72 Light pt.1 3 (1/2)

Mero whistled as she stared at the crater \”You're lucky this area was mostly flat land before, and not very inhabited, or else you would have greatly angered the spirits of this forest.\”

\”The spirits of this forest?\” Mao Lu looked around himself, he was somewhat aware of existences like spirits in his own Realm, but he didn't know much about them.

\”Yep, Karne Forest in general has a concentrated amount of essence in it. Lots of spiritual plants and special medicines grow here. Many spirits form from the plants and the dead ghosts of animals or people which linger here. The forest is alive and has a will of its own. Of course since this realm is only a mortal one with low quality essence, the spirits in Karne forest can't be compared to the spirits found in Immortal and Celestial Realms. I hear that in those Realms there is so much pure essence that they are abundant with strong spirits and beasts, and that one must be careful wherever they go.\” Mero glanced at Mao Lu who had a thoughtful expression on his face, her eyes secretly narrowed with suspicion as she looked at him.

\”Though don't worry, the spirits of this forest aren't very strong and are generally quite tame and peaceful. You're not in any danger from them.\” she said, patting him on the back. \”And even though that hole is big it didn't cause too much damage.\”

Mao Lu nodded, \”I'll take your word for it.\”

\”Let's go.\” Mero said before turning and running up the side of a tree. Mao Lu gaped, the tree was as tall as a skyscraper.

\”Come quickly, it's faster to travel by treetop.\” she yelled as she scurried up and swung on the branches like a monkey, hopping from one tree to the next.

Mao Lu's expression was frozen. \”There's no way I can climb that.\”

Mao Lu had always been quick on his feet and agile, but that was one thing and climbing a large skyscraper sized tree was another. And there was no way he could swing from those vines like Tarzan.

\”Come on you slow poke, don't just stand there. The sun is going down, the predators of the forest will be coming out soon. We need to go!\” Mero yelled from a distant treetop.

Mao Lu momentarily considered using essence to fly, but Mero thought he was a regular mortal, if he did that it would be blatantly telling her he was a practitioner, and then she'd be scared of him all over again.

So instead Mao Lu gave in and decided to start climbing.

He was immediately surprised by how light his body felt, he pulled himself up as if he were sustaining the weight of a feather. And soon he found himself running up the side of the tree, scaling it so quickly that he felt like his feet weren't even touching the side. He was going as fast, no even faster than Mero had.

He felt the wind rush through his hair and he somehow found this far more exhilarating than flying, but what excited him more was how much his strength had improved. His body alone could cause an asteroid like crater, meaning it was immensely heavy and tough, yet he was also weightless and so very fast. It was bizarre. Since he'd broken through to the Wielding stage this was the first time Mao Lu was appreciating his own physical transformations properly. He couldn't help but laugh out loud, he felt powerful in a different way than how all his other abilities made him feel.

Mero watched Mao Lu from the corner of her eye and bit her lip. She was wary of him. Mero didn't actually believe Mao Lu was a mortal. She was just stalling for time.

Even if his ship had self destructed there would still be pieces of the wreckage left, but other than Mao Lu there had been nothing else in that crater. He also seemed to ignorant about this Realm. Every planet in Realm ten had a spiritual forest, spirits in forests were common knowledge, yet he hadn't known about them. Was he someone from another Realm?

Also, even if you were from rich mortal family and could afford fancy charms, charms were only charms. Charms were created by transferring essence. When a practitioner transferred essence and put that essence into an object for an intended purpose it became a charm. There were protective charms, charms to enhance your appearance, and charms to give you an a certain ability. The charm itself only had up to 20% of that practitioners power, at most 60%, charms with 90% essence retention were legendary and extremely expensive. Not even rich mortals could afford one.

And even if Mao Lu did have such a legendary charm, to survive a crash of that magnitude without a scratch, the practitioner who made that charm would have to be at the Dao stage at least, and what kind of mortal would know a Dao stage Practitioner personally, especially in this Mortal Realm. Dao stage Practitioners are rarely found in Mortal Realms, finding one in an immortal Realm is also not very common, celestial realms were where Dao stage practitioners tended to live. Adding it all up just none of it made any sense.

In Mero's mind there was no doubt about it, this man had to be a practitioner. She was scared, but so far Mao Lu didn't seem to be the evil or tyrannical type of practitioner and he appeared to be hiding his identity. Mero wondered if 'Mao Lu' was even his real name.

Her plan for the moment was to take him back to the village and then she would inform her Father and the village elders. If they saw him as a threat they would contact the good Practitioners at the border of the continent to come deal with him, if he was friendly then they would just let him stay, pretend they believed his story of being a mortal, and just patiently wait for him to leave on his own.

Mero didn't know what Mao Lu's intentions were but she hoped they were peaceful.

...

They got to the top of a purple tree that oversaw the entire forest. Mao Lu was certain this tree was as tall as a mountain. The air even felt thin up there.

To the left of Mao Lu a loud hooting sound erupted from a nearby cliff.

Mero breathed in and began hooting as well.

She communicated like this with the other hidden person for a while before turning to Mao Lu and saying, \”We're all good now, I have informed the watcher of the village about you and we can now enter.\”

Mero then proceeded to jump from the purple tree, diving headfirst into a shallow lake below.

Mao Lu was momentarily stunned, but he still copied and did the same.

He instinctively flinched when he dove into the lake, thinking he was going to hit the bottom hard, but instead he didn't hit anything.

When he opened his eyes he was standing on top of the lake and in front of him was a gorgeous underground village with building made of blue and green crystals.

Mero wasn't standing too far from him, \”Welcome to Karne Village.\”

________________________________________

REALM 145, BEIJING, XICHENG, ZHAO DETONG'S APARTMENT

Tanaka silently drank his hot chocolate. Bei Lao was sitting next to him, Fei Bing Bing and Zhao Detong were opposite. There was a gloomy atmosphere among the four.

\”This is all so fucked up.\” Fei Bing Bing sighed rather soullessly. \”Qi Zhou and those officers get ruthlessly murdered in the hospital, Frank disappears, and Mao Lu has just up and vanished.\”

Nobody really paid attention to Fei Bing Bing's words, they all knew the situation.

Zhao Detong cradled his phone in his hands as he called Mao Lu, his phone rang out until the voicemail came on again, \”Hi, this is Mao Lu, sorry I can't take your call right now. I will get back to you, if it's urgent leave a message.\” then the phone chimed. \”Please leave a message after the tone...BEEEP.\”