Shen Zuo suddenly changed direction and kept running for a few more minutes without hesitation, until he stopped in front of a cluster of trees that looked different from the rest.
Their wood was noticeably straight, almost like swords or spears, and their color a vivid, eye-catching hue.
Kinaro trees.
He pulled out his axe, approached quietly, and began carefully cutting a few specific branches. It was clear he knew exactly what he was after, and it seemed he was planning to use these branches to make more arrows.
Another half-month passed, and only one week remained before the deadline old Bai Ren had set.
Shen Zuo sat inside the cave, training in silence as usual. His Aether Field had grown more stable, and the water level in the Pit had risen slightly, though it was still far from forming a real lake.
Time was slipping by quickly, and Shen Zuo kept training without pause.
"Alright, this is starting to get annoying!" Shen Zuo suddenly shouted, scowling as he opened his eyes inside the cave.
Then he raised his voice even louder:
"How about you tone down the narration a little? There's someone here trying to train, for the love of god!"
He paused for a moment, then pointed a finger at nothing in particular, as if confronting something:
"Stop messing with me! Stop repeating what I say, oh, you're doing it right now!"
Then he sighed in irritation and closed his eyes again, muttering:
"Not even inside my own head can I get some peace... damn you old bastards!" Then he added, "You're determined to annoy me to the point you're cursing at yourself, huh?"
But this time, old Zhou Ji's voice rang out from somewhere, in a calm tone carrying a hint of mockery:
"I'm just trying to practice my narration out loud here, so keep quiet for a bit and get back to your training."
Shen Zuo shot back quickly, staring at the empty space in front of him:
"Real clear, huh, so clear you're literally telling me your voice is about to come out, as if we hadn't already heard it!"
Then he muttered irritably, closing his eyes once more:
"This cave has turned into a circus..."
Shen Zuo went back to his training, hoping he'd manage to break through before the beast wave's deadline ran out.
Suddenly, he cut his own training short with an angry outburst:
"Why are you bringing up that damn deadline right now? And hell, how did you know I was about to say that?"
Zhou Ji's voice answered him, mocking: "Because I'm the author, maybe?"
After a bit of back-and-forth, Shen Zuo said, clearly annoyed:
"Why do you keep bothering me like this?"
Zhou Ji answered directly, without any hesitation:
"Well, you went off script. You were supposed to go find some Phantom and refine it, or do something actually useful to prepare for the beast wave."
Shen Zuo pressed his lips together, then said mockingly:
"Fine, mister straight-to-the-point... I'll go look for a Phantom, just like you asked. Anything else? And stop copying what I say, for the love of everything unholy, who's the child here?"
No response came from Zhou Ji, as if his voice had simply vanished.
Shen Zuo let out a breath of relief, then muttered: "Much better... silence sounds beautiful."
He rose slowly, ended his training session, and began moving around inside the cave. From the way he moved, it was clear he was getting ready to head out.
After half an hour of moving through the forest, Shen Zuo suddenly stopped.
Ahead of him stood a beast resembling a hyena, though its legs were longer than usual, its body thin and worn down. Shen Zuo noticed a poisoned arrow lodged in one of the beast's eyes; it clearly looked like it had been running for a long stretch, its strength fading fast.
Shen Zuo breathed calmly, watching the situation.
Then he pulled the bow off his back and quickly drew an arrow. He focused for a moment, then fired at the exhausted hyena-like creature, which could barely keep itself standing. The arrow struck true, but didn't kill it outright.
The beast staggered back a step, then swayed unsteadily.
Shen Zuo didn't wait. He readied another arrow and loosed it immediately.
The second arrow finished it off.
The moment the beast collapsed to the ground and died, before its body could even settle, something strange emerged from it.
It was about the size of an adult's palm, circular in shape but with sharp edges, its dark colors shifting and moving rapidly.
The instant it appeared, it shot off at an unbelievable speed, darting between the trees like a dark flicker.
It was a Phantom... and it had already started fleeing.
The moment Shen Zuo realized that what had come out of the beast's body was a Phantom, he took off after it without a second thought.
He ran at full speed, clearing grass and rocks, his eyes locked onto that dark shape flickering between the trees. The Phantom moved at an unreal pace, suddenly changing direction, leaping over tree trunks, weaving smoothly through the dense branches.
Shen Zuo pushed himself to his absolute limit trying to keep up, but the gap between them kept widening.
Every time he closed in a step, the Phantom sped up even more, as if it could sense the chase and was answering it with blind flight. Tree branches scratched at Shen Zuo's body, but he never stopped, scrambling up a slope quickly and leaping over a narrow pit without even looking down.
He could hear the Phantom, something like a faint murmur mixed with wind, and the further he pushed, the more he felt a strange energy pressing against his chest.
Then, out of nowhere, the Phantom made a sharp turn to the right and vanished behind a cluster of tall rocks.
Shen Zuo followed right after it without hesitation.
But he found nothing. He stood still for a few seconds, then began moving the rocks away from the spot where the Phantom had disappeared. He didn't expect to actually see it, but he wanted to make sure it hadn't merged into or hidden within the gaps.
He lifted the rocks one after another without much trouble, tossing them aside to widen his field of view, exposing the dirt and roots beneath. He kept at it until he'd cleared away every rock he could carry from that entire spot.
He stopped after that and looked around in silence... there was nothing there. The Phantom had vanished completely.
"Grandpa Zhou Ji, I know you're around, did you see that?" Shen Zuo said, his breathing still audible, then continued:
"I read in the booklet grandpa Bai Ren gave me that catching a Phantom is extremely difficult, he even wrote a whole bunch of notes about it separate from the technique itself... so I was planning on training in peace for the whole month, then hiding in one of the tunnels I dug, with enough food and water to last me a month or two, hoping I'd either break through or the beasts would calm down by then."
Then he raised an eyebrow and said with visible annoyance: "Why should I even bother trying to catch Phantoms right now? It's pointless, since I can't actually do it anyway?"
Zhou Ji's voice came back, laughing as usual:
"Hahaha! Really, you're such a brat no matter how grown you get... look at the rock in your hand right now."
Shen Zuo looked down at the rock he was holding. It looked completely ordinary. "What about it?" he muttered, confused, then stared at it more closely... and found nothing.
"Shen Zuo, everything happens for a reason... you're listening right now for a reason."
He sighed, then continued:
"Causes pile up to produce a result, but the moment you stop creating causes and just wait around for a result, that's what we call stupidity. If you hadn't moved and gone looking for that hyena, you never would have seen the Phantom. Right there, you had a hundred percent chance to catch it, but if you hadn't moved, you wouldn't even have seen a shred of hope."
Zhou Ji said it in his usual voice, then paused for a moment, as though giving the meani
ng room to sink deep into his grandson's mind, before finishing:
"That thing you're calling a rock... is actually the Phantom."