Chapter 40 (Part B) – A breakthrough

“Boom!” his inner energy finally cleared the final checkpoint, bottlenecking to the next layer.

Torrential currents rampaged throughout his body as his inner energy expanded exponentially.

Bi Fan was really excited: “I have finally reached the ‘brave’ layer, and soon I’ll be in the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer. Then I’ll be able to practice the free burst techniques and my strength will rise much faster”.

“AAAAA!!!!” Bi Fan stood up and roared, as sweat carelessly dripped down from his body, to the ground beneath him.

The Chimera and the Marten rushed to Bi Fan’s side. Their faces were reflecting the pleasure they were feeling after watching Bi Fan succeed.

The Chimera had already decided to follow Bi Fan, so it was also in his best interests if Bi Fan’s strength increased.

Bi Fan considered the Marten to be a family member, so he was glad to see the Marten rejoicing in his success.

“Come, let’s keep going forward!” With the increase in strength, his confidence was also increasing. In fact, even his temperament had also seen a drastic change; he had become much calmer by nature now.

Bi Fan jumped up to take his place on the Chimera’s back and the Marten too, hopped up on top of the Chimera’s back, who then started moving forward in long strides.

Bi Fan hadn’t set a specific target or even a time frame.

Bi Fan didn’t care if his stay in the devil’s territory exceeded a month, as Bi Fan had entered the devil’s territory to gain experience, so if he felt that the devil’s territory didn’t suffice his needs anymore, he would naturally want to exit the region.

Nevertheless, Bi Fan needed to spend at least a month inside the Devil’s territory, a term over which he had no control.

Bi Fan had just broken into the next layer, but now he needed to find some opponents so he could gain some stability.

Along the way, they encountered several beasts. Bi Fan and the Chimera killed as many as they could get their hands on, regardless of the beast’s strength. The Carcasses of their victims were then incorporated into the Tian Yuan ring.

Bi Fan now had a total of five Yin Yang pouches; however, the space was still finite in some terms.

Anyway, now, with the Chimera as his new companion, Bi Fan couldn’t sell off these carcasses in the open market. These carcasses were going to be used for satisfying the Chimera’s massive appetite, in fact, several more would be needed for that purpose.

Since, they were collecting food for the Chimera; he in particular, was putting a lot of effort. But whenever animals saw the Chimera looking to make a meal out of them, they quickly made themselves scarce.

Anyway, Bi Fan was only looking for a strong enemy, so he didn’t care much if the Chimera’s violent appearance sacred the weak ones away.

The Chimera on the other hand was awfully carefree while roaming around in the wild.

On the way, they even encountered a small group of humans, who instantaneously bent down to the ground in surrender, awfully terrified of the Chimera.

The moment they had seen a teenager sitting on top of the Chimera, their shocked faces had reflected several different emotions simultaneously, including those of envy and admiration.

Bi Fan decided that he won’t harm these boys. These youngsters belonged to some other school, and after all said and done, he didn’t need any more enemies.

The youngsters were terrified by the pace at which the Chimera gusted pasted them.

It took them a long time to recover, mentally, from the encounter and they continued to discuss it for a long time.

“What kind of a demon was that? He was so strong and so fast! I could barely move….”

“That was a Chimera. A Chimera is a very powerful and ferocious demon, I have no idea how that human managed to subdue one. He’s one lucky guy.”

“If that guy managed to subdue such an enormous beast then he is definitely very strong as well.”

“That’s probably true, but I don’t know which school he belongs to. Xuan Wu Ji topped the Jiu Yu list, is it possible that he is more powerful than Xuan Wu Ji?”

“Highly unlikely, after all, Xuan Wu Ji topped that list several years ago, and this person seemed a little too young to compete with the likes of such a genius.”

“If you give him a few years, then it might be possible someday. I mean that Chimera of his, can grow into a very big and powerful beast, and if his strength advances into the ‘transformation’ layer, then it might be possible that he could actually break into the ‘emerging from the womb’ category someday.”

… …

Bi Fan didn’t hear their discussion, in fact, by the time they started discussing this, Bi Fan’s company had already wandered far away from them, owing to the Chimera’s speed.

No one knew how the devil’s territory came to be, although there were several legends that spoke about the same. Some say, that some sort of a disagreement was settled here, and that this area was ground zero of an ancient battle.

Numerous spirits prevailed here, so much so, that for thousands of years, no one even dared to venture anywhere close to this region. Then slowly, over the years, tall, towering trees started growing, animals started living here, and gradually turned into beasts, goblins, and other forms of evil demons, and this is how the devil’s territory became what it is today.

However, in the present day, there is no written record, making all such legends and folklores nothing more than myths, and completely untraceable.

No spirits were ever reported in the devil’s territory. Although, one thing was certain, the amount of aura inside the devil’s territory far exceeded the aura that lingered in the world outside.

No one knew the reason, but if humans stayed inside the devil’s territory for long periods of time, then sometimes, they would go berserk, as if they had been possessed. Even the demons that were present inside the devil’s territory were far more violent in nature than the ones present outside, but never acted like they had been possessed by evil spirits.

It is for this reason that humans never stayed inside the devil’s territory for too long a time frame and so the devil’s territory had been cordoned off by a unanimous vote.

Do evil spirits and ghosts really exist?

Several people suspected that they do, but no one had ever been able to prove it.

Bi Fan had heard a lot of rumors related to the devil’s territory, but he had laughed them off.

For a long time now, people had fancied the idea of the devil’s territory being an ancient battlefield, but no one had any proof or clues to support the argument.

Attempting to get to the bottom of this argument was only going to waste time and cause grief, and hence wasn’t worth it.

Bi Fan knew that he is only a man, and men have their own consciousness, and Bi Fan’s consciousness kept telling him to increase his strength.

Even if there was an ancient treasure trove hidden in this region, Bi Fan was practical enough to know that it would be more beneficial to train and upgrade his strength than going on a wild goose chase.

“Wooooo!” the Chimera had just hunted down a wild tiger and issued a roar out of excitement.

Recently, the Chimera had become more and more active; it appeared that tagging along with Bi Fan had proved out to be a good choice. Unlike the past, he was no longer just eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating; he was no longer leading a monotonous life.

A Chimera is born to fight, they like the excitement, and they really like to fight.

The only complaint that the Chimera could register, was that every time they encountered a strong opponent, Bi Fan would rush out ahead to fight it, which meant that the Chimera couldn’t enjoy himself to the optimal limit.

Suddenly, there seemed to be a massive surge of oppressive energy coming from the deepest abyss of the devil’s territory, like evil forces were leaking from within.

Bi Fan was thankful that his heart was still beating after that shocking moment, and even the Chimera was, visibly, shivering with fear.

“What was that?” Bi Fan asked, shocked.

This incident, it seemed wasn’t limited to their surroundings, and other demons and disciples in the devil’s territory had also sensed this sudden surge of energy.

People, animals, and demons alike, were curious. And once the spirits had calmed down, everyone wanted to find out where this sudden surge of energy had originated from.