The Source

Qin Yang and the others followed behind Qin Dongsheng, moving swiftly through the dense forest.

Li Baling hadn't thought much of it at first.

But as they walked, he suddenly recalled what Qin Yang had said earlier.

Curiously, he looked down at Qin Dongsheng's feet.

!!!

A chilling, bone-deep dread crept up Li Baling's spine.

Moonlight filtered through the dense forest, casting dappled shadows.

Yet beneath Qin Dongsheng's feet, there was no shadow at all.

He quickly glanced at Qin Yang.

Only to see him making a shushing gesture.

"Qin Yang already noticed!"

Li Baling realized he was the only one slow on the uptake.

Now, he was completely convinced by Qin Yang. Seeing his signal, he suppressed his nervous terror and instinctively moved closer to Qin Yang.

Suddenly.

A corpse appeared before them.

The body lay sprawled on the ground, its stomach torn open, its face frozen in terror.

A trail of blood led all the way, as if it had been dragged there by some beast.

"That's one of the three wandering swordsmen," Qian Hai said in a low voice.

"He must have been the first to go missing," Qin Yang nodded.

With the two bodies at the campfire, all three wandering swordsmen were now dead in this eerie forest.

"Be careful."

"There's something nasty in these woods. No matter what sounds you hear, ignore them."

"Just stay behind me."

Qin Dongsheng drew his long blade and walked toward the corpse.

Pfft~

He swung his blade, hacking the body into pieces, then tossed them one by one into the bushes and undergrowth.

"If you dare block my way again, I'll burn you to ashes!" Qin Dongsheng said coldly.

With that, he signaled Qin Yang and the others to keep moving.

Next.

Li Baling found the forest growing stranger by the minute.

He could hear sharp, piercing cries like a baby wailing, enough to make anyone's hair stand on end.

He also had a strange feeling.

Like someone was following him from behind.

He could even hear the footsteps.

But Qin Dongsheng, Qin Yang, and Qian Hai acted as if they heard nothing.

Li Baling initially thought he was imagining things.

But the footsteps grew closer, making him more and more tense.

"Qin Yang... don't you feel like something's following us?" Li Baling whispered.

"Don't worry about it. Just walk properly," Qin Yang said softly.

"But I really hear footsteps," Li Baling said, his eyes filled with fear.

"Pretend you don't."

"With me here, what are you afraid of?" Qin Yang said with a slight smile.

Hearing that, Li Baling finally relaxed a little.

The next moment.

Li Baling suddenly cried out in alarm: "Who's there?!"

He couldn't help but turn around.

But all he could see was a pitch-black, deathly silent stretch of woods.

"What's wrong?" Qin Yang asked with a frown.

"I think someone just touched my shoulder."

Li Baling's voice trembled.

Qin Yang looked over and sure enough, saw a faint black handprint on Li Baling's shoulder.

Li Baling also craned his neck, saw the black handprint, and his whole body began to shake.

Qin Dongsheng heard this and frowned. "Looks like those things have followed us after all."

He hadn't expected that even with him here, the creatures in the forest still wouldn't let Qin Yang and his group go.

"It's fine. I'll take the rear. Let's see who dares to come."

Qin Yang told Li Baling to move up ahead while he dropped to the very back of the group.

"Be careful."

Qin Dongsheng gave a slight nod.

Even though they hadn't seen each other in a long time, Qin Dongsheng knew that the young man before him was no longer the good-for-nothing, brothel-visiting wastrel he once thought him to be.

He was now a battle-hardened Qi Gathering Martial Artist, and his Essence, Qi, and Spirit gave off a feeling as deep and vast as the ocean.

"Don't worry. I'll kill anyone who comes."

Qin Yang smiled.

Qin Dongsheng naturally trusted his own son.

He continued leading the way up front, with Qian Hai and Li Baling in the middle.

Qin Yang walked at the very back.

The group pressed on.

Soon.

Qin Yang felt a series of cold, lifeless stares boring into his back from behind.

Tap tap tap~

Then came the sound of footsteps.

It seemed someone was following him.

But Qin Yang's expression remained unchanged, as if he hadn't heard a thing.

After advancing about three or four hundred meters.

A rotting hand quietly emerged from the darkness, lightly reaching for Qin Yang's shoulder.

"Looking for death!"

"If I don't lose my temper, you think I've got no backbone?!"

Qin Yang roared, spinning around and throwing a punch!

His fist was wrapped in a deep, icy blue Turtle-Snake Qi, cold and oppressive.

Boom!

A rotting figure was struck hard by Qin Yang's fist and let out a miserable scream.

It was none other than the Wandering Swordsman who had appeared twice before—the one with the bamboo hat and stubbly beard.

Now his face was twisted, his whole body reeked of blood, and after stumbling back several steps, he tried to charge forward.

Boom!

But a figure instantly appeared before him, unleashing a fierce Arhat Demon Subduing!

A terrifying, overwhelming force blasted straight through his entire head.

His whole face caved in and shattered, his skull sent flying by the violent impact.

Then, with his head destroyed, his body dissolved into a puff of black smoke and vanished.

"This..."

Qin Dongsheng's mouth hung open, his eyes filled with shock.

A Corpse Fiend, just taken out by Qin Yang like that?!

"If anyone else dares to come, this young master will slaughter every last one of them!"

Qin Yang growled lowly toward the pitch-black woods.

In an instant.

It seemed to sense Qin Yang's savagery.

All those gazes vanished without a trace.

After calming himself, Qin Dongsheng said in a low voice, "Keep moving forward."

Perhaps Qin Yang's show of force had cowed the strange things lurking in the woods.

This time, no unusual sounds occurred.

Qin Dongsheng led them out of the Dense Forest.

Beyond the Dense Forest was not a main road.

But a Chaos Burial Ground.

A Waning Moon hung high.

Dense rows of graves, corpses scattered everywhere, moonlight spilling down, steeped in deathly stillness and eeriness.

Li Baling's face turned deathly pale.

In this Chaos Burial Ground, he saw a long, sharp wooden stake planted upright in the ground.

At the top of the stake was a head pierced through.

The features of that head were unmistakably his own.

"What's going on... am I going to die here too?"

It wasn't just him.

Even Qin Yang and Qian Hai saw their own corpses.

All died in gruesome, bloody ways.

Qin Dongsheng frowned deeply. "Qin Yang, I'll clear the path ahead for you."

"You must break out of this Chaos Burial Ground!"

Qin Yang gazed at the lifeless, pallid expanse of the Chaos Burial Ground, lost in thought.

"Father. This is the source of the Woods' strangeness, isn't it."

A Chaos Burial Ground itself was thick with death qi—it was only natural for evil spirits to breed here.

"You guessed right."

"Once you break out of this Chaos Burial Ground, you'll be safe."

Qin Dongsheng nodded.

"And you?" Qin Yang suddenly asked.

"I... I can't go back anymore." Qin Dongsheng shook his head slightly.

"You can."

"I'm here."

"I won't let you stay here alone."

"Father."

"I'm taking you away."

Qin Yang said in a firm voice.

"Away?" Qin Dongsheng shuddered all over.

"That's right. Away from here."

"Since this is the source of the Woods' strangeness."

"If we destroy this place, everything ends."

Qin Yang looked toward the Chaos Burial Ground, his gaze unwavering.