Even though fighting ceaselessly for several days, in succession, inside the Devil’s Abyss was a very difficult task, it bore great results, and their strengths continued to enhance at a very quick rate.
In order to reach the pinnacle of the ‘transformation’ layer as soon as possible, Lone Leaf even started taking Dan pellets which pertained to the ‘transformation’ layer.
After consuming ‘transformation’ layer Dan pellets, his strength was improving much faster than antic.i.p.ated; it was difficult to guess how long it would take him to reach his target without their aid.
Once he was able to reach the peak of the ‘transformation’ layer, Lone Leaf could use the Jade tablet to teleport back to the Bei Ming School.
Upon his return, he would immediately consume an Ogre Flower petal, and would soon enter into the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer.
Lone Leaf’s current practice was very important for his survival, and he needed to make this jump as quickly as possible, before returning to the Bei Ming School.
Once he was inside the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer, the Bei Ming faction would surely back him against any inquiries of the Jian Shen Sect.
No matter what happens, it was vital for Lone Leaf to increase his strength as quickly as possible.
In order to help Lone Leaf, Bi Fan and the others, would set aside a larger share of the Demons for him to train on.
Along the way, they encountered several human parties, which even included teams from the Jiu Yu Da Sect factions.
But these people were too afraid to provoke Bi Fan, and his friends, as they could clearly see that Bi Fan, and his team, were far too strong to mess around with.
No matter where a person goes, strength, in this world, was the ultimate commanding force. The strong, in this world, need not be afraid of anything, while the weak didn’t have any rights.
Bi Fan was practicing as hard as always, as he had tasted the bitter side of life, and had suffered a lot of bullying at the hands of stronger men in his early days.
He was more motivated than anyone else to promote his strength as fast as possible, so he could make a name for himself.
Bi Fan’s drive for supremacy inspired w.a.n.g Zhong, and the others, to strive harder and harder.
Lone Leaf was the only one in their group who had seen the brighter side of life, by the virtue of being an outer disciple of the Jiu Yu Da Sect.
Even though Blue Dragon was born into the Eastern Aristocracy, he had always suffered a lot of insults at the hands of his family, owing to illegitimacy of his parent’s relationship.
As for w.a.n.g Zhong, he had always been forced to rely on his own measures for survival and training, so his current position in the society was worthy of being called commendable.
As w.a.n.g Zhong witnessed the ferocity, and effort, with which Bi Fan trained, he could clearly see why he was unable to match up to Bi Fan’s strength.
The four of them continued to train in a frenzied fashion, and carried on hunting the Devil’s Race to sate their wild thirst for power.
Their thirst for blood-l.u.s.t would terrify any pa.s.sersby, who would continue to stare at the four of them with gooseb.u.mps on their bodies.
“Look at them! They look like devils in human form; just look how vicious they are, their entire body is covered in blood. G.o.d knows how long they have been slaughtering the Devil’s Race for…”
“We cannot offend those four in any manner, let’s get out of here.”
Hardly anyone ever dared to come anywhere near the four of them, as everyone was terrified of their appearance. They were, all, covered in blood from top to bottom, so much so, that even their faces were blood stained; it was becoming difficult to tell their ident.i.ties due to the sheer number of layers of blood that their faces were stained in.
Even if Mo Li saw them, he probably wouldn’t be able to recognize then, unless he inspected them very carefully.
The four of them were so invested in their training that they were unaware of the fact, that they were being perceived as savage homicidal maniacs on a murderous spree…
“Boom!” Once they were finished killing the last of the Devil’s Race that they fighting at the moment, they looked up, and saw the number, and severely mutilated condition, of the dead bodies that they were surrounded by.
Bi Fan and his party had gone wild, without even realizing it.
“We are practicing too hard. These bodies are completely damaged; they won’t fetch a very high price in the market.” Bi Fan said in a gloomy voice.
Blue Dragon said: “When did this happen, I never realized it….”
“In the future, we must be a little careful. If we keep getting carried away like this, we might end up getting possessed.” w.a.n.g Zhong smiled.
Ever since they had started training, Lone Leaf’s strength had seen a ma.s.sive upgrade.
Taking Dan pellets was always a fast and easy method to increase strength, but it always led to a very unstable foundation, which is why, it was necessary to take some precautions while taking such pellets.
Dan pellets were best suited to be consumed only occasionally, and should only be used more often while making the bottleneck breakthrough, to help speed up the process.
Enhancing strength using such shortcuts was always easier, but proved out to be very costly at a later stage, as the progress was bound to get slower and slower, and was likely to eventually get stalled altogether.
Most people were unaware of this basic truth, and would often resort to consuming Dan pellets in order to enhance strength at a very rapid pace; especially those, who were from influential families and had no shortage of resources, and those who belonged to major martial arts sects, and were pressured into standing up to their family names.
Lone Leaf had started consuming Dan pellets as a last resort, and was planning on slowing his progress down to concentrate on stabilizing his base, in order to purify the composition of his strength; but only after making the breakthrough.
Now that Lone Leaf was almost done, his strength had almost reached its target, owing largely to the supported that he had drawn from the Dan pellets.
“Brother Lone Leaf, your strength has increased so quickly! The first layer of the Devil’s Abyss is practically useless to you now, so you might as well go back a little early.” Blue Dragon started laughing.
Bi Fan said: “Brother Dragon, what are you complaining about, the Jiu Yu list compet.i.tion is arriving soon, you might as well use this opportunity to kill some more beasts and enhance your strength further.”
“Oh, my Yin Yang pouches are almost full, so killing these weak beasts really doesn’t sound that tempting anymore.” Blue Dragon sighed.
w.a.n.g Zhong offered: “If you’re interested, then I can take you to some dangerous places, where you will find much stronger beasts. But keep in mind, that these places can be very dangerous.”
“A chance of more danger, how can I say no? Let’s quickly go there.” Blue Dragon’s spirits started sky-rocketing once again, and excitement was visible on his face once more.
Lone Leaf and Bi Fan looked at each other, and nodded. w.a.n.g Zhong said: “Well, then, I’ll take you to the Devil’s Secret Forest. Most of the Devil’s Race there is as strong as the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer, and there’s no shortage of ‘transformation’ layer beasts either.”
“The Devil’s Secret Forest! That’s one of the top-ten most dangerous places. I have heard a lot about it… it is said that the Devil’s Secret forest is blooming with a lot of very rare Panacea…. but I don’t know if there’s any truth to these rumors….” Lone Leaf was pleasantly surprised.
w.a.n.g Zhong replied: “Indeed, you will find a lot of rare Panacea in the Devil’s forest, but the powerful herbs are often guarded by powerful beasts, so it’s awfully difficult to successfully acquire any.”
“Let’s go!” Bi Fan’s eyes were full of expectations.
Rare Panaceas were awfully precious. Since Bi Fan had been subjected to a lot exposure with regard to herbs since early childhood, he had a very profound understanding of the subject. But moreover, he had always attached a very special sentiment with these herbs.
Bi Fan had always nurtured the notion of becoming an alchemist, but unfortunately, had never met the right teacher to teach him the required skills.
Refining raw herbs required an awful lot of skill, and knowledge, and alchemists were often given the same status that martial artists were. So naturally, the renowned alchemists carried the same status, which a renowned martial artist did in the society.
The Quinyang School had four ‘star alchemists’, and these men were capable of refining very high quality Dan pellets, while their status was considered equivalent to the ‘elders’ of the Sect. In fact, sometimes, such men received even better treatment than the elders did.
Bi Fan had an innate talent for herbs and gardening, and as a boy, had always dreamt of becoming an alchemist.
Now, however, Bi Fan’s horizons had been broadened, so naturally, he had dropped the idea of becoming an alchemist. But now that this opportunity had presented itself, Bi Fan simply couldn’t help but nurture his childhood dream once more.
Bi Fan’s knowledge in the area was fairly basic, but still he knew the basics of refining and mixing potions.
Since Bi Fan still wanted to learn the science in the future, acc.u.mulating herbs at an early age would come in handy later on, and would help him learn things faster.
Even expert alchemists were bound to burn a few potions while mixing and refining herbs, so naturally, the chances of success for an amateur were far lesser. So obviously, it requires a large inventory of herbs to attain proficiency in the science, as one would need to practice quite a bit.
Rare Panaceas, often had no market price, and were awfully difficult to procure in the open market. But at moment, Bi Fan had been presented with a wonderful opportunity to get his hands on some of them, so naturally, he wasn’t about to let it slip by easily.
Under the leadership of w.a.n.g Zhong, the four of them made their way towards the Devil’s Forest. And even though they encountered several of the Devil’s Race beasts along the way, they didn’t stop to fight any.
It was obvious that w.a.n.g Zhong had been to the Devil’s Secret Forest more than once before, as he seemed overly familiar with the road.
After a few hours, the four of them found themselves standing outside the Devil’s Secret Forest.
Bi Fan, Blue Dragon, and Lone Leaf, simply couldn’t believe their eyes as they watched the tall and dense forest, which was studded with cycads, and their mouths remained hung open out of surprise for quite some time.
The cycads trees had an extremely strong core, which was considered top quality refining material for weapons.
Cycads were extremely rare in the world outside of the Abyss, and such tall ones, were practically unheard off.
It was hard to imagine that the first layer of the Devil’s Abyss could be home to such towering Cycads.
“This is a rare chance; if you want the core of cycads, then go ahead and chop all you like.” w.a.n.g Zhong smiled.
Lone Leaf asked: “You don’t want any cycad cores?”
“I have been here so many times before, I have plenty…” w.a.n.g Zhong coughed as he held back his laughter.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf charged wildly towards the forest, in a mad fury to cut down some cycads.
“The Cycad cores aren’t really that easy to procure, are they?” Bi Fan laughed.
“Ha ha ha …” w.a.n.g Zhong couldn’t hold it back anymore.