After the story, they returned to the entrance of the cave with Serina carrying Sef. Both Shui and Fatty offered to carry him, but she refused with the reason that it was her responsibility as his sister. It was dark when they returned to the surface, so though their visions weren't terrible enough to impede movement, they decided to rest just in case.
While Serina and Fatty set up camp, Shui scanned the mountain range with his improved spiritual sense. He wanted to indulge in the sensation of being aware of every rock in the area, but the enemy presence stopped him. Just as he suspected, the two pursuers had returned with reinforcements, mainly comprised of cultivators in the late Soul Realm, with two in the early Earth Realm. They would pose no problem for Shui, but he had to ensure that they couldn't harm those with him either.
After a quiet night went by, they prepared to leave the mountain range. Shui told Serina and Fatty that there was a ring of enemies around them so his plan was to breakthrough a section of the encirclement. Stonefield no longer seemed like a safe place for Sef to hide, so he suggested that they go east to the Henon region. The Henon region didn't have any unique features, but it possessed around the same strength as the five cities region and the forces that governed it were straightforward and upright, so there would be little worry of accidentally offending some petty person with connections. Both of them agreed to his suggestion, though only Fatty had actually heard of the Henon region before.
Sef still hadn't woken up, but his condition showed slight improvement so there seemed to be no need for concern. As they had to focus on speed, Serina agreed to having Shui carry him for the time being. The eastern direction was guarded by one of the two Earth Realm cultivators, but Shui said they wouldn't be a problem and the other two had seen enough of his strength to believe that. Still, it would be better if their opponents didn't detect them until the last moment, so he gave the two of them cloaks with 'Conceal' and then suppressed the presence of Sef along with his own before they began running. They passed by a few figures searching the area, but none were able to sense them as they moved.
At the eastern edge of the encirclement, there was a small camp with late Soul Realm cultivators on the ground, and a big floating leaf above the camp. Meditating atop the leaf was a man who seemed to be in his early 30s and had a messy beard. When he first heard about how an entire group of outside members had been decimated, he wondered if it was a joke, especially since the only suspect was a group of kids in the Soul Realm. However, after seeing the scene for himself, he had to acknowledge the fact that some expert had taken action.
He still didn't believe that that group of kids was involved, but for the sake of mining the rich ore vein that was found, many Earth Realm figures had been ordered to be stationed here. The encirclement was already complete, but they were waiting on a few more people before getting closer. This was especially the case after seeing the changes in the mountain range.
The amount of earth elemental energy in Stonefield had suddenly decreased along with the ores of mines. Many experts said that these were signs of an unprecedented disaster, and the new look of the mountain range seemed to confirm that. Stonefield was famous for having more rocks than plants, so the fact that greenery was now easy to spot, though still scarce, was surprising to say the least.
"Based on the report of those two, that Sef boy should be dead by now, but I wonder if he or those other three know something about this."
He was interested in the matter, but saw no need to chase after them if they had already left. At the moment, his top priority was getting the treasure out of the mountain.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the man found his vision blocked by a palm, but after a moment of complete darkness, it was as if nothing had happened.
"Hmm? Did I just doze off?"
Some distance away from the eastern edge of the encirclement, Shui met up with Serina and Fatty. The 'Conceal' cloaks were good enough to hide them from the passive detection of those present, but Shui wanted to check something so he sent them ahead with Sef. Thanks to the boost in his soul cultivation, Shui was able to find the memories he wanted and erase the man's memory of him with just one touch in the midst of a jump.
From the man's memory, Shui learnt about more Earth Realm members of the Darino Gang coming, but since there was no need to engage with them and Sef's tracks had effectively been erased, he didn't plan on interfering further.
"It looks like we won't have to worry about reaching Henon. For now, let's get out of here."
"Okay."
Shui considered stopping by a city to see the effects of Stonefield's changes on the residents, but he decided not to since they would be leaving the region. On the second night after Shui's awakening, Sef also woke up. Serina had been trying to feed him soup, so her blurry face was the first thing he saw.
"Is, that you, Serina?"
"Brother!"
Serina put down the soup and wholeheartedly embraced Sef. When he felt her trembling and heard faint crying sounds, Sef could tell that he had ended up worrying her again. He didn't know how she found out that he was in danger, but he still felt a mixture of gratitude and guilt.
"I'm sorry. I ended up, making you cry, again."
"That's right! Why did you take such a dangerous path?! If we hadn't come for you, you would have died you know!"
Sef knew she was completely right so he could only force a smile as she continued to scold him. Shui and Fatty could hear her from outside the tent, but they knew not to get involved and pretended not to hear anything.