The North-East Zone.

Middle of the Sara Desert, The Dread Forest.

A lush green forest with tall and thick trees everywhere making it a cool and beautiful place while the forest itself existed in the hottest desert of the North-East Zone.

Three mountain ranges were surrounding the Sara desert yet the one which could be said as the closest to the Forest was the Xin Mountain Range.

The Xin Mountain Range.

Similar to all the ranges all over the World, it had twelve peaks too that’s twelve cities.

Usually, the ordinary people of the Xin Mountain Range never went to the desert because it had only been around ten years since their World merged with another.

So they didn’t venture out yet and stayed at their places just getting through each day barely.

People from some of the cities of the Xin Mountain Range would feel gratified if they were alive by the end of the day. If anyone got in a quarrel with someone, then most of the time only one would be alive by the end of the day.

There were oppressors everywhere in the ten surrounding cities of the Xin Range and the entry mountain, that is, the entry city of the said range.

Many would try to bully those who were weaker than them and those who wouldn’t argue back or quarrel with them thus fully taking advantage of those who weren’t able to fight back.

There were some people who thought that this was the general rule of life as they continued their misdeeds. But some never did any wrong.

These people were from the remaining people of the Earth who had climbed all the stairs and entered the Xin mountain range’s entry mountain.

Yet when they did fight with someone who wronged them, like stole something from them and they fought back for it, in the end, they were forced to fight with that guy in a life deathmatch. The only loser will be the person who isn’t breathing.

These matches were overseen by the self-proclaimed leader of each mountain’s city except the first three cities and the summit where the sect was. 

The tallest mountain of every range in this new world would be in the center of the range surrounded by the other ten mountains of the said range.

The disciples of the Xin Sect were ignorant of the ongoing faced by the people of the other cities. The sect leader was to blame but he couldn’t care less. 

Only the prosperity of the Xin Sect and his strength mattered to him. The disciples of the Xin Sect would wear purple robes with a badge on their chest.

The seniority of the disciples was measured by the markings on the badge and the color of the badge.

—- —- —- 

Back to the Sara Desert.

At daytime, on the scorching sands of the Sara Desert, two silhouettes could be seen running over the scorching desert.

These were the two disciples of the Xin Sect who were sent out to cover the details of the Sara desert and the green abnormality at its middle. They could be seen entering the Dread Forest yet there was no one there to see them.

The purple robes of these disciples were quite an eye-catching sight on this green forest.

One of the disciples said,

“Elder sister, this forest looks nice. We should rest here and then set out to our sect when night hits as the desert would have cooled down by then. This will make our journey back to the sect a lot easier.”

The disciple that was talking could be said to have a nice appearance. Smiling while talking with a tanned face, he looked as if he was trying to impress the girl he was talking to.

He was short but with his small face, he looked better than many.

He looked around 19 years old. 

The elder sister he was talking to was only a year older than him in age yet in seniority, he was two levels ahead of her. 

As the badges they had on their chest were both black. The guy who was talking had three white lines ‘|||’ on his badge while the girl only had a single one ‘|’. 

The girl looked at him and said through the veil that was covering her mouth.

“Senior Brother Si, please stop joking. I have already told you to stop calling me elder sister as the seniority among disciples only depends on their cultivation level.”

The girl said to Si. She was trying to maintain an appropriate distance with this brother Si who had been trying to cross it for the whole time since they left the sect.

“As for resting, we will do as you have proposed. Let’s look around the forest. We may find something interesting here.”

The girl said to Si Chen.

Si Chen looked unhappy as this girl wouldn’t give him a chance.

But he still acted as if he had done nothing wrong and smiled while looking at her.

“Rose I was wrong in calling you ‘elder sister’, so forgive me.”

Si Chen said to the girl whose name was Rose. 

‘This bitxh is trying to play innocent with me.’

‘If I wanted to, I could have easily had my way with her.’

Si Chen thought while letting go of the evil desires that he was harboring against Rose but she didn’t know. But this was all understandable, Si Chen having these desires and treating Rose nicely since their journey had started since his goal was to get closer to her and have an intimate relationship with her.

‘Why?’.

Because Rose was a new disciple of the Xin sect who had started with a first-level ‘I’ black badge.

Others had to be trainee disciples for years before they would reach the required strength level to get their badge upgraded to this level.

Yet this girl already got a level ‘1’ black badge soon after she joined the sect.

Then she became famous for her red veil which was covering the lower half of her face. Only her eyes could be seen.

A body that could be called a flawless woman’s body in everyone’s eyes and a covered face with eyes so stunning that one could dive in the depth of her deep eyes.

Only this much was enough to mesmerize others. 

Soon after getting her badge, she was already being counted among the top beauties of the Xin Sect. With countless people fawning over Rose it was hard for her identity to be kept to be unknown after so much commotion.

Thus it was found out that Rose was an alias and she was one of the daughters, of the head of the Mo clan.

One of the three Royal Families of the Xin Range. 

So her popularity increased even more but the people fawning over her decreased leaving only those who were of high birth or royalty themselves interested in her.

Thus it was understandable why a disciple would even risk annoying her just to get close to her.

This is what Si Chen was doing.

He was the son of the Chen family. The Chen family of the Xin Range was famous for their sword arts.

Si Chen was a proud son of the Chen’s. He thought if he could get this girl of the Mo family to be his wife then his entry to Royalty would be simply free. Thus he tried to get Rose to go with him on this desert covering mission thanks to one of the elders who favored him.

He succeeded in doing this but the later part was looking impossible for him.

‘Getting close to her.’

In the way, the girl never initiated a conversation and all of their talks would end with Si Chen talking to himself.

There were times when they encountered three beasts on their way and Si Chen thought that this was the time to impress this girl.

The beasts were Sand Lions, they weren’t that fast it strong yet they were still feared. The reason for this fear lied in their fangs and their claw technique. It was so fast that no one would when they were sliced up by those dark shiny claws and ripped off by those fangs.

Si Chen thought that this was his time to shine.

He went all out toward the three sand lions that were coming at them. 

His plan was simple. He would get rid of one of the sand lions as fast as possible then hunt the remaining two with Rose and in return earning her praises.

So Si Chen rushed toward the sand lion who looked the weakest. He pulled out his sword and hacked at the sand lion.

“Insane Slash”

Si Chen called out his attack name. 

The sand lion tried to fend off the attack with his claws but the sword attack was unbearable even for his claws. The claws of the sand lion broke and he was sliced in half. The dust rose as the halved bodies of the beast fell.

The slash wasn’t any special or insane in the least. It was just a normal vertical slash yet the beast wasn’t able to defend against it.

It took 17 seconds for Si Chen to kill this beast. This showed why he was wearing a ‘|||’ badge.

He was already feeling an immense pleasure wondering how his goddess will be hugging him after he saves her from the other two beasts. 

Yet when he tried to look for the other two sand lions he couldn’t find them because of the first around him.

He rushed out of the dusty area feeling fearful for Rose as how could a disciple with ‘|’ badge fight against two sand lions.

But soon when the dust settled and he could see the others two sand lions, he was shocked out of his wits. As if someone had hit his balls with a stick.

The lions were already dead in a horrifying state. They were lying there in their pool of blood with their limbs separated apart.

So Chen was confused and looked at Rose.

“Are you okay?”

Si Chen asked Rose.

“How can I not be okay when it’s just this much.”

Rose answered with a cold voice and starting walking towards the garden leaving Si Chen in a frightened state.

‘How can she demolish two sand lions this easily? She is supposed to be two levels below me yet in the same time as it took for me to kill one sand lion, she killed two.’

Si Chen wondered and followed after Rose.

Well, this was the only chance that Is Chen had.

Now that they were already in the forest it was only the back trip left after looking around the forest for anything unusual.

While Rose and Si Chen were going to look around the forest they heard a Roar sound coming from the middle of the forest.

The roar was so loud that their ears started hurting.

“What could that be?”

This was the first time Rose had started the conversation.

Her voice was trembling as the roar had scared her a little. She looked at Si Chen who was right next to her and was astonished. 

Si Chen looked as if someone had pulled out his soul from his body.

“I don’t know. I think we should leave right away.”

Si Chen advised Rose. As he was scared shitless because of the roar yet didn’t want to show it to her.

“We can leave later too. Right now we need to check on the cause of the roar.”

Rose said and started walking toward the middle of the forest.

Si Chen had no way around except to follow Rose.

Thus they both marched toward the center of the forest to find the source of the roar.