BP Extra – Return to the Magical Forest 3

Old Snake’s glare did not last long before he once more was all smiles as he spoke with Sha Yun and Shui Wu. The three magical beasts were all together at the building which belonged to Shui Wu while Hui Yue and the humans stayed at the back. All of them wishing to stay back and not interrupt the reunion of the two sisters.

Not long after, Sha Yun started to move towards her human friends. Her face was filled with excitement after having seen her sister and her friend after a whole year away from them.

“Come, come.” She spread out her arms gesturing for them all to join the other group, but none of the humans forgot about the glare they were given by Old Snake and they all gently declined.

“It’s your family,” Hui Yue said with a tender smile. “Just go visit Bing Niao, and we will stay here. There is no reason for us to interrupt your family reunion. I imagine that although she is happy to see you, she will be less happy to see us who are the reasons you left. We will just dampen the mood.”

Hearing this, Sha Yun did not stress it instead she turned around and together with Old Snake and Shui Wu. They start moving towards another small island in the swamp-like world that existed in the middle of the magical forest.

Staying behind, Hui Yue and his friends settled down. Hui Yue started to cultivate while Ma Kong and Gao Yan both started to look around the small island they were currently on. The Rong twins watched Hui Yue and followed his example while Deng Wu watched the departing beast sisters, clearly regretting that he was not following them. Although he had confessed his love to Rong Xing quite frequently, he loved spending time with beautiful women and these three beast sisters were all exotic beauties.

The sun was setting by the time Sha Yun and the two sisters along with Old Snake returned to the island. The Saint was shocked to see that Hui Yue was just seated there cultivating as though he had no worry in the world.

Old Snake did not like these young humans. He was a magical beast. Someone who would have typically been hunted down by humans. If it were not for his high rank, he would have been the hunted rather than the hunter.

The only reason he did not instantly kill these humans was because his long time friend Sha Yun cared about them for some reason. He knew that she would be filled with grief should anything happen to them and that was one thing which Old Snake never wanted to see.

Old Snake did his best not to get involved in human affairs. His forest was filled with magical beasts, mercenaries, and other humans who came to try their luck in a forest filled with beasts. The humans were after their beast cores; however, this one time he informed the group of people that if they trespassed into his swamp, then he would kill them instantly. For him to leave it at this meant that he was not willing to participate in any missions which had to do with defeating these men. He had no interest unless they broke their promise and entered into the swamps he had said to leave alone.

Knowing that Old Snake would not be participating in the rescue, Hui Yue did not feel too worried. He knew that at most these bandits would have one King. Despite Lan Feng being incapable of refining Wu Wei, he was still a Saint and was capable of at least threatening a King ranked expert, if not killing him. It all depended on which type of battle they preferred, and Hui Yue’s plan was an ambush.

Catching their enemy off guard would increase their chances of survival which caused his eyes to grow hard. Although he was against killing, he believed that some people had to be killed for the sake of peace for him and his family.

The fact that this group of bandits managed to find his home village was a big problem. If as much as one of them survived, it would only be a matter of time till this person brought back another group of bandits or looters to the village. They would either take their time to kill every villager and then plunder their few belongings, or they would enslave them much like now. Both options were unacceptable, and the chill from within Hui Yue’s eyes caused many of the surrounding friend’s to feel a shiver run down their spine. Even Old Snake felt that this youngster was not one to take lightly.

“Let us stay here for tonight,” Sha Yun said with a smile as she held a sister in each hand; her heart was finally at peace as she knew that these two were safe and sound within the dangerous swamp. Although Bing Niao did not settle as well, and although she missed her clearing, she was still safe. Feeling slightly uncomfortable was definitely a far better fate than being captured by these bandits.

Seeing Sha Yun this happy, Hui Yue could do nothing but nod his head as he silently approved. Although he wished to start scouting and gathering information as soon as possible, he also understood that the snake-woman had been away from her sisters for an entire year. Sha Yun cared as much for her sisters as Hui Yue cared about his family and he understood her feelings.

The night was spent outside on the small island. A small bonfire was built, and they all sat around it warming themselves close to the flames. They ate the provisions they had brought and shared the wine they found within their storage stones.

Old Snake, although clearly annoyed by the human’s presence, behaved as he constantly thought about Sha Yun’s happy face beaming with excitement every now and then.

The entire night rapidly flew past, and as the sun started to rise in the sky, Hui Yue sighed deeply before he got to his feet and patted the dust off his robe. Glancing around he saw that some of his friends: Deng Wu, Ma Kong, and Gao Yan had all fallen asleep from drinking last night.

Walking towards them, Hui Yue roused them from their sleep before he gathered the rest of his friends and started to plan their actions.

“The first couple of days we need to gather information,” Hui Yue said with eyes that no longer held any mercy in them. He was fully focused on rescuing his parents and the rest of the villagers.

“I want to know roughly how many bandits we are dealing with, what their average rank is, and who the high ranked experts are.”

“I even want to know what kind of shifts they have for defense, where they are located, and who does what in each group.”

“I don’t just want information about the bandit group. I also want to know where the villagers are taken to if they count how many villagers there are, and whether or not they mistreat. Also, what kind of work they are being forced to do.”

“When we have all this information, that is when we will come up with a plan for how we get rid of them. All of them.” Hui Yue finished as his blue eyes shone brightly and a sinister smile appeared his face. He no longer looked like the angel child he was instead he looked like a white demon.

“We are going to split up in pairs.” Hui Yue started, but before he could say anything else Bing Niao and Shui Wu stepped forward, both of them took Sha Yun’s hand while glaring at Hui Yue. It was obvious that they still blamed him for her leaving the forest the year before.

“We will be a group,” Bing Niao said with a haughty voice, and although Hui Yue was taken aback by the feathered woman for wanting to assist them, he was secretly pleased.

“The three of you, could you get me all information about their scouts. I need to know how and when they switch guards, how many guards walk together, and what their routes are. Anything you can think of as well will help. We will need as much information as possible.” Hui Yue said with a large smile on his face. These three magical beasts were perfect for this job.

“Rong twins,” He continued and turned towards Rong Xing and Rong Ming. “I need the two of you to go to the village. Get as much information as you can from the villagers. Information about the bandits, and information about what they are doing and where they are going. If you can find out how much work they do, where they do it, and whether or not they are being counted, then I will be very pleased.”

Hearing what they had to do the Rong twins nodded their heads. Their facial expression turned serious as they slowly made their way out of the swamp as they had memorized the path they took the previous day.

Turning towards Ma Kong and Gao Yan, Hui Yue contemplated for a moment before he decided what these two should do.

“I need the two of you to enter the forest around the bandit cave and see whether or not they have a group hunting demon beasts. See if you can find any cultivators who would be easy to ambush.” Hui Yue said before he turned to Deng Wu.

“You’ll be coming with me,” He said with a smile that was not real. His eyes were looking in the distance where Rong Ming and Rong Xing had vanished moments before.

The groups all left the island at the same time, and all of them took the exact same path they had come in on ensuring that none of them fell into the swamp below. They were all certain that Old Snake would do nothing to save them.

Making their way through the swamp was no longer a hard feat. Training the body and the mind while cultivating caused one’s memory and mind to grow alongside the cultivator who gained insights about their cultivation. The more insight one gained, the more one’s intellect, memory, and mind would expand. Something as simple as remembering a path through a swamp even a Student would be capable of doing that.

Rushing through the swamp, the groups arrived at the forest once more where they split up and headed in various directions. Everyone was focused on getting the information they had been requested to get by Hui Yue.

Rong Xing and Rong Ming quickly made their way to the village, and when they arrived they once more saw that all the young members of the village were missing. The two quickly determined that the best way of acting would be to enter the house belonging to Hui Yue’s parents. As soon as they returned, the twins would be able to get some answers from these two adults.

Waiting within the house was something which the two of them had no qualms doing. While waiting, they started cultivating and wondering what more they would learn.

While the Rong twins were busy focusing on the village, the three beast sisters rushed through the forest at their highest speed as they started to locate the guards. Memorizing how many guards there were and where they patrolled as well as when they switched from one guard to another. It was a lot of information, but the three beast sisters stayed focused and recorded all the information they acquired into memory stones ready to be delivered to Hui Yue later on.