The Second Necklace

Peter finished tending to his wounds and wanted to go continue to look for his daughter right away, yet, he wobbled as he got up and fell.

-" Why don't you rest a bit more?" Henry was worried about Peter's state, after all, his safety depended on Peter.

Peter grinned, he was far too anxious to sit still. " Sorry... Just worried about my daughter." He sat down and closed his eyes, trying his best to calm his woes.

It was almost noon, and they took advantage of the time spent resting to eat, as their last meal was before departing to the mountain, and only returned to searching after finishing their meal.

The two of them were quite weary, so their speed went slightly down, but, Henry was still confident that they would find the whereabouts of Peter's daughter.

-" Can I ask what method are you using to find the necklace location?" Peter was curious about the man's technique.

-" Secret." Henry smiled, he could try to come up with an intricate lie, but, he decided that it wasn't worth it, and to his surprise, Peter accepted it without any more questions.

Henry sighed as he thought about how people would react to learning about the system, and if one day its existence would have to come out. Previously Henry never cared about those things as he just thought as a quick way out of poverty and weakness, but, after the robbery, he began to wonder what the system truly was, and where it came from.

He was sure that someone from the Star Gazing Sect had used the system before him, he couldn't just warp his head how a sect that held such a powerful thing had been destroyed.

Henry was too engrossed in his thought to notice Peter halting his steps, and bumping into him. -" Huh? Did something happen?" Henry was confused as to why Peter had suddenly stopped walking, but, he immediately understood what made the man stop.

The entire path ahead was completely covered by an eerie mist, one could barely see a few meters ahead due to the thick mist.

-" Are we going in?" Henry observed the mist closely, the forest was a mystical place, but, he had a suspicion that this wasn't a natural occurrence.

-" We may get lost inside the mist." Peter had the same thoughts as Henry. " Grab my shoulder and don't lose hold of it."

Henry was relieved that he had the system's map, making it possible for him to guide Peter, he couldn't imagine how nervous he would be if he had to walk through the mist without any help.

-" There is a river just ahead, turn left." Henry quickly alerted Peter, who was walking directly to a big river.

Peter was surprised by Henry's warning and went in the direction he gave, and after walking a few more steps he began to hear the sound of flowing water.

He wondered how he could sense his surroundings, as Peter himself who was in a higher cultivation realm had no way of even knowing where he was heading at, he was even suspicious that this was the method that he wanted to use to find the necklace of his daughter.

As Henry contained guiding Peter through the fog, the color of the map began to turn red, indicating a change in the energy density of the area. -" Careful ahead, there is a small cliff." Henry focused on the map as he didn't know where to go from there. " To our left, there is a small mountain, and if we go to the right we will meet the river again."

-" What is beyond this cliff?" Peter was sure where to go,

-" A small plain, I think." The system's map didn't give this much information, only the presence of rivers, mountains, cliffs, and hills, so henry was completely oblivious to what lay beyond the cliff.

-" Can we jump it?" Peter had a hunch that they should keep going forward.

-" I don't think that I can jump it." Henry sighed, if not for the system he would be a deadweight to Peter. " But, it's likely that you can."

-" The cliff is right in front of us right?" Peter grabbed Henry and threw him on his shoulder. " Hold on!" Peter sprinted ahead, his eyes completely focused on the path head.

-" Jump! Jump!" Henry widened his eyes in shock as they approached the cliff, Henry closed his eyes as he felt the air brushing against him, and held tightly onto Peter, only calming down after Peter landed and put him back on the ground. " you could have at least warned me." Henry's hands still trembled from the surprise.

-" Sorry, I just thought that this way would be faster." Peter smiled as he saw Henry's reaction, he was now sure that he wasn't an experienced cultivator like he previously thought. " So? What direction do we take now?"

Henry took a deep breath as he looked at the map, and froze as he saw a small flashing red dot on it. " Peter?"

-" Is everything okay?" Peter was worried as he saw the shocked expression on Henry's face.

-" T-T-The necklace!" Henty jolted up and shook Peter. " I found the necklace!"

Peter froze as he heard Henry's words, he barely had any hopes of finding what happened to his daughter. " You found it?" Tears poured from Peter's eyes, and the emotions from finally discovering what happened to his daughter were too much for him to handle.

-" Let's go!" Henry saw how emotional he was and pushed him, the afternoon was almost ending, and they had to get out of the forest before the night fell.

Henry and Peter sped through the forest, this time Henry took the lead as Peter still hadn't recovered from the initial shock. The mist slowly began to dissipate as they approached the location on the map, however, they began to hear a weird noise as they grew closer to the location on the map.

Henry didn't pay much attention to the noise at first, but, the noise grew louder as they neared the necklace, and it finally reached the point that Henry's ears began to bleed.

-" What is that?" Henry stopped as he tried to block his ears, only to find that not even this lowered the noise.

-" Are we inside a defensive formation?" Peter gritted his teeth as he tried to endure the pain, his eyes were bloodshot and blood also came out from his ears.

-" A formation?" Henry only had elementary knowledge about many topics of the cultivation world. " What we should do?" The pain was unbearable that Henry found it difficult to continue forward.

-" I don't know, we can only endure it." Peter bit his lips and continued to walk, each step he took made the noise grow even louder.

Henry was about to follow Peter when he heard the system's voice ranging inside his head. -' Host's soul is being attacked, the systems suggest that you back off.'

Henry finally understood what was happening and shouted at Peter, trying to warn him " Hey! This is a soul attack!"

Yet, no matter how much Henry screamed Peter never stopped waking, as the strange noise muffled his shouts.

-' System! Don't you have a way to help?" Henry felt like his head was about to explode, so he only could wonder how much pain Peter was in.

-' Calming Herbs have a small healing effect on one soul.' Henry quickly searched for the herb that system mentioned and was happy that he had plenty of it

-' Calming Herb - Low Grade - First Level of the Human Realm - A Herb that can calm the spirit, mostly used the production of anesthetics.' Henry quickly took all of them out and threw two in his mouth.

Henry sighed in relief as the noise instantly went down as he began to chew the herbs and sprinted towards Peter.

He was frightened as he saw Peter's state, streaks of blood flowed out his nose and his eyes were almost blank. " Chew this! Quick!" Henry opened Peter's mouth and put two stalks of Calming Herb in it.

Peter's mind was at the breaking point, but, his desire of saving his daughter was the only thing that made him continue awake. He began to chew the herbs slowly, as he barely had any strength left.

henry let out a deep breath as he saw Peter's visage gradually getting better, and passed a bunch more of calming herbs to him. " Always keep two of them in your mouth! Can you keep going?"

Peter was still dizzy from the noise, but, he now could hear Henry's words clearly. " Give me a moment..." Peter wobbled to a nearby tree and rested on it. " That was a close one." Peter took a deep breath as he looked at the sky. " Thanks, I don't know what I would do without your help." Peter knew that he would never get this far without Henry's help, he even saved his life two times.

Henry was a little awkward, as he wasn't used to people thanking him, especially strong people like Peter. "Don't worry, I'm doing this for Thomas too."

-" I still owe you my life." Peter wiped the blood off his face and got up. " Are we far from the necklace?"

-" Just a few meters away." Henry suddenly turned tense, he doubted that Peter's daughter was alive if she was in the location of the necklace.

The two of them had serious expressions as they stopped a few meters away from the location.

-" Is the necklace inside this cave?" Peter observed the cave with furious eyes, he could see two small goblins guarding the entrance.

-" Yes..." Henry noticed that all the vegetation in the area around the cave was cleared. " What is this place? A camp?"

-" It may be..." Peter had a weird feeling about the goblins in the cave entrance. " Why are they so strange? I can't feel any vitality in their bodies." Peter was confused, but, he decided that he waited for too long and left the place he was hiding.

Henry retrieved one of the Star Tainted Swords and followed just behind Peter, ready to strike at any moment.