Han Sen looked in the direction that Son of Fate's gaze had stiffened, and noticed it was Zero who he had seen . She had emerged from the Tree King and was now approaching them .
Zero had already returned to her human form, but her hands held a red knife .
The knife was around a foot long, and it was completely red . It had skeletal characteristics, and its color made it look like a bone that had been soaked in blood .
Han Sen frowned, unsure why Son of Fate would be so scared upon seeing Zero .
"Impossible! Impossible!" Son of Fate was screaming like a madman, and he looked horrified .
Han Sen looked at him, ready to tell him to shut up, but before he could, a red flash cut across his vision . When his eyes steadied their focus, he saw the blood-bone knife lodge itself in Son of Fate's heart .
Son of Fate twitched . All the blood in his body began to course towards his heart, forming a coagulated lump . Then, his skin shrivelled and dried out, becoming another unrecognizable, skeletal husk of a corpse, just like the rest in the area .
Han Sen's eyebrows jumped . He did not know where Zero had gotten this knife, but she had callously murdered Son of Fate with no given reason .
Zero walked in front of Son of Fate and pulled the bone knife out of his heart .
"Why would you do that? You killed him!" Han Sen asked, with his eyebrows furrowed .
"He deserved it," Zero answered .
"Whether or not he deserved it is irrelevant; I asked you why you killed him, so tell me," Han Sen asked again .
Zero looked at Han Sen but did not speak . She merely looked at him the same way she always did .
Han Sen looked at her bone knife and asked, "Where did you get that from?"
"It was inside the tree," Zero answered .
"You punched a hole into the tree so you could retrieve this knife?" Han Sen was surprised, and so he asked for confirmation .
Zero nodded .
"How did you know this bony knife was inside that tree?" Han Sen asked .
Zero had never been to this area of the Second God's Sanctuary before, so how could she know the knife was there?
"It was calling for me . " Zero swung the bone knife .
Han Sen reached out his hand, attempting to grab the knife and saying, "Let me take a look . "
But Zero quickly withdrew her hand and snapped, "Don't touch it!"
"Why not?" Han Sen frowned, thinking Zero was behaving abnormally .
"You will die," Zero said, with a queasy amount of gravitas .
Han Sen froze . He wasn't sure what she meant; would he die if he touched it, or would she kill him if he laid a finger on it?
Looking into Zero's clear eyes, Han Sen pondered which she meant . He was leaning towards the former, however, as he didn't believe Zero would simply kill him .
Han Sen didn't ask any further questions . Instead, he returned his focus to the corpse of Son of Fate . He plundered his pockets in search of any notable loot he might have possessed .
Son of Fate's body was not heavily clothed, and much of what he wore was already in tatters . After his body had dried up, the clothes were like loose strips of fabric crumpled across a twisted branch . There was nothing to be found .
But when Han Sen looked at Son of Fate's back, he was shocked . The tattoo of the nine-life cat had completely disappeared .
Han Sen checked every nook and cranny across his body, but he could not find anything remotely similar to the tattoo he had seen earlier .
"Do you know who this man is?" Han Sen looked at Zero and posed the question .
She shook her head . Han Sen believed she did not know anything, so he didn't ask again . He approached the coffin Son of Fate had been in .
The coffin seemed to have been constructed from the wood of the local Dark Haunted Trees, but there was nothing else of significance . The coffin was empty .
Unable to find anything there, Han Sen instead turned his attention to the Tree King and started walking in its direction . No longer did it drain Han Sen's lifeforce, so he walked right up to it without trepidation .
He observed the hole that Zero had punched into it, and noticed how eerie it looked . It seemed like an infinite abyss, where no light could reach . Looking back at Zero, he saw that she was just following him in the casual manner she always did . Gritting his teeth, Han Sen entered the hole .
The interior of the tree was big, but there did not seem to be anything special on the inside . There was nothing notable there for Han Sen to find .
"Strange . " Han Sen frowned and looked at Zero . He wanted to ask her more questions, but it was unlikely she would answer him directly .
Unable to find anything, Han Sen decided to ride atop his Golden Growler and go off in search of the missing Liu Fang and Wang Jiangang . When he found them, they were still in shock, but uninjured . The curse of the woods seemed to have been lifted, so Han Sen was able to lead them out .
The Dark Haunted Trees and bugs did not look any different than they used to, but nothing prohibited their exit . In fact, they found the borders of the forest relatively soon . The forest was only a few hundred miles wide, at the most .
Liu Fang and Wang Jiangang's joy was only suppressed by their relief, after leaving the forest . They believed themselves incredibly fortunate to have survived in the forest all that time, including the dangers that had followed Han Sen's arrival . But still, an uneasy feeling over the ordeal had managed to latch itself onto Han Sen's mind .
Zero's blood-bone knife had vanished from her hands, too, Han Sen noticed after some time . He wasn't sure where she put it .
"If the nine-life cat's necklace is a relic of the Blood Legion, that means I will be able to practice the Blood-Pulse Sutra," Han Sen thought, excitedly .
Although he had already learned the Dongxuan Sutra, the more he learned the better . What's more, the strengths of the Blood-Pulse Sutra could benefit his next-in-lineage, if he ever had a child .
Han Sen followed the Blood-Pulse Sutra and held the nine-life cat necklace for its practice . It took him half a month before he could label himself a beginner, so it was clearly going to take quite some time before he unlocked its first gene lock .
He practiced it frequently, on his trip towards Blue-Crystal Shelter, and six days later, he found a second-generation super creature down near a riverbank .
It looked like a serpent-wyrm, and when it flew above the river, it attempted to eat Han Sen .
Han Sen and the silver fox quickly beat it up, however . And because he had grown fond of smashing the skulls of his opponents lately, Han Sen made sure to turn into a silver ape to lay the smackdown .
"Super Creature Riverbank Wyrm killed . No beast soul gained . The flesh of this creature is edible, and you may harvest its Life Geno Essence . Consume its Life Geno Essence to gain zero to ten super geno points randomly . "
Han Sen refined the wyrm's Life Geno Essence and received six super geno points . He only needed two more points to max out now .
The flesh of the creature was shared between the silver fox and the fairy .
"Soon, I will reach the Third God's Shelter . I hope my luck holds out . " Han Sen was a little worried, but he still had the lotus symbol on his forehead .
He went to a nearby human shelter to restock his supplies and ask around for where he might find more super creatures .
Han Sen heard a strange tale, one that seemed worth checking out . He was told of a mountain that was repeatedly thunderstruck, night and day . If there was a super creature there, it was most likely one that adhered to the elements of thunder . If that was true, then its slaying would prove beneficial to the silver fox .
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