Chapter 143- Entering the Forest

"Is this the Yin ghost forest? It is quite scary" Long Feng muttered indifferently after gazing over the foggy forest below. 

The fog was special in the sense that it was impenetrable by any energy. Nothing could see through it, not even Long Feng's soul power or his immortal sight. That could also be due to his miniscule  achievement in the soul cultivation and the immortal sight. 

"This is the Yin ghost forest. The first test of the competition begins now!" Bei ya spoke up. She had been flying at a distance behind the golden feathered eagles. As she spoke, she waved her sleeve. Streaks of light appeared and and shot into the hands of every junior present. The lights faded away, revealing exquisitely carved jades that glowed with a silver hue.

"These were specifically created for this competition. The jades you are holding are created by a soul formation master of the sect. They are all closely linked together. That way, when you kill someone else or seize an opponent's jade, you only have to shatter it to get half of the person's points. Also, the jades contain a detection formation. Any beast that is killed, the points would go to the person closest to the dead beast or the Yin ghosts."

Many people were shocked upon hearing that.

"Wouldn't I have free points if I am closer to a dead beast than the person who killed it?"

This was what crossed people's minds.

"Finally, the jades contain the map of a thousand miles in the outermost region of the Yin ghost forest. If no one has any questions, you can get going. You are all to gather here in one month's time!" Bei Ya added.

"A map?"

Many people acted desperately and hurried inserted their consciousness into the jades.

*Weng!

       A brilliant light exploded from the jades of almost everyone present.

"There really is a map!" Many people were ecstatic at first, but they soon looked dejected again.

"This map is only a rough description of the place. It is next to useless in a situation like this." Yan Jian sighed while shaking his head.

"In the end, we still have to rely on ourselves." Long Feng muttered before leaping off the golden feathered eagle's back.

"let's go" Many people steeled their nerves and walked into the fog, either in a group or individually. Few people actually decided not to enter the forest at all!.

Long Feng, Yan Jian, Li Yu'er and Hua Liuli also walked into the fog.

Upon stepping into the fog, it felt like they had entered a different dimension. All around them was a world of white eery fog that severely suppressed their eyesight until they couldn't even see their hands. More importantly, The dense Yin energy that filled the forest instantly began to seep into their bodies. Although they could use their energies to protect themselves, that was not a long term plan as they didn't have an endless reserve of energy.

"This forest is weird. Can you hold on?" Long Feng asked. Although he couldn't see the other three, he knew that they were behind him.

"We can. I can hold on for at most, one month" Yan Jian replied instantly.

"I'm fine" Hua Liuli also spoke.

"The Blue Sky sect seemed to have planned this. They gave us a time limit of one month knowing that few people can last over a month alive." Long Feng muttered.

Yan Jian replied "humph! Of course. The Blue Sky sect isn't invisible. All the juniors who came to participate in the competition are geniuses backed by powerful groups or individuals. If they end up killing everyone and creating a grudge with the junior's backings,  it won't be easy for even them to survive."

"But if you have to constantly use a portion of your energy to protect yourself, won't your combat power drop?" Long Feng stated another problem as they walked deeper.

A little moment later,  Yan Jian replied. "You're right. I can only use about sixty percent of my full strength."

Hua Liuli also voiced "I can use eighty"

"Hmm. I guess the other competitors are facing the same problems." Long Feng nodded.

"Come to think of it, why don't you seem strained? It's like you are not protecting yourself against the Yin energy. I can't sense any energy ripple coming from you and li Yu'er's direction" Yan Jian inquired.

"I'm not.  I don't know why but the Yin energy isn't harming me. It seems to be strengthening my cultivation instead. What of you miss Li?" Long Feng replied.

Li Yu'er replied after a moment of silence. "I cultivate a Yin based dao, the dao of ice." she replied curtly in a small voice.

"Yin based dao huh? I cultivate the demon dao, a Yin based dao too" Long Feng's eyes brightened. "That's it. Those who cultivate Yin based dao won't be affected by the Yin energy! "

This was the only explanation he could think of and it seemed plausible. That would also explain why him and Li Yu'er were unaffected by the Yin energy.

"The fog seemed to be thinning!" Hua Liuli exclaimed. Long Feng looked around and, indeed, the fog was slowly reducing.

"Is the fog more abundant at the very edge of the forest but the deeper you go, the thinner it becomes?" Long Feng murmured.

       They walked deeper into the forest and the surrounding fog slowly decreased until their eyesight were almost fully restored.

At that moment, they heard a growl nearby, followed by hundreds of other growls. Following that, the ground started shaking as hundreds of heavy footsteps sounded from all around them, all headed in their direction.

"What the hell?" they were all startled.

"A beast horde!" Hua Liuli and Yan Jian exclaimed at the same time.

In the beast world, the beast lived in an army like way. The largest group of beasts were known as beast tide which had over thousands of beasts led by any above spirit level beast.  As for a beast horde, it only had a few hundreds of beasts at most and we're mostly led by Yang and spirit level beasts.

Hearing that they were facing an entire beast horde, Long Feng's face turned grave.

"And we've been surrounded!"

"The beasts grew up in this forest so it is only natural that they detected us before we even knew they were there." Hua Liuli said.

"Fight a path out of the encirclement." Long Feng spoke as everyone readied themselves for battle.

The footsteps drew closer until the four of them could see which beasts were approaching them. The beasts looked like lizards,  only much larger.  Their scales glistened with a brownish light as drool leaked out of their mouths.

"Are those..." Hua Liuli's eyes bulged.

"Black Earth lizards!" Yan Jian completed the sentence for her as his face warped in shock.

"These beast have a very frustrating defense and a more deadly venom.  Even their blood is poisonous. Stay away from them as far as you can and use long range attacks!" Hua Liuli warned.

"Our luck is just this bad!" Yan Jian lamented.

"The beasts are... Weak." Long Feng observed. They were only at the peak connate or the early Yin level.

"Of course they are. They are only the weakest among the horde, sent to test our strength. In other words, they are more like sacrifices!" Hua Liuli replied.

"Is that so? Then their leader really is quite smart for a mere beast" Long Feng muttered.

"Stay back.  I can handle these small fries!" Hua Liuli stepped forward and suddenly sat on the floor. A silver coloured zither appeared in her grasp abruptly.

"Zither?" Long Feng, Yan Jian and Li Yu'er were all surprised.

They watched with interest as Hua Liuli slowly rubbed the zither. Suddenly, she pulled a string.

*Zeng...

      A melodious sound filled the air, causing the beasts to pause as confusionfilled their eyes.

As for Long Feng and the other two, they felt a soothing feeling in their minds as they forgot about their current predicament. The only thing in their eyes were Hua Liuli and her zither.

Hua Liuli's fingers moved gracefully across the zither as she slowly carressed the zither and pulled another string.

*zeng...

       Another soothing music sounded. All the beast below the mid Yin level instantly had their minds shattered by the music and their limp bodies collapsed with several heavy thuds.