Elder Bai sighed as he recalled something. The memory was clearly extremely painful, and he seemed to age ten years as his eyes turned red and teary. "A similar event happened one hundred and fifty-seven years ago. My dear sister lived in a small farming village just five hundred li to the south. She had a husband and six children. One day, I happened to have the urge to visit her, so I jumped on my flying steed and flew down to visit her.

"As I approached the village, I noticed smoke on the horizon. In a panic, I urged my steed on, only to realize that the source of the smoke was the village itself. The village had been set ablaze, and the streets were littered with corpses. My sister and her entire family were violated and slaughtered in the most painful ways. I later found the group of savages and slaughtered the entire bunch of them before the king's army had a chance to respond.

"In my grief, I wandered from village to village for the next few days, drinking away my sorrows. When I finally sobered up, I thought to check the few storage rings that I had retrieved from the bandits in the hopes of finding out any clues about what happened. In this ring, I found something exceptional, something that even kings might have trouble procuring. It was an Edict of Yama, signed with the blood of the chief oracle of the Song Kingdom at the time. Come to think of it, one hundred and fifty-seven years ago was when the last chief oracle came into power." Elder Bai wiped away his tears as he finished. This memory had been supressed for quite some time.

"Did you pursue the matter with the King of Song?" inquired Wang Jun.

"Yes, I did. And when I brought this evidence to the minister of justice, I was told that the edict in question had been issued fourteen years prior for meritorious service to the Empire. I was also reminded that I had another two sisters and should learn to appreciate them. After understanding the subtle threat, I gathered my two sisters and their families and took shelter with the Wang Family, where I have been ever since."

Wang Jun let out a deep sigh, and in a reversal of roles, he made tea for Elder Bai. Elder Bai, who was still quite traumatized after telling the story, accepted the hot drink and calmed himself down. After a half hour of drinking tea, he got up to take care of his other duties. Wang Jun's consoling had worked its charm.

"Elder Bai," Wang Jun called out, just as the man was about to walk out the door.

"Yes, young master?" replied Elder Bai.

"Do you have any news about Cha Ming from the mission office?" Wang Jun had not been idle this entire time. Although he had many responsibilities to take care of, he always made time for the things close to his heart. After bringing Feng Ming, Gong Lan, and Hong Xin back to the city, he made sure he spent a lot of time comforting and reassuring Xin Er. He would go have supper with her at least three times a week and accompanied her for walks outside. Spending time with her soothed his nerves and healed the wretched wounds in his heart.

The first thing he'd done was post several missions through the mission office. These missions were issued through Green Leaf Academy, through the Jade Bamboo Auction House, through the Foragers Association, and finally through the Mercenary Alliance. The mission was a particularly lucrative one that requested all sorts of herbs, fruits, spirit beast materials, etc. There was an especially high compensation rate for midnight spirit hound pelts. The offered price was at least forty percent higher than the market rate, but the condition was that the materials would need to be gathered within a twenty li radius of the Greatwood Bridge, and up to thirty li downstream of the river. There were tens of gathering points in the area where adventurers could directly turn in their goods for money or spirit stones.

In bold letters near the end of the mission there was a note announcing a reward of 50,000 spirit stones for anyone who could find Du Cha Ming, who had disappeared in the spirit woods. Any information that eventually led to his rescue would be rewarded with 5,000 spirit stones. The description included a vivid picture of Cha Ming and a brief description of his abilities.

Many people had ventured into the woods for this mission in the first week. The traffic of adventurers slowed down shortly afterward because of the eventual depletion of natural resources in the woods. Many beasts were hunted to extinction, and the area within a fifty li radius of the bridge had been completely hunted free of midnight spirit hounds. The officers in charge of gathering these hound corpses had been instructed to not spare a single one, no matter where it was gathered from. Some adventurers still frequented that area of the woods, but only a tenth as many as the original flood. While the area had been ravaged like a field of wheat by a swarm of locusts, it was much safer than other areas in the woods with higher rewards. In this way, Wang Jun would always have eyes in the area on the lookout for Cha Ming.

"Young master, I think you should give up. Even if you did give up ten years of your life for him, you should know better than to take sunk costs into account for an investment."

"Elder Bai, he's more than an investment to me, he's my friend. Besides, my auguries are never incorrect. He is alive, even if I don't know where he is yet. Look at my spirit compass!" He took out an ornate copper compass with a gold needle. The compass would never point north but in the direction of the person or thing it was tracking. The compass had been spinning in a circle ever since he used it to try and find Cha Ming. Something was obscuring his location for the time being, but Wang Jun was patient.

"Young master, I know that you place a lot of importance on this young man, but we can't maintain this degree of expenditure for very long before the family notices. We should—"

Elder Bai stopped talking. The spinning gold needle, which had continued spinning nonstop for the last few weeks, was finally locked in place. It was pointing toward the spirit woods.

--

Cha Ming and Huxian were running side by side in the woods. They had been running joyfully for the past few hours, trying to make up for the time they lost while they slowly wandered in the dark underground tunnels. They had encountered many dangers on the way out, including dire badgers, large venomous spiders, and various types of rodents.

The duo was now well practiced at evading obstacles in the treacherous terrain. Here and there, spirit monkeys had laid traps to protect their territories. Other places were filled with poisonous asps that laid in wait for their unsuspecting prey. Fortunately, they had exited the tunnels on the south side of the river, the side closest to Green Leaf City. They now wandered south, hoping to either find a familiar landmark to help guide their way, or eventually, the forest exit.

Their traveling speed was greatly hampered by ferocious beasts who accosted them at every turn. The beasts were no serious threat to them, but since there were only two of them, the beasts took them for easy prey.

After a few more hours of running at a brisk pace, they arrived at a group of moss-covered trees. Cha Ming had seen these types of trees before; the trees were gnarled and covered in jade-green moss that covered over nine-tenths of every trunk. The duo slowed down the pace, after which Cha Ming sent out a brief hand signal to Huxian.

As expected, a group of large snakes jumped out of the trees with their mouths opened wide, their glistening fangs coated with deadly poison. Cha Ming used his Ghost Steps to evade the snakes and sent out a group of thirty-six spirit pearls in a wide arc. The beads resonated with the infused fire qi and turned the surrounding woods into a blistering inferno. This curved firewall was Cha Ming's latest invention. Naturally, the flames were completely under Cha Ming's control, and the area around Huxian was unaffected.

The extreme positive energy of the flames roasted away the thick yin poison coating the snakes' fangs. The serpents let out an anguished cry as they lost their potent poison. In response, one of the snakes lashed out his tail at Cha Ming. This was a fifth-grade spirit python that was thirty feet long. Cha Ming responded by unleashing a vicious fist strike, which matched the massive beast's strength pound for pound. As the beast and Cha Ming forcefully separated, Huxian darted around like a beam of light, immediately taking a big bite out of the giant serpent six inches below its head. The snake dropped dead, and the surrounding ball of pythons writhed in anger while darting in for revenge from all sides.

In response to their entrapment, Cha Ming instantly changed the surrounding circle of beads to quake in a rhythmic fashion. The tiny quaking vibrations, which would normally knock vicious beasts off balance and stun them, had a devastating effect against the group of pythons. Snakes were a species that relied heavily on sound to roam around the earth. They were very sensitive to every vibration surrounding them.

The effect of the quaking pearl manifestation rendered them incapable of "seeing." Cha Ming quickly brandished his heavy staff, crushing four snakes in quick succession with his impressive physical strength. Meanwhile, Huxian blended into the surrounding shadows, frequently darting out and taking a quick bite out of a vulnerable snake. In the time that it took Cha Ming to kill four snakes, Huxian had killed another six.

After a few breaths' time, Cha Ming's quake formation lost its power, after which he quickly imbued frost qi into the rosary. The beads swirled around, covering everything in a fifty-foot radius in a thick layer of frost. This was especially effective against cold-blooded animals, and they slowed down to a crawl. The remaining amount of time was enough to finish all of the smaller snakes, leaving only the remaining forty-foot snake wailing in despair. This snake was a seventh-level spirit beast and couldn't be underestimated. Cha Ming kept it busy with his ghostly footwork and heavy staff, occasionally throwing sword fingers and entrapping him in vines while Huxian viciously bit into its thick, scaly hide.

Finally, the enraged python lost all reason and went for broke, attempting to take down Huxian with it. It quickly utilized its natural ability, Shadow Bind, which froze Huxian in place while it bit down with its two-foot-long fangs. Huxian's eyes showed no fear. He knew that Cha Ming had been saving one of his trump cards.

Fifty feet up in the air, the thirty-six prayer beads revolved in the shape of a sword. He poured all of his remaining qi into the sword formation, and it plunged down at the back of the snake's extended neck. For good measure, he had also injected his remaining earth qi to strengthen the sword. The sword dissipated just after it decapitated the python's head, returning to Cha Ming's wrist in the form of a 108-bead rosary.

As Cha Ming sat down in meditation to recover his energy, Huxian dutifully carried out his favorite part of the fight—scavenging. He first ripped out all the fangs from the snakes, gathering them into a neat pile while being careful not to be poisoned. He then ripped out the eyes from the three largest snakes. These eyes had formed yin-energy pearls, which were very useful for certain cultivators. These beasts wouldn't have a beast core, as they had focused all their demonic energies into their eyes.

After removing the eyes and placing them beside the fangs, he dutifully dug out the beast cores from each of the small snakes' heads. His powerful jaws were not obstructed by their dense, bony skulls. Once these were all in a pile, he let out a gleeful yip. Time to eat!

As he opened his mouth, a massive devouring force reached out and grasped the surrounding demonic snake corpses. As the last tail disappeared in his massive maw, he let out a cute, satisfied burp. His aura seemed substantially stronger than just a few seconds ago. This was one of his innate abilities: devouring. As long as he had sufficiently strong spirit beast corpses, he would never need spirit stones to supplement his cultivation.

Demonic cores were much more nutritious, of course, but Cha Ming had scolded him severely on an earlier occasion. These beast cores were valuable, and they could be used to buy all sorts of delicious things. Seeing the skeptical look in Huxian's eyes, Cha Ming went on to describe that enough beast cores could be traded for precious herbs, stones, and medicinal pills. Huxian seemed strangely familiar with these things and agreed to delay their consumption. In his opinion, the worst-case scenario was that he could always eat these beast cores if they didn't find anything good. Besides, he was already satisfied with the large amount of spirit beasts that had attacked them every day.

--

Cha Ming had fully recovered after the time it took an incense stick to burn. He let out a turbid breath as he once again suppressed the qi that was threatening to break through at any moment. If possible, he wanted to break through in a safer environment. Being interrupted in the process of breaking through could lead to severe residual damage and impact his cultivation.

After wandering for another half day, they finally found signs of human activity. The sounds of metal on metal were echoing throughout the woods, and with Huxian's precise hearing they were able to find the source in the amount of time it takes an incense stick to burn.

In the distance, they noticed a black-garbed man with long black hair. His gaunt face was in stark contrast with the powerful blows he was currently exchanging with an extremely fast spirit beast. The man seemed very familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where they might have met in the past.

The man continued exchanging blows with the leopard's swift claw strikes, dancing about in a circular pattern and diverting the beast's blows defensively. Cha Ming's eyes narrowed as he noticed that the man had a deep gash on his leg, preventing him from being able to fully reveal his battle prowess. Being a cautious individual, he continued observing the battle from a safe distance. After all, it was much too common in the spirit woods for adventurers to fish in troubled waters, and a misunderstanding could cause a needless battle.

Suddenly the leopard let out a loud roar, causing its initially fast speed to instantly double. Shocked, the gaunt man fell backward and tripped, barely defending the increasingly savage claw strikes. Cha Ming looked down to Huxian, who was waiting for instructions.

"Let's help him. Let me take the initiative. Hide your abilities. I've heard that you're a very rare spirit beast, and I don't want anyone to recognize you." Huxian gave a nod of understanding, and to Cha Ming's surprise, his black-and-white coat suddenly took on a reddish hue until he looked just like a normal red fox.

"You know how to disguise yourself with illusions?" Cha Ming was floored once again. The little fox never ceased to amaze him. Since the cave, he had quickly grown into a sixth-level spirit beast, far outpacing Cha Ming's growth. This disparity couldn't be helped—Cha Ming only had above-average talent while Huxian had talent that caused the heavens themselves to be jealous. In addition, Huxian had a Heaven-defying auxiliary devouring technique which caused him to grow stronger and stronger as time went by.

"Let's go!"

They quickly darted out from the woods into the small clearing where the two were fighting. Cha Ming first used a frost manifestation to constrict the leopard's swift speed. This took the leopard by surprise, which the gaunt man quickly took advantage of and hacked away at the leopard's leg, further hampering its movements. The leopard growled in anger as it backed up and turned its attention to the two newcomers.

Seeing that one of the two newcomers was quite weak, it quickly launched a claw strike at Cha Ming. Cha Ming responded by sending a "sword" flying straight at the leopard. The leopard quickly batted away the sword formed from spirit pearls and quickly advanced at Cha Ming, who swung his staff with all his strength to meet the leopard head on.

Cha Ming coughed up blood as he was viciously forced back by the blow. The spirit beast must be at least an eighth-level beast and was likely stronger than Huxian. Just as he was about to instruct Huxian to no longer hide his abilities, a shadow quickly appeared behind the leopard, piercing its sword straight into the leopard's spine. The leopard let out one last howl of grief as it collapsed. The young man, who had previously been wounded, was unable to suppress his pain any longer and dropped his sword, then fell to the ground unconscious.