The power in Mais' body suddenly surged towards the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. It wasn't just the 10th level. He felt as if he could enter the Origin Energy Realm immediately, but he did not do so for safety reasons.
His eyes had not recovered, but Mais could still see Kasuur, the forest, and Jong. He could feel them. Through the earth.
'I can't give you your eyes back, but I can give you the ability to feel the earth. When you are ready, I will call on you one last time.'
The Tao of the Red Way. The Red Way was a name. It was the name of the Meridian Realm cultivator who gave birth to this forest. Mais felt he could not continue this dialogue any longer.
"Why are you helping me?"
The forest was silent for a few seconds. Mais could hear Kasuur being beaten. He was getting impatient.
'Just as there is a bond between Naraya and the Tao of the Forest, there is a bond between you and Naraya. There is a bond between you and Naraya. It is my responsibility to help you in any way I can.'
The voice disappeared. With it went a foreign name: Naraya. Was that the name of the Red Way?
He didn't have time to pay his respects to her. She was already gone. Moreover, Kasuur was running so fast that Mais could only wave his staff once to save him. But Mais was not worried. He knew where Jong was. There was nothing to worry about anymore.
"Help me, please."
He whispered to the staff. Then, he tapped the tip of the staff on the ground. Cold ice gathered at the tip and hardened. The staff had turned into a spear. It was a shiny, sharp, and dangerous weapon.
"Shatter her!"
At that moment, he threw the staff. Jong didn't even realize what had happened as the icy mist hid it from view.
The sharp ice lodged in her shoulder, and the cold's power penetrated her body, destroying her instantly.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
A horrible scream escaped her mouth, but it was too late. She grabbed the sword with her left hand, rushed forward with all her might, and cut through the cold air. Mais had already lost his connection with the earth. He could not escape this attack, either. Kasuur came after her, holding only the hilt of his sword. The moment he saw Jong get wounded, he knew they could do more than run. Despite his injuries, Kasuur accepted that it was now a matter of life and death and committed himself to the fight.
One of Jong's shoulders gradually froze, and half of her chest turned white. Her face turned white, and her speed slowed. The wound was almost reaching her heart. But this time, what happened with Joro did not happen.
Her sword reached Mais.
"It's all thanks to the pill you gave me!"
As time passed, she began to feel the pill's power more and more.
At that moment, Mais was slashed from his right shoulder to his left waist. The wound was deep, too. Mais was already tired from fighting for so long. Moreover, the Earth Tao had exhausted him. Without the strength to fight back, Mais was wounded. His legs gave out. He lost consciousness. Mais fell to the ground.
But the fight was not over.
"Die!"
In that moment, the whole world changed in Kasuur's eyes. It was not uncommon for those with genius-level abilities to unleash superior abilities in the heat of battle. Even at such low levels. Jong could only blame his luck for not being one of them. He should have finished the fight when he had the chance.
For the first time, Kasuur saw the world differently. He realized that hundreds of interconnected energies were woven together. Thousands of thin webs. He could pass through them. Each one was green. Except for two. One went to Mais and the other to Jong.
Kasuur swung the hilt involuntarily, as if it were made of metal and the sword had never broken. At that moment, he thought he would slice Jong's stomach in two.
But he couldn't do it. He didn't have a sword.
Still, his attack wasn't wasted. The hilt slipped from his hand. It wasn't something he did on purpose. There was nothing predictable about it. Even someone in the Origin Energy Realm would have had difficulty stopping the hilt, perhaps only managing to dodge it.
But Jong was injured. She was seriously injured and had no strength to run away. Unfortunately, the hilt hit her in the eye. She was blinded in her right eye.
Kasuur grabbed Mais' staff with all his strength and pulled it out of Jong's shoulder. That certainly hurt Jong.
Kasuur looked at his hand for a moment, then at Jong. This girl was very different from the one he had seen at the sheriff's station. Covered in blood, Kasuur's chubby face turned white with fear, and he took the opportunity to punch her in the face with all his might.
BOOM!
With the punch, Kasuur picked Mais up and ran straight away. He didn't even think about finishing Jong off.
There could have been a Stage 9 Origin Master coming after them. At that moment, Kasuur knew he had to get away. Jong might not be able to do anything, but her father and the other Origin Masters were far more dangerous.
***
A few hours later, Jong was far from the battlefield. When she came upon the soldiers' corpses, she realized something was wrong with her body. She stood in the middle of the looted village. She had lost a lot of blood, yet she was still alive. Mais' blow had left traces of Tao, so it took her a long time to stop the bleeding with origin energy.
But she succeeded.
Even so, she felt pain that might have been caused by the blood she had lost. For a moment, she thought there might be poison on the hilt stuck in her shoulder.
"That kid really threw that damn hilt in my eye! Damn it!"
She had warned Kasuur but did not kill him on sight. It was a big mistake, but she was still alive. She was the only one alive. She could tell her father what had happened and chase her enemies away with stronger experts.
But she had to be careful. The two young people were now very close to the Origin Energy Realm, and their extreme abilities were obvious.
"Still, they cannot escape my father's grasp. I might even brandish them as outlaws."
Kasuur had picked up the staff as he fled. As Jong approached and slashed Mais with the sword, she also noticed Mais pulling the sword toward himself. Like a master thief, he stretched his body to grasp the sword as he lost consciousness. Jong couldn't focus on the sword being pulled from her hand because of the knife in her eye. Probably Kasuur had taken the whole thing when he fled, not caring about the sword in Mais's hand.
Jong had lost an eye and only had the pendant of the green moon, a technique she could not use.
She had underestimated the children of the Founding Realm, and this was the result. Kasuur may have been worthless — this worthless boy had managed to cut her back and withstand many of her attacks — but Mais was a monster. Despite being blind and having the weakest cultivation of the three, he was still difficult.
"If he hadn't given me that pill, maybe he wouldn't have had so much difficulty. If that pill hadn't made me stronger..."
At that moment, Jong's eyes widened, and she collapsed to the ground, blood coming out of her mouth. First, the blood was red, and then it turned black. Her weak body gradually dried up and bled. Soon, Jong tasted the bitter realization. It was too late. Yet she only realized this when she was on the brink of death. She realized that she had been noticed before. Maybe it was just doubt at first, and now the seed of doubt had blossomed.
"He wasn't stupid."
Jong said goodbye to the world with her eyes open. She did not understand that Mais was waiting for them to return to the town to give her the antidote. It was only a precaution, but it became reality. In her last moments, she realized that Mais had wanted her dead all along.