Aka asked Chen and Lord Wang for permission to leave for a while, notified his fellow spies, and headed toward a nearby forest. The region was covered with villages and massive forests. Although these forests were extremely dangerous, every part of the monsters living within could be sold for enormous sums of money. Because of this, countless people entered the dense forests and never returned.
The forest began roughly 1,000 li east of Lord Wang's territory and was generally believed to have a radius of about 1,500 li. However, no one known had ever crossed it in a straight line. The reason was a creature said to give the forest its name—a monster called Cerberan. According to rumor, it was a jet-black cat nearly three meters tall with glowing red eyes. Since no one who had seen it ever returned, this description remained nothing more than folk legend.
The reason Aka had requested leave was precisely this Cerberan. If possible, he intended to capture it alive, but knowing how unlikely that was, he would most likely have to kill it and use its corpse as the price for his third ritual. He only had one month to accomplish this, so speed was essential.
On the very day he received permission, Aka took only his armor and equipment with him. Channeling physical energy through the entire lower half of his body, he leapt and sprinted at full speed toward the Cerberan Forest. Within three or four hours, he reached the forest's entrance and stepped inside.
The forest was crisscrossed by small rivers and filled with towering, densely packed trees. The ground was covered with countless varieties of flowers and plants. Aka wanted to test every single one of them, but time was not on his side. Still, if he managed to kill Cerberan early, he planned to experiment with as many plants as possible.
Aside from the dense trees, the ground was filled with low shrubs, making it impossible for Aka to see his feet as he walked. This made movement risky, but he trusted his instincts completely and continued forward without fear. After walking at a normal pace for roughly three hours, Aka encountered his first opponent in the forest.
According to what he had learned from the locals, this creature was a snake renowned for its speed. Its bright red scales did not look particularly tough, but Aka quickly understood why it was famous. The massive snake—nearly two meters tall and five meters long—appeared beside him the instant it noticed him and opened its jaws, attempting to swallow Aka in a single strike.
Although Aka had not expected such speed, his sharpened instincts saved him. Reflexively, he channeled physical energy into his calves, thighs, and legs, leaping high enough to strike the snake's eyes. While airborne, he hurled two throwing daggers into the eye his hand could not reach and drove the spikes of both gloves into the other eye, blinding the creature. When he landed, he mounted the writhing beast and mercilessly punched it with his spikes until it finally died.
Once he was certain it was dead, Aka retrieved his throwing daggers from the massive corpse and sat down to consider how to hide it. The forest entrance was too far away to leave it there, and even if he did, someone would likely steal it. In the end, he decided to place the corpse atop the thick canopy—fifteen to twenty meters above ground—formed by massive trees whose dense leaves blocked out nearly all light. Traveling across the canopy also seemed safer and required less effort.
First, Aka climbed without the corpse, using the spikes on his gloves like climbing picks. The leaves were thick and layered atop one another, so while holding on with one hand, he used a throwing dagger with the other to cut an opening. With that, he leapt and pulled himself onto the canopy.
As far as the eye could see, the surface was covered in lush green leaves, devoid of any living creatures—even the sky was hidden. Some leaves were lighter in color, but the darker layers were so dense that it was impossible to tell what lay beneath. What pleased Aka most was that even after landing with full force, the darkest, thickest leaves did not break. They were strong enough to support the snake's corpse. The only issue was how he would locate this spot again later.
He widened the opening he had created until it was large enough for the snake's body to pass through. Then he descended, carefully climbed down, lifted the corpse onto his right arm, and returned to the base of the climb. Slowly anchoring his left arm higher and higher, he ascended once more. When he reached sufficient height, he channeled physical energy from his shoulder through his entire arm—and into his legs and hips as well—then hurled the snake's corpse through the opening above. To avoid falling from the impact, he clung tightly to the tree.
When the heavy body landed, several leaves fell, but fortunately, the ones beneath the corpse held firm. Aka quickly climbed back up, inspected the body to ensure it was unharmed, and then descended once more.
This time, he climbed several of the thick trees in sequence, breaking off ten to fifteen relatively thin branches. Carrying them up in small bundles, he shaved them down with his throwing daggers, then descended again to bind them together with vines. The result was a long, straight pole. He secured it firmly in a solid section of the canopy near the corpse, leaving no hollow beneath. The pole stood nearly thirty meters tall, like a flag planted beside the body.
After that, Aka moved swiftly across the canopy, aided by physical energy, until he noticed something strange ahead.
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