Leaving

Leaving

The dusk was thinning, and the sky was faintly brightening, as if it were slowly devouring the black canopy overhead, heralding the arrival of a new day. Tomorrow was forever a word filled with the unknown, inspiring boundless anticipation.

A slightly burly figure stood silently, his eyes like morning stars gazing at the village slowly shrouded in mist. A faint sadness showed in his eyes.

That person was Chen Yun. Today, he would leave the village where he had lived for twelve years, so it was inevitable that he felt reluctant to part. He had been unable to sleep all night. Old Ent's matter had kept circling through his mind, and with his departure today, he could not help feeling somewhat excited.

He had chatted with Xili for a long time last night. Xili had told him many things and, in the end, even given him a Space Ring. Although Chen Yun had refused again and again, he had ultimately been unable to resist Xili's kindness, leaving him secretly grateful.

One had to know that Space Rings were extremely precious. Only powerhouses above the War Emperor level could refine them, because only those above the War Emperor level understood spatial power. The ring Xili had given Chen Yun had been refined by Xili himself.

Since Xili had only just entered the War Emperor realm, and War Emperors merely possessed a rough understanding of spatial skills, this Space Ring was only a pitiful five cubic meters in size. Even so, it was still quite precious.

Space Rings were exceedingly rare across the continent. Usually, only some great Lineages had them, or powerhouses above the War Emperor level. Of course, the continent was vast, and there were also rings scattered across it. Someone had once been hunting ferocious beasts in the forest when he accidentally entered a ruined site and picked up a Space Ring. Later, however, he was killed and robbed of it.

The preciousness of Space Rings could be imagined. No matter how good an item was, without powerful strength and a strong background, possessing such a thing would only bring disaster upon oneself.

But Chen Yun did not know any of this at the moment, and Xili had not told him either. In Xili's view, Chen Yun's strength already qualified him as an expert, so there was no need to worry.

"Ah!" Chen Yun let out a low sigh, abruptly turned around, and strode away toward the distance.

The villagers had not yet risen, and no one knew that Chen Yun had left. Yet in a dark corner, a pair of bright eyes watched him depart indifferently. Only after Chen Yun's figure vanished from their sight did a sharp glint flash in those eyes. A low murmur rang out: "War God Academy, is it? Hehe, I'll come find you!"

The pair of bright eyes vanished in an instant. The village remained quiet. Chen Yun had already left, but he did not know that a pair of eyes was silently watching his departure from the shadows.

Before long, the sky was fully bright. The morning forest gradually grew lively. Birds chirped noisily, rustling sounds came from the grass, and waves of deep beast roars rose and fell, presenting a scene brimming with life.

Just then, the sound of something tearing through the air rang out. The powerful aura spreading through the surroundings instantly made everything fall silent. A black shadow flashed past, its speed as swift as flowing light, even leaving afterimages behind. That figure flickered left and right among the towering trees, its movements strange and its whereabouts elusive.

At last, the figure stopped. "Huff, huff..." Beads of sweat the size of beans slid down his face. It was Chen Yun. He was panting heavily, and only after sweeping his sharp eyes around did he relax, sit cross-legged, close his eyes, and quietly regulate his breathing.

Chen Yun had been hurrying along at high speed the entire way. In truth, it could not really be called hurrying; he had been training his speed and bodily agility. Along the way, Chen Yun had not used Internal Qi or battle-qi even once, relying solely on his physical body to run.

This forest was called the Hundred Thousand Forest. As its name suggested, it covered an extremely vast area. Of course, the name was also somewhat exaggerated. The forest stretched ten thousand miles from east to west and reached thirty thousand miles from north to south. It was the largest forest on the entire War God Continent and one of the continent's several great perilous lands.

There were countless ferocious beasts within it. The entire forest was divided into four regions. The outer region generally contained ferocious beasts of the first to third orders and ordinary wild beasts. The second region was usually inhabited by ferocious beasts of the fourth to sixth orders, most of them fourth- or fifth-order beasts, with only a few sixth-order beasts. The third region mostly contained sixth-order beasts, along with many Seventh Order beasts. Its core region was the territory of Eighth Order Sacred Beasts, and it was said that Venerable Rank ferocious beasts even occupied it. Its danger was self-evident.

The route Chen Yun was taking passed straight through the second region. Xili had pointed out this route to him, and it led directly toward the War God Academy.

Chen Yun now realized that the village where he had lived was actually located in the third region. It was simply in an extremely remote location, with very treacherous terrain surrounding it. Otherwise, in a region where sixth-order ferocious beasts ran rampant, even though the village was very powerful, it could never withstand the charge of sixth-order beasts covering the mountains and plains!

He had only reached this place after winding along the route Xili had indicated. He had not encountered any particularly powerful ferocious beasts along the way. He had originally wanted to train, but with no other choice, he had thought of training his speed instead.

After regulating his breathing for a while, Chen Yun stood up and touched the Space Ring on his left hand. After pondering for a moment, he closed his eyes and sensed faintly, then headed toward a direction from which waves of ferocious beast roars were coming.

The village where Chen Yun lived was entirely self-sufficient and did not use the common currency of the continent. But once Chen Yun reached the continent, he would need money, so he had to hunt ferocious beasts himself and obtain their cores. Ferocious beast cores, after all, sold for a very good price.

The continent's common currency was divided into four types: copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and Purple Gold Coins. One Purple Crystal Coin equaled one hundred gold coins, one gold coin equaled one thousand silver coins, and one silver coin equaled one thousand copper coins.

An ordinary family on the continent spent only a little over twenty gold coins a year.

The reason ferocious beast cores sold for so much was that they were the source of a ferocious beast's entire power and contained enormous energy. Used to forge weapons, they could multiply a weapon's might. High-level ferocious beast cores could also be used to establish spatial teleportation arrays. Some cores with exceptionally pure energy could even be used for cultivation. The dense energy within them could increase a cultivator's training speed severalfold or even more than tenfold. However, this depended on the core's level, and pure cores were generally quite rare.

Generally, first- to third-order ferocious beast cores sold for ten to one hundred gold coins, increasing by ten each order. Fourth-order cores could sell for two to three hundred gold coins, while Fifth Order cores could sell for four to six hundred. The value of sixth-order and higher cores was extremely high. A sixth-order core could generally sell for more than one hundred thousand gold coins, while a Seventh Order core was many times more expensive, fetching several million gold coins. As for Eighth Order Sacred Beast cores and Ninth Order Venerable Beast cores, they were priceless treasures whose value could not be measured in money. Tenth Order divine beast cores were practically legendary existences.

Chen Yun concealed his aura and swept rapidly forward. Two Fifth Order Sect Beasts appeared before him: one was a huge mid-level fifth-order Tiger-Striped Beast, while the other was a relatively lean low-level fifth-order Gale Wolf King.

The two ferocious beasts were fighting. The Tiger-Striped Beast leaped into the air and pounced at the Gale Wolf King. The Gale Wolf King was no easy opponent; it dodged the Tiger-Striped Beast at wind-like speed, its sharp claws whipping up a powerful burst of force as they fiercely raked across the Tiger-Striped Beast, immediately tearing a deep wound in its body.

The Tiger-Striped Beast roared, and violent sound waves surged toward the Gale Wolf King in ripples. The Gale Wolf King was sent flying far away, spitting a mouthful of wolf blood. Chen Yun, watching from the shadows, clicked his tongue in wonder. He had never imagined that the Tiger-Striped Beast could use sound waves to attack. He had never heard of or seen such a thing before.

The Gale Wolf King had been caught off guard and heavily wounded by the Tiger-Striped Beast, but it was still a Fifth Order Sect Beast. Killing it would not be so easy.

Seeing that the Gale Wolf King had fallen and was seriously injured, the Tiger-Striped Beast let out a smug roar. It slowly walked over, then raised its two front paws and pounced at the Gale Wolf King amid a surge of air.

Yet the Gale Wolf King, which had been lying heavily wounded on the ground, suddenly twisted aside and escaped from beneath the tiger's claws with lightning speed. Its wolf jaws opened wide and clamped fiercely onto the Tiger-Striped Beast's hind leg. Struck by the attack, the Tiger-Striped Beast let out an angry roar and violently shook its entire body. A powerful current of air burst from within it, flinging the Gale Wolf King away. Before the Gale Wolf King could react, the Tiger-Striped Beast lunged at it with its enormous body.

Seeing that it could no longer avoid the attack, madness flashed in the Gale Wolf King's savage eyes. Its belly heaved violently, then it opened its mouth and spat out a spherical energy ball. Carrying an aura of destruction, it shot toward the Tiger-Striped Beast.

A deafening explosion rang out. The Tiger-Striped Beast's huge body was thrown into the air before crashing heavily to the ground, motionless. A large hole had been blasted through its head. The Gale Wolf King had been very close to the explosion, and having already suffered severe injuries, it too had been blown to death.

Just like that, the two Fifth Order Sect Beasts died.

Chen Yun, who had been hiding in the shadows, stared at the scene in bewilderment. He had originally intended to personally deal with the two fifth-order ferocious beasts, but when he suddenly saw the Tiger-Striped Beast's sound-wave attack, curiosity had made him stop to watch their battle. He had never expected it to end so quickly.

He shook his head helplessly and slowly walked out. It seemed this truly was a great gift delivered straight to him—two Sect Beast cores! They should be worth some money if he took them out to sell. At that moment, Chen Yun still did not know the price of cores.

He took a sharp knife about half a meter long from the Space Ring. This small knife had accompanied Chen Yun for more than five years. Whenever he trained in the forest and hunted ferocious beasts, he used it to dissect them.

He efficiently dug out the cores. Their surfaces were extremely smooth; removing the flesh and blood covering them was enough to clean them, so there was no need to wash them with water.

The Gale Wolf King's core was white, while the Tiger-Striped Beast's was Fiery Red. It was clear that the Tiger-Striped Beast was an irritable type of ferocious beast, while the Gale Wolf King was calm. The battle between the two beasts had made this obvious: the Gale Wolf King's calm temperament had allowed it to fight the mid-level fifth-order Tiger-Striped Beast to mutual destruction despite being only low-level fifth order. This showed how important a cool head was in battle.

Calm-type ferocious beasts were an extremely powerful kind among ferocious beasts.

Chen Yun had noticed this as well and secretly warned himself. Because of this, he would later be able to turn danger into safety in battle.

Chen Yun continued onward. The ferocious beasts he encountered along the way gradually grew more numerous.

His route was slowly drawing closer to the forest's third region, so the ferocious beasts he encountered were growing stronger as well. At one point, he even encountered a low-level sixth-order ferocious beast. Chen Yun killed it using only the strength of his physical body and battle-qi, without using Internal Qi, though he himself suffered fairly serious injuries.

For Chen Yun, who had long used ferocious beasts to train, this was nothing.

This forest truly deserved its name, the Hundred Thousand Forest. Chen Yun had been walking for half a month and still had not made it out, despite traveling at top speed. If not for the route Xili had pointed out, he would even have suspected that he had gotten lost.

There was no other choice but to continue. Surely he would be able to leave soon, right?

Another ten days passed. Chen Yun slowly walked through the forest. The journey during this period had indeed left him somewhat exhausted, but his gains were considerable. Not only had his cultivation improved slightly, but his physical speed had increased as well, and both his Internal Qi and battle-qi had advanced somewhat. His Internal Qi had already reached the peak of low-level fifth order, just one step away from mid-level fifth order, while his battle-qi had reached the peak of Fourth Order Middle Tier. His gains could be called enormous. One had to know that after reaching the fourth order, the closer one got to the end, the more difficult advancement became.

He had also gained quite a few ferocious beast cores: one sixth-order core, ten fifth-order cores, and thirty fourth-order cores. As for those below the third order, he had more than twenty. This was also because Chen Yun's strength had risen, and his standards had risen with it.

Gradually, the light around him grew brighter and brighter, filling Chen Yun with uncontrollable delight. It seemed he was about to leave this damned forest. After all, he had been traveling through it for nearly a month.

Although this length of time was nothing to Chen Yun, who had spent years roaming the forest, he was eager to leave this place and enter the outside world. That had always been his dream! How could he not be impatient?

Chen Yun let out an excited howl and accelerated his pace. Immediately, successive sounds of air being torn apart rang out.

But just then, the cry of a woman rang out. "Ah!"

Chen Yun abruptly halted, his expression changing slightly. He frowned. "What is this?"

He had rarely interacted with outsiders, so he failed to react for a moment. But he recovered quickly, turned around, and ran at top speed toward the source of the voice!