Exit

Unaware as to what was happening in the outside world, Fenrir found herself in a state of deep and focused meditation. A persistent sphere of stable blue energy surrounded her body as the sealed cavern, now bereft of oxygen in its entirety, rippled with spatial fluctuations. She had the appearance of a nebulous star but, instead of shining its light down upon the creatures of the world, only the fate of being devoured was promised to anyone witnessing this phenomenon.

Even Fenrir didn't know how long she had been within her meditative state but, feeling that the density of the surrounding energy had started to dissipate, she released a slow sigh of stagnant air. With the devouring energy surrounding her body, not even air was able to reach her lungs so it had been a long time since she had even drawn a breath of fresh air.

Accompanying Fenrir's exhalation, the energy surrounding her body retracted into her pores before she lightly landed on the ground with a gentle 'pa' sound. She could feel the pressure in the room had changed since the time she had entered into a meditative state, causing a powerful backdraft when she finally unsealed the chamber. Even with the sudden and instantaneous change in pressure, Fenrir didn't even flinch as she took slow and casual steps out into the cool mountain air. Though there was now a distinct decrease in the amount of Yin Elemental Energy in the surroundings, it was still very pleasant to feel the sub-zero temperature tickle her increasingly fair skin...

With nothing better to do, Fenrir spent a few hours familiarizing herself with her newfound strength before ultimately deciding to descend the mountain. Though she didn't particularly care about the people of the Devouring Moon Sect, she was still supposed to be their acting Guardian. Until she had mastered the Sacred Heart of the Ice Phoenix, she would look after them and make sure they weren't bullied by the other Sects located in the Western Badlands.

Upon arriving within the Sect's grounds, Fenrir noticed that the number of disciples had sharply decreased compared to her last visit. This caused her face to scrunch up into a frown before she practically sent one unfortunate Disciple's soul fleeing from their body after appearing next to her with [Shundo]. Even if there were a number of people who had yet to see Fenrir with their own eyes, everyone within the Devouring Moon Sect knew what their Guardian looked like. After all, she was the only person with icy blue eyes and midnight blue hair that many of them had even heard of. The fact she had a wild and untamed aura which wasn't all that dissimilar to a blizzard descending upon you only completed the image of her 'natural-disaster-like' existence...

Not caring about the young woman's surprise, Fenrir immediately questioned, "Where is everyone? Was there an enemy attack...?"

While doing her best to control her breathing, the young woman gave a deep bow and saying, "Su Jiuli greets Sect Guardian!" Then, fearing that Fenrir might not be fond of her delayed response, the girl immediately answered, "Sect Master and many of Disciples have descended the mountain to observe the selection tournament within 'Devouring Moon City'. In order to reorganize the internal structure of the Sect, it was decided to hold a tournament to determine who would be recognized as official Disciples...!"

Even with Fenrir just staring at her, Su Jiuli felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff with a blade to her throat, moments away from her death. Upon finishing her report, however, Fenrir just gave a small nod before vanishing like a phantom moments later. Then, like a marionette with its strings cut, Su Jiuli plopped down to the ground with a thin layer of sweat covering her youthful face...

(Fenrir's Commentary: 'No backbone...')

(A/N: For those who haven't been keeping up with EPIC, I have just transitioned to a different world around two weeks ago. Because I have been focused on the direction of that story, even reaching 112k words this week, I haven't been able to split focus on Fenrir's Journey. Since things are starting to reach a stable point, I will try to release a chapter here every 2-3 days. If possible, I will release one per day but I can't make that promise with EPIC being my primary focus.)