They moved.

Mikael instantly spread his Divine Sense in all directions, his perception expanding in a twenty-meter sphere with himself as the center. In that space, every direction—above, below, behind, left, right, and forward—became clear. Any ambush, any sneak attack… would be useless.

The Skyrazor Falcon didn’t hesitate. One powerful wingbeat was all it took for the beast to cross the distance in a blink.

Wind-attributed Qi surged around its form as it lunged forward, beak aimed like a javelin to pierce the insolent human who had dared injure its treasured talons.

Moonpiercer Sword Art – Fourth Movement: Nightfall Piercer.

A flash of silver.

A streak of green and yellow.

That was all the eye could catch as Sangrelia and the Skyrazor Falcon’s beak clashed in a flicker of deadly motion.

Just as the demonic beast and the human passed by each other in midair, Mikael’s movement seemed to ripple with the essence of drifting cloud—swift, formless, elusive.

For a breathless instant, both figures froze mid-flight.

Then—

Splurt.

One of the beast’s yellow eyes exploded in a bloody burst. Its other eye, wide with stunned confusion, began to glaze over. Inside its skull, Lunar Qi rampaged unchecked, obliterating everything in its path.

Within seconds, its brain was torn apart.

The intelligent gleam vanished from its gaze, replaced by lifeless dullness—the final end of this once-dominant predator of the Savagefang Mountain Range.

After all, even the monstrous vitality of a Spiritual Foundation Realm demonic beast had limits—and total brain destruction surpassed this line by far.

Expression still cold, Mikael turned toward the dying falcon as its massive form began to drop from the sky. With life severed, its body no longer had the strength to fly.

In the next breath, he activated Cloudbreaking Stride, vanishing from his spot and reappearing beside the falling corpse. A pulse of Divine Sense swept across the carcass.

It vanished into his storage ring.

‘No need to waste precious resources like these,’ he thought, slipping the body away without ceremony.

Hovering midair and still far from the ground, Mikael's gaze swept across his surroundings. He wasn’t looking for more prey—he was searching for the predator’s point of origin.

Despite the clean finish, the ambush had been real. If he hadn’t reacted in time, those talons could’ve carved through his spine.

His eyes soon locked onto a towering rocky peak in the far distance, easily thousands of meters away. It rose like a spear through the clouds, its uppermost section lost to sight.

‘It probably came from there,’ he noted, eyes narrowing slightly.

The sharp crevices, narrow ledges, and jagged ridges along the peak’s surface made ideal hiding places for beasts of the falcon’s size.

Half-expecting a second wave to strike at any moment, he scanned the area with caution.

His gaze shifted upward to the clouds, then downward to the dense forest canopy below.

Seconds passed.

No new threat emerged.

Yet unease lingered in his chest.

Even though he was hundreds of meters from the nearest potential hiding spot, that distance meant little in a world where even a weak 1st layer Spiritual Foundation cultivator could cover it in a fraction of a second.

He wasn’t reassured.

‘The sky’s too exposed,’ he thought grimly. ‘I can get ambushed at any moment, from any angle. It might be better to move on foot. For now, it’s manageable since I’m still in the outer regions, where most demonic beasts should be at the Body Forging Realm… but once I go deeper, it’ll become far more dangerous.’

With that thought, Mikael swiftly descended.

Moments later, he landed among the thick vegetation. Towering trees and dense foliage rose around him, cloaking his presence and shielding him from hungry eyes above.

He paused for a moment, eyes scanning the treeline with quiet vigilance. ‘I really don’t like this. The problem with the cultivation realm I’m at—and the kind I’m dealing with—is that distance becomes almost irrelevant. It makes it hard to be prepared for a sudden attack.’

‘After all, when a demonic beast is kilometers away one second and beside me the next, it’s hard to ever feel truly safe… Still, I’m in a better position than when I was flying. Logically, the demonic beasts shouldn’t be able to pinpoint my location this easily now that—’

He began suppressing his presence, just as he’d learned while tracking the Demonic Cultivators. Not to a degree that would strain his focus, but enough to sharply reduce his energy signature.

‘—I’m hiding my presence. Combined with my Divine Sense, if something steps within a twenty-meter radius, I’ll detect it and be able to react more easily. Of course, twenty meters is nothing to beasts that can cross kilometers in a second… but it’s better than nothing.’

With that, Mikael stopped idling. He glanced at Sangrelia, firm in his right hand, then began to move—jogging deeper into the Savagefang Mountain Range at a pace that doubled that of an Olympic sprinter.

He could have gone faster, but discretion was going to be crucial in this territory.

Not immediately—he was still in the outer layers, where the overwhelming majority of beasts were at the Body Forging Realm. But once he ventured deeper and their strength began to climb, carelessness would become a shortcut to an early grave.

He wasn’t in the habit of cultivating bad habits. So he chose to start early—restraining himself in advance and practicing caution by minimizing every sign that could give away his presence.

Whether it was his aura, his scent, the sound of his movements, or even the physical disturbance caused by his body, everything was subdued to the limit as he jogged deeper into the forest.

Flash.

A four-legged demonic beast burst from the underbrush, lunging at Mikael with wild hunger. But before it could close the distance, a single flash of Sangrelia cut it cleanly in two—its two lifeless halves collapsing to the ground.

Mikael passed beside the still-warm corpse without slowing down, not sparing it so much as a glance. It was only a Body Forging beast. Not worth the effort.

Less than a hundred meters ahead, another demonic beast—this time an ape—lunged at him. It leapt from the treetops, aiming to crush him beneath its full weight with the raw power of gravity and the strength of its muscular arms.

Mikael gave the black-furred ape a disinterested glance before sending a casual punch upward.

The demonic ape sneered inwardly. What could that small human arm possibly do against its massive ones? It would obviously be crushed under its own momentum.

But when Mikael’s fist met the creature’s twin arms, the expected result didn’t happen.

No. What followed was far more brutal.

BOOM.

The moment they collided, a shockwave rippled through the forest—but before it could expand further, Mikael’s fist kept going.

The ape’s massive arms bent beneath the weight of the blow. Then they broke. But Mikael’s fist didn’t stop—it continued forward, unstoppable. The force behind it was so overwhelming that after the arms snapped, they didn’t merely tear off—they were annihilated.

Not broken.

Not severed.

Annihilated.

Where once had been powerful limbs, there was now nothing but a haze of blood mist. Even then, Mikael’s fist hadn’t finished its path—it pushed forward like an unrelenting force of destruction.

The black-furred ape had only a flicker of time to feel pain and panic before the blow struck its chest—and then…

BOOOM!!

A thunderous shockwave erupted, rattling the forest in a radius of hundreds of meters. Trees bent and trembled—some even uprooted entirely.

When the shockwave finally died down, no corpse remained. No limbs, no carcass—only a thick cloud of drifting red mist. The ape had been utterly erased by the sheer force of Mikael’s punch. Not even bone fragments had survived.

If not for the thin veil of qi cloaking his body, Mikael would have been drenched in gore.

With a calm expression and blood still floating through the air behind him, Mikael retracted his fist and resumed his advance as if nothing had happened.

A dismissive “Too weak,” was all he muttered as he moved deeper into the forest, the metallic scent fading in his wake.

As he jogged, his thoughts drifted to the earlier shockwave and its thunderous impact. ‘I should be more careful with my punches—they’re far too loud. A quick slash from Sangrelia is better for discretion.’

Resolving to adjust his approach, Mikael pressed on, following the mental map he had of the Savagefang Mountain Range. But not long after, he noticed a new problem.

Slash.

Another Body Forging Realm beast fell in a single strike. Frowning, Mikael thought, ‘I didn’t consider this… Now that I’m suppressing my presence, the Body Forging demonic beasts are attacking me without hesitation. That wouldn’t happen otherwise.’

‘As a Spiritual Foundation Realm cultivator, these beasts might be aggressive, but they’re not suicidal. They’d usually sense my aura and keep their distance. But now…’

He sighed, sidestepping another ambush. 

Flash.

A swift slash ended the creature.

‘They just keep coming,’ he thought with a second sigh. Still jogging forward, he accepted the annoyance—knowing it was far better than recklessly flaring his aura and inviting more dangerous attention.

And so, Mikael’s ‘relaxing’ jog through the demonic beast-infested forest continued.

Time passed. The ambient qi in the air gradually thickened, both in quantity and quality, and with it came a rise in the strength of the beasts he encountered.

From the majority being Mid-stage Body Forging to Late-stage, then to Peak. He could even sense a few demonic beasts at the Early-stage Spiritual Foundation Realm hiding in the deeper woods.

As he moved through the increasingly dangerous heart of the Savagefang Mountain Range, something suddenly struck him—and he froze mid-step, ears straining to catch even the slightest sound.

A forest was never silent. Not even a place as deadly as the Savagefang Mountain Range was truly quiet. There was always something—the rustling of leaves, the chirping of insects, the distant cries of beasts or birds. Subtle signs that life still moved and breathed in the shadows. But now…

It was as if the entire forest had been blanketed in something heavy and unseen. The ever-present symphony of nature had vanished, replaced by a suffocating silence that pressed against his eardrums like a warning.

Yet it wasn’t just the silence that had raised his guard. It was the crawling sensation of threat pouring from his newly awakened Foresight of Heaven’s Mandate—a pressure that made the hairs on his neck stand.

His grip around Sangrelia tightened. Both Divine Sense and physical senses surged outward, tuned for the slightest shift in the environment.

Then, a ripple—faint, at the very edge of his Divine Sense, but real.

Mikael’s breath stilled. He focused fully, and caught another. Closer.

Then another.

Closer still.

Within moments, it was happening just meters away.

Moonpiercer Sword Art – Fifth Movement: Celestial Moon’s Embrace.

Without hesitation, Mikael slashed toward the source of the disturbance. Lunar Qi exploded outward in a tidal wave, ripping through trees, tearing through stones, and devouring everything in its path. It was pure, overwhelming force—and yet, beyond the destruction, there was… nothing.

His eyes widened.

A breath colder than death itself ghosted across the back of his neck.

His instincts reacted before thought could catch up. He twisted, trying to avoid the coming strike—then instantly realized he wouldn’t make it.

A decision surged through him. He didn’t try to fully dodge—just shifted his torso slightly.

SHLK.

A sound like flesh being torn apart echoed through the silent woods as a massive black claw, disconnected from any visible limb, pierced clean through his torso. From his waist to his shoulder, the claw ripped through muscle and organs with grotesque ease. It looked entirely unnatural—hovering as if alive on its own.

By shifting his body at the last second, he had avoided a grim fate. His heart had been spared.

What it pierced were ‘only' a few internal organs.

He didn’t scream.

He didn’t fall.

Instead, his left hand moved like a phantom—snapping up and seizing the claw just as it began to retract. His chest contracted with a jerk that brought a fresh wave of agony, tearing his already-damaged insides even further, but he gritted his teeth through the pain and smiled viciously.

“Got you, fucker.”

Sangrelia rose in a ruthless upward slash, charged with a vortex of concentrated Lunar Qi. She cut not at the floating claw, but at the empty air—at the place where its forelimb should be, if it wasn’t behaving like some ghostly, disconnected predator.

Shlick.

A tearing sound cut through the tension, and blood sprayed as a dark paw was severed. It dropped heavily to the ground… or rather, half of it did.

The upper part of the paw still remained embedded in Mikael’s chest.