Chapter 162: The Gathering (1)
Aren’s fingers tightened slightly against the branch beneath him. For a brief moment after witnessing what happened, a brief thought crossed his mind.
I could kill him here. Whatever he was, it’s not normal. If he truly is a demonic cultivator...who’s to say he won’t get tired of hunting rabbits and start going for other prey instead?
Below, Shen tossed aside the carcass of the rabbit he’d just fed on before he wiped the blood from his mouth with a hand.
But something about Shen’s methods didn’t really line up.
Why is he hunting this much? From his ether amount, Shen’s just a 1 Line cultivator...he doesn’t need this much carcasses to survive.
And it doesn’t look like he’s trying to cultivate and become stronger either...
Aren’s eyes flicked toward the pile of rabbits in the middle of the clearing, around five or six at most.
It’s far too much for just one person. Unless...there were more...
Shen moved again, gathering the carcasses together without care, tying them up roughly before slinging them over his shoulder.
Miu leaned in slightly, clearly worked up. "Aren..."
"I know...it’ll be over soon. Let’s just follow him."
"..."
"...You were thinking of taking him out just now, weren’t you?"
He didn’t deny it. "If he was truly alone, I would’ve."
"If you weren’t here..." Miu started. "Would I...have to do something like that too?"
That’s right...Miu became a Mystic out of her own will. It’s no wonder she’d be scared of something like this.
"Think about it this way," Aren said, his eyes fixed on Shen’s retreating figure. "If you let him go now, there might be casualties later. That’s just how it works."
Miu looked apprehensive, only giving a small nod but clearly she wasn’t convinced of her own willingness.
"Stay close," Aren stepped forward, already preparing to move onto the next branches.
Shen didn’t linger for long. Once the carcasses were secured over his shoulders, he began moving quickly through the forest.
Aren was certain that if he wasn’t following Shen, he would’ve gotten lost with how the terrain was laid out. But the man seemed like he didn’t have a problem, like this was just a daily routine.
He followed from above, keeping pace along the branches while Miu trailed just behind.
After a few minutes, the forest began to thin gradually, giving way to an open sky— and beyond it, what looked like an abandoned district.
The streetlights here flickered weakly, some entirely dead. Buildings stood half-finished, their metallic frames rusted and left to decay. Scaffolding still clung to some of them while others looked like they had simply...stopped being built altogether.
Shen simply turned down another path, cutting through the area as he knew them by heart.
Miu frowned slightly, glancing around as they followed along the rooftops now instead of the trees.
"This place feels off..." she murmured.
"Stella," Aren said quietly, tapping the earpiece. "Where are we?"
There was a brief pause before her voice came through. "Give me a second...I think you’ve moved into one of Misarck’s abandoned sectors."
Miu blinked. "Abandoned? In the middle of a city?"
"It wasn’t always like that," Stella replied. "Misarck had a corruption problem a few years back. Funds went directly into the old director’s pockets, while the projects he started never finished."
"The place you’re in now, District 12, is one of his creations."
Aren’s eyes narrowed slightly as he watched Shen turn another corner. "...And now?"
"It’s been dealt with," Stella’s voice came in, though static seemed to ruin a lot of what she said. "At least officially. But no one bothered to clean up the aftermath."
Miu glanced around again, her voice lowering. "...So it just...stayed like this?"
"Pretty much. Seems like others use it now. Those who don’t have anywhere else to go."
Aren nudged his head, "Let’s take a closer look."
Shen finally slowed as he approached a building that looked like some kind of abandoned warehouse.
Or what used to be one.
Its exterior was worn down by time, metal panels rusted over and peeling at the seams. Every window had been boarded up from the inside, thick planks hammered across them with no gaps left to peer through.
Even the main entrance looked sealed. There was not even a handle. Shen’s lips moved, whispering some kind of secret code. Only then did the doors open from the inside and he slipped right in.
"Shit...there’s no way to get in," Aren muttered.
"What should we do? Should we come back later after they’re gone?" Miu asked.
"No," he shook his head. "By that time, they’d probably wiped all their traces and disappear already."
"Come on...let’s look for other ways in."
Aren ran around the perimeter of the building, eyes scanning the warehouse.
There has to be some other type of entry...a rooftop window, an exposed vent...something.
That was when something caught his eye. Along the side of the warehouse, half-buried beneath loose debris and broken concrete, a cluster of exposed wiring ran along the wall.
It seemed like old infrastructure, likely left unfinished when the district had been abandoned. Most of it was probably non-functional, but not all of it was.
A faint current pulsed through a few of the lines, weak but present.
"...That works."
Miu followed his gaze. "What? What works? Are we seeing the same thing?"
He approached the cluster, putting his hand close to it before placing the other on Miu. Her eyes widened as he did as she shook her head fervently.
"Woah! I don’t know about you, but I absolutely do NOT want to be fried from the inside out!"
Aren frowned. "Relax, princess. We’re Mystics, remember? Something like this won’t kill you."
Right before she could answer, Aren had already envisioned it. He imagined his body and the ether it held, separated by a small boundary. Now all he needed to do...was separate that boundary.
The moment he did, his body merged with the raw ether within, changing it and turning it into the primordial force. But it wasn’t physically possible for the body to be made of nothing, so it turned into the only thing it could latch onto...his elements, specifically Lightning.
"Elementalization."