On the second day, Shui woke up peacefully at dawn. The scaled woruse was still on his chest, sleeping in a tranquil state.
"Hey, get up."
Shui wasn't sure if it could understand him, but after he spoke and moved his hand towards it, its eyes snapped open. With its eyes focused on his hand, Shui was frozen.
'Damn it, it's too close! If it tries something-'
He started to think of how to defend himself in case it attacked, but contrary to his concerns, the scaled woruse rubbed its furry head against his palm. It was an action that brought warmth to his heart and made a smile naturally pop up. However this was only for a brief moment, he knew that this place wouldn't allow them to have a leisurely bonding time.
"Let's go."
Shui packed up the tent and the two of them continued to Shui's objective. Nearly three hours later, Shui found a narrow river that flowed between two red trees.
'This is the place.'
In Carlos' journal, he noted his experience in the ancestral lands. Before reaching the mountain and meeting the progenitor, he ended up near a certain cave. This cave gave off a majestic aura that both intrigued and frightened him. He really wanted to enter it, but eventually decided not to since he didn't want to die because of his curiosity. The journal didn't mention the exact location of the cave, so Shui relied on the last place that was mentioned before he went to the cave and that was where he was currently.
He didn't think he would be strong enough to beat whatever was releasing the aura that Grandpa Carlos felt, but Shui believed that if he was that close to it but nothing happened to him, then it was either not aggressive or sealed. Therefore, Shui thought he had a chance of getting a nice look at whatever was there.
'Now then, what should I do?'
He knew he couldn't be too overt with his search since he didn't want to accidentally get discovered by an assassin, which meant his range of detecting auras would have to be limited to about 10 cales. He was worried since this wasn't much considering the size of the forest, so luck would have to be on his side. And he definitely didn't think he was blessed at this time.
Suddenly, Shui heard footsteps rushing towards them around the same time as the scaled woruse growled in a particular direction. He detected two people coming their way; considering their pace it seemed like one was chasing the other. At this point, Shui considered two options. He could hide and watch or he could be bold and watch. As they got closer, Shui could detect their cultivation as well as guess their identities. One was Cris, now bleeding from his shoulder, while the other was likely an assassin with a cultivation at the second level in the Soul Realm. Cris seemed to have given the assassin clothed in black a few injuries, but since he was running the gap was obviously too big to overcome.
'I can probably win against him, but should I?'
This may have sounded strange considering that he risked his life twice for siblings he barely knew for a month, but Shui wasn't sure if he should stretch his neck out for Cris though they had a good relationship. He looked at the scaled woruse as it prepared for battle and looked over the situation in his head. He didn't like trouble, but after reviewing the state of affairs, reducing the number of enemies felt like the right idea. Therefore, he waited for them with his mask in his hand.
'I hope this is the only assassin, but I doubt it.'
A few seconds after he noticed them, the two also vaguely noticed a boy and a beast in their way. If he had on his mask they would have blown past him, but with it off they could at least recognize his presence once he was in sight.
"Shui, get away!"
When Cris saw that it was Shui, he shouted for him to get away, however the assassin threw a knife at him and two at Shui. Cris got hit in his lower back and stumbled to the ground while the other two knives went to Shui. When the assassin noticed that the main target was right in front of him, he was determined to take care of him. However, he didn't know that he was the one who had become the prey.
After easily dodging the knives, Shui watched the approaching assassin. To stop the scaled woruse from interfering, he stepped in front of it. The assassin believed this to be a useless act of bravery, but he was grateful that his job would be made easier.
"I'll give you a quick death."
The assassin came closer with a knife in his right hand, full of confidence, when he felt a burning pain in his left leg and tumbled to the ground. While stifling the urge to scream, he noticed one of his knives had been stabbed into his leg. He didn't know that Shui did this with his martial intent, in his mind he imagined a hidden person targeting him.
"Who are you!? Show yourself!"
Shui watched as the man fearfully scanned his surroundings, and then took a step forward. The assassin immediately returned his attention to him and struggled to get up, but Shui didn't allow that. In an instant, his foot was already at the assassin's face, instantly turning it into a mess. And without any time for him to scream or reorganize himself, Shui took out his dagger and plunged it into his neck. Cris also saw Shui take care of this person who had almost killed him and was frozen in shock.
He couldn't understand how someone who was younger and had a lower cultivation than he did was able to defeat the assassin so easily. Even he had felt tense when he first killed someone, but Shui looked unfazed while wiping off the blood from his dagger.
'What a monster.'
After cleaning his dagger, Shui checked the face of the assassin but it was unfamiliar to him.
'As expected.'
He then looked at Cris, but he was in a pathetic state. As Shui and the scaled woruse watched him tremble from a distance, they both wrinkled their noses due to the foul stench coming from his crotch. Shui could control the sensitivity of his senses so he wasn't doing too badly, but the scaled woruse literally ran up a nearby tree and growled at him. It was blatantly rude but since he had been hit by the scent as well, Shui could sympathize with it.
"Cris. Is your charm working?"
He inched backwards when Shui tried speaking to him, but he nervously shook his head.
'As I thought. Now I need to see if it's just the Heaven clan or if all three are involved in this.'
The fact that he wasn't the only target meant that this was part of some big scheme. With his limited amount of information, Shui couldn't pinpoint the objective of this scheme, but since his life was at threat, it was obviously something he didn't want reaching completion.
Shui stared at Cris for a moment. Based on his condition, he would probably die before their time was up. And even if he didn't die, this would most likely become a heart demon that would hinder him from improving his cultivation. Heart demons were such things; doubts and worries that prevented a cultivator from continuing the fight against the heavens.
The boy in front of him had become nothing but a weakling and coward, but they did have a nice conversation so Shui threw a 'Hide' talisman at him. He had frantically raised his hand to block it, but that didn't change anything. When used on a living being, the 'Hide' talisman would continue working for at least one day, while Shui could make it last as long as he wanted to since he knew how to use it. After the 'Hide' talisman was stuck to his arm, Shui turned away.
"There should be a charm on this guy. Take it and go hide somewhere until this is over."
Shui and the scaled woruse left Cris to fend for himself. Cris stayed in that spot for nearly an hour before snapping out of his stunned state.
'That's right. I ne, need to hide.'
The bold, confident older brother was now but a shallow fake. One that wouldn't last much longer.
"You,"
Suddenly, a chilling voice reached his ears from behind. He didn't dare turn around to look, only his intense shivering gave away that he noticed him.
"Who killed him?"
Without a bit of hesitation, Cris pointed in the direction that Shui went in. There was no malice behind his action, it was merely the urge to live that made it impossible for him to refuse the one behind him. But his end was already determined, whether he answered or not, the result would have been the same.
This person sliced through Cris' neck with ease before heading in the direction he pointed in. He was a top young assassin of the Tower of Killers, the greatest assassination organization in the Alterna Kingdom. Though he was just fifteen and at the sixth level in the Soul Realm, even those in the early Earth Realm didn't want to be targeted by him. He didn't understand why he was sent out into this playground to take care of a couple of brats, but the sight of the corpse of one of the assassins that the client sent in changed his mind. From the body he could tell that the person who did it was highly skilled and could actually provide him with some entertainment.
"Something to look forward to."