Rebirth Forest

"Rebirth... Rebirth..." Lu Chen chewed over the name, alarm bells blaring in his heart.

This forest felt even more uncanny and unfathomable to him than the Azure River.

The Azure River was at least straightforwardly dangerous, but this forest was like a silent gaping maw, waiting to devour every intruder.

The ancient shield's warning surfaced in his mind again: "Careful... Soul-Devouring... vines..." The ones in the Azure River had been Soul-Devouring Vines. What about those in this forest? They were likely only more dangerous.

He did not rashly enter. Instead, he walked along the forest's edge for a while, observing the situation.

The trees at the forest's edge were relatively sparse, while the ground was covered in a thick layer of dark, decaying fallen leaves that gave silently beneath his feet.

On some trunks and exposed rocks, he saw vines similar to those in the Azure River, except darker in color—almost ink-green—coiled around them. These vines did not move at all and seemed like ordinary plants, but Lu Chen's Godslayer Thunder Eyes could "see" an exceedingly obscure energy slowly flowing within them—energy that shared the same origin as the Soul-Devouring Vines, yet was purer.

"So they really are the same thing, or at least close relatives." Lu Chen became even more cautious, keeping as far away from those vines as possible.

He needed to decide what to do next.

According to the ancient shield's guidance, after crossing the Azure River, he had to enter the "Rebirth Forest."

But the forest was so vast and strange—how was he supposed to navigate it? The clue to the Life Creation Spring lay in the "Fallen Dragon Abyss," but how was he to find the Fallen Dragon Abyss?

He took out the Celestial Star Disk fragment and the dark cyan metal map fragment once