Red Shadow

The three straightforward Black Demon Bears had already been provoked into towering rage by the two men who had gone in earlier.

The black mist around them churned violently, signaling their rising fury. From within it flashed chilling cold glints from time to time, along with those eerie, dark crimson blood-red eyes.

Wherever they passed, gusts of sinister wind swept through, as though one had fallen into an ice cellar.

The two men luring the Black Demon Bears out were clearly not doing this for the first time. They dodged the bears' jet-black iron claws with perfect timing while desperately running forward.

It looked fraught with peril, but it was not nearly as dangerous as it seemed.

The distance closed.

As they headed toward the encirclement, they passed a slightly raised dirt mound, decisively flipped like swallows skimming the water, landed, and sprang away.

They handed the Black Demon Bears over to the others.

The several people who had been waiting for some time charged forward at once, raising their sabers to take over against the rampaging Black Demon Bears. In the blink of an eye, they split the battlefield into three separate fronts.

Two people against one group—that had been Steward Chen's strategy beforehand.

Shen Xiu was not to be outdone either. He drew a Black Demon Bear to one side, spun his long saber into a flourish, and attacked without hesitation.

Clang!

The Hundred-Refined Steel Saber in his hand struck directly against the Black Demon Bear's vulnerable neck.

The Black Demon Bear's body jolted, and the immense force drove it back several steps before it let out an even fiercer roar.

Feeling the unusual tremor in the web of his hand, Shen Xiu lowered his head and glanced at his wrist, his brows knitting slightly.

That solid clash had indeed allowed him to clearly sense the enormous changes in his body. His strength and speed had improved by far more than a single level compared to the Body Tempering Realm.

Yet he discovered that his heavy, powerful strike had inflicted only limited damage on the Black Demon Bear, seemingly nowhere near what he had expected.

The black mist around the Black Demon Bear dispersed, revealing its peculiar body, black as ink and hard as black iron. On its neck, which resembled withered vines, there was only a rather inconspicuous saber wound.

It was about an inch deep, with a cuttlefish-ink-like fluid oozing from it. It was clearly not ordinary blood, and it looked exceptionally strange.

Shen Xiu grinned. Blue veins bulged along his arms like giant pythons winding and coiling, while the gathered Dragon Subduing Strength surged endlessly through them.

His entire bearing was sharp and fierce, radiating a savage aura.

Dong Qi at his side immediately widened his eyes. He suddenly felt that the young man before him was far more ferocious than before.

Even earlier, he himself could not have forced a Black Demon Bear back several steps with a single blow.

Then he witnessed an even more ferocious scene. The Black Demon Bear, whose body was hard as iron and whose strength was boundless, was beaten back step by step by the young man before him.

Its strength seemed to be completely suppressed.

What should have taken the combined efforts of two people was seized single-handedly by the young man before him.

Dong Qi could not understand.

Both were in the Body Tempering Realm—why were you so different?

Screech!

The silver-bright blade drew a streak of light through the air, tearing across the Black Demon Bear's sturdy neck muscles with a harsh sound that made one's teeth ache.

The next moment, a fine head fell into the grass at his feet, its unwilling blood-red eyes still open as it rolled several times.

Eighteen strikes!

Shen Xiu silently counted the number and came to that conclusion.

This thing was roughly the same size as the Mutated Wild Boar he had killed before, yet it had taken much more effort. The Mutated Wild Boar's thick hide was merely a candle beside the sun compared to this Black Demon Bear's.

He was now at Second Realm Muscle Tendon Training, and he also wielded a Hundred Refinements Saber that was countless times sharper than his previous broken blade.

His strength was no longer what it had once been, yet the damage he dealt was nearly the same. It had to be said that the gap between a Ranked Demonic Beast and an unranked one was as vast as heaven and earth.

Shen Xiu also noticed that the others had not yet finished off their prey. They were wearing them down with their sabers until they died.

Meanwhile, Steward Chen, who led the group, had already finished his opponent. He watched over the entire field, controlling the overall situation. When his gaze swept over Shen Xiu's movements, he secretly nodded.

Ignoring Dong Qi, who was dragging away the corpse nearby, Shen Xiu gathered his thoughts and glanced at the panel.

[Blood Battle Saber Technique: Second Realm, Initial Glimpse of the Doorway 43%]

Seeing this, Shen Xiu nodded.

This progress was much faster than practicing alone.

Once Shen Xiu had finished here, the other two Black Demon Bears were also dealt with one after another.

With their previous experience, the two people who had initially provoked and lured the Black Demon Bears became increasingly proficient.

They ventured deep into the dark forest once more. When they emerged, several Black Demon Bears followed behind them again, howling like ghosts and wolves as they gave chase.

They dodged nimbly, shifting through all manner of footwork.

The steel saber in Shen Xiu's hand flashed and whirled. Drawing on his previous experience, he fought with growing ease, while several more Black Demon Bear corpses appeared on the slope beside him.

When his proficiency was pushed forward by another 1%, Shen Xiu was very satisfied.

After luring them out several times like this, the two men with the fastest legs went in and came back out again, yet no Black Demon Bears followed after them this time.

Clearly.

For a small Nether Valley Gloom Forest like this, gathering twelve Black Demon Bears was already its limit.

Steward Chen and Cao Hongzhuo, who led the group, understood this well. After finding no further results, they decisively ended the mission.

They had been fairly cautious on the way here, but their return journey was much more relaxed.

The group wrapped up the aftermath, then left the valley.

Before leaving, Shen Xiu felt something and turned back to glance at the gloomy valley behind him.

That glance made his expression freeze.

On a broad boulder atop a lush mountain peak in the valley stood a tall red figure.

The Red Shadow had sunken, hollow eyes and a face like that of a dried corpse. Its entire body seemed to be nothing but skin stretched over a skeleton. When Shen Xiu looked down at it, he found that it was looking at him as well.

Its eyes were hollow and dark, like Netherworld Ghostfire.

In only a few seconds, Shen Xiu's body stiffened. Staring into that creature's vacant gaze, he felt as though he had stepped into a bottomless abyss, a chill spreading from his tailbone throughout his entire body in an instant.

In that moment, his hands and feet became like ice that had endured ten thousand years.

It was the instinctive feeling of a creature facing its natural predator, as though an inborn suppression from the food chain itself compelled one to feel fear.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

Dong Qi, noticing Shen Xiu's odd behavior, asked.

"Yes, did you... hm?"

Shen Xiu stiffly turned his head and answered, only to discover that the figure which had made him feel endless pressure had vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

The mountaintop was empty now, as though nothing had ever been there.

His hands and feet gradually returned to normal.

"What?"

Dong Qi turned to look in the direction of Shen Xiu's gaze, only to find nothing there, leaving him puzzled.

"Are there any creatures in these mountains that are entirely red, with hollow black eyes like ghostfire?"

Shen Xiu thought for a moment and searched his memories, but found no information whatsoever about the creature he had just seen. He could only ask Dong Qi.

However, Cao Hongzhuo, standing to one side, shook his head when he heard this. "You probably saw wrong. The Black Demon Bears here all have black bodies and red pupils. Where would the thing you described come from?"

As Shen Xiu listened to Cao Hongzhuo's words, his gaze gradually grew grave.

For Sifang Medicine Workshop to have found this place, they had clearly investigated and scouted it beforehand before discovering this gloomy forest and nether valley where Black Demon Bears gathered.

Yet even they had never seen this thing. Its origins were clearly far from ordinary. Perhaps it had come from the deeper parts of the Great Wu Mountain Range.

An unknown creature was inherently extremely dangerous. It seemed there were still many dangerous things in this world, and a sense of tension rose within him.

But that tension was utterly shattered in the very next moment by Cao Hongzhuo.

"Brother Dong, want to buy some medicine? Our Sifang Medicine Workshop's new Rejuvenation Pill is quite good. Eat one small pill, and the effects last two hours."

While they traveled, Cao Hongzhuo leaned his plump head over, slyly hawking his workshop's pills to Dong Qi.

His freckled face was alive with animated brows and sparkling spirits.