Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 458: Retreat.

Outside the borders of Phoenix City, the trio could be seen following right behind Ozul.

The forest already encircled the city, but he was taking them farther into it, toward a place he could still remember.

"Is it far?" Raven asked, wondering if she should have packed clothes. They had been sprinting for half an hour already.

"Not much..." replied Ozul without turning around.

...

Half a day passed.

Ozul stood staring into the mess of forest veins coiled together like hundreds of snakes mating.

Behind him, the trio huffed and panted nonstop. They had asked him more than a few times to stop and rest, but he insisted it wasn’t far ahead until it was almost getting dark.

"What is that?" Zier pondered out aloud, as his eyes caught the sight before them.

They were still in a forest, surrounded by tall trees, but it was as if another level of forest stood before them.

"It’s like a wall," Zier continued, staring at those tree roots creating a mesh of a barrier.

Raven couldn’t help but be intrigued as well. With Darkness as her favorite element, she was more tuned to everything related to it. And she could feel something dark on the other side.

"More like a warning," she replied to him.

Ozul neither denied nor confirmed her statement as he slashed open an entrance, shredding the roots apart.

The three of them followed him on the other side.

"There’s almost no light at all..." Zier whispered in annoyance.

Even then, most of the light was coming from behind them, the big entrance that Ozul had created after cutting apart the roots.

But to their dismay and intrigue, as if alive, the roots began to rearrange themselves and closed the entrance again!

"It is alive..." Blaze whispered, with a burning flame in his eyes. It had been a while since he faced a real challenge.

"Mhm..." Ozul hummed in agreement.

He could also feel the emotions of this forest, so there was no doubt it was alive.

There was a burning sense of starvation and vain killing intent focused on them the moment they stepped into it.

The reason he knew about this place was because while working with Rai, the location where they dropped most of the bodies was this place.

According to him, ’This forest wouldn’t leave a trace of these corpses.’

People also tended to avoid this area since it was fraught with starving wild beasts.

Cultivators at the level of Transcendent had such a strong signature of their Spiritual Essence, that unless they were reduced to complete ashes, one could still ’smell’ that residue.

This forest, according to Rai, instinctively took care of that problem.

No dead body thrown in here could be found. Hence, it was the ideal place for Rai and his business of dead bodies.

Ozul was here with the trio because it was also a good place to hone their fighting skills.

Entering the forest was akin to entering the mouth of a beast; there was nothing better than a lingering sense of danger while training.

He could already feel the excitement bursting out of Blaze’s heart. He too loved spilling mindless blood. It would be his retreat from the perpetual cycle of thoughtless cultivation.

At that time, a palm-sized snake slithered between the roots and reached Zier’s feet.

Taking advantage of his distraction, the snake lept swiftly and bit his leg.

"Husss!" Zier sucked in a cold breath, feeling the stinging pain.

Before he could take care of it, Blaze moved quickly, and in a split second, he was seen ripping apart that snake.

Even Ozul was so distracted by the presence of this forest, that he overlooked that small thing crawling up to Zier.

Zier embarrassedly rubbed the place where it had stung. He couldn’t help but murmur to himself, "That is a strong poison for such a weak snake..."

He could feel his blood neutralizing the poison for him, so he didn’t need to worry about that.

"Will you be fine?" asked Raven, she hadn’t packed any medicinal herbs either.

"That’s not nearly enough to have me worried," he laughed while rubbing the back of his head.

Raven and Blaze made a mental note to look out for small creatures. Zier had a strange constitution for healing, but they didn’t.

"Don’t expect me to look out for you here. I am not nearly motivated enough."

With Ozul’s bland warning, they continued venturing deeper into the forest.

. . .

Back in the estate, Ember was leisurely cultivating after having instructed Rai to throw out most of the proposals of businesses.

The news of war changed many of her plans, and so most of the businesses were bound to go obsolete once it started.

Glancing at Rai who was frustrated having to go through so many documents, she thought ’I will tell him later.’ She had to get some work out of him before telling him about the war.

’If I can break through to the next realm, I will help him become a Sage before the war starts.’

Although a peak Transcendent was strong enough to survive on its own, she didn’t know how ugly it would really get. Her focus, thus centered on increasing personal strength.

’He only needs a nudge in the right direction,’ she pondered, having noticed his overflowing Spiritual traces.

Rai was so unserious about cultivation that even she didn’t know how he managed to achieve the status of a peak Transcendent.

Ember wanted to do something about Ozul as well, but since his way of ’cultivation’ was so unknown to her, she could only pray.

"The preparations are complete..." she released the final foul breath held in her stomach and stood up.

Rai turned his face, confused, he asked, "What preparations?"

Ember couldn’t help but grin, "It is time I regain my wings."

He quickly understood the implications and beamed as well, "If they come after you, I won’t be able to stop them."

"Who asked you to?" Ember shot back. What she was about to go through could be considered almost a rebirth.

Like a caterpillar evolving into a butterfly.

During the period of hibernation, she would be so vulnerable that even an Origin cultivator could kill her.

And if that wasn’t unlucky enough, the birth of someone greater than a Sage would also send waves across the whole Realm!

In such a situation, many would try to hinder her breakthrough.

"The Phoenix?" Rai asked. He knew she wouldn’t take help from the Wilderness regardless of their desperate willingness.

Ember showed him a toothy grin, "She owes me more than enough." She would make sure to milk her debt until the very end.

Under her protection, not even the leader of the Immortal Sect would dare make a move against her.

And so, she went to the City Lord’s Hall to enter the Celestial Phoenix’s realm. She made sure to instruct Rai on matters regarding Ozul and the trio as well.

Though Rai was annoyed by everything he had to take care of, he didn’t complain this time because of the excitement running through his head.

’After she returns, I will be allowed to kill more~’

In a few days, the people of Abezan would be thrown into a bout of confusion when waves of Spiritual Essence would assault every corner of the Realm.

. . .

Back in the forest, Ozul was sitting atop a tree bark, watching the trio tearing apart yet another herd of Beasts.

Surrounding them were corpses of not only snakes, canines, and mutated birds, but even chimeras of all kinds.

The scent of their blood attracted hordes of different Beasts. Instead of sneaking a meal for themselves, they were at once seduced by their bloodthirst and gave in to their primal instincts and began attacking them.

Raven activated her Scarlet Eyes and using her newly learned techniques, manipulated the shadows to hide herself in plain sight. To a common eye, she was there but not there at the same time.

All her techniques except the Scarlet Eyes were Darkness related. Looking at her, Ozul could guess why people mistook Purity as a Darkness technique,

Zier had also learned Poison arts, though Ember had found him something so precious that he had almost squealed in delight.

Because of that, at this time, he was using blood to fight!

Not only could he control his own blood, but even used the blood of corpses to do his bidding like Ozul used Purity. The corpses around them were dried husks of what they used to be since he had sucked out all their blood.

Blaze hadn’t learned any fancy Spiritual Arts, yet his power had increased several fold. He was ripping apart Beasts at the peak Nascent Soul realm with his bare hands!

The sight would have long been blocked by a blanket of blood if not for Zier using the spilled blood for his own technique.

Such a gruesome sight would have anyone in the realm label those three a part of an evil cult. Raven and Zier’s techniques were of such nature, while Blaze’s fighting style was convincing enough.

Ozul took in this sight with a calm gaze.

The thick scent of blood was hard on his senses, but he had already gotten used to it.

They had yet to go deeper, so there were scarcely any Origin Beasts. For that reason, he didn’t need to help them either.

While the trio was having fun, he was thinking.

In his mind were only thoughts and ideas on how he could improve his strength.

He watched different kinds of beasts killing, eating, being killed, crawling for an opportunity, hiding.

While thinking of ideas, he also tried to imitate the abilities of any Beast or bug he came across.

’...Will I really have to eat living things?’