878 Mysterious Swordsman

Right now, Shao Ji was already thinking about retreating. He did not want to continue. Withdrawing from the Heaven List Tournament might be the best choice for him. He had long since forgotten his ambition from before. Also, he was living in constant fear every day he spent with Lord Merciless. He was afraid that he would one day unintentionally offend Lord Merciless and end up in a miserable state.

"Shao Ji, you have followed me loyally these past few days. If you want, I can take you into the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. I can even let you get quite some points so that you can get a good ranking. Of course, if you insist on withdrawing, I will not stop you. It all depends on you," Lord Merciless said as he put his hands behind his back. Naturally, he could tell what Shao Ji was thinking.

"Lord Merciless… I have decided to follow you."

Shao Ji was touched. He had not expected that Lord Merciless would say something like that. Under Lord Merciless's care, it would surely not be difficult for Shao Ji to venture through the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. If Lord Merciless was willing to give him points and increase his ranking, then the Huatian Palace's rewards posed a huge temptation for Shao Ji.

Even though Shao Ji was a little worried, once he thought of the handsome rewards, he immediately focused on the benefits. That was his priority.

"Follow me. Don't worry. I will not let you suffer any losses."

Lord Merciless nodded. A glint of light flashed past his eyes. Shao Ji would never know that if he had chosen to leave just now, he would most likely never be able to leave the Red Stone Forest. Lord Merciless cared deeply about saving face. Shao Ji had seen him embarrass himself in front of Mo Wen. It was impossible for Lord Merciless to let Shao Ji leave alive.

The reason why Lord Merciless had kept Shao Ji by his side so that Shao Ji could witness that he, Lord Merciless, was not someone to be trifled with. Once they were in the Heart of the Red Stone Forest, Lord Merciless would surely torture Mo Wen to death.

...

Blue lights twinkled. When Mo Wen could clearly see his surroundings again, he had appeared in another environment.

There were no longer huge rocks and a barren landscape before his eyes. Instead, he was in a swamp. The swamp was surrounded by green plants, and the surroundings were teeming with life.

"Is this the Heart of the Red Stone Forest? It is said that there are many terrifying demonic beasts around here. The participants must first face the demonic beasts before they can cross the Heart of the Red Stone Forest."

Mo Wen looked at his surroundings. There were many living creatures in the swamp. For example, there were bugs hidden in the mud and birds flying in the sky. All the animals had odd appearances. They appeared harmless, yet they were extremely poisonous.

Once Mo Wen arrived here, he realized that common ancient martial art practitioners would definitely not be able to survive in the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. Ancient martial art practitioners with at least Embryonic Breathing Realm cultivation could barely survive here. It was because, apart from the other hidden dangers, being bitten by any bugs here would kill the ancient martial art practitioners.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Suddenly, a buzzing sound could be heard. It was immediately followed by a cloud of black gas approaching from nearby. The sound came from the cloud of black gas.

It was not a cloud of black gas: it was a cloud of bugs. It was formed by countless bugs flying together. The bugs were jet black; however, their mandibles were blood red. They were shaped a little like mosquitoes, yet each of them was the size of a newborn baby's thumb.

Everywhere the cloud of bugs passed, the surrounding trees began to erode bit by bit. Some birds grazed past the bugs but were immediately poisoned and dropped to the ground motionless.

"Such a powerful poison."

Mo Wen was astonished. The cloud of bugs was obviously not to be trifled with. Its target was clearly him. As he kept moving forward, they were flying towards him.

A mass of golden flame suddenly flew out, enveloping the cloud of bugs in an instant. The next moment, all the bugs were completely burnt to ashes.

"I need to be careful of everything when moving around in this place."

Mo Wen had a rough understanding of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. However, this was merely the outer layer of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. Obviously, there was nothing here that could threaten him.

Mechanized Maze City was located at the center of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. Mo Wen's current location was most likely on the outskirts of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. Once Mo Wen identified his direction and made his way forward, he would surely be able to reach Mechanized Maze City.

Mo Wen didn't stay at the same spot. After locating the direction of Mechanized Maze City, he flew up and quickly made his way towards it. The participants still could not fly in the Heart of the Red Stone Forest. However, with Mo Wen's current cultivation, it was not a problem for him to leap through the air for brief moments.

After running for a while, Mo Wen noticed that the path was becoming harder to travel on. The swamps beneath him were getting larger, and they constantly emanated a pulling force, attempting to suck the people above into the swamps. Mo Wen's cultivation was strong enough to mean that he would not be sucked into the swamps. However, the pulling force still greatly affected his traveling speed.

This kind of swamp was clearly abnormal. It was likely that a Qi Nucleation Realm ancient martial art practitioner would perish if they fell into the swamp, let alone a commoner.

Suddenly, Mo Wen felt his heart tighten and a sense of danger welled up in his head without any warning. Without thinking much, Mo Wen unleashed the Glory of Wind and transformed into a gust of wind, traversing a hundred meters in an instant.

Rumble!

There was a huge rumble. A dark shadow flew out of the swamp and came sweeping over. Everything around it was swept into dust. It was a tail with cold jet-black scales on it. Each scale was the size of a palm, and the scales were densely packed together.

It was the tail of a snake. The part that had lashed out from the swamp was more than a hundred meters long. A large portion of its body was still buried underneath the swamp.

Mo Wen landed on a dead tree. He felt afraid. This snake demon was hidden in the swamp. When Mo Wen had been leaping through the air, he had not noticed it. This swamp clearly could block his deified soul's senses. Otherwise, he would have noticed it.

Roar!

A huge head slowly emerged from the swamp. The snake's head was the size of a grindstone. It had a poisonous sting on its head. A pair of dark blue eyes flickered with cold light. Snakes were creatures that were proficient at ambushing their prey. Just now, it had ambushed Mo Wen instinctively. However, it had clearly taken Mo Wen to be its prey.

"Huh, that's odd. This snake demon doesn't seem to be an ordinary demonic beast."

Mo Wen looked at the snake demon that had emerged from the swamp in some astonishment. From the aura of this snake, he could determine that it had the ability of at least the Martial Arts Grandmaster second realm. It was a medium-ranked Beast King. If a demonic beast had cultivated to the realm of a Beast King, it could not morph into a person, but it would have extraordinary intelligence and would be able to learn human languages. But strangely enough, this snake demon was different. He could only sense beastliness in its eyes. There was no intelligence to be found. Simply put, it had yet to gain sentience.

It had cultivated to such a realm and had not become sentient. What was going on? Could it be that the demonic beasts of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest were different from those in the outside world?

Roar!

The snake demon clearly did not intend to give Mo Wen much time to think. Its figure shot out of the swamp in an instant. Its bloody mouth was wide open as it pounced on Mo Wen. It was as fast as lightning.

With a flash, Mo Wen escaped from the snake demon's attack. Seeing that its first attack had failed, the snake demon immediately swung its tail around and attacked again.

The might of every attack of the snake demon was astonishing. Its attacks were more powerful than that of a common second realm Martial Arts Grandmaster. In terms of strength, the demonic beasts were obviously much stronger than human ancient martial art practitioners.

However, Mo Wen also noticed that this snake demon was only capable of the most basic attacks. It hunted like a beast and fought using instinct.

Compared to ordinary Beast Kings, there was still a sizable difference. After all, ordinary Beast Kings not only had intelligence, battle awareness and strategies, they also had techniques inherited from demonic beast clans such as the Ancestral Demon Sacred Spirit, Demonic Spiritual Treasures and Inherent Skills.

In comparison, the demonic beasts of the Heart of the Red Stone Forest were weaker than ordinary demonic beasts. However, a medium-ranking Beast King was rather frightening.

After all, the snake demon had cultivated to such a realm over a long period of time. It most likely had lived for many years. Even if it was not sentient, the battle instinct it had accumulated over such a long period of time would be very frightening.

Howl!

Both of its attacks missed. The snake demon seemed to have grown irritable and opened its mouth in fury. A mass of piercing blue light shot out. The blue ball of light was pure beyond compare, as though a great blue sea was contained within it.

"What is that?"

Mo Wen was shocked as he looked at the blue ball of light in astonishment. The power contained within the mass of light was too frightening. It was also pure beyond compare. It was a highly pure mass of energy. The might of this mass of energy was enough to pose a threat to Mo Wen's life.

In an instant, the mass of energy flew out at an extreme speed.

Without thinking, Mo Wen's figure flashed and he dodged the mass of energy. However, the mass of energy seemed to understand what had just happened and made an abrupt turn. If Mo Wen had not cultivated the Glory of Wind and his movements were not nimble, he would most likely have crashed into the mass of energy.

However, right now, it was impossible for Mo Wen to dodge it again. Reluctantly, he could only confront it head-on.

A blinding golden light lit up on Mo Wen's body. The next moment, the blue mass of energy crashed into him.

There was a huge rumble and Mo Wen was sent flying. His face was pale and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He had chosen to collide with the smallest area of the blue mass of energy, but its explosive power still surpassed what he could withstand.

Swoosh!

Almost at the same time, a streak of white light from afar swept across. Its momentum was unparalleled, causing Mo Wen to be greatly surprised. He instantly put his guard up.

The streak of white light flashed past and sunk into the earth in an instant, disappearing deep into the ground. The next moment, the head of the snake demon fell off silently. A huge amount of blood spurted out and dyed the swamp red.

A faint, white silhouette slowly appeared in the air above the snake demon. It was a tall figure, and the person was wielding a quaint, long sword in his hand. The person emanated a sense of sharpness that would give others goosebumps. It was as though he could slice a mountain in half with his sword.