Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

The investigative elf was confused, he naturally had more methods than just the bird but none of them detected the lion.

'How was this possible?' But there was no time to think.

The group started running again.

Though they recovered somewhat, they couldn't engage a commander class demon.

…

A week later, back in the Jain village.

Sam was standing at the centre of a large formation that was placed on the ground. The formation was made of many different spirits, summoned by elven mages standing around the formation.

He was in extreme agony as the curse removal began.

Drake looked on with a complex gaze. He had no longer been able to cultivate while being worried about Astoria. So, he decided to use this opportunity to observe the only grand mage he knew of in action.

However, the method to remove the curse surprised him.

"I'm not an expert in the healing path, let alone healing and removing advanced curses," Myra had said earlier, much to the disappointment of everyone else. "But, I can try my best."

"The spirit embedded in his throat is linked to Astoria's blood. So, we will need her blood, or the blood of her closest kin," she said, looking at Hazezel. "The problem is…" She hesitated for a second and sighed, before continuing.

"Parasitic spirits exist by feeding on the host's — in this case, Sam's — life force. If we created an even stronger life force outside the host's body and mixed it with the blood of the kin, the spirit is likely to get attracted and leave the host. However, if it fails, the spirit might start to consume the boy's life force at an exponentially faster rate… and kill him."

This was her analysis. But where could they get such a strong life force from?

Kneeling around Sam in a circular fashion were twenty slaves. Surrounding them were various insect-shaped spirits powering a formation that drew out their life force.

Drake was appalled to hear this method, but what could he say?

If he had to choose between Astoria or these twenty people that he didn't know, how could he possibly give up on Astoria? She had only ended up in this position because she wanted to help him.

If he told everyone that he didn't want to sacrifice the slaves to save his sister, wouldn't they think he was insane? Ungrateful? Stupid?

In all his life, Drake never thought he would be in this situation. So, he just remained silent.

Everyone understood Drake's thoughts and made the decision without asking for his input.

At this moment, Myra and her team of mages continued pouring their mana into the spirits to power the formation.

Formation was another path as well, where mages could summon spirits with runes that would resonate with each other when placed in specific arrangements, allowing them to cast complex and powerful spells that would otherwise be impossible for them to do.

The formation continued drawing out more and more of the slaves' life force. Some time later, from the bottom of Sam's throat, a black leech spirit started appearing. It slowly crawled out, testing its surroundings for danger. After confirming that everything was okay, it wiggled excitedly and left Sam's body.

The mages controlled the density of life force inside to form a path with a steadily increasing gradient of mana. The leech followed the path until it reached the body of a slave. All the slaves were injected with Hazezel's blood who had the closest blood tie to Astoria, and since that slave's life force was the greatest, it quickly burrowed into him.

"Now!" Myra boomed.

The mages immediately dissipated their spirits. The formation disappeared, and the leftover life force dispersed into the surroundings. Now the spirit will not want to leave the slave's body anymore.

The curse removal had succeeded!

Myra walked towards Sam and sighed loudly.

"Is he okay?" Drake asked.

"Yes, he is fine. However, this was not an easy victory. Before the leech left, it sucked away twenty years of his lifespan."

Drake was stunned. Twenty years!? That's crazy!

He became extremely grateful towards Sam. This stranger had helped his family so much, he didn't understand why but he was very grateful.

Sam was unconscious. Ray had informed the others about the success and they were overjoyed. Holt came rushing in and ordered people to gently carry Sam away.

As for the slaves, more than half of them were dead. The remaining had many decades sucked out of their lifespan. Due to their lifestyle, slaves had very weak life force anyway, so the formation had to suck out a lot for it to succeed.

Myra walked towards the slave that was now the host of the leech and looked at him curiously. The slave had woken up when the leech entered his body and was looking around dumbfounded at having survived that ordeal. Upon seeing Myra, he immediately grovelled on the ground.

Myra tried to be stoic but her eyes carried a strange excitement. She had demanded a lot of compensation for doing this. This involved lots of gold, precious materials, and other rare resources. One of which was the leech spirit itself. Holt had to helplessly agree to all her demands. She had the complete upper hand in this transaction, so he couldn't do anything.

At the same time, he was happy that he now had the recipe of the Zenith pill. With this, his village could easily become stronger and recover this loss. He was glad that his son had the foresight to not carelessly reveal this information to Ray, else Myra would have asked for the pill formula as well.

"Follow me," she said to the slave.

The slave didn't know that he had already been given to another village, but he could only do as he was told and stood up to follow her. But he had just lost a lot of his life span and endured a great deal of pain. As a result, he suddenly felt extremely dizzy and fell. He would have landed on Myra herself but was pushed aside by one of her female attendants who had entered with the rest.

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"You filthy scum! How dare you try to lay your hands on lady Myra!" she spat and kicked him brutally until he spat out blood. Myra and the rest walked away as if it was nothing.

Drake felt helpless as he left the room, trying to ignore the cries of the slave.

With her task complete, Myra soon left, happy at having made quite a fortune.

After a day of rest, Sam woke up and told the Reynard's everything from how he met Astoria, to how she was kidnapped.

They were all dumbfounded. Not only at her bravery and but also because they were unable to believe that the girl who was always so sweet and caring could come up with such a plan and execute it perfectly.

By this time, information that Henry was a traitor to the Leon village and was exiled had already reached the ears of the likes of Holt and his family. They originally thought that Astoria somehow coerced Henry into selling the recipe, but to think that she so perfectly framed him!

It was absolutely genius!

Holt laughed happily, "She is my daughter after all, she cannot be underestimated!"

"Indeed," Hazezel said. However, Drake was feeling complex.

He was more empathetic towards others, especially coming from Earth where the societal norms were completely different. He imagined himself in Henry's shoes, and how horrible it would be to get framed for something he didn't do. Though Henry was responsible for ruining Nala's life and by extension, also Sam, in the eyes of most people, what Henry did wasn't too bad. It was an accepted demeanour of nobility in this world.

Although Drake didn't think that was acceptable, he also didn't know if it meant that he should suffer such fate of being blamed by the whole world for a crime he didn't commit. Disowned by his own father, losing his status, and exiled from his home to survive god knows where.

It was unthinkable to him.

'Maybe this is what they call karma,' he thought.

Henry ruined one person's life, and so his life was ruined by Astoria, who was then kidnapped by someone else.

They also understood why Sam was so grateful to Astoria and wanted to help her so much. But what no one understood was just who those grand mages were. They couldn't be natives, as if such grand mages existed before, everyone would know about them. They had to have come from the outside, but why?

'They had to be plotting something!' thought Holt, holding his chin. 'Considering the timing of their appearance with that of the chaos in Beast Woods, could they have something to do with this?'

Holt subconsciously looked towards the woods, 'Son, please be safe.'

The Jain village also started mass producing the Zenith pills and it was an immense help to Drake.

When Ray heard of this, he was inwardly furious that he had been kept in the dark for so long! However, he calmed down after some time, realising that he would have done the same in their position and decided not to hold it against them.

At the same time, Myra was hearing a report from a guard with a dark expression.

'Holt… To think that you hid such a big secret from me. Hehe, not bad!' she smiled.

…

One week before, back in the Beast woods.

The group had finally managed to escape from the azure lion, but it wasn't easy. They had to engage in several short fights that injured many people before they started running again. Finally, the burly man wielding a mace had volunteered to hold back the demon to buy everyone time.

Jin Tong wanted to refuse but the tall thin man nodded in confirmation. They didn't have time to argue as everyone else rushed out.

That man was obviously no match for the demon. He was just sacrificing himself to do his duty of protecting Jin Tong.

They could hear the echoes of their fight for a while before everything quietened down. No one spoke, but they were secretly glad that it wasn't them who had to be sacrificed.

Everyone except Jin Tong and the tall swordsman.

Soon however, the sounds of chasing arrived again, and everyone's faces were ashen. Was their comrade's sacrifice in vain? However, these sounds soon decreased and eventually came to a stop, indicating that the demon had finally given up.

The group stopped running and started panting for breath again. Some were resting against trees and some were sitting on the ground, while others completely collapsed. They were exhausted, physically and mentally. Their supplies were mostly gone, armours were worn out, and even their spare equipment were all getting damaged.

At this rate, it would be a nightmare to make it back!

However, they were also happy. Because now, they had finally reached their goal! This was the start of the circular region marked in the map by Myra.

They rested in a hidden area while some people stood guard and the investigative elf scouted around. After some time, he reacted as if he found something unbelievable.

"What's wrong?" Zhao asked.

"It's so strange. In the nearby area, for at least half a kilometre, there is not a single demon present!"

"What?" everyone gasped.

"But my investigative methods aren't perfect. If there are demons much stronger than my spirits, they would not detect it."

The group was silent as they remembered the sudden appearance of the azure lion. It would be terrible if they got ambushed again.

"However, I found a spot, about a quarter of an hour walk away, where there is a cabin."

"A cabin?" Elwin asked confused.

"Yes. And from the looks of it, it is not an abandoned one."

Everyone's expression darkened. This was a group made of the finest warriors in each of their village combined. Yet even they were having such a hard time in this forest. Why was there a cabin here? How could there be anyone living in it? And why were there no demons around?

This was all too strange. There was no doubt that they would find some answers in that cabin.

They had to go there.

However, someone who could live in this deadly zone would not be a simple character. Not to mention that there are no demons around, which suggests that they might have fled from their presence. Who could cause such a reaction in these demons?

Could it be a legendary mage king?

Everyone gulped. That was impossible.

They rested for a while before heading for the cabin. Elwin and Jin Tong lead the way but were now only protected by Zhao. Zhao obviously had a bias towards protecting Elwin, but Jin Tong didn't care.

Soon the group arrived at the cabin. It was a small wooden construction with just two floors and little maintenance. However, there were footprints leading into and out of the house, suggesting that it was recently used.

The group cautiously opened the door.

It was surprisingly unlocked, but after thinking about it, it wasn't too surprising. The owner might have thought that no one would be willing to come all this way.

The group entered a dark room lit by a few candles. The floor and walls were clean and there were several pieces of furniture lying around.

"We'll split up to quickly scout this place and meet back here," Elwin commanded. They all agreed. The elves search the top floor, Jin Tong and the tall swordsman searched this ground floor, while Elwin, Zhao, and Brain went to the basement.

It was extremely dark; the stray candle rays were unable to penetrate this deep. However, they had all been through many life and death battles, so they wouldn't be scared by a little darkness.

After a while, Zhao took out a lantern and lit it up before leading the way.

The basement was quite large, however, when they reached the end, they were all completely in shock.

Nailed to a cross was the delicate body of a woman.

It was Astoria!