[Mission: Walk straight until the end of the small world.
Description: Walk directly without deviating, searching for a Silent Cadaver Orchid.
Participants: Divine Incarnation of Mo Yexuan.
Danger Level: Fatal]
Aotian looked at the mission in his mind and then raised his head, observing the location where the center of that small world should be.
'As expected, the danger there is fatal…'
He sighed and wondered what to do, while looking around and seeing only dense jungle surrounding him.
'I heard that this is a Transcendent-Tier small world, and on top of that, a peak one. Its actual size may be only a few times smaller than the entire outer world,' he thought, scratching his head in distress. 'How am I supposed to explore all of this and stop a few trillion people from finding orchids that may or may not exist here?'
'And among that absurd number of cultivators, several could defeat this incarnation. I'm not even talking about those in the Tribulation Transcendence realm, against whom I would have no chance at all without using my trump card along with the real bodies of my ancestral-level avatars…'
The more he thought about the challenges, the more helpless he felt.
"If only I had some companions to help me…" he murmured, sighing, while thinking of his avatars, who could not come without first passing those invincible cultivators at the entrance of the world.
With another sigh, just as he was about to walk aimlessly, searching blindly, he suddenly froze, his eyes widening.
'Wait… companions?! That's it! Why didn't I think of this before?' His eyes suddenly shone as an unusual plan took shape. 'Looks like I'm going to need some scouts…'
With a ferocious smile forming on his mouth, his figure slowly distorted, and then the previous appearance of the scoundrel young master Su was gradually replaced by that of a gloomy old man, who displayed a malicious smile on his face.
"Come, little ones, it's time to work," with an amused laugh, he spoke in a hoarse, aged voice, as his shadow stretched long beneath his feet.
Suddenly, hundreds of black-stained figures rose from his shadow like pitch, like warriors from the underworld.
Seeing the emergence of his army, the old man's eyes narrowed in pleasure.
"Well, all that's missing is some heavy rock to match the mood," he laughed strangely, speaking enigmatic things to that world, and then extended his wrinkled finger forward, with a firmness that did not match his age.
"Go, search for that herb for me!"
"But don't forget to bring brothers to join us! Hahahaha!!"
With his powerful order, accompanied by a crazed laugh, the beings shaped from shadows moved and scattered, flying in various directions, with a cold purpose stamped in their void-black eyes.
…
A group of two men and three girls fled desperately through the wilderness. They were in a pitiful state, their clothes torn and slashed.
Blood flowed from various wounds across their bodies, bearing a strange, black, pungent hue.
As they ran, the group cast terrified glances behind them, toward the forest, which swayed violently as even trees were hurled into the air, crashing down moments later. Something large and powerful was pursuing them.
A deep, hollow roar echoed from there, making the group's hearts freeze in horror.
A boy looked at one of the girls in the group, who appeared to be in the worst condition and was also the palest among them.
"Senior Sister Wang, can you still hold on?" he asked, terrified.
The girl was the holy daughter of their sect—an esteemed cultivator from one of the most powerful Void Refiner–level sects.
She was a girl with terrifying talent, but with a tragic fate.
Her master was one of the sect's powerful ancestors, yet in a cruel twist of fate, she fell while seeking an opportunity to reach Transcendence. One day, the girl—Wang Mei—suddenly discovered that her master's soul lamp within the sect had gone out, proof of her fall and the omen marking the beginning of her own.
Unfortunately, her master had a blood feud with another ancestor, and without her to protect her, Wang Mei ended up becoming a plague within the sect, someone no one wanted to approach, for fear of attracting that ancestor's wrath.
Whether they belonged to the same sect meant nothing in a world ruled by strength. Fortunately, since she was still only a junior, that ancestor did not raise his hand to end her life.
But even without acting directly, others would do it for him, just to flatter him and perhaps gain something in return.
Her status as a sect saint was nothing compared to that of an ancestor, and the choice of whom to sacrifice was simple.
Thus, when this cursed opportunity arose, she was sent by the sect's higher-ups to this small world, which seemed more like a grave prepared especially for her.
Unfortunately, even imagining that it would be dangerous, she never imagined it would be so deadly. If she had known, perhaps she would have fled before even being sent there.
Now, running desperately from certain death, with her body seized by fierce and frightening impurities, she could only lament her own fate once more.
"I don't have much energy left. If I fight again, even if it's just one or two moves, I won't have enough energy left to protect myself from the impurities and I'll end up turning into a monster, like Junior Brother Gu earlier," she panted as she honestly reported her situation to her companions, not thinking clearly in that moment of crisis.
Just moments earlier, she had used most of her energy to save herself and her companions from an early-stage Formation-Tier beast, the same realm she herself was in, but could only drive it away.
But that was no small feat. She was only a young and innocent girl of about nine hundred years, and reaching such a level of cultivation at her age—without resorting to shortcuts—was already a testament to her talent.
What she did not notice was the change in her companions' gazes upon hearing that she was practically out of energy.
While running, Wang Mei looked back to confirm the distance of the beast chasing them, but at that instant she felt a violent impact on her body, sending her flying backward a great distance.
After spinning several times and managing to get to her feet with difficulty, finally braking her momentum, she looked forward, teeth clenched and infinite hatred burning in her eyes, toward her companions who did not even look back as they disappeared into the forest.
They were not her friends, just sect companions, placed together on this mission. Even so, she never expected that, right after she saved them, they would be capable of such cruelty toward her.
Holding her aching chest at the spot where she had been struck, she almost cried from rage.
They hadn't even hit her hard enough to kill her or seriously injure her; they only wanted to knock her away so she could serve as bait and lure the monster. And the more strength she had, the better she would be for that task.
She understood this, but she couldn't accept it. Knowing herself, Wang Mei knew she wouldn't give up and would fight to the very end, but that would be practically the same as helping those treacherous scoundrels, which only made her even angrier.
Unfortunately, she didn't have time to think for long, because soon she heard a loud crack behind her.
Turning around, she saw a huge beast emerging from the foliage, bear-like in appearance, staring at her with lifeless yet ferocious eyes.
Beside it, there was also a humanoid being, pitch black in color, just like the beast.
She could barely recognize it, but she knew it was one of her former companions, who had recklessly expended all of his spiritual energy earlier and ended up being consumed by the impurities, becoming what he was now.
This served as an example to her and the others of what happened when one ran out of spiritual energy to protect themselves from the evils of that small world.
And seeing her own energy nearly depleted, she knew she would be next after that battle. Even so, she would not fall without a fight.
Facing the monstrous bear, which suddenly reared up on its hind legs, she simply clenched her fists and raised her sword, which quickly began to take on a black coloration after being taken out of the storage ring, which itself was also acquiring the same hue.
The more spiritual energy something possessed, the faster it attracted impurities and the quicker its subsequent erosion.
"Rooooaaarrr!!" The bear roared like thunder and lunged rapidly toward her.
"AHHH!!" She also screamed and charged fearlessly toward death.
Even as she felt her energy being consumed and the corruption in her body increasing at a visible speed, she did not stop.
But just as the two were about to collide, something unexpected happened.
A shadow flashed like a blur and crushed the enormous head of the bear with its black fist, small in comparison.
Before Wang Mei's frozen eyes, the sinister bear was suddenly hurled aside like a meteor, smashing trees and rocks along the way, until only a long crater remained, with the shadow creature lying motionless at its end.
Its head was caved in, making it clear that its brain had been crushed in that clash.
The one responsible, a shadow being, stood there, his fist extended and smoking, emotionless on his face as black as ink.
'W-Why is it attacking one of its own?!' Wang Mei's eyes widened in shock as she tried to comprehend why the shadow creature would strike another—almost as if it were trying to protect her.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be just a foolish illusion. The humanoid shadow turned its head toward her and, in the next instant, violently charged at her, making the girl grit her teeth and gather strength to fight once more.
But that creature was far stronger than she was—even stronger than the previous shadow beast—probably at the advanced stage of Soul Formation. And just like the bear before her, she was equally powerless against such a disparity in strength.
'Master, we will meet soon…'
When she was about to close her eyes, accepting death, since she could no longer even clearly see the figure moving, much less react, she heard a loud boom beside her ear.
Widening her eyes when she felt no impact, she could see out of the corner of her vision the creature beside her throwing a punch that split the neck of another creature in half, one that had appeared near her at some point, apparently trying to ambush her.
She quickly recognized the second creature as junior brother Gu, the companion who had transformed into a shadow being.
Taking a few steps back, frightened and astonished, as black blood splashed over her, she stared in disbelief at the shadow that still stood there indifferently, with the corpse falling at its feet.
As if sensing her gaze, the shadow turned toward her, making her heart skip a beat. Soon after, however, it looked away, crouched down, grabbed junior brother Gu by the leg—whose head was still hanging from his body by a strip of flesh—and dragged him toward the bear without any gentleness.
Then it grabbed one of the bear's claws and carried them both away, disappearing into the forest.
Throughout all of this, Wang Mei remained there, completely motionless.
It was only when the black blood that had splashed onto her began to itch, with impurities trying to invade her body, that she came back to her senses and expelled the substance, trying to spend as little energy as possible.
Even so, this made her already low energy worsen even further, and she could no longer spare energy to protect her storage ring, which quickly turned black and shattered into pieces, scattering all of her belongings around.
Wang Mei watched as her precious items were slowly corroded and destroyed.
Among them was a memory pearl, which held images of her with her master, who had been like a mother to her, still preserved within.
But soon the pearl, once pure white, turned completely black upon being exposed to the air, cracked, and shattered as it fell to the ground.
Wang Mei could only extend her hand, trying to grab it and protect it, before everything was lost before her eyes.
Pale, she fell to her knees on the ground, the light fading from her light-brown eyes as tears began to stream down.
She hadn't cried even in the face of death, but upon losing that small fragment of memories from her happy days with her master, she felt her heart shatter along with the pearl.
Wang Mei remained there for a few moments, her mind completely blank.
She couldn't even gather the fragments on the ground, as they were now completely covered in impurities.
Minutes passed, and she finally stood up, still pale, wiped her tears with her sleeve, and looked in the direction her companions had fled, with an empty gaze, while feeling her energy nearly run out.
'If I return to those people now, I don't know what fate awaits me, but I will certainly die from lack of spiritual energy. I might even suffer something worse than death before that if I go after those scoundrels.'
She reflected, a flame of hatred burning in her heart, but soon shook her head and set that thought aside for the moment.
Then her eyes unconsciously shifted toward the direction where that strange shadow creature—one that attacked its own kind and that, even if unintentionally, had saved her—had gone.
Hesitating for a moment, she made her decision.
With light and cautious steps, she entered the forest, following the trail left by the massive bear's body being dragged along.