"What do we do now?" Mo Zuo asked.

"Get out of this ditch and go wash your clothes of course." Jason answered.

Mo Zuo began looking for the nearest stream, using the previous owner's memories, he quickly located a stream and began washing his clothes, he hung them to dry while he swam along the stream.

"You're a pretty good swimmer." Jason commented.

"Ah thanks, I did a bit of competitive swimming... when I was still alive." Mo Zuo gloomily replied.

"Give or take a few chapters... days I mean, I'm sure you'd have forgotten all about your previous life." Jason said as he calmly broke the fourth wall.

Mo Zuo then remembered that he indirectly caused Jason's death, so he quietly shut up and didn't talk about it further.

*New Quest* Become acquaintances with the maiden. Reward : 5 system points

"What's this?" Mo Zuo asked.

"You have a system, so you'll be doing a bunch of quests just like in the game." Jason replied, he was a bit familiar with these sort of things.

"Where do I find this maiden?" Mo Zuo asked sightly.

"You're in a stream, you're probably going to meet her bathing or something." Jason said. As soon as he said it, he noticed a dangerous glint in Mo Zuo's eyes, as his swimming speed suddenly increased.

"Woah, are you sure you didn't swim in the Olympics or something?" Jason hurriedly replied, as the sounds of the water splashing was extremely loud.

"Haha, it must be this new body that's all." Mo Zuo said while smiling, yet not slowing down at all.

'Damn it was I lumped together with this huge pervert?' Jason silently thought.

Mo Zuo kept swimming for hours along the stream till he received the notification;

*Stamina +0.2*

Mo Zuo stopped still in the stream.

"It seems the maiden is way too far for me to meet." Mo Zuo said as he sulked.

"Guess you aren't destined to meet the maiden after all." Jason laughed.

Mo Zuo began his sad journey back to where his clothes were drying, the sun had begun setting and the wild beasts had become more active.

"Do you happen to have a night vision skill in there or something like that?" Mo Zuo asked.

"You happen to be in luck, your Path of Mamba has such a skill once you unlock the second stage."

"The previous Mo Zuo spent over 2 years but was unable to go past the initial stage, how can I do that?"

"Just 50 points, and poof." Jason replied.

"Alright let's do it!"

*Ding*

*Path of Mamba upgraded*

Agility increased

Vitality increased

Physical increased

Venom slash unlocked

Thermal vision unlocked

*Breakthrough Achieved*

Qi gathering realm Stage 3!

Mo Zuo felt his skin peeling, and Qi was flowing all around him.

Jason looked at a different bar, one Mo Zuo couldn't see, 'Seems like this could work' he thought, he then glanced at Mo Zuo who was undergoing a metamorphosis, and a cunning look momentarily flashed through his eyes. Jason closed his eyes and smiled, 'Apep huh? Guess there's still hope for me after all.'

---

Elsewhere in the Mo clan, Mo De was being furiously interrogated by Mo Zhi.

"I will ask you just one more time. Where is Mo Zuo!" Mo Zhi shouted, his long hair flying and his alchemy robes flying around him, as venomous green lightning Qi furiously circulated around him.

"I, I, I, I...." Mo De stammered.

"Leave him alone brother, it is not Mo De's duty to watch over your son." Mo Zhu calmly answered.

Mo De glanced at his father and flashed a grateful look, only to receive an annoyed look back, Mo De quickly ducked his head in shame.

All these movements didn't get past Mo Zhi's eyes. "I really hope my son's disappearance has nothing to do with you." Mo Zhi said as he angrily left.

When it was just two of them in the room, Mo Zhu activated a cloaking field and turned to look at Mo De, "Please tell me you had nothing to with this Mo De."

"Of course not! I don't have time to play with a child still stuck in the second stage, but even if father, am I not worth a 100 of him? I am a year younger but I've already left that trash in the du..." Mo De was unable to complete his words as he was flung away by a Qi blast.

"You fool, you have no idea the importance Mo Zuo has in Mo Zhi's heart, his mother is a high ranking noble of some sort." Mo Zhu replied. "I'm not saying you did anything, but did you clear all evidence?"

"Ah." A look of panic was all over Mo De's.

"How could I, Mo Zhu have such a foolish son!" Mo Zhu angrily yelled. "Call the head of the guards, I have a mission for him."

"Do you want to locate the body? I can easily help with that." Mo De said eagerly.

Mo Zhu glanced at him with disgust, "Mo Zuo's father is Mo Zhi, do you really think it's that easy for him to die? We need to find him before his father does. Luckily we have a headstart." Mo Zhu answered.

"If found, would w.., would we dispose of him?" Mo De asked.

"How are you so talentless and yet so stupid? We'd be lucky if he didn't die, and you still want to take away this lucky strand of hope? Besides how would I stoop so low and lay my hands on my brother's child?"

Mo De looked down on the floor in shame, "I'll go get the head guard now father."

Mo Zhu watched Mo De leave and frowned, it was already late at night and he had to prepare to receive the guests of the Ji clan arriving soon.

--

Mo Zuo walked around testing his vision, walking as silently as he can, slithering around like a snake, suddenly he caught sight of something.

"What's that up ahead?" Mo Zuo asked Jason.

"Let me see, ah its a raging flame boar, as strong as the average person in the first stage of Qi gathering." Jason said after checking the currently limited database.

"Just the first stage? I should be able to handle that right?" Mo Zuo asked as he silently brought out his sword, he had a strange feeling holding the sword that had just murdered him in his hands.

"Probably, let me see..." Jason said as he tried something.

*Ping*

Side Quest activated

Take down the flame boar -:- Reward : Minor flame breath skill unlocked.

"Nice, alright let's go." Mo Zuo said eagerly, a flame skill would be pretty cool he thought.

"Please don't die again." Jason said cautiously.

"Its just a boar, how can it be so hard?"

But Mo Zuo was wrong.

"Jason what do we do now?!" Mo Zuo said as he ran for his dear life.

"Damn I told you to be careful." Jason said. Mo Zuo while trying to kill one boar had ended up infuriating a whole herd! "Up ahead there's a narrow path in between those two massive rocks. At most only one boar would be able to pass through at a time, use your Slither skill from the Path of Mamba, and quickly pass through."

"Got it!!!" Mo Zuo said as he looked up ahead, he quickly ran in between the rocks and managed to get out, using his slither skill even though he was slower than the flame boars he had been able to avoid them to a considerable extent.

"Now try and kill just one boar, and run into the stream!" Jason said, "That flame breath skill can produce enough smoke that could come in handy in a fight."

"I should still try and kill one? But I can't kill one in enough time before the other ones swarm me!" Mo Zuo replied.

"Only one can swarm you at a time, use two or three venom slashes on it and you should win, I thought you were good at playing games?" Jason said slightly annoyed.

"I am!!!! But reality and a dumb game is so freaking different you know!!!" Mo Zuo screamed.

"Did you just call my game dumb?" Jason asked.

Mo Zuo ran to the first boar and screamed.

"Venom Slash!"

A dark green slash came out of his sword and hit the boar, the boar was blasted half a metre back and green smoke could be seen coming out of the wound, the boar seemed more enraged and charged again at Mo Zuo, Mo Zuo dodged to the side, but a huge cloud of smoke was blasted into his face. His vision was obstructed, and the boar used that to ram into him.

"Use your night vision now!" Jason yelled.

Mo Zuo got up quickly activated his night vision and could see the boar once again, looking at the boar he could see that it had begun slowing down. The boars vision seemed to be obstructed but it was making use of its strong sense of smell to locate Mo Zuo. Mo Zuo quick sent out another venomous slash at the boar legs, and due to its poor sight it could not dodge on time and was quickly crippled, he sent out another slash, and was nearing closer to end the boar.

"Run, two more boars are running towards you." Jason hastily informed him.

"But the flame skill!" Mo Zuo said.

"Not enough time, but don't worry about it."

"Alright!!!" And he began running towards the clan. A few minutes later.

"I think we lost them." Mo Zuo commented.

"Apparently."

*Ding*

Quest complete: Flame skill now available in system shop. Price 25 system points.

"What? How did we complete it?" Mo Zuo asked.

"The poison in the venom must have finished it off, you still have 51 system points, let's purchase the flame skill now."

"Alright let's do it."

*Ping*

*Minor Flame skill obtained*

Mo Zuo then summoned the stats screen and saw his current stats.

---

Name -:- Mo Zuo (16)

Cultvn -:- Qi Gathering stage 3

Class -:- N/A

Subclass -:- N/A

Vitality -:- 0.8/1.4

Qi -:- 0.5/1.4

PHY -:- 2.0

Sys points -:- 26

*Other Statistics are currently not available*

Skills -:- Path of the black mamba (Stage 2) Minor Flame skill (Stage 1) Simple Sword slash (Stage 1) Path of Apep (Sealed)

Current Quest : Become acquaintances with the maiden. Reward : 5 system points

---

"Hmm just those few strikes have already emptied your Qi reserves. In the Qi gathering stage the Qi amount is very little and physical strikes is the main tool for battle, with the Qi attacks an extra boost to your combat ability." Jason observed.

"I'm beat, let's find a place to hole up for the night. I'm seeing a cave up ahead, and the heat signature of the beast seems very weak. should I go on ahead?" Mo Zuo asked.

"I don't know, just go chase it away or something, I'm going to bed." Jason said sleepily.

Mo Zuo was about to comment on how Jason would go to bed in his situation, but he decided to keep quiet. Mo Zuo was able to successfully chase away the fox hidden in the cave and gathered a bunch of leaves and formed a bed of some sort and tried sleeping, but due to his disturbed mind he had trouble falling asleep.

---

Eventually Mo Zuo fell asleep and had a dream, in the dream he was a spectator, and he saw a massive pillar reaching the black and red skies rumbling with red lightning, as Mo Zuo squinted his eyes he saw a man staring at the pillar and his back facing Mo Zuo, he could see the man's black hair littered with white strands flowing in the air, and he seemed to be talking to the pillar, following the man's gaze he noticed that there was actually something coiled around the massive pillar, and it was massive! He could see blackish red scales all around the body, and looking at it all the way to the top, he saw a massive head like that of a cobra communicating with the man, and then the head faced him, and staring into the evil chaotic eyes, he closed his eyes and held his mouth from screaming as he instantly woke up.

Mo Zuo began heavily panting, thick sweat all over his body he heard a rustle in front of him which made him instantly jump up.

"JASON!" Mo Zuo screamed for help internally, but got no response, he started panting heavier, and called out for Jason once more, but still no response.

Looking at the bush ahead of him, his heart kept beating faster and faster, his trembling hands grabbed onto the sword and he readied himself for what might come out of it, his heart kept pounding and pounding.

A small rodent scurried out of the bush, and Mo Zuo's beating heart temporarily calmed down, 'It was just a rodent...' A second figure slithered out of the bush following the rodent and sunk its fang in it, carrying the rodent away in its mouth, it glanced at Mo Zuo then slithered away.

'A serpent...'