After reaching LV20, Ling Chen’s total battle power had been greatly increased by Xiao Hui’s “Holy Spirit’s Gift”. Moreover, his strongest skill [Soul Sacrifice] had reached the max level! Once the max level Soul Sacrifice was activated, his Physical Attack Power and Magic Attack Power would be five times his normal attack- this was simply astounding.
The max level Soul Sacrifice also gave him a new skill- the evolved skill, [Soul Demise]!
[Soul Demise]: Current level: LV3, Highest level: LV30, SP required to upgrade to LV4: 100,000. A skill that can destroy souls created from one’s powerful spirit as the foundation and support. Using Soul Demise will directly attack the target’s soul. Single target attack, can be activated using both hands or through any weapon. An unseen force attacks the target’s soul, ignoring level, grade, Defence, Absolute Defence, and takes away 3% of the target’s HP and MP. This attack has Absolute Hit, and has a 0.3% chance to instant killing the target, ignoring level, grade and instant-death resistance. Costs 1 MP, can only be used three times per day. Cannot be used on the same target within 12 hours.
Ling Chen: “⊙o⊙)！！”
This was… a skill that completely ignored defence, and took away a certain amount of HP and MP from the target. There was even a possibility of instantly killing the target!!
Ignoring level, grade and Absolute Defence… that meant even though he was still incredibly weak, he could still take away 3% of a Saint Destroyer Beast’s HP instantly. Moreover, there would even be a 0.3% chance of instantly killing a Saint Destroyer Beast!
Soul Demise… what an overpowered skill!!
Soul Demise’s highest level was LV30. Given the current scaling with its level, that meant that at max level, it would be able to instantly take away 30% of the target’s HP and MP, as well as have a 3% chance of instantly killing the target!
Ling Chen’s heart began to thump. Back when he had received Soul Sacrifice, he had been completely shocked, and almost couldn’t believe that such a terrifying skill existed. This Soul Demise was much, much scarier than Soul Sacrifice. When facing weaker opponents, its effects were almost negligible. However, when facing stronger opponents, especially those that were overpoweringly stronger, this skill gave Ling Chen an incredible amount of hope!
Right now, Soul Demise was only LV3, so the 0.3% chance of instantly killing the target was not too useful.
The more powerful a skill, the more difficult it would be to level it up. Seeing the required amount of SP to level up Soul Demise to LV4, Ling Chen exhaled slowly. Levelling to LV4 required a whole 100,000 SP… if he wanted to level up this skill to LV30, he would need an astronomical amount of SP. However, he was sure that spending that much SP to get Soul Demise to its max level would definitely be worth it.
After all of his skills had levelled up, the amount of SP required to level them up again was simply ridiculous. After all, most of his skills were much stronger than normal skills, and he had the “Heaven’s Jealousy” debuff. Seeing the SP required for each of the skills, Ling Chen could only sigh. What he wanted most right now was to level up to LV40- that way, Xiao Hui’s “Holy Spirit’s Gift” would be levelled up to LV3, and all of his skills would be levelled up once again.
After sighing for a while, he let the girls know that he had reached LV20 through the guild channel, then continued to travel south. For the next period of time, he would be continuously heading south without stopping to train. As each day passed, Xi Ling was running out of time.
Vermillion Bird City… I must reach there quickly!
Another five days went by.
During those five days, Ling Chen spent all of his time travelling south. When encountering any monsters, he would casually wipe them out, see what Xiao Hui refined from their corpses, and continue moving. After passing by a small stream, Ling Chen took out his map, and checked where he was. This area was marked with light green… this colour meant that this area was very safe. There would rarely be any monsters in such places, much less strong monsters.
Ling Chen looked into the distance, and saw a gigantic forest, and the ground was covered in lush green grass. The leaves of the trees were all jade-green, and the air was incredibly refreshing and vitalising. Ling Chen breathed deeply and looked at the name of this forest.
Fairy Forest. Next to this name, there was a fairly long description.
[Fairy Forest]: A vast forest that, under the protection of Nature, has never been polluted or experienced any warfare before. The most beautiful and pure race of the Forgotten Continent reside here- the Fairy Clan. Legends say that this was where the Fairy Clan originated. The Fairies are beautiful, kind, diligent, courageous and peaceful. They despise uncleanliness and warfare. Fairies are born with the power of nature, and are excellent Archers and Priests from birth. They use the power given to them by Nature to protect themselves and the peace of the Forgotten Continent. Fairies originally lived all throughout the Forgotten Continent, in closeness with humans. However, because the humans often engaged in warfare and selfish killing, resulting in countless deaths, they decided to distance themselves from humans, and reside in the Fairy Forest. The Fairy Forest is covered by a Bewildering Formation, which makes it almost impossible for outsiders to discover the Fairy Clan.
There was also a note:
“Over the years, I’ve tried many times to enter the legendary ‘Fairy Realm’. However, I’ve never been able to find even a sliver of a clue, which is very disappointing. It’s probably because of the Bewildering Formation that I am never able to find my way to the Fairies. However, I am completely certain that the Fairies do live in the Fairy Forest.”
“Eh? Fairy Clan?” Ling Chen looked at the forest in front of him again. Back at the Novice Village, the Village Chief had mentioned the Fairy Clan. Apparently Fairies were creatures birthed by Nature, and were the purest creatures in the entire world. The Fairy Clan was not a very large clan, and their reproducing ability was quite low. Ling Chen also remembered that he had heard about the Fairy Clan at the Lonely Spirit Ridge as well- apparently the Moon God Clan, Golden Crow and the Fairy Clan had joined forces in vanquishing the Demon Beast Clan. However, the battle resulted in the Fairy Clan suffering heavy losses, causing their clan to go on the decline.
This map was drawn by Qian Gun Gun. Although he had travelled across nearly every inch of the Forgotten Continent, he was still unable to find any clue as to how to enter the Fairy Forest. It seemed impossible that anyone else could possibly enter it either. Only by completely separating themselves from the rest of the world could they enjoy true peace. Other creatures, whether they were humans, beasts, demons… they were all intrinsically selfish and greedy. The Fairies were willing to help them and become closer with them, but what the received in return every time was simply cruelty and ill-will. After experiencing this many, many times, the Fairies decided to separate themselves from the world… this was completely understandable and expected.
Although Ling Chen was curious, he was not that interested in the Fairy Clan. Ling Chen closed his map, and spurred the Cloud Stepping Mare onwards. Since there was no danger ahead, he could relax and travel at full speed.
The boundary of the Fairy Forest had many colourful flowers and grasses, as well as dancing butterflies, creating an extraordinarily beautiful scene. On his journey, he had passed through many forests, but none could compare to this one. It was as if he had entered some mystical realm.
“So beautiful…” Even Leng’Er couldn’t help but gasp in amazement. She hugged the doll in her arms, and pointed it forwards, “Look… so beautiful…”
This entire time, Leng’Er had been listening to Ling Chen tell her stories, as well as talking with Ling Chen. Leng’Er’s ability to speak had improved markedly. Although she still had difficulty talking sometimes, it was not as severe as before. After staring at her surroundings for a while, she stretched out her hands and pulled on Ling Chen’s clothes, “Master, can… you tell me a story?”
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Ling Chen’s forehead. These days, he had adamantly refused to take the initiative to tell Leng’Er stories. What he feared most was Leng’Er asking him to tell her stories.
Ling Chen, unable to refuse, could only reply bitterly, “What does Leng’Er want to listen to?”
“Snow White!” Leng’Er immediately replied.
“……” If he remembered correctly, he had already told Leng’Er Snow White’s story seven times. This would be the eighth time. After hearing it so many times, Leng’Er could probably tell him the story word for word, and yet she still liked to hear it so much.
Girls were indeed very hard to understand… Ling Chen sighed inwardly, and started to tell the story, “Once upon a time, there was a girl called Snow White. She had an evil step-mother, who was a witch…”
“No, it’s… queen, queen…” Leng’Er softly protested.
“Oh, right, it’s queen. The queen was envious of Snow White’s beauty, so she wanted to kill her, and became a witch…”
Leng’Er loved to listen to stories, and would beg Ling Chen to tell her stories every day. She would only be satisfied after listening to five or so stories.
After telling her the Nth story of the day, Ling Chen was starting to have a headache. It had been about an hour since he found out that he was in the Fairy Forest, and with Xiao Hui guiding the way, he didn’t have to worry about getting lost.