Level Fourteen! Deep into the Soul Hunting Forest!

After the second rain of autumn, Nuoding City's temperature dropped noticeably, and the pedestrians on the streets all added extra layers.

But as Lan Tian sat in the middle of the Blue Silver Grass in the rear courtyard, his whole body was burning hot.

Soul power surged and circulated through his meridians, like river water breaking through the last thin layer of ice, flowing smoothly without the slightest obstruction.

The soul power accumulated in his dantian completed a qualitative condensation at that moment. It was nearly twenty percent thicker than before, and both the sensitivity and endurance of its circulation had clearly improved.

Rank fourteen.

A full half month earlier than the two months he had estimated.

Lan Tian slowly opened his eyes, exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, and the corners of his mouth lifted into an unconscious smile.

In the past half month, he had not slacked off for even a single day. Consultations in the morning, actual combat in the afternoon, medicinal baths and meditation at night, plus the occasional low-age Whale Glue he picked up from the black market to assist him—the combined efficiency of all these things had been even better than he expected.

He stood up and loosened his muscles and bones.

The four Weighted Rings still hung on his limbs, but they felt much lighter now, as if the four cotton threads wrapped around his body had become four strands of spider silk. The weight was still there, but it was no longer enough to hinder his movements.

"Looks like I can make a trip deeper into Soul Hunting Forest."

Lan Tian drew in his fists and feet, calculating inwardly.

Over the past month or so, the core medicinal ingredients in his medicinal bath formula had almost all been used up.

Angelica, polygonatum, fleeceflower root, and the like were easy enough. Shopkeeper Chen could restock them at any time, but there were a few slightly rarer medicinal ingredients.

For example, poria chunks over a hundred years old, the roots and stems of Three-Leaf Blood Vine, and something called Dragon Bone Grass.

Shopkeeper Chen's store did not have much stock, and the last few times Lan Tian went, they had already been nearly depleted.

These things were actually easier to find deeper inside Soul Hunting Forest.

Before, he had only moved around the outermost perimeter, so the medicinal herbs he harvested were average in both quality and age.

Now that he had broken through to rank fourteen, both his physique and soul power had improved by a level. Combined with the actual combat experience he had accumulated during this period, going a little deeper should not be much of a problem.

Of course, he also knew his limits and would not recklessly enter the core area.

The middle region where hundred-year soul beasts appeared was his target. That area was dangerous enough to keep him vigilant, but not so dangerous that it exceeded his current capabilities.

Early the next morning, when the sky had only just begun to brighten, Lan Tian packed everything neatly and left.

His medicine chest was strapped to his back, his surgical knife was tucked into a hidden pouch at his waist, a short dagger forged from refined iron hung on the outside of his right thigh, and he had brought both dry rations and a water pouch.

The four Weighted Rings were still on him. He had not taken them off. He had already grown used to the weight, and wearing them instead made his movements more solid.

After entering Soul Hunting Forest, he quickly passed through the outer region.

The familiar low shrubs, the familiar stream, the familiar small woods where Wind Wolves often appeared.

He did not stop along the way, crossing straight past these places and heading deeper in.

After walking for about two quarters of an hour, the surrounding vegetation began to change noticeably.

The trees grew taller and thicker, their crowns layered one over another, blocking the sky completely. The light dimmed by several degrees all at once.

The fallen leaves on the ground had piled up thicker, soft underfoot, and now and then he stepped on dry branches beneath them with a cracking sound.

The scent in the air was different too—damp, heavy, mixed with more odors of wild beasts and soul beasts.

He slowed his steps and opened all five senses fully.

Before he had gone far, he discovered a cluster of dark brown poria at the base of a giant oak tree. He pushed aside the thick fallen leaves and moss, revealing bowl-sized tubers underneath.

He carefully dug them out with his short dagger and weighed them in his hand. They were a full seven or eight taels, with dense, tight patterns on the surface. At the very least, they were seventy or eighty years old.

"Good stuff." Lan Tian put them into his medicine chest with satisfaction.

Continuing inward, after roughly half an hour, he found several stalks of Three-Leaf Blood Vine in the cracks of a shaded stone wall.

Blood-red vines clung to the stone wall as they climbed, and three thick leaves shone with a dark red luster under the dim light.

He used his short dagger to cut the vines, removed the roots and stems intact, shook off the soil, and stored them away.

Two core medicinal ingredients were now accounted for, but he still had not found Dragon Bone Grass.

According to the books, that plant liked shade and tended to grow near damp deadwood. Its rootstalk was pale gold, and after being dried in the sun, its texture became as hard as bone, which was where it got its name.

He circled around half of the middle region and was just about to change directions to search when his steps suddenly stopped.

About thirty paces ahead, a collapsed giant tree lay across the ground, its trunk covered with moss and ferns.

Right at the base of that deadwood, a cluster of slender pale-gold leaves poked out from the moss. In the middle of the leaves, a finger-thick rootstalk bulged slightly.

Dragon Bone Grass.

And judging by the growth and color of the leaves, its age was even higher than he had expected—at least over a hundred years old.

Lan Tian suppressed the sound of his steps and did not rush forward.

He first quickly scanned the surrounding environment. To the left of the deadwood was a dense patch of low bushes, and to the right was a huge blue-gray boulder. There were not many blind spots in his line of sight, and for the moment, he saw nothing dangerous.

But he did not relax his vigilance.

The middle region was already different from the outer perimeter. Hundred-year soul beasts could appear in any corner at any time.

He slowly approached the deadwood, his toes landing extremely lightly, his gaze constantly roaming over his surroundings.

When he was about five steps away from the Dragon Bone Grass, he suddenly stopped.

Something was wrong.

On the moss behind the withered tree roots, there were several drag marks. They were not human footprints, but looked more like the crawling traces of a snake or lizard. Judging by how fresh they were, they had been left not long ago.

He slowly crouched down, gripping the short dagger in his hand, his gaze fixed on the direction in which those tracks extended.

The instant he crouched, from a moss-covered hole at the base of the dead tree, two thick, dark-green snake bodies suddenly shot out. They were astonishingly fast, carrying a foul, fishy gust of wind straight toward his face.

It was a hundred-year Green-Veined Python!

Lan Tian's pupils shrank slightly, but his body had already reacted faster than his mind.

He rolled sideways. The snake's head swept past his ear, almost brushing his hair before smashing into the ground with a dull impact. The dead leaves on the ground were blasted in all directions.

After its first strike missed, the Green-Veined Python's thick body quickly contracted and coiled. Its triangular head lifted high, its cold vertical pupils locking onto him, its scarlet tongue flicking in and out as it hissed.

The python's body was as thick as an adult's lower leg. Its dark-green scales gleamed with an oily sheen in the dim light, and the armor-like scales at its thickest part were as hard as if they had been covered in a layer of iron.

Lan Tian planted his feet firmly, knees slightly bent, his center of gravity lowered, the short dagger held horizontally in front of him.

He did not summon Blue Silver Grass.

Since he wanted to test his current limits, he had to face it with the purest physical technique.

The Green-Veined Python attacked again. This time, its entire body shot forward at once, as fast as a green arrow loosed from the string.

Lan Tian drove force through his feet. As he dodged diagonally to the left, his left fist, wrapped in soul power, blasted out and smashed viciously into the middle section of the snake's body.

The feeling of his fist landing was like striking a thick log wrapped in iron, jolting the web between his thumb and forefinger numb.