Yet he felt not the slightest bit of fear.
In theory, after cultivating the Breathing Method, his spiritual senses had become extremely sharp. If this place truly was an incomparably dangerous Forbidden Zone capable of threatening his life, he should have sensed it by now.
Yet not only did he feel no fear, he instead felt as if some great Fortune awaited him here.
It was just like back when he and Li Zhi went looking for those tomb raiders. He had experienced a similar feeling of delight then.
Later, he had experienced several sudden premonitions, and nearly every one had accurately foretold good or bad fortune.
The clearest instance was after he climbed Mount Tai. He had suddenly experienced a premonition and felt that he was about to achieve Feathered Ascension to Immortality.
What happened afterward indeed confirmed that feeling.
After clearing away the distracting thoughts in his mind, Ye Fan said to Lin Jia, "I'll go see whether Pang Bo has found a water source."
Lin Jia nodded. "Then I'll go look somewhere else too."
At the same time, after crossing a mountain, Li Zhi finally stopped feeling as if he was being watched.
He stopped on a small hill and pulled the Hundred Herbs Diagram from the Snakeskin Bag.
He pricked his finger and dripped blood onto the diagram, shouting, "Senior Diagram, Senior Grass Diagram, Lord Hundred Herbs Diagram, this is an emergency! Hurry and give me some response!"
Seeing that the Hundred Herbs Diagram scroll showed no reaction, Li Zhi whispered, "Senior Diagram, if you don't respond, I'm going to leave you here."
"Buzz!" The Hundred Herbs Diagram suddenly trembled, as if it had sensed fear.
Seeing this, Li Zhi immediately held up the Hundred Herbs Diagram and said, "Senior Diagram, give me the Ginseng Fruit quickly. Otherwise, we'll both be finished here."
Then he directly unrolled the Hundred Herbs Diagram.
A moment later, he saw ripples appear in the part of the diagram depicting the Ginseng Fruit.
Li Zhi successfully reached his hand inside and pulled the Ginseng Fruit straight from the tree.
Afterward, the Hundred Herbs Diagram rolled itself back up with a whoosh and fell completely silent.
Li Zhi had no time to examine whether the Ginseng Fruit was abnormal. He stuffed the fist-sized fruit directly into his mouth.
Without chewing at all, he swallowed it into his stomach.
Then he felt a warm current fill his limbs and bones.
However, the warm current quickly vanished.
There was not the slightest sign that its Medicinal Power was too strong and had caused Li Zhi indigestion.
Li Zhi's eyes lit up, and he thought, Just as I expected.
Then he put the Hundred Herbs Diagram back into the Snakeskin Bag and charged toward the outside of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Zone.
After crossing one small mountain after another, Li Zhi looked up and saw the shadow of the Heavenly Palace.
He secretly shook his head, then continued hurrying forward.
He possessed quite a few treasures. If the person with the Fairy Spirit Eyes caught sight of him, it would be hard to say whether those treasures would still belong to him.
Finally, before nightfall, Li Zhi crossed a mountain and happened to see a Saber-Toothed Tiger returning from a hunt.
He immediately realized that he had finally escaped the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Zone.
The five-meter-long Saber-Toothed Tiger revealed a ferocious glint when it saw Li Zhi and roared at him, "Roar!"
It seemed to be warning Li Zhi.
Without saying a word, Li Zhi drew the Luoyang Shovel and charged at the Saber-Toothed Tiger.
With five thousand jin of strength in one arm, Li Zhi was not afraid of this mere five-meter-long Saber-Toothed Tiger.
Moreover, he held the incomparably sharp Luoyang Shovel in his hand.
One charge, and the two powerful opponents collided.
The Saber-Toothed Tiger pounced at Li Zhi.
Li Zhi gripped the Luoyang Shovel with both hands and thrust it straight at the Saber-Toothed Tiger as it lunged toward him.
In the blink of an eye, the Saber-Toothed Tiger's chest was pierced through by the Luoyang Shovel.
With only one move,
the two sides had already decided life and death.
Afterward, Li Zhi kicked the Saber-Toothed Tiger away, pulled out the Luoyang Shovel, and sat directly on the ground, gasping for breath.
Although it had seemed like a simple move, it had nearly condensed all his vital essence, energy, and spirit.
When experts exchanged blows, a single move was often enough to determine life or death. This was a principle taught by the master who had passed down Xingyi Quan to Li Zhi.
One need not fear an enemy who knew a thousand moves, but an enemy who practiced one move a thousand times.
This was also the principle of martial arts training that the Xingyi Quan master had told them.
If one wanted to achieve true accomplishments on the path of martial arts, mastering one fist technique was enough.
The move Li Zhi had just used against the Saber-Toothed Tiger originated from the essence of the tiger pounce among the Xingyi Twelve Forms Fist.
It had to be said that Li Zhi, with a magic treasure in hand, had possessed the superior skill.
If he had fought barehanded, the one lying on the ground now would probably have been Li Zhi.
After sitting there and resting for a while, Li Zhi felt his body begin to heat up.
Then he ran toward the Saber-Toothed Tiger's den nearby.
After killing the young Saber-Toothed Tigers inside with a single shovel strike, he sat cross-legged in the tiger den and guarded his mind, experiencing the agony of his flesh and blood burning.
At the edge of the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone, the primitive mountain forest was deathly silent beneath the night sky.
There were no roars of beasts, no cries of birds or insects, and not even the sound of howling wind or moving shadows. Everything was so quiet.
It was quiet enough to make one panic, quiet enough to make one lose focus without realizing it, as if the extreme dead silence hidden within this lush and flourishing mountain forest were waiting to emerge.
"Roar!"
"Ah!"
"Wuu!"
A series of roars, seemingly originating from the Nine Abyss Hell, suddenly added a few traces of unusual vitality to these tranquil mountains and rivers.
They turned the fear in people's hearts into curiosity toward whoever was howling.
Who exactly was howling?
It sounded as if someone were suffering the pain of a Flying Sword piercing the heart, or the soul-searing agony of being boiled in oil. It seemed even more like a cry of despair and unwillingness from someone unable to endure brutal torture.
The deep roars, filled with extreme agony, spread throughout the nearby mountain forests for dozens of li.
The ferocious beasts that usually moved about in the forests at the edge of the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone all returned to their dens to hide.
It seemed they had heard these soul-deep cries of agony more than once before.
The howls beneath the moon once again stirred the terrifying memories branded deep in their bloodlines.
Within the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone,
Ye Fan and the others, who had originally planned to rest, were all startled awake after hearing those soul-rending roars.
"What was that sound?"
"It sounds like someone is crying out in pain."
"Do you think it might be Li Zhi? Maybe he ran into serious trouble after leaving alone."
"I hope it isn't him. That Li Zhi is incredibly powerful, and he's also a tomb raider. If even he encountered danger, then we probably won't be safe after we leave either."
Beneath the moonlit night, Ye Fan's classmates gathered in small groups and whispered among themselves about the roars coming from afar.
After experiencing the terrifying atmosphere brought by the Crocodile Ancestor's emergence on the Ancient Scarlet Planet, hearing roars of this level did not seem to frighten them much.
Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and the others also gathered together to discuss the source of the sounds.
Everyone debated what kind of world they had come to.
The mountains and rivers had looked as beautiful as a painting during the day. Why had such terrifying roars sounded shortly after night fell?
Could it be that this world was not the world of immortal-like lives they had expected?
Could it instead be a sinful land where savage beasts ran rampant, great fiends were everywhere, and bloodshed and chaos filled every corner?
Having eaten Saint Fruits and drunk Divine Spring Water, Ye Fan's hearing and vision had become increasingly sharp. His perception had improved tremendously, leaving his classmates far behind.
After emptying his mind and listening carefully for a moment, he said to those beside him, "It doesn't sound like the roar of a beast. It sounds more like a great fiend being held captive and going mad at night."
Everyone stared at Ye Fan curiously, wanting to know how he had reached such an outrageous conclusion.
Pang Bo's eyes widened. "Yezi, don't scare everyone. Although we may have come to a world where the Deities live, we can't just assume that's the voice of an imprisoned demon. We can't be that unlucky, can we? We encountered the Nine Dragons Coffin Transport on Mount Tai, the Crocodile Ancestor on Mars, and now we're going to face some terrifying great fiend here too?"
Zhang Ziling also asked, "Ye Fan, do you have any basis for that conclusion?"
Ye Fan swept his gaze over the surroundings. "Don't you think the mountain forest around us is far too quiet? We traveled from day into night, and aside from seeing a Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird appear in the distant sky, we haven't encountered any animals nearby. Apart from grass and trees, we haven't even seen a single insect. We haven't heard any of the chirping of insects or birds that should be present at night. And why is the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone called a Forbidden Zone?"
Liu Yiyi had eaten two Saint Fruits during the day. Her mental state was now completely different from the timid and weak state she had displayed inside the Bronze Giant Coffin. She seemed to have recovered some of her former bearing. After pondering for a moment, she also spoke. "Do you mean that this Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone might be a place where ferocious demons are imprisoned, which is why only plants grow here while no living creatures remain?"
Before you continue