Chapter 14: Danger Everywhere
What exactly is this violet crystal? And what was that evil encroaching shadow? Does it have anything to do with my mutation blotch disappearing?
Xu Qing really couldn’t wrap his mind around it. As he sat thinking about it, the other members of Squad Thunderbolt began to pass him by.
Eventually, he calmed his thoughts, though his eyes continued to glitter brightly. The answers to his questions didn’t matter right now. He was now rested, and it was his turn to fight again. He stood and wiped off his iron skewer. Then Crucifix fell back, and he jumped into the action.
With incredible speed, he bore down on the wolf pack. Agonized shrieks rang out like a horrifying symphony.
He had survived the opening of the god’s eyes, and the blood rain. And this twilight battle was like a grindstone honing him into something even sharper than before. He fought even longer this time. Then he fell back, and the rest of the squad took their turns. Time passed.
The sun set, and the moon rose. In the dark night of the forbidden region, the deadly sounds of battle continued to ring out.
Until… everyone was exhausted and the white boluses had all been consumed. They had so much mutagen building up within them that they were reaching the point of mutation. That was when dawn came.
The last of the exhausted black-scaled wolves looked at them, then turned tail and vanished. Everything went quiet. Every member of Squad Thunderbolt was splattered with blood as they lay on the ground gasping for breath.
Xu Qing was no exception. The violet crystal healed his wounds, but he was so mentally drained that he felt as exhausted as everyone else.
“We finally… made it out alive,” Graceful Raptor whispered. Struggling to her feet, she looked at Xu Qing. “Thank you.”
Savage Ghost, despite huffing for air, looked at Xu Qing and gave him a big thumb’s up.
Xu Qing’s performance in the night of fighting surpassed anything Sergeant Thunder or Crucifix could have expected. In fact, without him, the wolf pack probably wouldn’t have retreated, and Squad Thunderbolt might have experienced mutation.
Only Xu Qing, who lay there staring up at the sky, was full of doubts.
During the fighting, it had become very obvious to him that his rate of mutagen absorption was much slower than before. In fact, he even got the sense that the mutagen inside of him was slowly fading away.
As everyone lay there, Sergeant Thunder rubbed his forehead, then looked at the group and said, “This wasn’t a coincidence. The black-scaled wolves just kept coming and coming, almost like they were after something in particular. We need to take out all of our belongings and inspect them. I have a feeling… this was the work of human hands.”
The other members looked doubtful, but they did as the sergeant ordered and took out all of their belongings.
Xu Qing’s heart pounded as he considered whether something in Horsefour’s bag might be the reason for the wolf attack. However, that was when Graceful Raptor made a sudden cry of shock, and pointed at Savage Ghost.
Among his belongings was a tattered wooden box.
Shockingly, the box seemed to be slowly disintegrating, to the point where wisps of smoke rose up from it. Because of the complex mixture of aromas in the jungle of the forbidden region, the smell was easy to miss.
“Why is it disintegrating?” Savage Ghost asked, sounding puzzled.
Sergeant Thunder walked over, took the box, and handed it to Graceful Raptor. After sniffing it, an unsightly expression overtook her face, and she nodded.
“Where did you get it?” Sergeant Thunder asked.
Scratching his head, Savage Ghost said, “I bought it the day I got back to camp. It’s an insect-repelling powder.”
“It’s made from butterfly-rabbit droppings,” Graceful Raptor explained. “When exposed to the right stimulant, they’ll ignite, and attract scaled creatures…. And of course, black-scaled wolves are scaled creatures.”
Savage Ghost froze.
The atmosphere suddenly became very tense. Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he considered the implications.
A long moment passed, and then Sergeant Thunder shook his head. “Savage Ghost got tricked. If we’re talking about someone in the camp setting a trap for us, it’s easy to imagine who it is.”
“Squad Bloodshadow!” Crucifix said coldly.
“I’d imagine they’ll have a follow-up move,” Graceful Raptor said. “And we’re in bad shape right now.”
Looking off into the distance, Sergeant Thunder said, “Then the question is whether we proceed with the mission, or give up. What does everyone think?”
Xu Qing kept his mouth shut.
The others exchanged glances, but it was Crucifix who finally said, “Sarge, we’re not very far from the harvesting point. We’ve wasted a lot of resources on this trip. If we go back empty-handed….”
Sergeant Thunder didn’t say anything immediately. He looked at Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor. The former had his head bowed in shame, and the latter had a defiant tilt to her jaw. Sergeant Thunder sighed.
“We keep going,” he said. “Once we reach the harvesting point, we need to hurry up with the harvest. Then we split up and take different routes back. We’ll reconvene in the camp.”
The decision having been made, they took a short time to rest, then started moving through the forbidden region again.
Along the way, Xu Qing approached Graceful Raptor and asked her about the piece of amber he acquired from Fatmountain. She couldn’t hide her shock as she took the amber and looked at it closely.
“It’s the tail of a ghostface scorpion,” she said. “Its venom is powerful, and it has positive medicinal properties that can release latent power hidden within the body. However, the venom is dangerous, and has to be neutralized quickly after use. Nevertheless, many people raise ghostface scorpions because of those reasons, plus the price they fetch on the market.”
Xu Qing thanked Graceful Raptor and put the piece of amber away.
The group kept on high alert, but at the same time, moved ahead quickly. This time, they kept even quieter than before.
Perhaps because of the incident with black-scaled wolves, there didn’t seem to be any other beasts in the area. The squad met no dangers, and soon reached a border area that marked the interior of the forbidden region depths.
The terrain was no longer just pure jungle. Now, there were rolling hills and flowing streams. Of course, the water in the streams was black, and not viable for human consumption.
A path led through the thickest part of the jungle, at the end of which was a beautiful canyon.
Upon entering the canyon, Xu Qing felt like he was in another world.
Thick vines grew overhead like a ceiling, blocking out most of the sunlight. However, there were no trees in the canyon, only flowering plants.
The flowers were roughly the size of a fist, and were all sorts of colors. The stalks, which emanated a bluish glow, had seven leaves. They looked like glittering stars, and together made it seem like the glade itself was a peaceful starry sky. It was incredibly beautiful.
This was the harvesting point Squad Thunderbolt had discovered in the past. It was a secret location that allowed the squad to live comfortably by profiting off what they could harvest there.
There was a special way to harvest the plants, so in order to save time and avoid damaging the product, Xu Qing didn’t participate.
After observing for a bit, he settled down off to the side to do some breathing exercises.
Because of the previous day’s battle, his cultivation base had improved, and he was nearing a breakthrough point. In order to give himself the greatest chance of surviving future dangers, Xu Qing wasn’t going to waste any time. Even in the forbidden region, he continued working on his Sea and Mountain Incantation, and absorbed spirit power from the surroundings.
As the spirit power poured into him, a wind picked up in the glade.
Sergeant Thunder looked over, but didn’t do anything to stop him. After all, he knew full well that they might be attacked on their way back. Right now, even a slight bit of extra power might be enough to guarantee their survival.
Some time passed, and Squad Thunderbolt was still harvesting plants. That was when popping and cracking sounds rang out inside Xu Qing.
Filth oozed out of his pores, mingling with the wolf blood that still coated him. At the same time, Xu Qing’s flesh and blood began to ravenously devour the surrounding spirit power.
The sounds within him grew louder, then suddenly stopped, whereupon his mind filled with rumbling sounds.
All the blood vessels in his body swelled, and his flesh filled with astonishing levels of spirit power. A penetrating aura slowly filled him as the spirit power fluctuations around him faded.
He had reached the third level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation.
Before opening his eyes, he bowed his head. As a result, no one could see the violet glimmer in his eyes. Truth be told, there was no joy in his eyes. Rather, he had deep misgivings.
And that was because, when looking down, he saw something happening with his shadow.
His session of cultivation just now had felt… off. After absorbing the surrounding spirit power, he used the Sea and Mountain Incantation to separate the mutagen, and then send it throughout his body. But the mutagen… did not go into the mutation blotch on his arm. Instead… it flowed into his own shadow.
It was like his shadow was consuming the mutagen.
After some thought, Xu Qing suppressed his misgivings and looked up.
After first looking at Squad Thunderbolt going about their harvesting work, he turned his attention to the entrance of the glade, and the jungle beyond.
Just barely, he could see some structures off in the distance. It looked like a temple complex, sinking away into time, pulsing with an ancient aura.
Sergeant Thunder followed his line of sight and realized what he was looking at. “Nobody knows when that place was built. It marks the most distant boundary we scavengers can go to. In other words, you can’t go past it. If you’re in danger, it’s a good place to hide out.”
“Boundary, huh?” Xu Qing said.
Plucking a seven-leaf clover and putting it into his bag, Sergeant Thunder continued, “Yeah. People say that, back in those days, this particular forbidden region was formed because the eyes of the god above opened and looked upon those temples. Scavengers have explored the place, and nobody ever found anything. There’s nothing inside other than some special crystals.”
“What do you mean special?” Xu Qing asked, curious.
“Crush those crystals into dust, and rub the resulting powder onto a scar, and it’ll disappear. Completely without a trace. To scavengers, they’re basically useless.” He glanced at Crucifix. “But sometimes important people come asking for them.”
At this point, Crucifix, Savage Ghost, and Graceful Raptor finished collecting the plants. After handing their portions to Sergeant Thunder, he split the collection up into five parts, handing one part to Xu Qing.
“This is yours. And now we split up. That will increase our chances of getting back safely.” He pulled out a map and handed it to Xu Qing.
“I’ve got big plans, Kid,” he said. “That’s why Squad Bloodshadow is after me. Furthermore, I’m in charge, so I need to be the distraction. You get back to camp as fast as you can. Wait for me there.”
Xu Qing wanted to say something to him, but before he could, Sergeant Thunder slipped out of the glade and vanished.
Crucifix clasped Xu Qing’s shoulder briefly, then also left.
Savage Ghost and Graceful Raptor both gave some further words of advice to Xu Qing, then disappeared.
He watched them go. Then he put the seven-leaf clovers away and took a final look at that temple complex.
A moment later, he took a deep breath and headed out of the glade. Now that he was in the third level of body refinement, he was much faster than before. He moved through the jungle as nimbly as a monkey, moving nonstop through the trees. He didn’t follow the same path they’d taken to the glade. Instead, he used the map to find a more circuitous route.
Using the techniques he’d learned along the way, he avoided danger as much as possible. He did run into a few mutant beasts, but he took care of them without any trouble.
Occasionally, he would spot his shadow, and remained convinced that it seemed strange.
By now, he knew with certainty that whenever he absorbed mutagen, whether it was from spirit power or just by breathing, it would end up in his shadow! And tracing the timeline back, he knew that it started with the flow of coldness that emerged from the violet crystal. It had all become very obvious after he reached the third level of the Sea and Mountain Incantation. After the violet crystal engulfed the shadow of the black-scaled wolf, his own shadow… had transformed.
He narrowed his eyes at how gruish it seemed.
Rolling up his sleeve yet again, he confirmed that he only had one mutation blotch on his arm. What was more, that single mark was faint, to the point where he almost couldn’t make it out.
If things kept going in this manner, then the mutagen within him would become weaker and weaker, until he was completely cleansed.
Based on what he’d read in the Sea and Mountain Incantation bamboo slip, that level of perfect purity was something only seen in elite humans in the Revered Ancient mainland.
Is it all the doing of the violet crystal?
Stopping for a moment on the branch of a huge tree, he stared up into the sky and rubbed the spot on his chest where the crystal was. Then he forced aside his misgivings and started moving through the jungle again.
Maybe mutagen wasn’t a threat to him for now, but there were still plenty of dangers to deal with in the forbidden region.
In fact, he had just spotted two mutant bears that were even stronger than Sergeant Thunder.
Shockingly, on the back of each bear was a huge, colorful spider. Countless strands of spider silk stretched from the spiders and into the bodies of the bears, apparently allowing the spiders to control them. The bears careened about, completely unable to control themselves. They smashed trees, and even crushed other mutant beasts as they ran along.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they were chasing some sort of red tiger, and thus didn’t notice Xu Qing, he would have been in big trouble.
The forbidden region was full of things like this.
About two hours later, Xu Qing found himself at the top of a tree, carefully examining his surroundings. Off in the distance, he had spotted something that didn’t seem like it belonged in a jungle.
It was a massive, mountain-sized jellyfish, emanating frigid coldness. It glowed faintly as it floated high in the air above the forbidden region. Because its body was translucent, it was possible to see countless rotting beast corpses inside it.
It had a host of tentacles dangling beneath it, all of them covered with gruish eyes. However, most of the eyes were closed.
As it drifted along slowly, the jungle beneath it was overwhelmed with intense cold.
Its aura was strong, far beyond Xu Qing’s level of strength. In fact, he was fairly certain that the bears he’d just encountered were weaker.
Even looking at the thing from a distance, he felt stiff and cold, and could sense how dangerous it was.
Only when the giant jellyfish disappeared in the distance did he breathe a sigh of relief. It had left behind a streak of frozen land in the jungle that was clearly visible from where he was.
If that thing had come in this direction…. He gulped.
There was danger everywhere in this jungle, but because of how his shadow absorbed mutagen, he had an advantage in that he could stay inside this place longer. As he grew stronger, he had the feeling that advantage would grow greater.
After resting for a moment, he continued with more vigilance than ever.
Time passed, and eventually the sun set, leaving behind only an evening glow.
As howling echoed out in the jungle, Xu Qing checked his map. Based on his estimations, if he kept running through the night, he would make it out of the forbidden region by daybreak.
As he contemplated the matter, he heard a boom off in the distance, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. And the voice sounded familiar.
Savage Ghost?
His eyes turned sharp. Without any hesitation, he approached the source of the noise, moving stealthily through the vegetation.
Before long, he reached the point where the sound came from. Hiding at the top of a tree, he found himself looking down at six or seven corpses. And one of them… was Savage Ghost!
His skin was greenish-black, making it obvious he had mutated. At the same time, he had been decapitated, and his body was mutilated. His huge steel shield had been broken in two, creating one large chunk of metal and one small chunk. As for his wolf tooth club, it lay off to the side, covered in blood.
Obviously, Savage Ghost had, in the midst of his mutation, taken his enemies out with him.
Xu Qing looked at the scene reticently, sorrow rising up in his heart, when he suddenly noticed something else.
Some distance away, surrounded by five enemies, his body turning green as he hovered on the brink of mutation, was Sergeant Thunder!
When Xu Qing saw that, his pupils constricted. Then he tightened his hand around his iron skewer, his killing intent surging.