One of the particularly nasty parts of the Great Forest of Hypnonarak was the fact that Martial Squires and Seniors couldn't simply sky-walk as carelessly as they could before. The ability to sky-walk usually helped Martial Artists in a forest setting, allowing them to evade the land was a good way to avoid threats on the land.
However, it appeared that the Hypnomaster had not wanted to make it so easy to conveniently evade the danger of his forest. Thus he had allegedly bought a species of hornet monsters from the Beast Domain that made their hives inside and from clouds.
It was said that the specimens he had brought over were beyond the Senior Realm in terms of threat level.
He had found it hard to believe, but apparently, the cloud hornets nested their hives in the clouds, making it particularly difficult to spot them. They ambushed prey in the sky, limiting their prey to animals with the capabilities for flight.
Rui immediately turned around and dashed downwards with his Martial Heart, narrowly keeping away from the flux of cloud hornets that chased after him.
BOOM!!!
The man crashed into the ground at top speed, unable to break his fall, causing an enormous crater the size of a hill to be created in the spot that he had fallen into.
"You okay, man?" Kane asked with concern.
"I'm fine," Rui groaned.
"Maybe going in alone was not the best idea," Kane remarked.
"It's not like I have anybody else," Rui dusted his clothes, getting up. Although the impact was quite titanic, it was nothing for a Martial Senior like him.
"Ouch," Kane muttered. "That's a rough way of saying that you can't rely on me."
"Well, you are a Martial Squire," Rui replied. "Become a Martial Senior and then we can think about tha-"
Rui's expression froze, growing grave as he suddenly leaped away from the spot getting a good look at what he had been talking to.
There had been nobody there despite the fact that he had been clearly talking to Kane for several seconds. He glanced at the crater that he had just created, some bits of the trees and the plants remained.
'Is that...' Rui narrowed his eyes focusing on a small object. '...a kinshroons?'
According to the intelligence given by the Beggar's Sect, they generated hallucinations specifically centered around bonds and connections that the victim had.
'Damn, it must have got me the second I crashed into this part of the forest.' Rui cursed. 'I can't believe it is so potent and fast-acting. It basically got me instantly.'
They weren't all that common, but they were known for their potency and it was said that once trapped in their hallucinations, breaking out was almost impossible without external aid.
Rui apparently managed to break that rule, even if he cheated to a certain degree by destroying in his crash. That meant that he didn't have to deal with its effects past the initial intoxication.
However, Rui's mind had managed to break through merely seconds into the hallucination, preventing his mind and body from being entranced by the hallucination for hours, reducing his probability of surviving.
And yet, Rui was displeased.
'I can't believe I didn't see through that instantly.' He clenched his fist. 'My inhibitions were far too lowered. Is that also merely due to the kinshroom?'
He wasn't sure, regardless, he didn't like how things had unfolded.
'I need to be more careful.' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'I let my guard down too much.'
He decided to reduce his pace and take his time evaluating and overcoming threats. While it would increase the amount of time he would need to take to find the Hypnomaster, it certainly was worth it.
He had made sure that he had enough high-quality rejuvenation potions to aid him in his search for the Hypnomaster.
It hadn't even been too long since he had begun his exploration into the Great Forest of Hypnonarak, and he had to admit that he had already come to understand why the forest was so feared and notorious. There were just too many ways that one could die.
In terms of danger levels, it was to Martial Artists what the Shionel Dungeon had been to Martial Squires. The entire forest was filled with predatory flora that desperately was hunting for prey, and the Hypnomaster along with the lucrative narcotics flora was the bait to draw in raiders and Martial Artists seeking one of the two of them.
In order to create a stable filtering system that would ensure only the worthiest Martial Artists of the Lower Realms would reach him, he hadn't hesitated to create a brutal ecosystem where humans were at the bottom of the food chain and sustained the entire forest.
He knew for a fact that the creatures of the forest that had adapted to the forest were certainly not going to create enough of the supply of sustenance for the forest. Thus Martial Artists like him who were largely doomed to fail if they kept braving the dangers were meant to compensate.
'It's a shame because my Phantomind Void technique is effective against plants.' Rui tutted. 'Misdirection, at my level at least, is ineffective against flora. I doubt I'd be able to evade its effects even if I could misdirect the source.'
Rui heaved a deep breath before focusing himself. If he did not gather his mind and bring out his absolute best, he would not be able to overcome the tribulations of the Great Forest of Hypnonarak.
It wasn't long before he set out once more, heading towards the center of the forest, in search of the Hypnomaster.
The forest was remarkably diverse in its flora, unusually so for a forest. It was almost as though the Hypnomaster had put in extra effort to gather as many species of flora as he could to make sure that he didn't let any aspiring students get off the hook easily if they managed to figure out the trick to negate one particular species.
