Xing Kai walked through the darkening camp. The camp flickered with long shadows and fires were being lit, to keep the camp bright. Recruits were returning to their barracks from training and groups of militiamen were getting to their posts. However, as Xing Kai walked towards the forest wall, he noticed that the militiamen were very lax, and indifferent to their tasks.

Many were drinking alcohol openly and brought tables with them to play games. And this was even happening near the walls too. The men were not taking their guarding duty seriously, and although their weapons may not be high quality he noticed that they were not taken care of in even the most basic way.

Can they not even wipe the blood of their swords? And their bow strings are meant to be kept in a box, to prevent moisture damage...

Xing Kai felt increasing dismay as he looked around at the guarding militiamen. They were all relaxing at the stone wall, seeming quite content and confident in their rocky defences to keep any enemies out.

Xing Kai scowled and walked faster through the camp. The more he looked around the more he agreed with Rong Nianzu's words.

With such lax guarding, no wonder the militia leaders want to all the attacks to occur in one place...

Although Xing Kai had no military experience, even a half-wit could see that the guards would be slaughtered by arrows with the way they were guarding the wall. They were rowdy

and unprepared...a rain of arrows would clean them up in one quiet sweep. But why were the officers not leading them better?

Xing Kai could not reconcile this point no matter what he thought. Yet he was gladdened to see that as he approached the forest wall, the guards were suddenly very careful and vigilant. There were even officers patrolling, their black stripped shoulders distinguishing them from the normal green.

These are far better...so all the real militiamen must really be gathered up here then...

Xing Kai suddenly recalled something he heard Rong Lan, and Yun Lifen had said. They both had cursed the militia for being full of lazy bullies and arrogant brutes. With so few good militiamen, it was understandable...

The camp was particularly dark here, as the sun had fallen below the raised horizon of the forest. Bright fires and lanterns were distributed and created an entirely different atmosphere to the other part of the camp.

Xing Kai looked around and felt reassured with the security here. The scowl and anxious feelings he felt back at the other part of the camp faded here. He unconsciously loosened his clenched fists, and his shoulders relaxed. Whatever it was that distressed him there, was not to be found here at least.

Just looking at these militiamen, it will be interesting to see who qualifies to be called the Nalan militia's so called elites...

Xing Kai began walking briskly to the infamous forest wall in the distance. He could see the maze like paths and the broken, jagged outline of the lonely wall even from a kilometre away in the night.

If this works I have to be careful the militiamen don't realise...if I'm kicked out of the town for being a blood cultivator, I would be finished...

Xing Kai jogged over the last stretch of the way, and through the narrow maze paths, then climbed up the wooden wall. The wall, being constructed of wood, was another point to encourage people to attack this side rather than the rest of the imposing looking stone walls.

Xing Kai looked around and along the wall but noticed that the area was empty. Nobody was on the wall, or anywhere nearby.

Where are the rest of the night watch? It's already very dark here, if enemies were to approach we would have no warning...

Xing Kai immediately turned his head and looked around at the foreboding stretch of land, feeling like a disaster was coming.

Rong Nianzu told me to come here...I couldn't be in the wrong place

Xing Kai felt his anxiousness rise up and he frowned deeply with worry. His face was not matching the expressions someone of his age should have, and appeared disturbingly like a weary man.

Xing Kai turned back around and looked at the maze like paths extending from the rickety wall behind him. There was nobody hidden in them either. Xing Kai ran along the wall to make sure, as the maze had high walls and narrow paths, but there really was nobody lying there in wait for enemies.

Xing Kai alone was standing on the forest wall.

I'll just wait and see what happens

Xing Kai did not believe from the appearance of the militiamen he saw nearing the forest wall, that these elites would be any worse than them. Xing Kai was hoping he was misinformed rather, than there being a catastrophic weakness lying in the town wall.

A hour paced and the sun had completely set.

Xing Kai had pulled his sword out already and had been pacing the length of the wall. He kept his eyes thoroughly trained on the slightest movements in the forest shadows, and he felt he could see something moving about in the shadows. There were black shadows that didn't completely blend into the forest darkness...

If the wall is attacked now, we'll suffer a huge loss

Xing Kai could only continue his vigilant watch of the soft shadows and hope that he could handle whatever came his way. Yet Xing Kai was still quite young and lacked experience, so his anxiety only grew. Seeing such a huge weakness in the camp undefended and unnoticed was frightening. Xing Kai's own village was equally exposed and was not spared.

NO, no...don't start thinking

Xing Kai shut his eyes and jabbed his feet with his sword, as he clenched his teeth.

Can not be weak, must not be weak...can not be weak, must not be weak...

Xing Kai felt incredibly on edge, as if he was being ensnared in a nightmare. Xing Kai's mind rushed to his worst fears in an instant, completely going against what he wanted. Thoughts of his village and friends had bubbled up. He could not stop images of his friends rotting in the pool of blood, without a sending to the next life, flash in front of his eyes.

These images weighed heavily on his mind. He knew he would suffer when he decided to get his revenge, instead of sending the villagers off; he felt like he was being weighed down by hundreds of duties and wishes, and that he was being pushed down into the earth and the eternal inferno below. Every time he was tormented like this, it cemented his desire for revenge.

Xing Kai chanted to himself, and gritted his teeth even harder as he shivered and trembled.

2 more nightmarish hours passed.

Xing Kai felt like he was cracking under the overwhelming pressure he felt.

This place...this place is my worst...place to be...

The forest wall was looking more and more pathetic the longer he looked. Yet gripped by nightmares and self-reproach, Xing Kai refused to leave the wall. If nobody was going to come guard the wall, then Xing Kai refused to call for help.

That would be defeat, and succumbing to the pressure.

So Xing Kai continued pacing along the wall and pushing the tormenting thoughts down. While Xing Kai's mind was struggling desperately to keep itself together, Xing Kai's Heart's blood was resting calmly in his chest. It was not disturbed in the slightest by the hallucinations that Xing Kai was facing, but instead watched Xing Kai struggle in confusion.

The speck of ordinary looking blood, seemed to be baffled by Xing Kai's crumbling fortitude. The Heart's blood carried the crystalized Will of Xing Kai, yet the same Xing Kai was for some reason struggling against the puny hallucinations he faced? How could he have such tyrannical Will back then, but have such weak Will now...

Xing Kai stifled a sob, and stared down at the haunting stretch of earth, with hatred and anger. He hated that he felt so weak and anxious when he was so close to gaining more strength. To Xing Kai, this represented an opportunity to gain Heart's blood and the glaring weakness in the forest wall, would encourage his prey...he could not falter now.

Xing Kai continued to supress the onslaught of thoughts, and his chant become, even more so, his life line. He felt the more he chanted the more he was able to face up to the hallucinations...and within another hour he was able to completely force the hallucinations away.

4 hours of building tension and torment were finally banished.

Don't let thoughts of home distract you now...only when I am strong can I indulge myself in grief

Xing Kai had buried the sorrow deep down inside himself. He wasn't proud that he didn't call for help and had managed it alone...as he felt the weakness itself was detestable and shouldn't have appeared in the first place.

Something isn't right...I shouldn't have even been forced into such a state

Xing Kai suddenly felt weary again, but for a different reason. When he left the infirmary he had already set his resolve. He felt there was perhaps a reason he suddenly was overcome with pressure and hallucinations.

As Xing Kai thought this, unknown to him, the void-like dark soul fragment ring deep in his mind, seemed to simmer as if it had been riled up. The fragments seemed to wriggle slightly, but they froze with a start when Xing Kai's Heart's blood focused on it...

Silence.

The dark movements seemed clearer to Xing Kai.

He looked into the forest and leaned over the edge of the forest wall, concentrating on every slight movement he could perceive.

"OI, YOU COCKY BRAT, YOU SEARCHING FOR DEATH?"

A bellowing voice shattered the silence and made Xing Kai almost jump straight over the wall. He whipped his head back and balanced himself quickly, with his sword in hand, and a cold, ready gleam in his eyes.

In the distance of the dark camp, were a few men walking casually up to the wall.

Is this the night watch of the forest wall? The elites of the Nalan militia?

Xing Kai frowned and grunted at them unhappily. The men were all around 35 years, and carried more than one weapon. Three had bows on their backs and bags of javelins and arrows in hand. Another two appeared like any ordinary man, one could not identify a single outstanding feature on them. Yet they both carried hefty long swords and an assortment of wicked blades and knifes.

There were two other men in this group of 7. One was sharp nosed, tall and thin framed, with a shaved bony head. He carried a bow on his back and a spear in his hand.

The other man, was very eye-catching. He was the brash man leading these men. He had short oily black hair and a robust body, which supported the spiked shield, sword and bow he carried. He had powerful set and bearing which made it difficult to focus on his face clearly.

Are all these men, multiple path sanguinary?

Xing Kai felt a spark in his head and his eyes flickered for an instant. However the thought immediately was removed from his mind. A 2-path sanguinary cultivator was considered a rare talent, while 3-paths were peerless geniuses of history. Emperor Bojing Hai himself was a 3-path sanguinary marked in history as an ultimate War God. It was fundamentally impossible for so many multi-path sanguinary cultivators to appear in a town.

"Brat, if you just stand there you'll get shot down by archers; have you not been paying attention to your lessons?"

One of the archers shouted to Xing Kai, in a joking manner and the others roared with laughter. Xing Kai looked over his shoulder again at the forest and then decided to duck down below the wall.

"Kiddo, you can do whatever you like, we heard what junior Nianzu said. But you'll just get yourself killed. Do as we do, and you might just be awake to see your mother in the morning"

The brash and boisterous man laughed and then leaped onto the wall with such grace, that Xing Kai was amazed. The other men casually followed, and with remarkable ease, landed softly on the wall, meters above them.

These men truly aren't ordinary

The men then settled down in certain spots along the wall, placing their weapons in a calm and neat fashion, in hands reach from themselves.

They are used to this...which means they've fought and survived defending this insane place, many times...to the point that they casually show up and not a trace of worry exists in them

Xing Kai had to give some respect to the men, even though they seemed lazy and indifferent, like the other part of the camp's militiamen. The men continued their conversations and talked loudly and freely, completely ignoring the existence of the forest behind them.

Xing Kai sighed and decided to watch the forest anyways. Several more hours passed and stars brightened the dark night sky around the legendary moon.

It was legendary for it's other name: the bright palace of Immortal Mingxia of the gold sky.

Xing Kai was very doubtful of the story in the past. He too had heard of the story of how she had ascended from this world, hoping to save her loved one's soul from the Heavens, before he was reincarnated and lost all memories of his past life.

Unfortunately she was too late, and her loved one's soul was already attached to another mortal body and reincarnated. But she believed in her loved one, and instead created the moon, her graceful palace, so when her loved one is reborn he will hopefully remember her and ascend to meet her again in a new life.

Xing Kai chuckled, which drew strange looks from the men.

I will be far to late to save my family's souls or my friends...how knows how long it take me to become an immortal...but maybe I too can build a palace to attract the reincarnations of my parents and friends...

This thought of Xing Kai's was repeated innumerable times by others, it was a common dream among the world's people. Be it wedding vows, songs, or stories, Immortal Mingxia's story proliferated around the world untold eons ago, and it was ingrained into many features of ordinary life.

Xing Kai did not believe it, even now he was doubtful of the story's claims, but he was now more impressed by one thing more than any other. How strong must she have been? Emperor Bojing Hai was a horrifying force of destruction, yet Immortal Mingxia was even stronger...what does that level of strength even mean?

Xing Kai's eyes gleamed and moistened as he looked up at the bright moon in cold, winter night sky. Her palace alone was more than he could imagine...

That is strength worth having, even if...

"Brat, stay focused or who will keep such vigilant watch on the movements of the enemy ants in the forest?"

"Let us know if they incur on our territory"

The elite militiamen occasionally poked fun at Xing Kai, but he ignored them out of respect for their strength. All of them insulted each other far worse then they did Xing Kai, so he felt they at least pitied him some small amount.

The criminals that were tied up in the maze, sometime during the night, were heckled even worse by the men. They were sentenced to die here defending the town, yet they were mercilessly heckled even now, by these men.

The night creeped into midnight and the forest became more chillingly cold and Xing Kai could seem to see more malicious enemies every second. Sweat broke out on his back as his eyes flickered between the shadows of the land and the trees, but Xing Kai's imagined enemies never seemed to tire of the repeated motions.

"Brat, I think I've had enough of you staring like that. Stop it. We got it covered with our sense, so sit still already"

The bulky officer waved his hands at Xing Kai and gestured for him to settle down.

How can he sense things in the forest? Sense...hold on...can he extend his inner sense out of his body, like that old lady? Inner sense can really become like that?

Xing Kai's eyes widened in shock. Yet he found that it explained their nonchalant behaviour, so he really did settle down against the wall top.

Extending the inner sense out of the body...that would mean you would know everything that was going on around you, right?...they'd be unbeatable in war...

Xing Kai continued to ponder about the men and their remarkable ability.

Perhaps cultivating to a certain Stage allows you to naturally control your inner sense in such a way...

Xing Kai felt it was the most possible answer, but before he could think on it any further, all of the men leaped to their feet and raised their weapons.

They were ready for battle, with arrows sent flying through the night, before Xing Kai could even look over his shoulder.