When Yun Chen confirmed he had landed safely, he dispelled the golden body. Because of that, after the rangers carried him back to a hut, he took longer than Han Lian to regain consciousness.
The ranger was on the line with headquarters, preparing to send the comatose Yun Chen to a hospital. He worried the man might starve to death in his hut. At that moment, Yun Chen opened his eyes.
"Amitabha. Were you the one who saved this humble monk?" Yun Chen slowly sat up, pressed his palms together, and asked. His voice was hoarse and weak, but his words were clear.
Ranger Song Hao turned at the sound and saw his rescue awake. He hung up at once, looked Yun Chen over from head to toe, and asked, "Are you alright? How did you end up deep in the mountains? Do not tell me you are one of the members of the Extreme Death Sect?"
Yun Chen did not understand the last part, but he still answered earnestly, "This monk is fine. After a period of meditation I will recover. I was separated from my companions and fell here. As for the 'Extreme Death Sect,' what do you mean by that?"
Seeing that Yun Chen truly seemed not to know the Extreme Death Sect, Song Hao scratched his head. "The Extreme Death Sect is a force that has grown on Azure Star over the past two decades. They believe that when a person's lifespan ends, body and soul should perish together. They do not want their souls recovered by 'Soul Captors,' so they choose remote places to end their lives, leaving the Soul Captors no chance to collect their souls."
"Amitabha. Such conduct is improper." Yun Chen pressed his palms together. For the first time, displeasure showed on his handsome face. Those who defied the laws of reincarnation did not deserve his respect.
From Yun Chen's words, Song Hao was further convinced that this bald man was not one of the Extreme Death Sect, though the way he spoke was odd. He probed, "What is your name? Can you contact your friends to pick you up? I did not find any identification on you, and I could not reach any family."
Yun Chen replied politely, "I am Yun Chen. Thank you for saving me. I will contact my friends now."
He took a communication jade slip from his storage armband and first checked for messages. Seeing nothing from Ran Xi and the others, he sent each of them a message. Putting the slip away, he said, "My apologies. This monk will need to remain here for a time. When my friends receive my message, they will contact me."
The ranger asked curiously, "Was that the newest kind of communicator in your hand? I have never seen one."
Yun Chen could only keep it vague. "It is a communication jade slip I use with my friends. You probably do not have it here."
Assuming he had rescued an upper-tier person of Azure Star, Song Hao happily went to prepare food and drink. If he treated this guest well, there might be a nice reward.
Only then did Yun Chen release his divine sense to observe the surroundings. He discovered his sense was suppressed to early Nascent Soul, and the environment held only a few faint motes of spiritual qi, barely worth mentioning, even less than in the mortal realm of the Weiyu Realm.
Yun Chen confirmed he had not fallen anywhere within the Weiyu Realm. He gripped a spirit stone and sat to meditate, wanting to restore himself before leaving to seek his companions. The feeling this place gave him was not good.
A day later, Yun Chen was back to peak condition. He began to glean what he could about this world from Song Hao.
While Yun Chen was learning about these new things, Song Hao received an alert. Someone had entered the no-entry mountain zone, and he was to stop them at once.
"These crazies again. They pull this every year. What is the point?"
Song Hao grumbled as he strapped on his gear, ready to intercept the "crazies" he spoke of.
Yun Chen asked, "Why are these people entering the deep mountains?"
"What else, to die. They are the Extreme Death Sect I told you about. To avoid the Soul Captors, they go wherever is hidden and dangerous. I have run into several cases already."
Yun Chen considered and said, "I will go with you."
"You just recovered. Can you keep up? The mountains are dangerous."
"This monk can."
Song Hao did not argue. Once geared up, he left the wooden hut for the restricted mountain zone that had triggered the alert. Yun Chen stayed at his heels, divine sense already spread to seek out the intruders.
Within moments, Yun Chen located them. There were four in total, two men and two women. One man and one woman had souls that were extremely unstable, on the verge of collapse, and the other two were dragging them forward. Their steps were unsteady and ragged.
After roughly a quarter hour, the two being dragged could no longer move. One spoke weakly,"I cannot go on. My head is about to split. Let us finish it here."
The two in better condition exchanged a look and nodded with difficulty. "Alright. We will do as you say."
The two with unstable souls sat down on the spot, embraced briefly, and injected each other with sedatives. The two soon fell asleep and their souls stabilized for the moment.
The other two immediately pulled a small vial from their spatial nodes and tossed it onto the sleepers. Blue flames bloomed over the bodies in the next instant.
Their self-immolation gave Yun Chen a start. In the next breath he flashed to their side and swept his sleeve, snuffing the flames.
The two still conscious reacted as if facing a mortal enemy. One moved to block Yun Chen while the other tried the same trick again to burn their companions.
Yun Chen was at a loss. He had never encountered anything like this. He formed a seal and cast an Immobilization Seal, freezing the two in place. He pressed his palms together and said, "Amitabha. Why do you carry out such extreme acts? Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the order of the world. Why do you force an end to your own lives?"
The immobilized pair panicked, but the woman still shouted, "What do you know, cueball? We refuse to enter new bodies with decayed souls. Death is death. When the body is destroyed, the soul should be destroyed with it. Why did you stop us?"
Yun Chen did not respond at once. He was about to speak when Song Hao arrived, panting. Seeing Yun Chen had beaten him there, he was surprised. Noticing the two frozen in strange poses, he asked, "Yun Chen, what is this?"
"They were about to self-immolate."
Song Hao hissed. He snapped, "Could you not add another self-immolation case to the scenic area. I have already called the police. They will be here soon."
The moment he finished, two figures in black dropped from the sky, landing in stylish poses. They scanned the scene. One pulled a black metal box from a spatial node and tapped twice on its lid. The lid sank, and a black ring rose, fluid and spinning.
Yun Chen watched as the souls of all four in front of him were drawn from their bodies and sucked into the metal box. The two who were still standing lost consciousness as well, and Yun Chen's own soul rippled faintly.