Shards of the Broken Heart

Our first objective was to get to a high ground and get a good grip on our surroundings. So, our destination was the mountain, which we saw from the beach. We paced and continued walking briskly for six hours but were still halfway from the mountain’s base. We came across many herbs, all of which were of common grade.

The herbs are categorised into categories depending on their rarity and quality. The grades in increasing order are common, rare, mortal and spirit. As the herbs can also cultivate by absorbing the energy in the surroundings, the higher-grade herbs develop some amount of consciousness.

There have been many cases of spirit-grade herbs affecting the surrounding earth to protect themselves from being harvested by beasts or humans. Although higher-grade herbs are rare to find, this is not always true. The Tetraspine plant was a mortal-grade herb, but it was found in large quantities in the last expedition.

According to the information from the past expeditions in the realm, the highest-grade herb was of spirit grade. So, there was a high chance of encountering many mortal-grade herbs, including the Tetraspine plant.

After the halfway mark, there was a distinctive change that took place. The concentration of energy in the atmosphere increased, and we started to find some rare-grade herbs as well.

It took another six hours to cover half of the remaining distance. At that point, we figured out that this realm was more complex than it looked. There were spatial and temporal distortions present all throughout the realm.

Also, we had travelled for 12 hours straight, but the sun had just climbed to the top of our heads. It seemed that a day here was not the same as a day outside this realm. So, it would be quite troublesome if one only relied on the sun of this realm to calculate the days and crossed the time limit for exiting the portal.

Until then, we relied on our biological clock to determine the time and verified the time spent travelling to be nearly 12 hours. So, these temporal distortions hadn’t affected each individual differently yet. After walking a few meters, we again felt the increase in the energy concentration.

We moved onwards and started to find more rare-graded herbs. We moved onwards while collecting the precious herbs in reasonable quantities so as not to completely wipe them out. Another 12 hours in, we had crossed two more regions of the increasing energy concentration.

This new region was filled with only rare-grade herbs and very scarce common-grade herbs. We had collected a few stalks of most of the rare-graded herbs, so there was no more need to collect them. Our next target was the mortal-grade herbs.

By then, the sun had started to set. So, according to our observation, we found that a day here is the same as two days outside the realm, which is a result of temporal distortion.

So, by calculation, we had about 14 more sunsets to exit this realm. And for every half of the remaining distance from the mountain we travel, there would be an increase in energy concentration. Also, each subsequent half takes the same time to travel at a constant speed, which is the result of spatial distortion.

As the energy concentration increased, we started to find the presence of beasts. We hadn’t come across any Blood Beasts yet in this realm. We had only encountered low-level Ferocious Beasts, which were either left alone undisturbed or, if they found us and gave chase, then they were dealt with easily.

As there was a high chance of being ambushed by a group of strong beasts in the darkness of the night, we planned to camp and rest to replenish our energy and wait the night out. With the help of a few talismans, I made a barrier formation large enough to accommodate us four. The barrier had camouflaging properties; thus, no one from the outside would be able to find us without stumbling into the barrier’s core.

After a few hours, while we were meditating my ears perked open, and I found a few shadows landing near our barrier. There were two men with two small rodent-like beasts sniffing around in the air. They didn’t move for some time and just stayed just outside the barrier.

After a few moments, another group of 7 people emerged from the bushes, and I finally understood what this was about. The one in the lead was none other than Callum. I thought he would take more time and have waited a little more before confronting us, but I didn’t know he was that desperate. One of the two guys from before told Callum.

“Young master, their scent has vanished at this place. Even our pets can’t sniff them out anymore.”

Hearing this, Callum’s face scrunched in a frown, and he spat angrily.

“We have been on their tail the whole day without any problem, and now you are saying they just vanished somewhere? Are you fucking kidding me?”

"Young master, even if they were able to find out about our pursuit, they couldn't completely hide their scents from our pets. The only possible explanation is that they have used a transportation talisman or holed themselves Inside a barrier. But in this unknown realm, they will be fools if they use a transportation talisman without knowing where they will end up. So the most probable outcome is that they are inside a barrier somewhere nearby."

"Hunt them down. I want them as fast as possible. Today, I want to see despair in those cocky eyes. I will return the humiliation I felt to those bastards, thousandfold."

Agreeing with the tracker’s words, Callum’s anger subsided, and he ordered his lackeys to span out and search for any sort of barrier nearby. I had to say that even this ‘leech’ was quite arrogant; he had some competent lackeys under him.

But he would have never guessed that his ‘prey’ was just under his nose. As he had already presented himself, then it would be a waste not to reciprocate his ‘kind intentions’.

(Let the hunt begin!)