Waiting for the rest of his team to leave, Shuren finally slouched. He coughed a few times before having a drawn out wheeze and began going back to where he came from.
The orange hues of the morn glistened across the horizon, bringing light to the Dezuan Forest. Yet that wouldn't stop the darkness lurking from within.
Shuren smashed his left fist into the tree beside him. "Weak! I'm still too weak! To think I just walked into a trap while our enemies watched us play around like a bunch of kids! All of us should be dead right now if there was such a powerful cultivator, but they did nothing!"
Shuren spat out a glob of blood to the side.
"Think, Shuren! If they let us live, then that must mean our enemy is occupied with something far more important... Is it that devilish creature? Or was it really just to confirm the double spy's origin was from us? Since they took away the corpses, and there's a Nekron Path demonic cultivator amongst them, then the value of a corpse is paramount to them."
Shuren trudged forth, as he tried to figure out the situation. If he wanted to lead as a ruler, he needed to have more intellect. More wisdom.
And a stronger instinct.
"Half a day. I'll spend that much time looking. At the very least, I should come back with your corpse. But there's no way you were going to die like this, right?" Shuren closed his eyes and took a deep breath, cycling his Qi to increase the effects of his pain killer.
First, he had to go back to where he fought that devilish being.
Though Shuren jogged back to his destination, his balance was stilted from the injuries. Just moving caused the pain in his abdomen to spike.
There was only so much a pain killer could do.
Once, there was a time when someone had made pain killers capable of removing all pain whatsoever. It caused a trend in the past, where those in battle would take these painkillers to fight like battle crazed maniacs with no concept of pain whatsoever.
They would eventually lose their sense of pain. Not only that, their senses of balance, detecting temperature, the sense of touch, and even sensing the inner body.
That was when the world found out that those without pain sensors ended up going mad, into a state even worse than Qi Deviation.
They were called Hollowed Spectres.
Pain was a vital sense for all cultivators. Lessen it if you must, but never remove it all together.
The man who made such a thing was publicly executed by The Great Nine, where not even his remains were left.
Shuren winced as he made his way back to the cliffside where he fought the devil. The desire to collapse continued to surge in his body, but he knew that if he faltered even once to relax, he would lose all momentum.
Though there was a steep cliff, the land had a natural path to head down if one continued to walk east alongside the cliff.
"He fell right down there, closer to the heart of the Dezuan Forest. If he's smart, he would've tried to make his way back towards this cliff. He must've seen the blue flare at least, but I'll have to try just in case he fell unconscious." Shuren traversed his way down, trying to look for any hints.
When there was only a dozen metres left till the bottom, Shuren jumped.
He landed without even flinching, though the pain in the core of his body flared up. But he had to save as much time as possible.
And when he saw the trail of blood leading inward into the forest, Shuren's eyes lit up. "Good! That brat left an easy trail for me to follow!" Soon, that joy changed. "Why is he heading even further away from our camp?"
Shuren followed the dried blood that stained the earth and fallen leaves. With his enhanced sight, it was easy to tell if there was even a drop of blood on these from a distance.
That was when he noticed it.
The large white flower that loomed in the distance.
A petal fell down.
Rather, it flew down towards Shuren's direction, before collapsing into a bunch of trees.
"Last I read, the Opalime Flower has been a part of the Dezuan Forest for hundreds of years. But, it didn't say that it would shed petals. This forest… It's changing too much. All at the same time as well." Shuren picked up the pace.
He didn't want to waste any more thoughts theorising on why it happened.
That's when he soon realised.
The thinning trail of blood was leading directly to where that giant petal of the Opaline Flower fell!
Shuren halted for the first time.
"Is this a trap? What do I do now? I've already spent a few hours trailing this path…"
He looked around his environment. There were no hills close by to travel on. But, larger trees stood towards the western side of the path.
Perhaps it would be best to use those as a vantage and traversal point.
That way, Shuren could observe from up high what was going on up ahead.
He ran up the tree, gliding and leaping branch to branch until he found a yellow pond.
With the giant petal melding right with it, until it became a lucent-jade colour.
Soon, the pond turned into a crystal, rising until it became a large and silver quartz in the middle of the forest.
"What on earth…" Shuren could only say, watching the situation fold out. Like the forest itself had predetermined this action from long ago. Waiting for the Opaline Flower's petal to finally drop.
Shuren thought he could see a thin and crimson string stretch from the quartz to the sky all the way above, almost reaching beyond the heavens.
But when he blinked, it was no more to be seen.
Only a small hole found at the bottom of the quartz near the riverbank, where a man walked out.
He stretched his body as if he had just gone to sleep, yawning at his tiredness. Not a single mark of injury was seen on his body, as perfectly safe as he could be. Not a single cut or bruise, or even a sign of exhaustion on his face.
"As I thought, can't go wrong with following the System. To think I managed to find the Legacy after all that." Tez muttered to himself, unknowing that Shuren had been watching from a nearby tree, listening to every word.
Shuren's eyes lost their light from watching the situation. His relief at finding Tez had turned into conceit.
I expected too much. That was my fault.
He didn't even have the energy to frown. That word again… System. He keeps mentioning it…
Shuren watched as Tez pulled out a pill from seemingly nothing, biting down on it. The idiot even sat down to relax in the open, unaware of the rustling in the trees.
A red-furred monkey leapt from one of the trees surrounding Shuren, aiming to strike at Tez.
Tez scrambled around like a fool, getting up and barely getting his sword out of his scabbard. But the monkey beast held its sharp claws right above his head. At that angle, there was no defending that attack in time.
A staff slammed right into the neck of the monkey, causing it to fall unconscious on impact, with the Ruyi Staff rolling beside it.
With both hands on his sword, Tez waved his head around to see the origins of that staff. But he watched Shuren land on the ground, walking towards him.
Tez relaxed, slouching as he put his sword back once more. "Liu Shuren! You're okay! I was a bit worried, but it's good that you found me." He rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his messy, dark blue hair with embarrassment. "I had to admit, I thought I was a bit lost."
Shuren continued to walk, but his expression was darkened as he looked down. His right hand trembled, but he ignored it.
Tez continued to speak. "Did you guys manage to deal with the situation?"
There was no reply. Only footsteps in the prairie amongst the riverbank, or now a quartzbank, as Shuren continued to walk.
Expressionless.
Even when Tez noticed Shuren's stoic face, he chalked it up to his disposition as a young master, cold and perpetually bored.
And in front of the brilliant quartz that took over the ancient pond, with the wilting Opaline Flower in the distance, stood both Shuren and Tez.
The trees dozens of metres high swayed in the wind, with sea green leaves falling around the pond.
Tez had an awkward chuckle. "You know, I ac-"
A bloodied, battered, and bruised fist met his face. With all the force Shuren could muster.
Like a heavy staff had just slammed into Tez's face.
It was just a single punch, without even any wind up. Shuren didn't even pull his arm back to strike. A casual cross jab.
Yet with just that, Tez fell back, barely breaking his fall with his hands. He touched his face, realising his nose had started bleeding.
He lost his balance and even heard ringing in his ears with his vision blurring. The throbbing sensation was all that filled his head.
Shuren carefully folded his robes and placed them on the side, facing Tez with just a shirt on.
"I refuse to have the blood of a coward on my robes."
Shuren brought his right arm out, still in a miserable state from his battle with the devil. Just moving it felt like dragging it through broken, molten glass.
"Stand up. Otherwise, I won't be able to stop myself."
He raised his chin, glaring with the cold eyes of a young master, and a leader. Disgust and disappointment were all that swarmed in his gaze.
"From killing you. Right here. Right now."