The Inner Region of the Dark Moon Forest was full of dangerous beasts for people that are still in the Qi Condensation Realm, but the main reason that the forest is called a Rank 2 or Psuedo Rank 3 forest is that people don't usually see the truly powerful creatures in the Inner or Core Regions. The same applied to Mira and Maria.
They had just entered the Inner Region, but have only seen weaker Rank 2 magical beasts. Mira wanted to avoid as many magical beasts as possible, but not because she couldn't deal with these weaker beasts. What she was worried about was what came after defeating them. They didn't know if a bunch of magical beasts would come charging over to try and take the spoils from her. So they just kept exploring through the forest. If they could assassinate a beast and kill it in 1 hit then they would do that and immediately store the corpse, but most of the time they would just try to avoid any wandering magical beasts.
As they were exploring the Inner Region, they came across something peculiar. There was a small cottage in the middle of the forest. It was in perfect condition and seemed like it was just randomly placed. Maria was extremely curious and wanted to go to the cottage and started walking over to it, but Mira felt that this entire scene was eerie. Why was there a cottage like this here? Mira felt like this is something you do when you just get too bored and don't know what else to do. The only people that get too bored with things are older people that have lived a long time. In other words, it is very likely someone incredibly strong lives here. Mira had no intention to run directly into the tiger's den so she grabbed Maria and started to run the other way. Mira did not want to see or talk to some eccentric and strong old man. Maybe they could get something out of it, but they might just end up stuck listening to the ramblings of an old man.
As they ran they heard a voice that seemed right next to them.
"Why don't you come here? It's been a while since I've had visitors and it's also rare to see kids your age out here too." An aged male voice said.
"Fuck. You talk." Mira said to Maria briefly and Maria nodded and felt like that might be for the best too.
They ended up walking to the cottage and the front door opened for them as they walked up to it. They walked into the cottage and saw an incredibly old man there. He was rather tall at 210 centimeters, had long white hair, and was covered in wrinkles. He didn't have a beard and looked cleanly shaven. As they walked in they heard the same voice speak out again.
"Oho! You two really are young and the little miss there is exceptionally beautiful. Even in the cultivation world, you rarely see this kind of beauty. Also, I've never seen this kind of fox before. Come, come, let me treat you to some tea. You can tell me your story then." The old man spoke and started preparing some tea. Mira and Maria went and sat down and waited. Soon the old man came back with some tea.
"You can call me Abe or Old Man Abe, whatever works. So, what are you two kids doing this deep in the forest? It's pretty dangerous here you know?" Abe spoke again with curiosity.
"Hello, Mr. Abe. My name is Maria Zaria and this is Mira. We are here to go off adventuring and gaining experience, but our main goal is the ruins here in the forest." Maria spoke up and tried to speak in a polite tone. She knew this man was probably incredibly strong.
"You're very smart, Miss Maria. Gaining experience is extremely important to a cultivator. Gaining strength and knowing how to use it are two different things. And the Ruins huh? There is only one place that I can think of that might be what you call a ruin. It's near the border to the Core Region, but for some reason, I can't enter. There seems to be some sort of barrier in place to prevent someone as strong as me from entering. It can be hard to miss though. It's underground, so you will have to look for a cave. I was only able to spot the cave and felt the barrier. The barrier was strong enough to keep me out, so it must have some conditions to enter. I don't know if you will be able to get in, but just because I couldn't get in doesn't mean you can't. That's all I know. So, why do you want to go there?" Abe asked them.
"Well, we don't really have a reason, but Mira said that she feels this forest is more mysterious than it seems. A ruins here can't have nothing in it. So we set that as one of the goals of our adventuring. Even if it does have nothing then at least we still got to explore and gain experience." Maria tried to explain to him.
"I see. That's a good way to look at things. It also looks like you wouldn't be leaving empty-handed. I also see that you probably obtained this fox recently. I've never seen anything like this little guy here. He will be extremely powerful in the future, but even in all my years, I have never seen something like this little guy. Are you able to tell me more about him?" He asked some more.
Maria was about to speak when Mira stopped her. Mira then spoke up.
"No." That's all Mira said. Abe was surprised that some little girl spoke to him like that. Most people tried to suck up to him or gain his favor. He found it slightly interesting. He decided to push a bit more.
"Where did you encounter him?"
"The forest."
"How did you find him?"
"Luck."
"Do you know how he was born?"
"I wonder."
"You do know that I could force the information out of you right, little girl?" Abe said with a hint of killing intent. Mira just shrugged.
"Then do it." Mira said with resolve, but she also knew this old man wouldn't do it. Abe paused for a second, not expecting that answer. Then he burst out laughing.
"HAHA! Interesting! You are very interesting, little girl! If I was younger, I would want you as an apprentice! HAHA!" Abe started yelling and laughing.
"I would have declined immediately. Besides reasons such as I don't need your help until I become similar in power to what you are right now. I hate old men like you. You would probably try to make my life a living hell and bother me to no end. And since I'm too weak to kill you, then I have no way to do anything." Mira said. She might've said more info than she needed to, but part of it was just to satisfy some of this old man's curiosity.
"I see. So you would've tried to kill me if you were strong enough?" The old man asked
"Only if you kept bothering me." Mira said back to him.
"You know little girl, it's not good to be that rash. You might end up with a lot of enemies." The old man tried to give some advice.
"Then what's the point of becoming strong? If I can't kill who I wish, look down on who I wish, then what's the point? Did you become strong just so you could sit in a tiny cottage in the middle of some forest filled with ants?" Mira asked back. The old man thought for a minute.
"No, I guess not. HAHA! Now I do have a question that I know you can answer to some extent. Why did you start cultivating so young?" The man laughed and asked.
"My village was raided by bandits when I was younger. And well, look at me. It's not like I wasn't pretty back then either. If men lust over pigs, then what would go through their brains if a goddess with no power showed up? The choices were either die in a forest as a weak mortal, get captured, or get strong. At least now I'm a goddess with a bit of strength." Mira said.
"I see. So that's why. And you're probably right. You were lucky to not get captured by bandits in the first place. Well, enough of that. I can see that both of you are close to breaking through to the next stage. I'd recommend you do so before you continue your travels. You can stay here until you break through, but it probably won't be too long." Abe offered. Mira and Maria thought about it for a minute. They were very close to the next stage and they couldn't find a safer place than this. Mira didn't like the sound of staying in some random old man's house but reluctantly accepted for a couple of reasons. This old man gave them a clue that might save them months of searching and also it'll take them a while to break through in the forest while running and searching for the ruins. Mira decided that they wouldn't get a better opportunity to break through, plus if Abe wanted to do something to them he didn't have to play any tricks. He was too strong and they were too weak. So they reluctantly accepted his offer.
Abe then showed them to a room for them to stay in. They both sat down and started focusing only on cultivating.
A month quickly passed by. They had both broken through to the next stage. Since they were able to focus only on cultivating, it only took them a month to breakthrough. If they were still running in the forest, it might've taken them several months.
Mira broke through to Stage 2 Qi Condensation and Maria broke through to Stage 3 Qi Condensation. Their power went up by about 50% this time too. That's not to say that Maria is necessarily stronger than Mira though because Mira is able to collect and condense more Qi in her meridians than Maria.
Nothing special or out of the ordinary happened with this breakthrough either. They both just absorbed and condensed enough Qi in their meridians to breakthrough.
After both of them finished their breakthrough, Maria went and told Abe that they were leaving.
"Come back again!" Abe said as Mira, Maria, and Vulcan left. They both started heading for the ruins that Abe talked about that were near the Core Region of the forest.
"He sure was interesting. I never thought that I'd meet some eccentric old man out in the forest like this." Maria said as they traversed the forest.
"Yeah, I never thought we'd run into someone of that strength here either. I just hope what he told us is true." Mira said back.
"He has no reason to lie. I think we could at least go and look for it. It's the only lead we have anyways." Maria said while Mira just nodded.
They continued their journey. It was going smoothly pretty much this whole time. They barely ran into any magical beasts. But of course, a journey to the Core region can't always go smoothly. They soon realized why they haven't run into many magical beasts recently. It's because they just entered the territory of a Mid-Stage Rank 2 magical beast.
'I guess it's time for a rematch.'
Standing in front of Mira, Maria, and Vulcan was a very intimidating-looking deer-like beast. It stood there at over 2 meters tall. Its coat was almost completely black and it had red eyes. The antlers on its head looked like a tree sapling. The antlers were huge and looked incredibly hard and sharp. They even looked like wood. There was only one deer that could match this description, and this was the Nightwood Deer.
Mira had a conflicted view on deers. In worlds that don't have cultivators, creatures that look like deer are almost always passive and never attack anything. They are usually herbivores. But in the cultivation world, it's a different story. Magical Beasts generally have to fight to survive and more often than not, eating other strong magical beasts can make them stronger. Mira doesn't really know the specifics regarding magical beast growth other than a few simple things.
The deer just stood there and looked at them. It seems like it was trying to determine their strength.
Mira and Maria readied their weapons as Vulcan was also ready to fight. Mira and Maria split and charged at the deer from both sides. Mira carried the momentum of the scythe with her trying to decapitate the deer right off the bat. The deer just extended its antlers and blocked her scythe. Since the antlers had a lot of forks on them, her scythe was difficult to remove the deer's antlers. Mira then got kicked in the chest and stumbled back as she finally removed her scythe. Maria didn't have this problem since she didn't use a scythe, but she also went for the body of the deer.
The deer's ability seems that it's able to control its antlers and extend or contract them at will. The deer tried to dodge Maria's attack, but she used her Light Blade while she swung down her sword and left a gash on its body.
Vulcan ended up going for its legs. The deer kept extending its sharp antlers to charge at and attack Vulcan. Vulcan had a hard time dodging all of them while moving forward to attack its legs. He ended up getting hit a couple of times by the antlers, but he was able to reach its legs. He used his flaming claws to try and rip off its legs. The deer, of course, isn't just going to stand there. He kept swinging his head and using his antlers and kicking at Vulcan. Vulcan eventually got kicked and flew out from its legs, but he was able to dig into the bone.
Mira and Maria saw that its legs were pretty badly injured. Mira added ice to her scythe to make it a double-bladed scythe and attacked from the back. Maria went for the head and used her triple draws. She can now use it more than once without losing all of her energy, but it is still not perfect. The second and third illusory blades are still not complete, but it was still a strong attack.
Mira sent Ice Blades towards the deer's hind legs while Maria used her Light Beam towards its head and Vulcan breathed fire towards its front legs. With its head and legs targeted, it was forced to block or dodge these attacks. Maria and Vulcan charged forward together to try and destroy its head while Mira charged towards its back to try to cut it open from the back.
The deer dodged the Ice Blades with its hind legs, but when its hind legs were returning to their original position, Mira had already removed one back leg.
Maria used her triple draws on the deer's neck. The deer kept swinging its head and started to try and jump and run around, but couldn't do it since it had just lost a leg. Maria's Triple Draw destroyed part of its antlers as Vulcan leaped onto its head and started to dig into its brain. Mira continued with her momentum and removed another leg as Maria used her triple draws again and removed its head. Vulcan then leaped off the deer's head and could now take a breather.
"Maria store the corpse, I'll collect the body parts. We are leaving this area and finding a place to rest." Mira said as Maria nodded and collected the corpse. Mira stored the body parts and they left the area to get away from that area. She didn't know if any beasts would try and go there to fight for the spoils.
They ran until they couldn't see any beasts in the surrounding area then stopped.
"I think we should let Vulcan eat his fill. I don't know if he will get stronger from eating a Mid-Stage Rank 2 magical beast but might as well see and try. Flames might be best, but I have no idea." Mira suggested.
"I get the feeling that absorbing stronger flames will cause a mutation in his flames as well as strength, but I feel like he should be able to get stronger by eating other magical beasts as well. Maybe." Maria said to Mira. She was the one contracted with Vulcan.
Maria took out the deer's body and let Vulcan eat his fill. Vulcan looked at the deer's body and yipped happily. He started munching into the meat and kept eating until over half of the deer was gone. He then slowly walked over to Maria and fell asleep.
"I guess we should just get some sleep after healing with our wounds a bit." Mira said as she circulated her energy to heal her wounds. She wasn't hurt very badly and only had some minor injuries. The same goes for both Maria and Vulcan.
Night came and passed quickly. It was now time for all 3 of them to continue going towards the Core Region.
They started going through the forest at a decent speed. They have spent long enough in the forest by now that traversing through the terrain wasn't much of an issue. The only real issue is trying to avoid as many beasts as possible. The closer they got to the Core Region, the less they wanted to fight the beasts. They were able to spot some Late-Stage Rank 2 magical beasts on their way. They had no intention of fighting one of these beasts as they are equal in strength to a Stage 6 or 7 Qi Condensation Cultivator. Luckily the beast was asleep and either didn't notice them or didn't care. They decided to backtrack and go all the way around this beast. The main reason they could deal with the Mid-Stage Rank 2 Nightwood Deer was that they had Vulcan, who seemed to have the strength of a Mid-Stage Rank 2 Magical Beast, and both Mira and Maria are stronger than your average Stage 2 and Stage 3 Qi Condensation cultivator. Plus, Mira and Maria have great coordination and all Vulcan has to do is attack where they aren't attacking.
After they went around that Late-Stage Rank 2 magical beast, they continued their journey to the border of the Core Region. It took them about a week of running, hiding, and dodging to get near the border of the Core Region. They decided to fight one other Mid-Stage Rank 2 Magical Beast just to get a little more experience and it was in their way. They didn't feel like going around this one as they held the element of surprise. It was this bear-looking beast, but they couldn't identify it. It had green fur, a large horn on its head, and two long tails. Mira shot Ice Needles at its eyes. Vulcan went out and started to attack it with his fire claws. After its eyes were dealt with, Mira went in to attack his legs with her scythe. While he was busy dealing with these two, Maria was looking for an opportunity to jump in. After Vulcan left a wound on him and Mira dazed him for a second, Maria came in and used her Triple Draws and removed his head.
It all happened incredibly fast and the bear barely had any time to think or react before he was already dead. The bear wasn't that much stronger than the dear. He definitely would've been more difficult head-on though because a bear is a bit more battle-oriented than a deer.
They collected his corpse and let Vulcan eat his fill again. He ate almost all of the bear before he fell asleep. This time he slept for 2 days before he woke up. He also seemed to gain around a centimeter or two in height in the last 2 days.
After the battle with the bear, they continued their journey to the Core Region. Once they got closer to the Core Region, they had to look out for caves. Abe said that it was in a cave, but that it went underground. They didn't know how the cave looked or if it was more of a hole in the ground. They continued looking for any cave they could find. Mira felt that it would not be a big cave, but a smaller one. A large cave would be easier to spot and if the ruins is only something like a rumor in the city, then it would make sense if the cave that led to it was hard to find.
After a while of searching high and low for a damn cave, Vulcan reacted to something. All of the hairs on his body stood up. Mira noticed this change and got ready for battle. Mira looked around then spotted what Vulcan was nervous of. It was a Late-Stage Rank 2 rabbit. It was around a meter long and 50 centimeters tall. It had a horn on its forehead that emitted strands of lighting.
"Fuck. A Thunderhorn Hare and a Late-Stage one at that. I bet it lives in some small ass cave! I'm starting to get a bad feeling from this encounter." Mira muttered under her breath.
"Maria, I think that we might need to follow that beast. I have a feeling that it lives in the cave we are trying to find." Mira whispered to Maria.
They then secretly followed this rabbit around. It nearly took an entire day before the rabbit led them back to its hole. They stayed around 100 meters away from the small cave. It was slightly bigger than the tunnel that led to the lava lake.
"Should we fight it?" Maria whispered to Mira.
"Hell no! If it were a bigger beast then we might have a chance if we take it by surprise, but that Thunderhorn Hare is so small and probably extremely fast. And forget ambushing it, rabbits have very keen senses. That's how they live. If we can catch it, then we might be able to kill it as I bet that it doesn't have an incredibly strong body. The only problem is that horn and its speed. Getting stabbed by that horn at high speeds will leave a nasty would and it hits the right spot will just instantly kill us. I'd give us a 10% chance of winning. If we could catch it, then we could probably kill it in one hit. I say we wait until it leaves that little cave then sneak into there and find out if it's what we are looking for." Mira said back to Maria and she nodded back. Maria didn't want to fight it as she also felt like they couldn't win in a head-on battle.
They camped out and waited for this rabbit to come out of its hole. They had to wait for 2 days and nights before they finally saw this stupid thing move. The Thunderhorn Hare came out and looked around. Then it slowly started hopping forward. It then just launched off. The 3 of them could barely keep up with that speed. They knew it would be fast, but not that fast. It was a good thing they didn't try to fight that.
As soon as the rabbit sped off somewhere they rushed into the cave. They had to squat in the cave as it was a bit too low for them to stand. They walked as they could and soon found the end of the cave, or what seemed to be the end. Mira put her hand on the end of the cave and her hand went through the end of the cave. She was surprised to see something like this. Mira looked at Maria and Vulcan and nodded. She then walked into the end of the cave and was able to walk through. Maria and Vulcan soon followed. Their mouths dropped and they stood there with their mouths agape. The scene in front of them was simply… Amazing!
I've finally reached the Ruins! I have some great ideas for it that I hope you all enjoy. I will say that the ruins will involve a trial. If you have any ideas or something that you'd like to see, feel free to comment. I will look into it and consider it. Thanks for reading!
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