At another place.

A flame red silhouette flickered, Xi Ling had already reached the bottom of a mountain. In front of her were deathly grey darkness type plants.

“Found it!” Xi Ling joyfully exclaimed. She squatted down, and used her hands to carefully make upright the deathly black grass. She opened her hands, palms facing up...

Woosh.....

A mysterious breeze arose, and within the sound of the breeze, a small cluster of red flames flickered and danced above Xi Ling’s right hand. The flame was very small and was not very bright, but released an incredible amount of heat. The heat that radiated out from this small flame was strong enough to scatter the pebbles around Xi Ling. An absorbing force emanated out from her other hand, and absorbed the surrounding darkness energy. Soon, a ball of darkness gathered above her snow white palm.

“For big brother, I must succeed....” The young girl shouted. She gently pressed her palms containing the bright flame and the ball of darkness together, then separated them after a few moments. The result was a ball of fire and darkness mixed together. Slowly and carefully, Xi Ling moved the ball of fire and darkness closer to the darkness type plants, and placed it on the ground on which the plants were growing. Shortly after, the ball of fire and darkness completely disappeared into the ground.

“Flaming Black Grass, quickly grow out!”

Xi Ling clenched her two little fists, her sparkling eyes eagerly looking at the darkness type plants. Under her gaze, the darkness type plants began to shudder, and began to chaotically turn and twist. They began to grow, becoming taller and wider...

When the plants had finally settled into their new form, what appeared were black flames. The plants that were originally ordinary darkness type plants had become Flaming Black Grass.

“Success!!” Xi Ling joyfully exclaimed. She reached out with her hands, and carefully put away all the Flaming Black Grass. One, two, three... Seven....

“Even though it’s not that much, but it should be enough. I should quickly go back to give this to big brother!”

Clutching the seven Flaming Black Grass to her chest, Xi Ling quickly jogged towards where Ling Chen was.

.......................

Ling Chen’s body rapidly became colder and colder, to the point that it became freezing. It was as if he had suddenly become an ice sculpture. His teeth chattered; his body was like a strand of weak grass being buffeted by a gale. Rows of cold sweat trickled down from every part of his body, from head to toe, and drenched his clothing and equipment. This was not just some simple fear, but his body’s natural reaction to an incomparably terrifying and overwhelming force bearing down on him.

As the sky became darker and darker, Ling Chen slightly lifted his head. His eyes darkly stared at the dark cloud slowly moving in the sky. Apart from his body naturally shuddering and shaking, he was unable to make any other movements. The oppressive dark force that covered the entire sky and land had completely locked his entire body. It was as if a mountain so high that its peak could not be seen had been heavily placed upon his body... Under this terrifyingly oppressive force, every part of Ling Chen’s body lost its ability to move.

What... was this power!?

Could it be... this was... the “scary bastard” that Qian Gun Gun had mentioned?

After entering Mystic Moon, Ling Chen had fought against the insanely strong Celestial BOSS [TLN: The toad I think] when he was only level 5. Till now, that had been his most difficult and life-threatening battle. There had been a massive disparity between the boss and Ling Chen’s strength; the difference was like the difference between the heavens and the earth. At that time, he hadn’t run away or given up, but had instead chosen to battle with it.... Because of his skill and spiritual force, he was able to endure that bitter battle for 9 hours, and finally achieved victory at the end.

However, this time, the aura that encompassed and oppressed his body gave him a taste of what total hopelessness felt like. This aura surpassed anything that he had ever encountered or expected; it was so strong that he could not muster up even a bit of resistance. This aura was dark and evil; Ling Chen did not doubt that the one who was emitting this oppressive aura could wipe out Ling Chen’s existence with just a flick from his finger. Throughout his life, Ling Chen had faced countless strong opponents and enemies, and had gone through many sufferings that normal people could not even imagine. However... he had never felt such a terrifyingly oppressive force before.

This... was this the power of the Mysterious God level!?

The owner of the oppressive aura had yet to appear, but just based on the strength of the aura, Ling Chen already had a feeling of total helplessness, making it impossible for him to give even a bit of resistance. Even moving his body was completely impossible. His spiritual force was incredibly powerful, but his power right now was still far too weak. In the face of this type of domineering power, he felt that he was like a grain of sand; it could destroy him with the flick of a finger. Moreover, he didn’t even have the strength to put up any struggle at all.

“Who... are... you?!!” Ling Chen gritted his teeth, and managed to choke out three words. He knew that the scary person who had been guarding at Lonely Spirit Ridge had left for a while, was back. Its existence had resulted in the deaths of countless experts from the Forgotten Continent at Lonely Spirit Ridge; not a single person was able to safely escape. Among these experts, there were many super experts whose names resounded across all of the Forgotten Continent. The current Ling Chen’s overall strength was only at the Forgotten Continent’s lowest power level. In front of this level of power, he didn’t have even a sliver of hope. He knew that he was definitely going to die today, but at least he was luckier than those who had died here before him- he would be revived after he died. Although he would be demoted back to level 0, he was only level 13 at the moment, which wasn’t too high, so he was still able to accept it. However, he at least wanted to know who this scary person was before he died.

“Awooo~~” Xiao Hui stood in front of Ling Chen; the normally gentle and happy Xiao Hui was now emanating a ferocious aura. It was evident that Xiao Hui could more sensitively detect how terrifying this aura of danger truly was, as well as how evil and sinful it was.

“Heeeheehehehe.....”

An ear-splitting laugh rang out. It seemed to come from the sky above, yet also seemed to come from every direction around Ling Chen. In this deathly silent Lonely Spirit Ridge, the laugh seemed infinitely more horrifying. Hearing this creepy laugh, Ling Chen’s heart began to intensely beat, his face became paler and paler until it was almost completely white... He never knew that laughter could be so terrifying... so terrifying to the point that it threatened to split his entire body apart.

Ling Chen, who had wandered the boundaries between life and death many times before, was not afraid of death in the slightest. The fear and terror he felt came from facing an opponent who was immeasurably stronger than him, caused an unconscious trembling in his soul. The current Ling Chen could easily beat Celestial bosses of the same level, but he definitely could not win against a Heaven’s End boss of the same level... the owner of this aura, he was at least Mysterious God level, and was very high level, if not max level!

“Never thought that in the short time that I left, there actually would be a reckless little lamb who would be audacious enough to come here... Heeehehehehe, you humankind are such interesting little animals. In the past 10,000 years I can’t even remember how many overconfident little human trash I’ve killed. I never expected a human to come in here seeking death, and this time it’s such a little ant. This is way too funny.... Heeeehehehe, hahahaha....” [TLN: It refers to itself using “ 本魔” which is pretty much a royal version of ‘my demonic self’]

Every wave of laughter and eerie speech brutally attacked Ling Chen’s body and spirit. The pressure that was currently encompassing him was, without a doubt, the strongest and scariest he had ever felt in his entire life. In the worlds of the games he had played in the past, he had never met such an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, much less so in the real world. The Ling Chen who could normally remain calm in any situation found that his heart could not stop thumping, and the icy terror pierced his body like blades of swords.

He knew that it was impossible for him to make it out of this hopeless situation, but he wished that he could get it over with as quickly as possible. He simply didn’t want to continue to endure this mind-crushingly strong pressure.

As the arrogant laughter rang out, a bolt of darkness suddenly shot down from the black cloud in the sky and landed roughly 10m in front of Ling Chen... The bolt was one made of pure darkness, without any impurities at all. It was hard to imagine that such a pure and profound darkness existed in the world. The bolt of darkness twisted and turned in front of Ling Chen, gradually solidifying and taking shape.... A gigantic 4 or 5 metre shadow suddenly rose up in front of Ling Chen.

Ling Chen: “!!!!”

It had a gigantic body, a body shape and four limbs similar to that of a human’s, but its skin was completely different to that of a human’s. Its body appeared to be covered with a layer of pure black armour; even its face was completely covered by the armour. The only parts that were not covered were two eyes that shone with a red and black glow... The monstrous eyes held a dark gaze that could freeze one’s soul.

What sort of monster was this?? It looked like a human wearing black armour, yet definitely was not a human. A normal human could not possibly have such a huge body, and most certainly could not release such a dark and evil aura. Moreover, he addressed himself as “my royal demonic self”... could it be... this was an ancient demon beast!?

The monstrous gaze disdainfully swept over Ling Chen’s body, as if it had seen an incredibly weak ant. It darkly laughed, the terrifying pressure it released seemed to stop even the movement of air particles out of fear, “This is also nice though. At least I can have some fun now and then. Now, how do you want to die? Should I directly crush you into nothing, or should I cut you up into little bits then throw you back to the Forgotten Continent? Or should I wear down your spirit so that I can enjoy some delightful screams from you? Heeehehehehe... hahahaha.....”

“War... Demon... Beast!!!”

Amidst that ear-splitting laughter that rang out in Ling Chen’s head, Qi Yue’s voice suddenly called out. Qi Yue who had been sleeping the whole time, could not help but be shocked awake under the horrific pressure from the War Demon Beast. The instant she awoke, while in shock, directly yelled out this terrifying creature’s name.

“War... Demon... Beast?” Ling Chen gritted his teeth. He repeated this name in his head, and committed it to memory. He suddenly felt that this was not the first time that he had heard this name. It felt as if he had heard this name not too long ago.

Where did he hear this name from...

Mystic Moon... Azure Dragon City... Novice Village... Novice Village...

Ling Chen suddenly realised, after leaving Novice Village, he had asked the Village Chief about the most powerful beings on Forgotten Continent. In the Village Chief’s explanation, he had mentioned the ten ancient demon beasts... ten terrifying beasts that should never be angered or provoked...

One of them was the War Demon Beast!!

This scary creature had just addressed itself as “my royal demonic self”.

Could it be that this was one of the ten ancient beasts on the Mysterious God level, the War Demon Beast?