Alex felt a lot better than he did 30 minutes ago, if he had to be honest he really didn"t like the feeling of Ébié possessing his body. But maybe it"s because this was something that they"ve just started and it would take a little while for him to get used to it, but either way, it was still weird. It was like an out of body experience but at the same time not, once she took over everything went dark for him, like he was asleep. But he still knew every move, every word and every action she takes like he was dreaming, but he was still awake and conscious. It was unexplainable and probably top the charts of the weirdest s.h.i.t that has happened to him since he was born, but then again he couldn"t help but admit that at this point, he was a magnet for weird s.h.i.t.
So far their walk through the forest was uneventful, over time they"ve heard the sounds of all manner of beasts walking and running through and beneath the forest, at times like that they always huddle together for protection, before moving forwards. But Anya couldn"t help but feel as if they were moving on borrowed time, though she was sure should anything come up, someone especially Alex would able to pull out some trick out of that proverbial hat of his or rather in this case mask. The trees were cl.u.s.tered tightly in some areas of the forest, in fact cl.u.s.ters of four to eight trees if not more were spread out across the forest, this was how it was, like the stalks of gra.s.s on the ground.
If they didn"t know any better, they would think that someone had planted this entire forest. Because of the way it was placed, it was quite easy to evade the cl.u.s.ters, but the thing is even if there were gaps between each cl.u.s.ters, most of the time they were quite close to each other, making for narrow pathways, and increasing the danger they had to experience. But like all forests, there"s always an areas devoid of trees, and an hour and half in their trek through the forest, they came into such a place.
A bunch of rocky outcroppings, that shot up into the sky like the spines on the back of a ma.s.sive animal. Xiao Mei paused, even though no one had mentioned anything about it, she had become the unspoken leader of this group of students, and everyone was relying on her to get them out of this place, so the moment she stopped with such an intense look of concentration on her face, everyone did too.
Seconds later she jumped up into the sky again, carefully using the trees around her as springboards as the trees here were much more taller than the ones she went above when they first landed. She was perched on her snowflake platform, looking at the placement of the sun and determining which direction to take. But even this was what she was doing, Alex, Anya and Louis had this pressing feeling that it was the sight of this rocky outcropping that prompted her to make such a risky move; because so far she had avoided going above the trees to avoid getting spotted by any flying beasts, or any hanging on the trees.
She came back down and knelt on the ground, she placed both her hands together, before slowly separating them, a dagger made of ice coming into existence in between her palms. Then she started drawing a map that quite honestly none of them could understand, but everyone was gathered around her, fully focused on what she was doing. Even member of other sects that were enemies or not exactly on good terms had settled down to follow her lease because they all knew that their lives depends wholly on her knowledge and experience of the forest.
"This rocks are the spines of an ancient magical beast, it died here some 4 or 5 thousand years ago, but then again the people who have come to investigate are not exactly sure as they just made an estimate. The carbon dating on the bones themselves kept on showing different results, so all they could do was speculate and come to a conclusion of 4 or 5 thousand years. I"m reality it can be a lot more, or less, however with our current speed from this place to the western edge of Orcon forest would take us 5 days. If we"re allowed to move at the speed our cultivations would allow, I reckon we can be out of here by the end of the day, so give or take 6 hours.
However if we do so, we"ll probably have the entire forest on our tail and I"m sure there are some of them faster than us. Unless you have a skill that can help you silently travel quickly through the forest we all have to stick together and move as quickly and as silently as possible. But beyond that, we have a problem."
"Of course we have a problem! As if the difficulty is not hard enough as it is, there"s always going to be something extra. What do we have to deal with now hmmm? Is it Nagas? Or, or...…." Louis"s tirades was cut short as Xiao Mei asked him.
"How did you know?" all Louis could say to that was.
"Oh f.u.c.k me!"
"Technically these are not Nagas, they evolved from the snake beasts of these forest to gain a humanoid traits, so they"re still just demonic beasts. Nagas are a sentient race, a civilization that did not evolve in any way or form from a demonic beast..... though given they"re snake men, it begs the question just what they evolved form if Darwin"s theory of evolution should be taken with more than just a grain of salt...either way there are two rival packs of snake demonic beasts located on both sides of the rocky outcropping, which means we have to go straight through it.
But even then there"s no guarantee we"ll not draw their attention as the outcropping is only about 50 meters wide and about two kilometers long.
However the only good news I can give you is that the outcropping is a safe zone, basically it"s the only thing that"s not a catalyst to the poison, and as such the demonic beasts pack on both sides consider it sacred. So we should be relatively safe as long as we"re not noticed by either packs." Xiao Mei finished as she stood up, when she did though Louis couldn"t help but ask her.
"How do you know all this?"
"In the three years I"ve been at the academy I"ve been studying Orcon forest in the hopes I can give my ice and water element a poison attribute, or at least create a technique with them that has a poisoning effect. The area we"re currently in has been extensively mapped, though it"s a little bit deep into the forest, it"s still within the academy sphere of influence, just at the edge. So we should...….. where are the Tang Men?" Xiao Mei suddenly asked, but no one could give her any answer as Tang Lin and his comrades were gone.
"The Tang sect has the shadow walk movement skill, speed and silence all rolled up in one package, they left us behind to be bait. Whatever attention their travel through the forest might cause, it would be left to us to deal with is, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Lu Wan suddenly spoke up for the first time, undisguised fury and hatred Within his eyes.
"Then that means we"re all sitting ducks if we move silently! If we"re already close to the Academy, then let"s hurry out of here! Come on!" and then someone from the Emei sect suddenly panicked and called out as she and her fellow disciples ran into the rock outcroppings, leaving behind Alex, Anya, Xiao Mei, Louis and four disciples from the beggars sect. Lu Wan and his companion Gongsun Bai had been the first to take to their heels after the Emei disciples.
Alex was surprised that they had stayed put, so he couldn"t help asking them why.
"Its simple really, the beasts in the forest would be going after the noise, there"s no guarantee that all of them would be coming from behind us, and even if they are, we"ve been able to evade discovery so far, we should be able to do so too now. You"ve led us well Lady Xiao Mei, the beggar"s sect are true to their debts and we owe you, we can"t have ran away leaving you and Childe Spirit Wind behind when you"re both the reason anyone of us is still alive. I would very much like to be friends with the both of you, my name is Hideki…....Ken Hideki. This are my fellow disciples, Sarah Lorne, she"s from the Americas, this Ibrahim Abdul Salam, he"s from the Emirates and used to be a servant there in the palace of a sultan. And this is Minerva Crucifixio, we just call her Cross, she from the Vatican."
True to the demographic of the beggar"s sect, the sky itself was their roof and they had branches all over the world. They were practically the sect with the most disciples, but without a stage root and being more like nomads even though they had a sect, they were looked down by a lot of people and are considered the weakest of the six sects, but the thing is they believed in truth and justice and went round the world trying to save people and do good, making them the most loved of all the sects on Earth.
"Well it"s a pleasure to meet you Ken Hideki, and the rest of you too. Your friendship is very much welcomed and it would mine and my brother"s honor to be friends with you. We can continue with the introductions later, for now, we have to move!"