Chapter 651: The Seventh Realm
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In everyone’s opinion, Stephen was just dying because of his severe injuries, but Lin Li knew clearly that the sword that had condensed and formed in the Light and Darkness Domain had not only cut off Stephen’s Soul-devouring Domain, but also ended his life. Hence, Stephen could be considered no different from dead now. Even with Mephistos’s peculiarly strong power, he could never be reborn using Stephen’s body.
Lin Li could tell that if he insisted on keeping Stephen, Borg would never hesitate to give up his life to take Stephen back. Although he needed not be afraid of the Dark Blade’s two Legendary leaders now that he had the help of Cheyenne who would complement his abilities, he felt that he would be going against his own interests by fighting and going against a Legendary powerhouse for the sake of a dead person.
While Borg was watching, Lin Li nodded, and said, “Alright, you may take him away.”
Borg restrained his mana slightly and strode towards Stephen, who was already unconscious, before reaching out to pick him up. He glanced at Lin Li ambiguously and turned around to leave together with Baldela, who was carrying Lansdale’s corpse.
As the people of the Dark Blade left, the ones remaining had to think about the next step that they would be taking. Lansdale’s death had already shown them that there would be greater danger in their journey ahead, but even then, no one was willing to back out at this moment.
The guardians of this realm were refusing to show up. Apart from killing Lansdale with an arrow, they didn’t do anything else. Hence, the rest had to be proactive in finding a way out if they wanted to get through the Seven-Realm Spiral.
After scanning their surroundings, they noticed a faint shadow in a certain direction, which seemed to be a dense forest. Elder Randy did not immediately lead his group in that direction, and instead casually asked for Lin Li’s and Cheyenne’s opinion, which was rather rare of him. However, he was mostly interested in Lin Li’s opinion since it was more important.
That was what the world was like. In order to earn the respect of others, one would have to showcase abilities and powers that were worth respecting. Lin Li managed to do so by wielding his sword. Even the Eight Elder of the Elven Kingdom, Elder Randy, had no choice but to start taking Lin Li seriously despite being just as powerful himself.
Compared to the previous realms, the space of the seventh realm was almost endless. Although there was nothing strange in the other areas, there was a shadow at the end of one of the directions, which seemed to stand out in this spacious realm. After a little discussion, everyone decided to explore in that direction, hoping to find the guardians of the seventh realm there.
Everyone surged in one direction, and the shadow gradually became clearer. There was indeed an extremely vast and dense forest at the border of the end that they rushed towards. Although it seemed that they had found the correct direction, there wasn’t a tinge of joy on their faces at all. Instead, they became increasingly sullen.
At the borders of the forest, the group stopped again and looked at the dense and boundless forest. Although this forest was no different from the forests that they had seen before, and was much more beautiful than the Emerald Forest, they could not help but feel terrified.
The mages released the Warlock’s Eyes, while the other members in other professions also used their own methods in a bid to observe the forest from the sky. Although they knew that there would be no escape for them if they were to be struck by the same arrow that had shot Lansdale regardless of how careful they were, they nonetheless did not stop.
The dense forest was full of greenery, full of grass and fallen leaves, together with some elegant wild flowers. Butterflies could even be seen flying among the flowers, with the melodious chirping of birds resounding in the forest. From time to time, there would be small birds circling in the forest, flying in and out to create a beautiful view of nature.
However, when they were observing the forest through various methods, Elder Randy said something.
“It’s… the Sierra Leone Forest!”
There was a look of disbelief on Elder Randy’s face. Although the forest in front of him was drastically different from what he remembered, he could match the characteristics of this forest with those of the Sierra Leone Forest.
Everyone was shocked to hear Elder Randy’s words. They looked at the forest again carefully, after which horror was written all over their faces.
In the history of the Dark Age, the Sierra Leone Forest could be said to have existed throughout it all. It was an existence that had to be mentioned.
During the reign of the High Elves, the ruling policy that they imposed on various races made it such that any rebellion would be brutally suppressed. Although the most famous of them was the mighty Lord Osric who was known as the Butcher, the other High Elves were not much kinder than Osric.
To the countless rebels, death had been sometimes not the most fearful punishment, but a form of relief. To the High Elves, simply ending the life of the rebels would not vent the strong aversion in their hearts. As a result, the Sierra Leone Forest became a huge part of history.
The Sierra Leone Forest was a place of exile for the so-called sinners. Of course, as a place of exile, it definitely shouldn’t be a place with beautiful surroundings and lush greenery, because that would make it seem like a vacation for the prisoners, and not a punishment.
The actual Sierra Leone Forest was not what Lin Li and others were looking at now. It was worlds apart from the beautiful forest in front of them. At that time, every inch of the Sierra Leone forest was full of the stench of decomposition. Green was a fresh and luxurious color, while withering was the eternal theme of the forest.
Once, there used to be deadly poisonous mist spread around the Sierra Leone Forest instead of the fragrance of wild flowers. There were no clear creeks and puddles, only swamps full of decomposition and floating skeletal remains. Of course, the miracle of life was ubiquitous. There were still signs of life even in such a harsh environment, though they were all brutal magical beasts which had been tempered by the harsh environment.
Dangers were rampant in the Sierra Leone Forest and threats lurked in every corner of the dangerous forest, making even a shoot of weed seem full of despair.
Throughout the Dark Age, the leaders of countless rebellion forces were exiled to the hellish Sierra Leone Forest after being condemned by High Elves. There were even some royals who had committed treachery and went against the High Elven Queen included among the exiles.
There were plenty of powerful and famous men from the Dark Age amongst the exiled prisoners. However, none of them managed to walk out of the Sierra Leone forest alive. Even if they did not surrender to the High Elven Queen, they didn’t survive for long after being exiled to the Sierra Leone Forest, because they would soon go berserk out of despair.
Most of the people present had yet to experience the Dark Age; hence, they did not know how truly horrifying the Sierra Leone Forest could be. Even Elder Randy had probably never seen it in person.
However, in many historical books, there were various descriptions and condemnation of the Sierra Leone Forest. After all, plenty of outstanding leaders had been buried there, including countless famous powerhouses.
Hence, everyone including Lin Li were no strangers to the Sierra Leone Forest. Although the environment of this forest was very different from that of the real Sierra Leone, they could see through the Warlock’s Eyes that there were some significant landforms that were similar to the Sierra Leone Forest described in historical data.
Without a doubt, it was definitely the once infamous Sierra Leone Forest. Everyone fell silent for a while. The fresh and natural beauty in front of them seemed to have turned dull. The last realm of the Seven-Realm Spiral turned out to be the Sierra Leone Forest that was used by the High Elves to exile prisoners. The dangers within were self-evident.
After a moment of silence, Elder Randy asked for Lin Li’s opinion. The departure of the Dark Blade left the team with a huge deficit in strength. If the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family decided to back out at this juncture, there wouldn’t really be a need for the elves to go any further.
However, Lin Li had no intention to give up halfway, since he had already made it this far. He definitely had to break through the Seven-Realm Spiral, be it for the sake of the debris of the stars Thunderbolt or for the Sky Castle.
As for Cheyenne, there was no way for him to leave alone. No one knew if the Dark Blade wouldn’t put up another fight along the way. After the death of Lansdale, the power of the Dark Blade had been greatly reduced, but they were still stronger than the Malfa Family. Still, everyone could tell that the Malfa Family was getting closer to the Tower of Dusk.
Everything that’d just happened made it impossible for the conflict between the Dark Blade and the Tower of Dusk to be resolved. They would probably launch an attack on the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family in the future. Instead of facing two opponents, they would probably choose to first kill one when they had the chance to, as would anyone else.
Although entering the Sierra Leone Forest would bring about unknown dangers, Cheyenne did not want to give the Dark Blade a chance to attack him. Hence, he decided to settle the scores in the future. Besides, he was rather confident in and reliant on his ally, Lin Li. Despite not knowing what kind of powers Lin Li was hiding, the more he interacted with the latter, the more mysterious Cheyenne found him to be.
Soon, the three forces reached a consensus, and chose a route to follow to enter the Sierra Leone Forest. Of course, in the current situation, the so-called route was only based on their understanding of the Sierra Leone Forest. They had no idea if they should stay away from some prohibited lands recorded in some historical sources.