Chapter 358

　　Within the Forest of Darkness, the countless ancient trees soared high into the sky, completely blocking the sun . Huge vines were like dragons as they coiled all around . As Long Chen progressed deeper, the light within the forest became ever more gloomy .

　　A person would naturally feel uncomfortable with their vision sealed from the darkness . That kind of sensation provoked a natural fear .

　　As soon as he entered the forest, he felt as if he had entered the maw of a giant monster . Unknown dangers could pop up and devour his life at any moment .

　　Crunch .

　　An iron spear in Long Chen’s hand shot out . A spider that was around the size of a plate had stealthily appeared behind him and had just been about to attack him when Long Chen’s spear stabbed through it .

　　Suddenly, that black spider’s mouth opened and a white substance shot out at Long Chen . That white substance was a large net that quickly spread out .

　　Long Chen jumped in fright . Despite the fact that he had stabbed the spider through its vitals, it was still able to release such an attack .

　　He hastily dodged to the side . That net had reached a size of five feet, but it just missed Long Chen .

　　However, when the net flew by Long Chen, the air was filled with a disgusting stink, a stink that would make anyone nauseous .

　　“Even the spider web is poisonous!” Long Chen was slightly surprised . The creatures of the Forest of Darkness were truly too terrifying . All kinds of strange things continued to pop up, so many that it was impossible to defend against them all .

　　Just as he dodged the net, before he could even examine the spider, the spider suddenly exploded, and a dark liquid splashed out everywhere .

　　“s.h.i.+t!” Long Chen instinctively summoned out the blue flame of the Flame Salamander to cover his body .

　　That black liquid was instantly turned to vapor from the flame . But at the same time, an incomparably disgusting stench filled the air .

　　Long Chen immediately held his breath and rushed away . Several miles away, he wasn’t able to endure it any longer and began to vomit under a large tree .

　　“It was the Five-Flower Stink Spider… ugh . ” Long Chen continuously threw up, his stomach feeling like a churning sea .

　　The Five-Flower Stink Spider’s abdomen had two poison glands . One was used for releasing a poisonous liquid to capture prey .

　　But the other was used to secrete an incredibly disgusting stench . It was used to block opponents it had no chance of defeating . If a powerful Magical Beast wanted to eat it, it would release that stench . No Magical Beast would want to eat something so disgusting .

　　Long Chen was only able to recognize it because of this unendurable stench . Previously, he hadn’t paid much attention to the five-colored flower marks on its back .

　　“s.h.i.+t, I was too careless . s.h.i.+t, so unlucky- ugh!” Long Chen continued to puke . The Five-Flower Stink Spider was a special Magical Beast, and it was said to have been a rare existence even in ancient times .

　　It didn’t have a specific rank . It could even be said to be outside the cla.s.sification of Magical Beasts . However, its stench was too powerful, and there was no antidote .

　　Although it wouldn’t stink a person to death, it could make someone vomit over and over . Even a powerful cultivation base wasn’t able to stop that .

　　Long Chen puked for over two hours . He had even puked up his bile, and tears were streaming out of his eyes . He appeared unbearably miserable .

　　“Good things can’t be kept for oneself . They have to be shared with good friends . ” Long Chen clenched his teeth and returned to his original location where he had encountered the Five-Flower Stink Spider . Even now, Long Chen couldn’t help having tears stream down his face .

　　The stink in this area was just too dense . It wasn’t just smelly; it even provoked the eyes . Long Chen spread out his divine sense to search through the surrounding vegetation .

　　He saw many corpses of small insects that had all been suffocated to death by that stench .

　　Finally, he found the thing he was looking for . That was a black poison sac around the size of an egg .

　　The Five-Flower Stink Spider had two poison sacs . One would erupt along with its self-explosion . The other one was filled with its stinky fluid . That one was split into two layers .

　　The outer layer would explode, but the inner layer was much tougher and more supple . Normally, it wouldn’t easily be destroyed . And now, Long Chen did end up finding it intact .

　　As soon as he gathered that poison sac, Long Chen immediately fled . He then once more began to retch . Although he had nothing more to vomit up, he still couldn’t stop .

　　“This poison is way too abnormal . ” Only after a long time did Long Chen manage to suppress his urge to vomit . He arrived at a river and washed his pale face .

　　Long Chen suddenly frowned . “Huh?” He walked forward three hundred meters and arrived at a corpse . “This is already the fourth corpse…” He couldn’t help sighing . From this person’s robes, he could tell he was a core disciple of the Righteous path . His entire body was a dark purple, and he was swollen like a balloon, as if he had been about to self-detonate .

　　His divine sense swept over the corpse and didn’t find any injuries on his body . Once more sweeping his Spiritual Strength over the corpse, he noticed the color at his neck was quite a bit darker than the other parts of his body .

　　“If there was a puncture on his neck, it’d be hard to see after all this swelling . But it seems the most likely scenario is that he was bit by a mosquito-like creature… and from his posture, it seems he collapsed extremely naturally without any struggle . His face isn’t warped at all… so even when he was about to die, he didn’t sense any danger . The Forest of Darkness really is terrifying,” muttered Long Chen .

　　He had been in the Forest of Darkness for only five days now . Not only had he gathered various precious medicinal ingredients, but he had also run into all kinds of bizarre Magical Beasts . They had possessed a myriad of attacking methods . It was possible something as insignificant as a small caterpillar could take his life here .

　　This was the fourth corpse he had run into so far . Two had been Righteous disciples, while two had been Corrupt disciples . However, they hadn’t died from fighting, but to the indigenous inhabitants of the Forest of Darkness .

　　This person’s death was especially terrifying . He hadn’t sensed even the slightest bit of danger before dying .

　　Long Chen shook his head . As fellow members of the Righteous path, he dug a hole for him so his corpse wouldn’t rot in the wilderness . It was better for the dead to rest within the earth .

　　It was said that when a person died, their spirit didn’t die . This so-called spirit was a kind of hidden consciousness . It was something completely unrelated to the soul or divine sense . It was a kind of vague, almost unreal sort of thing .

　　Once a person died, if they were buried underground, then their spirit would also be buried . It would follow the earth to enter a different world . They would be reborn in that other world .

　　There was also another saying that when the spirit was buried, it would be absorbed by the great earth, similar to how fallen leaves return to the roots . It was a kind of cycle of life . In the end, they would be reincarnated as people .

　　If the corpse was left in the wild, it would cause a person’s soul to fly away and their spirit to scatter . They would completely vanish from the world . Long Chen had no idea whether these legends were true or not .

　　However, he didn’t care . In any case, he wouldn’t just watch as a person was tossed to the side like a dead dog .

　　After burying the person, Long Chen continued forward . Now he was even more cautious than ever .

　　Suddenly, a distant angry roar rang out from the distance . That seemed to be the roar of a Magical Beast . Long Chen immediately began rus.h.i.+ng in that direction .

　　After hundreds of miles, Long Chen slowed down and began to stealthily approach . There was an open s.p.a.ce ahead where angry roars were coming from .

　　It seemed it wasn’t just one Magical Beast . As he approached, he felt the ground constantly quivering from a battle .

　　Only when he got even closer did he see that there were four Magical Beasts attacking one Corrupt disciple .

　　This Corrupt disciple was on the Chosen-level . His aura was astonis.h.i.+ng as he fought against four Magical Beasts .

　　Of those four Magical Beasts, two were at the early third rank, while four were at the early fourth rank . They were working together extremely well as they a.s.saulted the Chosen .

　　Of the two fourth rank Magical Beasts, one was a Golden-Scaled Bull . Those golden scales gave it an extremely high defensive ability . It also had two golden horns that were facing off against the Chosen .

　　The other fourth rank Magical Beast looked to be just a leopard, but as he stared at it, Long Chen continued to feel something was off . Only later did he notice that it seemed more like a house cat .

　　Then when he saw that cat’s tails, he finally realized it was a Two-Tail Spirit Cat . Although it wasn’t specialized in defense, its attack speed was fast like the wind and as rapid as lightning .

　　The Golden-Scaled Bull and the Two-Tail Spirit Cat were working together, one on offense and one on defense . As for the third rank Magical beasts, they were just a.s.sisting from the side . The four of them had surrounded the Chosen, and loud explosions continuously shook the sky .

　　Seeing all this, Long Chen immediately knew there had to be a Beast Tamer . He look around and quickly noticed the master of these Magical Beasts .

　　But when he clearly saw who that master was, Long Chen couldn’t help smiling . It was surprisingly someone he hadn’t seen in a long time, Lu Fang-er .

　　She was hiding behind the Golden-Scaled Bull . She was continuously forming hand seals in front of her, which were most likely used to control how the Magical Beasts were attacking . Otherwise, those Magical Beasts definitely wouldn’t understand how to fight with such cooperation .

　　BOOM!

　　That Chosen suddenly let out an angry roar and his aura burst out . It seemed he had seen through their attack patterns, and he punched out at the Golden-Scaled Bull’s head .

　　This time the Chosen had truly found a good opportunity . His fist knocked that fourth rank Magical Beast tumbling back .

　　After knocking back the Golden-Scaled Bull, the Chosen then dodged the Two-Tail Spirit Cat’s claw, ignored the other two Magical Beasts, and charged straight at Lu Fang-er .

　　Seeing her strongest defense had been forced back, Lu Fang-er panicked for a moment . Extending her hand, her Spiritual Strength surged out, and a curtain of light shot forward out of her hand . “Golden Wave!”

　　Her golden Spiritual Strength surged over that Chosen . It was impossible to dodge .

　　“Hmph, I’ve already said that your Spiritual Strength is useless against me . Why don’t you just obediently wait to be captured?”

　　The Corrupt Chosen snorted and took out a pearl . The instant the pearl appeared, it emitted a ray of light .

　　Lu Fang-er’s spiritual attack was completely blocked by the pearl .

　　“Soul Shunning Pearl?” Lu Fang-er’s expression changed when she recognized the item . It was definitely a treasure his sect’s Elders had bestowed upon him . It was specialized towards blocking soul arts .

　　Although the energy contained within the pearl could only activate for a couple breaths of time, it would be impossible for her to prevent a Chosen from approaching her in that time .

　　“Just wait to be captured!” The Corrupt Chosen shouted and his aura completely locked Lu Fang-er in place . A palm crashed down, sealing off any of her retreat paths .

　　Lu Fang-er was panicked inside . She was a Beast Tamer, and also a woman, which made her physical body weaker than average . She was essentially powerless in the face of physical attacks, especially an attack from a Chosen .

　　This Chosen’s attack was coming too quickly . Her Magical Beasts didn’t have the time to come save her . It seemed that Chosen’s palm would reach her at any moment .

　　“Why don’t you try capturing me?”

　　Another large hand came from an extremely odd angle, firmly smas.h.i.+ng into the Chosen’s face .

　　The word for ‘spirit’ used here was shen 神 . This particular word also means divine or even G.o.ds . In comparison, ling 灵, and hun 魂 can also mean spirit/soul, but they mostly only mean soul/spirit .