The Door to Danger

Joey heaved the blue-eyes girl in the air and caught her a few times, laughing loudly all the while, "Hahaha who knew you were this talented?"

"Terry won't believe it before he sees it!"

Milo and Spark watched silently from the doorframe, their lips subconsciously curling up.

'Tali broke through to Body Foundation? This girl is a hidden talent? She has not been training for more than three weeks!'

Spark was both amused and deeply in thought. Naturally, this was a positive surprise! Although Borza was the first to break through, his talent could be explained with what Spark had understood by the introspection of the golden ape's Soul.

Borza turned out to be a Divine-Blood-Kerok and it wasn't wrong to assume that his bloodline alone bestowed him some unimaginable advantages in Cultivation.

To be able to be on par with the golden ape's speed was quite impressive. Spark sobered up from his thoughts, and strode into the living room. The others had noticed their arrival and greeted the two happily.

Joey lowered Tali to the ground, and the girl couldn't stop giggling and grinning. Naturally, Spark also encouraged her with words, and praise.

"Congratulations Tali! You have worked hard. Your daddy will be very proud of you," Spark told her with a genuine smile on his face, and reached out to pat her head.

"Hehe... I'll be catching up to you very soon Big Bro!"

Spark laughed and nodded, "I'll be happy if you do, but remember to stay conscientious and meticulous with your Cultivation. It's important to keep your wits on you, and always recall that successful Cultivation requires steady and due diligence. Otherwise it will do more harm than good."

Tali listened attentively and turned a tad more serious, "Yes!"

Spark swept his gaze around the room and reiterated, "This applies to everybody. Do not rush your Cultivation. You're all still very young and have plenty of time to succeed. It's much better to take a while longer, than to seriously and irredeemably hurt your foundation."

He looked around and was met with solemn looks, before heaving a sigh, "Everybody here, excluding Joey, is a beginner in these matters, so false pride and overestimation are deadly poison to us. I don't want such roots to spread and corrupt us. It would be a pity, no?"

The kids agreed verbally, and Sona, Robert and Jessie also nodded slightly.

Naturally, everyone was on the same page, who hadn't heard of the grave consequences following a misguided approach of Cultivation? There were just too many stories to stay ignorant on this matter.

Regressing to average and mundane strength was the best of outcomes, and such cases were very rare.

Most endings to failed Cultivation were grim, bloody and possibly lethal.

Becoming a retard or waste, right after grasping onto gold? That was a pity indeed, and Spark had no stints to voice his own fears to ground everyone near him to stay diligent, and careful.

It didn't cost him anything after all.

Just like with Borza's breakthrough, the mansion celebrated for hours, laughter and smiles filling the spacious rooms.

Spark let them have fun, and excused himself back to the office after 1-2 hours. There were far more interesting things to do after all!

Spark had reached the Peak Body Foundation Stage.

And that meant that the Element Awakening Stage, the Qi Realm is almost in reach, oh it was so, so near!

...

[At the same time, on the edge of the Dark Vine Forest]

Dark green trees, teeming with shrub and vines shot out of the earth, reaching dozens of meters in height.

Their canopies huddled together like a safetight net, allowing only solitary rays to brighten the soft, muddy earth, leaving the air cold, and dark.

Strange vegetation clings to the ground and the tr ee bark, commonly sharing a darker hue, missing any of nature's usual gaudiness.

A miserable, low growl echoed from the distance, and here at the edge of the forest, a person answered it with a reflexive twitch.

"Ahh... this is getting tiring."

About a dozen men glanced at the brown-haired, skinny Cultivator whose skin was pale and lusterless, with scratches decorating it all around.

Sympathetic nods and hidden sighs resounded in the group. Clearly, he wasn't the only one who had fatigue seeping into his bones.

Another Cultivator narrowed his eyes and chided the young man with an unsatisfied expression.

"Keep your guard up, we have almost reached the Black Mire. Await danger at every step, god knows what damned creatures nest and brood their bloody spawn here."

Then, he gave a furtive glance to the front, where Orald Lumber, Monsoon City's Overseer, fixed his eyes on the expanse in front.

The dark green tone of the forest abruptly lopsided into darkness, with a hazy black fog driving into the distance.

"The Black Mire..." Orald muttered under his breath.

A trace of anger and hatred flashed through his eyes like a dying ember, before resettling in his usual stern countenance.

"Panpa, show yourself."

Orald spoke into the empty place in front, and a moment after, a hazy silhouette melted into reality, where there was nothing but dark greenery before.

A ferret-like dog outlined itself in the swampy forest, making the group of Cultivators stiffen up instinctively.

A second pair of arms ripped through its backside skin, hulled in mottled, short brown fur. Strangely, this pair of arms was endowed with only 3 fingers, instead of the usual 4, and rested on its back like broken wings.

"Bring us to the hideout of the Water Bastard."

The ferret gave a low hiss, and walked towards the Black Mire, leaving the cohort no choice but to enter this door to danger.

A round of low whispers left the skinny brown-haired Cultivator and others, before settling into silence, listening only to the sharp rustling of the leaves and distant cries of hidden beasts.

The Black Mire was constantly filled with thin black fog, rising from the multiple swamps riddling the landscape.

Luckily, the fog wasn't poisonous, well... it wasn't exactly healthy, but not lethally dangerous, making it home to many fiendish creatures, capitalizing from its veiling quality.

"Stop."

Frankel whispered in a low voice, just loud enough for everybody to halt and surveil their surroundings.

Frankel's eyes glimmered in a red light, penetrating the thin fog for hundreds of meters.

"A group of 15 beasts 120 meters northwest. 13 Awakened Deuces, 2 Awakened Hazards"

As soon as Frankel finished his sentence, the cohort hardened their grip around their Soul Bound weapons.

In Frankel's eyes, the beasts looked wolfish, with thick grey fur, and turned their heads towards the direction of the cohort, licking their black lips and sharp teeth.

Just as he opened his mouth to inform the group, the wolfs suddenly started sprinting at them with bloodthirsty eyes and salivating muzzles.

"Attack incoming!"

Frankel cried out, as soon as he could, but the cohort had already been prepared.

Elemental salvos formed in the air, either licking the space with fiery tongues, chilling it in icicles or brightening it in multicolored light.

The wolves rushed into sight in a heartbeat, growling in murderous tones, and trying to circulate around the group to trap them.

Unlike what their fierce appearance led to believe, unmistakable intelligence could be seen by their formation.

The fatigue stricken cohort, would be troubled in a drawn out battle, as the wolves were not their only enemies.

Death will be the end of them, no matter if it was caused by these wolves or their hidden reinforcements.

The group knew about their circumstance of course, leading them a quick and decisive battle style.

The first wolves arrived at the group, with 7-8 others circling around, waiting to sink their black teeth into the next unattentive victim.

Orald seemed unbothered about their formation.

"Mere Awakened Deuces... [Disarray]!"

The first wolf jumped in the air, to ram into Orald, but unexplainably, his movement turned limp and unorganized mid-air.

Orald snorted, as his eyes were revolving in a circular hypnotizing pattern.

"Punpa, Finish!"

The ferret, who had been hidden under the wolves eyes, since god knows when, merged from his spot and bit in the jumping wolf's throat, ripping it apart in an instant.

BOOM!

The elemental salvo didn't wait for the other wolves to jump, and traversed the air in the blink of an eye, hitting the defenseless wolves immediately.

"Tautor, tank the wolves from the side!"

"Peel em! Peel em all!"

"Kill!!!"

"Defend the backline!"

Fierce shouts and commands rang through the air, and the cohort acted swift and efficient, stalling the wolves from the side, while the wolves in the front were being dealt with by the rumbling frontline of the cohort.

There were minimal wasted movements giving the impression of a well-practiced and experienced mercenary squad.

Orald also joined the skirmish, brandishing a pair of daggers, and cutting through the beasts with impressive speed, and most of all, quite the gap in strength.

Not even three minutes later, the wolves and some stragglers who were drawn in by the noise were taken care off, leaving the cohort without any major injuries.

Orald looked at the blue, curved dagger in his hand, before it broke into light sparks, marking the deconstruction of his Soul Bound.

He grimassed a bit, appearing a bit annoyed about the sudden skirmish and clicked his tongue as a trace of worry flashed in his eyes.

"There are far too many beasts coming from the direction of the Black Mire these days... I have a bad feeling about this..."

Although there was a culminating worry rising in his heart, he had a promise to fulfill, and so, the cohort continued to move deeper into the Black Mire, until they were devoured by the thin swaths of black fog, finally vanishing out of sight.