Chapter 9: Trap

In the darkness of the night, inside a lush forest near the City of Wind.

Marlene was crouching next to a bush and carefully scrutinizing every single leaf on it, apparently searching for something.

Although it was almost pitch black, with only the moonlight to slightly illuminate the surroundings, Marlene seemingly had no problems searching in the darkness.

She had long adapted to darkness, being able to see partially without light.

After having adapted to sleeplessness—and sleep soon after—she'd had a lot of time to get her eyes adapted to the darkness.

'Where the hell did you go you little bugger?!'

Currently, she was out searching for poisonous and venomous bugs with a small leather pouch in her hand while Xuan Feng was asleep.

Although she lacked formal knowledge about the creatures of this world—her family's modest bookshelf didn't include any bestiaries—Marlene still knew how to spot the kinds of bugs she needed. Evolution, after all, tended to leave behind certain patterns, and poison was rarely subtle.

'There!'

She suddenly threw her hand forward towards a particular leaf on the bush.

It was a small, jewel-colored beetle, its shell a shiny mix of crimson and cobalt.

'Too bright'

She thought.

'Those colors aren't camouflage. That thing wants to be seen'

After carefully picking up the beetle, she wrapped it in a leaf, sealed it carefully with some resin she had gathered from the trees along the way, before throwing it in her pouch

Inside the pouch was an unnerving sight that made one's skin crawl.

Tens of leaf-balls—moving and struggling to break free of their constraints and unleash their venom upon the world.

She had been gathering various insects with poisonous and venomous properties ever since they set foot in this forest.

It was all in preparation to advance her adaptation to poison.

Just as she closed the mouth of her pouch and hung it on her waist, she heard a faint scream from far away.

Her body tensed—that scream was clearly from a little girl.

'Fuck! I have to do something!'

She quickly turned around and started running away from the source of the sound. A few seconds later, she came across a tree.

"Xuan Feng! Wake up!"

From her prior experiences, she knew that they wouldn't be able to hear telepathic messages when they were asleep, so she had to come and wake him up herself.

From one of the branches of the tree a couple meters high, a rattling sound came before Xuan Feng jumped out of the leaves that he used as a cover onto the ground, and landed smoothly on his feet.

"What is it?"

He asked calmly, he wasn't worried about being under attack because Marlene was shouting to wake him up—this would've already given out their position to the enemies. 

He knew Marlene wouldn't do something that stupid.

"I heard the scream of a girl, northeast."

Marlene said quickly as she began running to where she heard the sound from.

Xuan Feng furrowed his brows briefly, unsure if it was a wise idea to intrude upon the business of others when they were in such a weak and precarious position themselves.

He wasn't drunk on the power of his previous life. Although he had some emergency means and retained his skills, he knew that at the end of the day they were in the body of mere children.

'If it comes to it, I'll just sacrifice some of my broken soul to activate the relic...'

After making up his mind, he started running after Marlene, though he soon got left behind because of his weak constitution and stamina.

He didn't fault Marlene for not slowing down for him—the situation demanded urgency.

As Marlene got closer to the source of the scream, amidst the darkness, she saw the silhouette of a girl hanging from the branch of a tree upside down.

She couldn't see the details of the girl since she was still quite far away, and her darkness adaptation wasn't that advanced yet.

'A trap?...'

After she realized that the girl was caught in a trap, she urgently softened her footsteps, taking care to not make a sound.

'If someone set up a trap here, that means they will be coming to collect their prey soon.'

Although she didn't know the context behind this event, she was certain of not standing by as a girl got kidnapped in front of her eyes—no matter the reason.

'It's possible that she accidentally stepped in a trap for beasts set up by the hunters, but I don't think that's the case right now.'

'What could a girl so small be doing alone so deep in the forest at this time? It doesn't add up, there is definitely something fishy here...'

After a bit of thinking, she slowly closed in onto the girl using the surrounding shrubbery as cover.

Meanwhile...

"Huff, Huff... Fuck, I didn't realize I wouldn't even be able to do a little running!"

Xuan Feng complained, heaving large breaths while he lay on the ground.

Although he had been training his body for a long time now, because of his innate constitution, he would stay weak and frail no matter the amount of training.

'I need to quickly get that treasure from the Verdant Earth sect to properly be able to use my body...'

In his past life, it had been a string of fortuitous encounters that led him to discover the existence of a peculiar treasure—one capable of remedying the flaw in his physique.

But now, armed with knowledge of those events and joined by an unexpected companion, he could claim that treasure far earlier than before...