Chapter 153 - Four Perilous Lands
In the Human Domain, where humans are able to seek sanctuary from the beast race, they began to flourish once more. But despite being called the Human Domain, its lands were not been fully conquered by humans.
There were four regions in the Human Domain that could not be conquered by humans since the time of its formation. Such places were referred to as the Perilous Land, a natural death zone to all who tread its territory, except the strong and abled. In spite of the dangers that exist within the Perilous Lands, it doesn't stop people from braving it for the fortunes and secrets that lies within.
Extreme Misty Forest was one such place. In the Ishaan Kingdom, they have the scorching sands of the Grand Surya Desert. In the Valaran Kingdom, they have the unreachable Supreme Sword Mountain, the tallest mountain in the Human Domain. Lastly, the Geyser Kingdom has the treacherous blackwater of the Shadow Basin, sinking all creation without exception. However, ever since the emergence of the Underground World, few people have begun to argue it was the fifth Perilous Land of the Human Domain.
Extreme Misty Forest was known for its extreme weather, but not because its yin-attribute mist was harmful to life. A person only needs to ward off the mist to stop it from harming them. What truly made Extreme Misty Forest a terrifying place, was the mist had nourishing effects on the souls of the dead, allowing ghosts and spirits to prosper.
A weak soul would slowly dissipate over time without the nourishment of its body, but due to the existence of the mist, it could exist indefinitely. If the forest contained the souls of all life that ever died on the continent since the start of the Cataclysm, it would be a terrifying number to think about. Even worse, no one knew how these souls would be after 500 years.
If Leon did not have the fire and lightning attributes, he would have never dared to tread beyond the safe boundary. He was surrounded by thousands of vengeful spirits wherever he went. He did not doubt that once he dismisses the flames protecting him, all the vengeful spirits would pounce on him and invade his mind.
No matter how strong his mind is, he would still get possessed under barrage of so many vengeful spirits, just like a big elephant can still be killed by an army of ants. Thus, he kept his flame expenditure to a bare minimum.
"Hm?" Leon's foot froze in midair just as he was about to finish taking his next step. He withdrawn his step and crouched down and turn over a slab of rock. "Oh! Another rare herb was hiding underneath! Fortunately, I didn't finish the last step and squash it. It would have been ruined."
"Let me see what this herb is…" Leon rummaged through limitless knowledge contained in the Whitespace. After finding the relevant information, he was pleasantly surprised. "This is the Forgetful Iceflower! I can treat Rachel's trauma with this."
But then Leon soon shook his head. Regarding the treatment of his fiancée's trauma, he had long found two feasible methods, one soft and one hard, but he pushed it to the back of his mind due to the lack of herbs. Both methods were soul-related treatment and also require special herbs with yin-attributes. However, the methods of treatment weren't exactly ideal.
The first method was to use the Forgetting Nightmare Pill, which erases all the bad memories. This was the soft method. If the bad experience didn't exist, then the trauma would also not exist. This was what the Forgetful Iceflower was used for.
However, memories, whether good or bad was what shaped a person's character. If he erases his fiancee's bad memories, her trauma would be cured, true, but would she still be the same person? This was something he had to consult the Lancaster family on.
The other method was to refine the Reminiscent Trial Pill. This was the hard method. Once Rachel ingest this pill, she would fall into a dreadful dream and relive those bad experience over and over for an entire hour. However, time operates differently between dream and reality. To others, it may only be one hour, but to Rachel, it could be weeks, months or even years.
This method was not much different from torture and was especially dangerous. If she could not endure and overcome the trial, she may never wake up. But if she manages to overcome her trial, it would be beneficial for her cultivation.
Whatever her choice was, Leon would respect it. He also made up his mind to teach the Lancaster family the [Fiery God Manual] when he gets the chance.
Sometime later, Leon also managed to find the Reminiscent Iceflower after the Forgetful Iceflower and sighed. This must be fate.
After carefully storing away the herb, Leon continued search between the 400-500 yards region. He did not encounter much mutated ghouls here as he did when he first entered.
"Those must have been reared by the so-called Bloodfiend Sect." Leon concluded with squinted eyes. "Treating people like livestock. As expect of blood cultivators. They all deserve death."
From his speculation and inference, the Bloodfiend Sect must be quite large and reputable somewhere in one of the other kingdoms. But no matter how reputable it was, it was still and evil sect and should be wiped out. How could be allow these bloodsuckers feed unscrupulously on the human race's dwindling population?
After herb hunting for another three hours, Leon found a few more herbs, but they weren't what he was looking for. Not willing to leave a treasure when he sees one, he harvested all the herbs and placed them in his Worldspace anyway.
"Let's call it a day." Leon sighed. "Although I could spend the whole night looking, it's not wise to exhaust my essence. I should give myself some room to maneuver in case of unpredictable events."
Returning from the path he took, Leon arrived at the location of the reared mutated ghouls he incapacitated.
"Hm? Someone else has been here." Leon frowned. All the mutated ghouls that he had left lying on the ground had turned into cold corpses. This was not his doing. He had only incapacitated them. "Someone sucked all their blood vitality. There's another blood cultivator!"
Leon became vigilant once he arrived at that thought. However, it was especially hard to sense anything within the thick white mist of the deep forest. He couldn't rely on his obscured vision nor smell. That was why he wasn't able to find much herbs.
This further strengthened his desire to improve his soul strength so he could use his divine sense for freely.
As Leon stepped back into the safe boundary, he was immediately attacked!
Shing**
He blocked the figure's sword attack with his black spear. He had expected an ambush and had been prepared for it, except the force of the blow was stronger than he had anticipated, blowing him back a few yards.
"Oh? You knew I was going to ambush you?" Easton said with surprise.
"It was too easy to predict. You shouldn't have touched those Mutated Ghouls." Leon answered with squinted eyes. He viewed each mutated ghoul as a fat sum of money, but all 15 mutate ghoul had been sucked dry. That was a tremendous of wealth! Leon would naturally be unhappy. But at least, he would get some karmic virtue to make up for it by killing the person. It was better than nothing.
After the block, Leon lunged forward for a killing blow, thrusting his black spear straight at the other person's head.
Swoosh** The attack missed.
"Phew, that was scary." Easton said with relief, after evading the blow. "Aren't you even going to ask who I am and why I'm attacking you?"
Leon ignored his words, lunging forward with a one-handed swing of his spear. The other hand sneakily flicked a few needles at the other figure's acupoints to immobilize him. Unfortunately, the assailant's reaction was extraordinary, swiftly blocking both attacks with a [Blood Wall].
However, Leon's attack did not stop there. He followed up by dashing to the side and aimed for the head with his black spear again.
The assailant was caught unprepared and hastily tried to parry the blow. The spearhead only managed to graze the other person's cheeks before the person retreated a fair distance in alarm.
"Hey, hey, that was too dangerous. I almost died there. You are much stronger than I anticipated." Easton said, before he smiled. "It seems I had asked a stupid question. Since you could predict my ambush, you would also be able to guess my identity."
He was a fellow member of the Bloodfiend Sect. The same as the ex-team leader, Elias, except much stronger. This person's strength was at two-stars. The mutated ghouls must have boosted the person's strength a fair bit.
Leon frowned as he could guess that much. The other person was stronger than him. Leon also could increase his attacking power threefold and reach the same level of strength at the other person, but he refrained from doing so. He didn't know if there were any other members of the same sect lying in ambush. he didn't want to use such double-edge skills without confirming.
"Your strike is very decisive. I guess you learnt your mistake from my fellow sect member. It's a surprise that you're not afraid of my strength with just your one-star strength. Perhaps you are still holding back? Afraid that I'm not alone? Well, you don't have to worry about that and fight wholeheartedly. Us members of the Bloodfiend Sect tend to act independently." Easton carelessly said as blood seeped out of the cut on his cheek and formed a solid blood helmet to protect his head.
After hearing those words, Leon's face twitched. He didn't expect to bump into such a talkative and stupid person while fighting. The person basically sentenced his own death. Although he would like to subdue the other party and fish some information out the person's mouth, he could not be careless.
In a battle between experts, life and death could be decided in a single instance. He had to fight with the intent to kill.
"Is that so… Then you can go die now!"
Leon closed the distance by half with explosive speed using [Extreme Vanishing Step], before coming to a grinding stop and fired his black spear with impossible speed from his hands, using threefold strength.
What!!!
The spear was too fast! It was already right in front of him. Easton exclaim mentally in horror as it was too late to dodge. Although it seemed like he was underestimating Leon, he was actually provoking him to attack. But in the end, he still severely underestimated Leon.
The black spear was wrapped in three elements! The destructive and penetrative force was enhanced by fire and lightning, while metal made it sharper and even faster!
Boom!
The black spear shot through the blood cultivator's head like a hot knife through butter and penetrated through several other trees before finally stopping. Those were extremely sturdy trees! Even after so many years logging business, only so many trees had been cut down from Extreme Misty Forest!
Leon widened his eyes in shock, visibly shaken by the results himself. The force of that attack had been far greater than he anticipated. His attack should've only produced the strength of three-stars, but it rivaled the attack of a cultivator at four-stars!
"Where did the extra force come from?" Leon pondered. Calculating the force of the three elements, it was still far from reaching four-stars. What was he missing?
Recalling his previous attack… he had dashed very fast, before throwing his spear… dashed… very fast... speed…?
His eyes lit up as he understood what he failed to calculate in his attack.
"Kinetic energy."