Captain Lei spoke in a deep voice and walked out of the canyon under the other teammates’ silent gazes, disappearing into the distance.
Xu Qing wanted to say something, but before he could, Captain Lei had left far away.
Cross then patted Xu Qing’s shoulder and left as well.
Barbaric Ghost and Luan Tooth were the last to leave. Both of them shared their experiences with him in detail and then left hurriedly.
Xu Qing looked at them quietly, put away the seven-leaf grass, and then turned back to look at the temple cluster in the far distance.
A short moment later, Xu Qing turned around and inhaled deeply. He then ran toward the canyon’s entrance. His speed had clearly gotten faster after he had reached the third level of Body Refinement, and he disappeared from the entrance in an instant.
Xu Qing moved agilely like a monkey, darting through the forbidden zone jungle endlessly. He didn’t take the path they had used but followed the map and took a detour.
He also made use of the experiences he had learned on their way here on how to differentiate dangers. Even though he encountered a few mutated beasts on the way, he managed to take care of them successfully.
At the same time, he also paid attention to his shadow under the sunlight on many occasions. A strange glow then flashed in his eyes.
He had tried things out. Regardless if it was to absorb spirit energy or when he inhaled deeply, all the anomalous substances would slowly gush into his shadow after they entered his body. This was just like how he had felt when he had broken through earlier!
Thinking back, he realized that this started when the purple crystal released a cold stream.
After he had reached the third level of the Mountains and Seas Art, it became even more apparent.
It seemed that after the purple crystal consumed the black-scaled wolf’s shadow… his shadow had mutated.
This strangeness caused Xu Qing to slowly squint his eyes.
He rolled up his left sleeve and looked over. There was only one mutation point on his arm, and it had become extremely faint. If he didn’t take a closer look at it, it would be hard to notice any traces.
If this development continued, the anomalous substances in his body would get increasingly lesser until his body reached a stage of perfect purity.
And this perfection… Xu Qing had seen it on the Mountains and Seas Art’s bamboo slip before. Only the extremely distinguished people in the Wanggu Continent, the place of origin for the human race, could enjoy this perfection.
“Is it the effect of the purple crystal?” Xu Qing mumbled. He squatted on a branch, looked at the sky, and went into a daze for a while.
Very long later, he touched his chest where the purple crystal was embedded and fell silent for a moment. When he raised his head again, he suppressed all his doubt to the bottom of his heart. His body then swayed and he sped into the jungle, continuing on his way.
Although the anomalous substances were no longer a threat to him for now, this was just one of the many dangers in the forbidden zone. Xu Qing still encountered other dangers as he went on his way.
For example, he now saw two mutated bears whose auras surpassed that of Captain Lei’s.
Each of the bears’ backs had a colorful huge spider lying on them, with countless threads coming out from the spiders’ stomachs and digging into the bears’ bodies. It was as though they were under the control of the spiders.
This caused the two enraged bears to lose control over themselves as they ran.
The trees were knocked down by them. When they encountered other mutated beasts that tried to stop them, the bears would also tear them up. They displayed great brutality.
If it wasn’t that the target they were chasing was a red tiger and they didn’t pay any attention to Xu Qing, in addition to the fact that Xu Qing also quickly escaped at the first instant, the situation would probably be extremely dangerous.
These weren’t the only dangers in the forbidden zone.
Two hours later, when Xu Qing was checking the surroundings warily on top of a tree, he saw a living creature from afar. It was a creature that didn’t seem to belong to the forest.
Its entire body emitted an icy chill, its size so massive that it looked like a mountain. It was a… jellyfish.
Its entire body emitted a glow, and it drifted in the air above the forbidden zone.
When sunlight passed through its translucent body, one could see that there were countless rotting mutated beasts’ corpses in it.
A tremendous number of tentacles swayed, and each of them had many eerie eyes growing on it. However, half of these eyes were currently shut.
At this moment, the jellyfish was flying leisurely toward the depths of the forbidden zone. Wherever it passed by, the part of the jungle below it would be instantly sealed in ice. All existences couldn’t escape from the freezing calamity.
The strength of its aura surpassed Xu Qing by many folds, to the point that even the two berserk bears that Xu Qing had encountered earlier felt extremely fragile before this jellyfish.
Xu Qing’s body stiffened up just by glancing at it from afar. He then felt an intense danger that rose from the depths of his soul.
It was only until the jellyfish disappeared did Xu Qing heave a sigh of relief. His heart was filled with trepidation as he looked toward the far distance, at the jungle area that was sealed in ice. It looked like a straight line that extended to a great depth.
“If this jellyfish flew in my direction…” Xu Qing gasped.
He understood that since his shadow could absorb anomalous substances, he had additional advantages in this forbidden zone forest which had dangers lurking around at every corner.
However, this advantage could only allow him to stay longer in the forbidden zone.
This was unless he became stronger one day. When that happened, this advantage would be magnified endlessly.
A short moment later, when Xu Qing left, he became even warier inside the forbidden zone.
Just like that, time flowed by slowly. Very soon, the sun was setting, leaving only a bit of remnant light illuminating the area.
More roars started to ring out in the jungle. Xu Qing, who was running through the forest, silently estimated the direction stated on the map. He knew that if he were to travel through the night, he should be able to get out of the forbidden zone before daybreak.
Just as he was in deep thought on whether he should travel through the night, a boom suddenly rang out from a far distance in the jungle. There was also a sharp agonizing cry that sounded very familiar.
“Barbaric Ghost?” Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he recognized that voice.
He immediately leaped up and carefully got closer. His small and skinny figure was moving agilely in the jungle while concealing himself. It was hard for him to be discovered by others.
Not long later, he arrived at the place where he had heard the cry and hid at the crown of a tree. He looked down and saw about six to seven corpses there. One of them… was Barbaric Ghost!
His entire body was greenish-black, clearly from mutation. His head was broken off from his body, and his death state was extremely horrible.
The huge finesteel shield was also broken into two, with one piece bigger than the other. As for the mace, it lay at the side, covered in blood.
Clearly, he had gone all out before his death and then perished together with his enemies as he mutated.
Xu Qing fell silent and grief rose in his heart. He then saw Captain Lei not far away, being surrounded and attacked by five people. His body was also turning a greenish color, and he was close to mutating!
This scene caused Xu Qing’s pupils to contract. He then grabbed his iron stick firmly and sharp killing intent erupted forth instantly in his gaze.