The next day, before the sun had even risen, Cheng Yu had already left the city. The reason was simple: Cheng Yu did not wish to attract anyone’s attention. Everyone knew that when cultivators went out for training, not only would they have to be cautious about beasts, they would also need to guard against humans, especially places cultivators would gather.
There were countless people entering the Death Forest for training, but they were all in groups. Naturally, they were not worried about others having ideas about them. However, Cheng Yu was different. He was entering alone. It would easily attract others’ attention and if he were to meet other cultivators, most of them would want to fish up some profits. Therefore, Cheng Yu had to be on guard. It would be better for him to leave earlier to not attract any attention.
Luminous City was not far away from Death Forest. The distance between them was around 200 kilometers. Cheng Yu used his flying sword and arrived at the outskirts of the Death Forest very quickly. Cheng Yu did not stop there, but continued flying on. Previously, when Cheng Yu was staying in the inn at Luminous City, he had already studied the map he bought. Death Forest was huge. It was separated into exploration and known areas. The known area was made up of three big regions: Death Swamp, Death Bone Grave and Death Fantasy Ocean.
It was rumored that in the Death forest, there was a Death Shrine. It was built by an extremely mysterious sect. Formerly, this sect had occupied the whole Death Forest and in the shrine, more than half of their resources were stashed. It was also because of these rumors that a lot of cultivators would come to Death Forest for training frequently. Most of them had basically come here because of that shrine.
Long ago, there were a lot of supreme experts who had come over for an expedition. In this huge forest, other than the shrine, there were a lot of other formidable demonic beasts. In the depths of the Death Forest, there were some beings so strong to the point where no experts would dare to risk it and enter. Even so, they had already explored most of the region, but still did not manage to find the shrine. Over here, other than killing demonic beasts and finding some pill concocting or blacksmithing ingredients, there were no other particular treasures.
Therefore, there were very few experts here. To have some Golden Core Realm experts appearing here was already overstating this place. Otherwise, most of them would usually be Pill Masters or Blacksmithing Masters who would come to collect some ingredients. According to this map, Death Swamp, Death Bone Grave and Death Fantasy Ocean were the main areas because the entrance to enter the Death Forest was not limited to Luminous City. The reason why Cheng Yu chose to enter here was because Luminous City was the closest to him.
Regardless of the entrance those cultivators entered from, they would still be far away from these three areas. From this, it could be seen that these three areas should be the a ring that encircle the heart of the forest. According to the situation, if the Death Shrine really existed, the greatest possible location for it would be the heart of the forest. However, what puzzled everyone was that those experts in the Cultivation World were unable to reach that location. They truly had no idea who in this Cultivation World would be able to enter in. Could it be immortals? But in this world, there were no immortals.
However, no one was willing to give up on the exploration of Death Forest. With their Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation, they did not have any better place for training. So they might as well try their luck here. The Cultivation World had always talked about fortuitous encounters. Perhaps it was because of destiny. Perhaps, the destined one had yet to arrive, therefore there was no appearance of Death Shrine, but everyone continued to have this mindset as they went into Death Forest for training.
Cheng Yu stood on his flying sword and flew for hundreds kilometers before he no longer dared to continue flying because the map recorded that in this area, there were Foundation Establishment Realm flying demonic beasts. Once he attracted their attention, it would be hard for him to escape because flying demonic beasts usually hang out in groups.
The past few days of journeying in Death Forest, Cheng Yu had been researching the blacksmithing jade slip the sloppy old man had given him because the Death Forest was a good place to harvest blacksmithing and pill ingredients. Cheng Yu knew pill concocting like the back of his hand, but when it came to blacksmithing, he knew nothing at all. Therefore, Cheng Yu had memorized the information in the jade bamboo slip very seriously. Such an opportunity was hard to come by, so he did not wish to miss any good ingredients.
Cheng Yu travelled around while paying close attention to demonic beasts as he looked for those ingredients he needed. Therefore, the whole journey was quite slow. However, Cheng Yu was not in a hurry, as travelling through Death Forest would not take just a day or two. If possible, Cheng Yu might stay here for two months. With Cheng Yu’s current situation, only by constantly facing dangers would he be able to breakthrough straight from Foundation Establishment late stage to Golden Core Realm.
Cheng Yu had no idea what Kunlun’s situation was currently and did not know what kind of experts they had sent out to deal with him. However, now that he was in Death Forest, there was no longer a need for him to worry about Kunlun’s people.
Thinking about Kunlun’s people, it caused Cheng Yu to remember the mysterious black gowned man he saw yesterday. Cheng Yu felt that he was familiar, but could not recognize him. The people Cheng Yu was most familiar with were Kunlun’s people. However, no matter how he looked at it, that person did not seem to be from Kunlun. This kind of familiarity was so sudden, it had caused Cheng Yu to feel extremely puzzled.
The sky had long brightened up. The plants in Death Forest were all overgrown lushly. Large amounts of sunlight shone into the forest while crickets and bird sang through the forest. This kind of scene made it seem like this place was not Death Forest at all. People expected it to be a sinister and terrifying forest. Instead, it gave one a feeling of tranquility and harmony. However, Cheng Yu did not relax because of this. On the contrary, he became even more alert because he knew that since this place was called Death Forest, there was naturally a reason for it. Furthermore, there was always a calm before the storm. Every day, there were a lot of people entering the Death Forest. However, the vegetation here seemed to not have any traces of people.
“Zhenyuan Grass!” Suddenly, Cheng Yu saw a stem of a herb under a big tree.
Zhenyuan Grass was the main ingredient needed to concoct a high-rank pill: Zhenyuan Pill. The Zhenyuan Pill belonged to a branch of pills that helped to increase one’s cultivation. What does a cultivator pursue? It was precisely cultivation! This grass was essentially a heaven sent gift. Pills were divided into different types: primary-rank, mid-rank, high-rank, spiritual-rank, immortal-rank, saint-rank, and god-rank. However, in this current world, pills that were above spiritual-rank did not exist anymore.
Therefore, high-rank pills were already the most precious pills in this world. However, there were also different ranks of pills, low-rank Zhenyuan Pills would be able to increase one’s cultivation by 10 years, mid-rank Zhenyuan Pills would increase one’s cultivation by approximately 20 years and a high-rank Zhenyuan Pill would increase one’s cultivation by 30 years. If it was a spiritual-rank Zhenyuan Pill, it would increase one’s cultivation by 50 years. Such numbers could cause people to go crazy.
Cheng Yu never expected that the first treasure he found would be a top-grade medical ingredient. This was something that he would be wild with joy for, and if he could continue finding such things for two months, there would no longer be a need for him to worry about forming his core. So what if he could not find the rumored Death Shrine? Just by relying on medical herbs, his cultivation could increase by leaps. The gain was unsurmountable.
“Pitiful, this stem of Zhenyuan Grass is not even ten years old. Even if I were to use it to concoct the pill, I would only be able to refine two high-rank Zhenyuan Pills,” Immediately, he became a bit disappointed. If a medical herb was too young, the medical properties would be extremely limited. Even if Cheng Yu possessed the Six Phoenix Spiritual Flame, he would only be able to refine a high-rank pill.
“It’s better than none. Two high-rank Zhenyuan Pills is not bad,” Although he was disappointed, it was still a good start. This was still the edge of Death Forest and one could assume that there were also a lot of Pill Masters searching for medical herbs. To hope to find medical herbs that had grown for decades was almost impossible. To find a bud was already a good harvest.
“Howl!” just as Cheng Yu was preparing to harvest the Zhenyuan Grass, a huge blazing lion leapt out from the big tree as it howled at Cheng Yu.
“Dark Flame Wild Lion?” Cheng Yu looked at the blazing lion that was looking at him angrily as he cried out in surprised. Blazing Wild Lion was a fire-type demonic beast. The fur on it was as red as fire and it’s personality was like fire: berserk. Most importantly, they would know how to utilize fire-related techniques. The fire it could use was a grade three true fire that was extremely tyrannical. Luckily, this lion was only in Foundation Establishment middle stage. Otherwise, Cheng Yu would be in trouble.
“Howl! Howl!” Perhaps, it had also noticed that Cheng Yu’s cultivation was higher than him, so it did not dare attack rashly. The Dark Flame Wild Lion howled twice, attempting to warn Cheng Yu to back-off. However, how could Cheng Yu be so frightened by this? Besides, there was a stem of Zhenyuan Grass. Even though it was still a bud, two high-rank Zhenyuan Pills was sufficient for Cheng Yu to desire it.
“Big guy, don’t think that just because your head is bigger than mine that you can try to intimidate me. Today, if you are tactful, get out of my way. Otherwise, I will pull out all the red fur on you!” Cheng Yu gazed at the Dark Flame Wild Lion with rapt attention and spoke.
“Howl!” The Dark Flame Wild Lion seem to have understood Cheng Yu’s words. Immediately, it lifted up its head and howled, facing the sky. After that, it puffed out a red fireball from its mouth.
“Bang!” Cheng Yu sidestepped to dodge the fireball. The fireball landed on a thousand year old tree behind Cheng Yu, causing an explosion with a loud noise that also toppled over the large tree.
“M*th*rf*ck*r, this guy is really crazy. If that had landed on me, I am afraid even my Qi armor would have been destroyed!” Seeing the Dark Flame Wild Lion’s prowess, Cheng Yu was startled.
His Qi armor was able to withstand Foundation Establishment late stage cultivators full-strength attacks. However, when he saw the explosive might of the fireball, Cheng Yu felt that even his Qi armor would not be able to resist it. Cheng Yu did not ponder any longer as he took out the low-grade Treasured Tool he bought from Qiongyu Pavilion quickly. He retaliated by slashing at the wild lion with sword Qi.
“Clang!”
“What?! Qi armor?!” Something weird happened again. The Dark Flame Wild Lion might have dodged a few of those sword Qi slashes, but there were still two that landed on the wild lion’s body. However, what was strange was that this lion was able to manifest a red Qi armor to block the sword Qi. According to Cheng Yu’s knowledge, demonic beast abilities and attribute were all innate. They did not have the ability to use their Qi. Or perhaps, it could be said that they did not possess any Qi. The reason why it was able to puff out a fireball was because of an inborn ability and the devouring of energy unceasingly.
However, just now, that red-colored halo was obviously Qi armor! Could it be that the demonic beasts in this world had evolved again and were able to cultivate, producing Qi and using it?
