Early the next morning.
Chen Mian headed out immediately after breakfast.
He had promised Luolin that he would look for the demi-humans from her village.
Flora had pressed a pastry wrapped in oilpaper and a flask of Moonlight Grass tea into his hands, telling him to have them on the way.
He accepted them and stored them in his storage space.
“Hey! Do you want me to come with you?” Loviki said seriously, leaning against the doorframe.
“No need. Just wait for me at the apartment,” Chen Mian declined with a wave of his hand.
He walked out to the clearing outside the apartment and raised his right hand. A pale blue halo of mana rose from his palm, condensing into a fist-sized point of light in midair. It flickered twice before dispersing.
Moments later, a powerful gust of wind swept overhead.
Ryan the griffin folded its wings and landed steadily on the grass, its golden-brown feathers gleaming with a metallic luster in the morning light.
“Let's go. Southeast,” Chen Mian said as he leaped onto Ryan's back. Ryan spread its wings and soared into the air with a gentle leap.
The canopy of the Forest of Death stretched out beneath them like a dark green ocean, the morning mist not yet fully dispersed over the sea of trees. A few flying magical beasts circled in the distance, but they quickly turned and fled upon spotting Ryan's shadow.
After flying for tens of minutes, the forest beneath Chen Mian gradually thinned out. The trees here were noticeably shorter than those near the apartment, and the trunks were covered in scorch marks and claw scratches.
The closer they got to the edge of the Forest of Death, the more active the low-level magical beasts became. Adventurers would also occasionally come here for training.
“Ryan, drop below the canopy.”
The griffin folded its wings and glided down through a gap in the canopy, landing in a relatively open clearing in the forest.
Chen Mian hopped off the griffin's back and sent it back first, then began walking south, following the tracks on the ground.
The forest was very quiet. He made no effort to conceal his presence. Magical beasts had a keen perception of mana, and they naturally steered clear of an individual with such intense mana fluctuations like Chen Mian.
Heading in the direction Luolin had described, he sensed the mana in the air as he walked.
After searching for a long time, he finally stopped beside an ancient tree. A strange mark was carved into the trunk, carrying a faint trace of mana.
Beneath the mark, a line of small characters was written in charcoal—a code used internally by the demi-humans: "Ten miles south, riverside highlands."
Before he set off, Luolin had told him that the villagers had agreed to leave encrypted marks along the way after escaping into the forest, making it easier for those who got separated to find the group.
The mark was several days old, but the direction it indicated was still clear.
Chen Mian picked up his pace in the direction of the mark, and soon, he caught the scent of smoke.
Ahead was a highland nestled in a river bend.
The terrain was significantly higher than its surroundings, surrounded by water on three sides, with only a narrow slope leading up.
Seven or eight crude tents were pitched atop the highlands. The tent fabric was riddled with holes, which had been makeshift-patched with vines and bark.
Thin wisps of smoke rose from several fire pits, where someone was boiling something over the flames.
The location was chosen well; the river could block most land-dwelling magical beasts, and the narrow slope made it easy to defend.
But that was all. If flying monsters or high-level magical beasts over Level 40 came, these defenses would be useless.
Fortunately, they hadn't ventured as deep into the Forest of Death as Luolin and the others had. Otherwise, it would have been hard to say how many of them would still be alive.
Chen Mian walked up the slope.
When he was still about a hundred meters from the camp, a sharp whistle shattered the silence.
“Someone's coming!”
The highlands instantly erupted into chaos.
Several demi-human men grabbed crude iron swords and rushed out to block the way, while demi-human girls followed closely behind with bows and arrows, looking extremely tense.
Blocking the very front was a tall, middle-aged man with wolf ears. He gripped his iron sword tightly, his eyes fierce, though the hand holding the weapon trembled slightly.
“Halt! Who are you?”
“Are Luolin and Miya from your village?” Chen Mian asked, looking at them calmly.
The wolf-eared man's pupils shrank. “You know Luolin?”
“She's living at my place.”
“She's not dead?!” Another voice rang out from behind a tent. A rabbit-eared girl who looked to be in her twenties quickly stepped out, her eyes filled with pleasant surprise. “Luolin and Miya are still alive?”
“They're both alive, and their wounds have healed,” Chen Mian said, looking at the rabbit-eared girl. “She asked me to help find you. Come with me.”
A brief silence fell over the highlands.
The wolf-eared man lowered his sword. “Are they really okay?”
“Yes, three square meals a day and hot springs to soak in. Are there any other members of your group?”
The wolf-eared man looked back at the tents in the camp, then at the rusty longsword in his hand. After a long silence, he said, “We ran into slave traders along the way and were attacked by magical beasts twice. There are only nineteen of us left now.”
Nineteen people, mostly women. There were only five adult males capable of fighting, and every single one of them was injured.
“Can you still walk?” Chen Mian asked them.
“Where to?”
“Deeper into the Forest of Death.”
“Deep into the Forest of Death?” The rabbit-eared girl tightened her cloak, her tired face showing some anxiety. “Isn't it much more dangerous in there than on the outskirts?”
“It is dangerous, but I can guarantee your safety,” Chen Mian said with a nod.
The rabbit-eared girl blinked, looking a bit skeptical.
The wolf-eared man stared at Chen Mian for a long moment, then sheathed his longsword and took a deep breath. “You came here alone? From deep within the Forest of Death?”
“More or less.”
The way the wolf-eared man looked at him changed. For someone capable of living deep inside the Forest of Death, harming them wouldn't require this much effort.
“We'll go with you,” he said. “But most of our people are injured, so we won't be able to move quickly.”
Chen Mian raised his right hand. A pale blue halo of mana condensed in his palm and rose into the air.
After a moment, a powerful gust of wind pressed down from above as a massive shadow swooped down from the sky.
Ryan landed steadily in the center of the highlands and folded its wings. Its amber slit pupils swept over the group of demi-humans before settling on Chen Mian, letting out a low rumble from its throat.
The demi-humans retreated several steps in unison, before anyone could even react.
Chen Mian patted the griffin's foreleg. “Ryan, grow a bit larger to carry them.”
Ryan let out an incredibly resonant screech. The soundwave rippled outward like a physical force, sweeping across the grass in all directions. Immediately after, the griffin's body expanded at an unbelievable speed. Its wingspan suddenly stretched from a dozen meters to over fifty, and the tip of every golden-brown feather shimmered with the glow of mana.
With just a gentle unfurling of its wings, a strong gust swept across the highlands, sending sparks from the fire pits dancing wildly into the air.
The demi-humans retreated in unison, some even getting knocked flat onto their backs by the wind.
The rabbit-eared girl looked up at the giant beast that had appeared out of thin air, her ears standing straight up. “It's the legendary magical beast... a griffin.”
Ryan crouched down, spreading one of its wings flat on the ground to form a feathered ramp.
“Get on,” Chen Mian said to the demi-humans.
But no one dared to move, unable to overcome their primal fear.
In the end, it was the rabbit-eared girl who took the first step.
Taking a deep breath, she held onto the outermost feather of Ryan's wing and carefully climbed up.
“Melo, be careful...” someone called out softly from behind.
“Everyone, come up. Don't make it wait too long,” the rabbit-eared girl, Melo, said, her voice trembling slightly, yet she kept climbing.
With her leading the way, the others gradually began to climb up as well. For those with injured limbs, Chen Mian simply used his mana to gently lift them onto its back.
Once everyone was safely seated on Ryan's back, they took up less than half of the space. Chen Mian leaped onto the griffin's head, sat cross-legged, and expanded his mana barrier to block the wind pressure.
“Let's go. Keep it steady.”
Ryan let out a low cry and spread its wings. A whirlwind swept across the highlands as its massive body soared into the sky, rushing toward the clouds.
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