Chapter 9

A Pair of Disciples

Song and Lya were not, in fact, star-crossed lovers that Leo imagined for a moment they were. Rather, they weren’t even friends--merely fellow Sect Disciples who’ve chanced upon each other at random while doing independent missions for their Sect.

To understand how they wound up within the confines of the Nameless Forest, passed out next to each other, bleeding to death, it first must be known how they chanced upon each other three days prior.

About a week ago, rumors spread throughout much of the Lower Ashlands that the notorious Blood Demon was spotted in and around the small Yuvel Town. Few believed in the rumors as the Blood Demon was supposedly killed over a hundred years ago, but they still felt compelled to check out the rumors, just in case. Neither Song nor Lya were among those, but as Yuvel Town was the town nearest to their Sect, both they and their fellow Disciples frequented it when out on the missions.

It was about three days ago--that was some two days into their stay in the town--that a massive fight broke out among far more senior cultivators that had gathered there due to the Blood Demon. They, much like the other weaker folk, ran out from the town and away, not wanting to get caught up in whatever was happening. To their dismay, however, they caught sight of the Disciples of Bloodmoon Sect, a neighboring, rival Sect. The two had been at a quasi-war for decades, now, and skirmishes among the Disciples broke out frequently.

The issue was who the pursuers were--both Song and Lya were merely Foundation Establishment Disciples, having just recently started their immortal journeys, while two of their six pursuers were at Core Formation Stage. Fighting them was impossible, but so was escaping; rather, if the Bloodmoon Disciples weren’t hellbent on simply playing with them like cats played with mice, they would have been killed almost immediately.

Instead, it became a game--and the two, once they realized there was no escaping, headed northwest, into the most forbidden of areas within ten thousand miles--the Nameless Forest.

When their pursuers realized that, they tried killing them, but the few life-preserving treasures allowed the duo to just barely evade death and enter the forest. Nonetheless, they were deathly wounded, tired, and at the brink of dying altogether. Even so, they were at least pleased they defended the honor of the Holy Blade Sect, if ever so slightly.

By all accounts, including their own, they died at that slight slope, covered in strange, unknown grass, in the silence of the Nameless Forest. Perhaps the nature would reclaim their bodies and make of them something new, or perhaps the animals of the forest would feast upon their flesh--regardless, their end was engraved... until they both opened their eyes.

Lya was the first to do so, but not by a lot--merely a few seconds. The sheer shock of opening her eyes blinded her for a moment and she was fully certain she was dreaming. It wasn’t until she heard some shuffling to the side and glanced at her fellow Disciple that she was convinced: she was alive... as was he.

Her entire body hurt, from head to toe, and she could barely move a muscle, but, shockingly, most of the wounds that the Bloodmoon Disciples inflicted were gone. She quickly realized that the reason she couldn’t move was simply because she was too weak and drained of Qi.

Taking a quick account of her surroundings, she could hardly tell where she was; there was some sort of a ceiling, low and colorless, like she was in a cave. But there was also light coming from the front, and if it was a cave, it was a very, very small one.

She parted her lips but her voice wouldn’t come out--she was simply too weak. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she focused whatever little mental energy she had to run through the Sundering Holy Blade, the foundational mantra of her Sect. Usually, it would take her mere seconds to run a full revolution of Qi throughout her body, but now it felt like she was moving an entire mountain with her bare hands.

Due to her injuries as well as overuse of Qi, a lot of plaque had built up inside of her meridians. Aiding that ailment was the fact that her physical body, too, had scarcely just started healing--the two combined meant that she could barely move a sliver of Qi before being completely exhausted.

Song wasn’t any better--if anything, he was a bit worse, as one of the Bloodmoon Arts had managed to come horrifyingly close to destroying his dantian. Instead, it was just damaged. If he nourished it for a few years, there would be no long-term issues, but wasting a few years in the precious youth to fix a dantian was the equivalent to a death sentence to a cultivator.

Both were startled as they heard the sound of the approaching footsteps--however, even after waiting a while, nobody came in. Their nerves growing taut and relaxing overwhelmed them, consuming whatever little energy they had, and they both passed out right after.

**

Leo paced nervously in front of the mud hut, wondering if he’d made the right choice. The two kids, shockingly, survived--whether it was due to the fruit juice that he fed them, or the intervention of some higher power of this world, they were alive and mostly out of the critical period. Once he realized their bleeding stopped and their wounds closed up, he was left with a choice--leave them there to wake up and hopefully leave without ever bothering him, or bring them back with him and nurse them to health.

Stolen story; please report.

Even though they ‘healed up’, they were still extremely weak--and the forest packed a lot of wild life. Even if they, incidentally, seemed content letting Leo be, it didn’t mean that they were harmless. If one of them turned out to be hungry, Leo had no doubts that they’d gobble the kids up in a heartbeat.

As such, he elected to bring them back... but was now having second thoughts. Cultivators were proud, greedy, and selfish creatures (attributes he ascribed to them without any knowledge whatsoever) that would kill him at the slightest offense (again, something he ascribed to them without any working, actual knowledge), and he’d invited two of them into his house!

Though he wanted to go in and check on them, he was afraid! After all, he’d stripped both of them naked to clean them and then put on some somewhat shoddy robes that the monkey and the owl got. Unlike his, the ones for the cultivators were much older and worn down, but they covered the important bits and that was all that mattered.

Once they learned, however, the massive transgression he had done, they would likely rip his head off. Part of him wanted to turn heel and run away even deeper into the forest, abandoning everything he did here, but there was a voice in his head telling him that he’d never find a pond of fresh water anywhere else, at least not of that size and quality.

Leo took a deep breath and calmed down--what was done was done, and there was no taking it back now. He started a fire and decided to make his daily stew for the animals as a form of distraction. As soon as the sweet scent began to waft through the forest, the scattered critters converged once more. Though quite a few lived in and around the mud huts, even more lived on the outskirts.

It was always quite a spectacle, Leo mused, when he’d look up from cooking the stew and see hundreds of pairs of eyes probing from the trees, bushes, between the trees, and even the ground. Just yesterday, for the first time, he noticed that one of his friends was a two-headed mole that only came out at night. As such, Leo always saved a portion for him.

Cooking helped him and he quickly forgot about the predicament he was in. Not for long, though--the night fell and he was reminded that he couldn’t sleep in his mud hut as it was currently being occupied by two very dangerous and deadly cultivators.

In fact, he feared falling asleep altogether--perhaps they would do him in his sleep, not even giving him a sensible answer as to why (at this point, his delusions had thoroughly poisoned him).

As such, he settled in one of the other mud huts, determined to stay awake all night long.

Six minutes later, he was lying on his side, fast asleep, snoring freely and unrestricted. Quite a few animals gathered around, nestling against his body, using it as a heat source. Both panthers, too, curled up against his chest and back, seemingly guarding both his sides in a silent agreement.

**

Lye woke up once more, feeling a bit better than the last time. By some miracle, her wounds have all technically healed up, and all that was left was the exhaustion that was still there, as well as plaque in her meridians. The latter would take some time to cleanse, but it wasn’t all too important as of now.

Considering that she was still alive and well, it was safe to assume that both her Junior Brother and her were rescued by someone... or something. Considering the tales of the Nameless Forest, she couldn’t be certain whether it was a good or a bad thing. Here and there, she’d hear stories of some older cultivators who were forced into the Nameless Forest and came out with a treasure or two, but there were far, far, far, far more stories of people venturing there... and never coming back.

In fact, even those loose Immortals, the very beings who could uproot kingdoms with their fingers, dared not venture any deeper past the outskirts of the forest. What horrors behooved the life within... it was unknown.

And yet, whatever it was, it saved her, and healed the extensive network of wounds she had all at once.

She struggled to sit up, bones creaking and cracking after finally being moved once again, and though it was hard and exhausting, she managed to do it. She also caught sight of the opening through which the beams of light shone--it was an arched entrance to a structure that seemed to be an ordinary mud hut. A quick look through told her that there were no special arrays, formations, or enchantments anywhere about--it was, really, just an ordinary hut.

Glancing to the side, she saw that her Junior Brother was still fast asleep. A pained expression flashed across her face as she recalled him pushing her out of the harm’s way at the last second, and being hit by an array of blood that severely damaged his dantian. Initially, she didn’t think too much on it as she thought they would die and it wouldn’t matter, but now guilt assailed her.

If they somehow managed to leave the forest and return to the Sect, Junior Brother’s future accomplishments... would be diminutive, at best.

A sudden sound startled her and forced her to focus on the entrance--there, a pair of eyes peered through the opening and stared at her. They weren’t person’s, but rather of an animal--it was a rabbit... of sorts, at least. It had six, green eyes, milky-white fur, and a ball-shaped tail that was currently vibrating. Its ears, two, hung loose to the side rather than straight up, and it tilted its head as though in confusion.

She’d never seen a demonic beast quite like that--though she’d seen and even fought some mutated rabbit species after they’d formed a demonic core, none of them looked like that. Furthermore, what terrified her beyond all else, was that she was unable to see the rabbit with her Divine Sense. It was as though it was not there. To add onto the terror, every instinct as a cultivator told her that the rabbit could obliterate not just her, but her entire Sect should he so desire.

“Mr. Rabbit, what are you doing?” a voice--a human voice, gentle, soft, and low--sounded out, startling her even further. A shadow fell over the entrance and a long, somewhat thin arm stretched out from the crouching body. The hand gently caressed the rabbit’s head a few times before the latter shook like mad and scurried off, seemingly pleased.

It was also then that the person realized Lya was awake--it was a man, she recognized. He looked to be in his mid to late thirties, at most, sporting a rather ordinary appearance, if a bit disheveled. He wore a simple-looking robe bereft of any adornments or sigils and was barefoot. Strangest of all... the man seemed to be only at Qi Condensation Realm.

However... he was not alone. A pair of black and white panthers were by his feet, staring at her hollowly; then there was the owl perched on top of the man’s shoulder, red-eyed and cold, and even a multi-colored python that was coiled around the man’s left arm, its tongue hissing out toward her. She didn’t recognize any of the animals but, just like with the rabbit, she couldn’t see them.

... what the hell is this?! She wept inwardly, noticing from the corner of her eyes that her Junior Brother had woken up too.

“Are you guys hungry?” the man asked rather gently all of a sudden and smiled. “I was just about to make breakfast for these guys. You should join us.”