— Eastern Badlands, Desolate Wilds, Frozen Night Camp
The noble House Trillwolf was a large organization with nearly 2,000 years of heritage and history. There were over 100,000 active noble scientists and at least 50,000 junior, senior, and holy disciples. Including the non-noble members of the house, such as the mortal relatives of any noble scholar or scientist who joined the house, the population of the entire House Trillwolf was a little under 350,000 members. The 38-year-old Osiris Trillwolf had been the House Lord for nearly fifteen years. There were two critical factors in Osiris winning the House Lord's position.
The first was his rise to fame and his Force Formula achievements. Osiris slaughtered his way through the competition in the West Ward and proved himself to be the most charismatic young sage at each stage. Meanwhile, Lady Mist and her famous Frozen Mist mercenary group were other variables that led to his promotion. The Frozen Mist mercenaries were a top-class mercenary group that specialized in high-profile missions. They worked hand-in-hand with the medjai and, thus, the South and West Wards' Pharaoh.
The Frozen Mist and their Lady of the Mist were merciless and efficient. After marrying into Osiris' household, the Lady of the Mist merged her company into the House Honor Guard, the Saint warrior army of House Trillwolf. The Lady of the Mist was recognized as a Radiant Master, and her official title was changed immediately. This new division of House Trillwolf was named the Frozen Night in honor of its Mistress of Frozen Night, the Frozen Night Master Isis Trillwolf.
More than five kilometers outside of Saint Anubis City, deep in the barren plains of the Eastern Badlands, an enormous desolate forest went on for miles.
The Desolate Wilds!
On the outskirts of this region, a strange new phenomenon existed that all the local warriors and farmers alike had been discussing.
A unique path appeared last month. There were twenty huge cherry blossom trees, ten on each side of the trail. This starkly contrasted to the mostly grey and dying trees that usually flooded the area. Though there were healthy trees spread around, none were nearly as eye-catching as these 20-meter-tall cherry blossom trees. However, this was not the most disturbing and mystical aspect. The genuinely eye-catching sight was that fluffy white snow was everywhere within a 10-mile radius around these trees! It wasn't snowing. There was just snow.
How odd was this? When did a blizzard blow through?
It didn't take a genius to figure out some secret hidden here.
However, the temperature was still freezing. It was like a winter wonderland. The ever-present gentle breeze in this region carried the cherry blossom petals in an arc over the path, making it appear like a beautiful tunnel. The strangest thing was that whenever someone stepped onto the trail, in the crowd's view, it looked like the cherry blossom petals just spirited these people away! Many mercenaries and thugs had come to explore this strange new area in the past few weeks, seeking treasures, but no more than three had returned.
The ones who had returned only recalled walking endlessly through the cherry blossom path. One man even discovered truths about himself and had a breakthrough in his formula! Unfortunately, the fate of hundreds of other warriors was still unknown. Eventually, people avoided this area like there was a plague, though some brave individuals would always try their luck. However, a team of scientists and researchers was determined to discover what lies beyond the cherry blossom path. They set up a camp a few feet away from its entrance, equipped with all sorts of technology to study the phenomenon. The team hoped to find out more information about this place's mysterious properties.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Still, one late afternoon, an incredible event occurred: as if on cue, powerful gusts of wind engulfed the area and blew in billions upon billions of cherry blossom petals until it was difficult to see the ground! Soon enough, people began disappearing again - but instead of vanishing entirely as before, they were seen moving around within a circular area in the center of all these petals!
The researchers became ecstatic and immediately moved their equipment closer - they had finally found what they were looking for! They started experimenting on the particles that made up these petals and soon discovered that they interacted with each other when suspended in air and created a vacuum-like effect! This explains why people got sucked into the center when standing on the path.
However, this new discovery still raised many unanswered questions. To answer them, the team continued their research for weeks but still couldn't figure out how such a thing could have happened naturally or who had caused it. After further experimentation and analysis, they eventually concluded that whatever mysterious force was behind all this must've been incredibly powerful—perhaps even divine in origin.
Whatever it may be, it is clear that there is something unexplainable at work here. The cherry blossom path remains an enigma even now. This was a convincing illusion formed by an illusory array formation. Only the cherry blossoms themselves were real.
On the other side of this formation was a convoy of thousands of warriors and different-sized tents. Several training fields and over a hundred magic beast mounts were in a pasture. The design on the flags and every one of the mid-size and larger tents was a Seven-Colored Celestial Serpent. Though each of these tents looked like the standard issued tent, on the inside, they were far more vast than they appeared.
The magic mirror, face up on her desk, received transmissions in an unending flow on the desk of an essential woman. She grew more anxious and exasperated, perhaps even aging by the second. However, her son's shenanigans continued. It all started a month ago, less than two hours after the brat left. She didn't even have time to be worried on her own before he started worrying her.
"Reporting to Mistress Frozen Night, young master Josiah's spiritual sense is confirmed to stop at around twenty meters!! This is the limit of where he can sense us. Whenever he notices us, he immediately runs deeper into the wilds. We've fallen back five meters. This is shocking, madam. Tessa can only extend her perception by 15 meters as an Origin Scientist. Could this be a special effect of his soul or source artifact?"
Isis received seven reports identical to this one within moments. But it didn't end there.