Astonished by this abrupt development, Shade of Autumn and the present Medical Expert rushed to Sun's side.
"What happened? Was he inflicted with something?"
"I don't know! When we checked over him, there was nothing wrong with his body..."
"Damnit, just what is happening!"
Clutching his head, a myriad sensations assaulted Sun's mind.
"...!"
Sun's teeth could be heard grinding, threatening to shatter under the intense pressure of his gritting.
"...!"
"Lord!"
"Don't worry!"
Standing behind Sun, the Settlement Lord raised his hands.
Air rippled as something similar to a bubble formed around Sun's head.
As the bubble's visage waned, the world seemed to go quiet.
The relentless sounds and feelings of the world around him seemed to drown, soften, and eventually disappear altogether.
"...!"
Dropping his hands to the floor and supporting his shaking body, Sun manages to catch his breath in deep heaves.
"..."
"Sun!"
"There, all should be well."
Sun was still trying to shake off the residual pain, but he turned his gaze towards the others in the room.
"Seniors... Lord?"
"Rest easy, Sun..."
There was a complicated look on the Lord's face.
"I've placed a Dao Art on your head, Cultivator's Respite, it is used during closed cultivation through a Dao Art Medium."
"It will sustain itself for twelve hours. For now, we need to ask you a few questions."
...
Sitting on the white bed that he fell out of, Sun still holds his head, massaging the lingering pain as the Settlement Lord and Shade of Autumn stand before him.
The Medical Expert had left to give them privacy.
"We will ask you questions now, but Seniors Call of Winter and Warrior of Spring will likely ask you their own questions, personally, as well."
"I... I understand."
"Tell us, what happened out there? When we sent you into the horde of beasts to verify the presence of a Demonic Cultivator, you disappeared from our sight and senses. Even through Immersion, we couldn't find you."
"..."
Thinking back, he had pushed the initial search range of his Seniors, but they must've followed him at least.
Did they not see his encounter with the Demonic Cultivator?
Inhaling and exhaling turbid breath, Sun collected his words before making his report.
"It was somewhere beyond one thousand meters, that is where I encountered a Demonic Cultivator. I thought to return to notify you, Seniors, if possible, but I was discovered... no... I was anticipated and ambushed upon my arrival."
"Even with your Dao Art Medium -- Shade's Embrace?"
"Yes, even with it active, their gaze was already on me. I suspect that they were a Third Foundation Cultivator, and if you couldn't find them, they must've had something to repel Immerison..."
"..."
As the two before him quietly evaluated the situation in their own minds, Sun continued to explain it.
"When I arrived, I took note of the various beasts, tens of thousands of different kinds of beasts, lined in a circle around, not only the Demonic Cultivator, but four greater beasts as well."
"A pale tiger with a sickly, muscular body.
A wide tortoise of dry skin, and a hill-like shell of dark stone.
A misshapen bird, seemingly made of fire, that seared with violent heat.
And a large, headless, blue mass of a shiny lustre.
The Stream of Scales."
"Those were the four 'great beasts' that I confronted, although I only learned the name, and battled against the 'Stream of Scales'. It was said to be created in the image of the East's Azure Dragon but resembled an earthworm, or something alike... and the other three bear resemblance to the West's White Tiger, the North's Black Tortoise, and the South's Vermillion Bird."
"The way you described them seems to portray those 'great beasts' as mere mockeries of the Celestial Beasts."
The Settlement Lord frowned as he heard this.
Such is the nature of the Demonic Cultivators to mock the famed and beloved Celestial Beasts of legend.
"There was no fifth beast?"
"No... Nothing resembling the centre region's Celestial Beast. Only the Demonic Cultivator remained as the 'fifth' great beast, or so I'd describe them."
"What do you mean?"
"..."
Pitch black eyes and an abyss-like mouth, like a sheet of black that lay behind a pale, white mask.
Their hair was a similar black that fell around their face, which looked both masculine and feminine.
"I can not say too much about their appearance, besides their unsettling features, but their demeanour was downright sinister."
A subtle pressure began pressing down on Sun's head as he tried to remember more.
"I... I only remember fighting with the Stream of Scales. If I had to evaluate its battle strength, then I'd say it was around the Third Foundation."
"Not only that, but that Demonic Cultivator... they rambled on about... something."
"I can't seem to remember. Something about being an envoy...?
Straining, but being unable to remember the past further, Sun sighed as he buried his head into his palm tiredly.
"After failing to retreat, or even defeat the beasts, I was knocked into the forest and trampled under the horde..."
"I don't know how long I was out for, or how I even survived, but I had awakened injured in the dark, led only by the stench of blood to return to the Settlement..."
"..."
"I had failed... forgive me, Seniors..."
With shame and guilt clouding his mind, Sun's head felt heavy in his hands. Gritting his teeth, he tried to stifle the sad whimper in his throat.
"All is fine, Sun. We should not have sent you out alone... That was a miscalculation on our part."
"..."
Sun remained silent despite this attempt at consolation made by Shade of Autumn.
"The Settlement had survived. The majority of people remain alive and healthy, but a portion of people were injured, and our collective battle strength has fallen."
"Lord?"
"This is simply how it is... People come and go. Loss is a natural part of life, but so is gain. People were lost during the first tide, as they are now, but we have gained yet another day to live."
Saying so, the Settlement Lord placed a hand on Sun's shoulder.
"I am not the best at comforting, but this is something that I have learned to live with. Gain is not without loss, that is what Corpse Mountain Settlement has been founded on."
"Even if you do not accept this notion, I merely hope that it consoles you in the slightest."
"The Settlement's loss is not your fault, Sun."
"..."