Woosh!
Several dark figures, their identities hidden underneath their veiled robes, shuttled through the air, disappearing from one tree and reappearing on another. They blurred through the air so fast that they could make others believe their mind was playing tricks on them.
"Spread out and search in all directions." The leader of the group with striped rings on his dark robes ordered his subordinates with a sharp tone. "Cover the whole West Side; leave no stone unturned."
Without a word, the rest of the group split up, moving in pairs and vanishing into the dense forest. They searched everywhere—under rocks, inside hollow trees, near rivers, and behind cliffs. But no matter how hard they looked, they found nothing.
No footprints.
No broken branches.
Not even a hint of spiritual energy.
Farther away, other squads were doing the sa. They ran across wide areas, checking every corner. But they also ca up empty.
None of them noticed the figure watching them from above.
Noah crouched silently on a thick tree branch, his body perfectly still. He had blended into the shadows so well that even the birds didn't sense him. He slowed his breath, quieted his heartbeat, and used his cultivation to hide every sign of life. When the cultists passed beneath him, he didn't move. Only once they were gone did he shift slightly, keeping his eyes on them.
'They have already started looking.' Noah thought in mock admiration, 'Have to give it to them. They sure are efficient.'
High above the trees, bird-shaped machines flew through the air. These drones, made from tal and spirit wood, looked almost real. Their wings shimred as they glided, scanning the land below. They sent their vision back through spirit lines that led deep into the forest… to her.
Helena.
She stood alone in a quiet clearing, surrounded by tall stones marked with glowing red runes. She hadn't moved in a long ti. Her hands were behind her back, and her eyes, well, one of them—the red eye—was flashing with different scenes every ten milliseconds.
Not fast but also not slow, it was moving at a speed that allowed her to analyze each one of the images in her mind, but none of these images showed anything out of the ordinary.
She stood silently.
But her growing frustration was clear.
anwhile, deeper in the forest, Wuhan's squad moved quietly under the cover of trees. They had stuck together, close to each other, and were slipping through the forest with care. Thanks to the device Wuhan had on his hand, the group was able to mask their presence and move without being noticed.
As for the drones, Wuhan already knew about them and was moving carefully without entering their range. It was his dear friend who had told him about it, and he had been alert ever since.
The forest here was nothing like the one in the Red Fire Continent. These trees were massive—hundreds of ters tall, with thick trunks and twisting roots that ford natural tunnels. Vines hung everywhere, and so trees even glowed faintly in the dim light.
It was easy to get lost in such a place without guidance.
But Wuhan wasn't wandering blindly.
One, he had a map made by Noah, and the other, he had Sylveriel, the dumb Elf Priestess.
While they moved slowly towards the center of the continent, Noah was moving diagonally to them; he flickered through the forest at even greater speed than the cloaked figures out there looking for clues.
While moving, he even had the ti to glance towards the center of the continent. Even though there was nothing there, his eyes seed to be locked on to sothing as if they could pierce their blank space itself and see what others could not.
Woosh!
Ti slipped, minutes rged into hours and hours into days, but Noah still had yet to reach his destination.
Wuhan and his group, on the other hand, ca to a stop.
"Is this another hidden passage?" Wuhan asked, his voice dry and tired, a clear frown on his face.
In front of him, at the base of a massive ancient tree, was yet another hole hidden between thick roots. The opening led underground, dark and damp, with the sll of moss and wet earth drifting out.
Sylvheriel nodded with her usual calm expression. "Yes. This one should keep us out of the drones' sight. It's the safest route."
Wuhan sighed.
Safe?
He was starting to hate these so-called "safe" paths.
Over the past few days, Sylvheriel had led them through multiple secret tunnels—tight, muddy, and full of roots that reached out like claws. So paths were barely wide enough to walk through. Others felt like they hadn't been used in centuries.
And then there were the traps.
Old, hidden chanisms—so magical, so chanical. One wrong step would trigger a vine snare, a poison dart, or a choking fog. Worst of all, Sylvheriel was completely useless when it ca to disabling them.
Even though such things were useless against Wuhan, it was annoying to deal with such trivial things, and there were others in his group who were not immune to such attacks.
The worst of it was when they would hear the reason Sylvheriel ca up with about why she knew about these traps beforehand.
"Oh, I didn't think that one was still active," she had said once, after nearly getting them killed. She had no idea how to avoid or disarm these dangers. Every ti she opened another tunnel, the whole group groaned inwardly.
So now, standing before yet another hidden path, no one looked pleased.
They were still hesitating when a sharp whistling sound cut through the forest air.
Everyone tensed!
They didn't even need to glance at the source of the sound they had grown accustod to over the past few days.
There was no doubt about it; it was one of those drones that had been regularly patrolling the area.
There was no need for words. Everyone moved at once.
Wuhan raised a hand. "Go!"
One by one, they jumped into the hidden passage. As the last person disappeared underground, the roots and vines slid back into place. Within a matter of seconds, it appeared as if no disturbance had ever occurred.
A heartbeat later, an eagle whistled past the area that showed no signs of any intruders now.
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