First Battle

In the silent forest, a youth dressed all in black walked quietly, his wary gaze constantly sweeping over the shadowed places among the surrounding trees. His hand gripped the weapon at his waist tightly, ready at any moment to deal with any sudden situation.

This was Ye Chen's first time entering a forest with such an ancient, primeval appearance. Looking at the enormous old trees around him, wrapped in vines, he felt as though countless dangers were hidden within at a glance.

"In a deep old-growth forest like this, who knows how many years it's existed? The weeds and vines are so dense that even if a Magical Beast were hiding ten meters away, my eyes might not see it." Ye Chen thought about it, and a chill rose in his heart.

Since this was meant to temper himself, it was impossible for Old Hu to protect him openly the whole time. Otherwise, with the former's Half-Step Dou Zong strength, Ye Chen would not need to fight Magical Beasts himself at all.

He had not walked for long before Ye Chen had no choice but to stop.

Right in front of him, a Magical Beast shaped like a wild boar with red mane, more than two meters tall and four or five meters long, blocked his path.

"Tusked Blood Mane Beast, a Third-Order Earth Attribute Magical Beast. It possesses boundless strength and astonishing defense. Under a full-power charge, even a Dou Ling strong person couldn't withstand it head-on!"

Information about this Magical Beast instantly surfaced in Ye Chen's mind.

Powerful Soul Power had given Ye Chen a powerful memory. Ever since he was young, he had been able to memorize his clan's thick Medicinal Scripture until he knew it by heart. Likewise, he also knew quite a bit about certain Magical Beasts.

Facing this sort of close-combat-oriented Magical Beast, Ye Chen, as an alchemist, naturally could not go toe-to-toe with it...

As his figure retreated again and again, a cluster of Silver Flame rose directly from his palm. Immediately, it rapidly squirmed in his palm and turned into a small silver snake, shooting toward the great boar like lightning.

The Blood Mane Beast did not care about this insignificant little thing at all. It lowered its head and charged straight in Ye Chen's direction...

In a flash, the silver fire snake slammed directly into the Blood Mane Beast's enormous head.

Boom!

A violent mass of flame erupted instantly, directly enveloping the Blood Mane Beast's huge head.

The smell of singed hair immediately spread, followed by the Tusked Blood Mane Beast's agonized howls...

Ye Chen's Starfire was comparable in power to the Beast Fire of a Fifth-Order Magical Beast, so a mere Third-Order Blood Mane Beast simply could not withstand Starfire's intense heat.

It was only because this thing had thick skin and tough flesh, with very high magical resistance, that the explosion just now had not blown its head apart.

Ye Chen hid on a branch of a large tree in the distance, watching from afar as the Blood Mane Beast's massive body struggled and roared on the ground below. Only after a quarter of an hour did it finally stop.

By now, everything within several dozen meters around the Blood Mane Beast had been razed flat. Even enormous ancient trees that took several people to encircle had their trunks snapped clean through, crushing a swath of flowers and grass...

Ye Chen looked at the Blood Mane Beast's enormous corpse on the ground and was just wondering whether he should get some pork to taste when Hu Tian, who had been hidden in the shadows all this time, suddenly appeared and said in a deep voice, "The commotion just now was too great. All the Magical Beasts in the area have been alarmed. You must leave immediately!"

Although he had already checked that there was no Monster King that had reached the sixth order in this forest, with Ye Chen's mere One-Star Grand Dou Master strength, he would be unable to withstand a Fourth or Fifth-Order Magical Beast if he encountered one.

Those words directly cut off Ye Chen's idea of trying something fresh. He could even faintly hear beast roars coming from the Dense Forest in the distance...

Without the slightest hesitation, Ye Chen leaped directly onto a nearby tree trunk and, as nimble as an ape, crossed over the tangled branches and vines blocking the path.

In this way, he ran more than ten li in one stretch. Just as Ye Chen was preparing to stop and rest...

"Holy shit...!!" Seeing the scene not far away, Ye Chen could not help sucking in a cold breath.

On the ground a dozen or so meters ahead of him, more than ten corpses lay scattered in disorder.

These corpses had not rotted much yet, but the marks of being bitten apart and devoured were extremely obvious. One man even had most of his thigh eaten away, and a huge hole had been gnawed into his stomach...

Looking at this bloody scene that had suddenly appeared before him, Ye Chen's face turned somewhat pale, and his breathing stopped involuntarily.

"They should have died two or three days ago." Hu Tian's figure appeared beside Ye Chen again. He carefully observed the corpses on the ground and spoke calmly.

Although Ye Chen had already prepared himself mentally before leaving the clan, suddenly seeing this bloody scene still made him feel faintly nauseous.

Hu Tian, however, felt this was quite normal. After all, for a thirteen-year-old youth who had never left home to witness the true cruelty of this world, being able to maintain outward calm the first time he saw such a scene was already very good.

"Young Clan Leader, look carefully. On the clothes over the heart area of these five corpses' chests, there's an inconspicuous bloodstain. If my observation is correct, these five should have been killed by humans, and they were killed by the same person."

As he spoke, Hu Tian pointed at the five corpses to the west and explained.

"As for the others, although their corpses have already been eaten quite a bit, if you observe carefully, you can still find wounds caused by different weapons. So this group was not killed by Magical Beasts. They died at human hands, and it may even have been at the hands of their own companions..."

Listening to Hu Tian's explanation, Ye Chen also forced down his discomfort and examined the corpses. It was indeed just as the latter had said.

"I originally thought that in a forest so full of danger, these people must have died at the hands of Magical Beasts. I didn't expect they'd been killed by their own people..." Ye Chen silently shook his head and sighed.

Beside him, Hu Tian's expression remained calm as he said, "On the Middle Continent, danger has never come only from Magical Beasts. Young Clan Leader, you must always keep this point in mind!"

Ye Chen nodded, firmly remembering Hu Tian's warning in his heart.

Whether it was in the Original Work or in Ye Chen's memories from the past dozen years, there was actually nothing about the lives of these lower-level people in the Middle Continent...

Compared with the barren Northwest Continent and the Jia Ma Empire, a place like the Middle Continent had more dangers, and they were greater too!

Especially for those "weaklings" below the Dou Wang level...

"All right, let's keep moving. There are definitely other dangers in a place like this. We shouldn't stay here long."

After Hu Tian gave that reminder, the two set out once more, weaving through the dense woods.

The journey that followed was much calmer. Aside from occasionally encountering one or two Magical Beasts, there were no more disturbances.

Ye Chen also made several moves, taking care of some Magical Beasts suitable for him to practice on. Then he picked some rare spiritual herbs as well, until he had crossed this mountain range...