The Whispering Woods were thick with a prehistoric silence that felt heavy against the skin. Far from the polished jade and political posturing of the Myriad School, the air here tasted of damp loam and ancient, untamed Qi.
Vincy sat on a moss-covered root, his chest heaving as he finally let the adrenaline ebb. Across from him, Seraphina remained standing, her silver eyes scanning the canopy with the stillness of a hunting cat. She was different now—the "Cold Truth" she had pulled from the Altar had smoothed away the last of her teenage softness, leaving something crystalline and formidable in its place.
"We survived," Vincy breathed, still somewhat surprised by the fact.
"Survived? We thrived, you simpleton," Piet's voice crackled with rediscovered arrogance. "Check the haul. I didn't let those two blockheads keep their rings for sentimental reasons."
Vincy pulled the storage rings of Cyrus and Baron from his pocket, laying them out on a flat stone. Piet's eyes—through Vincy's—narrowed as he categorized the loot.
The Blood-Ignition Pills (Grade 3 - Common): Found in Cyrus's ring. "A desperate man's candy," Piet sneered. These pills forcibly burn the user's life essence to temporarily triple their Qi output. The cost, however, is permanent damage to the meridians—the very reason Cyrus was falling apart when they fought him.
Spirit-Condensing Dew (Grade 2 - Rare): Small vials of liquid Qi used to rapidly replenish energy during a breakthrough.
The Star-Core Fragment: A jagged piece of ore that Piet had insisted on. It pulsed with a rhythmic, heavy gravity.
The Moon-Scented Peonies: Rare herbs that, if refined correctly, could stabilize a chaotic Foundation Establishment.
"The Myriad School only classifies pills by their potency," Seraphina remarked, watching Vincy sort the items. "But these... the way the light reflects off the Blood-Ignition pills... they are of 'High Purity.' The Great River Clan spent a fortune equipping those brothers."
While the duo calculated their gains, the rest of the kingdom was descending into a state of frantic, organized chaos.
At the Jade Plaza, Lord Vane stood over the groaning pile of disciples, his face a mask of purple fury. He held a shattered Void Token in his hand. "They didn't just escape," he whispered. "They rewrote the Law of the Gate. No student—no human in this era—should have that knowledge."
Messengers were already sprinting toward the Capital. The Merchant Conglomerate had instantly doubled the bounty on Vincy's head, but with a new rider: Dead or Alive. If they couldn't own the "Sparrow," they would ensure no one else could study his feathers.
The "storm" was no longer just an undercurrent; it was a full-scale manhunt stretching across the borders of three nations.
"Quiet," Piet's voice suddenly dropped to a razor-thin whisper. "Vincy, don't move your eyes. Just feel the vibration in the ground."
The moss beneath Vincy's boots shivered. From the dense foliage emerged a Stag-Horned Panther, a Grade-4 beast that moved with a terrifying, liquid lack of sound. Its fur was the color of a bruise, and its antlers were coated in a toxic, glowing resin.
It didn't roar. It simply crouched, its golden eyes locked on the indigo-tinted Qi radiating from Seraphina. To a beast of the wilderness, they weren't just humans; they were two massive, walking batteries of high-density energy.
"It's a Grade-4," Seraphina whispered, her hand moving toward her rapier. "It's faster than any human I've fought. My new cultivation is still settling... I can't guarantee a clean kill."
"Let it come," Piet snickered, his violet energy beginning to coil around Vincy's legs. "We have a mountain of new toys to test, and I've been dying to see how that new 'truth' of yours handles a real fight. Vincy, get ready to stumble... but this time, make it look like a landslide."
The panther coiled its muscles, the air around it beginning to hum with predatory intent.
"I really hate the woods, Piet," Vincy muttered, bracing himself.