31 The forest of death

"So, all I have to do is go through the outer edges of the forest of death," Dan said as he saw Long's horrified face.

After learning that Dan's sense of direction was terrible, Long was constantly getting nightmares. He got chills every time he remembered the time Dan took him for shopping. It was supposed to be a few minutes, but it took Dan a day and a half to go and come back from shopping.

Dan was spotted by city guards several times after getting lost, so Long was scared that the city lord would personally take action. Fortunately, it seemed that the city lord was busy for the last seven days.

"Brother Dan, are we really going to visit the legendary thunderstrike village?" Yue, who was by Dan's said with amazement. She couldn't believe that she was going to visit the village of immortal.

Her father once tried to go there in search of immortals, but after encountering a couple of magical beasts, he had to run away. And now, it seemed as though she had the chance to do something her father couldn't do.

"Yeah," Dan smiled as he saw Yue's bright face. For the last few days, he tried to open the meridians in his body which were closed after the sacrificial ritual. However, as no result came out, he concluded that only Earth petals could help him. He could strength his mortal body, but he wanted his spiritual power to catch up to it.

The balance was the key while cultivating the Wicked kindness. Although his soul was significantly stronger than the spirit and body power, it wouldn't impact his cultivation as it only played a supportive role.

Apart from cultivating, he spent most his time hanging out with Yue. He taught her some sword moves and played with her whenever she was bored.

He also realized that she was growing stronger each passing day. He felt like it was a matter of months before she caught up to him. It was clear that the city lord wanted to capture her for her blood. However, after she was out of his custody, he knew the trouble had begun.

She was a genius as it was her soul which possed the Yang power, not her body. So, she could keep on producing Yang blood each passing day. This meant that time was ticking for city lord. If he didn't capture or end Yue's life, he would get demolished by her in a few days.

Even if he were to rely on the true immortal behind him, the result wouldn't be any different. The only difference would be the time it would take for his death to approach him.

"Let's go!" Dan said, pushing open the double doors to the outside the city. It seemed as though the Dong clan was wealthy enough to own an entire gate leading outside the city for themselves.

The gate was an entrance to the northern part of the city, meaning that it could generate a tremendous amount of money.

Entering the elemental city for common people was hard. Mainly, for people like Yue, it was nearly impossible to enter the city without paying a huge sum of money.

"Whao! It's so pretty!" Yue exclaimed as she saw dessert, which surrounded the northern part of the city.

"I heard that thunderstrike village has amazing place itself. I don't know if it's true or not," Long recalled something and said his thoughts. He too wanted to come to explore the outside, but he was scared that he would slow down Dan.

"Bye, Long, thanks for everything. I will bring you something when I come back" Dan said as he grabbed Yue's hand and started to run towards the direction of thunderstrike village.

"Thanks, brother Long, I hope you will be able to realize your dream," Yue said as she turned her head and waved at Long. Once she was done, she ran with Dan.

"Bye. I hope they make it there. Concerning Dan's sense of direction, it seems they would get in a bit of trouble." Long was worried, " I hope they don't head straight to the forest of death. Although I gave them the map, it's not very detailed."

"Anyway, Yue is there, so they might pull out an effective idea. I guess I should also go and tell my father. He has been plan a coup against the city lord for a long time." Long waved back to the empty space. After a couple of minutes, he turned around and shut the door as he formed a plan in his head.

He smiled after the plan took root in his head. He suddenly knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to become a tycoon. Since he couldn't become an immortal, a business tycoon would be a good idea to keep himself safe, especially in the elemental city.

...

While Long was happy realizing his dream, the duo - Yue and Dan got caught in massive trouble.

"Run!" Dan said as a Horned python chased the two. Initially, he thought the magical beast behind him was the first level, but it turned out to be the second level magical beast.

The Horned pythons were the most common magical beast in the forest of death. The outer zone of the forest of death was their natural habitat, so they reproduced all the time to increase their territory.

Yue turned around once again and got frightened even more. Yue had never seen such a long python before, but she remembered hearing from her elders in the Yang village that there was once a species of pythons in the forest of death.

"Devil king, help me out here. Since you have taken me as a host, you should at least help me with this one," Dan murmured as he felt like he was at the end of the string.

"Boy! I always help you in life threating situation, however, since you said that I think I will let you handle this," Devil king said as he blocked Dan from communicating with him.

"Damn! I knew he was unreliable. I need to do something myself," Dan was getting impatient as the Horned python kept on trying to catch the two. It was a tough situation - He could die any minute, so he panicked.

"Whatever, I might as well try fighting the beast. Let me see the power that rivals the body hammering experts." Dan's eyes began to blaze with fire. He couldn't take it anymore. He decided to buckle up and take on the beast.

"Hiss!"

"Shiro, stay quiet. That guy might go insane any minute," Yue said as her arms wrapped around a little white creature about the size of her palm.

Dan looked at the small creature and sighed. Shiro was the reason they had offended the Horned python. After they were rescued this white snake from the Horned python, the Horned python got enraged and threw a tantrum at them. Of course, they tried to hide, but it seemed that this beast had a sixth sense; it could even detect them from miles away.

They thought that their journey would be easy, but who would have expected that they would het lost in the Forest of Death. Even after months, they couldn't find their way out.

"Yue, run while I slow down this beast," Dan said as he saw no other option.

"But," Yue tried to retaliate.

"NO BUTS!" Dan said as he looked at her. Yue saw her brother's determined eyes and kept her head low. She ran separated direction from him, while her tears dropped out in the forest.

"Beast, come at me!" Dan slowed down and turned his whole body around. Since he couldn't handle humiliation, it was better to take out all his anger even if it meant death.

"Hissss!" The snake launched its gigantic sluggish body towards Dan after it had enough of being fooled around. The Horned python decided to kill Dan and then eat Shiro. It had enough of being ridiculed.

"Crane Dance!"

"Second step!"

"One with nature."

Dan's speed changed exponentially. He was currently in the state of a shadow. He moved so quickly that even the Horned Snake eyes couldn't keep up his speed.

"Air thrust!" Dan pulled out a sword and send out a huge air slash on snake's back.

"Boom!" The attack landed upon the snake just as Dan expected. However, it seemed as though it didn't any inflict any injuries on python.

"You have some thick skin!" Dan exclaimed and kept on attacking although it produced no result.

"Hissss" The snake had enough. It opened its mouth and released a substantial scarlet fireball. The fireball advanced at a speed that frightened Dan; he knew he couldn't dodge it even if he wanted to.

"Bang!" The fireball landed upon Dan faster than he had expected. Although he neutralized some part of the attack, his skin was burned badly.

The fight continued for a minute, and Dan got beaten from each exchange. The snake was above regarding stamina, attack power, and spiritual quantity. It could be said the fight was completely one-sided.

Even though Dan used several types of Qi attack, it wasn't compelling or critical as he didn't have enough spiritual energy.

"Ahhh!" Dan stumbled backward after being wimped by the python's tail. If he were a normal body mending cultivator, his entire being would have been crushed to pieces.

"Ahh! I can't take this anymore! I don't want to die like this,"

Although his willpower was intense, it wasn't everlasting. After getting tens of his bones broken, he couldn't handle it.