Chapter 435: Chapter 435. Entering the Basou Forest
After leaving the mother and daughter, Amon continued to roam the city. He visited several taverns and asked about Xiong Bao and the Basou Forest. There was not much new information he could learn. Regarding the Basou Forest, most everyone knew was the forest used to be teeming with spirit beasts and treasure hunters. After the attempted clean up by the country’s army, it was now classified as a forbidden zone.
The next day, Amon decided he had learned what he could. It was ti to head to the Basou Forest.
The Basou Forest was marked with a fence and warning signs along the fence. The fence didn’t have any enchantnt in it. It was just a common fence. It couldn’t prevent anyone from entering. After a higher mythical beast was confird to reside in this forest, most treasure hunters no longer dared to venture inside. So, the fence and warning signs were mostly symbolic.
During the first year when this forest was designated a forbidden zone, the Farghous nation sent a squad of soldiers to patrol its periter to dissuade those willing to risk their lives for greed. From the info he collected in the taverns, this squad was no longer around.
Hence, nothing prevented him from entering this forest.
He jumped past the fence and walked into a gradually wooded area. From the map provided by Zong Hua, he knew this forest was very large. It was around seven tis the size of Golden Stone City, which explained why people kept failing to find the Longevity Tree.
Not to ntion, it had irregular terrain covered by bushes and trees. It was difficult to see even when a spirit beast was in the vicinity. This made it more difficult to search the area.
While searching for the Longevity Tree was still a problem, spirit beast detection in such terrain was no trouble for a Mystic Stage cultivator. Amon used his Mystic Sense to survey the surroundings as he moved. He also didn’t feel any danger from the vicinity, so he continued to advance.
After traveling for an hour, he still hadn’t encountered any spirit beast. It was contradictory to the report that this forest was filled with strong spirit beasts. He wasn’t surprised, though. That report was about the forest before Farghous sent an army to clean it out. During that purge, they should have taken out a great deal number of spirit beasts before they were driven out by the higher mythical beast. This explained Amon’s peaceful journey inside the forest.
"This should be deep enough," Amon muttered. Wherever Xiong Bao found the Longevity Tree, it should be at the heart of the forest, not its periphery.
A large dog-like creature with a line of thick silver fur materialized beside Amon. This was a spirit beast he tad before he left Golden Stone City. It was a mid-superior beast, the sa grade as his previous pet, the Moon Wolf. It was called Silverback Hound.
With his wealth and the wide selection in Golden Stone City’s market, Amon could have easily gotten a higher superior beast to ta. Yet, he chose this Silverback Hound because this spirit beast had one specialty. It had a very keen sense of sll. It could not only sll odor but also sense the traces of an aether signature.
Unlike the traces of sll, the traces of aether degraded much slower. It had been seven years since Xiong Bao entered this forest, but the Silverback Hound should still be able to pick up its scent.
Amon took out one of the clothes from Xiong Bao’s box. He put it before the hound’s muzzle. The hound sniffed the clothes. It looked up, looked around, then went back to sniffing the clothes again.
After repeating this a few tis, the Silverback Hound finally moved. However, it was moving in the direction away from the forest’s center. It was probably because Xiong Bao’s latest act was fleeing the forest. Hence, the scent of him leaving the forest was stronger. Amon used his ntal link with the hound to command him to reverse his trace. The hound made a U-turn and went in the opposite direction, all the while sniffing the ground.
They traveled for a while. Amon followed the hound’s pace, which was slow. There were even tis when the hound seed to lose the trace. Amon had to let it sniff Xiong Bao’s clothes again before it resud tracking the aether scent.
As they went deeper, the hound took longer to advance. At one point, it suddenly growled aggressively. Amon focused on his Mystic Sense in response to the hound’s behavior. He sensed it then. Up there on the trees. Several bestial presences were approaching stealthily.
Amon was about to throw his flying knives, but he noticed the direction his Silverback Hound was growling at was not above. It was growling toward the ground.
He sensed it then. Not his Mystic Sense, but his danger instinct. Sothing was coming up from the ground. He and the Silverback Hound jumped into the air as the ground exploded. A giant centipede erged from the ground. At the sa ti, the bestial presences from above dropped down. Those presences revealed themselves to be giant spiders.
The giant spiders were targeting the Silverback Hound, probably because they sensed it was much easier prey compared to Amon.
"Lin Li!" Amon yelled.
Sothing flashed out of Amon. This flash struck the giant spiders before they could touch the Silverback Hound. These spiders were forced back with wounds in their bodies. So received light lacerations. A few lost their legs. These crippled spiders had trouble clinging to the trees and fell to the ground.
The flash, who was Lin Li in her seven-tailed fox form, perched at a nearby tree after assaulting the giant spiders. The Silverback Hound ran to the tree where Lin Li perched. During its stay inside Amon’s black space ring, Lin Li took care of it, so it considered Lin Li its girl boss.
The giant centipede ca at Amon. Its imnse size made it seem as if a small train was charging at him. The ceremonial dagger slipped out of the Xian Cloth wrapping on his right arm. It then turned into a flash.
The dagger blitzed past the head of the giant centipede, cutting it clean off.
To his consternation, the giant centipede moved as if nothing had happened. It continued to charge forward. Amon used Invisible Sky Steps and zood away. After dodging, he noticed the part of the centipede he had cut had grown a new pair of eyes and mouth. It now had a head again. The only difference was it was now shorter.
Suddenly, Amon felt danger from behind and moved away. He turned back and saw the centipede’s head he had cut to be the one ambushing him. The head had transford into a smaller centipede.
’It has a natural concealnt ability,’ Amon thought. His Mystic Sense couldn’t sense the centipede. If not for his danger instinct, he would have been hit.
Amon swiftly scanned his mory of this type of spirit beast. He rembered this beast among the ones recorded in the Encyclopedia of Spirit Beasts. The centipede was called Immortal Ground Lord. It was classified as a lower mythical beast. It was called immortal because it didn’t die when its body was severed. The severed parts transford into sa, but smaller centipedes.
Amon stored his ceremonial dagger. According to the encyclopedia, it was useless to fight this spirit beast using sharp weapons. It would only make its number grow. Its weakness was against blunt attacks.
Amon jumped when the bigger centipede rushed at him again. He used Invisible Sky Steps to counterattack by punching its back after it rushed past. His Bone Shattering Shadow Fist caused the centipede’s hard carapace to crack, but it was not enough to kill it. The smaller centipede ca when Amon delivered the punch.
Amon moved away and dodged the smaller centipede. While speeding away, he thrust his arm at it. The air behind the smaller centipede darkened. A thick tentacle burst out of the darkened air. The tentacle snatched the small centipede in the air.
A sizzling sound was heard when the dark tentacle touched the centipede. Smoke was also produced. The centipede let out a painful howl as it was eroded by the dark tentacle. Its body slowly lted as the dark tentacle tightened its grip.
The lted part vanished without a trace. The smaller centipede split into two after the dark tentacle fully eroded it. The split parts didn’t transform into smaller centipedes like before.
Under Amon’s control, the dark tentacle turned toward the big centipede. The big centipede moved away when the tentacle ca lashing. It watched the dark tentacle with wariness. It then burrowed into the ground and disappeared.
Amon paid attention to his instinct. He was ready to dodge if the centipede tried to ambush him. However, he sensed nothing. The centipede had fled. It was scared off by his darkness-elent art, the Elder God Tentacles.
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