?***
the Red Sun slammed his mug on the table, "d.a.m.n they really do work fast," he said.
"I told you, he is a brilliant guy," said the Lord of Lords.
"It's still far though, the source of the plague," said the Red Sun.
"Yes, but they're on the right path, you already saw how he figured out how the Walkers were made," the Lord of lords said.
"But that means nothing, he must find the source of the corruption for our bet to be valid," said the Red Sun.
"At the rate they're going, I'm feeling like the bet is in still in my favor," said the Lord of Lords.
***
"This makes our job here clearer. Let's find a way out first, with this information we can get the general to act up on it and find out who is artificially creating the walkers or at least hosting them within the mountains," said Old Fu.
"You're right, trying to figure out answers for these questions here is like a blind cat trying to catch mice. It won't work. We rested enough, let's keep following the map, we should be able to discover and explore more terrain," I said as I stood up.
"What about your pet?" the captain said.
"Don't worry about her, she'll be following close by," I said.
I glanced at the map for a final time and said, "We'll keep heading north, from what I see here, it will take us a few days to enter the deeper parts of the Dark Garden." I said
"We'll be beyond the map's pathing," old Fu said.
"That's the idea, since the map has no way to show us how we can leave," I said.
"What about we take the same path we came in from?" he asked.
"That is also an option, but it will be our final method, we're here already, and we have no information regarding this Dark Garden, if anyone isn't willing to follow me, you're free to go back to the village," I said.
No one seemed willing to leave our group. I don't know if it's due to my strength or the fact that they're not too trusting of the tribesmen.
So we headed forward.
The garden's atmosphere was dreary at best. Especially this region that was full of the dead bodies of these ants.
Suddenly as our group was moving, I heard a thud sound behind us.
Looking back, one of the soldiers had fallen on the ground and was heaving. His breath and respiration was irregular.
I approached the man, and opened his eyes, his eyes were bloodshot and he had something throbbing under his right arm.
I tore his sleeve away and it revealed a large pustule that was growing on his arm.
"Everyone, back away," I said.
"What's going on?" asked old Fu.
"He was stung," I said.
There was a small needle like object at the base of the tumor sized pustule and it was still pumping in toxin form what I saw.
"How did he not feel the sting, and what was the sting from to cause an emperor level cultivator to fall to his knees," said the captain.
"Remember, as long as we're here, we're not at our peak cultivation base, also this thing is strange, the reaction this sting caused should have killed him, but he is still hanging on," I said as I pulled a small scalpel from my holding bag.
I made a small incision to empty out the blob, and let out a disgusting amount of pus and black blood out.
The man's complexion immediate turned for the better, but it was not a treatment.
"Eat this," I said as I gave the man a pill of mine. The group around me didn't know what sort of pill it was but none of them stopped me.
I continued extracting the entire thing out of his arm using the scalpel, and soon fresh blood began seeping out from the wound.
After that I placed a balm on his arm to cover newly exposed and fresh flesh, and handed the man another blood pill to increase his blood production.
"Carry him," I ordered one of the soldiers who did so with haste.
"This isn't going to work," I said as I looked around, "We're in a dangerous area and have no idea what sort or type of creatures are around us. One wrong move and we won't even know how we died," I said.
"Are you sure you don't want to return?" I asked the group.
They hesitated this time.
Just as the captain opened his mouth to speak, my sword went flying by next to his ear. This was enough for the man's mouth to instantly close.
"That was close," said old Fu as he went to retrieve the sword.
"I apologize if I had offended you in any way or form!" said the captain.
"What are you talking about? Look behind you," I pointed.
The captain followed my finger and noticed that the sword I chucked had something imbedded in its end.
Old Fu retrieved the sword and the creature that was stabbed with it.
It was a wasp of sorts. That thing was the size of a cat. And had powerful glistening wings that even though the bug was flapping them with enough speed that a small breeze was blowing out, they didn't make a single sound.
This bug was dark in color and looked vile. Sharp looking and malformed jaws adorned its mouth, along with an oversized belly that ended in a protruding stinger that was dripping green liquid.
The stinger looked similar to what I extracted from the soldier before.
"We're in a new region I suppose," I said as I glanced at the bug. I then snapped my finger and incinerated the bug.
"I thought you'd keep this for further investigation," said old Fu.
I shook my head, "I can't risk that with bugs, they can release pheromones that will call more companions, we don't want a full hive of this thing following us. This isn't a safe region for us to remain in," I said.
"We need to leave the area then," the captain said, "If they're able to get that close to us without us realizing we'll be in trouble if we stay here," he added.
"You're right, but we need some precautions," I said as I sat down on the ground and pulled several empty talisman papers.
I began writing inscriptions using Poison Qi. These will not be disabled by the atmosphere and will act as a good method to notify us when something enters the perimeter of the holder.
After I was done, I gave each person one of these talismans, "Keep them close to your skin, they'll turn hot if something that isn't among us enters within a five-meter radius of any of you," I said.
Just as they placed them on their bodies.
Suddenly one of the soldiers shouted, "Ouch!"
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I didn't think that it would be hot from the start. is it supposed to get hotter or something, it almost burnt my skin off,"
Both I and Old Fu looked at each other for a second, and I instantly pulled out my sword.
"We have company!"