In the disciplinary hall, an elder with a long black beard sat in the main chair, stroking his beard while sipping tea. A young man, Shang Jan, kneeled on the ground while waiting for his command.

"Tell me the matter." Elder Maji asked, putting down his cup.

Shang Jan sighed in relief. Elder Maji was a hot-tempered elder, and if he didn't find Shang Jan's reasoning, then Shang Jan would be done for. Elder Maji hated anyone disturbing him, and Shang Jan had disturbed his evening teatime.

"Elder Maji, please forgive this lowly disciple for disturbing you, but we thought this would be concerning."

"Gun Pu from the Gun clan is dead, and Gu Watang from the Gu clan is missing."

"Two people from prominent clans. What happened?" His brows furrowed.

"Elder Maji, I think this is a love triangle."

"Love triangle?"

"Yes, elder. Gu Watang was sleeping with labor disciple Rayu Gada and their affair was well known. But this Gun Pu also had an affair with Rayu Gada and they were poisoned somehow."

"Wait, you said the girl was playing with both of them. Do you have proofs?"

Shang Jan took a deep breath, his palms sweaty in anxiety.

"Elder, there are no eyewitness of Rayu Gada's infidelities, but we found them like this." Shang Jan tapped on a talisman and a picture appeared on the wall. A guy lay on the ground, his cock out, erect while a girl lay next to him, her eyes fearful. "We investigated them using Poison Inspection Skill with the help of elder San, and they are indeed poisoned."

Elder Maji tapped on the chair-hand.

"What poison did they use?"

"We don't know, elder, but elder San said it was an unknown Pill Poison. There is no reference to such poison in the sect inventory."

"So you want to say Gu Watang caught them and killed them with poison?"

"We think that is the case."

"Then catch Gu Watang and ask him. I'll take care of the Gu clan, so proceed." Elder Maji shook his head, sounding disappointed.

"Gu Watang is missing, and we can only use the Soul Tablet to find out their last moments."

"Gu Watang is missing?" Elder Maji frowned deeply. "Find him. Using the Soul Tablet will require a lot of Mana Crystals, and we can't waste them without the high elder's approval. Just use common methods and search for Gu Watang. Once we found him, you would find the answers."

Shang Jan sighed. This was expected. No elder gave permission to use Soul Tablets to find out about the killer unless one was an inner sect disciple.

However, there was another way. Gun clan. Gun Pu was their prodigious son, and they also had a Soul Tablet for Gun Pu. If they could invest, he would find the culprit.

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"I'll take my leave, elder, and update you once I've something."

"If you disturb my evening tea next time then I will make you unveil the Medicinal Battlefield."

Shang Jan shuddered. Medicinal Battlefield. That was the death zone of the pills, and anyone going in never came back whole.

"This lowly disciple understands, elder's wish." Shang Jan turned back and rushed out of the disciplinary hall. Elder Maji was an old eccentric and he couldn't be trusted.

***

Aiden stopped in front of the self-hugging tree, his robe drenched in sweat, his heart racing. Exhaustion dropped to the ground in the form of his sweat. For the last four hours, he had used everything he had to reach this place, and finally - finally he could see the tree line thinning. The sun was already up, and it provided him a better visibility, and the dark trees had slowed down after the first ray hit them like a kid after a heavy dose of cough syrup.

Maybe the trees would turn docile in the afternoon, but he didn't know it when he started with the killing.

Whatever. It wasn't a vain journey. He had gone through a brutal fight one after one, and he had gained a lot from those fights. It might not be visible to others, but he had honed his battle instincts and his speed had improved by a margin. Whether it was due to an increase in dexterity or because of the fights, he couldn't guess.

After gulping down some water from his leather skin, he pulled out his knife. The edge had dulled from slicing through the tough skin of the dark trees countless times, but it could still do the job. He won't be able to kill anyone with it, but he could carve their gut with it.

Aiden sliced his knife into the bark, gently gathering the lifeforce liquid in a crystal vial. Old man Li's knowledge guided his hands, showing him how to extract the valuable substance from these dark trees. Once he'd collected enough, he wiped the sweat from his brow and summoned Alchemy Fire, engulfing the entire tree in flames. In the last moments, the tree stirred from its self-hugging slumber and attempted to shake off the flame, but it was already too late.

Aiden glanced at a long route he had made through the dark forest. It was getting difficult as the trees became close to each other and now he had to face four of them at a time, and after burning so many trees, he had realized he could only put two trees into the slumber at a time. Once he fed the third one Mana Fire, the first one would snap out of the strange slumber and start attacking frenzily. Thanks to the sunlight, he could get through them with some difficulty.

It was worth it. After the entire journey of injuries, and healing, he had collected many jars full of lifeforce liquid, and gained +2 to Dexterity and Strength. An icing was a Pain Endurance passive skill which allowed him to ignore 10% pain.

Not bad.

Aiden moved ahead, cutting through the dark trees slowly and methodically. After killing so many, he had got into a rhythm. After five more rounds, he finally reached the end of the dark trees.

He could breathe peacefully once again, however a thick stench of blood assaulted his nose. Something similar to what he had experienced after the nuclear war, and mass killing afterwards.

As he emerged from the dark trees, a blood stream sliced through the line of the forest. A heavy mist blocked his view of the far bank. A small boat rested partly on the shore, ready for use.

Was he supposed to cross the river with the boat?

Cautiously, Aiden moved closer and examined the boat closely. It was crafted from dark wood and could hold three people comfortably, but there was no oar to propel the boat across the water.

Aiden scanned through old man Li's memories about the Outerworld Battlefield one more time, but there was no reference to a blood river and a boat. Old man Li always moved with the people from Sword Hall who protected his life and gave him a kill to complete the quests, and after reaching Bone Baptization Realm the quests had changed from weekly to yearly, and later they became ten yearly and so on.

"What the hell. Where am I? And how am I supposed to use this boat?" Aiden turned and wondered if he should go back through the dark trees but what if the other side also had a river of blood? And what if it had more dark trees than this side?

Damn it.

Turning back, he studied the boat, but when he tried to touch it, a thin energy membrane that prevented him from touching the boat.

"Fuck. I can't even touch it. Then what's the use of the boat and this bloody river?" Aiden cursed out loud.

Taking a deep breath, Aiden punched the membrane hard, forming a crack on it.

"Wait, don't do it. It will attract unwanted attention." A girly voice shouted from behind him and when he turned back to the source of the sound his heart shuddered.

Why was she here? Did she really find him?