Chapter 007 | A Strange Sensation

"I just know," Fang Chen shrugged. He couldn't tell Mo Yan that he had transmigrated into the latter's young master. Who knows how he would react.

It was better to keep his identity a secret.

"You don't remember your own name, but you remember a random fact about poisonous fruits?" Mo yan scratched his chin, "I hope the antidote works, Young Master. You have been acting weird today."

Fang Chen shrugged. He was lucky that Mo Yan had no reason to suspect that he had taken over "Fang Chen's" body—escaping any unnecessary trouble for now.

"How long will it take for the antidote to work?" Mo Yan changed the topic.

Fang Chen shrugged, "I can't exactly remember, but since we are going to spend the night here anyway, let's just see the results tomorrow morning."

Mo Yan nodded, "Alright, let's see in the morning. You should sleep for now. I will take guard duty first and wake you up when I start getting drowsy."

Fang Chen nodded, and then using one of the bulges on the tree trunk and his hand as a pillow, he went to sleep.

…

The Avalanche site, near the bridge.

Four masked men were standing in a circle around a corpse. This corpse was wearing exactly the same dress as theirs, clearly indicating that the dead man was on their side.

This was precisely the assassin whom Mo Yan had killed a few hours ago.

These four men had their faces covered, making it easier for them to hide not only their identity but also their expressions.

Just then, one of the four stepped ahead. While the other three had fully plain clothes, this one had a purple symbol on his robes on the left side of the chest.

Getting closer to the corpse, the man sat on one knee and carefully examined the corpse.

After a moment, he then glanced at the arrow, which had a big blob wrapped in cloth at its tip.

"Why didn't he fire it?" A hoarse voice came from the assassin-leader.

Then, glancing at the wound, he frowned while adding, "He wasn't looking at the front."

"What could he be looking at then, deacon?" One of the other three assassins asked. His tone sounded extremely respectful—clearly indicating the hierarchy amongst this group of assassins.

The purple marked assassin looked around and noticed the snow stone not far away.

"Maybe someone hit him?" He frowned. It was a far-fetched theory, but it was a plausible one. After all, their targets were two young men.

Shaking his head, the purple marked assassin stood up.

"It's hard to tell who killed him. We only saw Mo Yan from a distance and fired the arrows. And instead of running to the forest, he came back to this place. Clearly, Fang Chen was here, and the only place to escape that avalanche was this cave behind us.

And you can see Mo Yan tried to dig this place, which we can confirm because of the blood spots. This also means Fang Chen was inside the cave.

And the blood in the entrance hole means Mo Yan went inside. Or maybe he didn't, and these marks came after they killed our friend here.

But if he went inside later, how did this guy miss him? And why didn't he kill Mo Yan first before coming here? There's no way he wouldn't have noticed Mo Yan digging this place because of the arrows lying around. I am sure our friend aimed the arrow at Mo Yan. We don't know if they missed or not, but let's go with the latter.

And even if they missed, it just proves that he saw Mo Yan here. From here, Mo Yan had two paths - to run behind one of the trees there and leave Fang Chen alone in the cave or get into the cave to get a terrain advantage.

It's no brainer that he did the latter. Now the question arises. Why was our friend looking back? It surely wasn't a mistake. I have trained you guys to do better than that.

I have a feeling they got help."

After a moment of pause, the man turned toward one of the other assassins and asked. "Did you confirm that no one was in this area?"

"Yes, Deacon," The black-robed assassin replied, "We even made sure to check the Avalon Academy's records and make sure there wasn't anyone in this region."

The assassin deacon nodded, "Alright. But now we need to be alert and assume the worst - there's a third person helping them."

The other three nodded at this as the deacon continued, "How did the search go? Were you able to find any signs?"

The three assassins shook their heads as one of them spoke, "No, Deacon. The trail of blood was lost as the forest grew denser. But even after all this, we have covered most of the forest."

"What about the Avalon Wood? Did you climb those trees?"

"No…" The assassins shook their heads.

"Why not? Are you afraid of the Red Crown Pythons?"

The assassins shook their heads, "No, Deacon. But it's risky to go up there. They could be something even more frightening for all we know."

"Tch!" The assassin deacon shook his head, "You guys… it's just a snake. How many Avalon Wood Trees did you cover?"

"Five of them, Deacon."

"Five… alright, let's go. I will handle the snake; you go ahead and get Fang Chen for me."

"Yes, Sir!"

…

It was early morning when Fang Chen found himself staring at the slowly brightening sky.

He was still at the top of the Avalon Wood Tree. A few hours ago, Mo Yan woke him up and asked him to continue guard duty while he took some rest.

For the last few hours, Fang Chen wasn't just sitting idle; instead, he was facing a new problem.

The thing was, when he woke up, he was feeling a few strange sensations throughout his body.

Because Mo Yan was sleepy, Fang Chen didn't bother him and decided to investigate by himself.

Another weird thing was his senses. They were suddenly very sharp. He could even hear the birds chirping on the nearby tree, which made the whole night "no-so-quite" for him.

Other than the constant buzzing, he also felt as if there was a huge amount of energy flowing circulating his body. As if someone had given him a powerful drug which enhanced his strength and senses.

He infinitely wanted to test his strength but chose not to because it could bring unwanted attention.

After more than an hour of experiencing this, he was slowly getting used to it.

'I should wake up Mo Yan,' Fang Chen thought.

The strange feeling was giving him an adrenaline rush, and he was getting an urge to run at full throttle or fight with someone. It was a bizarre yet invigorating feeling.

The sunrise was only half an hour away at most, and the sky had begun to slowly brighten up.

Fang Chen nudged Mo Yan's shoulder.

"What happened?" Mo Yan, who was a light sleeper, instantly sat up, "Enemies?"

Fang Chen shook his head, "No. But I think we should leave."

Mo Yan looked at the sky for a moment and then nodded, "Yeah, we should take advantage of this darkness and soon, there will be sunrise—letting us have a better grasp of the direction."

Fang Chen nodded. Sun rose from the east, and that alone would be enough to judge all directions.

After collecting their things, they began to get down.

"Let's run once we get down. Lead the way," Fang Chen spoke as he went ahead first.

Mo Yan stared at him for a second before asking, "You sure? You couldn't run to save your life from the avalanche. Did the medicine really work?"

Fang Chen nodded, "I have had this strange feeling ever since I woke up. I think it's because the Crown Fruit worked."

"It really worked…?" Mo Yan was a bit surprised, "I don't feel any difference."

Fang Chen shrugged.

If the feeling he was getting was because he had now stepped into the path of Martial Arts, Mo Yan wouldn't be able to understand it because he has been a martial artist for almost his whole life.

With his heightened senses, Fang Chen could still hear the noises around him. Although he found it troublesome, he was now more used to it, and it was less bothersome compared to a few hours ago when he woke up.

'Birds wake up too early..' Fang Chen mused as he continued his way down, 'What are they chewing?'

'Hold up.'

He realised that he was hearing some crunching sound. It was as if someone eating snacks.

'Birds don't eat like that…'

He halted in his track—confusing Mo Yan.

But before he could ask, Fang Chen put the finger on his lips, alerting the former.

-Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

He waited for a few seconds and continued to hear the sound of someone having snacks.

'Is it a human… or is it a beast?'

Fang Chen was in full alert mode.

Mo Yan lowered his head and slowly whispered, "What happened?"

Fang Chen stared at him. 'He can't hear it?'

This was weird. But upon thinking again, didn't Mo Yan say that Fang Chen was more powerful than him?

Maybe this was the difference between a Third Level and a Fifth Level of Martial Warrior.

The difference in sensing capabilities.

"Pay attention. Can you hear something weird?" Fang Chen asked in a whisper.

Mo Yan frowned and went silent for a moment.

After a few seconds of focus, his expression suddenly became alert as he gripped the sword in his hand.

Then he slowly whispered, "Young Master… at which level are you now?"

Fang Chen pursed his lips at this. He himself was unaware of his level.

'Am I on the Fifth Level? Or am I oversensitive because I'm experiencing this for the first time?'

As per what he remembered, after eating the antidote, he should have fully recovered. But he couldn't tell for sure. After all, this was the first time he was feeling this kind of strength.

Fang Chen decided to speak the truth. After all, in such circumstances, it's important to know your partner's capabilities.

'Considering how I was able to hear the crunching before him… it should be alright to guess that I am at least on his level.'

"Third Level," Fang Chen said, "Same as yours."

"Uh? Ohk…" Mo Yan nodded. He had questions about why the former didn't fully recover, but he chose not to ask. Now was not the time to dilly dally.

'Let's hope it's just a false alarm.' Mo Yan prayed and said to Fang Chen, "We should continue and remain alert. Whatever or whoever it is, if it's an enemy, they will eventually show themselves. But try not to make noise."

Fang Chen nodded and began to slowly get down off the tree once again.

One thing to note was that as they got closer, the noise of crunching increased in frequency and intensity.

Fang Chen had a feeling that whoever or whatever it was, he was most probably near the surface.

When they got close to the halfway point of the tree, the first thing that both young men were expecting to find was the corpse of the Red Crown Python.

But to their surprise, they saw someone else near the corpse.

It was a huge four-legged beast with white-red fur—holding the Red Crown Python corpse with its huge clawed hands—chewing on it.

"Blood Yeti…" Mo Yan suddenly whispered.

And as if the beast had heard his words, it suddenly paused feasting on the Python and slowly turned, looking over its shoulders.

Its eyes were dark red, and its mouth was covered with the red blood of the Python.

Both of them gulped.

They had a strange intuition that this beast might be more troublesome than the Python.

'Oh sh!t, here we go again!'