For several hours, I continuously searched the forest. Trying to look for a way to get my body fixed one way or another.
However, things weren't going as I had planned.
For some reason, since the time I entered the forest, I couldn't find a single animal let alone monsters who had their cores developed.
It was strange. Although due to the restrictions placed on my body by the system, I couldn't feel any exhaustion or the need to eat either.
i simply continued to walk restlessly, treading through the hidden spikes that lay underneath the the fallen leaves and twigs.
My weary, old hands slowly touched the bark of a tree as I stopped for a minute.
The night had already descended upon the world, and yet here I was, trying to save myself from death.
All of a sudden, a faint squeal echoed throughout the entirety of the once dead silent forest.
In an instant, my face turned towards the direction of the voice. Within the last 11 hours of searching the vicinity, it was my first time hearing a sound other than that of my own mind.
It was faint; however, I could roughly guess the location of the sound, for even if I had lost my powers, experience remained engraved deep within my bones.
With slow yet adequately quick steps, I was hoping to finally see an end to this condition of mine.
Soon, as I approached the place, I noticed a small crevice opened up in the ground.
It could very well be a trap of some monster that may be trying to lure me to its lair; however, knowing that there was an equal chance that it could genuinely be what I was truly looking for, I had no choice but to head in.
I slightly narrowed my eyes, looking into the cave's depths before jumping straight in. Although it didn't look like much from the outside, I realized the vast space was hiding beneath the thin veil of darkness.
My feet quickly approached the wall behind as I kept falling for more than 3 seconds.
The wall behind began to slightly curve as I reached further down, giving me just enough space to use the wall itself as a slide and reduce the impact of the fall.
A mere moment later, my wait ended as I reached the ground safely.
But... I could not see anything at all.
On the contrary, the sounds that I could hear from outside had increased exponentially in here.
The air was heavy and pungent, much like a battlefield adorned by the pooling blood and countless corpses, making it hard for me to breathe.
Just as I took my first steps into the cave, I felt an immense pressure fall into my body. An image of a long, scaled body wrapping tightly around me flickered in my eyes.
My expressions worsened in the split second as I realized that this indeed was a trap laid by a monster.
Behind my head, two bright cerulean eyes slowly surfaced from the shadows, their irises elongated like a reptile's.
A thin, long tongue—split into two at its end—slithered past my ears as I heard a strange, cracked voice echo in his mind.
'Why... are you here...?' The voice seemed to be straining both my mind and soul, as I felt my heart slowly stop beating.
I could already guess it; the beast was just as strong as me in my prime. And looking at its pristine white scales, I could only guess a single name.
A mythical beast that had been reduced to a mere fantasy after countless centuries of no successful sighting of it over the vast world.
The Blue-Eyed Soul Eater Snake.
One of the strongest beasts to have ever been written down in the history of Martial Path, designated the throne of one of the 7 Monarchs of Beasts.
Just as its name stated, it was said to have the powers to rival heaven upon reaching adulthood; however, the one who had been holding him down seemed no stronger than the realms of Void Amalgamation.
Meeting such a literal legend in a bleak cave, I felt blessed; however, at the same time, unlucky.
"My name is Mo Taixuan. I came here upon hearing the faint squeals, hoping to find the beast's core to fix my dying body." I said my intentions clearly out loud.
I wasn't scared of the beast; rather, I simply knew that such tactics wouldn't work against the sole beast present under the heavens to possess the ability to peek through one's soul.
The snake slowly tightened its grip around my body and moved its head forward, facing me face-to-face as it glared into my eyes.
For a split second, I thought as though my mind had suddenly been breached by someone. It was almost like someone was forcefully trying to read the depths of my existence.
However, I remained calm, for the perpetrator stood right in front of me.
It only took the snake a second to read through all of my memories, my current thoughts, and my intentions altogether.
But, for some reason, it kept staring into my eyes.
"I like the look of your eyes, human." Its voice once again rang in my mind, making my eyes shake subtly.
"To think... There existed a human whose memories even I cannot read completely." An apparent hint of crankiness in its voice.
The snake as well was astonished to know my rough past and understood my desperation more than anyone else.
After all, it was going through a similar situation as well.