Chapter 229: Yew Woods [1]

“AAAHHH!”

A sharp scream tore through the mist, making Lin Xuan stop mid-step.

He immediately turned his head toward the direction of the voice, his expression remaining calm as he listened carefully.

Before he could pinpoint the source, another scream echoed through the forest.

“AAAH! Save me!”

Lin Xuan stopped in his tracks as the desperate cries echoed through the Yew Woods. The mist twisted between the trees, swallowing the voices before throwing them back from another direction, making it difficult to determine exactly where they were coming from.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Lin Xuan calmly headed toward the screams.

Although he was the host of this year’s Winter Harvest, he did not have any responsibility to look after everyone who entered the forest. Everyone who dared to enter the Yew Woods had done so knowing the dangers involved.

At most, Lin Xuan was responsible for protecting the people within the city.

If someone chose to enter the forest despite the warnings and died inside, it could hardly be considered his fault.

He continued forward without rushing, following the trail of screams until the voices suddenly stopped.

When Lin Xuan finally arrived at the scene, he found nothing but corpses scattered across the forest path.

Blood had soaked into the ground, staining the road crimson, while a long trail of blood stretched deeper into the forest.

Lin Xuan’s eyes narrowed as he looked over the bodies.

“Cultivators from the Peng Family?”

Even though most of the corpses had been dismembered beyond recognition, their clothing was enough to give away their identities.

One corpse lay several steps away with an arm missing. Another had been torn apart from the waist down, while several others were scattered across the path in equally gruesome states.

There were more than six of them.

Every one of them wore the uniform of the Peng Family.

Lin Xuan’s expression became slightly more serious as he stared at the bodies.

“But why are they here?”

He had been certain that news of the mist had already spread. The various clans had even been specifically warned to keep their people from entering the Yew Woods.

Despite all that, these Peng Family cultivators had clearly ignored those warnings.

Lin Xuan glanced toward the blood trail disappearing into the deeper forest, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Is there something going on inside the forest that I’m not aware of?

Lin Xuan frowned as the thought crossed his mind.

His task right now was simple. He needed to enter the Yew Woods, identify the source of the mist, and report his findings to Mu Qingya. After that, she would return to the Tianhe Empire and deal with the problem.

It was not without reason that the Sea of Mist in the empire was considered one of the three taboo regions.

The empire had suffered immensely because of that mist and had gone to great lengths to contain it within its borders.

Over the years, they had even managed to turn parts of the region into a source of valuable resources.

If this really was the same Sea of Mist, then the Loushi Kingdom would have no way of dealing with it if the situation spiraled out of control.

Fortunately, Lin Xuan had the Empress herself willing to lend a hand.

That meant he had to follow her instructions carefully and avoid doing anything that might cause her to change her mind.

Still, as Lin Xuan stared at the blood trail disappearing into the deeper forest, an inexplicable instinct told him that following it would lead him to something far more important.

He stood there for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he considered the possibility.

Then he sighed and made his decision.

“Let’s go.”

Lin Xuan followed the blood trail deeper into the Yew Woods.

In the meantime, at the Mystic Sky Sect, Ouyoung Jun had just finished reporting his findings to one of the sect elders.

After leaving the room, he immediately spotted Zhao Moying waiting outside.

“Senior Sister,” he greeted her as he approached.

“Oh, Junior Brother, you’re out,” Zhao Moying replied with a smile. “I heard you took your junior brothers and sisters to participate in the hunt, yet you ended up returning with nothing to show for it. What happened?”

“I made a mistake in judgment and picked a poor location,” Ouyoung Jun replied calmly before quickly changing the subject. “How have you been lately? And how is Senior Brother Li Hanyuan?”

Zhao Moying noticed that he clearly did not want to talk about the hunt, so she decided not to press him further.

“I’ve been doing great. I recently broke through to the ninth layer, and I’m currently stabilizing my cultivation,” she said with a pleased smile. “On the other hand…”

Her expression became slightly helpless.

“Senior Brother Li Hanyuan entered seclusion again.”

“He went into seclusion again?” Ouyoung Jun asked with concern. “Why? Did his breakthrough fail?”

“Uh, no…” Zhao Moying shook her head. “He actually broke through to the tenth layer, but he happened to hear that the Lin Patriarch has already reached the Nascent Soul Realm.”

She sighed and shook her head in disbelief.

“After hearing that, he said something about not wanting to be left behind and immediately went into seclusion again.”

“This…” Ouyoung Jun was left completely speechless.

Zhao Moying gave a dry laugh before saying, “Well, at least he is becoming a role model. I’ve noticed that many of our junior disciples have been working harder after seeing how hard he cultivates.”

“Why is he so obsessed with Patriarch Lin?” Ouyoung Jun could not help but ask.

Zhao Moying fell silent for a moment.

She had an idea about the reason, but she was not certain enough to say anything. There was no point in spreading a guess as though it were the truth.

“Anyway, it’s not like his obsession with Patriarch Lin is detrimental,” she finally said. “If anything, it is helping him cultivate harder.”

Ouyoung Jun still could not understand it.

“But crossing from the ninth layer of the Golden Core Realm to the tenth layer is a hundred times easier than breaking through from the tenth layer of the Golden Core Realm into the Nascent Soul Realm,” he pointed out with a frown. “Does Senior Brother Li even have the pills prepared for that breakthrough?”