village in the forest

jun sat near a shop in the mall tightly gripping the phone, feeling like crushing it. 

He was just able to know that his theory was correct, and it indeed was an attempt to kill rather than an accident. Though he still had no idea who was behind it.

at that moment the mobile in his had buzzed, it was the private number on It. blood rushed to Jun's head as his heartbeat increased.

his thumb stuck on the answer button while questioning whether to pick it or not.

in an instant he picked it up and placed it over his ear, waiting for the caller to respond first.

both sides were dead silent, jun soon heard a beeping noise after which he threw the phone on the ground.

it was quite durable only the battery and its back cover flung out of it, leaving it in very good condition.

'he knows now,' as the caller hung without a word, he was assured that there was a code that needed to be said. As Jun had no idea what it was, it made the caller alert.

tara picked up the remains of the phone and put it together, "are you ok?"

"do I look ok to you?" he closed his eyes and breathed to calm his head, focusing on finding a way out.

"I mean you don't look ok so I asked," she said while holding the phone, thinking about whether she should hand it to him or not.

"then, I am not ok Tara."

"Can I help in some way?" she wanted to help him just the way he did for her.

he glanced at her, 'can you?' he thought, but then the look in his eyes changed.

"Can I talk to Yin Mei?" as a ghost she may have some ways unspoken in human kind.

Before she could reply, "What do you want?" Tara placed a hand to close her mouth that suddenly spouted words. She did realize that it was Yin Mei but the feel of her mouth acting on its own scared her.

the tone she spoke was much different from when in the hospital, it was on an arrogant side as she knew this time jun needed a favor.

"I know you are hiding a lot from me. It's fine though, I don't care about your matter. But I am sure you have some ways you can help me." he wasn't really sure, just speculating a possibility.

"I want something out of helping you. I won't be doing it for free," Tara's lips moved behind her hand.

"what do you want? What would satisfy a dead?" 

"create me a body, I saw what you did to those guys. You can reverse your technique to make a shell for my soul." Yin Mei took control of Tara's body while lifting the hand over her face and raising her chin to look at him properly.

"I don't know if I can pull what you are asking,"

"you don't need to worry, I know a place that can help both our situations," her lips curled up.

jun had no idea about her intentions, may it be bad or good, he had had no choice other than accepting.

before leaving, jun made sure to make Kai aware of it too, telling him to stay in places where it's harder for others to target him in the corner.

after two days they arrived at a village two states away from the Yang mansion, named Rienriu.

it was so distant from the closest cities that it felt almost inhabited at first, after entering deeper into the forest the village was situated in, it started to show some sign of civilization.

Insight was a huge wall that covered the whole village, it was more like a temple that spread wide rather than a village.

"What kind of place is this?" jun asked seeing the fortress-like construction.

"It's the sect I belonged to, witchery being at its core should have various ways you may find pleasing or disgusting, surely it depends" Tara was getting slowly used to it, being out of control sometimes still made her feel discomfort. 

the moment they entered the gate, they felt a gaze on them. A man came out of the main structure behind the wall.

"State your identity!" the man said in a hoarse tone. he had his face and head covered with a long cloth that came down to his waist.

"blood witch Yin Mei, a direct disciple of lord Kaisha Green," Yin Mei replied.

"do you have any proof to back your stated identity?" the man asked with squinted brows, thinking that the woman was trying to impersonate a disciple of his sect.

"no need!" another man standing at the edge of one of the rooftops said.

it was an older man, with a long white beard, and a slight curve in the back because of old age.

The old man's gaze gave them the same feeling they felt before.

"let them come in. Show the guests a place where they can rest. yin mei! you come with me I have something I would like to ask," the old man said and turned to face his back on them as he started to walk away into the building.

the whole structure was carved out of stone, and the inside had a cool temperature despite the outside being very hot.

the man with a covered face showed Jun a room, also carved out of stone with a stone bed In the middle.

Meanwhile, in a much more spacious chamber, Tara sat on the carpeted floor. Unlike other rooms, the higher-ups had a much better interior with wooden furniture.

"Where is my master?" she asked the old man.

He poured tea into both the cups placed on the table, "She is out on something important. What about you? How did you get into this situation? Returning after ten years in this state." the man asked with a relaxed face, sipping the cup now and then.

"I was killed by several men from the Ryuzaki clan, I was on my deathbed in a hospital and linked my soul to an emerald ring and hid it. The man with me helped me get a vessel," she said not hiding anything.

"what were they after?" the old man asked.

"that..." she felt reluctant to answer.

"do you want me to search your soul? Do you?" he asked with a menacing smile.

she gulped down a mouthful of saliva knowing her place, "They were after a book that I obtained on a mission."

"book's name?" the old man asked casually.

"Im..immortal tomb," she said unable to calm herself.

the old man threw the teacup that went past her missing a few inches from hitting her, "you didn't inform the sect that you had the map for the treasury of Emperor Yuan Wu"

the old man's face wrinkled even further because of how furious he was.

they conversated back and forth, the tomb of Emperor Yuan Wu was from an ancient era, and the land it was situated on was filled with traps, arrays, and puppets, getting inside the tomb was already close to impossible while finding the treasury inside it was straight out of imagination. 

soon, Yin Mei told her plan to recreate her body using Jun's technique that stemmed from his physique.

"I have heard of cultivation practices that relied on devouring sources of other cultivators as a means to further their own but they can't devour the flesh. That man sure is not ordinary, back when I tried to scan through him, I was blocked by a heaven's seal." the old man contemplated as he spoke.

"I also tried to possess his body but something kept blocking my attempt," they both contemplated getting nowhere on that.

"keep your distance from him after I assist you in forming a body, I will discuss it with the sect master. tell him that we agreed to help him tomorrow and hope the same from his side too." the old man asked her to relay it to Jun.

once she left the old man's chamber, the old man rushed to the library in the sect basement trying to find something.

After several thousand scrolls and books he found a scroll that had pictures of human anatomy and ancient text. He squinted his eyes after reading it.

***

In a big mansion, Daniel Reed one of the listed big entrepreneurs in Economy magazine, has been having headaches the past few days.

the group he hired to deal with the younger child of Yang's was missing with the target itself.

he guessed that it had something to do with the target but then he negated it considering the target was basically crippled. there was another possibility that some other opposition group was behind it.

he wanted to ask for some help from Samuel but he didn't want to tell him all that had already happened in the last few days.

in the end he hired another group to search for the previous group and now waited the results.