Hong Yi hopped down from Hei Ya's head as Huang Ying and Song Yi stood up, quickly hopping over to Huang Ying and latching onto his sleeve before he could stand up. She let out several loud chirps after catching his attention, hopping around while flapping her one unbroken wing. Huang Ying could guess at what she wanted from how she beckoned with her beak, placing her in his palm and lifting her up to his shoulder.

She hopped down from his palm and secured her footing on his shoulder while letting out a few squawks. Huang Ying had no clue why Hong Yi suddenly wanted to stop riding on Hei Ya's head, but he didn't bother asking about it as it seemed like a rather minor thing. Huang Ying finished standing up after Hong Yi secured her footing, his gaze turning towards the entrance of the cave that they were sitting in.

Hong Yi took this chance as his gaze turned away to turn her own gaze onto Song Yi, snuggling a bit closer to Huang Ying's neck while mimicking a scoffing motion. Song Yi almost burst out laughing upon seeing what could only be described as a jealous bird, even Huang Ying felt the corners of his mouth twitch as he saw the scene through his perception. He swiftly pretended not to have seen anything, placing his hand on top of Hei Ya's head and ruffling his black fur.

"Let's go, it would suck if it started raining and that scaredy-cat decided to go hiding from the water."

Hei Ya lowered his head in understanding, Song Yi doing her best to stifle her laughter as they left the cave. She moved closer to Huang Ying as they walked, moving her fingers closer to Hong Yi and prodding her to tease her, doing her best to annoy the jealous little sparrow. Hong Yi tried to snap at Song Yi's fingers multiple times, but Song Yi always moved her hand away just as Hong Yi prepared to snap at her, leaving the little bird with a stomach filled with indignation.

The group of four left the cave and carefully made their way down the dome-shaped mountain where they had spent the night, taking great care that the ground didn't give out underneath them. The brown earth that the mountain was made up of seemed rather brittle, but the group still managed to make their way down the side of the mountain without any incidents. It was a bit harder for Hei Ya as he had to move on all four, but he too made it safely to the ground with a bit of help from Huang Ying's law of earth.

The trees in the area around the mountain were a bit thicker and sturdier than the ones Huang Ying had seen earlier, there were even some places where their roots were so thick that they caused the earth around them to bulge. Taking a quick breath and properly inspecting his surroundings for the first time, Huang Ying noticed that the Qi hanging in the air was somewhat denser here now that they had gotten deeper into the forest.

It was probably due to this that the trees had gotten thicker, it also meant that the Demonic beasts living here would be even stronger. Stronger Demonic beasts would make for even tougher opponents, the corners of Huang Ying's mouth lifting up slightly as he started to imagine just what sort of great battles he could have here.

The group carefully started to make their way through the forest, Song Yi taking the lead and surveying their surroundings with a sharp look in her dual-colored eyes. The journey continued unhindered for almost two hours before Song Yi stopped and furrowed her brows slightly, quietly using her left hand to indicate that they should change direction.

Huang Ying didn't discover anything with his perception but still chose to follow Song Yi, the group starting to move to the left and then forward in an arched manner. After walking for a few hundred meters, the fur on Hei Ya's back started standing up, his lips rising up and revealing his sharp teeth as he let out a soft snarl in vigilance.

Song Yi placed a finger in front of her lips, gesturing for Hei Ya to remain silent as they kept moving. After moving for another few hundred meters, Huang Ying finally discovered what had alarmed Song Yi and Hei Ya. Hundreds of thin strands of silk entered his perception, stretching from tree to tree at the very edge of his perception, continuing a bit deeper into the forest. Looking at the direction where the silk vanished, they would have walked straight into its center if they followed their previous path.

Huang Ying had no idea what was hiding within the sea of silk, but each strand released a tremendously sharp energy, it was as if each of them was a dangerous blade. Huang Ying had no doubt that this was far from normal silk, and the beast that created them was certainly a highly dangerous monster.

If he was alone he might have tried checking out what sort of monster it was to see if he could beat it in a battle, but since he was with Song Yi right now he could only throw those thoughts to the back of his mind. The group continued to move in their silent arched manner for almost 15 minutes before Song Yi let out a sigh and relaxed her shoulders somewhat, Huang Ying taking the chance to give a quick comment.

"And here I thought I was already thinking highly of your eyes, but it seems like they're even better than I previously thought. Is that how you discovered me earlier?"

Song Yi had clearly made them take that detour due to the strands of silk, maybe even due to the beast hiding within them. But the point was that she had discovered these things quite a bit before even Hei Ya's sensitive nose, her gaze seemed to have pierced directly through the trees without hindrance.

If her vision was actually that good, then it made sense for her to have discovered him despite the distance between them when he was dealing with the group of 15 people that had killed Langye. But Song Yi shook her head, denying Huang Ying's guess.

"No, my vision isn't able to see through such a vast stretch of trees, at least not yet. The reason I could spot you despite the distance wasn't because I was seeing you, it was because I was seeing the lines of karma connecting me and you. But don't bother shitting your almost non-existent pants, it's not as great as it sounds, it's limited to hell and back. I need to interact with people first, the more I interact with them the thicker the line gets and the distance from which I can see it is also increased. The target can't be too much stronger than me, I won't be able to see anything if they are, and there also can't be any beings much stronger than me between me and the target, otherwise, the energy they radiate will interfere with my vision. The path to you was mostly clear, that's the only reason I could discover you from that distance."

Song Yi spoke somewhat derisively about it, but that didn't stop Huang Ying from being amazed by it. If something like that wasn't considered all that good by Song Yi, then Huang Ying didn't want to find out just what sort of abilities she considered excellent, they had to be utterly terrifying.

She also said that it was only currently that her vision wasn't strong enough to gaze through such a large stretch of trees, meaning that her vision could become even stronger. Huang Ying wanted to call it a ridiculous concept, but when his thoughts drifted to his own bloodline and its abilities he was forced to clamp his mouth shut, otherwise, he'd end up as the pot calling the kettle black.

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The group continued traveling, Song Yi leading the way while surveying their surroundings and making sure they didn't enter any dangerous areas. But after walking for another hour, it was Huang Ying's time to stop the group, his gaze turning towards the right as his nose twitched slightly.

"Can you take a look in that direction? Any signs of battle?"

Song Yi might have superior vision, but Huang Ying had the advantage when it came to the nasal department, his sense of scent was much stronger than her's. As the wind just blew over them, the scent of blood had tickled Huang Ying's nose and drawn his attention. Song Yi followed Huang Ying's eyes and narrowed her own somewhat as she peered into the distance, giving a short nod of her head after a quick inspection.

"There aren't any large signs of battle, but there is a bit of blood spilled around over there, I'm also seeing a human hand so it should be humans that have battled. I can't detect the karma lines of anyone that's dead, so we should check it out to make sure that the drunkard didn't get himself killed here."

Song Yi couldn't help but glance at Huang Ying once she finished talking, her gaze moving between him and Hei Ya for a few moments as she found herself unable to resist commenting.

"For your nose to be this good, you aren't actually related to this wolfy, are you? Did your papa maybe have an illicit relationship?"

Huang Ying rolled his eyes at Song Yi and gave the back of her head a quick slap, not even bothering to come up with a snappy response as he headed towards the distant blood. Hong Yi revealed a gloating expression as she remained on Huang Ying's shoulder, Song Yi rolling her eyes at the jealous sparrow before she moved to catch up to Huang Ying.

The group quickly reached the scene of the battle, inspecting the blood that stained the surrounding trees as well as looking at the severed hand. The hand didn't resemble Chen Hong's, the skin was far darker than his, so at least it wasn't him that was so unfortunate as to lose his hand here. The two started inspecting the blood, but Hei Ya simply gave the blood a quick sniff and then started sniffing the air. He turned his body slightly so that he was looking deeper into the forest, letting out a barking sound to notify Huang Ying.

Huang Ying and Song Yi turned to Hei Ya and looked down the direction that he was pointing at with his nose. There were a few bloodstains heading deeper into the forest, moving out of the range of Huang Ying's perception so that he couldn't see what lied at the end. Song Yi was different however, clicking her tongue in disgust.

"Geh, another one of those. And these people wonder why we call them pathetic."

Huang Ying couldn't see what laid at the end of the bloodstains, but he was already able to form a guess in his mind. He started following the bloodstains and made his way through the forests, arriving in a small natural clearing after walking for a few hundred meters. And just like he expected, a student from his academy was nailed to one of the trees here, her right hand missing while parts of her leg had been gnawed away by Demonic beasts.

The uniform of the youth carried a pin in the shape of a silver cloud, showing that she was a member of the Silver Cloud faction. Her body was covered in wounds both large and small, the largest being a gash on her chest that was so deep that Huang Ying could see her lungs expand and shrink as she breathed. That's right, despite her wounds and all the blood dripping down her body, the youth was still alive. She noticed Huang Ying and Song Yi the moment they entered the clearing, a humorless chuckle escaping her.

"Hah, ambushed by foreign people and wounded, dragged here by the Burning Cloud cunts after escaping, gnawed at by Demonic beasts, and yet it's you that I'll end up dying to. Man, that's such a dry joke that I can't even laugh at it. But alright, come, Huang Ying, we are enemies so do what you must."

A sneer hung on the girl's lips as she looked at Huang Ying, she was among the group of people that had first waited in front of Huang Ying's cabin when he left the medicinal wing. She was also one of the people that had taken part in bribing some of the teachers before this expedition, she had been on board with killing Huang Ying ever since he first dismissed all of them during their first meeting. Huang Ying tilted his head slightly as he looked at the girl, his gaze sweeping over her wounds.

"I gotta say, I expected you to be a bit more cowardly and at least beg for your life. You've got quite a bit more guts than you did during our first meeting, you barely even dared to look at me towards the end."

Of course, even if Huang Ying expected the girl to beg for her life, he wouldn't have spared her even if she did. After all, she was part of the people that had bribed and convinced four of the academy's teachers to help the Silver Cloud faction in killing him, her death was set in stone. But even so, her bravado surprised him quite a bit, her eyes didn't show the least sign of fear. The girl continued to sneer at Huang Ying, but her eyes revealed a glimmer of pride as she did her best to raise her head despite the pain it brought.

"Humph, how could a lowly peasant like you understand? I come from the exalted Nongja family, we've been military nobles for several thousands of years. If we win we continue to rule and fight, but if we lose we must at least accept death gracefully and with pride, that is what it means to be a military noble. I showed cowardice to win but still lost in the end, so now it is my turn to accept my death with the grace to match my name, it is a duty I have been ready for since I was born. Now finish it, and don't you dare show hesitation, I would not show any if our situations were reversed."

The girl puffed out her chest, causing the gash on it to bleed even more profusely. Showing cowardice and scheming while alive was fine, but death was the one thing they had to meet with pride and determination, those were the rules of nobles who had gained their fame thanks to their military exploits. Huang Ying's eyes gained a tinge of seriousness as he nodded his head at the girl, his right hand moving to one of the sections of his spear.

"Alright."

He drew one part of his spear and threw it with a swift motion, the sharp tip piercing into the chest of the girl and piercing right through her heart. The girl vomited forth a fountain of blood and then her body lost all strength and slumped forward, only held up by the spear and nails that kept her nailed to the tree.

Huang Ying walked up to the tree with a calm expression, pulling out the spear and the nails that were pierced into the girl's body. He caught her as she started to fall, placing her down on the ground and using his law of earth to dig a grave. Seeing his actions, it was Song Yi's turn to tilt her head in confusion while speaking.

"You're going to bother burying her? I'm pretty sure she was one of your enemies, maybe even a pretty dangerous one if she started using the resources of her family."

It wasn't uncommon for people to just leave the corpses of their enemies sprawled around, it could even be considered the norm. Burying them was more often just considered a waste of time. Huang Ying didn't deny Song Yi's words, nodding his head as he finished up the grave.

"Yup, she was indeed my enemy. And now she's dead, so how much of a danger can she be now? I don't respect or like her, but the determination and pride she showed in facing her death with clear courage are worthy of respect. And that respect means that she is at least worthy of being buried, even if she was once my enemy."

Huang Ying was exceedingly simple and straight forward in how he did things like this, to the point where others couldn't help but be completely caught off guard at times. The people of the world were too used to scheming tricksters, people with obscure goals that they were willing to do anything to achieve, and people hiding their true intentions, a terribly straight forward person like Huang Ying had not been around for many years.

The awakening of Huang Ying's bloodline had brought forth the dawn of the black sun and caused a multitude of unknown and strange bloodlines to appear on the planet, as if drawn together by the new birth of the law of devouring. But it was Huang Ying's personality that would be the greatest factor in how the world would change down the line. The moment his body was reformed and his determination set, the universe itself had set foot onto a path so blurry and dark that none could see the final end.