Unknown to Mao Xun's group, someone had observed the entire fight. "This fight proves that I was wrong, that Mao Xun has nothing to do with any of the incidents. At the same time, it raises two questions" Bai Qi thought while carefully descending from the tree branch he had climbed on to have a vantage point.

The first question, Why did they get attacked by the ink-beasts, would hopefully be solved by his next actions. Bai Qi intended to track down the summoner. Ink beast traces were harder to follow than a cultivator's ones, but luckily there was now a fair supply of ink. An ink that could be used to track the combat painting, thus leading Bai Qi to its user.

As for the second question, Why was Mao Xun aura waving after just four attacks and one movement skill, it wasn't so important as to stay and find out. At least for Bai Qi's current situation.

***

Having recovered a few of the farthest ink drops, Bai Qi quickly opened distance until even his senses lost track of Mao Xun's group. Setting up an array to track the combat painting took him only a few minutes. And then, obtaining the direction towards the item, Bai Qi began moving.

___________________________________________________________________

After making sure that Mao Zan's life wasn't endangered, Mao Xun sat immediately went into meditation. Neither his cultivation nor his supposed strength was feigned, but he had faced an unexpected issue since he had entered the 'Underground Land of the River'. That being a severe lack of metal element in the qi he absorbed.

Worst of all, he could not find a reason for it. His five fellow household members practiced a similar path, but they had not found any issues in replenishing themselves after the Challenges. So what was wrong with him? Such a question surfaced in his mind almost every time he tried to recuperate, and he had yet to find an answer.

At first, he had coped with it with the use of his pill supply. Then, confirming that the members of his group had no such issue, he requested their pills as well. But by this moment, he had run out of any.

None of the challenges had given any useful pills, at least for his group, and so he had the idea of using a stall near the lakeshore to trade for them. Regretfully, they only managed to get a single pill that would be truly useful during all these days.

***

As Mao Xun's inner view entered his dantian, he felt the same despair as the one he had been feeling for the last couple of days. His dantian was full to the brim, but he was severely lacking the metal element. It could be said that his dantian wasn't even full with the regular heavens and earth qi, but a mix of six different elemental ones.

Being a cultivator of the 'Heavenly Path of the Gold Saint', and with all of his skills based on the metal element, Mao Xun could probably only fight a single bout more before losing most of his combat capacity.

He did know a few techniques of other elements or even neutral ones. But they weren't even close in power to his 'Golden' set. Not to mention that a cultivation method dependent on the metal element made him unable to infuse his meridians and pathways with qi missing it. Thus, he would slowly but surely lose his physical prowess as well. At least until he managed to get back outside.

***

"How is it?" Mao Huang, one of his companions approached while asking right as Mao Xun's eyes opened.

"Not good" The supposed strongest participant could only wryly smile while shaking his head in response.

"So what do we do?" Mao Huang slowly sat down nearby while looking at him.

This question was a tricky one to answer. Mao Xun knew that they had only three options, and neither of them seemed good.

They could ignore the attack and move forward to their target area after Mao Zan recovered his consciousness. They could try to track the attacker and discover the reason behind the attack. Or they could run to the lakeshore, regrouping with the two guys running the trade stall and deciding how to act.

The first option reeked of failing to uphold Mao Houselhold's honor.

The second? An almost a sure way to get killed. After all, Mao Xun was far from being at the peak, and even if he could survive by himself, he would be unable to protect someone else.

And the third... Not only they would fail to uphold any honor but also meant they were cowards that anyone could scare away.

"Haa..." Mao Xun heavily suspired while running through the options in his mind. Then, slapping his knee and standing up, he declared with a determined look "You two take Mao Zan and move towards the lake. If anyone asks, he suffered an accident while training. Do not breath anything about the ink beasts to anyone, but do try to gather any rumors about incidents you can"

"Understood, but what will you do?" Both of his unhurt companions asked while approaching the still unconscious Mao Zan.

"I will attempt to track down the summoner of the beasts" Seeing the concern that appeared on both of his companions' faces, he quickly raised his hand and added "Don't worry, even without my usual set, I have a few tricks left"

***

"If you find anything or meet any trouble, don't hesitate to use a message talisman" Mao Xun finished instructing his companions and immediately began moving. The aura traces from the ink beasts weren't easy to read, but with four sets of them, he was sure that he would manage.

"Best of luck" His companions both bowed towards his direction as Mao Xun left their senses envelope.

"Same to you" A far away response reached them just a few moments later.

___________________________________________________________________

With the entire forest area being just ten miles to each side, not even the farthest spot would take more than half an hour to reach.

Or an hour, if one avoided meeting other people, and moved with slow and careful motions, minding the concealing cloak's weakness to sudden movements.

But with both the array and the slight aura track remains pointing almost directly to the west, the distance was fairly shorter.

***

The attack on Mao Xun had happened right in the middle of the north area, just a few hundred feet from the wall that surrounded the entire forest from the four sides.

And after a quarter of an hour moving to the right along the wall, Bai Qi reached his objective, the place where both the north and west walls intersected.

Expanding his senses and aura was out of the question if he wanted to remain concealed, so Bai Qi resorted to just a small bit of qi sense. But it was enough, as after sweeping the surrounding area, he only found a single presence, one of a 1st level Sage.

He immediately placed a name to this cultivator, even before he moved closer. After all, there was only one such Sage that he had not marked... Zhen Zexi!

___________________________________________________________________

Having spent half an hour to check on the wounded and then attempt to recuperate, Mao Xun had a fair share of doubt about managing to trace the ink beasts back to their summoner.

But the heavens smiled on him, as the beasts had moved almost in a straight line, making him able to follow their trail correctly even through the spots where the aura traces were too faint to be read.

He was both boiling with fury and flooded with questions. Who had done something so dangerous as to release ink beasts? Who dared to attack, and even wound people from the Mao household? And for the heavens, what reason there was for using such means in a supposedly peaceful training formation?

But he was close to closing on the location from where the beasts were sent. Just half a mile and he should reach the place where the two walls intersected.

"Just wait there, you will answer my questions, and you will definitively pay for attacking us!" Mao Xun growled as his senses extended forward.

___________________________________________________________________

For the seventeen minutes that Bai Qi had been observing the girl, she had not moved at all. One could think that she was recuperating after having spent qi on a challenge, but it would be a mistake.

Her entire aura was condensed and surrounded her like a cocoon only a few feet wide. But not only it was stable, but also appeared at full strength. Even a bit over her supposed 1st level cultivation, releasing a pressure close to a 2nd level Sage.

"There!" Bai Qi inwardly exclaimed as he caught on a small dart of qi that separated from the girl and flew towards the south. Between her stillness and the scroll on her knees, one that Bai Qi had concluded to be a combat painting. And now this, he was sure that she was communicating with a summoned beast.

"If this is the same scroll that I suspect it is, there should be six summons in total. With the four destroyed attacking the Maos, what is the target of the other two?" Bai Qi could not help but begin talking to himself inwardly. Asking her should be probably the quickest way to solve the mystery, but something was stopping him. Something that he could not even place.

Was it the premonition that there was something beneath this scene? The sense that it would be dangerous to just barge in? Or the curiosity to find out the reasons behind Zhen Zexi's actions?

Still, even with all that, Bai Qi forced himself to prepare to take action. If she was about to use the beasts to attack someone else, there was no guarantee that the target would be able to defend himself like the Maos.

"Haaa, I already identified the responsible for the incident five years ago. And still consider myself in need to continue looking after the participants" Bai Qi shook his head and after making sure that every preparation he could have done was indeed done, stood up. Preparing to jump into the small rocky area that Zhen Zexi occupied.

But just a moment before he released his concealment, he stopped, and in place quickly moved behind a tree. Invisible or not, a stray attack would still reveal him.

Mao Xun's presence had just entered Bai Qi's current range, which meant that he should have been already sensed by Zhen Zexi as well. "No need to interfere for now" Bai Qi changed his plans, deciding to wait and see how the situation would develop.

___________________________________________________________________

Mao Xun's senses caught only one presence, and he immediately rushed towards it.

"Are you... Zhen Zexi? Why did you make your beasts attack us?!" Slightly surprised by the summoner's identity, Mao Xun still roared with anger.

But the girl did not respond. She did not react either, continuing to sit with closed eyes and calm breathing, surrounded by her aura.

"Answer me!" Mao Xun closed in while releasing his aura. His intentions made clear, if she continued to ignore him, he would use his aura to suppress her.

But again, neither the shout nor the aura made Zhen Zexi react in any way.

"You asked for it!" Tired of being ignored, Mao Xun sent his aura forward, encompassing Zhen Zexi's one. "If you do not answer now, I will use force!" He added, waited for a few seconds, and then made his aura crash against the girl's one.

*BOOM*

An explosion sounded, and the surroundings were covered in a cloud of dust.

One from which a body flew out, heavily smashing against the wall.

*CRASH*

An aura clash between Sage realm cultivators could've not provoked an explosion, Mao Xun was clear about that. But what had happened? From where did the sudden force that threw him over three hundred feet come?

To that question, he could not answer... But Bai Qi could. At least if he wanted to, or wasn't so occupied examining the source of that explosion, which wasn't one, but a sound attack!

"A Sage realm golem? And one concealed in the void?!" Even Bai Qi's countenance failed to suppress his amazement, making him mutter the second part of his thought.

Thankfully, his voice was muffled by the explosion provoked by the golem's attack, so no one should have heard him.