A sworn brother. A deep-cover agent.
The sheer, elegant treachery of Seraphina's move was breathtaking. While I was busy setting the stage in the capital, she was making a move on the star player. She wasn't just tracking Lin Feng; she was planning to own him, to insert a loyalist so deep into his confidence that he would never suspect a thing. She was hijacking my rabid dog and putting her own leash on it.
I couldn't allow it. Lin Feng was my puppet. My weapon. My future source of power and destiny points. Letting Seraphina gain control of him was a strategic loss of catastrophic proportions.
Her scroll had already been activated. Destiny itself was now bending to create this 'fated encounter'. I couldn't stop the encounter from happening. The forces at play were too great.
But I could sure as hell crash the party.
I had one overwhelming advantage: I knew Lin Feng. I knew his personality, his pride, his weaknesses. And most importantly, thanks to the interrogation, I knew the general direction he would flee. The Jade Scepter sect, the one Valerius had mentioned, was to the southeast. Lin Feng, desperate and needing a new power base, would head in that direction like a moth to a flame.
And I knew the terrain. The quickest route was through the Crimsonwood Forest, a place known for its vicious beasts and treacherous paths—the perfect backdrop for a dramatic, fated rescue.
"System," I commanded as I strode through the palace gates, ignoring the stunned looks of the guards. "Track the [Mark of the Shadow Hound] I placed on Seraphina. Pinpoint the location of her 'loyal knight-captain'."
...QUERYING MARKER. THE MARK IS CURRENTLY AFFIXED TO LADY SERAPHINA HERSELF.
...HOWEVER, THE [DATA-SIPHON] IS PROVIDING A SECONDARY TRACKING SIGNATURE FROM HER 'PARTY' SYSTEM.
...PARTY MEMBER 'CAPTAIN DRAVEN' IS NOW BEING TRACKED.
...LOCATION PINPOINTED. HE IS MOVING RAPIDLY, ON HORSEBACK, TOWARDS THE CRIMSONWOOD FOREST.
My lips peeled back in a predatory grin. "Give me his route and calculate an intercept point."
The map in my mind lit up. Draven was following the main road. He was fast, but he was predictable. I, on the other hand, had no such limitations. The fastest route for me was a straight line.
I purchased a sturdy horse from the city stables with a pouch of gold and galloped out of the capital, a lone, black-clad figure on a quest for "vengeance". As soon as I was out of sight of the city walls, I veered off the road, plunging directly into the wilderness.
The journey was a brutal, non-stop sprint. I pushed my horse to its limit, and when it tired, I dismounted and ran, my own stamina bolstered by my cultivation. I used [Imp's Shadow-Step] in short, disorienting bursts to cross impassable ravines and dense thickets, the cost in lifeforce a dull ache I willingly ignored.
I was racing against destiny itself, and I intended to win.
After a grueling twelve-hour sprint, the system updated.
[ALERT: TARGET 'CAPTAIN DRAVEN' HAS ENTERED THE CRIMSONWOOD FOREST.]
[ALERT: FATED ENCOUNTER PROTOCOL IS IMMINENT. A 'RAZORBACK GORILLA', A POWERFUL SPIRIT BEAST, IS BEING AGGROED BY THE SCROLL'S ENERGY AND DIRECTED TOWARDS LIN FENG'S CURRENT LOCATION.]
I was close. I abandoned my exhausted horse and pushed forward on foot, my senses on high alert.
The sounds of battle reached me first—the guttural roars of a large beast, the clash of steel, and the furious, desperate shouts of a young man.
I crept through the undergrowth, a ghost in the crimson gloom of the forest. I arrived at the edge of a small clearing to a scene straight out of a heroic ballad.
Lin Feng, looking ragged and wounded, was backed against a large tree. His fine robes were torn, his face was pale, but his eyes burned with a defiant fire. Towering over him was a Razorback Gorilla, a ten-foot-tall monstrosity of muscle and fur, with crystalline shards jutting from its back. It was a beast at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm, far too powerful for the current Lin Feng to handle.
And just as the gorilla raised its massive fists to deliver the final, crushing blow, a figure in gleaming silver armor burst from the trees.
"Hold, foul beast!" the knight shouted, his voice ringing with righteous valor.
It was Captain Draven. He was handsome, square-jawed, the very picture of a heroic knight. He moved with grace and power, his sword a blur of silver light as he engaged the monster.
It was a perfectly staged rescue. A textbook 'fated encounter'.
I watched from the shadows, my heart beating a slow, cold rhythm. I could interfere now, reveal myself. But that would be messy. It would alert Seraphina that I knew of her plan. I needed a more subtle approach. I needed to let the rescue happen, and then poison the well.
Draven was a skilled warrior, but the Razorback Gorilla was a powerhouse. The fight was intense, a dramatic struggle that left Draven with a few cosmetic cuts and a "heroic" sheen of sweat. Finally, with a mighty war cry, he plunged his sword into the beast's heart.
The gorilla gave one last, shuddering roar and collapsed, shaking the very ground.
Draven stood over the corpse, breathing heavily, the valiant savior. He then turned to Lin Feng, his expression one of noble concern.
"Are you alright, young man?" he asked, extending a hand. "That was a close call."
Lin Feng, who had been on the verge of death, looked at his savior with a mixture of shock, awe, and grudging respect. "I… I am in your debt," he stammered.
"Think nothing of it," Draven said with a magnanimous smile. "I am Draven, Captain of the Vane family household guard. I was tracking a group of bandits when I heard the commotion. It seems fate brought me here instead."
He was laying it on so thick I almost gagged. And Lin Feng, his pride tempered by his near-death experience, was eating it up. This was the beginning of a beautiful, treacherous friendship.
I remained hidden. The time to act wasn't now. I needed to wait until Draven's guard was down, until he had earned a measure of Lin Feng's trust.
For the next two days, I shadowed them.
Draven was a master of his craft. He "escorted" Lin Feng, sharing his rations, tending to his wounds, and listening with a sympathetic ear as Lin Feng raged about the "treacherous" Kaelen Ravencrest and the "injustice" of the world. He played his part to perfection, becoming the loyal, steadfast friend that the lonely, hunted protagonist so desperately needed.
They made camp on the third night, near the edge of the forest. The Jade Scepter sect was only a day's journey away. Draven's mission was almost complete.
I saw my opportunity. Draven had taken the first watch, sitting by the fire while Lin Feng slept fitfully nearby.
I used [Netherworld Beckoning]. I didn't summon a creature. I just opened a micro-fissure, a tiny pinprick into that dark realm, and let a sliver of its corrupting aura seep into the camp. It was a faint, almost undetectable taint, like the smell of a distant rot.
Then, I made my move.
I stepped out of the shadows and into the firelight, my face a mask of grim determination.
Draven leaped to his feet, his hand flying to his sword. "Who's there?!"
Lin Feng was instantly awake, scrambling backwards, his eyes wide with a mixture of hatred and fear when he saw me. "You! How did you find me?!"
"I told you I would hunt you, demon," I said, my voice low and menacing, my eyes fixed on Lin Feng. But my words were for Draven. "And it seems your corruption has already spread. You have tainted this noble knight with your presence."
Draven looked confused. "Your Highness? What is the meaning of this?"
"Stay back, Captain," I warned, my gaze not leaving Lin Feng. "This creature is not what he seems. He is a 'World-Breaker', a cancer seeded into this world. I can smell the foul stench of his masters on him. A demonic taint that infects all who travel with him."
I took a step forward, and deliberately let a wisp of the Nether-Aether I had just summoned coalesce around my hand. A faint, sickly purple smoke. "As the one who has sworn a Blood Hunt, I have been granted certain… abilities. The power to see this corruption."
Draven stared at the wisp of smoke, then back at Lin Feng. I had just introduced a variable he could not have anticipated. He was here to be a hero, but now he was being accused of consorting with a demon.
I had poisoned the well. I had planted a seed of doubt, not in Lin Feng's mind, but in Seraphina's agent. Draven's mission was to gain Lin Feng's trust. But could he do that if he now suspected his new friend was literally demonic? He would have to report this back to Seraphina. It would sow chaos and mistrust in their plans.
"He is lying!" Lin Feng snarled. "This is another one of his tricks!"
"Is it?" I said softly. I looked at Draven, my expression one of sincere, urgent warning. "Captain, I am here to fulfill my oath. But I will not strike down an honorable man. I give you a choice. Stand aside and let me deal with this demon. Or stand with him, and share his fate."
I had just checkmated Seraphina's entire plan. I had forced her agent into an impossible position. He could either abandon his mission, or he could risk being branded a demon-sympathizer, a traitor to the entire mortal realm.
But as Draven hesitated, his face a mask of conflict, the entire forest floor began to tremble. It was not a natural earthquake. It was a rhythmic, pounding tremor.
Thump. Thump. THUMP.
A wave of immense, ancient, and utterly alien spiritual pressure washed over the clearing, making the Razorback Gorilla's aura feel like a gentle breeze.
Lin Feng, Draven, and I all froze. This was a power far beyond any of us.
From the deepest part of the Crimsonwood, a voice echoed, a sound that was both a whisper and a roar, a voice that seemed to grind the very bones to dust.
"The... blood... of the... Anomaly..." it boomed, the words slow and ancient. "...It smells... so... sweet..."
A new, unexpected player had just entered the game. The 'fated encounter' Seraphina had engineered hadn't just attracted a Razorback Gorilla. It had woken something up. Something old. Something hungry.
And as two enormous, glowing green eyes, each the size of a carriage wheel, opened in the darkness of the forest, the system, for the first time, screamed a warning in a color I had never seen before—a stark, terrifying, world-ending crimson.
[!!! ELDRITCH ANOMALY DETECTED !!!]
[A 'WORLD BOSS' TIER ENTITY HAS AWAKENED.]
[ENTITY: 'THE CRIMSONWOOD ANCESTOR' - SLEEPING GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST.]
[THREAT LEVEL: ANNIHILATION.]
[WAGER OF REALMS PROTOCOL IS NOW TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED. NEW PRIME DIRECTIVE ISSUED TO ALL SYSTEM USERS IN RANGE.]
[QUEST: SURVIVE.]