Chapter 275

Whoosh!

The instant his body touched the ground, a black streak shot toward him, and Lin Chen swiftly struck out with his right palm.

Slap!

A zhang away, a black snake fully three zhang long lay stretched out on the ground, its head already shattered.

Lin Chen stared intently at his surroundings, and after confirming there was no further danger a few breaths later, he walked toward the black snake.

A few breaths later, a look of regret appeared on Lin Chen's face; this black snake had not gestated a demon core.

"Where am I?"

Looking around, Lin Chen confirmed he was in a mountain forest, and a look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

He had not expected to be teleported into the mountain range the moment he entered.

According to Dan Muqing, those teleported into the ruins all appeared in a vast plain, and those who entered could choose to search for teammates in the plain or enter the deep mountains alone.

However, most people who had entered in previous years would choose to find one or two companions in the plain before entering the mountain range.

They didn't choose not to gather ten people before setting off because they didn't want to, but because there wasn't enough time.

The ruins' seal was only open for three days, and disciples from the four great families had tried walking from one end of the plain to the other, but even after three days, they hadn't reached the end.

Since he wasn't on the plain, Lin Chen didn't intend to find the Dan family members to rendezvous; his gaze turned toward the depths of the forest ahead, and he decided to proceed alone.

One hundred breaths later.

Lin Chen's gaze looked ahead, a bright light in his eyes.

He was looking at a silver plant more than ten zhang away, which had five leaves.

It was actually a Five-Finger Silver Grass!

In Linhu Village, the many books his teacher had sent him contained introductions to the rare flowers and grasses of the Nine Kingdoms.

The Five-Finger Silver Grass was a relatively precious medicinal herb unique to Zhao Guo and was the main ingredient for refining the Body-Forging Pill.

The full name of this herb was Five-Finger Grass, named for its leaves resembling five fingers, and "silver" referred to its color.

Five-Finger Grass seedlings were green, gradually turning silver after fifty years, and if they reached a hundred years, they would turn gold.

The Body-Forging Pills refined by various countries mainly used ten-year-old Five-Finger Grass as the main ingredient, and the price of one Body-Forging Pill was about ten gold; if refined using Five-Finger Silver Grass as the main ingredient, the effect was twice that of an ordinary Body-Forging Pill, and its value reached fifty gold.

The efficacy was only doubled, but the price increased fivefold; this wasn't a random price set by those selling the pills, but because Body-Forging Pills contained pill toxins, and a ranked martial artist could only take one every few months.

Although the price was five times higher, it meant one could take an extra pill, and for many martial artists with decent backgrounds, what they lacked was precisely time, not a few dozen gold.

As Lin Chen walked forward and crouched down to pick the Five-Finger Silver Grass, the soil not far away suddenly splashed up, and a black streak shot rapidly toward Lin Chen from beneath the soil.

Slap!

Facing the sudden attack, Lin Chen was unhurried; he struck out with a palm, and the whistling palm wind sent the black streak flying backward, landing in the grass more than ten zhang away.

It was actually a giant black python!

The giant python flicked its tongue, its sinister eyes staring coldly at Lin Chen for a moment, and the next instant, it actually turned and slithered toward the forest ahead.

"Want to leave?"

Although his palm had only sent the giant python flying backward without even making a single scale fall off, Lin Chen was not afraid in the slightest; he held the Long Yinggong in his hand, drew the bow, and shot an arrow.

A golden light shot out, and the python seemed to sense danger, shifting its body, but the arrow's speed was too fast—so fast that just as the python sensed it, the arrow had already pierced through its body at the seven-inch mark.

The python's body thrashed wildly in the grass, but after a dozen breaths, it was completely still.

Strike a snake at the seven-inch mark; once the seven-inch mark is broken, its life is lost.

Even a ranked demon snake was the same; this was the weakness of the snake tribe.

Stepping forward to search the demon snake's body for a while, Lin Chen extracted a demon core from its corpse.

At the same time, Lin Chen took a jade tablet from his bosom; this was given to him by Dan Muqing to register the points for killing demon beasts.

Pressing the demon core onto the jade tablet, the tablet would record the demon core; a ninth-rank demon core was equivalent to 1 point, while an eighth-rank demon core was 10 points, and as for a seventh-rank demon core...

Never mind demon cores, even seventh-rank demon beasts were rare in the entire ruins, and if one really encountered one, one would turn and run immediately; being able to escape was already quite good.

The forty people who entered combined probably wouldn't be enough to fill the gaps in a seventh-rank demon beast's teeth.

Placing the demon core on the jade tablet, a tiny black dot soon appeared on the tablet, representing 1 point.

The four great families used this method to calculate points instead of waiting until everyone went out to calculate based on the number of demon cores on their bodies, which was also a result of careful consideration.

As long as a demon beast was killed, the demon core was registered immediately; this way, even if others wanted to snatch demon cores to increase their points, they couldn't. Secondly, every family had invited geniuses from outside, and if demon cores were counted in front of everyone, it would inevitably lead to jealousy, so it was better to keep it out of sight.

All arrangements were made to reduce the killing among the young generation of each family in the ruins.

Putting the demon core into his bosom, Lin Chen continued forward.

One hour later, Lin Chen watched the black dot on the jade tablet turn into a green dot.

A green dot represented ten points.

In just this one hour, Lin Chen had encountered ten ninth-rank demon beasts; he didn't need to actively search for them, as these demon beasts would actively attack him after he passed through their territory, and some, like that python, hid in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to ambush him.

Fortunately, these demon beasts were all alone; as Dan Muqing said, there were no groups.

"It seems those Earth Rank geniuses entered just to obtain demon cores."

Demon beasts that existed alone were, to Lin Chen, demon cores delivered to his door.

In Lin Chen's view, since he was like this, he imagined those few were the same.

"What a pity, this is a lizard demon; its flesh and blood are poisonous and cannot be consumed."

Lin Chen looked down at the huge lizard corpse on the ground with a bit of regret; he hadn't wasted any of the demon beasts he had killed along the way that could be eaten.

With his body forging reaching 4.0, his digestion of demon meat and demon blood was extremely fast; he drank the blood of demon beasts he could consume directly, and as for the meat, he chose the fattest parts to roast and eat.

Once the demon blood and meat were in his stomach, his body felt like a furnace!

This was a sign that his Qi and blood were starting to improve again; although the improvement wasn't much, with his current body strength, every little bit of improvement required a huge price.

The four great families' ruins gave him this opportunity.

If he didn't have a purpose for entering this time, he would spend these three days in this mountain range killing demon beasts until time ran out.

"After today ends, I'll go find the whereabouts of those Zhuang family members."

Lin Chen hadn't forgotten his purpose for entering: to avenge Yu Shan and also to clear his own mind.

One day later.

Lin Chen didn't continue moving forward; he had chosen to travel horizontally since a few hours ago.

Soon, his gaze was attracted by a patch of black scorched earth, on which a three-colored flower was blooming.

Lin Chen walked quickly toward the black scorched earth, but at this very moment, a sound came from behind him, accompanied by the sound of breaking air.

"Three-Colored Spirit-Gestating Flower?"

Three figures broke through the air and landed outside the black scorched earth; Lin Chen turned back to look at the three.

"From the Dan family?" "This Three-Colored Spirit-Gestating Flower is ours now; if you're sensible, leave quickly."

The three who arrived didn't know Lin Chen's name, but they had glanced at the people from the other three families when entering, so they remembered Lin Chen's face.

Likewise, Lin Chen also remembered these three.

People from the Zhuang family.

Truly, one doesn't have to look far for what one seeks; he had been about to go find that second young master of the Zhuang family, and he hadn't expected the Zhuang family members to deliver themselves to his door.

"What if I don't leave?"

"Don't leave?"

The man on the left sneered upon hearing this: "Out of respect for the Dan family, we're giving you a chance to get lost; if you don't leave, then leave your life behind."

"You're just an outsider invited by the Dan family; even if you die here, the Dan family won't stand up for you."

"Fine then."

Lin Chen nodded; he had originally thought that every debt has its debtor and only intended to kill that second young master of the Zhuang family, but since these three were courting death, he couldn't be blamed.

Whoosh!

Lin Chen's figure shot out; the three men saw that Lin Chen actually dared to strike them first, and looks of disdain appeared on their faces. One of them roared: "You're simply courting death!"

After saying this, he also unhesitatingly met Lin Chen with a punch.

Bang!

The power contained in Lin Chen's palm directly shattered the man's fist, and his figure was struck by the palm wind, flying backward more than ten zhang.

Pfft!

Fresh blood sprayed from the man's mouth and splattered all over the ground.

The other two saw this scene, and the disdain on their faces instantly stiffened.

How could their companion not even be able to take one palm strike?

"Run!"

While shocked, the two reacted quickly; they didn't choose to join forces but chose to flee immediately.

Someone who could make their companion's life or death unknown in one move—even if the two of them joined forces, they probably wouldn't be a match; only by fleeing, and fleeing separately, would they have a chance to survive.

Watching the two flee in different directions, a coldness curled at the corners of Lin Chen's mouth, and the Long Yinggong appeared in his hand again.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Two arrows in succession, and two figures desperately fleeing in the air fell from high up, dropping into the mountain forest.

Lin Chen's figure shuttled rapidly to the place where the two fell; a dozen breaths later, he returned to the scorched earth area holding five demon beast inner cores and two corpses, and then sent the Zhuang family member whose meridians he had broken with one palm to reunite with them.

Three people, a total of six demon cores on their bodies.

Putting the demon cores away, Lin Chen threw the three corpses into the mountain stream grass not far away; besides demon beasts, there were many wild beasts in the mountain range, and these three corpses would be gnawed clean by wild beasts in less than a day.

After throwing the three corpses, Lin Chen didn't rush to pick the Three-Colored Spirit-Gestating Flower but looked toward another place.

"You've watched long enough; it's time to show yourself."

"Young Master has great strength; outsiders all think that the strongest foreign aid invited by the four great families this time is from the Zhuang family, but in this little girl's opinion, Young Master is even stronger than that Gao Yongsi."

As Lin Chen's voice fell, a graceful figure walked out of the mountain forest.

"It's you!"

Lin Chen hadn't expected the person hiding in the dark to be Liu Yue. Just after he finished cleaning up the three corpses and returned to pick the Three-Colored Spirit-Gestating Flower, he had vaguely felt some kind of gaze watching him.

Someone was peeping in the dark.

It was just that Lin Chen hadn't expected it to be Liu Yue, and he didn't know how long Liu Yue had been watching in the dark.

"Young Master, don't misunderstand; this little girl also just arrived, and I didn't see much."

Liu Yue felt the wariness in Lin Chen's eyes and smiled sweetly.

She was telling the truth; she had just heard movement here, but by the time she arrived, she saw this person in front of her leaving while carrying three corpses.

One person, killing three ninth-rank powerhouses of the Zhuang family.

Liu Yue wasn't surprised by this; with her strength, she could also do it. What surprised her was that she had just felt energy fluctuations here and sensed people fighting, and she had arrived as quickly as possible, yet she hadn't been able to see the fighting process.

In less than ten breaths, the battle was over; this was what made her wary.

Could this person also be aiming for that place?

"May I ask how to address Young Master?"

"Lin Fei."

Lin Chen believed that Liu Yue must not have been there long; otherwise, seeing him take out the Long Yinggong to shoot arrows, she should have been able to guess his identity.

He was the number one genius of the young generation of the Daliang Martial Way and also the number one on the Hidden Dragon List.

The young generation of the other countries, even if they hadn't seen him, should have heard his name and understood some of his situation.

This wasn't arrogance, but stemmed from an understanding of competitors of the same age.

Just like himself, he had also learned about the situation of the top five on the Earth Rank from his teacher and the academy head, knowing the cultivation techniques and spirit weapons used by these top five.

"So it's Young Master Lin; this little girl is Liu Yue."

Liu Yue bowed gracefully and said, "Is Young Master Lin also aiming for the tomb?"

"Tomb?"

Lin Chen's pupils shrank; he didn't know about any tomb, but from Liu Yue's inquiry, he obtained a piece of information: Liu Yue's purpose for entering this place wasn't to help the Zhou family win first place, or rather, this was just incidental after Liu Yue entered; the other party's true purpose was the tomb.

But he hadn't heard Dan Muqing say there was any tomb in here?

Could it be that the ancestors of the four great families were buried here, and this Liu Yue wanted to rob the graves of the ancestors of the four great families?

Lin Chen's expression became strange; if this were really the case, the Zhou family paid a price to invite Liu Yue over, only to invite someone to rob their own ancestors' graves—if the Zhou family knew the inside story, he didn't know what they would think.

"I let it slip!"

Liu Yue had also been observing Lin Chen's expression; although Lin Chen's expression was very calm, she still analyzed some clues.

This Lin Fei wasn't aiming for the tomb.

If Lin Fei knew of the tomb's existence, he absolutely wouldn't have this expression.

So this person really was invited by the Dan family to participate in the competition to obtain points.

Although she didn't understand why a genius of this level would value the conditions offered by the Dan family, Liu Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

Not aiming for the ancient tomb meant she had one less powerful competitor.

Or, she could even cooperate with the other party.

"Since Young Master Lin isn't aiming for the tomb, this little girl wants to make a deal with Young Master Lin."

"What deal?"

PS: The third update is going to be late; it's expected to be updated before two o'clock.

(End of chapter)