Lan Jing Forest (9)

As the space around him stretched and distorted, the pain from his body was magically gone as if it had never happened.

With it gone, Kou could think much more clearly.

That old man must be someone climbing for power within the Tan Clan. He was desperate enough to resort to dark energy. And he was collecting that energy from victims of the sea mage purge. If they were even mages at all.

He uses the excuse of sea magic to 'punish' those people. What a hypocrite. Drawing power from resentful spirits of the land is no different than drawing power from 'evil' spirits of the sea.

It was likely that no one else in the clan knew about his wrongdoings. During the time Jiajia spent the whole day with him in the residence, arguably almost all of the elders were there. If they knew about it, there should have been something I noticed.

What about the grandson then? That Xu Ming guy. Perhaps, his true name must be Tan Ming. 

That old man could have just kept it a secret from him too. He must have a use for him then.

Considering his age and the culture here, that man had long lost his chance to become the head of the Tan Clan. Therefore, Tan Ming was going to be his pawn. He was going to make his own grandson the next clan head with him controlling from behind the scenes.

That must be why Tan Ming was aware of his grandfather's deeds. He was probably forced to practice dark magic too. Poor kid.

Still, just the two of them couldn't have enough power to enact the prohibition act against multiple villages. And ones that didn't have proof of sea magic being used.

There were more players involved.

The only people I could think of would be those of the Chen Clan.

Once the distortion stopped and darkness slipped away, Kou was back in the misty forest.

Multiple dark lights sparkled and shook in a frenzy around him. It was as if they were trying to communicate. And it looked like they were screaming and begging for help.

Kou stood before the chaotic sparks and looked at them with a stern face.

"You all have died unfairly."

As he stated that, the frantic lights seemed to have become less agitated. It seemed that these spirits had wanted their sufferings to be acknowledged.

Then, a light spurted out somewhere through the trees.

It came from the direction of where Kou had left his body in the array.

Shit, I should get back. It's already been a long while since A-Xin's warning.

The array lighting up was a way to tell him that someone on the other side had stepped through. Unlike dead spirits, the array couldn't keep living souls away. 

Kou bolted to where his array was.

As he ran past the trees, a soft outline of a translucent figure caught his eye.

It was short and thin, standing with a cautious stance and looking around. A figure that resembles a little girl. Kou recognized her instantly.

"A-Xin?"

Naturally, Zhou Xin couldn't see Kou as he was currently in his spirit form. 

Is she looking for something?

Then he heard a muffled voice coming from the direction of his array.

"...That's the Lone Pirate alright."

Both Kou and Zhou Xin turned their heads at the mention of the thief's title.

There was another voice, different from the first one.

"Tie him up properly. It's a good thing that Clan Head Shin Minji is here. We can immediately collect that 77,600 bounty."

Hearing that, Kou was stunned.

Shin Minji is here? What is she doing?

Since when is my bounty 77,600 gold bits? That's ridiculously high. Did I do something bad? And why would they collect the bounty from Minji-ya?

Following his train of thoughts, something clicked in his head.

Did she claim a clan branding on me?!

Wait, so she did recognize me!

While Kou was still in disbelief at what happened, Zhou Xin had rushed ahead to his array. 

She jumped from behind the trees, startling the two elders in the middle of tying Kou's body with a rope. Although both were mages, it seemed that they were avoiding using magic.

"Oh it's just you," one of them said. "Aren't you that new servant? That's great. Can you get the sect leader and Clan Head Shin Minji to come here? We found a criminal lurking in the forest."

But instead of replying, Zhou Xin stood frozen. There was shock on her face as she looked down at the dark red color of the array.

It was made of blood.

And she looked at the unconscious body of her traveling companion.

There was something red seeping through the fabric that was wrapped poorly around both of Kou's arms. He must have wrapped the wound with a random fabric to stop the blood.

Kou had used his own blood to draw the large array on the ground. Zhou Xin was unaware of this as he started the ritual after she had left for the academy.

The elder saw the look on Zhou Xin's face and mistook it for fear.

"Ah, this array."

As he tightened the ropes on Kou's hands and feet, he explained softly.

"It's called the spirit gate. Rogue mages use it as a way to offer their body for spirits. But it's okay, we've tied up the culprit, so even if he's possessed, he wouldn't be able to do anything. And as long as we don't use magic, we won't attract evil spirits."

Zhou Xin understood quickly that they couldn't use magic as long as they were in the array.

Taking her chances, she made a gesture and muttered an incantation.

The other elder noticed and shouted, "What are you doing? It's still forbidden to use magic!"

However, the action was done and the ropes that coiled around Kou's limbs went up in flames, reducing them to ashes.

Unknown to Zhou Xin, the stone charm she wore as a necklace glowed a faint purple.

"What the-"

The two elders stopped what they were doing and got up to leave the array. However, Zhou Xin had chanted another spell.

A few dried leaves were lifted from the ground and flew criss-crossed in front of the elders once they almost stepped out of the circle. At the same time, the leaves were also enhanced so that the edges were as sharp as blades.

One of the elders stepped back and glared at Zhou Xin.

"Kid, are you with this pirate?"

They may not be able to use magic, but they weren't elders of the sect for nothing. The two of them unsheathed their swords and slashed the leaves.

With each leaf ripped apart, Zhou Xin activated another one. But it wasn't enough to keep both elders busy, so one of them managed to escape the array.

The elder that got out held a paper talisman in one hand as he pointed his sword towards Zhou Xin.

"Listen. I'm not going to hurt you. But it looks like we need to take you and your friend there to the sect leader."

Zhou Xin was only fighting to distract them away from Kou, so she didn't use a lot of power. And since she didn't have any plans on getting caught, she dropped all the floating leaves and ran the opposite direction.

As the elders were about to chase her, another small figure jumped out of the trees and blocked their way.

"Huh? Chen Liang?"

"Why are you here? Where's your master?"

But the kid in front of them yelled back.

"Don't scare my friend! She's new here!"

One of the elders sighed. He turned to the other one.

"I'll take care of him, you find the girl."

The elder nodded and ran past Chen Liang.

The one who stayed, crouched down to calm him down, but Chen Liang tried to stop the other one.

He yelled, "Hey, wait! Don't chase her!"

At this point, Kou on the other side of the dimension was already about to jump back in his own body, but then he noticed the boy just outside the array was making a very noticeable gesture.

The boy was about to cast a magic spell.

Perhaps, seeing that Zhou Xin was fine after using all that magic made him forget about the risks.

However, Zhou Xin had a protective charm that was personally made by Kou.

While Chen Liang himself had a protective charm, it wasn't strong enough against certain levels of dark energy.

The kid was basically defenseless.

As he made the gesture, Kou could see both the light and dark spirits being sucked in because the kid was trying to draw power from them. Someone of his age would be vulnerable to the curse and dark energy. Moreover, he was using magic in the spot of the most concentrated resentful energy in the whole forest.

In a split second, Kou made a decision.

He stomped his foot once in the center of the array. Blue light shot up from the lines of the array, visible in both the spirit realm and the real world. He swung both of his arms from above to the front, and the lights dispersed.

At the same time, all the bells around the forest chimed at once.

Shriiing!!!

And Kou's eyes glowed a bright blue.

He chanted, "I will offer you my body. Stay away from that child!"

Once the lights from the array completely dispersed, all the dark lights that had been floating towards Chen Liang changed their trajectory and headed to the array.

The dark lights plunged into Kou's limp body and only the remaining brighter colored lights were drawn to Chen Liang as he used magic.

The boy had just finished casting a simple land magic spell when the bells rang and the array lit up behind him.

"Huh?"

The elder with him grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, warning him as they ran.

"We have to run, Chen Liang! The gate is activated! Evil spirits will be awakened."

Shriiing!!!

The bells kept ringing as the light from the array shot up higher than the trees. It could be seen even from outside the forest.

And somewhere not far from the array, two more mages were also alerted.

Shin Minji looked towards a particular direction within the forest where something was shining brightly through the trees.

She knew that light.

In an attempt to outdo the sound of the bells, Shin Minji spoke in a loud voice.

"A spirit gate."

She would recognize that light from miles away.

The sect leader heard her.

He added, "A technique invented by the sea witch…"

To use such a technique here, where the resentful energy is strong and the overflowing spiritual remains rest, was just asking for death.

Shriiing-

The ringing of the bells started to die down, reducing slowly to soft tinkling sounds. The light that shot out from within the forest was also fading.

The area in the forest where Shin Minji and the sect leader were standing was overwhelming with spiritual energy. Ordinary mages might have a hard time telling the difference, but the atmosphere was unpleasant due to the dense dark energy. It was a lot more heavy and suffocating.

However, after the bells stopped ringing and the light was gone, the flow of dark energy disappeared. It was as if a wave of fresh air had lifted the dreadful atmosphere.

Out of nowhere, sounds of crunching leaves could be heard.

Someone was running through the forest.

Shin Minji pulled out her sword and the sect leader stood in an attack stance. Both of them charged forward.

Swoosh!

Fwip!

Both attacks missed.

Shin Minji had swung her sword precisely, but the target dodged right in time and was crouching below. Right under the length of the blade, Zhou Xin fell to the ground and looked up at Shin Minji. The next moment, Shin Minji retracted her sword and pointed it towards the little girl.

On the other side, The sect leader had thrown a strong punch infused with sky magic that sent a whiff of air, but the other's arm had cleverly snuck around and and grabbed his wrist whilst evading the attack.

The mage that was chasing Zhou Xin immediately let go of the sect leader's wrist.

"S-sect leader!"

The sect leader calmly rubbed his wrist, "Hmm, you've gotten stronger."

Meanwhile, Shin Minji stared down at Zhou Xin.

She spoke coldly, "Why are you running? That pirate back there might be in danger."

Zhou Xin widened her eyes at that statement. She raised her head to look back at the direction of the array.

She thought she gave him enough time and that the lights were a sign that he had returned to his body. But she was ashamed that she didn't even know how the array worked and couldn't be sure that Kou had made it out safely.

Seeing the look on her face, Shin Minji lifted her sword away and started walking towards where the light appeared.

"We need to do some exorcism," she said.

Shin Minji led the other three to the array. It wasn't too far in the first place as they had been in the same approximate area.