"Hardway is nowhere to be found. We searched the entire tribe."
Bu Er and Ouyang Lin returned and reported the truth to Yang Qing.
Yang Qing said, "I failed to think this through."
Jiang Zhizhou said, "No one could have predicted Hardway harbored such intentions. There was no guarding against it."
Yang Qing did not answer, instead turning his gaze back to the Blood Pool.
Only after a long while did he sigh softly.
There was nothing unusual around the Blood Pool.
Even if he wanted to search for clues to what lay behind all this, there was nowhere to look.
Yet a faint unease lingered in his heart.
Hardway had vanished, and there was no telling how many unforeseen troubles would follow.
Moreover, he had claimed all the power stored in the Blood Pool for himself. No one could yet know what consequences that would bring.
At that thought, Yang Qing looked up at the sky overhead again.
As before, the sky was pitch-black, without so much as a glimmer of starlight.
Even the moon, which had been clearly visible earlier, had disappeared.
This was the day of the Hard Tribe's Moon-Praying Ceremony. The moon should have been plainly visible.
Now, however, nothing could be seen.
Not only that, but a wind had risen in the forest.
It was eerie and cold, chilling them to the marrow as it swept over them.
Yang Qing said, "I fear we cannot linger here. Since Hardway said there was a way out beyond this forest, we must find it quickly."
The trees grew far too densely here. Apart from the small clearing around the Sacrificial Altar, there was no sign of a path out anywhere.
"With Hardway missing, what will become of his people?"
Mo Beixing remembered the men and women of