Secret World

Over in Silver City, the mayor was furious over the incident. Although one of many, the Wailings was a branch clan connected to the mayoral clan. While not a clan he particularly cared about, he definitely couldn't accept that some random fellow dared to kill them.

"You haven't found him yet?!"

As a middle-aged man at late Sky Realm, when he stomped with his right foot and roared, it literally shook the room and pounded the ears of his advisors. The mayor would usually discuss things with the heads of the three strongest sects that made Silver City their base, but even in this enraged state he knew not to expose his distress.

"My apologies, we've sent in several spies but none of them can figure out where he went or who he is."

One of his advisors and an elder of his clan replied with a blank expression. Despite being weaker than him, with only an early Sky Realm cultivation, it was obvious that he wasn't afraid of him during his tantrums.

"Tch, useless."

The mayor dropped back into his chair with an irritated expression while rubbing his forehead. If it was as simple as he heard, then the culprit killed his son because he offended him somehow. It sounded logical enough, but just because that was all they found out, didn't mean there was nothing else. While it would be better if this matter was that clear, the mayor had no lack of enemies both inside and outside the city.

As the cities were getting ready to raid Malirin Forest, Shui and Cin were exploring the secret world. From what the other beasts said, the entrance point in the secret world was fixed, and at that point there was a forest with very aggressive mutated flora. This was a place they would like to take their time looking through, but they could only stay in the secret world for ten days so they had to be sure that whatever they were looking for was worth it. In the forest were many herbs and fruits that could be of benefit to a beast's cultivation, so one could obtain a great harvest from here alone.

However, Shui and Cin left the area in just two days. This didn't mean they ignored the possible rewards, they only stuck to collecting the ones on their path because both of them were more interested in what they could obtain deeper in the secret world. Furthermore, while the fruits they found along the way tasted good, neither of them could get much benefit from them due to their circumstances. With Shui's body cultivation and need for divine energy, herbs of this level couldn't do anything for him, and for Cin, it just stopped being effective after eating around ten.

As for any mutated flora that tried to stop them, a quick two slaps or chops were enough to get rid of most. For the beast spirits, it was a life or death battle and even for some high beasts it was a struggle, but both them could detect the mutated flora even as they hid so they could avoid surprise attacks, instantly reducing most of their threat.

After making it through the forest, they were welcomed to a misty plain. With their excellent visions, they could see skeletons and carcasses both big and small hiding in the mist. These were the remains of evolved beasts who once fought in the secret world in order to rule it. The weaker beasts, said to be high beasts and below, became fertilizer that eventually turned into the forest they came from, while these beasts were capable of retaining their bones despite the several millennia that had gone by. However, this wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the mist that drastically slowed down the decay. Otherwise, only the bones of a legendary beast could last for so long. This plain had the potential of giving better rewards than the forest, but only if one was lucky. Due to the nature of evolved beasts, it wouldn't be surprising if one could find a piece of the inheritance of a beast inscribed into its bones.

Unfortunately, once again, this was of little use to the two of them. Shui couldn't use the inheritances from the bones since he wasn't a true evolved beast, and though Cin's parent was only a beast lord, his bloodline was far stronger than those who had died here. Therefore, they quickly made it past this region as well. It only took them a day, but since there were some who completely skipped the forest and took their time with the misty plain, they could see others who had entered with them.

These beasts were all either veterans or wealthy enough to ignore the benefits in the first two regions. When Shui and Cin got closer to them, they noticed that there were two groups of beasts with the larger one seeming to be blocking the other. They were curious so the two of them stopped to hear what was going on.

"Are you serious?!" growled one giant lion.

The one who replied was a dog with two pointy tails that wasn't any smaller.

"Of course. Isn't it natural for the strong to devour the weak? Besides, some of it will be taken by the great beast lord when you leave anyway, so you might as well just give them to me in advance."

"Grrr..."

Even though the larger group was planning to rob the other group of their harvests, none of them could argue against his logic. Furthermore, there was always something similar happening every exploration so most of them couldn't bother wasting time when they knew talking wouldn't change anything. Right as Shui and Cin sighed in disappointment, a conspicuous group appeared.

"Look, it's the crown panthers!"

Many faces brightened up among the beasts in the smaller group as they saw the crown panther great beast leading three of its kind. Even if the other group had the strength to pressure them, they didn't think they would dare do the same to the crown panthers so they were excited to see how they would act. However, their hopes were betrayed as the crown panthers simply walked past the commotion and the larger group didn't try to stop them.

This shocked some of the smaller group, but there were also those who looked resigned. They were well aware that the crown panthers wouldn't interfere as long as they got what they wanted. Rather, collecting from fewer people was more convenient to them.

After the crown panthers left without anything happening, the atmosphere got tense between the two groups. Surely, there would either be a big fight or a simple surrender, but there were two who didn't care about what would happen next.

"Oi! Where do you think you're going?"

As Shui and Cin tried to leave without getting involved, the dog leader stopped them. Since Cin didn't increase his size, the dog leader was able to tower over both of them but neither showed any concern.

Cin lazily looked up at it and said, "We've already eaten what we picked up."

"And how do I know you're not lying?"

As the dog leader seemed dead set on picking on them as well, Cin glared at him. Honestly, while Cin was nothing in the face of his gang, he wouldn't mess with Shui if he didn't have a choice. Unfortunately, he was ordered to test how strong they were.

"Fine, if that's how you wanna do this-"

Cin took a step towards it, but was blocked by Shui's figure.

"We don't have time to waste here." he said.

While he wouldn't want to admit it, Cin knew that Shui could handle this much faster than he could, so he stepped back and allowed him to take the stage.