Foreign land

Taking a deep breath, the figure stood up and took out a long wooden case and opened it. Inside was a mystical long dagger with a hilt covered in blood red patterns. Using the remaining hand, the figure grabbed the hilt of the dagger and then placed the sharp pointy end of it on the other hand's lower arm that had been cut by the axe.

Looking at the lower arm, it was covered in many marks, which seemed as if many needle-like objects had once been stabbed there.

The figure applied a little force, and the pointy needle end of the dagger penetrated the skin. The figure did not intend on making the dagger dig deeper and pull out the dagger. The figure moved and tilted the lower arm to face down. After that, it allowed a drop of blood to fall on the hilt it was being held by its hand. The moment the blood made contact with the hilt, the red pattern inscriptions on it lit up with a blood red glow as if it had come alive. It seemed to have resonated with something deep in the mountain. In that moment, the figure mobilized the energy in its body to flow into the dagger.

At the moment in which the energy made contact with the dagger, the figure's mind seemed to be bombarded with a lot of information. The figure then took a breath and calmed its mind. In that moment of intense focus, it heard faint whispers.

After a short while, the figure in looked to a certain direction as if it had received a calling but then frowned upon realizing that in this direction, there was a trail of poisoned blood.

After the price it had for touching that blood, the figure decided to proceed with more caution. It then took out cloth from its back and bandaged the wrist that had been cut.

The figure picked up its axe and shook it, removing the blood from its blade edge and equipped it on it's back. After that, the figure got into a crouching position and put a lot of force in its legs. Like a catapult, the figure launched itself in the air, taking long strides. The spot the figure was standing on seemed to have been left with tiny cracks.

Moving at such speed, even the air seemed to slap at the figure's face, but it did not seem too affected by this, and kept propelling its body further.

…

In an unfamiliar place, six people moved slowly and steadily.

"There's actually such a hidden place in this desolate mountain", Cui Rong was astonished.

She was not the only one in shock. It was the same for the rest of the members.

"How can the moon be so bright here?", Wu Zhengyi also noticed a stark contrast that the rest had ignored.

Hanging in the sky was the same full moon that had lit their surroundings this entire night, but it was not this bright. Back when they encountered the saber-toothed jaguar, they could only see five to ten meters ahead of them.

Looking around, they could actually see at least fifty to seventy meters ahead, though not clear as daylight, but it was still bright. In fact, they felt they should have been able to see more, but the wind here made that difficult.

Si Niang, who was ahead, was lost in thought, looking at all this.

"What a strange place.", he thought.

Meanwhile Bai Ming felt a bit of familiarity with this kind of surrounding, and even felt as if the air here was completely different, though he could not pin point where exactly this feeling came from, he was sure it had something to do with his dreams.

If one looked carefully, they would notice that this piece of land did not seem to fit well with the rest of the mountain. It was filled with vegetation that had a pale frost appearance, and the air in this land was so cold accompanied by strong winds that obscured the groups vision. It seemed as if it was winter already.

The ground was also covered with a layer of snow and frost.

Looking back, they could only take a guess which direction they had come from, because of the snowy wind , they could not even see anything clear only faint shadows and figures in the distance.

In this place, the group could feel their blood turn cold. Chi Huo's brows furrowed, getting a sense that this was not a good place to stay in.

Time passed, and the group had travelled at least five hundred meters but did not even know where they were at now.

Others like Li Tian were now wondering if they had taken the wrong direction or not. In a place like this, where it was constantly snowing and windy, tracks would be erased in no time.

As they walked further, they saw a beast's body, which seemed to be buried in the snow.

Bai Ming walked closer and tried to pull it out, but the body did not even budge. The rest of the group noticed this.

Chi Huo walked closer and took the hammer like weapon from his back. The others were confused by actions. As far as they could see, there was no danger in the surroundings. Holding the hammer in hand, Chi Huo took a swing towards the body buried in the snow. Seeing this, Bai Ming extended a hand towards him as if to stop him, but his actions were too slow.

BANG!!!

The sound echoed in the surroundings.

With a crisp sound, which seemed as if something was cracking, a part of the body fell separated from the main body. Looking at it, they could see some organs and blood, but it's appearance was quite familiar to the group.

It was the same poisoned dark red blood with a purplish hue.

Wasn't this the same poison affecting them?

At the very least, now, some of their doubts were cleared by this. They wouldn't have to worry if they were going in the wrong direction.