The forest smelt worse the further they went. In the winter, it was hard to smell much. The group, however, could perceive the deathly odour the more they progressed.
"Mister, are there no other roads we can take?" Asked the proud boy, whose name was Fang, as Zero had heard from his conversations with the rest. He had gone up to the front of the group, respectfully asking Pu'er this as he grimaced from the terrible smell.
Scarred man's face twitched. He appeared like he had something to say. The cloth wrapped over his mouth and neck, stopped him.
Pu'er grunted and answered with in a gruff tone, "no. We must pass through here."
"But mister, this place is extremely corrupted. Back at the village, many who went in here, never came back out. Even Second senior has already been injured." The second senior in question, was the scarred man. Pu'er's frown deepened.
"Superstitions. Many lands of great yin stink but that's about that. Maybe a few mutated and strange things." He sounded exasperated. "Enough with the questions boy. And as for Yi's injury, who's to say it wasn't a beastly attack?"
The youngsters caught on to the meaning in his voice. The boy with the mole on his cheek glanced back at Zero who was concentrating on breathing and staring at the snow beneath him. They had all seen what he was capable of. A shiver went down his body and he turned back.
The deeper they went into the forest, the more on edge Zero felt. He tried to ignore the accusatory stares and indirect jabs but it was getting harder to do so.
What's worse, the more they walked, the stranger the trees were. Some had cavities in their trunks in the likeness of human faces. The expressions on these trees were of shock, fear and laughter. He wondered if it was only him that noticed this.
The group went on.
By noon, Zero could swear they had passed this particular path more than three times. He looked to the front of the group. Did Soldier Pu'er know they had not made any progress? He wondered if he should speak up.
' No. I might be seeing things again. It's this damned scroll.'
Concluding this, he turned his eyes back down to the snow beneath him and followed in the tired footsteps of the party in front of him.
Noon was shifting to evening. The cool winter sun was fading away and the air was extremely stale. Winds swooshed overhead, bringing the chill of the tundra lands far north of here. Zero stopped beside a familiar tree.
Its 'face' was contorted in an eternal expression of horror. The eyes it did not have seemed to stare down into Zero's soul.
They had gone through this route thirty times now. He had counted each time since he noticed. The injured short soldier gave out a sudden huff.
"Pu'er do you even know where we are going?"
Pu'er did not answer, trudging forward. This infuriated the former. "You think I don't know what you did?"
No answer. Pu'er continued onward, taking heavy footsteps each time. The snow was ankle deep.
"Daiyu knows too, and she will come for you. How did the Phantoms know we were here? It's a bloody corrupt land. This would be one of the last places they'd check and you knew that."
Pu'er grunted and turned back to look at the short soldier whose face was a pale shade of purple and covered in frost.
"You set us up didn't you? You dirty traitor. You've deflected to the damned imperials! Why? For coin? Or for the stupid daughter of yours in their possession?"
"Be quiet, fool." The half-hair man spat. His gruff voice was filled with malice. A hand was tucked into his cloak, resting on a weapon. The short soldier did not care. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, staining a clump of snow red.
"You're not leading us towards the base are you? Have they set an ambush here? Is that it? " His wide, angry eyes looked about, as if waiting for something to jump out the woods. He turned his gaze back to a seething Pu'er. "You disgust me. For a bit of measly spirit coins no? Or did they promise you that imbecile spawn of yours? Stupid bastard, you—"
In a flash, Pu'er had drawn his saber, a huge piece of silver metal with black stripes and a handle of bronze. He sliced against the air and electricity crackled. "Do not test me!"
Somehow, the braid at the back of the short man's head had been cut clean. His eyes were unbelievably wide in shock. Pu'er's movements had been too quick.
"Move, all of you!" To Yi, the Scarred man whose face was twisted in anger, he said. "You too, idiot."
The youngsters went forward, eyes darting nervously to the traitorous Pu'er. They had realized something. If the Phantoms were imperials, then the evaluations they had went through had been conducted by a gang of fakes. Fang looked back in the direction of the village. They had been scammed. His face contorted in budding, unfound anger.
Zero was still standing in place, looking deep into the eyes of the strange tree. Its expression was one of unhinged delight now. The young man could not explain how it had changed.
Something hit him over the shoulder. It was Pu'er's hands. His eyes were reddening in fury. " Did I not say to get moving, beast?!"
Zero was thrown straight to the ground and picked up by the neck of his stolen robe. "Move it!"
"Mister wait. Something is wrong with this place—"
Before he could finish, a slap landed across his cheek. It was fueled with Qi. He was sent flying. His jaw bone dislodged and his cheek collapsed in on itself, breaking a few teeth off.
Blood was seeping out his mouth, but he refused to let any stray thoughts fuel his actions. The forest was doing something.
Looking back to Pu'er huffing towards him, it was confirmed. Something had gone wrong. His face was blotched, his eyes were puffed up so they were the size of dumplings and a dark liquid seeped out his orfices.
He was mutating. Zero looked towards the other youths watching this with horror. If they let their emotions run wild and fed these horrible trees, they too would mutate.
He said to them, mouth gurgling with blood, "run, don't panic and stay clear of the trees!"
Scarred man looked at the boy strangely. But he could not think too much of it, the short man had fallen to the ground, wriggling as would an earthworm, his eyes were similar to Pu'er's. They had grown thrice the size. His arms appeared to be melting into his torso and his cloak had long since liquefied due to the acidic dark liquid that came out of his skin. The snow around him had turned pitch black and the smell of rot grew stronger.
Zero quickly rose from the ground, dodging another strike from Pu'er. He turned back to the rest, "run!"
He could try to hold them off for a while. Not because he particularly cared, Zero told himself. He did not care what happened to the obnoxious kids. He only wanted to prove to himself that he was not a monster.
He held the cheek that had stopped bleeding and had begun healing. Ever since the great injury he had in Feifei where his chest was blasted open, his wounds seemed to heal much faster.
Short man did not seem like he wanted to attack but only lay on the ground screeching as his entire body melted into one big noodle. However Pu'er was different.
He came after Zero with malice, sword drawn eyes bleeding dark mana. He raised the weapon high, cleaving the air above, igniting the wind.
Zero pursed his bloody lips. He was no match for a golden core cultivator. He was not fast and he could not fight. He did not even understand much of the workings of Qi. He had information, but information did not guarantee understanding.
Do it.
It sounded like the Echo. The nascent form of his Alter Ego. His hands shook. The Echo always knew what Zero wanted before he admitted it.
Zero ran towards a tree, silver eyes glinting. Would this work? Pu'er gave chase.
The young man's mind raced. Was he powerful enough to do this to a Golden Core? He did not understand the cultivation world perfectly but it was no question of the great chasm between ordinary mortals, or even Qi condensation cultivators and the Golden core stage.
These cultivators had not only touched the essence of Qi in the world but could bend it to their will. Zero remembered how wounded he was from Shen's blow. And he was only a peak Qi novice. What then would one Golden Core strike do to him?
There was only one way to find out.
/Yin spirit, you are now using The Soul Sight/