Chapter 526: Black Region

No matter when Leon searched, Leon could not find Duna anywhere nearby. Undoubtedly she was not anywhere close to the Great Wall. 

They had traveled an entire way from the Great Forest. 

The carcasses of rats could be seen littered all over the plains as they were hunted throughout the night. Duna could have been anywhere along this journey.

Knowing that Duna could potentially be in danger, Leon could not remain still. He had to search for her proactively if he wanted to make sure she was alright. 

It would be too late for regrets if something happened while he waited and hoped for her wellbeing.

"I will leave everything here to you, Marquis Haldir. Please take care of everyone while I am gone." Leon flew over and spoke to the Supreme Elder before preparing to take off in search of Duna.

"Of course." Supreme Elder Haldir nodded solemnly despite his initial surprise. Nevertheless, he could not help but ask, "May I inquire where you are going, young prince?" 

"To find a missing friend."

Supreme Elder Haldir also realized that the female spirit was not seen anywhere in their vicinity as he butchered another rat on the ground. 

Suddenly, he recalled something and mentioned, "If you are looking for Miss Duna, I remember that she ventured off quite deep into the south while we were still around halfway through the trip."

"I got it, thank you." 

After giving the Supreme Elder his thanks, the three-tailed silver wolf in the distance barked at Leon, "Arf, Arf!"

"Stay here and continue to help me clear out these pests, Silver," Leon flew over and spoke while wiping some rat blood off the three-tailed silver wolf's fur before patting its head.

Silver whined like a child about to be abandoned and wanted to follow Leon, causing him to smile wryly in response.

"Fine, you can come along." 

"Awrooo!"

The three-tailed silver wolf howled excitedly after receiving Leon's approval. 

"However, in return, I will need to give your reward to the Guardian Spirit to do extra work in place of your absence here," Leon said seriously before taking out one of his few remaining supreme-grade spirit stones. 

After the Elder Tree was called over from the Great Wall, Leon communicated with the Guardian Spirit and quickly received its willing agreement before tossing the spirit stone over.

Silver wanted to immediately snatch the supreme-grade spirit stone from the Guardian Spirit. 

However, its limbs were suddenly bound by sneaky small roots from the Elder Tree before the Guardian Spirit gobbled down the supreme-grade spirit stone with its thicker roots.

As if it was not satisfied with having anticipated the three-tailed silver wolf's intention, it further antagonized it by waving its roots in front of the three-tailed silver wolf like it was saying, "Too bad for you."

"Grrr!" Silver growled unhappily while baring its fangs at the Elder Tree.

However, the three-tailed silver wolf was suddenly given a smack on the head by Leon before he casually said, "What are you getting all unhappy about? This is what you chose! Suck it up and let us go!"

The three-tailed silver wolf felt wronged, but Leon was right. It could only follow behind Leon obediently. 

Looking back, the Elder Tree could be seen making some sort of victorious gesture with its roots before the three-tailed silver wolf snorted and no longer looked back.

"If you are so slow, I am leaving you behind, Silver," Leon stated before he took off into the distance with the Tier 4 Bone Spear in his hand, sweeping away rats after rats in his path. 

He flew low while his divine sense expanded to its maximum range to sweep the area.

"Awrooo!" The three-tailed silver wolf howled in response like it was accepting a challenge before chasing after Leon, stepping on numerous rats, and crushing them underneath its feet to death with its weight.

The plains were littered with Wingrats everywhere. 

The living rats feasted on the flesh and blood of their dead brethren, but after picking up Leon and Silver's scent, they immediately joined the other rats, who already made their move ahead of them.

Nevertheless, these rats posed no problem. 

Leon and Silver bulldozed their way through the rat tide and continued on their journey through the plains. 

From time to time, Leon would increase his altitude to observed the surroundings from a high vintage for any peculiar sightings that might give him clues towards Duna's location. 

The deeper he headed into the Wildlands, the further he realized the land was not flat but continued to rise on a gradual slope. 

Considering the enormity of the Wildlands, it would not be strange if the ground level of the middle and central regions of the Wildlands was well within the supposed sky's suppression zone.

The twelve rising pillars of Demonic Energy appearing at different vertical positions in the far reaches of the horizon further confirmed his guess.

Perhaps this was the secret to the powerful strengths of the beasts and humans living on the Wildlands.

Their bodies were consistently tempered by strong gravity as their bodies adapted to live in such harsh environments.

Sometime later, Leon spotted a peculiar black region in the southern direction while he was on routinely high altitude search.

"Silver, we are heading this way!"

"Arf, arf!" 

Shortly after, Leon and Silve made their way over and arrived at the black region on the grassy plains.

Rat carcasses could be seen everywhere, inside and outside of the black region.

What came as a surprise to Leon was that they had reached the end of the rat tide. There were no rats in the surroundings except for the ones they attracted over on their journey. 

After finishing off the remaining rats attacking themselves, Leon entered the black region with Silver.

The region had fewer clouds in the sky and allowed for more sunlight to shine clearly in the area, revealing the mountains of blackened rat carcasses. 

"These rats weren't charred black… they were corroded by Darkness and Death Energy!" Leon quickly determined. 

His heart surged with worry due to the amount of sunlight in the region.

"Duna! Where are you?!" Leon shouted. 

Silver also wanted to help, so it mimicked Leon's method of searching for Duna and howled loudly, "Awrooo—!"