His curse made the fairy chuckle.

  "Who are you? How can you sneak up on me?" Wang Yun asked in bewilderment.

  One must know that his senses had been continuously enhancing each day. However, as long as he didn't focus too much, the information he perceived would also be limited.

  Although he was rexed beforehand, he knew he could still hear faint footsteps if something approached and even the flow of wind. As long as something or someone went against it, he could feel and faintly hear it.

  But he didn't hear her at all! What did that mean? It meant she could completely kill him if he let his guard down for a moment!

  Hell, if she had bad intentions, he might have already died!

  "If I tell you, then you would have to reveal your identity as well. With your...crude mask, it's clear you don't want to reveal your face," the fairy said. Although he couldn't see her expression, he could feel a hint of amusement in her tone.

  Wang Yun was stunned for a moment before taking back his question. He didn't want to reveal his face at all!

  "Then...how can you...how can you do that?" Wang Yun asked as he gestured at her form. It was almost a question ignorant people asked, but Wang Yun couldn't stop his curiosity.

  "My specialty, just like you have yours as well," she replied.

  'Alright, just say you don't want to tell me!' Wang Yun thought indignantly.

  He had another question though, "How did you find me?"

  Had she pced a tracker on him or something? Because if she had, then he was screwed! More so since he hadn't detected it, he didn't even know if he could remove it.

  "Would you believe me if I say it was a coincidence that I saw you?" She said, shaking her head. "You asked a lot of questions."

  "Yeah well, I tend to do that to beings that sneak up on me and I can't understand," Wang Yun responded.

  The fairy chuckled and turned her gaze to the stars.

  Wang Yun stopped himself from asking more questions as he tried to contempte the fairy's identity.

  'A cultivator of the city? Maybe a disciple of the Jade Mountain Sect?'

  "How vast do you think the area beyond this world is?" She suddenly asked, her voice ethereal and a faint longing in her tone as she looked at the stars.

  Wang Yun looked at the stars as well. "Bigger than what we could comprehend at least," he said. As he said that, he wondered if he should take the chance to visit outer space. As soon as this idea came to him, he now wanted to try it.

  It would be too obvious to do it during the day, but at night...

  "If we're so tiny, do we even matter?" She asked.

  "I thought cultivators worked hard to reach the heavens and defy... you know.. something?"

  "Does becoming a cultivator who can reach the heavens make us matter?" She looked at him intently, even though her face was blurry.

  'What is she getting at?' Wang Yun thought. He thought for a moment before responding, "Maybe that's the beauty."

  The fairy was silent, unknown as to what she was thinking.

  "The beauty of wonder," Wang Yun said with a sigh while gazing at the stars.

  "To be curious," Wang Yun said and continued. "So many people looking for answers, sometimes we just forget to appreciate the present and gaze at the stars."

  "Sometimes, we focus too much on getting there that we get lost and forget to admire the scenery. Do we matter? Well..." Wang Yun paused and chuckled. "In the grand scheme of things, maybe not."

  He felt the fairy's gaze shoot towards him, but Wang Yun continued. "But does this grand scheme of things matter too? No, in the end, we're all individuals, on our own worlds, with our own perceptions and decisions. Our actions in the present are all that matters."

  Silence came after his words, except for the rustling of leaves and the sounds of insects.

  Wang Yun looked at the corner of his eyes at the fairy who had her gaze back to the stars. He didn't know what she was thinking.

  For a few minutes, nobody spoke when...

  Huawwwwh!

  A high-pitched screech sounded in the distance. Wang Yun rexed posture turned alert immediately as he looked towards the distance, squinting his eyes. He saw a rge, bird-like silhouette flying.

  "What is that?" he muttered.

  "A roc bird... a mountain king..." the fairy answered him.

  Hearing that, Wang Yun couldn't help but blurt out, "Another one!?" He spoke before Wang Yun realized his mistake and immediately corrected himself, "I heard days ago that a mountain king also appeared that devoured a vilge. Now this appears? Why are they coming here?"

  As if it were nothing important, the fairy said, "It's because of the Thousand Beast Jade Forest. The Jade Mountain Sect has decided to nurture core formation beasts in the forest, causing the previous mountain kings without potential to either submit, perish, or run away..."

  He was stunned by the information that he instinctively joked, "Do they really just add 'Jade' to everything?"

  "They do, don't they?" the fairy said, a hint of a smile in her tone. Then she muttered in surprise, "Oh?" Her surprise soon turned into amusement. "Looks like it's coming for you."

  "Ah, shit!"

  Before she even said it, Wang Yun noticed the silhouette seemed to be heading towards his direction.

  Without caring about the fairy, Wang Yun immediately flew away and headed down to use the trees as cover.

  As he flew, for a moment he thought the mountain king had lost interest in him. When he suddenly saw from the corner of his eyes, light illuminating the forest, he took a peek behind and was stunned by what he saw.

  A giant roc bird, bathed in what he assumed was golden qi, was already catching up to him.

  Its wingspan stretched more than ten meters, and its eyes were focused on him.

  "Fuck..." Wang Yun cursed even as he sped up, but the mountain king slowly caught up to him like a death missile.

  Then Wang Yun suddenly stopped mid-air and flew back!

  'Let's see if it can easily turn around!'

  But before he could completely pass by it, the mountain king immediately opened its wings wide. Golden feathers flew out of its wings and shot towards him.

  "!" Not expecting this attack, Wang Yun barely dodged a feather passing him and instead sliced through a tree like butter.

  Whoosh!

  Wang Yun didn't stop but instead of passing through it like he had intended, he flew up and grabbed its talons and grunted.

  "Grn!" With gritted teeth, he flew hard, gaining some momentum, dragging the beast and smming the giant beast into the trees.

  Bog!

  The sm resounded in the quiet forest, causing Wang Yun to think they might have attracted people from the city. But on second thought, he realized they were a bit far from the city as he wanted to fly without being seen.

  Briefly lost in thought, a golden feather shot towards him like a bullet. He barely managed to dodge as it hit his side, causing blood to sptter. Then more golden feathers came towards him!

  He shot forward and then flew down. The trees were still pretty useful in confusing the mountain king. Suddenly...

  A screech full of anger sounded, along with the rustling of something hitting the ground.

  It took a gnce behind before Wang Yun realized he had truly pissed it off. It didn't even fly up above the trees and instead, its wings turned into bdes that cut anything in its way.

  "Damn...!" It was getting closer and in only a few seconds it would catch up to him. He immediately decided something. At this point, the trees were no different from blockades for him.

  He flew up and flew forward as his speed burst, creating a sonic boom! He flew faster than he had ever let himself to be.

  Wang Yun had roughly calcuted his speed, and while he held back in the martial hall, he knew his speed had reached more than Mach 1!

  He felt exhirated at the speed, as if he could fly over the world in one go.

  Then he stopped after he got some fair distance.

  He turned towards the mountain king, who had now weakened its light and flew slowly towards him, eyeing him like it was assessing the strength of its prey.

  Should he run? He asked himself. If he wanted to, he felt like he could, but man now that he had a moment to think, the thrill of battle surged in him and it doesn't look like the mountain king is way stronger than him too...

  The mountain king let out another screech, this time it glowed bright and charged towards him faster than before.

  And it took only a moment for Wang Yun to decide as well, as Wang Yun smiled behind his cracked mask and made a charge of his own!

  'Let's go!'

  Some distance away, the ethereal fairy was watching all this with silence.

  "Interesting..." she murmured as she saw the battle. It was unknown as to what she was thinking.

  The night wasn't as quiet as she had thought it would be, but it was certainly entertaining.

  Behind the blurry mask, her lips turned into a grin.