Dark Forest

"Bear paws..."

Lin Yi crouched behind the grass, staring through his Spirit Eyes at the giant bear still asleep inside the cave. Unbidden, images of delicacies he had seen before crossing over drifted through his mind.

Braised bear paws, stewed bear paws, honey-glazed bear paws... Things that had existed only on a screen were now lying alive in a cave, snoring.

"This is premium-grade food." He licked the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming with the light of a predator eyeing its prey. "Never got to eat it before crossing over. Now that I'm here, I've got to taste it one way or another."

But he did not rush to make a move.

His Spirit Eyes carefully swept over the bear again, turning everything from its fur and flesh to the depths of its bones inside out. Nothing.

Other than the normal flow of meridians and blood energy, he found no Divine Markings structure buried deep within its body like those of the Savage Bull King or the Inkshadow Leopard.

"Does this bear simply not possess a Bloodline Innate Divine Ability, or can my Spirit Eyes not yet see deep Divine Markings in their inactive state?"

Lin Yi pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Forget it. I'll know once I try."

He rose to his feet and strode directly to the cave entrance.

Once he was standing still, he drew a deep breath and activated the Savage Bull Diagram. Blood-gold patterns lit up beneath his skin, and the phantom of a Savage Bull flickered behind him.

He raised his right fist, wrapped in the majestic force of one hundred sixty thousand jin, and smashed it hard into the rock wall at the cave entrance.

Boom!

Stone fragments exploded outward. His fist blasted a basin-sized dent into the entire rock face, while cracks spread in all directions like a spiderweb.

The whole mountain trembled with it. Loose stones pattered down from the cave ceiling, striking the ground with a series of sharp crackles.

Roar—!

A deafening furious roar exploded from the depths of the cave.

The giant bear had been thoroughly awakened. Carrying an aura of rage and savagery at its peak, it charged out of the cave with a thunderous crash!

The instant it burst from the entrance, its massive frame fully unfolded. Its shoulders stood more than a zhang high, muscles bulging beneath its dark brown fur. Its bear paws struck the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust, while its bloody maw full of fangs snapped straight at Lin Yi's head.

"Whoa, that's quite the morning temper."

Lin Yi stood at the entrance. Facing a huge mouth capable of swallowing half his body in one bite, he did not move at all. He swiftly raised his left hand and pressed it forward.

The moment the bear's jaws came down, his palm was already braced directly above the brown bear's head.

His five fingers spread, then closed. One hundred sixty thousand jin of force poured down, driving that enormous head firmly into the dirt!

The brown bear's limbs clawed wildly at the ground. Its sharp claws plowed through earth and rocks, its back arched and dropped, and every muscle in its body struggled desperately.

Yet the palm pressed against its head did not budge in the slightest, like one mountain crushing another beneath it.

A dull, furious growl rumbled from the giant bear's throat. Its four paws dug a deep ring of pits into the ground, but it could not break free even an inch.

"This won't do." Lin Yi looked down at the desperately struggling brown bear, obvious disappointment in his voice. "I can't test my strength at all like this."

He sighed, clenched his right hand into a fist, and smashed it into the brown bear's temple with the power of the Savage Bull Diagram. With a muffled thud, the giant bear's struggles came to an abrupt halt. Its enormous body was sent flying sideways by the punch, crashing heavily into the rock wall at the cave entrance.

Broken stones rolled down and covered half its body. The brown bear slid down the rock face to the ground, already hanging by a thread.

Lin Yi's Spirit Eyes swept over it. Intracranial bleeding, multiple bone fractures, and its life force was rapidly draining away.

No Divine Markings, no trace of bloodline activation—just an ordinary Ferocious Beast that had relied on brute strength to charge headlong into the Dragonlike Realm.

"No Innate Divine Ability." Lin Yi withdrew his hand and shook out his wrist. "Got excited for nothing."

He walked over, glanced at the brown bear that was still breathing weakly, then raised his hand and threw another punch, ending its suffering.

Then he stood where he was and thought for a moment, gaining a simple understanding of his current strength. An ordinary Dragonlike Realm Ferocious Beast, without the support of any special abilities, could not even survive a single exchange before him.

The amplification of the Savage Bull Diagram, combined with the foundation of the Mountain-Sinking Realm, allowed him to easily crush ordinary opponents of the same level.

"Not bad. Feels reassuring." He rolled his shoulders, then looked down at the bear. "But the meat can't go to waste."

The cave was quite spacious. Its entrance was narrow, but it extended deep inside, and the ground was dry and level.

Lin Yi went in and took a look around. He felt the place was not bad—dry and well-hidden.

He turned back, dragged the brown bear's corpse into the cave, and loosely covered the entrance with broken stones and vines, leaving a narrow gap for entering and exiting.

The brown bear's scent had not completely dissipated yet, so other Ferocious Beasts would not approach this area for the time being.

"I'll leave it here for now and deal with it when I get back." Lin Yi dusted off his hands and squeezed out through the cave entrance.

He continued exploring along the mountain slope.

After walking some distance, the trees around him began to undergo obvious changes.

The trunks grew thicker and thicker, their bark covered in a heavy layer of dark green moss. Their branches and leaves were so dense that they almost sealed off the sky completely.

The light dimmed, and the humidity in the air noticeably increased. The soil underfoot had a sticky, springy feel when stepped on.

The surroundings were unnaturally quiet. There were no birdcalls, and even the sound of wind brushing through the leaves was lower and heavier than elsewhere.

Lin Yi stopped and looked at the dim forest ahead.

"This place..." He frowned. "It's a little eerie."

His instincts kept knocking against the back of his head.

His mind rapidly analyzed all the information before him—the abnormal vegetation, the absence of sound, the unusual scent in the air.

Every sign pointed to the same conclusion: there was something inside this forest.

Lin Yi stood at the entrance, a moment of hesitation rising in his heart. "Should I go in?"

He fell silent for two breaths, then cursed himself. "Fuck, what kind of man dithers like this? Wealth and honor are sought amid danger. I'm doing it."

He lifted his foot and stepped inside.

The instant he entered the Dark Forest, the canopy overhead proved far too dense. Layer upon layer of leaves filtered the sunlight into a murky dark green, barely illuminating the ground within three chi of his feet.

Lin Yi activated his Spirit Eyes at full force. White-gold Divine Markings surfaced across his eyeballs, and his vision instantly became incomparably clear.

He slowed his pace, keeping the blood energy throughout his body ready to erupt at any moment.

The gaze of his Spirit Eyes continuously swept the space ahead, like an invisible net cast out and reeled back in, overlooking no corner.

After walking for roughly the time it took to brew a cup of tea, a chill slowly crept up his spine.

The feeling was impossible to explain, like a pair of eyes were staring at his back from the darkness.

He swiftly scanned the area to his side and behind him, then suddenly caught sight of something.

His heartbeat abruptly skipped.

On the branch of an old tree roughly twenty zhang behind and to his left, an enormous spider rested silently.

Its body was more than two zhang long, dark inky blue-green in color. Its shell was covered in mottled patterns like moss, blending almost perfectly with the dead trees thick with moss.

Its eight spider legs were long and slender, the fine hairs at their tips glimmering with a faint silver sheen in the dim light. They clung silently to the tree trunk.

At this moment, the observational power of his Spirit Eyes showed an extraordinary effect. Lin Yi clearly saw a complex pattern structure flowing inside the spider's body.

Gray-black Divine Markings spread from its core, slowly circulating along its eight spider legs.

Those patterns were extremely fine and dense, every curve carrying an eerie beauty that instinctively unsettled him.

It had not even spun a web. It was an active hunter.

And it had already discovered him.

Lin Yi's pupils narrowed slightly, and every muscle in his body tensed at once.

He suddenly realized something fatal: he knew absolutely nothing about this Ferocious Beast.

Savage Bulls, Earth Gnawers, Rock Pythons, Xie Wolves, Inkshadow Leopards—those were all creatures the tribal hunters could name.

But this spider before him was something he had never heard anyone in the tribe mention.

...I was careless. Lin Yi cursed himself inwardly. After I get back, I need to find the village chief and properly make up for my lack of knowledge about the Ferocious Beast bestiary of the Great Wilderness.

His feet did not move, nor did his gaze shift, but his Spirit Eyes had already secretly locked onto every movement trajectory of that spider.

The spider's eight leg joints silently shifted an inch across the tree trunk. Its entire body was slowly, silently approaching in his direction at an extremely slow pace.

The gray-black Divine Markings within its body circulated faster and faster.

Lin Yi slowly drew a breath and clenched his fists. Blood-gold patterns began lighting up along his shoulders and arms, covering the skin on the backs of his hands.