Chapter 35: Hidden realm

Sea of darkness.

Endless, dark, deep, and silent.

The moment the raft fell into the Black Sea Gorge’s lap, it crashed against the people inside. Thanks to the spiritual boundary, the raft was not corroded, and Moon’s entire team was not dead.

Not yet.

But if the fall continued, Moon didn’t know if he would ever see the sun again in this lifetime.

He spread his divine sense.

It clashed with the unknown power. Moon’s skin prickled. The uneasy invasion continued.

Just when he thought there was no way out, he finally found a faint trace of a node in the darkness.

A faint light was glowing not far away.

Moon changed his direction and touched the node with his consciousness.

In an instant, their raft tilted on its axis, and the world suddenly spun around them. A vortex flared up and sucked them inside.

The fall of the raft was hard.

Hard enough to break it into pieces.

All the people scattered onto the solid ground like pieces of broken rock.

Only Moon, with his light step, landed properly on the green ground.

The moment he landed, he crouched down and grabbed his hair tightly. One of his hands unconsciously landed on his chest, which was palpitating in a way he didn’t understand.

Maybe it’s because he finally survived.

Maybe it’s because his mates were all unconscious with no signs of life.

Or maybe... he simply didn’t know. And he didn’t want to know.

He thought about Ugo’s fallen body, thought about how calm and defiant he was at that moment.

Moon had always thought this man was making schemes behind his smiling face.

But for the first time, he found that the smile was even deeper than he thought.

Was it really because of the bond that he could so easily forgive them?

Or was it his years of yearning, from his childhood to youth, to get a simple hug or a little care that had made his heart so fragile that he couldn’t even hate these people properly?

Moon didn’t know.

Didn’t want to know either.

And he didn’t have time to know or think.

He stood up and looked at the fallen people and the two pups. They were all unconscious now, lying in the soft grass. An emerald, soft, grass-filled valley.

After coming to this world, this was the only place Moon had ever seen that looked like a place for people to live in.

No! Maybe not really for people. It was so breathtakingly beautiful; he was starting to suspect it was a scattered fragment of a fairyland.

[Your guess is half right.] Suddenly, a thin, soft voice rang in Moon’s mind.

"You are still there. I thought you abandoned me."

[Sigh! Moony, don’t blame me. Every fate has its own destination. You have yours. They have theirs.]

Moon didn’t argue. His heart felt tight. A suffocating feeling gripped him whole. He wanted to cry in someone’s arms, but there was no one.

"I did a good job keeping at least four of them alive, right?" He paused, then took a deep breath. "I deserve a reward, no?" he asked softly while going to check Axe’s pulse.

Axe was bleeding black blood from his arm and was unconscious.

[What do you want?] the Goddess asked.

"Just an answer."

[Ask.]

"Is Ugo alive?"

There was silence on the other side. Moon’s hand trembled. His fingers pressed deeply against Axe’s pulse, which drew out a grumble of pain from Axe’s unconscious throat.

"Just say it, it’s fine. It’s not like I have any feelings for any of them," he said calmly.

His stomach was churning, and he felt like throwing up.

It irritated him more than anything.

[Sigh! My child! Oh, my child!]

The Goddess’s ethereal phantom body suddenly manifested in front of Moon. She came closer and placed her hand on Moon’s head, ruffling his messy, tangled hair. The hair, although untainted, was once silky-soft with an immortal glow, now nothing but a rough bird’s nest.

Still long, though.

The Goddess fixed the cloak’s collar on Moon’s back and took his head in her arms.

As she patted his back in slow motion, Moon’s shoulders started to tremble.

Soon, a soft sob echoed in the Goddess’s chest.

"I am not crying. Not crying. Not for any bastard. Not for any of them!" His soft voice came with sobs.

[There, there. I know.] The Goddess patted him.

"Really, I am just happy I am finally freed," Moon said with some force.

[I know. I know, my baby!] she said softly.

After a while, when his shoulders finally hunched down and his tears and the moisture from his nose soaked the Goddess’s front dress, the Goddess let him raise his head.

"[Ugo is alive,]" she finally answered.

Moon’s face-wiping hand paused.

He said softly, "I don’t care. Anyway, why didn’t you say so earlier? You kept me hanging."

[I was just surprised you would want to know this as a reward.] She paused, then chuckled. [After all, you hated them. Don’t you?] she said, looking at his puffy eyes.

"Yeah, I hate them. They are unhinged cowards. I just... just... wanted to finish my mission," he said, looking around.

He felt a little embarrassed for crying.

He was all grown up now. How could he let his guard down like that! That’s unacceptable.

Thinking this, he stood up and checked the others. He checked on Leo and Rio too.

Nox suddenly stirred, and after a moment, he opened his eyes. As he sat up, he groaned in pain.

Then he suddenly became aware of his surroundings, alert. Seeing Moon was sitting not far away checking on the pups, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Where are we?" he asked as he rummaged through his satchel, searching for any potion he could find.

Moon came to look at him. He took out his own satchel and started to sniff at the potions that Witch Maestra had made.

"I don’t know, we have to find out. But I checked, and this place is a closed realm," Moon said, as he observed Nox’s reaction. Nox seemed not to be as surprised as he had thought.

The poison in the needle was not a deadly one, but the torment would gradually make them lose their minds.

Whoever had planned this had a vicious mind, and Nox knew exactly who this vicious one was: Alpha Vaelis.

Moon at last found what he was looking for and threw a bottle to Nox.

"Take this for now, but I don’t see anything here that can cure the poison. It can only relieve pain and suppress it temporarily."

Nox gulped down one sip and kept the rest for his brothers.

Then he furrowed his brows. "This is one of the lost, broken realms, probably. It can be an opportunity, and it can also hold hidden danger. We need to check it out as soon as possible." As he spoke, his now calm mind started to figure out the situation.

His gaze landed on Axe. The needle had pierced his brachial plexus, and the poison was spreading faster.

Moon took out a knife and channeled his Qi through Axe’s nerves. The poison slowly gathered in one place, and he cut the spot. As the black blood oozed, Axe woke up, coughing up another bout of blood-coated poison.

Nox came to feed him the potion. Then he turned to Chika. He didn’t ask Moon to check on him. He fed the rest of the potion to Chika and landed a wrist slap on the back of his neck, making sure he wouldn’t wake up suddenly.

"We have to find a way to go out," Nox said finally.

"Here we are safer than outside. The Alpha’s probing sense can’t come here," Moon said.

"But people who accidentally enter this kind of broken realm often die miserably."

"Is there many realms like this?"

"Not many. There are eight broken, hidden realms in this Monalis Celestia continent. But they are under all the big packs, kingdoms, and the Academies. I have never heard of one being inside the Black Sea Gorge."

Hearing this, Moon stood up and looked around.

They were in a valley. He could see a lake in the far distance and a forest in the distant skyline. On his back was a range of mountain paths. From here, it all looked emerald-green and sapphire-blue.

It was beautiful but uncomfortably silent.

"Nobody can pass the corroded Black Sea, so nobody ever knew about this broken fragment?" Moon guessed.

Nox didn’t answer. He stood up and went to Leo and Rio.

Axe was still weak, but he still sat straight. "We have to find a way to go back to the Sea Gorge. We have to find Ugo!" he said.

Moon sneered. "Find Ugo? Can he be alive?"

Axe didn’t mind his sneer.

He stood up slowly. "Do you know how to get out? You found this place, didn’t you?" he asked Moon.

Moon stared at Axe for a little while. "I do. So what? I am not omnipotent, so I can’t do everything for you."

"I—I didn’t mean that." Axe looked down at the grass, not arguing like he always did.