Where Is He?

There are three groups concerning Zhou Ying. The group that doesn't really care about his location all that much, the group that's inconvenienced by his existence and wants his location, and the group that's infuriated by Zhou Ying and wants to tear him to pieces.

Before Zhou Ying died and was possessed by an old soul, he was a student of the New Moon Profound Palace. He was still a student after he died and he's still a student even now while he's wandering through the Dark Forest.

Since Li Zhao was the last person who saw him, even he was wondering where Zhou Ying went. New Moon Profound Palace is a place of teachings that cares about its students even if some teachers can be standoffish. One of their own going missing without a word or a clue as to where they might be concerns them.

A few elders employed students to ask around for searching Zhou Ying's whereabouts, but when they found zero results, the palace eventually just lowered the priority to a minimum. Zhou Ying's teacher was callous about the situation as well and most of the students couldn't care either.

The young cultivator was but a boy who was merely level three of the Elementary Profound Realm before he went missing. It may seem cold, but caring about somebody as weak as that is foolishness in the Profound Sky Continent. The simple rule of the strong being the only people that matter is almost ironclad if not for the concept of connections existing. Since Zhou Ying lacks both though, he was naturally discarded.

Li Zhao's curiosity of where Zhou Ying went was swiftly replaced by the desire to cultivate and gain greater strength, the common belief in strength pervading in many people's mind and becoming a large priority. Where Zhou Ying went didn't really matter to New Moon Profound Palace all that much.

On the other hand, there were two other factions that cared about that brown-haired cultivator's location. The profound beasts of the forest, more specifically the wolves who are being hunted down with prodigious speed, and Xiao Sect Branch Sect. Both of those parties have suffered under Zhou Ying's dextrous hands, his inclination toward thievery hurting the outer disciples of the Xiao Sect greatly.

For the profound beasts of the forest, Zhou Ying is quickly becoming an irritation to them. There's a large difference between the Xiao Sect and other cultivators who go to the forest to hunt and then leave and Zhou Ying making the forest his home and mowing down the local ecosystem every day.

The wolf population, especially, has to deal with a great annoyance. The number of profound beasts that actually dwell within the forest is an innumerable amount that it'd take months for a group of powerful cultivators to clear out.

However, when one person is attacking a single area of the forest and causing profound beasts to flee to another region, it creates a snowball affect of disturbing the territories of other beasts, which in turn makes the forest chaotic and noisy. The rate of death in the forest has increased with Branch Sect disciples taking the majority of the casualties. This is the reason why an elder created a mission to hunt down Zhou Ying.

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Now that there's a mission to hunt him down with the reward being a True Profound weapon, inner disciples are going to choose to take the plunge and search for Zhou Ying. To reduce the danger level for the forest and to fulfill their vengeance on a cultivator who dares to infringe of the dignity and lives of the Branch Sect is the goal of the outer and inner disciples.

"Tufu Shao, do you have your bows and arrows stocked?" Two arrogant people are taking this mission, assured of their victory against Zhou Ying who's only been targeting people much weaker than them.

"Yes. Let's go get our reward, brother Lin." The cocky smiles on their faces didn't waver in the slightest as they exited the Branch Sect and entered the dark forest. They took Poison Breaking Pills in advance to protect themselves from areas with toxic smog and certain toads and snakes. Their cultivations were in the later parts of the Nascent Profound realm and they were very experienced in navigating the forest.

They were certain that their target wouldn't be able to escape them, let alone beat them.

The cultivator in question is actually doing very fine at the moment. If the two bothered groups knew about how he was thriving, they would turn the forest upside down in an instant to hunt him down with fervor. There's no way they'd believe that a single cultivator can survive in this forest without struggling with the poisonous beasts, the dangerous True Profound Beasts that come stomping in from time-to-time, and a wide assortment of other dangers. Indeed, Zhou Ying has actually been quite fortunate.

Being in the region where he is, it's a surprise that he hasn't run into a True Profound Beast yet. He's currently sitting crosslegged in a tree, absorbing the energy of an Earth-aligned Nascent Profound Core while ruminating on the foggy memories of a person who was experienced with Earth Laws. He doesn't remember how they did it, but he wants to at least be a shade of them to honor their memory.

The light-yellow hue of Zhou Ying's profound veins grew a shade darker and the energy within began building up and compressing. The muscle memory of breaking through would allow there to be no real bothersome bottleneck.

Within a few breaths, Zhou Ying broke through to the Nascent Profound Realm.

He's saving the other three Profound Cores for when they're necessary. Using them for a quick surge of profound energy to win a battle or escape danger is a more efficient manner of using them instead of just purely increasing strength. He can do that by just cultivating normally.

Zhou Ying stood up, prepared for more hunting.

At that moment, an ethereal voice in his head forced him to put a pause on his plans. "You..." Searching his memory, he has no recollection nor a feeling of nostalgia toward the voice, which means it's a completely foreign one carrying the possibility of danger.

Zhou Ying waited for a few minutes to see if the voice would act up again, but it seemed to be a one-time thing for now.

"So, there really is a secret to this place." The mysterious voice confirmed it. To speak in a cultivator's mind requires a high level of cultivation. Not only that, but the profound energy of this forest has a very slight hint of something not from this plane.

Zhou Ying would boldly claim that he's the only person in the world who would be able to feel such an oddity because of the nature of his Profound Art. Esoteric Depths can refine all energy, and as a byproduct, it can observe even the smallest particles of anything no matter how esoteric or strange it may be. Nothing can escape its clutches.

"Mn. After I uncover the secret, I'll leave this place." Even if there are stronger beasts to train against, staying in one place for too long limits one's horizons and experiences. Zhou Ying needs to be more than what he was before if he's going to successfully take revenge.

There's also the slight issue of the people he's robbing alerting their superiors and bringing them over to kill him. He's pretty much offended them to a noticeable degree by beating a bunch of them up for a week.

"One more week then."

Zhou Ying started to go deeper into the forest, where his life would truly be threatened. His goal was to search for the origin of that voice. His instincts told him that'd it would be in a more lethal region of the forest, and he remembers his gut being spot-on sometimes.

Therefore, he'll risk his life like he always has in the past. To reach the future, Zhou Ying will embrace his past.