Yun Fao had a restless day, so far the boys have been stuck in this cell that was not a cell for the last two days. Yun Fao really regretted letting Alex try his hands at alchemy, while the herb he had cooked up had worked wonders on Yun Fao's shoulder and arm, and the young man felt as if he would have been better off without it. Anyone who has come in contact with mint would know that it always gave off a cool and clear feeling, regardless of which part of your body it touched and it was also quite irritating to the eyes, however this was a hundred times more powerful and it wasn't just cool and clear, there was also a certain amount of heat coming from it, like a balm.
Yun Fao was happy and grateful, but Alex made more of his Healing Balm, just in case they encountered more sisters and got injured. Yun Fao has been fighting with the urge to just Chuck the tiny case the balm was resting in out the cell doors that has been keeping them safe so far. He could just take it as an exercise in patience and hear with it for now, besides he couldn't deny the results the balm gave, but now that he was strong enough to move around, he knew they would have to leave this place in search for a more start area that's not dozens of meters up in the air in the a cave weirdly carved out into a mountain. But that aside, Yun Fao also felt the loss of his Autumn Dao, without his serrated sabre with him, he felt sort of naked. But none the less it was good enough that they were all still alive.
"Well where do we go next? And seeing as it's almost nightfall do you think it's a good idea to move around?" Louis asked as he moved closer to Alex who was packing things back into his storage ring.
"The lizards and those scaled lion, eagle like beasts we bath escaped from seemed to be really active during the daytime, especially around this mountain. So I think leaving under the cover of night would be that much better and safer for us, however there's no guarantee that there's nothing more dangerous out there that comes out at night, so we have to be sure of which direction we would be heading too." Yun Fao pointed out as Alex got back up to his feet.
"We're high up enough in the air to see above the tree lines of the forest in front of us, there's a plain to the South, which is the direction we were taking when we were coming down the mountain. However let's take a look first and decide then." Alex suggested as he moved to the gate.
He opened it as carefully as he could with Yun Fao and Louis in tow, using the light of the setting sun, they were able to properly get their bearings and know at least the basic layout of the land in the direction they were facing. This side of the mountain considering the sun was setting in front of them, was probably west, a couple of those floating islands blocked most of the view from the setting sun, but it was enough for them to see what they were dealing with.
The forest hugged the side of the mountain from North to South on it's Western side, the boys could not even see the plains to the South anymore.
The forest stretched for as far as the eye could see, however they were able to notice that it rose and fell in different places, making Hill's and small mountains of it's own. With how dense the forest was, there was no way for them to tell which way was safe and which way was not, so Alex came up with a plan.
"We need water to survive out here, food too. We might have packed quite a few, but I doubt it would last us. I suggest we head West into the forest, however we should look for a water source, if you look at the way the land is, the forest range continues getting elevated until what we can see are mountains with trees on it. So I suspect this mountain might be on a basin, or the land slopes downward from the West. If we can find a water source, we can follow it upstream, we might be able to find people....or more demonic beasts." Alex said to them, as he squared his shoulder in an attempt to look less worried about the choice in front of them.
"Well it doesn't matter what we meet on the way, this is a direction to take, at the very least we would be able to have an idea about what we're dealing with." Yun Fao said with a bland tone, which normally was his default sound. The kid had so few facial expressions that for Alex and Louis, the last two days of him being in pain were the most they've ever seen his face change.
"Yeah Gun Fao's right, even though this is not where we were supposed to be sent, this can still be considered as training, just that the difficulty seems to have been raised to a power of ten. But in the end we can't ever really grow if we don't push ourselves."
Louis said as wind suddenly started to blow, and his golden blond hair was being ruffled, and then in that moment a day of light from the setting sun seemed to land on him, making the young boy glow, and leaving Alex and Yun Fao feeling very... weird. Yun Fao turned to Alex and asked.
"What the fuck was that?" Alex looked back at him and spread both his palms.
"How the hell should I know that?" Louis just looked even more confused as he couldn't understand or fathom what could have caused them to react in such a way. Thankfully Yun Fao wanted to quickly get back on track so he asked.
"So how the fuck do we get down from here?"
Alex took a deep breath as his mantle came out of his hands in a flash of green light, the gnarled piece of wood now had streaks of red and orange running a through it, Alex got the feeling that the moment the spirits within get to three, the mantle would experience a qualitative change, however it was just a feeling, so he wouldn't dwell to much on it.
Alex willed the mantle to elongate until what he had in his hand was brown whip, one that could move with just Alex's mental instruction alone, it was like having an extra limb. The end of the vine wrapped around the Iron gate and then Alex gave a signal for Louis and Yun Fao to hold on, and then all three boys jumped out of the cave and fell almost a hundred meters or more to grass covered base of the mountain.
There was no noise or sound from them, they landed just as silently as their jump had been, and then Alex retracted his Mantle back into his body where it went resting in his Dantian. And then silently and swiftly, the trio of teenagers walked into the forest, making sure to leave no tracks behind.