A Failure's hopeful Journey

You Xi Wang carried Maya on his shoulder and searched the vicinity for the location of the Blood Bane Tiger's den. After spending two hours and searching with rapt attention, he discovered that from a certain distance the trees looked distorted. He climbed on the top of the tallest tree in the area and to his surprise; he noticed that the spiritual energy in the center was acting weirdly. The trees seemed to be arranged in an array.

He had learned from his usage of the technique pavilion that these arrays were formed naturally and only beasts could walk through them with no restrictions. This meant You Xi Wang will have to solve this array or he will be trapped inside if he enters recklessly.

Arrays are formed by arranging objects in a certain order and in this case, it is the gray-colored Hollow Wood trees that acted as array points and as they communicated with the spiritual energy in the surrounding an illusion manifested in the center covering the place in illusion.

You Xi Wang quickly called his friends by his Holo-phone, informing them about his motive and the array. He instructed them to carry on with their hunt, but if he does not return to camp but the evening they can come here to search, he also passed on his coordinates to them.

You Xi Wang stroked Maya's soft fur as he stood there observing the array in front of him. He was very cautious because this was the first time he ever encountered a natural formation. He asked the system.

'System, can we not destroy this illusion array?'

[This is a natural array. If you try to destroy it, the energy in the core of this array might erupt after all spiritual energy is volatile.] the system replied.

'Hmm… then how about I use my soul energy to solve it and enter this array?' You Xi Wang questioned again.

[Why waste the soul energy when your new partner can lead you through it? She is an intelligent beast blessed with illusion skills herself.] system suggested.

You Xi Wang was also quick on uptake. He spoke, ���Maya, do you know inside this array is the den of that Blood Bane Tiger? I think he might have many cores stored in there. Will you be able to lead me through, sweetheart?"

Maya understood his words as she rubbed her small head against his neck in affirmation. He put her down on the ground and she walked ahead of him as both a human and cub entered the array.

Maya strolled, she would glance around before each step, You Xi Wang nodded at this, it meant she was following her instincts. Maya was a lone wolf beast, they had the sharpest of instincts among beasts.

She led him for a while when suddenly the array vanished. In front of them was a big cave covered with vines, leaving only a small opening. You Xi Wang picked her up and hugged her with affection. He spoke in praise, "Our little Maya is so smart."

Maya could sense that he was praising her ability, so she also licked his cheek, making him chuckle. He placed her back on his shoulder and took up his bow and knocked an arrow. He aimed for inside the cave. The arrow had a glowing body, it was called 'spark', especially used for scouting dark areas just like the cave.

He let the arrow loose and with a whizzing sound the arrow flew inside the cave lighting it up. There were no beasts inside the cave, but some bones and bags were apparent. Seems like the Tiger collected its prey's stuff.

You Xi Wang walked inside with his bow and arrow while his spear was stuck to his back this time. The reason was simple spear could not be used to tackle or defend any beasts inside because the cave was not as big as it seemed to be on the outside. He had to bend down a bit because the ceiling lowered as he walked inside. In a corner of the cave laid shiny ball-like objects and some bags.

You Xi Wang walked up and found a little mound of beast cores just like he suspected the Tiger stockpiled the cores. He bent down and rummaged through the bags until he found out that the bags contained medicines and dry rations that could still be used. He opened the last bag and inside it laid a ball which seemed to be one foot in diameter, he took it out and Maya suddenly flinched, she came behind him, her eyes were trained on the ball.

You Xi Wang noticed that she was agitated as she gazed at this ball. He turned the ball towards the light and saw a button on it, he pressed the button and the ball opened with its upper half sliding along its edges. Inside was a pod. This pod shook You Xi Wang to the depth of his core.

This pod was called one of the highest grade elixir. It was called the blood shackle tree. This tree when matured will bear fruit every ten years, unlike those trees which would only bear fruit once in a century. It was also a rare elixir. Even The Council of Metropia would spare no expense to have this tree in their hands. You Xi Wang closed the ball again and rummaged through the bag. He found a dairy inside, which was rare after all in these modern times people hardly used paper and pen. He opened the diary and on the first page some words were written, 'Micheal Wistrom, senior explorer, Seedling.'

You Xi Wang decided that he would read this diary later and put it back in the bag along with the ball. He was now inside the array for over two hours and he had to get back to the camp too. He stored the bag with the pod inside his battle suits for emergency storage which could only store a medical kit and some emergency tools. The bag was only as big, it seemed to be made of special fabric.

He carried all the beast cores inside another bag and held it in hand. He lifted other bags with rations and medicines as well and asked Maya to lead the way out. He erased his tracks on the way back with the help of spiritual energy.

On the way back he also threw away the leftover of the Cloud Boa inside the swamp, totally erasing any signs of battle or his arrival in the area. He rushed back to the camping area to meet his friends.

Sunset slowly and a lanky man wearing a black cloak arrived near the array. He searched around for a bit and entered the array. He discovered nothing other than some beast cores and some bags filled with medicines. The man looked around in the vicinity but found no traces and moved towards the inner section of the forest.