3rd Ferua planet was home to long stretches of land. The seas and oceans were much smaller than the land. The planet was poorly watered and overpopulated. There were many wars for the water-filled territories because the need was great. The history of great dynasties came and went from this planet. When the emerging World Empire finally united the planet, people breathed a sigh of relief. Under its power, land wars, throne wars, and water wars, with their great human carnage, ceased. Empires survived, but they could not act heartlessly.
There were thousands of forests like no other on this planet. The Red Road Forest. It was a powerful Tao region belonging to an average kingdom on the edge of the Blue Continent. It was said that an Ascension Realm cultivator once reached the depths of the Tao Forest here and crossed over to the Meridian Realm. That is how this forest was born. Over the years, the forest integrated with his Tao and became a much more advanced organism than when it was born.
BANG!
The dimension split open in the middle of the forest, and from the sky, an 8-year-old boy covered in blood fell weakly to the ground. The grass tickled his face and didn't seem to notice the bloody wound on his face. The blood fell on the grass and made his face invisible. Even in this bloody face, the brutal wound was clearly visible. It was a horrible black wound that went down to the bone. The presence of such a wound on the face of a little boy who was not even 1.5 meters tall was terrifying.
"RAAĞR!!! Cough! Cough! Aaagr!!!"
As the sun illuminated the forest with its warm, bright rays, his screams scared the animals away. He rolled on the ground. He coughed and tried to cough up the blood in his throat. As he rolled on the ground screaming, the blood running down his face reached his chin. It covered his mouth. Finally he couldn't vomit anymore. He couldn't scream anymore.
Lagos' attack had gouged out his eyes. Even if he hadn't managed to kill him, the wound was deep and the pain was incredible. Mais couldn't even think for a while. He had to end this pain. As long as the pain was gone, everything would be better. Then he hastily threw his hand into the Treasure Palace. There, he popped the first pill he could find into his mouth. He knew that the pill was not poisoned. The Treasure Palace was an important place for the empire, and in a way, it represented the empire. Poisons were not kept in such a place.
Alchemy pills that were valuable enough to be stored in the Treasure Palace were dangerous even for Ascension Realm cultivators, let alone Beginning Realm cultivators like him. For Mais, all the pills in the treasury were already poisonous, but if the wound on his face remained and his bones continued to dissolve, he would indeed die.
Mais knew at that moment that his salvation lay in going to the Founding Establishment Realm. Normally, entering a realm was a delicate task that had to be done carefully. But a little boy in darkness had rushed into it. He had no choice. There was not much time for him to pass out from the pain. Who in the forest could find him and heal this wound? Mais knew how unlikely it was that he had suddenly fallen into the personal territory of a royal family or an ancient clan. And even if he had, how could they give him such valuable medicine without knowing who he was?
If there was nothing special about the pills he took, Mais would die here alone.
But this time, he was lucky. The pill was not strong enough to kill him. On the contrary, it was the Emperor's Life Foundation Building Pill, specially made for his son. The Emperor knew that his son would not live long. He loved his children, even if he couldn't pay much attention to them all his life. He loved them enough to want them to live longer. That's why he wanted Mais to have a cultivation based entirely on longevity.
But Mais would never know that. The pill he popped into his mouth drew the surrounding energy toward him. The grass swayed with the direction of the energy. Then the grass withered. The trees dried up. The flowers disappeared. All the life energy in them flowed into Mais. It flowed into his face, and the long and wide sharp wound between his two ears slowly began to close. Meanwhile, his body began to harden, and the energy foundation that every cultivator has from the beginning began to form in his abdomen. A layer that would determine his ability to use energy in the next realm. The foundation of his cultivation. Unfortunately, it was an ordinary foundation. The life energy needed for the life foundation the emperor wanted saved Mais's life.
"I am... healed."
There, covered in blood, with no energy radiating from his body, but with a sense of danger, the young man sat with his crimson robe under his buttocks, his legs stretched out in the sun. He raised his head. He looked at the sun. It was clear how his pupils were trembling at that moment. He was afraid. He raised his hand to his eyes. Those pale gray eyes.
"I am... Blind."
A sudden silence and then a brutal realization.
A terrible cry filled the forest. Pain, loss and fear. The cry was not just a sound. It was much more than that. He had survived, but not without losing something.
The wound was gone, but not the scar. There was a terrible sword wound on his face, running from one ear to the other, and he was blind. At that moment, he sat down, tilted his head back, and just stood there. He stood there for hours. He felt on the verge of insanity. He was so overcome with fear that he could not cry. He just thought. What he could do, the past and the future. He knew he was looking at the sky, but he couldn't see the sun. Maybe he had come to a place where it was dark. All he could feel was the earth. The grass tickled his ankles. The wind howled. The rustling of the leaves told him that there were trees. So many trees. Maybe he was in a forest. The land that made him sad. He wrapped the palm of his hand around it. He lifted it up. He brought it up to his face. He smelled it. It smelled of life.
"You wanted me to live, Reter. How can I live like this?"
Drops wetted the earth, but it didn't rain. The fear faded and gave way to pain. Some animals came after a while. They felt that he was dangerous, but they did not believe that this harmless blind human boy could harm them. Mais was not afraid either. He had the mighty treasures of the palace. Maybe he couldn't be in the Origin Energy Realm and release his energy to keep the monsters away, but these ordinary beasts couldn't kill him either.
Mais wiped his wet face with his sleeve, which was covered with dried blood. He had been sitting for a few hours, and it was dark. The air was cold. Since Mais had reached the stage of Feeling the Cold Tao, the cold usually did no general damage to his body. It didn't make him sick, and it didn't make him cold. Still, Mais wanted to leave. He wanted to go somewhere warmer. Some warmth, maybe some good food.
He took his black and white staff under his right hand and began to walk. He often stretched his hand out in front of him, trying to avoid hitting the trees. The staff alone was not enough.
Mais, tired from the battlefield, with a yellow face and not much strength from hunger and fatigue, managed to advance 10 meters. That made him feel a little better.
"Maybe there is a village nearby..."
PATT!
BOOM!
"..."
Mais rubbed his head on the ground as he cursed the tree he had stumbled over. He grimaced as a coconut-sized apple fell from the tree and hit his head. If it had just fallen, it would have been fine, but with his mouth on the ground, a huge apple had fallen on his head and pushed his mouth into the ground. He missed the look of the dirt, but he didn't care about the taste.
"How far could I have gone?"
"You've gone far enough, dude. Look at this place. I don't know what you've done, but the animals can't get near you."
Just then, as Mais spat out the dirt he had eaten, he heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him and the voice of a boy about his age.
His steps were heavy, but his voice revealed that he was a child. Those heavy footsteps and his loneliness in the middle of the forest made him suspect that he was a cultivator.
It is important to remember that wild animals can sometimes be dangerous, even for those in the Beginning Realm. How could a small child running around screaming be normal?
That child was not just a cultivator. He was probably close to him in development, and since he was blind, Mais was no match for him.
The boy came out of the trees. He wore dirty brown clothes. He had strange green hair, but it was also dirty. His eyes were yellow. He had a big belly. It swayed from side to side as he walked. His cheeks were chubby. He had a very childish smile. He wasn't much taller than Mais. He looked about 9 or 10 years old.
Mais looked up. The boy's mocking air vanished instantly as his dull gray eyes and the terrible wound appeared before his eyes. He took a step back. His smile was suddenly wiped from his face. To say that he was not afraid would be utter nonsense. But he soon realized that the mark on the boy's face was a scar. His emotions changed from fear to shock. After recovering from the shock, he suddenly jumped out of his seat and bent down beside Mais with astonishing speed. All this had happened in just a few seconds.
"What kind of monster hurt you like that, man? I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
Mais shook his head. Did the boy think it was an animal that had wounded him? He knew he had a sword wound. Obviously he was somewhere far away from the city and civilization. Somewhere far away.
And yet, there was a cultivator in a random place? Something was strange.
He did not see the face of this boy. He only noticed the friendly tone of his voice. Just a few hours ago, he had been betrayed and blinded by his best friend. And yet he knew he had no choice but to lean on this child.
He was starving.
"Do you have anything to eat?" asked Mais. The great Third Prince of the World Empire was starving and asking a peasant for food. Isn't that funny?
He had his treasure palace, but this young man knew that most of the things in the palace could not feed him right now. He could not withstand their energy.
The boy supported Mais and helped him to his feet. Meanwhile, the surrounding animals continued to retreat. Most of them were now more than 50 meters away. Some had already given up the hunt.
"I have a village nearby. If we go there, you can eat," the boy said. Mais nodded. Mais tried to look at the boy with his arm around his shoulder. Unfortunately, he could see nothing. He couldn't feel his face, couldn't understand what he looked like.
Still, he touched him enough to notice that he was a little fat. He swayed awkwardly in the fat. Mais had rarely seen fat people in his life, and to be honest, he had never seen a fat child. He still hadn't, though.
"What's your name?" Mais asked. He didn't want to walk into the village in silence. He was able to walk anyway. He was not hurt or anything.
"Kasuur. Yours?"
"Mais."
Neither of them said their last names. They both had good reasons for that.