At the end of the battle, Tristan realized he had been so focused on killing the creature that he hadn’t noticed what had happened to Jaeng.

He turned his head to the side and saw that there were no more bats in the sky. He decided to look for Jaeng. He found the disciple’s body lying on the ground, his skin covered with wounds and bite marks.

After examining the boy, Tristan discovered that he was still alive, but he wasn’t sure if Jaeng had fainted from exhaustion or for a worse reason.

Tristan tore Jaeng’s clothes and used them to bandage his body.

'Good thing cultivators wear long clothes.'

After ensuring his sectmate’s safety, he approached the giant bat’s corpse. He took his sword and stabbed it into the creature's solar plexus, causing some blood to spurt from the wound he had made.

Suddenly, his eyes caught an abnormal movement. He agilely jumped back, preventing the monster’s blood from touching him.

He frowned as he saw the drops of blood hitting the ground. Wondering why his instincts were on alert, he moved closer.

What he saw left him perplexed.

'It’s actually moving!'

In the bat’s blood, there were tiny gray masses—cylindrical bodies, flattened heads, and sharp tails. These strange creatures were no larger than a grain of rice, but in a single drop of blood, there were countless numbers of them.

Tristan’s stomach churned at the sight.

'Why is this thing’s body full of worms?'

His curiosity piqued.

[Tyrannical Eye]

His Light essence left his body and entered the creature, taking its form. Once the structure of his target was copied, Tristan’s essence returned to him.

Using his mystical senses, he analyzed the Light hologram of the creature, confirming that the body of his fallen enemy was indeed infested with those tiny creatures.

Tristan’s eyes widened, and a perplexed expression appeared on his face.

Two things caught his attention.

First, he noticed a much higher concentration of worms near the monster’s brain than in the rest of its body.

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He tried to figure out if they were doing something there but soon gave up, realizing that his lack of knowledge made it impossible to understand the worms' behavior.

The second thing that caught his attention wasn’t related to the worms but to the bat itself. As he analyzed its body, he noticed an internal scar.

'This looks like it was caused by a thick blade.'

'Strange, I saw the wounds I inflicted on this thing heal before my eyes. If this were an old wound, it should have healed, but something seems to have affected its regeneration.'

He wondered if the people who left the footprints or the strange figurine had anything to do with it or if it was just a coincidence.

Since there was no way for him to get an answer now, he decided to continue what he was doing.

This time, he stood farther from the corpse. Tristan poked the wound’s hole with his sword until he managed to push the core out.

Soon, he saw an orange-glowing sphere appear, making his eyes shine with surprise and greed.

'An orange-core beast! I really killed a beast of this level by myself!'

Of course, with his recent discovery, he knew that the beast was probably not at its peak, but even so, he still found his achievement impressive.

The orange core fell from the creature’s corpse and rolled across the bloody ground.

Using the little essence he had left, Tristan gathered his Darkness essence in its pure form in his hand and brought the black mist close to the sphere.

Destroying a core wasn’t an easy task, so he wasn’t worried about it.

To his relief, the tiny mysterious beings reacted normally to the Darkness, being completely destroyed.

He picked up the orange sphere and squeezed it in his hand, sending it to his personal space in the Tower.

[You have acquired 1 orange fragment]

'Not bad. With this, I could buy a low-grade artifact, at least if I were in the great cities of the Central region.'

He sighed in regret.

When he arrived in Zaguhan, he quickly realized that magical artifacts were scarce there. He had only seen a few sect masters with one, which contrasted greatly with the region where he was born.

'If even guards with mediocre potential had magical artifacts in the county, I wonder how common they are in the main countries.'

After collecting the core, he examined the other bat monsters, looking for more strange things. To his disappointment, he didn’t find any more cores.

'Damn, there are so many corpses. If a few of them had cores, I’d have a small fortune by now.'

He also confirmed that only the large bat had worms in its body.

Thinking about the reason for this, he made an assumption: 'Maybe some of the smaller bats were also infected but were too weak to survive?'

He sighed and decided to stop delaying an inevitable task.

Approaching Jaeng, he shook the young disciple with his foot. There was no response; he was as unconscious as before.

With a grimace, Tristan grabbed the boy’s arms and dragged him to the end of the tunnel. He looked at the pile of rocks blocking his way with a sad expression.

He hoisted Jaeng onto his right shoulder and slowly climbed the rocks, using the remnants of his essence. At the top, he saw a small opening, but it was enough for someone as small as him to pass through.

Pushing Jaeng out was a bit tricky. It would have been impossible if the young man hadn’t had a lean and athletic build.

However, that was just the beginning.

He looked down the tunnel ahead and tried to carry Jaeng again, but then a sudden weakness surged through his body.

Tristan collapsed to his knees, feeling a sharp pain in his chest. His body seemed to be burning, and he struggled to keep his mind clear.

He felt something rising up his throat and couldn’t stop the contents of his stomach from coming out.

“Damn it!”