Blood lake

The willow branches couldn't be eaten yet...

Perhaps he could keep them and eat them after advancing to Sequence 8?

Lin Shan shook his head. Sequence 8 was still far too distant. He might as well use them as rope. These willow branches were exceptionally tough and contained spirituality; they could even be used to bind anomalies.

He stripped off all the leaves. Although the willow branches were a hundred meters long, they were extremely slender and took up little room when coiled. They would still fit in his backpack.

Lin Shan took out some gray buns and threw them away. Now that he had dried snake meat, he no longer had any use for them. With some space cleared, he stuffed the extremely slender willow branches inside. The backpack was fully half a person's height and had three thick compartments, giving it an enormous capacity. Even so, a small portion of the branches stuck out; he couldn't fit them in completely.

Looking at the spirituality-filled willow leaves on the ground, Lin Shan couldn't bear to waste them, so he stuffed them all into the small side compartment of his backpack.

In fact, these willow leaves didn't contain much spirituality, yet Parchment had said eating them would make his body explode. Lin Shan suspected the problem lay in quality rather than quantity. He could feel faint traces of pressure coming from the leaves.

He had obtained the second material, and his strength had improved considerably. Once again, blessings had arrived in pairs.

Now he only needed the final material, which was also the hardest to obtain: one complete anomaly called Blood Wing!

The distance currently marked on Parchment was... five hundred and sixty-one kilometers!

Lin Shan's heart skipped a beat. When he had checked the location of Mercury Grass earlier, it had clearly shown over two thousand kilometers. How had it suddenly become five hundred and sixty-one?

The next moment.

560...559...558...559...558...557...

This anomaly was constantly moving, and at such a tremendous speed. Still, it seemed to be roaming within one area rather than traveling over a wide range again.

A bad feeling stirred in Lin Shan's heart. This anomaly moved far faster than he did; catching it would be impossible. To capture an anomaly, he had to force it into a dormant state, repeatedly shattering it and making it reform until its source power was exhausted.

Never mind whether he could beat it-even its speed left him choking on its dust.

Forget it. I'll get close to it first.

He rode his sword the whole way. Two days later.

He was already much closer to the area where the anomaly had lingered. His sustained sword-riding speed had increased considerably, allowing him to cover over three hundred kilometers in two days. He hadn't encountered any danger along the way, and the few attacks he faced were easily blocked.

His current route didn't pass through the mountain region. Instead, he had returned to the forest filled with Fallen, only heading in a different direction. This time, he continued north.

South of the forest lay the deep footprint pit, and to the east were the mountains. The north remained unknown. This forest was astonishingly vast; even after crossing hundreds of kilometers, he still hadn't seen its end.

Suddenly.

The marker for Blood Wing on Parchment began moving.

568...569...570...571...572...

It was continuing north at tremendous speed.

Lin Shan inwardly groaned, but he had no choice. He could only chase after it.

A day later, he arrived at the place where the anomaly had previously lingered.

The trees across a vast area had all decayed and vanished. At least several hundred Fallen lay on the ground, devoid of any sign of life.

Lin Shan jumped off the Heart Light Sword and examined the Fallen corpses. They all shared one characteristic: not a single trace of blood remained anywhere in their bodies...

"Blood Wing... does it control supernatural power related to blood...?"

Looking at the scene before him, Lin Shan muttered to himself.

"Roar!"

Just then, a beast's roar rang out.

A Fallen had the body of a fish, claws beneath it, and wings like a pterosaur's. Pitch-black wounds covered its entire body, clearly inflicted by supernatural power.

"Roar."

It approached a spot not far from Lin Shan and gave him a low growl. Its voice sounded muffled, as though coming from underwater.

After that growl, it paid Lin Shan no further attention. Instead, it rummaged through the pile of Fallen corpses and pulled out a small Fallen that looked exactly like it.

It lay over the little one, occasionally nuzzling it with its slightly open fish mouth.

"So Fallen have feelings too."

The sight left Lin Shan sighing with emotion. Thinking back to the direction this Fallen had flown in from, along with the wounds on its body, everything pointed to it being the reason the anomaly had fled.

Most likely, it had just been hunting the anomaly. Anomalies had instincts, and those capable of moving would certainly flee as well.

Since this Fallen hadn't attacked him, Lin Shan didn't want to stir up trouble either. Perhaps the anomaly's supernatural power had also been damaged. This was a good opportunity.

A week later.

He was still in that same forest, whose known length already exceeded a thousand kilometers. He had pursued the anomaly the entire way, but it simply moved too fast. Finally, four days earlier, it had stopped somewhere and hadn't moved since. The distance currently marked on Parchment was thirty-seven kilometers.

This past week had truly been a thousand-li pursuit. With his Sequence 9 strength approaching the fourth stage, he was no longer considered weak in this forest. Combined with his ability to fly, he could practically roam wherever he pleased as long as he remained careful.

Along the way, he had been attacked twice by Fallen stronger than himself. He blocked both with the Red Lantern, leaving one dead and the other injured. The dead one had already become dried meat in his backpack. Fallen meat might be a little disgusting, but its effects were the same.

The Red Lantern was his greatest assurance, the reason he dared pursue an anomaly with his current strength. After two months of recovery, the Red Lantern had fully restored itself. Moreover, as his strength improved and the quality of his blood increased, its viewing range had expanded to five hundred meters.

He continued onward and soon emerged from the forest. This Fallen forest, stretching over a thousand kilometers, ended here. Farther north lay an enormous freshwater lake.

The forest gave way to an endless shoreline, and flocks of all kinds of birds flew overhead.

If the Purple Soul Flower Forest region was a place teeming with anomalies, and the Fallen forest he had just crossed was a gathering ground for Fallen, then this place was a paradise for fish and birds.

Looking farther up into the sky, Lin Shan could faintly sense a chill unique to anomalies.

It seemed Blood Wing had stopped as soon as it escaped the Fallen forest.

"It'll be dark soon. Better wait until tomorrow to make my move." Glancing at the gradually darkening sky, Lin Shan murmured to himself.

Finding a clearing beside the lake, Lin Shan took out a clay bottle and poured out the red, foul-smelling liquid inside. It was beast blood.

He then washed the clay bottle clean, refilled it with fresh water, tilted his head back, and drank it down in one gulp.

"Mm... sweet..."

Having gone so long without drinking water, Lin Shan even found the lake water somewhat sweet.

He had long since finished the water he brought, and nowhere along the way had offered a chance to replenish it. He could only collect beast blood to drink in place of water, pinching his nose and swallowing despite its foul, bloody taste. By now, he had grown accustomed to a daily life of eating flesh and drinking blood like a savage.

The Red Moon hung overhead, its crimson light staining even the lake water red.

When the Red Moon appeared, the birds in the sky all hid in the forest behind him, waiting for the next day to resume hunting.

Everything around him was silent.

The red lake water rippled gently in the night breeze, and the smell of blood struck his nose.

"The smell of blood?" Lin Shan froze briefly, then his heart tightened as he immediately realized something was wrong.

After drinking blood for nearly two months, he had become particularly sensitive to its smell.

He stood, walked to the lakeside, and dipped a finger into the water.

Staring at the red liquid on his finger, Lin Shan's pupils abruptly contracted, and his heart shuddered violently. How was this water? It was clearly blood!

An entire lake of blood!