Dark Forest

The Next day Long Chen planned to go out for a little outing, near the edge of the dark forest.

He had heard from his subordinates, that supposedly some spirit fruits have been found.

Long Chen took off in the morning all alone.

The edge of the forest was around 50km away from the city, so it took Long Chen about an hour to get there.

Entering the forest Long Chen noticed there were a lot of tall trees surrounded by lush bushes.

Except for some flying birds no other creatures were visible.

'Looks like the demonic beasts specialize in sneak attacks for hunting in this part of the forest'.

While Long Chen was busy observing the forest, a Flame Monkey was observing him from the shadows and was slowly making his way towards Long Chen from behind, while baring its fangs.

Long Chen threw his saber towards the beast.

'Swish'

A saber shoved inside his head effectively killing it.

"Punk you are too green to trick this lord"

Long Chen removed his saber from the tree and collected its demonic core and blood essence.

Along the way, many demonic beasts tried ambushing Long Chen but were met with the same fate as the little monkey.

'Dammit I don't have a space ring gotta make do with these storage pouches which is almost full'

Storage pouches were made from the insides of a special beast whose insides carried more volume due to its inherent nature of warping space.

These kinds of bags are relatively common in Southern Phoniex city.

While Checking out his bag Long Chen heard the rustling of grass. Looking ahead he observed a group of people.

'Oh What do you know Ling Clan people'

He quickly climbed up the tree and stealthily made his way towards them.

5 people wearing Ling Clan's Clothing were walking along while studying a map.

"This map shows that we need to fight a scarlet bear to collect the spirit quake fruit"

"It's a pity there is only one fruit otherwise us brothers could have had some benefits"

"Shhh damn you, idiot, if you wanna get killed go ahead, don't drag us down the only reason we were sent was because the clan did not want to attract much attention. If any deacon hears you he will execute you"

'Quake fruit perfect for me to improve asura claw' Long Chen thought while showing a Wide Smile which wasn't really a smile.

A Quake fruit was a type of spirit fruit that increases the qi of a qi condensation cultivator.

But what makes it special is it adds a quaky nature to the qi substantially increasing its power.

This fruit is derived from the essence of a snake-type demonic beast quake snake.

It imitates the Quakesnake's inherent ability to oscillate its qi, to make it more destructive.

Long Chen quietly followed them before they came across a cave.

'The quake fruit is there'

Long Chen saw a red-colored fruit with spikes on it, inside the cave and a large scarlet furred bear with large claws was resting outside.

"Shh, you guys go fight I will extract it."

4 of the guys which were at 3rd layer of qi condensation went to distract the bear while the only 4th layer qi condensation guy tried to sneak into from behind.

Unfortunately for him, the bear noticed him and ferociously attacked. It turned into a stalemate between the 5 people and the bear.

Long Chen was watching while being laid back planning to play the role of fisherman.

The fight turned out to be very brutal with all the parties except the guy in the lead being heavily injured.

'Damn it I planning to pocket this talisman but looks like I gotta use this' Thought the only uninjured guy.

"Damn you beast take this"

Saying that he threw a talisman towards the bear.

Immediately the bear started howling as if it was in great pain, its skin started turning greenish.

"Finally this wretched beast is done for"

Just as they were celebrating Long Chen smiled victoriously and was about to jump down When suddenly he felt danger.

'Shit'

A huge python bit on Long Chen's forearms and tried coiling against him but before he could succeed Long Chen backflipped and fell down.

'Bam'

Dust flew from where Long Chen fell.

"Arghh dammit this damn snake ruined this young master's plan"

Long Chen furiously yelled while used his bare hands to rip apart the snake.

It was pathetically weak at the initial second-order, it was only due to a sneak attack it could pull a fast one-off on Long Chen.

'I have been far too careless it seems I did not even inspect my environment properly'

The Ling Clan guards were blanked out for a moment seeing this bizarre scene play out before them Before they managed to get their bearings.

Their Faces turned red and breathing hurried in anger they were about to be taken advantage of by this punk.

"Isn't this Long Chen"

"Hahaha what a pleasant surprise if we kill him we will be rewarded"

"Yes apparently this kid has become the top genius of the city"

The guards were Laughing while looking at Long Chen with anger.

As far as they were concerned Long Chen was a fish on a chopping board.

"Tch It looks like you really look down on this young lord"

Long Chen said with a playful smile while showing absolutely no regard for these guards.

"Tch Long Chen quit acting mysterious I suggest quickly confess everything it will save you a lot of pain"

"Hahaha we can milk him for some cultivation techniques and battle arts"

Long Chen couldn't even be bothered to answer, He straightaway unleashed his killing intent.

Stepping forward he jumped high before attacking from above.

'Slash'

The Captain also had seen his fair shed of blood so he could still barely move, mostly because of the fact, that he had a much higher cultivation base he could match Long Chen's speed.

Seeing his saber blocked Long Chen kicked at him diagonally.

The Captain blocked using a dagger making Long Chen pause midway and flip backward.

The Captain did not spare anytime he threw multiple daggers.

Long Chen rolled on the ground to dodge all of his attacks.

'Demon Fairy Step'

Suddenly he closed the distance between them.

"Tiger eating the heart"

The Captain palmed towards Long Chen's heart.

Tilting Sidewards Long Chen caught his arm in all its glory.

Long Chen Then twisted it before climbing onto him, and used his legs to crush the captain's Ribcage.

"DAmmit help you nitwits"

The Other members who were already injured were in a trance watching Long Chen and the captain fight, for them the fight was too high level.

"Not a chance in hell"

Long Chen broke free from his grasp and held his neck.

'Snap'

The Captain's body fell deader than a doornail.

Seeing this the other Soldiers shit their pants and turned pale in fright.

Long Chen pounced on one of them before he could even make a sound.

'Slash'

His head fell first.

"Long Chen you bastard take this" Saying this one of the guards threw a talisman towards Long Chen.

Long Chen ignored it and just cut it into pieces.

'Shit'

Lots of smoke flew out of the talisman blinding Long Chen for a moment.

His eyes started bleeding a little and on top of that, there was a lot of smoke effectively reducing Long Chen's eyesight.

"Dammit"

Long Chen threw his saber towards the cave where the fruit was located

'Slash' it landed right where one of the soldiers had run to it slit him from the waist.

Navigating the Location via his spiritual sense Long Chen just went and collected the fruit and checked to see if anything else is good in there but he was bound to be disappointed.

In about 10 breaths of time he got back to normal opening his eyes he observed his surroundings.

"Dammit, the others ran away towards their encampments. Leaving from this part of the forest would be a pain in the ass the Ling Clan would heighten the security for a couple of days, and there are also these annoying sneaky beasts I better Consume this fruit and try for a breakthrough "

Thinking along those lines Long Chen looked for a secluded cave nearby and covered its entrance. It took him about 10 breaths of time to find a good cave.

Before thoroughly inspecting the cave for any demonic beasts.

Sitting Down first Long Chen circulated the primordial dragon transformation art to expel all the poison the snake bit onto him.

After that, he quickly consumed the fruit.

Due to its spikes, it was a bit hard to eat he but still, he managed to gulp it down without throwing up.

As soon as he was done a large amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth entered Long Chen's body.

'Shit it's too much'

Long Chen quickly Started cultivating to properly utilize the energy. It was rampaging all over his body, his skin and turned blood red with veins popping all over the place. It looked like He was gonna burst alive.

Gritting his teeth Long Chen tried to contain the energy as much as possible by using both for essence cultivation and body cultivation, His forehead was covered with sweat still he persevered through.

'Bang'

A muffled sound came from Long Chen's body.

2nd layer of qi condensation.

Still, there was a lot of energy leftover Long Chen did not waste any and continued cultivating.

His cultivation base rising until it reached the peak of the 2nd layer where Long Chen forcefully suppressed it.

A bang sounded after all the energy dissipated but Long Chen was not done yet.

He immediately started comprehending about the quake snake Most of it came from the fruit the rest from his past life.

About half an hour later The qi inside Long Chen's body started oscillating in a destructive manner. It looked like it was going back and forth.

Long Chen applied his spiritual force to better control his qi

Eventually, the rampaging stopped but you could feel the buzzing that seemed in Long Chen's Qi.

Standing up Long Chen threw a punch.

'Bang' the cave heavily shook.

"Nice its raw power is comparable to a 4th or almost a 5th layer qi condensation martial artist."

Satisfied with his new prowess Long Chen simply sat down and started stabilizing his cultivation base.

…

"This way let's go we need to hurry up"

"Are you sure the talisman is working right"

"Hahaha it absolutely is, It is a product from the imperial capital"

A group of heavily armored men in Ling Clan's Uniform was navigating through the forest looking for Long Chen.

They even had some late qi condensation, martial artists.

After a couple of hours had passed since their last encounter they finally caught on to the cave Long Chen might be hiding in.