The Sudden Appearance of... Someone?

Chapter 3: The Sudden Appearance of... Someone?

The boundless wilderness was lush with towering trees, their vines blotting out the sky.

From time to time, roars of ferocious beasts and cries of fierce birds rang through the forest. Here and there, they were punctuated by tragic, furious howls—the sounds of creatures facing death.

The stench of blood permeated the entire forest. Slaughter played out ceaselessly in every corner.

Chen Lin had gradually grown used to the cruel daily battles. They made him feel as if he had returned to his childhood, to the days he spent on the deserted island where Hidden Thorn trained recruits. Those days had been just as brutal and cold-blooded, just as hard to survive.

The difference was that Chen Lin actually enjoyed this life.

Perhaps he had long since learned to take life and death in stride. Or perhaps the thrill of endless fighting let him forget certain things for a little while—like the figure etched into his heart through those nine years...

So, even as Chen Lin remained cautious, he was unafraid. After all, by all rights, he was already a dead man.

And the dead feared nothing.

"Pfft!"

At the cost of a gash nearly twenty centimeters long across his stomach, Chen Lin successfully beheaded the enormous, multicolored grasshopper before him. Even as it died, the grotesque mouthparts on its severed head kept twitching. A thread of black light quickly gathered over its corpse and sank into Chen Lin's body.

Dragging his gravely wounded body, Chen Lin hooked the grasshopper's remains and hurried back to the lair he had built.

Pushing aside the dry grass and dead branches concealing his lair, Chen Lin warily scanned the surroundings. Only after confirming there was no danger did he dart inside.

It was a towering ancient tree that would have taken several people to encircle. A sizable hollow lay hidden in its trunk, as if someone had scooped out the entire middle. It was the biggest surprise Chen Lin had stumbled upon in the past few days. Having to survive outside with constant caution left him utterly exhausted, and this place was so well hidden that no ferocious beast would notice it if he was careful. At last, he had somewhere to catch his breath.

The wound was deep, and blood kept flowing from it. The multicolored grasshopper had been exceptionally cunning; it refused to fight Chen Lin at close quarters, and he couldn't match its speed. Every time it bounded away, it managed to injure him. If Chen Lin hadn't possessed martial skills and used a nine-feint, one-real tactic, deliberately exposing an opening at the last moment to behead it, he would have ended up with far worse than a wound—he could have been disemboweled.

Fortunately, Chen Lin cultivated Dao Heaven. With night approaching, he could heal his wound as long as he had enough Mystic Yin Essence. It was nothing serious.

Rumble!

Distant thunder rumbled.

It had been two months since Chen Lin's rebirth. The weather in this boundless forest could change in an instant, and he had long since grown used to it. Now he was curled up inside the hollow tree, gazing at the sky through a gap in the branches concealing its entrance, lost in thought.

Perhaps the rumbling thunder and oppressive air weighed on him, and Chen Lin's mood suddenly sank.

He stared blankly at the fine rain, his thoughts adrift. He remembered his past life, Hidden Thorn, the brothers and sisters he had lived with there, and the instructor who had taught him martial arts.

"Heart Piercer..."

Chen Lin murmured to himself.

That proud figure in his dreams, that unspoken love buried in nine years of memories, was like this fine rain, like a tangle of sorrowful threads—impossible to cut free.

"Rumble!"

A deafening peal of thunder abruptly dragged his drifting thoughts back to reality. Chen Lin suddenly felt a strange pang of unease.

Something was wrong! This thunder...

Chen Lin sensed that something wasn't right. He looked up at the sky and only then noticed that the entire heavens had turned an eerie black. He couldn't see his own hand in front of him.

The muffled thunder rolled like a suppressed chariot, poised to charge.

What exactly was wrong?

Chen Lin's unease grew stronger and stronger. He stared at the pitch-black world, inexplicably restless. Deep in his blood, he even felt a trace of fear.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck a towering ancient tree in the distance, kindling a burst of flame.

As Chen Lin watched the flames grow, a thought flashed through his mind. At last, he realized what was wrong!

Even in weather like this, no matter how loud the thunder, there would usually be roars from ferocious beasts and cries from fierce birds. But now... the entire forest seemed to have fallen silent in an instant. There were no roars, no howls of battle. The silence was terrifying, uncanny.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning suddenly plunged from the ink-black clouds, stabbing at the eyes. It lit up a hundred-mile radius as bright as day, then plunged it back into darkness.

Chen Lin's body suddenly jolted. His triangular pupils narrowed slightly as he stared fixedly at the sky.

Because in that brief flash of light, he seemed to have seen an enormous figure hovering in midair. It was as huge as a small mountain, its entire body silver-white, dazzling to the eye.

The dark clouds above rolled and twisted again, surging violently like waves.

Crack! Crack!

The lightning grew violent too. Dozens of bolts flashed madly in succession, twisting into electric serpents. Streaks of light crisscrossed, turning the entire world white in an instant.

This time, Chen Lin saw clearly: the enormous figure was real. It was a Silver Giant Sable!

Its eyes were as cold and deep as a pool. Unlike other sables, it had a curved silver horn on its head, faint purple markings curling around it. It stood motionless in midair, steady as a mountain, but the aura it gave off grew stronger and stronger!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

All at once, the dark clouds churned wildly, then suddenly scattered, forming a whirlpool-like black hole in the sky. It twisted without restraint, as though brewing something.

In that instant, the fine rain abruptly halted and vanished into the air.

In that instant, heaven, earth, and all living things fell silent.

For some reason, as Chen Lin stared at the vortex that had formed in that instant, an intense feeling of unease and fear welled up inside him. Even his body trembled against his will.

What was this? Why had even a cold-blooded creature, supposedly without the slightest emotion, grown restless and uneasy?

Chen Lin was filled with doubt.

Awoooo!!!

The Silver Giant Sable suddenly let out a fierce, earth-shaking roar that seemed to stretch on without end, its fighting spirit sharp as a spear!

The sudden roar left Chen Lin's ears ringing.

The roar seemed to unfurl a battle flag and beat the war drums. The vortex began to turn slowly, and an aura of violence and destruction spread through the forest. Every ferocious beast trembled. Some even knelt on the ground, not daring to move.

In an instant, a golden bolt of lightning shot out of the vortex and struck the sable!

The golden lightning was like a battle spear, blindingly bright.

Crash!!

The sable had no way to dodge. Its body shuddered violently as it took the strike head-on. Its silver-white fur was instantly seared black and torn open, exposing flesh and blood. But instead of retreating, it threw back its head with a furious roar and flew into the sky.

"Rumble!!"

Then the vortex unleashed five more bolts of golden lightning in succession, six in all. Each bolt was enormous. Chen Lin watched, shaken to the core. He knew that even the aftershock of that golden lightning would be enough to reduce him to ashes. Just how powerful was the Silver Giant Sable to withstand all six strikes?

"What a fine Silver Sable. It's drawn six tribulation bolts. Its cultivation is a little weak, but after this breakthrough, its flesh and blood will still make fine ingredients for elixirs. Not bad."

Just then, a hunched figure suddenly appeared in midair. It was an old woman.

The old woman's eyes were slightly cloudy, and she wore a coarse hemp robe. She looked down at the Silver Giant Sable, a glint flashing in her eyes.

Though the Silver Giant Sable was powerful, after taking six golden lightning strikes, it had grown weak. It stared at the old woman who had suddenly appeared in midair, wariness and unease clear in its silver-white eyes. It growled softly in warning.

Chen Lin stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared in the sky. His body trembled uncontrollably, and a faint excitement stirred in his heart.

In the two months since his rebirth, this was the first time he had seen another human being!