Chapter 432: Blade Radiance

Duan Rong had prepared everything he needed to bring, then followed the wooden staircase on the east side of the pavilion, stepped down, and arrived once again before that door on the first floor.

This door was in a dim corner some distance from the first-floor stairwell, and the color of the door was rather dark; if Fan Hongjiao and the others hadn't led him through it once last time, Duan Rong truly wouldn't have noticed that there was a door here.

He walked to the door and pushed it open with a creak. Behind the door was darkness so thick it could not be dissolved; the dim stairs at his feet extended downward, gradually submerging into the darkness.

Duan Rong took out the torch he had prepared and lit it with a Fire Folder.

He stood at the doorway holding the torch; the wind passing through blew with a whistling sound, and the flickering flames licked past his ears.

Duan Rong took a step down, crossing into the darkness, and the door behind him creaked shut on its own.

The sound of the wind stopped abruptly, and the flame of the torch in his hand instantly shot upward; the sound of the flame burning was very loud in the silent space.

The first time he walked this dark, downward staircase, Fan Hongjiao and the others were with Duan Rong, but this time, only he remained.

In the deathly silence of the darkness, he held the torch alone and walked downward; the light of the torch could illuminate about a zhang of the stairs, and beyond that was endless darkness, a darkness that seemed to have no end...

Duan Rong walked like this, not knowing how long he had been walking; he repeated a certain stiff motion, constantly alternating his feet to walk downward, with thick darkness before and behind him.

The sound of the torch burning, after listening to it for a long time, actually seemed to become a part of this deathly silent environment... constantly ringing against Duan Rong's eardrums.

A thought suddenly popped into his mind: if this staircase were long enough, anyone who kept walking like this would surely go completely insane at some point.

Duan Rong walked on in the deathly silence just like this; just as he felt his brain, which had been numb, start to become active, as if boiling water had been brought to a boil, various stray thoughts surged up, completely out of control... after a while, he saw a glimmer of light at the end of the darkness.

Finally, he was almost at the underground crevice.

Duan Rong quickened his pace downward and finally paused slightly at a spot with dim light.

He let out a long breath, a flash of fear passing through his eyes.

A dim ray of light shot out from the open stone door before him, illuminating his feet; Duan Rong stood there, looking back at the endless darkness behind him.

This road of deathly silence was truly a bit chilling.

He looked at the nearly burnt-out torch in his hand, tossed it to the side, and stepped into the dimly lit stone door.

In the corner of this stone chamber space, the old man was still sitting in withered meditation.

Duan Rong stood there, cupped his hands and bowed, and respectfully called out, "Mr. Yi!"

The old man looked at Duan Rong with a strange expression in his eyes and remained silent.

Duan Rong did not speak again, but walked to the stone wall covered in carved beast patterns, took out the key, and stuffed it into the mouth of a certain beast head; as the key turned, the stone door opened, and Duan Rong flashed inside without pausing.

As the stone door closed, the old man muttered something, then continued to sit with his eyes closed in meditation.

In the corridor, Duan Rong took a deep breath; he was not worried that the old man would stop him. Lu Geng had said that he and Wang Yue had also come down. For an Inner Sect Disciple, the Dark Forest could be entered and exited freely. The old man might be curious why a new Inner Sect Disciple like him would go into the Dark Forest alone, but the old man had a "strangers keep away" look and clearly wasn't the type to meddle in other people's business, so Duan Rong cupped his hands to greet him and immediately entered the corridor.

Although this corridor was not long, Duan Rong still lit another torch before walking forward.

After turning the end of the corridor, he arrived at the narrow stone chamber at the entrance of the underground crevice. Duan Rong came to the edge of the crevice, grabbed an iron chain, extinguished the torch in his hand, threw it at his feet, grabbed the chain, and jumped into the crevice.

This was not the first time Duan Rong had slid down the iron chain; as soon as he jumped down, he entered the zone.

At a patch of Qingguang Grass emitting a faint, dim light on the edge of the Dark Forest, a figure suddenly jumped down from the cliff wall.

As soon as Duan Rong's figure steadied, his Divine Sense suddenly released, instantly covering a large area on the outskirts of the grassland.

This was also the reason Duan Rong dared to venture into the Dark Forest alone; his Womb Treasury Sutra had already achieved the Eleventh Layer, and the range of his Divine Sense exploration was by no means comparable to Fan Hongjiao's. Furthermore, he had no intention of going deep at all, only planning to hunt some Low-Tier Beast on the outer edges.

Duan Rong shuttled through the darkness from time to time; suddenly, a blade light flashed in the darkness, and he slashed the small snake that had pounced on him from the shadows into two pieces. Duan Rong opened his cloth bag, and the small snake's corpse fell inside.

Duan Rong tried his best not to travel through the dense forest because he remembered Fan Hongjiao's instructions from last time: in the Dark Forest, plants are sometimes more terrifying than Origin Beasts!

Duan Rong's figure flickered in the darkness; he suddenly crouched slightly in front of a shrub. At this moment, at the edge of his Divine Sense exploration, several Inner Sect Disciples were joining forces to besiege an adult Arrow Boar.

The adult Arrow Boar's skin had already keratinized, and Qi was difficult to penetrate; the several Inner Sect Disciples were all drenched in sweat, constantly directing their attacks at the Arrow Boar's neck, where a shallow pit had already been hacked into the keratin layer, but it would still take a while to penetrate it completely.

At this moment, the Arrow Boar suddenly straightened its spine, the Qi on its back surged, and a sheet of arrow spikes shot out; the sky-filling rain of arrows instantly enveloped the several Inner Sect Disciples.

Two of them were slightly slower and had already been pierced by the arrow spikes, but these arrow spikes were non-toxic, and the people just now had all protected their vital points, so even if they were pierced by the arrow spikes, it was not in a critical location.

The Arrow Boar wanted to take advantage of the chaos to break through, but was blocked tightly by the few people again.

Duan Rong avoided this area, changed direction, and continued forward.

In a patch of grass on the outer edge of the Dark Forest, a furry little thing suddenly stretched out from a gap in the grass; right in the middle of that furry thing was a large, vertical eyeball.

The large eyeball flickered, and the furry thing that had stretched out from the grass began to rotate. As it rotated, the large eyeball looked around.

And deep in the grass beneath this large eyeball, a black shadow was crouching.

It lay there without making a sound; its sharp claws and fangs emitted a faint cold light even in the darkness.

This Low-Tier Beast was called an Eye-Tail Ni.

The furry thing that poked out of the grass above its head was its tail, and there was an eye growing on its tail. It was currently crouching in the grass, poking out the eye on its tail to help it search for prey; once it discovered a target, it would slowly approach in the grass, and once it reached striking distance, it would pounce from the grass and bite the prey to death.

But just as the Eye-Tail Ni was lying in the grass searching for prey, a point of fluorescent light suddenly flashed before its eyes. That fluorescence was like a firefly from the outside world.

There were no fireflies in the Dark Forest, but this Eye-Tail Ni didn't care much; after all, it was at a critical moment of searching for prey, and that fluorescence was just a tiny speck, what kind of influence could such a small thing have on it?

But in the very next moment, that flickering firefly light suddenly flashed and plunged directly into the top of its head.

The next moment, this Eye-Tail Ni became as if petrified, motionless; even the large eyeball on the furry tail it had stretched out of the grass closed at this time.

Immediately following, a black shadow drifted down beside it like a ghost!

That black shadow was none other than Duan Rong.

Duan Rong looked at the Eye-Tail Ni before him, a blade light flashed, and a half-inch Blade Radiance instantly flashed on the edge of the blade.

Although this Eye-Tail Ni was still a Low-Tier Beast, the Qi within its body was much more abundant than that of a Martial Artist like him who hadn't even achieved the First Layer of the Qi Refining Realm.

If he didn't use the Intent Blade Glow, it would be impossible for Duan Rong to pierce through the body of this Eye-Tail Ni.

In fact, for an Origin Beast like the Eye-Tail Ni, it wouldn't be a problem for Fan Hongjiao and Wu Shidao to take it down, but if it were Lu Geng and Wang Yue, even if the two joined forces, it would likely still be quite tricky.

In the darkness, a cold light flashed, and the blade edge carrying the half-inch Blade Radiance pierced through the heart of this Eye-Tail Ni with extreme precision; Duan Rong pulled out the blade, and the Frost Pattern Phosphorus Crystal Blade in his hand remained unstained by blood.

The moment the Blade Radiance pierced its heart, the Eye-Tail Ni's body trembled once, then fell sideways to Duan Rong's feet.

Only a thin line of blood flowed from its wound.

Duan Rong did not linger here, packed the Eye-Tail Ni's corpse into his cloth bag, carried it on his back, and shuttled away into the darkness.

The Divine Soul Illusion "Firefly Confusion" and Divine Sense detection were the source of Duan Rong's confidence in daring to enter this Dark Forest alone.

Once these Origin Beasts fall into Yinghuo's Divine Soul illusion, they can only be slaughtered at will, and Duan Rong also possesses the means of Intent Blade Glow, which can pierce through Origin Beasts with Qi far more robust than his own.

Therefore, for him, entering the Dark Forest alone to capture Origin Beasts is not a difficult task, as long as he is careful.

Of course, in the Dark Forest, there are endless varieties of strange species, and there are still many indescribable dangers. Without Fan Hongjiao and the others by his side, Duan Rong does not dare to linger for long; since he has already obtained an Eye-Tail Ni, he is prepared to leave immediately.

Under the detection of his Divine Sense Envelopment, Duan Rong avoided many dangers and dashed all the way to the grassland of Qingguang Grass near the drop-off point.

The moment he jumped into the grassland, he finally let out a long breath of stale air and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.

Once in this area of Qingguang Grass, it is basically much safer, but Duan Rong's Divine Sense Envelopment is still detecting the surrounding situation; Qingguang Grass can only restrict Origin Beasts, but it cannot restrict fellow sect members.

To Duan Rong, this Eye-Tail Ni is only one month's worth of cultivation resources, but to an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple, it is half a year's worth. Moreover, Duan Rong is all alone, and one can tell from his movement technique that his realm is not high. Therefore, to Duan Rong, fellow sect members are the most dangerous.

Duan Rong had just walked a short distance through the Qingguang Grass with the Eye-Tail Ni on his back when his brows suddenly furrowed. He once again deployed his movement technique, fast as a ghost, dashed out of this area, and hid in a bush not far away.

Just as he finished hiding, he saw several figures suddenly slide down from the iron chains on the cliff wall at the edge of the Qingguang Grass grassland.

After the few people landed in the grassland, they simply conferred briefly before dashing together in a certain direction into the Dark Forest.

Duan Rong sensed with his Divine Sense that those people had already gone far away before he jumped out of the bushes and walked quickly toward the cliff wall.

Those few just now should be Inner Sect Disciples registered under the Inner History Department. However, Duan Rong had only just arrived at Yunfu Peak, so he did not recognize them.

Duan Rong arrived before the cliff wall and walked past those few Iron Chains that had just been slid down by the few sect disciples and were still swaying slightly.

Although these Inner Sect Disciples also came down from this drop-off point, the places where these few personal disciples slide down the iron chains are exclusive.

Duan Rong walked to the few iron chains he had slid down, tied the cloth bag on his back tightly to his body, then grabbed a chain with both hands and climbed upward; very soon, his figure was swallowed by the darkness.

Although the size of this Eye-Tail Ni is not small, it is far inferior to the Two-Footed Mad Python and the Green-Eyed Giant Lizard from last time.

But even so, when Duan Rong climbed out of that underground crevice, he was already panting for breath; he collapsed on the ground, looking almost exactly like Wang Yue last time.

"This thing... climbing this once is truly life-threatening!?"

Duan Rong panted for quite a while before struggling to climb up in the darkness. He took out a Fire Folder and lit a torch; wind kept blowing out from the underground crevice, making the torch in his hand crackle and roar.

When he slid down last time, Duan Rong had once used his Divine Sense to probe this underground crevice, and that time he discovered that the length of this underground crevice far exceeded the range of his Divine Sense detection.

And the stone chamber he is currently in only occupies a very short section of this underground crevice; extending to both sides, there should be even more vast spaces. And those Inner Sect Disciples registered under the Inner History Department clearly slid into the Dark Forest from other locations.

Carrying the cloth bag, Duan Rong walked out of the stone chamber, passed through the corridor, exited the stone gate, and arrived at the place guarded by the old man sitting in withered Zen.

The old man did not even open his eyes; after Duan Rong walked out, he only cupped his hands slightly toward him before turning and walking outward.

At this moment, the old man sitting cross-legged in the corner suddenly opened his eyes; he saw something furry dangling out of the cloth bag on Duan Rong's back.

On that dangling furry thing, there was also a closed eye.

The old man's heart skipped a beat. "Eye-Tail Ni?!"

He had previously used his Divine Sense to penetrate this kid's dantian; he had only just advanced to the Qi Refining Realm a few days ago.

Not only did he enter the Dark Forest alone, but he also hunted an Eye-Tail Ni and brought it up.

This kid is quite interesting!

A look of interest suddenly flashed in the old man's cold eyes, and the next moment, he once again used his Divine Sense to penetrate Duan Rong's dantian.

The moment a powerful Divine Sense penetrated his dantian, Duan Rong sensed it, but he continued as usual, his figure and pace showing no abnormalities.

The old man's face instantly twisted into a knot, his expression becoming very colorful.

"How is this possible?! Could it be that I saw wrong a month ago? How could it be possible that in just one month, he is almost about to break through the First Layer of the Qi Refining Realm?"

What kind of speed is this? Even I could not have had such speed back in the day?

No! I am afraid even Chu Qiushan and Gu Daoling could not have had such speed.

I must have seen wrong last time. Perhaps I have sat in withered Zen for too long and remembered the time wrong?

At this very moment, this old man, who had always been cold and taciturn, fell into deep self-doubt alone in the stone chamber after Duan Rong left...

(End of this chapter)