Chapter Twenty-Two: The Dark Jungle

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For Jiang Feng to progress further in his cultivation, he required extensive combat experience to continually hone his martial skills. The woods near his home were no longer an option. One reason was the recent trouble with the Wang family; the other was that his increased cultivation rendered the minor spirit beasts of that small forest insufficient to temper his abilities. Since the place could no longer pose a threat to him, its value for training had vanished.

Jiang Feng traveled far and wide, traversing mountains and rivers, relying on the extraordinary experience he had accumulated in his past life to select a new training ground. This place was remote and rarely visited by humans, teeming with spirit beasts as numerous as cattle, and had long remained undiscovered and undeveloped by mankind.

It was not until the year before his death in his previous life that this place was found and designated as a site for cultivation trials. Its abundant resources and myriad species of spirit beasts made it a paradise for adventurers, and its discovery led to it being named the “Land of Hope.”

Because it was home to countless dark spirit beasts, it was also known by another name—The Dark Jungle.

This was a paradise for spirit beasts, a place accidentally discovered by a lost wanderer, and could rival the three great perilous lands as a sanctum for cultivation. At present, due to its sparse human activity, there were none of the roads found in other developed regions, not even the narrow tracks blazed by bounty hunters—making it a true haven for trials.

Legend had it that the Dark Jungle was once a city. The city lord had offended the Dark God, who, to demonstrate his boundless might and punish the affront to his authority, enacted a sacrificial curse upon the land. This caused the vegetation to grow in uncanny and bizarre ways, and before long, the area became a sunless, sinister, and terrifying forest.

The plants here fed on humans; beneath the tangled roots lay countless bloodied corpses, now likely reduced to desiccated husks.

Thus, the place earned yet another moniker: “The Meat Grinder.”

It served as a warning to future generations of the forest’s dangers. Over the years, as rumors of man-eating trees and other perils spread and became embellished, the number of treasure seekers venturing here dwindled.

Yet the most dangerous area lay at the heart of the forest, where, according to legend, a pet of the Dark Demon God stood guard. This creature was said to be at least at the Nether King level, making the forest’s center a forbidden zone in the hearts of all.

All this information had been painstakingly gathered in Jiang Feng’s previous life from countless adventurers. Back then, he could only listen to these tales as stories, but now, he finally had the chance to put them into practice. He hoped it would not disappoint him.

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Stepping into the forest, Jiang Feng’s thoughts lingered on these matters.

All along the way, he encountered only low-tier spirit beasts on the outskirts. However, to become a mid-tier spirit beast was akin to a human cultivator reaching the True Nether Realm, possessing innate elemental powers and far greater destructive capacity.

Spirit beasts were divided into nine levels, each split into early, middle, and late stages. Levels one to three were considered low-tier, corresponding to the Nether Warrior, Nether Soldier, and Phantom Nether stages for humans. Levels four to six were mid-tier, aligning with human cultivators of the True Nether, Profound Nether, and Void Nether Realms. The high-tier spirit beasts of levels seven to nine matched the Nether King, Nether Saint, and Nether Sovereign.

Above the high-tier spirit beasts were the legendary Nether Demon Beasts and Nether Divine Beasts, which no one had ever actually witnessed—those who did likely did not survive to tell the tale.

The low-tier spirit beasts he saw were mostly in the early to mid-first level, typically moving in groups of hundreds or even thousands. Jiang Feng, not wishing to trouble himself with such numbers, paid them little heed. Only when he craved a rare delicacy would an unlucky spirit beast vanish from its group, never to return.

Jiang Feng was patrolling the outskirts, seeking a late-stage level-one spirit beast to test his skills before challenging stronger foes. He felt confident because his Shadowdance Soulshatter Step had just broken through to its fifth form, evolving into a storm-like, ferocious movement technique. He could not fathom why it had transformed so mysteriously, as he had never found any records of such a technique despite his vast learning.

In his previous life, he was well-read and widely traveled, having pored over countless historical texts, foreign chronicles, and ancient ruins. Yet, for all his searching and racking of brains, he found no clues about this style.

As dusk fell and the last rays of sunlight faded, a massive shadow suddenly dropped from the sky, startling Jiang Feng just as he was preparing to rest. In a blink, the spirit beast swooped down at him with lightning speed.

As the beast drew near, Jiang Feng recognized it as a Cloud Crane, a creature known for its early rising and late return, omnivorous habits, and relentless attacks on anything approaching its nest.

Having identified its weakness—fierce protectiveness of its nest—the rest was straightforward. Jiang Feng kicked apart the Cloud Crane’s shabby nest and leapt away, grabbing hold of vines and weaving through the trees.

His destruction of the nest was partly to vent his frustration, and partly because, amidst the tangled terrain of the forest, he could use his agility and his knowledge of the environment to bring down the Cloud Crane.

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But reality did not unfold as Jiang Feng had envisioned; it was far from a one-sided contest.

Jiang Feng darted through the narrow spaces between the trees, but when it was the Cloud Crane’s turn to follow, the beast simply barreled through everything in its way. The branches and trunks, though not exactly ironwood, were still exceptionally tough and not easily destroyed—yet the crane shattered them as if they were nothing. Jiang Feng shuddered to think that his head was surely not as sturdy as those tree trunks, and so he pressed on with even greater speed.

During the chase, Jiang Feng finally got a clear look at his adversary.

It was in the process of evolving. Even so, advancing from level one to level two was no easy feat.

A level-two spirit beast gained the ability to manipulate elemental energy.

This Cloud Crane, while flying, had wind elements swirling around its wings, allowing it to effortlessly shred through branches and trunks. It seemed his luck had brought him, at last, to a true trial by fire.

The enemy came at him with overwhelming force, carrying the might of a storm, as if nothing could stand in its way.

It was clear—he would have to win this battle, no matter what.