Chapter 444 - The Central Area

“People like him are rare.” Zhang Han looked at Ma Di’s back, smiled, and said, “He has a chivalrous spirit and is destined to become a legend.”

“Yes.” Zi Yan nodded slightly, then looked forward, and said with surprise, “The trees in front are really tall. Many of the leaves are blue, and red, white, green, pink… So beautiful.”

“There is a saying that makes sense: sometimes the more beautiful things are, the more dangerous they are. The forest ahead is more dangerous than the grassland. Let’s go and take a look.” Zhang Han took Zi Yan’s hand and walked to the forest.

“Well, let’s go. These talismans should be well-preserved.” Zi Yan gently put the dozen talismans into her pocket.

“Why not try the mosquito repellent talismans first?” Zhang Han chuckled and slightly moved his fingers. Five pieces of talismans flew out of Zi Yan’s pocket, turned into starlight, surrounded Zi Yan in a circle, and then disappeared.

Although it was not visible, with the help of his soul sense, Zhang Han could feel that Zi Yan’s body was surrounded by five layers of energy.

Taking this opportunity, Zhang Han could have a rest. At present, his soul sense was weak and could not be used for a long time.

Zhang Han and Zi Yan walked slowly the whole way. About half an hour later, they came to the forest.

“The trees here are so tall!” Zi Yan looked up and found that the trees here were 10 times larger than those in the outside world. The luxuriant branches and leaves blocked out the sun and made the whole forest dark.

The trunks here were all like those of the hundreds-of-years-old trees, very thick, almost two meters in diameter, but their surface was very smooth. Looking up along the trunk, Zi Yan found that only at a very high position did the branches extend to the side. There were a lot of slightly damp dead leaves and grass on the ground, and she felt like she was stepping on a carpet.

The forest was very quiet, and no one else could be seen around, which was reasonable. The area of this forest was not small, and thus the explorers would not gather in groups after being disturbed.

However, Zhang Han felt that the forest was round, because he had seen the arc of the forest edge when he was on the hillside.

“It’s so dark in here.” After walking in for 10 minutes, Zi Yan increased her efforts to hold Zhang Han.

“It’s OK. Even if it gets darker, I would still feel what’s happening nearby. When you become a cultivator in the future, you’ll be more powerful and will understand the method I am using now,” Zhang Han replied.

“Oh, then, isn’t there any treasure here? Have you found any treasures? Use your nose.” Zi Yan suddenly remembered Zhang Han’s Treasure-sniffing Nose, and couldn’t help asking with interest.

“I used it just now,” Zhang Han grinned and said. “There are some first-class spirit treasures around. They are of poor quality, so I didn’t pick them up.”

Zi Yan pursed her lips and said, “But aren’t first-class spirit treasures still a treasure? Let’s go and have a look.”

“OK, there is one more than 40 meters in front of us on the left. Let’s go and check it out.” Zhang Han took Zi Yan to the direction of treasure.

Soon, they arrived at their destination, only to find a palm-sized reddish mushroom under a tree that was glowing slightly.

“What kind of mushroom is this? It’s beautiful,” Zi Yan said with a wink.

“An ordinary poisonous mushroom that can absorb some energy by itself. It’s just a first-class treasure,” Zhang Han replied.

“Is it poisonous? We won’t take it,” Zi Yan pouted and said.

Zhang Han looked into the forest and said, “Let’s move on. There’s some light ahead.”

“Okay.”

The two of them continued to walk inward for about 20 minutes, and there was light in the dark forest.

The light came from the willows, which were about 10 meters high. Although they were not tall, they were like clouds, because their luxuriant branches and leaves were shining with blue light, like crystal, making this area into a fairyland.

This was an endless ocean of blue light.

“Wonderful!” Zi Yan’s eyes gradually widened.

“The trees live on meat. They are a kind of cannibal tree,” Zhang Han said with a faint smile.

“Huh? They can eat people!” Zi Yan was taken aback.

“They are all sleeping. You can only be attacked by them if you stand under the trees for more than 10 seconds. Several fire talismans are enough to ensure our safety.” Zhang Han made a gesture to make four cards fly out of his coat pocket and four fire talismans fly out of Zi Yan’s clothes.

After the fire talismans were activated, clusters of flames were immediately released and absorbed by Zhang Han’s four cards. Suddenly, a layer of flame appeared on the cards in the four directions of both of them.

Then Zhang Han took Zi Yan’s hand and walked deep into the forest. The trees they passed by didn’t respond, just like ordinary trees.

“Just now, I was thinking of taking some pictures.” Zi Yan looked around at the glowing trees and mumbled.

“You can take photos here. Do you want me to take some for you?” Zhang Han was amused.

“But I want to take a picture with you.” Zi Yan pouted.

“That’s easy.” Zhang Han shook his head with a smile, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, clicked on the camera, threw the mobile phone forward, and made it float five meters away. At the same time, the sound of the camera was heard.

“Oh, I’m not ready. I haven’t done my makeup today.” Zi Yan straightened up and took off her hat to show her delicate cheeks.

After making a lot of poses, Zi Yan suddenly stopped and said, “Make the mobile phone come closer.”

“Okay.” Zhang Han controlled the mobile phone and had it fly toward them.

Zi Yan stood on tiptoe, hugged Zhang Han’s neck, and kissed him on the cheek.

“Crack!”

They were kissing in front of the glowing tree, and the camera recorded the beautiful moment.

Just then, a cry came from afar. “You’re daydreaming about catching up with me!”

Zi Yan shyly lowered her head, paused for a moment, and asked, “Huh? Does that sound familiar?”

“Is it Instructor Liu?” Zhang Han looked forward.

The voice became clearer and closer to them.

“Dammit, you can’t catch up with me even if you run for a year. What’s the point of that?”

“…”

After about 20 seconds, Instructor Liu quickly ran into Zhang Han’s and Zi Yan’s vision from the right side.

His appearance made Zi Yan a little confused.

He strapped a lot of plants around his body and tied a belt as thick as his arm around his waist. His arms, chest, and neck were also covered with treasures.

It was a worthwhile trip for him to get so many treasures.

“Ah!” Instructor Liu didn’t see the two people standing on the side clearly, and he was shocked.

After all, there were too many treasures on him. If he were to be stopped and attacked from the back and front, he would be in trouble.

But when he took a closer look…

“Hahahaha! Boss!” Instructor Li’s eyes lit up as he ran toward Zhang Han and Zi Yan, laughing.

With sweat on his forehead, he gasped and said, “I’m so lucky. I’m almost too tired to run. There was a black man after me, trying to take my treasures.”

As soon as Instructor Liu had finished speaking, a man dressed in black came running quickly from behind him. If he was in the dark forest just now, it would be difficult for anyone who had no soul sense to discover him, even if he was right beside them.

The black man became alert when he saw that Instructor Liu had found two helpers. He extended his right hand to show that he was holding a long knife upside down, which was reflecting a cold light.

He said slowly in rather stiff Chinese, “Give me your treasures, otherwise I’ll kill you.”

He spoke and stared at his enemies without expression. After thinking for a while, he added, “I’m from the Evil Wind Sect, and our sect chief is not far away. I’ll give you three seconds…”

“Three!”

At the beginning of the countdown, he leaned forward a little, which was a posture of being ready for attack.

He believed that both Zhang Han and Zi Yan were at the Peak Strength stage since there was no wave of qi around them. Therefore, he decided to attack them without hesitation.

If he was given another chance, he would not chase Instructor Liu, but there was no “if”.

“You are full of too much bullshit,” Zhang Han said calmly and waved his hand. Suddenly, the black man was hit away like a fly. After drawing an arc through the air, he hit a willow tree, spat out blood, and fell to the ground.

“He also came from the Evil Wind Sect. Is it powerful?” Zi Yan asked curiously.

“Hoo…” Instructor Liu sighed and said, “No matter in the ruins or in reality, the Evil Wind Sect always acts ruthlessly like this, and no one dares to provoke its disciples and members in the local area. This time, with their branch leader here, they would surely be making trouble for us again.”

After explaining the situation, Instructor Liu added excitedly, “Boss, look! I’ve got so many natural precious materials, and we can make another batch of elixirs when we go back. ”

Looking at the circles of spiritual herbs wrapped around Instructor Liu, Zi Yan said sincerely, “You’ve got quite a lot.”

“Of course, sometimes the detection instruments are very useful,” Instructor Liu said triumphantly.

“Why are you holding this?” Zi Yan asked, looking at the long knife in the hand of Instructor Liu.

Instructor Liu was not armed when he entered the ruins. The color of this long knife was very similar to bone, and except for the sharp edge, the other parts of it were uneven.

Remembering how he got the long knife, Instructor Liu curled his lip and said unhappily, “Well, don’t mention it. I’m so unlucky. Have you noticed that my hair has been shaved? As soon as I came in, a skeleton began attacking me with this knife. If not for my quick reaction, you would never see me again.”

“Skeletons?” Zi Yan’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes, we seem to be in a place dominated by dark energy.” Instructor Liu grinned and said, “Running half an hour further, you’ll find dead trees all around, and the soil there is black. The skeletons with this kind of bone knife will suddenly appear to attack passers-by. There are many of them, and each one is at the Inward Strength stage.

“Let’s go and have a look,” Zhang Han said, taking the lead to go inside.

Behind them, the willow branches and leaves beside the black man began to shake and rapidly extended down, wrapping around him in an instant. Then the branches gradually shortened until the black man was finally sucked into the trunk, as if he had never existed.

They walked deep into the forest for more than 40 minutes. During this period, Instructor Liu searched around and harvested some more spiritual herbs.

Soon after they left the willows, the light in front of them was brighter, because the trees here had become dead trees without leaves, and they could see the gray sky.

When they looked around, they found a light mist among the dead trees, adding a sense of mystery to the area.

In the fog, there were six or seven skeletons wandering nearby.

“I’ll destroy them!” Instructor Liu volunteered to run to a skeleton and raised his long knife at it. The skeleton was directly chopped up by him and scattered on the ground.

He did so several times, and all the skeletons nearby were cut to pieces.

Zhang Han looked at them a few times and sensed a little energy surrounding the skeleton fragments. Obviously, in a short time, they would gather together again into a complete skeleton and stand up again.

“This area is really dominated by dark energy.” Zhang Han looked forward and went on, saying, “We’re close to the central area.”

Once they passed through this area, they would almost arrive at the center, where there would be some high-level treasures.