Chapter 333 Following Like A Shadow
This place was a bed of rocks situated at the edge of the extreme depths of Gloom Forest and enormous jagged and strangely shaped rocks were scattered all around. Some strangely shaped rocks were even 3km tall, yet were only a little over 30k in diameter, and when looked at from afar, it was like a spear that pierced straight into the sky, standing there proudly without fear of wind or snow.
Wu~ Wu~ Wu~
Piercingly cold winds that were like blades flashed past the bed of rocks. As it passed through those enormous rocks of strange shapes, the winds emitted sharp and ear piercing sounds that sounded like weeping, and it was like vengeful spirits were wailing, yet also seemed like demons were crying out sharply.
This place was a dangerous place behind Gloom Forest — Evilstone!
Unlike Gloom Forest, there were no living beings in Evilstone, as the spirit energy here was dried up, and its environment was extremely adverse. Strange gales blew through this place all year round, and when it entered the ear, it would cause various hallucinations to appear in one’s mind and enchant one’s soul. Slight carelessness could cause one to lose their soul and make them transform into a dry corpse.
Moreover, the deeper one traveled into Evilstone, the stronger the gales became, and the hallucinations created by them became even more terrifying. Compared to the bloody battles that occurred between ferocious beasts in Gloom Forest, Evilstone was undoubtedly even more terrifying.
Because this was a disaster of nature that was impossible to guard against.
At this moment, a group of black clothed figures stood respectfully in a concealed place in Evilstone, but their expressions were very heavy and unsightly. Their target had escaped from beneath their eyes within the time of a single breath and had even killed three of their companions. This outcome caused their hearts to be covered by a shadow so dense it was impossible to disperse.
Her bloody clothes fluttering as her black hair waved about, Rose stood silently on a strangely shaped rock, and her icy cold eyes didn’t contain the slightest emotion or even a trace of fluctuation.
Everyone was silent, and only the sharp wailing sounds of the wind resounded in the air, and it carried an energy that took one’s soul away.
Not long after, Rose suddenly raised her head, and the other black clothed figures revealed vigilant expressions. There was no need for any orders, as all of them had instantly made preparations to do battle.
“Rose, it’s me!” A voice that was gentle like water sounded out from afar. Accompanying this voice was a handsome man who had a dimple on his left cheek when he smiled, who possessed a sharp chin, white skin, and a smile on the corners of his mouth, and he arrived before everyone in the blink of an eye.
The handsome man wore clothes that were white as snow and had a smile on the corners of his mouth, yet his temperament seemed to be extremely gentle. Along with his arrival, the surrounding air seemed to have frozen, and the tiny grains of sand on the ground were even covered in a layer of translucent ice.
There were similarly around 50 black clothed figures following behind him.
Rose saw the appearance of the person clearly, and she said with a nod, “Crimsonfox, you’ve arrived.”
Shockingly, this person was a Golden Core Realm commander level assassin of the Blacksun Pavilion that was ranked 68th on the Golden Core Rankings, Crimsonfox. His gaze swept past Rose and everyone behind her before he said with surprise, “All of you wouldn’t have really met with a mishap, right?”
Rose nodded and said, “You’re right. No matter if it was the kill operation in Firecrow Town, the plan of the tavern owner using a fake map to lure him, or Qi Yin drawing him out, all of them ended in failure, and I even lost three subordinates.”
“So formidable?” Crimsonfox’s eyes narrowed, and coupled with his extremely sharp chin, he looked like a cunning fox.
Rose spoke in a dull matter, but he naturally understood the seriousness of it. Moreover, he understood Rose’s strength extremely well, and being able to escape safely from her hands undoubtedly proved that the kid’s strength was obviously more formidable than expected.
“The higher-ups underestimated his strength, especially his control of the situation that had already arrived at a level ordinary people are unable to reach. Coupled with acute perception of danger, and his resolute and decisive movements, even I was powerless to save the situation…” Rose analyzed word by word. Her tone was steady, neither fast nor slow, and seemed to be extremely calm as she described everything she saw in detail.
Crimsonfox’s face gradually became serious, and a bright light flickered as his eyes blinked, and he promptly decided. “For the sake of the operation this time, the higher-ups have prepared for a very long time, so they only allow success and not failure.”
When he spoke up to here, he raised his eyes to look at Rose and ask. “Did you gather his aura?”
Rose stretched out her white hand and flicked out an object that was like a drop of water and said, “His True Essence fluctuations were extremely tiny when he killed my three subordinates. I could only gather a little.”
Crimsonfox briefly sized it up and said, “It’s already enough. We can activate a Shadowtrack Treasured Talisman with this.”
As he spoke, Crimsonfox took out a light blue colored jade talisman, then he slightly refined it by fusing this object that was like a drop of water into the talisman, and then a bright light flashed before it recovered to normal.
“Alright, his rough location can already be determined. The target hasn’t left the Gloom Forest yet, begin the operation!” Crimsonfox closed his eyes and pondered deeply for a moment before he suddenly opened his eyes, and then he looked towards the extreme distance.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Under the lead of the two commanders, Rose and Crimsonfox, everyone quickly vanished within Evilstone.
————
Gloom Forest, at the side of a large tree.
Chen Xi sat cross-legged there. He’d just experienced a fierce battle and annihilated a crocodile with blood red eyes and an azure colored snout, and he incurred a great deal of injuries.
But under his formidable body refinement cultivation, his injuries were healed very quickly, and his strength was swiftly recovering at this moment. It wouldn’t be long before he would once again recover to his optimum state.
There was a longbow placed before him.
During these past few days, he had the intention of tempering his strength in body refinement and put his qi refinement cultivation aside, and he fought at full strength with Shaman Energy. Not only had he cultivated both the Deity Transformation and Heavenly Transformation Divine Abilities, he’d even tried to start researching and learning archery, and he’d obtained rather great gains.
With Chen Xi’s cultivation, after he executed the Heavenly Transformation, his body was capable to attaining a height of 48m, and his own strength would rise explosively by around 30%. If it was combined with the Deity Transformation, then even though his strength wouldn’t increase, but the strength he was capable of exerting in battle raised by a great deal.
If purely in terms of his body refinement cultivation, after he obtained the support of these two Divine Abilities, the combat strength he possessed was even slightly higher than his qi refinement cultivation!
Moreover, under the support of the Heavenly Transformation and Deity Transformation, no matter if it was the Starsky Wings or Grand Astral Palm, the might both of them displayed had increased by almost 30%.
Even though it was a mere increase of 30%, it was absolutely a tremendous change when used in battle. For example, he killed a terrifying ferocious beast a few days ago, the Spiked Stripetiger. If he fought it normally, he was utterly not a match for it, yet if he executed the Heavenly Transformation and Deity Transformation, he was able to smash the Spiked Stripetiger into a pile of mush within a mere three moves.
As for his cultivation in archery, he obtained small accomplishments in it as well.
Drawing a bow and shooting an arrow stressed upon possessing sharp eyes, agile hands, and the ability to move one’s body as soon as the intention arose. Not only was sufficient strength required, speed and precision were extremely important as well. Especially precision, as it was the most basic requirement when testing an archer.
Shooting a leaf 100 steps away and shooting the heart 100 steps away, both of these were requirements for ordinary people in the world. To cultivators and body refiners, if they wanted to reveal a formidable might in archery, then the requirements towards their strength, speed, and precision was even harsher.
Because all cultivators possessed the ability to fly into the air and flee into the ground while in battle, and their movement techniques that were swift like lightning was even more nimble than the most agile swallow, swifter than the hawk that was most adept at flying. If one wanted to precisely hit them, then its difficulty was obviously enormous.
But Chen Xi currently had no lack of strength and speed, and what he had to train was how to lock onto his target and hit them.
The cultivation of archery was completely different from the cultivation of other skills, and its requirement towards one’s Divine Sense was even higher than its requirement towards one’s strength.
Only a formidable Divine Sense was capable of locking onto the movements of the enemy and capturing the slightest chance to annihilate the enemy in a split second. Then, it would hold on tightly to this chance and launch a fierce attack, and a tiny oversight in any aspect might cause the attack to miss.
All in all, the most basic cultivation in archery was to allow the hand to aim onto the target as soon as the eye did, and for both body and mind to become one. At the instant one decided to shoot an arrow, the movements of drawing the bow, nocking the arrow, aiming, and shooting had to be completed at the exact same moment. Only in this way would one be able to exert the true might of archery.
Of course, this was merely the basics.
Supposedly, there was a great expert in the primordial era that was skilled in archery. He was even capable of penetrating space, shattering stars, and destroying a hundred mountains with a single shot, and he was even able to kill an enemy 5,000km away in the time his thought arose.
Chen Xi was only capable of shooting arrows skillfully now, and he’d obtained some superficial knowledge about archery. This was all thanks to Qi Yin, as within the storage Magic Treasure left behind by Qi Yin upon his death was a jade slip that recorded an archery Divine Ability called Staruin Shattermoon Arrow.
This Divine Ability recorded knowledge related to archery in detail, like how to make the strength of the shot stronger when drawing the bow, how to nock the arrow in order to attain the swiftest speed, and so on and so forth.
Of course, this archery Divine Ability had to be executed with a bow and arrow Shaman Treasure. Presently, Chen Xi only possessed the Staruin Bow, yet didn’t have an arrow, and he was only able to utilize his Shaman Energy to shoot out a shapeless arrow. Even though its might was strong, it was unable to compare with a real arrow.
Something worthy of mentioning was that this arrow had to be a Shaman Treasure as well. Because an ordinary arrow would be utterly incapable of enduring the might contained within it when the arrow was shot, and only a Shaman Treasure arrow was capable of exerting the entire might of the shot.
But even then, relying on Chen Xi’s current strength in archery, it was sufficient for him to annihilate any ordinary Golden Core Realm cultivator within a distance of 50km. As for a slightly more formidable cultivator, it would depend on the situation.
Chen Xi opened his eyes as he awoke from his meditation, and he was brimming with energy and vitality as his entire body had recovered to its optimum state. Then, he grabbed up the Staruin Bow on the ground and was just about the move forward.
Right at this moment, a tiny energy fluctuation swiftly swept past his body, and it was like a ripple that swiftly undulated out before vanishing without a trace.
Shadowtrack Treasured Talisman.
As a Talisman Formation Master capable of crafting flawless high-grade Treasured Talismans, Chen Xi practically instantly recognized what had emitted this trace of energy fluctuation.
Just as its name implied, the Shadowtrack Treasured Talisman was a high-grade Treasured Talisman utilized for tracking. It only required a strand of the enemy’s aura before it would be able to locate the enemy’s location, and it would follow the enemy like a shadow.
If one wanted to escape this type of detection, it was only possible if one’s strength had attained the Nether Transformation Realm, otherwise, even a Rebirth Realm cultivator would be unable to avoid it.
Have they finally come? When he noticed this trace of fluctuation, not only did Chen Xi not feel nervous in the slightest, he instead seemed to be slightly impatient as if he’d been waiting for a long time. He carried the Staruin Bow on his back, yet didn’t more forward, and he turned around to charge towards the Gloom Forest instead.