Chapter 414 Lingering Regrets
Trees of abnormal sizes and shapes were sprawled all over the place. Some were taller than buildings and others were as big as towers. Their leaves were thick and compact enough to cover the skies. Causing the atmosphere under these trees to look like it was dark all year long.
The animals that lived in this place were used to such an environment. Enough that the majority of them didn\'t rely on their sight when they were hunting.
They developed a keen sense of hearing and smell, and also divine sense.
The animals and demonic beasts that roamed this place were strong enough to make even ascendants have second thoughts about aimlessly wandering around in this forest.
Yet despite these dangers, a young man who seemed to have far too many bruises and wounds on him seemed to be rushing through the forest\'s thick foliage. Running for dear life.
He was wearing emerald-colored robes that had a symbol on them. it looked like a coiling snake.
The young man\'s body was riddled with cuts, and some of these wounds were bleeding black blood. He knew he didn\'t have a long time to live. Especially with what was hunting him.
"He went this way!" someone shouted far behind the young man.
And with that alerting shout, the young man winced and then increased his speed, further inflicting more harm on his already dying body.
A group of five cultivators was rushing behind this young man, they had blood on their swords and looked as if they were possessed when they were hunting this person.
The young man\'s heart felt as if it was about to come out of his throat, from the exhaustion, fear, and betrayal he felt coming from those five people that were chasing him.
Yet, he knew he had no power to confront them, and his only hope is to escape, for now, then come back later for vengeance, no matter how thin and small that hope is, he had to run away. There was no way he would allow them to obtain the secrets of his family. After all it was his own mistake for causing all of this, for revealing something of his, that any lover or friend would turncoat and stab them for it.
The young man ran, crossing vast distances through the forest but no matter how he ran, the forest seemed endless, and he knew that sooner or later he will meet his end, at the hands of the people following him, or in the presence of a demonic beast that could come out of the thickets.
Exhaustion had completely overtaken him, the young disciple decided that his only option was to hide for now. And hope that he wouldn\'t be discovered. Although these cultivators were powerful, they aren\'t stupid enough to use Divine Sense to scan the area around them. unless they wish to trigger the ire of the dwellers of this forest.
Once he found a suitable batch of bushes, he dove inside them after making sure that no blood or any of his clothes had spilled on the bushes.
Soon the group of cultivators chasing after him came. They all stopped in the vicinity of his hiding place.
There were five of them, two females and three males.
One of them, who seemed to exude a tyrannical presence yet at the same time had a handsome appearance to him seemed to be leading the group, he stopped and looked around, making sure to scan the area before they proceeded to move forward.
"The tracks stop here," another spoke, he seemed to be the second in command of this group and the one with the best tracking abilities.
He got down on the ground and placed his ears on the dirt.
He then stood up and shook his head, "The forest is too lively to detect him efficiently."
"He could be hiding somewhere here," one of the female disciples said, she had a scar on her face, it appeared to be recent from the way the wound seemed to have barely healed.
"That bastard, we must find him, he scarred me so! I\'ll never forgive him!" she said.
The other female disciple scuffed at her, mockingly, "That was your mistake, your job was to fake friendship, then become his lover, but how can you fail to even seduce such an ugly duck like Shen Mo?"
"What do you know! If it wasn\'t for brother Yul\'s request I would have never associated myself with him, that bastard, I swear once I find him, I\'ll cut him up limb from limb!" she said.
"No need to bicker," spoke the leader of the group, that wound can be healed, and all the grievances we have with Shen Mo will be resolved once we find him. For now, keep looking," he said.
And almost instantly, he threw a dagger toward one of the bushes, eliciting an animal squeal.
"Hmm, it\'s just a wild boar, there are no signs of Qi being used he could have used a method to hide his presence, we should split up," The man named Yul said.
"Spread out, and don\'t use your divine sense, it might sound like a good idea to catch him, but the moment this forest is introduced to Divine Sense, every beast and monster in hiding will come for us. Make sure to only use your eyes and senses. He is wounded and will die soon, so don\'t rush it, and don\'t get yourselves killed. We must obtain that manual!"
"Understood!" the group said and they all spread out in different directions.
After a while. A sigh from a stressed person came out from right next to where the dagger struck.
Shen Mo, the runaway child had dodged death by the skin of his teeth, as a matter of fact, it was nothing but a divine intervention that saved him. The unlucky boar had been wandering about next to the bush, and sensing Shen Mo hiding in the bush caused him curiosity, but the fact that the boar came to check the bush, was the reason for the boar\'s death, and Shen Mo\'s survival.
Yet, the situation hadn\'t changed. Shen Mo was wounded, mortally so, and he was poisoned enough that his cultivation base had been completely ruined. Nothing short of an elixir can save his life.
So, the child stood up from the bush and began moving towards a location where none of the disciples had moved toward.
And after a few hours of travel, exhaustion had finally gotten the best of him and he lay next to a tree.
He no longer had any power in his body to stop it from bleeding to death and was about to give up. But, he couldn\'t go to the next world while the secret of the manual was still on him. He had to destroy it first. It would be petty revenge on those who betrayed him, but at the same time, they\'ll never get the book.
Sighing as he pulled the book from his holding bag, Shen Mo snapped a finger, releasing a green emerald color flame.
A pure Heart Flame, a Veridian Heart Flame it was so pure that its flames which are normally green seemed to have a mixture of gold in them. An extraordinary flame.
Just as he was about to burn the book, a sword shot right across his arm, wounding him and forcefully stopping the fire.
Shen Mo grunted in pain as he was ambushed.
But he had no power to even stand up.
One of the people of the group that was hunting him came up.
It was not the leader no the tracker, but a snake-like fellow, with a vile nature. He was a thin man that seemed to have a bad habit of licking his lips. A cliché villain.
"How did you find me?" Shen Mo asked. Already given up on any hope of surviving this ordeal.
"Simple, the tracks had disappeared. At the spot you were in, those idiots thought you had used a treasure to hide your tracks, but none of them thought that if you had that treasure you could have used it earlier to escape. So I guessed that you had hidden there, and I just had to fake going in a different direction and waited you out." He said.
"Then why not strike me down the moment I revealed myself, and hunt me all the way here?" She Mo asked.
"Simple, it is because I wanted you to be fully exhausted and at your final breath, that way it would be easier to kill you," he said.
The vile-looking person came closer with a dagger in hand that he was playfully twirling around him. "If you had any energy left, I had feared that in your desperation you would exert it in releasing Divine Sense, which will cause demonic beasts to come and make this more annoying, but now, your cultivation base is fully ruined, your body too wounded and your soul damaged, you can do nothing but draw your final breaths. Even your Veridian Heart Flame has already been exhausted. And now, you die."
Just as that man finished his words.
A Divine Sense powerful enough to cause the trees to wane and shudder washed over this area of the forest.
This caused the two who were facing each other to look at one another with terrified expressions.
"You still had the energy to call upon such a Divine Sense!"
"If I had that much energy I\'d have killed you a long time ago!"
"No matter, just die!" the vile person said and he swung his sword at the child\'s neck.
Yet, before the sword could even touch the child, a person\'s fingers seemed to firmly grasp the tip of the sword.
This man was young, in his early thirties, he looked extremely handsome and had pale green skin.
He wore a set of purple robes with golden hems. The man seemed to be a person not of this place. He didn\'t wear the Sect\'s clothing and seemed to be a person of a strong background. Especially since his cultivation base was too steep to be denounced.
The vile-looking person weighed his options so fast that it was absurd to even believe a person could make a discussion in such a short time. He immediately let go of his sword turned and used blood escape sacrificing a great deal of his vital blood Qi to run away as fast as possible.
"Huh? Why are you running? I just wanted to ask for directions?" the newcomer said.
He then grabbed the sword in his hands scanned it, then threw it away like it was trash.
Then the strange man looked at the boy who seemed to be losing the battle against the grim reaper.
"Damn, they did a number on you, they also seemed to be wearing the same clothes as yourself. Sect members? Rivalry? Or perhaps you own something they wanted?" the man said.
The strange man\'s eyes turned to the book right next to the disciple who seemed to be wanting to say something but couldn\'t.
He grabbed the book, and that almost caused a reaction from the boy, but he was too weak to speak.
"Huh, Corpse Sect? you\'re a member of the corpse sect?"
The kid, wanted to speak but couldn\'t feel pitiful.
"I can\'t save you," the strange man said, "Your body is too wounded, the damage is too great, and even medicine would be a waste on you. Your cultivation base is shattered and your soul is too damaged to extract it into a new body. You will die here," the strange man said.
The boy fully knew that, and there was nothing he could do to change that fact.
"But you seem to be too unwilling to go, perhaps you have some resentment or unsolved request. I\'ll hear you out, and if I\'m able to I\'ll help you out, but I won\'t go out of my way if it\'s too bothersome." The newcomer said.
Then he stabbed his fingers into various places around the kid\'s body.
It was for only a moment but the pain and exhaustion were fully dissipated.
"You have five minutes, after that, you will die, if you have any request for me," the strange man said.
"Run!" the boy said.
"Why?"
"Divine Sense, you were the one who used it, it called upon all the beasts and hidden calamities in this forest, they\'ll be hunting you! Run!"
"I\'m touched, I thought that you\'d ask me to resolve some of your resentment but you actually care about old me. Don\'t worry about the beasts and tell me what I can do to help you," I said.
"You seem too adamant on wanting to fulfill my request, if I didn\'t know any better I\'d say you want something from me," the kid said.
"I want your body," the newcomer said.
"I don\'t swing that way, and even if I did, I\'ll probably be dead in a minute, also it\'s pretty sacrilegious to do something like that to a dead body!"
The newcomer lightly smacked the boy\'s head, "You idiot, I meant your literal body, I read through your corpse sect book, I need a persona since I\'m not from this planet, I need a way to mix myself into the sect, but perhaps your attachment to the sect is too great to allow me, a foreigner to infiltrate your sect," the newcomer said.
"I don\'t really think that way, the poison sect isn\'t a traditional sect, it only cares for strength and achievements. Even a toad can rule the sect if they\'re powerful enough, but I couldn\'t do that, not like this, it\'s frustrating, to be betrayed like this! I wish if I had another opportunity t to at least have my revenge!" he said.
The newcomer scratched his chin and said, "Revenge... I can do that," the newcomer said. "But it will cost you," he added.
"With my impending death, do you think I care? I don\'t wish to go while having lingering regrets," he said.
"Then, your revenge, I\'ll fulfill it for you, and you\'ll see it with your own eyes, but after that, you will disappear." The newcomer said.
"I agree, even if I have to be denied reincarnation, for this frustration of mine, I want to see them suffer!" he said.
"Good, then tell me young one, what is your name?"
"Shen... Shen Mo!" he said.
"Oh, that\'s pretty interesting, my name is quite similar, mine is Shen Bao! Now let\'s go have your revenge shall we!"