CH 29

Chapter 29: Gaining Numerous Benefits in the Magical Beast Forest (3)

After the heavy rain, the weather began to cool down. Long Shiyan’s body had just recovered. While the chill was a bit unbearable, the cave was warm. Being under furry animal skins and beside the high temperature of the campfire were really warm places.

Long Shiyan sat on the stone bed with her legs crossed. Her eyes were closed and she was meditating. The dark Douqi naturally circulated in her body, preparing to restore her own strength.

Clifford scrubbed his sword and looked at Long Shiyan, who was meditating with closed eyes. He was filled with questions. It was peculiar. This girl actually dual cultivated in both magic and martial arts, yet still had a decent growth rate. She was only seventeen years old but was also at the peak of the seventh level. She was a rare talent that only appeared once in many centuries! Did she attend the Holy Spirit Magic School?

What was even more strange was that the dark Douqi made strange changes to her body. If he wasn’t a Saint, then it would have been impossible to see the dark Douqi hidden in her body. He would have just thought it was ordinary Douqi. If he didn’t seriously explore it, then he wouldn’t have known about the special properties of her Douqi.

Moreover, her recovery rate was absolutely formidable. Even without any light attribute treatment, she could still heal. Although this was good, it would be definitely not a good thing if it was discovered by the people of the Radiant Church or the Dark Church.

Long Shiyan meditated for the whole morning, yet felt the same as before. She opened her eyes and relaxed. Next to her, Clifford was cooking meat. There were pots and bowls filled with ingredients, apparently taken out from his spatial ring.

When he realized that Long Shiyan woke up, Clifford chuckled. “I haven’t cooked properly in a long time; I don’t know if I still have my old skills.”

“Has Mister been waiting all this time for Yan Yan?” Long Shiyan sat down on the stone bench beside the fire, squinting at him.

“You have been seriously injured. If I don’t help you regain your vitality, how will you survive out there?” Clifford transferred the ingredients and said, “Are you graduating from the Holy Spirit Magic School and have come to the Magical Beast Forest to complete your assessment mission?”

“No.” Long Shiyan held her leg and smiled as she replied, “I have only enrolled in the Holy Spirit Magic School for six years. According to the regulations, I have to be enrolled for seven years before I can take the graduation assessment and decide where to go in the future. I am currently the head of the Student Holy Spirit Group. This time, I came to the Magical Beast Forest in order to complete the qualifications as head of the Student Holy Spirit Group.”

“Oh…” Clifford looked at her with great interest. “Being the head of the Student Holy Spirit Group is difficult! Not only do you have to protect yourself, but you also have to protect the other students during the training process. The responsibility that you have is great!” As far as he knew, it was not impossible for her to become the head of the Student Holy Spirit Group. Not only would she have to be strong but also be one of the top students and be knowledgeable about a lot of things. It was definitely not simple.

On the contrary, her authority was also great. Even the teachers at the school had to give her some degree of respect. After graduation, she could directly join the “Holy Spirit Group” and become a prominent combat figure in the Holy Spirit Magic School. That position was certainly not bad.

(TLN: “Student Holy Spirit Group” is different from the “Holy Spirit Group”)

Of course, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.

“Yeah.” Long Shiyan took a bowl of soup he had offered and replied, “I was just elected as the head of the group this year, and then I received a mission of training members. Our original mission was to first enter the core of the Magical Beast Forest in order to find the leader’s medal. Then, we need to return and help the teachers protect the other students.

I didn’t expect that the moment we entered the inner clearing, we encountered a terrible ant wave. When we fled, we split up from our teammates. Later, I encountered three assassins. After a difficult struggle, I defeated them but in return, I was on the verge of death. If if it wasn’t for Mr. Clifford rescuing me, then I’m not sure what I would have done.”

“So that’s the reason why!” Clifford sighed and frowned. “It’s very dangerous for students to be scattered in the Magical Beast Forest. You were lucky enough to meet me, but I don’t know if your classmates have the same luck.”

He slightly paused and looked at Long Shiyan who was silently hanging her head down. He laughed and changed the subject. “Little girl, don’t worry. Your friends might not be in danger. First, you should relax. I will take you to find them tomorrow.”

Listening to him, Long Shiyan’s eyes brightened as she lifted her head and stared at him with a pair of large eyes.

“Little girl, don’t look at me like that. You’re pressuring me!” Clifford glanced at Long Shiyan’s gaze of admiration, and couldn’t help but curl his lips. He really couldn’t disappoint her when she displayed that type of expression!

“You, little girl!” He shook his head, then took three big bags out of the space and threw them in front of her. He smiled. “Little girl, these are from the three dead assassins that you killed. These were originally your earnings, so I’m just returning them to you.”

“What’s inside them?” Long Shiyan was stunned. Looking at these three large bags, she felt that they were familiar. Wasn’t that the man in black’s bag? Weren’t the other two bags owned by the other two people?

“I also don’t know. I just collected them, so I haven’t seen what was inside. But they should have magical cores. Because it would be inconvenient to carry them, I temporarily stored them in my spatial ring.” Clifford wasn’t concerned. He said, “Since you killed them, these things are yours.”

Long Shiyan blinked and looked at Clifford before opening the nearest large bag. This bag was the largest of the three and it was the one that Long Shiyan felt was most familiar. Its previous owner was the man in black.

She opened it and discovered a waterproof pouch, a pile of male clothes, some medicine bottles, jars, and the like. Then, in addition to these were a bunch of magic cores.

Long Shiyan looked at the magic cores and could not help but take a deep breath. She had spent more than three months in the Magical Beast Forest, yet she didn’t even earn even a tenth of the number of magic cores inside. Moreover, they were all fourth-level or more magic cores. None were low-leveled cores.

“Not bad! Not bad!” Clifford lamented, “There are so many magic cores. There are thousands of them in number, and their levels aren’t low. But… no seventh-level magic core. It’s really strange. There aren’t many sixth-levels either, almost all of them are fourth or fifth-level. Since he was a seventh-level assassin, this is illogical.”

Magic cores were also known as magic crystals or the magic crystal cores. They were the crystal nucleus produced in the body of magical beasts.

The magic crystal nucleus was the most important source of magic in the body of a magical beast. After taking it out, it had a lot of benefits for people. On the Long Shiyan’s custom-made sword, there was a seventh-level wind magic core.

The amount of combat power that the core had increased was terrifying.

Normally, magical beasts had to be second-level or above to produce a magic core. The market value of a second-level magic core was about one silver coin, the third-level magic core value was five silver coins, and the fourth-level cores were around five gold coins each.

A gold coin was equivalent to 100 RMB. Hundreds of fourth-level magic cores would equate to thousands of gold coins, which was equivalent to tens of thousands of RMB. The fifth-level magic core was equal to 30-80 gold coins. They depended on quality. However, there were hundreds of fifth-level magic cores. The total price wouldn’t be less than tens of thousands of gold coins, so the value was absolutely not low.

(TLN: 1 RMB = 0.14 USD.)

There weren’t as many sixth-level magic cores. Long Shiyan counted around twenty-eight. One sixth-level was about 700 gold coins. She added the price of these cores to the bunches of fourth and fifth-level magic cores.

In total, there were tens of thousands of gold coins.

During the years she attended school, her aunt gave her tens of thousands of gold coins. In the blink of an eye, she obtained the same amount of money or greater. She was shocked.

Looking at Sword Saint Clifford, she noticed that he was uninterested in the amount of money. In her mind, she understood that this money wasn’t even worth his groceries in his heart.

As a result, Long Shiyan was jealous of all Saints’ wealth.

It should be noted that she was still poor. Not only did she have to support herself but also Zi Linglong. This consumed a lot of resources as she had long hollowed out all of her assets.

In order to continue attending school, she had to obtain scholarships.

Long Shiyan calmed down and turned her gaze towards the other two large bags. These bags were a lot smaller than the previous one. Long Shiyan originally thought that the benefits would not be high. But after opening it, she was shocked.

Although the sheer amount wasn’t as great as the man in black, there were around 150 sixth-level magic cores, a bunch of fifth-levels, and very few fourth-levels.

When she finished counting all the magic cores, the total number of magic cores in the three bags was 354 sixth-level, 2485 fifth-level, and 974 fourth-level cores. Judging by the market price, she estimated that the total price was at least 350,000 gold coins, which had far exceeded the living expenses that Long Yuqing had given her for her to spend over several years.

From the battle, she didn’t expect to gain 350,000 gold coins. This was far beyond what she expected. 350,000 gold coins were not only enough for her to buy a lot of things but also change her living standards. Long Shiyan was delighted.

Long Shiyan observed the magic crystal nuclei that had been sorted into separate piles and couldn’t help but sigh. “I have been in deep within the Magical Beast Forest for more than three months, but the number of magic cores I procured can’t compare with this amount. It’s really like a slap in my face. How long did it take for them to get so many magic cores!”

“It seems that you haven’t understood what it means to be an assassin,” said Sword Saint Clifford, who was drinking some broth. He said, “You entered the Magical Beast Forest for your mission, and only killed every few days. Simply earning that number of cores is very normal in the Magical Beast Forest. In three months, you couldn’t kill that many magical beasts, but you still have dozens of cores. If an assassin killed you, they could get your belongings. By repeating this process, the number of magic cores an assassin has will accumulate. This is the reason why assassins prefer to kill and steal treasures. After all, killing magical beasts is very slow and taxing, so it’s better to plunder adventurers and obtain magic cores faster. Of course, sometimes they will try to kill each other. ”

“Everything they do is for money!”

Long Shiyan feigned ignorance. But in fact, she had long understood that this was casual talk. Killing magical beasts was far more difficult than killing people, which was why assassins would choose this path.

She already knew!

This dangerous Magical Beast Forest was not simple. One would not only need to rely on one’s luck and strength but also be cautious and use one’s experience before one could survive. Even if it could stay in the forest for a long time, one day, that person might die.

However, the temptation was too large. Even if one could lose his or her life, there were still countless adventurers who explored inside. If their luck was good, then they would become rich.

350,000 gold coins had surpassed the value of money that Long Shiyan received in the Tian Jing Mountain Range as the value could be compared with the small bottle of Red Crystal Royal Jelly.

After another day of rest, Long Shiyan began to embark on a journey with Clifford. In order to move faster, Clifford obtained a mount for Long Shiyan to ride. He also sat on a huge black panther, riding it beside her.

“Thump! Thump! Thump!”

While it was like the sound of heavy objects pounding on the ground, it was actually the footsteps of the huge magical beast that Long Shiyan was riding. It was a humongous silver Tyrannosaurus rex. Although it looked like the dinosaur from Earth, the only difference was that its body was coated with silver armor.

Moreover, its body was so big that Long Shiyan could completely lie flat on its head and roll around.

This kind of magical beast was called the silver Tyrannosaurus. It was an eighth-level powerful magical beast. This magical beast could generally fight foes of a higher level than it was. Even if a human was a ninth-level immortal swordsman, that human wouldn’t dare to provoke it. Once this Silver Tyrannosaurus leveled up once again, it would evolve into a Ninth-level Golden Tyrannosaurus. Even if one was a Saint like Clifford, he or she would need to think twice before confronting a ninth-level Golden Tyrannosaurus.

Long Shiyan sat on this oversized magical beast. She was shaking with excitement and fear. Whether it was just because she thought it might eat her or not, she didn’t know.

Long Shiyan pondered. Someday, she also wanted a powerful magical beast pet. At that time, she could just let it out to scare people away.

Within this dangerous Magical Beast Forest, the speed of their movements barely covered the perimeter. Magical beasts would avoid them and as for assassins, by listening to their rides’ terrible footsteps, they would have long hidden far away.

Around five or six days later, she finally reached the position she agreed to meet up at with the system, Qian Qian. When she arrived, she didn’t use the mount. She was afraid of scaring them away. Therefore, they chose to walk on foot. While walking, she listened to Clifford explain about martial arts. Although she had listened for five or six days, Long Shiyan learned many things. Her combat experience and skills received a qualitative leap.

Perhaps because their magical beast rides were too fast, by the time Long Shiyan reached the designated position, Zi Linglong had not arrived yet. Although she was worried, fortunately, she only had to wait for a day before Zi Linglong and others came to the designated location.

Looking at the four people walking slowly towards her, Long Shiyan’s depressed mood for waiting for a day changed for the better, and the corners of her mouth curled.

“Little girl,” Sword Saint Clifford smiled. “Since you and your teammates will meet pretty soon, I should leave. I will see you later,” he said as he turned around to leave.

“Mister, please stay,” Long Shiyan called out to him. “If Mister can’t find the dragon grass and the cloud fragrant flowers, you should go to the Foggy Valley in the center of the forest. There might be the herbs that Mister needs over there.”

“Foggy Valley?” Clifford raised an eyebrow and obviously didn’t know what it was.

Long Shiyan explained, “According to the ’Magical Beast Forest’s Wondrous Domain’, the Foggy Valley is the area with the most herbal medicine in the Magical Beast Forest. Perhaps the herbs that Mister needs are inside even though I can’t say for sure.” She stood in place, looking around. She pointed towards the southeast direction. “In this direction, if Mister sees a large area of ​​fog, it should be the valley.”

Clifford contemplated for a while and suddenly laughed. “Little girl, your knowledge isn’t bad. These two herbs are nearly extinct in the inner clearing. I will go search for them in the Foggy Valley.” He laughed. Flying in the sky, over the jungle’s canopy, he disappeared in a blink of an eye, leaving only a loud chortle.

Long Shiyan looked towards the sky as she couldn’t help but secretly praise Saints. When any occupation reached the Saint realm, they could fly freely. Although wind magic was the only exception to this rule, flying was very mentally and magically consuming while the speed wouldn’t be fast.

Zi Linglong and others also noticed Long Shiyan. She increased her pace and ran to her position. When Zi Linglong reached Long Shiyan, she did not slow down as Long Shiyan fell into her soft embrace. Long Shiyan could barely breathe.

Between the two, their difference in height was great. Long Shiyan’s height just happened to reach Zi Linglong’s chest as she buried Long Shiyan into her chest.

Zi Linglong slightly crouched down and looked at her. With red eyes and a grieved expression, she said, “Elder Sister…” She held Long Shiyan tightly, but this time, not at her chest. “I thought…I thought I would never see Elder Sister ever again.”