Red gritted his teeth as he put on an improvised bandage over his back. The wound still burned, but nothing else seemed to be happening around the affected area. This was to say that even after the ghoul spewed the contents of its stomach onto his back, the youth wasn’t infected by undead sickness or anything of the sort.

This only confirmed his suspicions from years ago.

‘I am immune to this sickness.’

Upon further thought, this wasn’t surprising. Necromancers, for instance, were also immune to this infection, unless it came from an extremely strong source. The reason for that was the undeath energy that ran in their veins, which assimilated this corrupting energy and prevented it from taking effect. It just so happened Red possessed a very powerful kind of undeath energy in his body, so resisting the infection from a ghoul was still possible.

There was also another matter which concerned Red to a smaller degree.

The six-eyed snake had disappeared.

He didn’t know when this happened, since back then he was too distracted by the ghouls to even pay attention to his pet, but he assumed it was around when they were surrounded by the creatures. The fact Red didn’t even notice the serpent slipping away was a testament to its abilities, but in the end, he was glad that it escaped. If it had remained on his shoulder, wouldn’t it have been hit by that acid from the ghoul?

In any case, searching for the snake was very much a futile endeavor, as Red couldn’t detect it with his crimson sense, and neither did he really have time to. He could only hope that in the future he would run across it again, and since his presence left enough of a mark on the monster, it wasn’t entirely unimaginable.

‘I need to hurry.’

Red didn’t feel like he was in a condition to run, but he couldn’t stay still. Without anything to mask their presence, it was impossible to tell when the imperials or that necromancer would catch up with them.

As his thoughts came to that, he couldn’t help but wonder about something else.

‘Are the imperials working with a necromancer?’

The implications of that were massive. As far as Red knew, the Empire was always something that prized itself for its purity and devotion to their celestial gods. A faction like that working alongside heretics like necromancers was shocking, to say the least.

With no time to think further, Red grabbed the unconscious Rog and put him over his shoulder. There was still at least another day of travel to reach town, and with the imperials chasing after them, the youth didn’t fancy their chancer very much. The only thing he could do right now was hurry and push his body to the limit, so he arrived to safety before anything else happened.

And that was what he did.

…

The night was a tumultuous one for Red.

The lunar gaze returned, this time with renewed strength. The youth could swear that he could feel the pressure even more clearly now after opening his last special “acupoint”, which didn’t bode well for him. This was aggravated by the fact Aurelia had drained his body of Moonstone Energy.

In normal situations, he could use the insectoid Core to recharge his special acupoints. However, looking at its fragile state, how could Red risk it? What if it broke once and for all? He needed to find another way.

On the other hand, while night went around and morning arrived, the youth was pleasantly surprised. No one else came for them. Red didn’t know if this was because Aurelia was still able to maintain her disguising technique even while in hibernation, or if it was because they were afraid of whatever it was he used to kill two powerful ghouls in one blow.

He and Aurelia couldn’t repeat that, of course, but his pursuers had no way of knowing that.

In any case, Red saw no further incidents as he approached town. He was also keeping an eye on Rog’s condition, and while the man dipped in and out of unconsciousness, there were no signs of the spread of his infection yet.

A little after midday, Red spotted the town on the horizon. He couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

‘We’re safe for now.’

Now, however, came another concern. It was still daytime, which meant Red couldn’t really sneak into town, nor was he in any condition to. Was he meant to wander the streets with a half-dead Rog in his shoulder?

The answer was yes. He couldn’t afford any delays, as they could be the difference between life or death to the hunter. So it was that he approached town.

It didn’t take long for people on the outskirts to spot his bare-chested figure carrying the unconscious hunter in his shoulder.

“Is that… That’s Young Master Red, isn’t it?”

“It is! He looks wounded!”

“That person on his shoulder… Isn’t he the hunter from their sect?!”

“He’s missing an arm! Gods, what happened to them?!”

The hubbub already started to spread through town, and it wasn’t long before it caught the attention of a few guards.

One of them, mounted on horseback, approached Red with a concerned expression. “Young Master Red, do you require assistance?”

Red nodded. “Bring him… Back to our sect.”

Without hesitation, the youth threw Rog’s unconscious body over the horse’s back. The guard was confused for a second, but he still nodded with a resolute expression.

“What about you? Do you require assistance?” he asked.

Red hesitated. “… Do you have another horse?”

…

A few minutes later, two horses were making their way uphill at galloping speeds, mounted by two guards with Red and Rog on their backs. Their urgency obviously attracted the attention of the common folk wherever they ran, and the youth was certain that before an hour passed by the entire town would know about Red and Rog’s wounded conditions.

Still, Red couldn’t care about it. Soon enough, they arrived at the sect’s street, and the commotion of galloping horses arriving at their quiet abode already attracted the attention of people from inside.

Allen came bursting out of the courtyard, looking in the noise’s direction.

His eyes widened when he saw his companions. “Red! A-and… Rog?!”

The young master’s expression paled as he saw the hunter’s unconscious body.

Red got off the horse and waved at him. “Take him to Hector, Allen! Quickly!”

Allen snapped out of his daze and nodded. He took Rog off of the horse’s back and ran inside the courtyard.

Red turned around to look at the two mounted guards. “Thank you for your assistance. Tell Orvin we will look for him to discuss some important matters as soon as the situation here is handled.”

The guards nodded and took it as their queue to leave.

Red wandered into the courtyard and was greeted by Domeron and Goulth’s figures, staring at him in confusion.

Goulth frowned as he saw the youth’s condition. “What happened to you, kid?!”

Red waved him off. “I’ll explain it… Inside.”

He tried to take a few more steps forward, but he couldn’t help but stumble and fall to his knees.

“Gods damn it!” Goulth rushed ahead to support him with a concerned expression. The blacksmith turned around to look at Domeron. “The medicine pills, go get them!”

The swordsman nodded and walked off to Goulth’s workshop. In the meantime, the blacksmith brought Red into the meeting hall.

Inside, Allen had already set Rog down on top of the table, and Hector was staring at the unconscious hunter with an ugly expression. He looked over at Red as soon as they entered the room.

“What happened?” the elder asked.

“We were attacked by ghouls.” Red said, as Goulth set him down on a chair.

Hector’s expression became even uglier. “Was he…”

Red nodded. “His arm got slashed off by one of its claws.”

The air around the entire room changed.

Allen looked over at Hector with an apprehensive expression. “Does that mean he’s infected?”

The elder ignored his question and looked at the hunter’s shoulder. “Did you cut off the rest of his arm?”

Red nodded. “I did what I could to delay the infection, but I’m not sure how much that helped.”

“… Tell me what happen-”

“Enough, old man!” Goulth cut him off. “The kid is also wounded, or can’t you even see that?! Focus on doing what you can for Rog before making questions!”

Hector frowned, but didn’t say anything back. Instead, he held onto Rog’s left wrist and closed his eyes.

Red saw an aura of Spiritual Energy emitting from the elder’s body as he started to examine Rog’s condition. While he was doing so, Domeron returned to the hall and handed a bottle of pills to Goulth.

The blacksmith popped one of them in his hand and fed it to Red. The youth was too weak to even resist, so he just swallowed the medicine without complaint. Ten seconds later, he felt a rejuvenating force spread through his body.

His broken ribs mended themselves, and Red felt the burning pain in his back ease. Still, as his body relaxed from its high-strung state, the youth felt as if he could still collapse from exhaustion, but he knew this was something he couldn’t afford to do right now.

Right around this time, Hector finished his examination and opened his eyes.

“He’s stable for now.” the elder said.

“What about the infection?” Allen asked with a concerned expression.

Hector shook his head. “There are no obvious signs of it, but that doesn’t mean anything. The disease can spread extremely quickly from just a single infected particle.”

The young master frowned. “Is there nothing you can do about it?”

“I can only delay the inevitable it if it starts worsening, nothing else.” Hector said.

Allen’s expression paled and he gritted his teeth.

The elder turned around to look at Red again. “Tell me what happened.”

“The imperials can track us.” Red said.

Hector seemed shocked. “How?”

“Spiritual Signal detection.” he said. “I found it on someone who was following me while I was outside.”

The elder gritted his teeth in anger. “That is not possible! Setting those types of tracking treasures takes time and close contact! I, or anyone else in this sect, should have noticed if something like this was happening!”

Red frowned. “It’s the truth. That, or someone far stronger than you, was spying on us.”

Domeron shook his head. “Not likely. The formations in town can detect when someone stronger than a Greater Ring Realm cultivator enters. Unless, that is, if they managed to find a way to circumvent that, which is not entirely impossible, all things considered.”

Hector's expression continued to worsen. “None of that matters right now! How do the ghouls relate at all to this matter?”

“I had my ways to disguise my Spiritual Emissions.” Red said. “Rog didn’t know about it, though, so he ended up leading them right to me. That was when we were attacked by three ghouls, too coordinated to be acting independently.”

“Why did they use ghouls to deal with you?” Hector stared at him. “How did you even survive?”

“That doesn’t matter right now!” Goulth cut him off. “What matters is the fact we now have confirmation of something extremely important. The imperials are working with necromancers. Do you know what that means?”

Indeed, those were news with the potential to shake the entire world to its core and change the perception of the Empire forever. Which meant they would definitely not allow this news to leak.

“They will do everything to kill us.” Domeron said.