Chapter 70: Danger zones

There were around 5-6 danger zones in the upper continents, 2-3 in the middle continents, and 1 in the lower continents.

The danger zones in the upper continents were the most deadly and beast infested zones, most of them stood at the apex of elemental concentration, just like the Demonic Forest stood at the apex of demonic energy stored into the mortal realm.

A danger zone was called a danger zone because only the top 10% of cultivators could benefit from it, those being the ones at the Sage Realm or above, while the others below could technically survive in such conditions it wouldn't be beneficial for them at all.

Take Lulu, for example, if she lived in the demonic forest for a long time she might end up like those natives if she didn't protect her body constantly with her ki. Being infested with demonic ki wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the world was filled with self-righteous people who denounced the demonic path, it could as well be deadly.

Yun Jhin finished reading on the new danger zones, he knew of the first four but the last two were new, one was under the ocean that separated the Empire that Yun Jhin was with its brother the Luo Empire.

The other one was in the jungle near the Bumi Empire.

There wasn't much news about these two danger zones as they newly appeared one hundred years ago, some rogue cultivators found them while they searched for treasures, All three Empires tried to send men to them but only very few came back and most of them became crazy after they returned.

With Yun Jhin's experience, he knew what these two danger zones could entail, one of them was either the birth of a new hybrid while the other must be a tomb. Most tombs had formations that would turn the intruders crazy, as for the hybrid, it must be a special mental based race that strengthened itself countless times, this types of hybrids were different as they couldn't take human form, they were born with a body around the rank of 8,500 and they couldn't improve it further.

Their cultivation would also stagnate around the 9th stage of the Sage Realm but they would be born in the Sage Realm and they would have a very high battle power to the point that they could fight weaker God Realm experts.

Yun Jhin crossed both of these zones out of being sent to, one was too dangerous for him, and the other couldn't be reached normally, it would mean sending him to the Luo Empire then the Luo Empire would need to smuggle him in the jungle which was the territory of the Bumi Empire.

The remaining four danger zones were based on the four elements, they had an excess of elemental power in them that made them extremely dangerous, the four zones consisted of the Volcanic Region, The dead Earth Region, The Violent wind Region, and the Icy Water Ocean.

All of them reached the extremes of the four elements and they weren't habitable environments, just like the demonic forest the one who enters these regions would have to continuously use their ki as a shield to protect their bodies and souls from being battered by the intense elemental ki that assaulted their senses, souls, and bodies.

Yun Jhin's soul wouldn't have a problem to endure in such conditions but his body was weak, he would need to continuously use his ki like everyone else.

He sighed as he marked the zones that had the materials that he could use, he wouldn't be sent very far in the danger zones so he could only gather herbs from the fringes, but even those were considered rather rare and extraordinary in the eyes of those below the Sage Realm.

While Yun Jhin was making his plan inside his room, Black Blood was talking with the Emperor inside the palace:

"Your majesty, are you sure you want to send Yun Jhin and her highness Lulu to all of the danger zones available to us?"

The Emperor nodded at Black Blood as he responded to the Eunuch:

"They will stay in each zone for 10 days each I will send in them formations that would lock them into the zone once they enter it, you follow them around but don't send them to the zones, they should go by themselves, the tempering of the four elemental zones was something I and my wife did in our youths as well."

Black Blood nodded and didn't comment as the Emperor waved his hand at him and said:

"Go and summon both that girl Lulu and Yun Jhin, I will install the formation in them right now and then send them on their way, Yun Jhin needs to unlock his memories before our brother Empire gets the news of us having a reincarnated person in our ranks..."

The Emperor still had ambitions to break off from his father's empire and officially stop being a vassal.

Yun Jhin and Lulu entered the throne room at the same time and the Emperor didn't even bother to talk with them as he inserted two inscribed energy cores into the bodies, they easily fused with them and the Emperor said:

"Black Blood should have explained to you how things will go through with this training exercise, good luck to both of you!"

Yun Jhin nodded and before he left the throne room he used his soul willpower to give the other half of the cultivation technique he presented to the Emperor beforehand, Lulu bowed meekly then left as well.

Yun Jhin had changed his outfit and applied formations on it that strengthened it's resistance to the four elements. He now wore a black tunic, gray armored pants, and military boots, over his body he wore a green cloak with the symbols of the four elements in a circle on it's back.

Lulu wore a special red armor with small patches here and there, these patches radiated elemental energy and seemed like they could absorb and release elemental energy.

She also had both of her swords on her back instead of her spatial ring for quick accessibility.

Yun Jhin didn't have a weapon as he didn't need to use one up till now, besides using the weapons of the previous bodies that he possed, he didn't get to use many weapons, the first thing was because he couldn't find a good enough weapon for his main body, the second thing being was that he didn't need to use one up till now.

But the cultivation beasts and animals living in the four danger zones would need specifically enchanted weapons to be slain, they could also be slain with your bare hands but it would take more time and it would be less efficient.

So Yun Jhin decided to craft his weapon before he left for the first danger zone, the Emperor didn't truly say when he was supposed to leave, even though he sent them away he didn't throw them out of the capital.

Yun Jhin went inside his room on the outskirts of the palace, Lulu followed behind him without saying anything as he already explained to her that he needed to make a weapon that would help them during this new training session.

Lulu wanted to assist and observe how he created the weapon as she thought that it would help her on her swordsmanship path.

Black Blood stood in the shadows as he observed as well, he was curious about Yun Jhin's weapon refining technique.

Yun Jhin started with a bunch of handseals as he opened his spatial ring and started to throw in herbs and metals he found in the demonic forest, he already moved all of his other materials from his spatial bag into the ring so he had everything he needed with him.

Beast cores, poisonous herbs, different colored metals that corresponded to the four elements, spirit stones.

All of them melted inside the formation as Yun Jhin used his inner ki fire to burn them and refine them, quite a lot of slag was extracted from them as they were purified by his inner fire.

He threw the slag away as when it left the formation it turned into dust then disappeared.

Only a multicolored piece of metal remained inside the formation, Yun Jhin started to shape it into a katana's shape, the body was of a normal steel color with fire wave patterns on the back, it had a red handle and an average height for a katana, on the handle appeared a black stone with four colors on it, the current part of the stone was on red but then it changed to blue, so its handle changed to the blue color as the fire wave patterns from its back changed to water wave patterns.

Yun Jhin nodded at his weapon, it would be a useful weapon for the current situation and he wouldn't have to worry even if he ran out of ki as he could use the sword to protect his body.

The formation stopped as the katana hovered to Yun Jhin, Yun Jhin already had a sheath prepared for it, as the katana entered the sheath, the sheath turned into the same color as the handle but with a lighter color.

Lulu didn't stop observing until the end, she was pretty impressed by Yun Jhin's blacksmithing technique, she didn't have much experience with blacksmithing but she could understand that what Yun Jhin did here showed that he was a very experienced blacksmith.

Yun Jhin dabbled in countless professions in his countless lives, he knew a lot of everything so he could pretty much do whatever he needed to survive in whatever situation that popped up.

Black Blood realized that Yun Jhin held some information from the Emperor but it was only natural, after all, how could Yun Jhin trust the Emperor up till now, as the man didn't do anything that would warranty the young man's trust.

Yun Jhin tied the katana to his hip and then left the capital with Lulu, Black Blood followed them from behind like a shadow to make sure they went to the destination.

Lulu and Yun Jhin already memorized the location of the four danger zones so they didn't stray from the right path at all, after a few days of walking the air started to heat up as they reached a plain.

In the middle of the plain, a lava river stood, and beyond the lava river, a gigantic Volcano stood proudly there as lava flowed down from it to the river, near the river stood some animals that drank from the river.

The animals looked like lava golems made from melted rocks, as some of the lava they drank dripped from their empty eyes or the cracks in their bodies.

This was how the animals that lived on this plain evolved since the Volcano appeared.

Yun Jhin looked around for a short while before he went into the direction of the lava river, he would need to pass the river to be considered in the danger zone as the formation core inside his body didn't trigger yet.

Lulu followed slowly behind him as Black Blood roasted some meat and watched from afar, the Emperor didn't say he couldn't have a few snacks while the youngsters trained.

Yun Jhin finally reached the lava river but the animals there didn't get scared and run away, instead they started to growl as lava started to fall on the ground burning it to cinders and widening the lava river by a small amount.

Yun Jhin didn't say anything as he unsheathed his katana as its handle turned a deep blue color, he slashed the animals so fast that they didn't realize what happened before they turned into frost sculptures broke, and died, their pure fire energy cores stood where they died and Yun Jhin picked them up and put them inside his spatial ring.

Lulu narrowed her eyes inside as she saw Yun Jhin's sword skills, she realized that she couldn't truly see through them!

Yun Jhin snapped his fingers to take her attention as he waved his sword again creating an ice bridge over the lava river, as they were both King Realm experts they couldn't truly fly yet, the river was quite wide and they wouldn't have enough ki to support their pseudo flying capability until the end so they would instead fall in the river and burn to death.

Yun Jhin took the front as he walked on the ice bridge and Lulu followed slowly behind him, Black Blood felt pretty impressed by the abilities of Yun Jhin's katana and he thought that he should ask to make him a weapon as well after they returned from this training expedition.

After around 10 minutes of walking, they finally went to the other shore of the lava river and were officially inside the danger zone, both of their formation cores started to tick inside their bodies, after they stopped ticking that meant 10 days would have passed and they would be able to leave.

Yun Jhin sighed as he started walking towards the direction of the gigantic Volcano, he wouldn't dare to approach it too much, but the good herbs and beast cores wouldn't lay near the shores of the lava river, as the concentration of fire energy was the smallest there.

Lulu didn't say anything as she followed behind him, she was there to temper herself while trying to win Yun Jhin's heart at the same time, she knew that talking with him wouldn't win his heart so she was ready to launch an attack the moment a strong opponent would come. The few animals at the outer rings of the lava river didn't count as they weren't even in the King Realm so she didn't bother to deal with them.

Yun Jhin also ignored the weaker beasts and animals, unless they attacked him he wouldn't deal with them.

After a short while he finally found a herb that he could use for his pill, it was guarded by a 4th stage King Realm short ape that salivated lava near the herb, it was ready to eat it.

But Yun Jhin and Lulu intervened, after she saw Yun Jhin lunge towards the beast, she decided to make a quick work of it to show how useful she could be!