A vast horde of zombies and skeletons wandered along the banks of the Blood River. Every so often, heaps of white bones drifted downstream through the river.
Several hundred meters from the Blood River, Qi Bei sat swinging his legs on the trunk of a strange, gnarled tree, calmly gazing toward the river. Beneath the tree, more than a dozen undead creatures lay sprawled in all directions.
There are so many undead. How am I supposed to charge through them? And how am I supposed to cross this Blood River? Qi Bei calculated inwardly, while a silver arrow spun rapidly between his fingers.
Perhaps because it was filled with such dense death qi, the Blood River had attracted tens of thousands of undead. For Qi Bei to force his way through would be harder than climbing to the heavens.
Besides, the Blood River was more than a hundred meters wide. He had no ability to walk across the waves.
Qi Bei swept his gaze from left to right. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and the arrow spinning in his hand came to an abrupt stop.
Upstream, there was a rocky mountain on either side of the river. The undead scattered across them seemed sparse. As long as he cleared them out, he could use his longbow to shoot a rope twisted from tree bark onto the opposite mountain, then slide directly across from midair.
However, though the method sounded simple, carrying it out would be extremely difficult. Shooting the rope across would not be hard, but making it sturdy enough to support a person's weight was another matter entirely. Still, this was the only method Qi Bei could think of at present.
Qi Bei lightly leapt down from the tree and silently crept toward the rocky mountain.
On the mountain, two skeletons wandered aimlessly.
Suddenly, a faint silver flash streaked past, and the red glows in the two skeletons' hollow eye sockets went out almost simultaneously.
Qi Bei emerged from behind a boulder and picked up the arrow that had pierced through the skeletons' ear holes. He then rummaged around inside their skulls, but found nothing.
Just as Qi Bei was about to stand, his heart suddenly tightened. His entire body rolled forward like lightning, while the Bone Spear in his hand shot backward.
"Zzt."
At the spot where Qi Bei had just been standing, a spray of green poison corroded the rocks on the ground until they were riddled with holes.
Not far away, a zombie covered from head to toe in green hair had been shot through the chest by Qi Bei's Bone Spear and pinned to a rock. It clawed and gnashed its teeth, struggling to break free.
"A green-haired poison zombie? Damn, I almost got ambushed by this thing." Qi Bei cursed and rushed forward, bringing his blade down in a single stroke that split the poison zombie's head in two.
Amid the brain matter rotted into liquid, a green bead rolled out.
"A Green Bead... Looks like my luck is pretty good today." Qi Bei immediately beamed. Among the Undead Beads, the Blue Bead was the lowest grade—a low-level Undead Bead. The Green Bead was one grade higher, a mid-level Undead Bead, while the Silver Bead was a high-level Undead Bead.
Not every undead possessed an Undead Bead. With low-level Undead Beads, sometimes one could only be found among a hundred low-level undead.
However, aside from knowing that Undead Beads could serve as energy stones and detoxify poison, Qi Bei had no idea whether they had any other uses.
Qi Bei continued creeping toward the mountaintop, clearing out every scattered undead he encountered along the way.
At dusk, Qi Bei finally reached the summit of the rocky mountain.
He untied the tree-bark rope he had prepared and carefully observed the opposite mountain for a long while. Only then did he fasten the rope tightly to an arrow, draw his bow, and take aim.
Qi Bei released his fingers. With a hum of the bowstring, the arrow shot toward a large tree jutting out from the opposite mountain like a shooting star, dragging the tree-bark rope behind it.
The arrow passed with astonishing precision between two branches. Qi Bei tugged the rope back slightly, and the arrow came to rest across the center of the fork.
"Haha, my luck has exploded today. Looks like crossing this Blood River won't be a problem." Qi Bei excitedly pumped his fist and tied his end of the rope to a massive boulder. Just like that, a ropeway was born.
Qi Bei placed his longbow on the ropeway, gripped both sides of the bow with his hands, and pushed off with his feet. His body shot forward, hanging in midair as he slid toward the opposite bank.
Looking at the densely packed horde of undead below, Qi Bei could not help feeling a little proud of himself.
In the blink of an eye, Qi Bei had slid above the Blood River. From here, looking downward gave him a much clearer view of what lay within the river.
Corpse after corpse churned in the Blood River. The shadows of unknown river creatures swept across its surface. It was no different from hell itself.
Qi Bei was secretly alarmed, and that trace of accomplishment abruptly transformed into inexplicable fear.
Just then, a blood-colored shadow burst from the water and shot toward Qi Bei in midair like lightning.
When that trace of fear had surfaced in Qi Bei's heart, his nerves had already been stretched taut. The instant the blood shadow appeared, his body instinctively dodged.
The blood shadow barely grazed his body. He had avoided it, but the rope twisted from tree bark snapped cleanly into two.
Qi Bei clung to one end of the rope with one hand, suddenly exerted his waist, and swung across the surface of the Blood River toward the opposite bank.
Two more blood shadows attacked him from front and back, cutting off any hope he had of escaping to the opposite rocky mountain.
Since there was nowhere left to retreat, he could only fight!
Qi Bei's pupils shrank to pinpoints. Just as one of the blood shadows was about to lash him, the Bone Spike in his hand suddenly stabbed upward.
"Pfft!" Two sounds rang out. One was the sound of the Bone Spike piercing flesh.
But the louder sound was Qi Bei spitting blood. Although he had dodged and avoided the point where the force was concentrated, his internal organs had still suffered severe damage, as if a giant hand had reached into his chest and were kneading his organs viciously.
Qi Bei forcibly endured the pain, wrapping all four limbs around the blood shadow striking him like a koala clinging to a tree. Only then did he realize that the thing was a gigantic tentacle.
Pierced through by Qi Bei's Bone Spike, the tentacle instinctively withdrew into the Blood River.
With a boom, Qi Bei plunged into the Blood River alongside the tentacle. The only thing he could do was cling to it tightly and refuse to let go.
In the blink of an eye, the tentacle retracted to the bottom of the Blood River. At that moment, its owner revealed its true form.
It turned out to be a gigantic Blood Octopus.
An octopus had eight tentacles, but this enormous Blood Octopus had only three. The other five had been severed by someone, and mysterious restriction runes shimmered over the wounds, clearly meant to prevent the tentacles from growing back.
The enormous Blood Octopus was enraged. It directly coiled its injured tentacle toward its huge, fur-covered mouth, intending to swallow Qi Bei in one bite.
Qi Bei held his breath, gripped the Bone Spike with both hands, and kicked hard against the tentacle. His entire body shot backward like a torpedo, flying toward the top of the Blood Octopus's head.
"Die!" Qi Bei roared inwardly. The Bone Spike radiated a ring of sharp, cone-like golden light as he and the weapon slammed into one of the Blood Octopus's enormous eyes.
In an instant, Qi Bei sank deep into the Blood Octopus's eye, and thick liquid submerged him.
The giant Blood Octopus began struggling like a mad creature. Its three massive tentacles thrashed wildly through the Blood River. Everything they passed was torn apart and ground into powder.
Streams of dark green ink sprayed out. The moment the ink touched the bones, they dissolved into thick liquid.
Above the Blood River, the Blood Octopus's ink reacted violently with the river water. Dense green smoke hissed upward, forming a poisonous fog zone more than a hundred miles wide, while the undead on both riverbanks collapsed in swathes.
Qi Bei knew nothing of what was happening outside. He had only one thought:
Either you die, or I die!
Thus, Qi Bei's madness was no less than the Blood Octopus's. The Bone Spear in his hand stabbed in every direction like raindrops, while his body sank deeper and deeper.
Through the Blood Octopus's eye, Qi Bei entered its head. The Bone Spear churned everything inside its skull into utter ruin.
At last, the Blood Octopus stopped moving. Qi Bei, his entire body numb and rigid, floated in a pool of mush inside its head, his consciousness sinking into chaos.
Am I going to die again? I can't accept this. Qi Bei sighed inwardly, feeling his soul slowly sink into a darkness so absolute he could not see his hand before his face.
Abruptly, a golden radiance began to shine from Qi Bei's left palm. One ringing Dragon's Roar after another seemed to come from the distant horizon.
At that moment, within the Blood Octopus's ruined head, a blood-red crystal as large as Qi Bei's head flew toward his left palm as if drawn to a magnet, instantly sticking to it.
Streams of vitality surged into Qi Bei's body, while the blood-red crystal rapidly shrank. In no more than a few breaths, it had contracted from the size of a head to the size of a fist.
Qi Bei grunted, his eyes flying open. Suddenly, he began gulping in great breaths.
"What happened? Why can I suddenly breathe?" After steadying his emotions, Qi Bei discovered that he was still inside the Blood Octopus's head, yet somehow he could breathe. Moreover, his entire body was filled with strength.
The next moment, Qi Bei noticed the blood-red crystal in his left palm.
"Is this the core crystal of that giant octopus?" Qi Bei froze for a moment and tentatively let go of the blood-red crystal. But the instant his hand moved away, he could no longer breathe. As soon as he grabbed the crystal again, he could breathe once more.
"What a treasure. They say surviving a great disaster brings great fortune. Looks like that saying really isn't false." Qi Bei tucked the blood-red crystal against his skin and began searching for a way out.
After more than half an hour, Qi Bei finally crawled out of the octopus's body.
Looking at the motionless Blood Octopus, Qi Bei's anger flared. He grabbed the Bone Spear and stabbed it viciously several more times.
"Hm?"
Just then, Qi Bei was shocked to discover that a purple metal chain was embedded beneath the Blood Octopus's head. No wonder the octopus, despite its severe injuries, had remained there instead of leaving. It had been chained here by some expert.
Following the purple metal chain, Qi Bei found a place not far from the riverbed where bones had piled up.
After clearing away the bones, an ancient Magic Array appeared. The chain was fastened to the very center of the array.
As for Magic Arrays, Qi Bei was utterly baffled. After circling it twice, he intended to leave.
But at that moment, the black ancient book on Qi Bei's body suddenly floated out on its own, its faint ghostly light exceptionally dazzling in the blood-colored river water.
The ancient Magic Array on the riverbed suddenly activated as well, and a mysterious rune emerged in its center.
At the same time, a rune floated out from the black ancient book. The two runes were exactly identical.
The two runes instantly overlapped, and the earth immediately shook as though mountains were toppling and the sea was overturning.
With a clang, a black sword beam shot from the ancient Magic Array like lightning, stabbing straight toward Qi Bei's brow and chilling his heart from within to without.
Qi Bei had no time to react. He instinctively thrust both hands out to grab the sword beam.
The sharp blade light sliced his hands until they streamed with blood, actually dyeing the Black Sword red.
Gradually, the sword light on the Black Sword faded, transforming it into an utterly unremarkable black iron sword.
Qi Bei's consciousness blurred for a moment. He only felt a sustained heat in his left palm as the Divine Dragon pattern roared and danced, forming lines of mysterious writing that imprinted themselves into his mind.
"Divine Dragon Transformation!"
The nine transformations of the Divine Dragon were the true core cultivation art of the Divine Dragon Art, and they had to be triggered by a woman possessing a supreme Yin Body.
Although Qi Bei had reached the first layer of the Divine Dragon Art, he had not completed the First Transformation of the Divine Dragon.
The Divine Dragon was formed from the universe's ultimate Yang qi. The so-called Divine Dragon Transformation, however, required a woman with a supreme Yin Body to harmonize it. Otherwise, Extreme Yang Fire would form within his body and reduce his soul to ashes.
Whenever a woman with a supreme Yin Body was nearby, the Dragon Imprint in Qi Bei's left palm would respond.
As long as any part of that woman's body touched the Dragon Imprint, it would leave a mark in her soul.
Naturally, the mark was not some enslaving mark. However, a woman who bore it would be relatively more easily drawn to its owner's charm. The harmonization of yin and yang was, after all, a law of heaven and earth.
In other words, ever since triggering this Divine Dragon Transformation, if Qi Bei did not want the Extreme Yang Fire in his body to burn him to ashes, he would have to scour the world for supreme beauties to fill his... needs.
But the problem now was that Qi Bei had merely been cut by a Black Sword, yet had somehow triggered the cultivation art of the Divine Dragon Transformation.
"What kind of Divine Dragon Art is this? I think it should be called the (Lure) Dragon Art instead." Qi Bei smiled bitterly inwardly. The excitement he had felt upon cultivating the first layer of the Divine Dragon Art had long since been banished to the ends of the earth.
At that moment, the ancient Magic Array shattered with a thunderous roar, and a raging current swept Qi Bei downstream.
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