บท 13: Chapter 13: The Hidden Runes

When the sun lit the place the next day, Jin felt a heaviness on his chest, and a small hand opened his eyes forcefully to find Mai sitting on his chest.

"Brother, did you wake up? Luna's mean brother is waiting for you outside." Mai said.

"My little princess, lovely girls don't say such things. What does he want from me now?" Jin said, lovingly tickling his little sister's face.

After washing his face, he walked out of the room to find Du Bai at the breakfast table, sitting there like one of the family.

"I see that you loved staying here. What brought you here at this time?" Jin said while looking at Du Bai coldly.

The mother interfered. She did not like the way her son spoke to their guest, "Jin, be polite with the guest."

Then she pointed to her son to come close to her and whispered to him, saying, "Stop being isolated from the others, you have to build a friendship with people of your age, be nice to him. He is a good boy."

"Does this compliment have anything to do with the necklace you're wearing and the new ring on your finger?" Jin said with a smile on his face as he noticed his mother.

The mother smiled. It was obvious that Du Bai brought the gifts from his father's store.

"Weren't you the one who said that we shouldn't refuse free gifts, come on now, tell me, do they look good on me?" said his mother while presenting the gifts to her son.

"Yeah, yeah." Jin sighed and turned to Du Bai and asked.

"what do you want now?"

It seemed that Du Bai was waiting for this question. As soon as he heard it, he stood up firmly to say.

"What you did yesterday hurt my feelings, a friend does not ask his friend for money in exchange for his help, but I can understand your situation because you have been a prisoner. That is why I will help you get the hermit herb, I'm not going to help you because I owe you but because I want to help my friend."

"A friend, huh?" Since he's got a family, Jin thought, why wouldn't he get a friend too? He took his mother's advice, softening his tone to say.

"Okay, but let's finish our breakfast first."

Du Bai thought they'd finish the breakfast in two minutes at the most, but with Jin's appetite, it looked like it wouldn't be over soon.

"Will it take so long? We have to move immediately if we want to get the hermit herb," Du Bai said.

"Moving to where?" Jin asked, food filling his mouth.

"To the borders of the forest, someone saw a silver fox there, and it is said that wherever a silver fox is found, you will find the best herbs." Du Bai said, his eyes shining.

Silver foxes are small animals with beautiful silver hair that build their lairs near the spiritual herbs. They intentionally show themselves to humans to lead them to these herbs. The reason is that these beautiful animals do this is to feed on corpses, and certainly, while humans search for these herbs, there will be fighting and killing, whether between humans themselves or between humans and beasts.

Jin stopped eating his breakfast then turned toward his sister.

"Mai, I'm going away for a while. Be respectful to your mother, and don't forget the breathing training."

After Mai's recovery, Jin supervised training his sister at the first level of the basic realm. He was surprised by the young girl's insistence and focused on training due to her young age. The reason for her hard work was her desire to defeat her friend and rival, Luna.

After a two-hour walking, Jin and Du Bai arrived at the forest border, but they weren't the only ones there. Some young men from the nearby villages wanted to get the rare herbs too.

"Du Bai, is the hermit herb that rare?" Jin asked while looking around and checking the people who had gathered here.

"Not quite sure. Some herbalists seem to monopolize it to raise the price. If we don't get the herb this time, we probably won't be able to afford it if we want to buy it from them," Du Bai said, scratching the back of his head.

Jin looked at Du Bai with a bit of admiration. His words were in the plural, never thinking he would be a loyal friend.

"Even though it's a big crowd just for a single herb," Jin said, doubting why many people were here.

At this moment, some people started showing suspicious movements. Some young men were retreating to the east side. Jin noticed and alerted Du Bai to follow them.

The people in front of them were too old to participate in the academy's entrance examination and more powerful, which turned Jin's doubt into certainty. They were not here for something as simple as spiritual herbs.

Suddenly, Du Bai stopped Jin and pointed at a silver fox who showed himself to them, but surprisingly, none followed him.

"Du Bai, we'll split up here, I'm counting on you to get the Hermit Herb, and I'll follow these guys to find out why they came here."

With the older youth out of the picture, Du Bai's task became easy because none of the gathered people here were as powerful as him.

In an attempt to find out why the older people came to the forest, Jin separated ways with Du Bai. He followed them from afar but soon slowed his speed and hid to watch the events. A fight took place between them.

The battles between them became intense, but it was clear that they wouldn't last long; two young men had reached the middle of the soul realm destroyed everyone in moments.

The shield and spear, a young man and a girl, were moving inharmoniously, indicating their combat experience. The young man used an energy barrier as a shield to open the way for the girl's spear attack.

*slash*

A spear pierced a youth's shoulder; even his armor couldn't prevent the attack enhanced by her qi energy.

The girl with the ponytail pulled out her long spear, slowly leaving herself defenseless. Another opponent, a young man in red clothes with qi energy surrounding his body, took advantage of the opportunity to throw a powerful punch at the girl.

*boom*

The punch hit something and made a booming sound, but it didn't touch the girl's face. Instead, another energy shield was wrapped around her body, protecting her. The attacker gritted his teeth and retreated, hiding his fist that was damaged by the impact.

Jin was watching the battle smiling.

"Idiots, focusing their attack on the girl thinking she is the bigger danger, ignoring the shield's owner."

*slash*

He heard the sound of the spear piercing through the air at a crazy speed which made the young man in the red clothes forget the pain of his broken fist and involuntarily close his eyes to accept his death.

The spear passed by his side, but she did not miss her target. Instead, the person standing behind him was the real target of the attack, who was now screaming in pain after the spear pierced his arm.

When the red-robed youth saw the scene, he quickly ran from the place. After their victory, they set out for the mountain, while Jin followed them from afar. The two of them came out of the woods and reached the top of the mountain. The young man suddenly stopped and shouted.

"how long will you keep following us? Have you not heard the saying that curiosity killed the dog?"

At the age of seventeen, a young man with a strong body and the owner of a shield shouted out loud after discovering that someone was following them, but his friend interfered, correcting his words, "The cat, curiosity, killed the cat, not the dog."

"Artesia, I told you a hundred times not to do this, do not correct my mistakes in front of strangers. It makes me look bad," the young man said to the girl, looking at her in displeasure.

*whoosh*

The moment the young man turned to blame his friend, Jin threw his dagger at them without hesitation.

"Be careful "

The girl screamed, trying to alert her friend. When the young man saw the dagger flying in his direction, he rashly formed a translucent blue shield from his spirit form to protect himself. However, he didn't hear the sound of the dagger hitting the shield.

"Uhh ..."

His friend's moaning sound caught his attention. The dagger that was supposed to fly in his direction hit Artesia on her shoulder. At the exact moment, a magic circle appeared on the dagger to return the dagger to its owner's hand.

Slowly the girl raised her hand and felt the wound on her shoulder, not believing what had happened. She asked her friend while being angry.

"Arfi, were you the reason why I was injured? Did the dagger bounce from your shield then hit me?"

Artesia's angry voice made Arfi take a step back as he shook his head, denaying.

"It has nothing to do with me. There is a magic circle on the dagger. This young man changed the dagger's direction to attack you instead of me and then summoned the dagger back to his hand; he planned this attack. He knows about my shield."

"Are you saying that I am the target of his attack? Does he think that I am weaker than you? Despite the great difference in strength between us, I don't like this boy, but he took the initiative to attack us," said Artesia to Arfi in displeasure.

The two of them were behaving relaxed in front of Jin. A person in the evolution realm was no match for them. Even his sneaky attack could only injure the girl's shoulder.

"Artesia, could he have wanted your blood to use it for black magic? Maybe he'll inflict a curse on you," Arfi commented with a smile on his face,

The ponytail girl Artesia believed in black magic and feared curses. She was obsessed with a follower of the witch her family had killed in the past may appear and try to take revenge on her, perhaps even curse her.

And with the fact that Jin had used magic to change the dagger's direction and she was the target, her illusions overwhelmed her mind as she tightened her grip on the spear and gave Jin a cold look.

"You, are you a follower of that witch? I won't allow you to curse me." Artesia jumped toward Jin, angered, and attacked like a madman at Jin, who ran into the trees trying to shade her.

"Artesia, I was just kidding. Don't kill him....she'll probably kill him," Arfi said as he looked at the angry Artesia who was chasing Jin.

Minutes later, Artesia returned carrying the dagger that wounded her, and signs of satisfaction appeared on her face.

"That monkey ran away among the trees, but he dropped the dagger he wounded me with. So now I am satisfied."

Arfi sighed at her madness. This wasn't the first time she's exaggerated.

"Artesia, there is no such thing called a curse. That boy probably took a blood sample for tracking magic. We have to hurry to the mountain; we don't know how long the gate will remain open."

Artesia nodded her head and ran behind Arfi. After a short while, the two of them arrived at the place they were looking for. The view in front of them is almost unbelievable. There was a circular gate in front of the mountain whose edge rotated quickly, and bright sparks flashed.