him is the young man. Biting his teeth he gets ready to transform as he really sees no way out of this when suddenly the man jumps.

“Hya!” punching down, the boys fist connects with the head of a wolf causing it to explode.

Seeing this causes the wolves charge at the new target.

“Come!” throwing out a series of punches he begins blasting away wolves.

Seeing the wolves being cut down like grass causes Marco's eyes to go wide.

The girl walks up next to him, sensing that only one Qi gate is open she's not worried.

“What are you doing out here?” looking Marco up and down causes one of her brows to arch “You're too weak to be traveling out here alone”

Pointing his thumb over his shoulder “Running with wolves?”

“Bah" The girl scoffs at his remark and frowns.

Seeing this Marco turns towards the wolves.

The young man continues to slaughter the wolves. Looking at him Marco can sense Qi pouring into his body from 10 different gates, causing his eyes to go wide.

Shocked he looks back at the girl, finally noticing she has Qi entering 6 gates.

Seeing that they can't win, the wolves run away, leaving over a dozen dead wolves on the ground.

The man seeing them run doesn't try to stop them. Turning around he walks back towards the other two. Seeing the wounds covering his body and only 1 Qi gate open, he relaxes.

“Who are you?” he looks Marco up and down.

“I'm Marco Uchiha”

“Well Marco, what are you doing here.”

“uh” rubbing the back of his head he looks at the boy and girl “I'm lost?”

Furrowing his brow he reaches into his bag and pulls out a yellow token “Do you know what this is?”

Silent for a moment, he thinks of how to respond.

“A token?”

“Oh?” the young man rubs his chin.

“Brother Charles why are we wasting our time with this fool, he's obviously who we are looking for.”

“What?” opening his eyes Marco looks at the girl. Before he can ask what she meant, the boy appears in front of him and chops his neck, rendering him unconscious.

“Hmph, trying to play the fool. If we didn't have to take him back for killing two disciples I'd kill him myself.”

“Calm down, we caught him so that's all that matters. I don't know how he killed Hotyu, but It was better to not alert him till we took care of the wolves.”

“Is that guy retarded? Lost? Every city in 100 miles of these mountains belong to Zhu mountain sect, so there's no way he wouldn't know the token and show respect. Hence he failed the last test you gave him.”

“Well it doesn't matter, we caught him so they can't blame us.” pointing at the cave he looks at Hilda “Let's rest here for the remainder of the night and head back tomorrow. No reason to take any more risk tonight.”

“Whatever, you're the ‘boss’.” waving her hand she walks into the cave.

Taking some clothes from his bag he tears them into ribbons. Using the ribbons he binds his hands behind his back and his feet together. Picking him up he takes him into the cave and throws him against the wall.

The young man and woman both sit down cross-legged and begins to cultivate.

A while after he was chopped a bit of his Aura rejuvenated, allowing him to wake from his unconscious state.

Feeling the bindings on his arms and legs, he realizes he was captured. Barely opening his eyes he sees them cultivating. He begins to think of how he can get out of this situation. Taking a small breath he makes his decision.

Regulating his breathing he begins activating revolver Qi, going as quickly as possible so they don't notice him revolving the Qi. After a few seconds, he drills the Qi into his right chest. At the same time, he guides the Qi through his head gate and attacks the right chest gate from inside.

Like two boulders smashing into a paper house, the ribs on his right side begin to crack. Blood rushes up to his throat, but he holds it in.

He doesn't have much stamina, he can only do this for 10 minutes tops.

Qi continues to slam into the gate, his ribs begin to shatter from the pressure. A small crack finally appears in the gate, but at the same time, his right lung is on the verge of collapse.

Biting his tongue to resist the pain he uses all the Aura he has left to reduce the damage. A wisp of blue flame appears on his chest for a moment and disappears as soon as it came.

The cracks in the gate get bigger, but at the same time blood begins to leak from his mouth as he can't hold it all in. His final burst from his Aura protected his lung from collapsing, but that only bought him another second or two.

Worst of all, the burst of flame stirred the two from cultivating.

In a do or die moment he pulls the Qi back from both sides and furiously slams it into the gate harder than before.

His eyes bulge open bloodshot, a torrent of blood flies out of his mouth, his lung collapses causing a slight hissing noise as he gasps for air, and ribs completely shatter causing pain with every breath.

But all is not lost, because along with the bodily damage the gate was also broken.

Charles and Hilda turn towards Marco and frown.

Standing up they walk over.

Charles shakes his head “You brute forced a chest gate open? That won't help you and all you did was cause yourself suffering”

“I knew this guy was stupid, but I didn't think he was suicidal too hehe.”

With his mouth covered in blood, it slowly creeps into a smile. Raising his head he looks at the two.

“It matters not, those rags were from a mortal ranked treasure. So without a mortal ranked treasure or being at the 4th stage of Qi gathering, you can't break them.”

“Hey"

“What?” Charles answers patiently.

“Don't you know? When fighting an Uchiha, never look them in the eyes.” using what little stamina he has left, he uses it to madly funnel Qi into both of his gates. Marco's eyes turn scarlet red, and at the same time the three tomoe begin rotating around his pupil “Sharingan illusion!”

The second power of the Sharingan, eyes of hypnotism. With just simple eye contact the user of the Sharingan is able to place targets into an illusion.

Charles and Hilda were confused at first, but suddenly their eyes turn dull.

In a shadowy world, Charles is falling into an infinite abyss. Stunned, he begins to panic as he realizes his helplessness. As he tries to gather Qi he becomes frightened as he learns he can't.

“Help! HELP! Hilda where are you!!”

Hilda is trapped in a maze of fog. Every time she makes a few turns she ends up at the beginning of the maze, no matter where she goes she always returns to the same spot. Panicking she begins to run through the maze, eyes darting about as her face begins to crumble.

Marco looks at the two bodies collapsed on the floor, his face deathly pale as his stamina is drained. If the stamina drain doesn't kill him, the internal bleeding will.

“Formidable, I still need a lot of practice though, as all I can do is trap them in a loop. To alter their memories, alter their perception of time, or control their bodies will take time.”

With every breath a burning pain stabs his chest, he won't be able to make it for much longer.

As he maintains the illusion he feels around half the Qi from his second gate is being used to supply it. Meaning he should be able to keep four people under illusions at the same time.

Struggling he tries to free himself of his bindings. As he moves the pain from his ribs and lungs shoot through his body.

“How am I going to get out of this?” pondering for a second he comes up with an idea.

Struggling he manages to sit up against the wall of the cave, pain running through his body as he pukes more blood from those simple movements. Looking down he can see the right side of his chest change color as the internal bleeding worsens.

The pain flares causing him to pause for a moment. Taking shallow breaths as to not irritate his chest, he transforms his neck and head into that of a Phoenix. With his elongated neck and the use of his beak, he tries to untie the bindings on his feet. After a few seconds, he manages to untie them. Reverting his head and neck he struggles to his feet.

Biting his teeth he endures the pain and begins walking out of the cave.

As he passes the two disciples he looks at them furiously. Struggling with every step he manages to leave the cave.

Walking next to the fourteen wolf corpses, he transforms his legs into that of a Phoenix. Using his talons he digs through the body of a wolf. After ripping through chunks of bloody meat, he manages to find the bronze core located in its upper back.

The core rolls onto the ground, but at the same time, he collapses to his knees. Pain shoots through his body as he makes the movements contact with the ground as if his entire body is rattled. His eyes begin to slowly close, he can feel it, that if he just let's go, he can have a nice rest.

He forgets what he's doing out here, why does he have to struggle so hard? what is he even doing this for? If he just...lets go, will anyone even know he was here?

His head drops powerlessly as he sits there on his knees. His shoulders relax as his eyes close further. He falls flat onto the ground, the internal bleeding so severe he no longer feels the pain.

Moments before his eyes close he sees the core just before his face, ah that's right. His tongue stretches out his mouth and he stretches his neck a little further. With the help of his tongue, he is able to get the core and dirt into his mouth, using the last of his will to swallow it. As the core travels down his throat it turns into energy. When it travels by his core it devours the energy like a hungry ghost.

Aura surges forth allowing blue flames to erupt around his body. His wounds begin to slowly heal, bringing him back from the brink of death.