Chapter 256 – Darkness (VII)

Chapter 256

Darkness (VII)

While the kids yammered on, I shifted my thoughts back to the reality of things: this is annoying.

Not only do we have to contend against the forest and its (many) mysteries, but now the Sages have also entered the mix. I mean, it kind of makes sense? From my rough understanding, the ‘village’ where they reside isn’t too far north of the forest itself, so it makes sense that they would try and get some Life Qi from here since it’s simply close by.

I’m just annoyed that they went so far south that, in my head, it makes no sense.

I mean, none of their actions, so far, make much sense. They attacked the city with hundreds and hundreds of young folk, and none of them tried to run away. It was as though they just sent them to death, straight-up.

They also sent someone far south to collect Life Qi from the mortals–not even cultivators–and that can’t really be the best use of the vines, can it?

And now, they’re here.

In this godforsaken place.

Where, supposedly, every expedition that tried conquering it failed spectacularly, and nobody even knows exactly why.

… So, what the hell are they doing here?

Haah.

Whatever.

Just thinking about it is giving me a headache.

“Eh? Where is the body?” Rayce voiced out, and we all collectively glanced down only to see… well, nothing. A body that was just there was nowhere to be seen.

My eyes wandered a bit to the nearby patch of moss, and as I drew the lantern closer to it, I saw it glistening as though it was dewed. Crouching, I pulled it back a bit and saw exactly what I expected: the body of that middle-aged man, but unlike all the others, it had tiny, hair-like tendrils jutting out from the roots of the trees digging into his skin, the boring point pulsing and writhing like a worm.

… okay, seriously. We need to get the fuck out of this place, and we needed to do it yesterday. Screw the fact that I would have wasted the freebie quest, screw the fact that there’s potentially some rather lucrative treasure somewhere in its depths, this place is beyond cursed. It’s like I walked from a world of cultivation into some weird, quasi-eldritch horror story, and we’re the idiots who thought this time around it’d play out differently.

“Master, we should prepare for a fight,” Long Tao said as I stood back up.

Lao Shun dragged me to the center as even he took out some kind of a shapely orb with strange lines carved into its surface, holding it tightly between his fingers. At the same time, the kids surrounded me, but what caused me the greatest sense of alarm was the fact that Long Tao himself stepped forward.

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He never fought unless he absolutely had to.

I quickly realized why he had to, though–we were surrounded, on all ends, by what looked to be at least fifty cultivators. It wasn’t the demonic beasts, but rather the damned shitheads.