The black cocoon breaking apart, a young man's figure could be seen. This young man was pungent and miserable. But the man was most definitely alive.

Looking at Wu Tian's leg, Guizou narrowed his eyes.

Can this misfortune just piss off? His leg healed wrong!

How could Guizou not see it? Wu Tian's bones were mended but the mutilated leg that had its broken bones in a weird position remained the same. The bones had mended, but in the wrong position.

Talking to the young man, Guizou noticed something to be off.

He can hear me and even understand me... but... he actually lost his mind!

Wu Tian's mind was drifting in the endless ghost sea with Guizou as its anchor.

He would follow Guizou and comply with him, but other than that, he had clearly lost it.

His eyes were empty, his mind elsewhere.

I'll need to find a way later.

"Kid, let's recover here. It looks like a safe space for now, so once you are strong enough, we'll leave!"

Rambling about the near future, Guizou sighed, ordering Wu Tian to break his own leg.

After seeing his mental state, Guizou was not surprised at Wu Tian's compliance. Right after he gave the order, Wu Tian struck his deformed leg on the spot.

The sound of bones breaking could be heard and the leg limped.

Wu Tian wailed a few times, but did not care much afterward.

Taking things into his own hands, Guizou used spiritual energy to lock the broken leg in the right position. Once done, he ordered Wu Tian to stop moving his lower half and cultivate as such.

Even if Wu Tian could now wash himself, he still needed to cultivate for his leg, and therefore could not move. Guizou was aware of this and forced him to keep cultivating. This way, he would wash when everything was over and be reborn as a new man.

Cultivation when being able to use Qi was much easier and more efficient than anyone else. But the Mortal Realm was the Mortal Realm, and the Warrior Realm was of course different.

Guizou was not in a hurry, so he did not care about a few months of cultivation. The only thing he did was collect insects with his spiritual energy to feed Wu Tian. Even if cultivation could offset the decay of one's body, its effects were not absolute.

Returning to the pendant, Guizou hibernated for a month. Once out, he found Wu Tian in the same spot, making weird noises.

He really is crazy now...

In these few months, Wu Tian's cultivation soared, and could even help Guizou replenish his spiritual energy, albeit in small quantities.

Converting Qi to spiritual energy was not easy. Guizou felt lucky that the creator of his soul related method thought of this problem.

Was the man who made this method a Great Emperor as well? I can't see anyone below the Emperor Realm who could do something like this. Actually, even as a Great Emperor, I can't fathom its mysteries.

What made Guizou even more ashamed was the method's name, [Basic Soul Method].

I suppose it's all relative. I call Mortal Realm cultivators ants, while others hail them as gods. The Meridian Opening Realm is a good example of that. Here, it's claimed to be the Divine Realm. So, for the one who made this method, it probably felt easy.

When Wu Tian's leg recovered properly, Guizou sighed.

It was time to leave this backwater clan.

"Kid, are you ready? We'll leave right after you wash yourself!"

Wu Tian's odor could probably be smelled from dozens of meters away. When sneaking around, this kind of telltale sign was not very helpful.

Heading for a small pond of clear water, Wu Tian was led inside.

Barely a few minutes of scrubbing later, the pristine water had turned an ominous black and disgusting yellow.

This is when I'm happy to not have a sense of smell anymore!

Half an hour later, when Guizou made sure of Wu Tian's well being, they headed in a random direction.

Walking and walking, all they saw was nothing but green plains under the beautiful sky. It was still midday, so the blue sky was quite pleasant.

When the fifth hour started, they saw a grey wall of stone some distance ahead.

The wall was not too high, around five meters.

"Kid, it's time to head out!" Picking up the pace, Guizou entered the pendant, still able to see clearly.

As for Wu Tian, his mindless figure shot forward at high speed, and the moment he was close enough to the wall, he jumped like a feline.

Grabbing the wall with both hands and feet, Wu Tian stabilized himself. Once successful, he jumped over the wall.

What lied beyond was a dense forest.

Its color slightly dark, it covered the sky, dimming its depths.

Passing under the trees' crowns, they walked deeper into the forest.

"Kid, do you know about this forest?" A forest inside a clan's territory, especially so close, was quite intriguing.

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Even if someone wanted to keep some natural beauty around, could a clan afford it? Most would simply raze it to the ground and build structures there. A forest this big was quite eye catching to Guizou.

"Forest... Forbidden..."

Frowning, Guizou listened to Wu Tian's mumbling with narrowed eyes.

Despicable! If you don't want someone to live under your roof, just kill them yourself!

Guizou understood the crux of the matter at a glance. Since this forest was forbidden, dangers were bound to exist inside. The wall protecting Wu Tian's resting area was only five meters tall. A beast would be able to jump tens of meters with a little bit of cultivation, so any random beast would be able to jump above the wall.

But a forbidden area was still a nice finding. More often than not, it was extremely useful for cultivation and tempering.

However, after probing their general location from Wu Tian, Guizou heard something unexpected.

"Forbidden... forest... not... in... Wu... Clan..."

"What do you mean? Did that blue haired idiot take you outside the clan?"

This would explain the lack of passersby.

"Yes... forbidden... forest... far..."

Is this also why this forest has not been razed to the ground yet?

"What is the strongest being's strength in this forest?"

"Strongest... rumor... Warrior..."

Clicking his tongue, Guizou immediately told Wu Tian to stay near the outskirt.

Even if a Warrior level beast was not much to him, Wu Tian would never be able to win. And with his lacking spiritual energy, the best he could do now was scare stronger opponents away.

I can reproduce my former cultivation's aura roughly, but someone with a bit of insight would see through it at a glance.

Some people had talents, and so did beasts. Guizou was not too worried about anything seeing through his aura's facticity, but a talented being could. Especially those born with sharper visions and broader intuitions.

After two hours, Wu Tian stopped, the outskirts' delimitation just ahead.

Understanding this, Guizou did not ask him to continue, only to explore the sides.

"Let's go right."

Nodding, Wu Tian turned right and resumed his walk.

Barely half an hour later, a panther showed itself. Its color black with shining yellow eyes, it pounced on Wu Tian.

But even with its stronger physique, it could not breach the gap in cultivation. Wu Tian was a fifth layer Mortal while the panther was only around the second layer.

Low Mortal Beast.

Watching the show, Guizou shook his head.

"Kid, don't run around like that, even with a higher cultivation a beast is not that easy to catch. Just wait in place and let it do it."

Listening, Wu Tian's zombie-like figure stopped in place, unmoving.

Seeing it, the panther growled, jumping at Wu Tian in a heartbeat.

As it was about to claw Wu Tian's head apart, the panther felt a painful sensation.

Paying more attention, it saw Wu Tian's hands grabbing both of its paws, squeezing them.

He doesn't know what to do...

"What are you waiting for? Push them away and hit its stupid face."

Pushing both paws away, causing the panther's shoulders to crack, Wu Tian took a step forward, sending a punch at the panther's skull.

Unable to dodge in time, the panther was struck, its skull shattering into pieces.

What a bad hunter. Even if humans are weaker than beasts, the gap was too big to begin with. Even with a lack of nutrition, the kid isn't that easy to deal with. He has no fear and feel no pain. What can you do? The Mortal Realm still increases strength.

Gazing absentmindedly at the panther's corpse, Guizou pondered for a brief moment.

We could use its blood... Actually never mind, not only does the kid not have a storage artifact, that panther is kind of useless.

"Eat it and then we'll continue."

After cooking the panther with a campfire, the both of them resumed.

Guizou wanted to ask many things as well as explain others. However, seeing Wu Tian's mental state, he decided against it. There was no point.

Can I teach alchemy to a guy like this? If I can, then all the better, but if not...

Guizou did not know the current Mortal Land's currency and capabilities. Since he knew many alchemy recipes, he would not bother with being the client.

He wanted to refine a Mind Cleansing Pill for Wu Tian. The question was whether Wu Tian could refine one or not with his help.

Worst case I'll have to recover a lot of spiritual energy before doing it myself.

A day going by, the both of them had explored a large part of the forest's outskirts.

Truly worthy of its name, we didn't see anyone-.

About to finish his thought, Guizou noticed a young girl to his right. Of course, the young girl also noticed Wu Tian.

"W-Who are you?" She did not expect to find someone in the forbidden forest. It was rare for even ten people to go there in a year. How could she be so unlucky? In the forbidden forest, it was everyone for themselves. Even if one was the descendant of a divinity, they would still be killed.

Actually, it was even more dangerous to go inside while being influential.

Taking out a sword, she carefully probed Wu Tian.

But what could Wu Tian do? He simply stared at her for a moment before mumbling incomprehensible words.

Is that young man crazy? If so... it's better to leave!

Frowning, Guizou thought for a moment.

Her presence is quite weak... Maybe a second or third layer Mortal. In that case Wu Tian has the advantage. But since he is mentally absent, fighting, especially a human, would be much harder.

Cultivation was easily seen by experts but more so by opponents. The young woman did not seem to realize the difference in strength despite being a few meters away. She seemed focused on Wu Tian's thin body.

She is going to get killed at some point. The lack of battle experience is too obvious. If I was in her shoes I would've ran away by now.

"Kid, are you confident in killing her? She must have some good stuff. Maybe she even gathered enough materials for the Mind Cleansing Pill!"

Hearing about the pill clearly touched a nerve in Wu Tian's subconscious. Without hesitation he nodded fiercely a few times before kicking the ground, running at maximum speed toward the young girl.

"Huh?!" Clearly not expecting this sudden change in attitude, the young girl barely had time to react, slashing with her sword downward.

"Dodge to the right!" Noticing the young girl to be right handed, Guizou wanted to minimize potential damage by going for a more difficult spot to hit.

Listening attentively, Wu Tian turned right, only receiving a minor cut on his left elbow.

"Go for her leg!" Crouching slightly, Wu Tian swiped her right leg with his left one. What surprised Guizou was Wu Tian taking his time and putting his leg behind hers, so that the swipe came from behind. This way, he had much more fluidity for his next move.

"Hya!" Screaming in surprise, the young girl fell on her buttocks. Opening her eyes she saw something terrifying.

"Good job kid! Nice finish!" The same left leg that swiped the woman was currently a few centimeters away from her face.

The outcome was obvious. Her lower cultivation could not contend and her body was clearly frailer than Wu Tian's. Even without much nutrients, Wu Tian was still getting better every hour. Since he kept eating and drinking like a savage since they entered the forbidden forest, his body was in a much better condition.

But even without, the cultivation gap would still end up noticeable.

As his shin struck her face, the young girl's skull started to break apart, cracks appearing everywhere. In a few moments, her skull caved in, and her brain was turned into mush sticking to Wu Tian's leg.

The back of her skull forced open, her head had been sliced apart by Wu Tian's merciless kick.

I guess there is some benefits with being mentally disabled. At least he doesn't cry about killing someone.

Wondering whether Wu Tian would remember this later, Guizou felt a headache coming.

When his thoughts were over, Wu Tian finished his kicking motion, the brain matter stuck to his leg sent flying to a nearby tree trunk.

Brain matter splashing everywhere, Guizou felt like Wu Tian had used the girl's head as a toy.

Don't kids usually use balls and do the same? Kicking it everywhere for fun. Damn, that brat actually got such an expensive ball!