Futian walked away from the tree, trying to avoid touching any blood that was strewn across the grass, and gestured for Arius to come closer.

Arius quickly complied with the request.

The moment he got within arms reach, Futian grabbed him by the collar and looked him in the eyes.

“When I let go of your collar walk over to the tree, drop that body onto the ground, scatter the intestines randomly beside it and crush the head so it doesn’t look like the eyes were torn out, nod if you understand.”

Arius quickly nodded.

“Make it look like it was a demon beast. I’m going to lead the rest of them here soon, and we’ll come across this body for the first time.”

Futian dropped Arius and Arius quickly did as he was told.

As he looked at the brutal sight Futian realized that he had made a big mistake by volunteering to go on this mission.

“I came here for some f*cking treasure under the protection of the elder, now look at me, cultivation dropped to Qi condensation and fighting for my life against an insane maniac.”

He slowly sat down on the ground, his forehead cradled in trembling hands as his thoughts raced.

“I’m not dying in this shitty forest in the middle of nowhere.”

His expression became troubled.

“No way in the nine hells am I letting people know that a deranged killer is hunting us all, fear creates panic, panic creates mistakes, and mistakes… Mistakes will be the death of us all.”

…

The unorthodox group walked the opposite way, their goal was the same, find their elder and ask her for help. Of course Anissa, Lyra and Ellia were trying to find Feng Zhiming, he was the one with the compass.

Liza tilted her head as she looked at Anissa. She was completely expressionless, even the frustration from earlier had been replaced by an eerie lifelessness.

“You were down there, standing against the Holy Knight.” She had been the one to actually stand up and resist the Holy Knight’s pressure, a feat that was very impressive.

Anissa didn’t respond, she continued to look into the thick forest, her hand resting on the hilt of a shattered sword stored away in her sheathe.

“She’s not taking questions right now.” Lyra noticed Anissa’s reluctance to talk and decided to take over the conversation in her place.

Liza was silent for a moment and then responded.

“The Nether witch and the Heavenfallen Knight, I saw Madam Hua but you all arrived after her. With another person, It’s quite strange. Is there some information we could all benefit from here? Such as who that so-called tainted man was, and how he, someone as weak as an ant, managed to escape from the hands of a person so grand that our elders bowed down to him?”

Lyra cursed Liza internally, she was unusually perceptive.

It made sense, the Dual Divine Demon Sect was one that specialized in auxiliary techniques rather than combat.

“We merely met atop the ship of a woman who transported us to the heart, so even if you ask me I can’t tell you who he was.” Lyra shrugged her shoulders as she replied.

Liza knew that this wasn’t the case, it was far too huge of a coincidence, a Holy Knight appearing to apprehend a man traveling with the Elysium Guild. But there was nothing she could do, if they didn’t tell her the truth she had to accept that.

But before she could probe further she was interrupted.

“AHHH!” A woman at the front of the group screamed out.

A demon beast bear nearing eight feet tall appeared at the forefront of the group and chomped down on the torso of the screaming girl, she was torn in half as the bear swallowed her.

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The bear began to run as it saw the group of now seventeen people, it thought that there would only be one girl when it swallowed her, it was not prepared to face such a number.

“Chase the damned thing!” Liza yelled.

The group quickly did as she said. After about two minutes of chasing the bear finally stopped and turned to face them, it was now cornered by trees too tight to allow its huge body to squeeze through.

The sharp clamor of metal resounded through the air as Ellia bolted towards the bear, his massive sword clutched tightly in his hand.

As he reached the bear it swiped its arm and attempted to knock him into a tree.

However, in a swift, calculated move, Ellia raised his sword sideways, blocking the impact and expertly deflecting the blow.

Seizing the brief opening, he lunged forward, aiming for a decisive strike on the creature's eye.

The beast's roar filled the air, the echoes of its fury rippling through the undergrowth.

It was a second order demon beast, in cultivation terms it was at the early stages of Foundation Establishment, one realm above the current Ellia, this was why Ellia couldn't match its speed and had to resort to blocking and deflecting attacks instead of evading them.

It roared loudly and was about to bring its second paw down on Ellia.

“Hands off.” Lyra said as she waved her fingers.

The bear's paw turned to ice and instantly fell to the ground before shattering.

Her cultivation had dropped to Qi condensation but that didn’t mean she couldn’t manipulate Qi. It wasn’t to the same extent as before but it still worked.

Capitalizing on the opening, Ellia seized the moment, raising his sword with all the force he could muster.

The inscription glimmered weakly, barely activated by the meager energy it received.

The blade descended with a decisive swipe, cleaving the demon beast in two.

"Amazing, he cut down a second order demon beast so cleanly."

"That equipment is definitely not ordinary." Whispers came from the disciples who saw the battle.

Ellia's once-silver armor was now marred with streaks of crimson, blood seeping into the metal grooves.

His eyes fixed on the formidable beast before him, and his tone was solemn as he addressed the gathered.

"We have a problem."

As he turned his gaze to his wounded side, the sight of the ominous message etched into the bear's flesh sent a chilling shiver down his spine.

"Death to cultivators."

The message was clear.

They were being hunted.

Lyra and Liza was both stunned for a moment, this bear had actually been led to them on purpose.

Liza quickly gathered all the disciples and decided to do a headcount.

“Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen….” she spoke to herself as she counted.

She turned her head to look at Lyra who was still examining the corpse of the bear, to find clues to the writer of the message.

“Nether witch, your friend, she’s missing.”

Lyra and Ellia turned to look at each other for a split second before quickly running back to the last place they had seen Anissa.

They didn't even think of the possibility that Anissa would not chase the beast with them.

A paste of human remains, along with the shattered blade she carried. That was all that was left of Anissa when they found her.

“Damn it.” Ellia said as he stabbed his great sword into the ground.

“There goes our only lead to the bastard, what kind of f*cking thing does that to a person?” Lyra sighed as she spoke.

“Someone as skilled as her, it must have been something truly powerful.” Ellia tried to reason.

“No, it's possible that it was something like the bear, her current mental state might have impacted her fighting abilities more than we expected. We were careless by recklessly chasing the bear.” Lyra said as she thought more about the situation.

“That’s disgusting.” A voice came from behind them.

Liza had finally caught up to the two of them, she gulped as she saw the nauseating yet frightening scene.

Her initial distrust for Lyra and Ellia quickly faded behind her desire to survive.

“You both see the situation we're in now, it's worse than I expected. We need to stick together, whatever or whoever is hunting us is picking us off one by one, if we stick close we’ll be fine.” she hoped they would accept, their skills were certainly useful.

Ellia looked at Lyra, and Lyra nodded.

“If you want to do that, then we can no longer move, it is unsafe. We should set up camp and deforest some of these trees, if we have a clear line of sight we’ll be in a better position to survive.” he responded to Liza and consequently the disciples that followed her.

Ellia had been in many situations similar to this, stuck in a forest filled with things that want to eat you, It was knight training basics.

They quickly got to work and trees began to fall while a few campfires were started.

The atmosphere was thick with palpable tension, a shroud of primal fear enveloping them all.

They were cultivators, accustomed to facing adversity, but this was different. The forest had become a hunting ground, and they felt like sheep in the presence of a ravenous wolf.

In under an hour, they had gone from the relative safety of the ship to finding themselves in nature's unforgiving embrace.

They were no longer hunting for treasure.

They were prey.

28 disciples of the orthodox group remaining, 16 disciples of the unorthodox group remaining.

...

A woman cloaked in a dark robe sat before an altar of bones, her smile barely perceptible, yet decorated with a sinister satisfaction.

"A pawn cannot be blamed for falling to a knight, such is the nature of chess. And such is the error in the Assembly."

Her hands gently and slowly petted the soft, black mass that sat at her feet, it didn't look anything like the murderous creature it had been before.

"But turn all the pieces into pawns, and the pawn that remains standing in the end."

She paused, a spark of dark ambition in her eyes.

"That pawn is worth more than the entire chessboard."