Chapter 5: Demon Pond Forest (1)

Five-spotted antelopes raised their heads collectively as they focused their attention towards one particular spot of the thicket. They silently stood around the clear pond with a layer of blue river grass around it. A few antelopes slowly lowered their heads to graze upon the grass and some finally turned to drink from the clear pond once they saw the appearance of the unknown entity.

'Five-Spotted Antelopes are aggressive creatures. Although they're not carnivorous, they enjoy battles more than anything so much so that they occupy a pond by themselves. But they have a low internal balance which makes them slower than ordinary spirit beasts.'

Their lack of speed is the only reason why Chen took the risk of approaching one of the most dangerous ponds in the outer formation. Even though he was surrounded by spirit beasts behind him, none of them seemed aggressive to him.

He was still covered up by cloak but seeing that there was no one, he cautiously approached the herd of five-spotted antelopes. This was something that other spirit beasts dare not commit.

The five-spotted antelopes had auburn fur with a number of cream spots on their bodies. Their horns were like curved drills and it was due to the wretched weight of the horn that they intentionally lowered their natural speed. Although this species is called five-spots, none of them actually had five spots.

A five-spotted antelope has a single large patch on its back. Once it reaches the cultivation of a hundred years, the large patch is divided into two smaller patches. Next, after reaching the cultivation of thousand years, one of the two patches will divide in equal halves, equalling the number of patches into three.

At the realm of ten-thousand-years cultivation, the spots will number into a total of four spots and finally, a hundred-thousand-years cultivation will result in five spots. At the moment, the greatest number of spots in the group was only two.

Aside from a few hundred-year-old spirit five-spotted antelopes, every other antelope was ordinary.

Right now, Chen's green eyes looked especially brilliant. Even his usually dark pupils projected a faint luster that gave him an extraordinary present. His slow approach towards the herd unexpectedly had no negative result. As he walked, the blue river grass around him shimmered strangely and swayed. The blades of the grass would follow Chen's movement, always pointing towards him.

'It works. The three-eyed Golden Lion is one of the most treasured spirit beasts. As long as a Three-eyed Golden Lion exists in an ecosystem, the environment would prevail and so will the spirit beasts. Although my Three-eyed Silver Lion shares a few traits similar to the golden lion, it also seems to have a calming effect on spirit beasts. Until aggravated, they don't seem to approach me with ill intentions...

I can probably use this to abuse the system. But it is too early to form a conclusion. The trait must have considered my second martial soul's ability before forming mission difficulty and rewards.'

Once Chen safely walked to the opposite side of the pond, he slowly removed his clothes. The first to be removed was his cloak.

The cloak fell on the ground gently and unlike Chen's usual appearance, he looked extremely different, slightly feral, too.

His black hair was now silver in color. In the middle of his brows, a tattoo of green, vertical pupil appeared and would release a soft light every now and then. Not just that, Chen's ears were elongated and carpeted by a layer of fuzzy fur. His feet and hands were the things that changed the most. His fingers were bundled and then layered with a tough exterior to form a dark-gree talon!

Right now, instantly of his toes and fingers, he held four talons. The talons over his feet were wider and sturdier. Its base was also straighter. Meanwhile, the talons over Chen's hands were slightly curvier and reflected a cold light.

Placing his shoes that he carried with him till now, Chen then carefully removed his robes. He dared not remove the transformation of his martial soul. While he did so, Chen unconsciously glanced at the black pupil mark on the back of his right talon. Even now, the mark of Evil Title didn't vanish.

'Three-eyed Silver Lion not only increases my base agility by 10%, but it also passively increases my affinity with space and light elements. So, the most suited spirit rings for this martial soul are related to light and spatial elements.

But, if the spirit hall knew about the most important traits of this martial soul, they would have made sure that I stay with them, alive, at that.

5% increase in the rate of personal cultivation and an area-wide boost of 15% in cultivation for both beasts and humans! In fact, I can control the range from a meter of a radius to the highest limit of 50 kilometers! This is... just a tool for creating a perfect organization!

But, aside from Light and Space, this martial soul has the greatest attribute of spirit. Too bad that this attribute is just... well, too generalized and finding a pure spirit-attributed spirit beast is extremely hard.'

As Chen slipped out of his robes, he looked at his furry forearms and calves. Still, he did not grow a tail or have his crotch turned bestial.

"You guys wouldn't mind me taking a dip, right? I really need a bath," Chen looked towards the Antelopes with a hint of cautiousness but they didn't seem to respond at all as if he wasn't even there!

'This form expends spirit energy and I don't have too much of it... let's just take a dip,' Chen glanced at the clear pond. He could even see the bottom of the pond with a few fishes swimming idly. The lack of spiritual energy in them indicated their status as non-spirit beasts and Chen finally stretched his talon to touch the water.

He jumped in with a smile and began washing himself quickly. Accumulated grime matter with sweat floated all around Chen before merging with the pool as Chen continued to change his location and clean various parts of his body using the torn bedsheet he had with himself. After all, talons cannot scrub and clean him.

'All done... let's skedaddle out of this place!'

Chen hurriedly cleaned his body with the inner portion of his cloak and then wore his robes. He didn't wait to strap the bundle of books onto his back and held every other item in his arms before jogging towards the thicket.

Pushing shrubs and branches aside using his free talon, Chen returned to the area he deemed the safest to his abilities.

Even now, the naturally concave shelter provided by a tree was not the best but Chen couldn't help it. He was loving it!

'Beautiful sceneries like this are hard to come across in my own world. I do miss television and video games but honestly, I didn't even use them that much. All my time was spent in killing, sending violent messages, and whatnot...'

Leaning against the surface of the tree, Chen released his martial spirit, reverting to his normal form. His eyes lost their previous luster but a peaceful smile touched his lips.

'Too bad that behind this serenity is the threat of death. So I can't just sit around and admire nature,' thinking till here, Chen stood up. The Devil Pond Forest is inhabited by many types of spirit beasts. But this forest also holds a number of beasts still at the earliest stage of their cultivation and quite ordinary in nature.

Chen didn't plan to hunt. He planned to separate such beasts from their herds and fight with them. Once satisfied, he would leave.

He was the greatest sinner of his world by killing the President of the Federation. Of course, the masses hailed him as a hero but the more dramatic effects of the collapse of the federation had yet to be revealed. To achieve all of this, planning isn't the only thing Chen was good at. He was a capable fighter, too. And now that he had new techniques to try, he felt his mood turning excited.

Taking a deep breath to calm his urging nerves, Chen recalled the techniques he had set his mind upon.

The Mental Acupuncture Technique would increase his mental energy, the Revitalized Blood Qi Art would increase the quality of his physique, and the Concentric Spirit Technique would further deepen his foundation of spirit energy. These three techniques were without any special attribute and only served to increase the quality of his existence.

However, these techniques cannot be cultivated in a forest where even an ant can be a danger.

So, Chen raised his hand and began striking forward.

The palm technique was divided into three realms. The first realm marks a full completion once he can utilize all the 32 stances of the technique.

To reach this stage, aside from practice, physical mobility and flexibility were also needed.

But Chen didn't plan to tire himself out. After practicing the 32 strikes once, he stopped. Turning around, he touched his cloak and it was still slightly wet. He didn't wear his shoes since he would be needing to activate his martial soul often in case of true danger to pacify the spirit beasts.

'Man... this month is going to be a long one...'