The Mist Forest — Yeye, Once More
*Northeast of Sandy Rock City. Thousands of kilometers away.*
Nearly a week had passed since Lu Yuan left Sandy Rock City. The road had been anything but quiet.
His body blurred into a streak across the open desert.
Just as he passed a sand dune, the dune detonated without warning.
Yellow sand churned. A massive black scorpion tumbled through the air, sent flying by Lu Yuan's throw.
*"A Black Venom Sand Scorpion — didn't expect to run into a Boss Grade one. Not bad luck at all."*
Looking at the creature — roughly as tall as a man and nearly eight meters long — Lu Yuan nodded, satisfied.
This was the third Boss Grade Feral Beast he had encountered since leaving Sandy Rock City. The first had been a Wind Eagle at ninety-nine percent tempering. That one could fly; he'd watched it escape without being able to do a thing about it. The second was a Desert Mad Wolf, also over ninety percent tempering. That one had at least dropped a decent set of Boss Grade battle armor. The black-and-yellow armored set he currently wore was precisely that.
A black tail several meters long, tipped with a razor-sharp needle, shot toward him.
Without changing his expression, Lu Yuan's right hand darted out like lightning and seized the thick, elongated tail. He applied the slightest pressure.
*Crack!*
The black scorpion convulsed and struggled to roll over. Lu Yuan brought his foot down, slamming it back into the dune.
*Boom!!*
A deep pit was gouged into the sand. All eight of the scorpion's legs thrashed wildly as it let out a shrill, piercing shriek.
He released the tail and vanished. An instant later he reappeared directly above the scorpion's head.
*Crack!*
His stomp caved in the shell completely, cracks spreading in every direction across the surface.
The Beetle Claw greatsword materialized in his hand. He drove it straight down into the scorpion's skull.
The Black Scorpion went still.
Two orbs tumbled from the creature's body along with a generous pile of origin crystals. One orb was green, the other cyan.
The green one was an Elite Grade Transcendent Gene.
The cyan one was a Boss Grade Gene Armament.
**Boss Armament: Scorpion Tail Needle.** **Combat Technique: Black Scorpion Venom** — primary enhancement to agility and flexibility, secondary enhancement to strength, and a scorpion venom side effect.
He turned the armament over in his mind. It was a slender sword shaped exactly like a scorpion's tail — thin, elegant, and light.
He clicked his tongue. A little disappointing.
He was used to greatswords. Greatswords leaned Assault Type — crushing opponents through sheer, unreasonable force. This slim, lightweight longsword was the kind of weapon made for Assassin Type warriors.
*"If only it were a greatsword."*
His current Beetle Claw greatsword had been in service a long time without any replacement. If a Boss Grade greatsword ever turned up, he'd swap it out. Too bad — this wasn't it.
He collected the loot, harvested the materials, and moved on.
Before long, Lu Yuan crested a long ridge of dunes and stopped. His eyes opened slightly wider.
Ahead, the desert was giving way. Dark brown earth spread out underfoot, and in the distance rose a forest without end — like a boundless green ocean.
*Out of the desert.*
He recalled the map he had studied.
*Past the desert: the Mist Forest.*
He took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The trees were immense. Trunks dozens — even hundreds — of meters tall pressed in on every side. The canopy swallowed the sun whole, leaving only scattered flickers of light to dapple a ground buried under dead branches and rotting leaves. The forest was dim and oppressive. The spaces between trunks were pitch black, the kind of darkness that made the skin crawl.
Being a First-rank Gene Warrior, his night vision gave him no trouble. He could take it all in clearly: enormous gnarled trunks, dense low undergrowth at every turn, and long vines trailing down from above.
*"Weakest beasts here are all First-rank. Far more dangerous than the area around Sandy Rock City."*
The Mist Forest was many times larger than the entire Sandy Rock City region. Its name came from the thick mists that rolled in without warning. Every Feral Beast dwelling here was at least First-rank.
Along the outer fringe, Lu Yuan pushed thirty to forty kilometers in without much effort. The encounters were manageable — mostly Common Grade, First-rank Feral Beasts. Even one at a hundred percent tempering would be only a minor nuisance to him.
Shortly after entering, he glanced up.
On a nearby trunk, a black leopard — four to five meters long — was staring down at him from above, mouth hanging open, drool falling in steady drops.
*"A First-rank Mist Leopard... looks Common Grade by its size. Tempering probably isn't high either."*
The leopard let out a furious roar, became a blur, and lunged at blinding speed.
Lu Yuan casually shifted a single step. A flash of black sword light swept across the leopard's neck as it sailed past him.
Blood erupted. The black leopard crashed to the ground and went still.
He glanced at the body, collected the hide and fangs, and pressed on.
He was still walking when a thunderous roar tore through the air somewhere in the distance.
Lu Yuan's expression shifted.
He felt it — an extraordinarily powerful aura closing on him at terrifying speed. Even he found it dangerously oppressive.
*This powerful out here on the outer fringes of the Mist Forest?*
He leapt up to a large nearby tree and folded himself into the canopy.
The moment he settled in among the branches, the ground began to tremble. Then he saw it.
A creature roughly three meters tall, its entire body encased in heavy gray scale armor, with a savage and grotesque face and two thick curved horns — enormous, ancient-looking.
*A Mist Ground Dragon.*
Its heavy scaled hide was covered in wounds. It looked like something had been hunting it for some time.
*Boom!!*
The already grievously wounded Mist Ground Dragon slammed into the earth, letting out a series of low, agonized groans.
Lu Yuan steadied himself.
The Mist Ground Dragon was one of the apex species of the Mist Forest — born at Boss Grade, with the mightiest specimens capable of reaching Second-rank or beyond. A Mist Spirit Pearl resided inside every one of them, worth a small fortune.
*This one looks like a juvenile.*
Even so, the aura rolling off this battered creature was formidable.
*Whatever drove a Mist Ground Dragon to this state is stronger than me.*
He had no idea who was doing the hunting. He decided to keep watching.
His eyes flickered. The thought stirred in him: if he could get his hands on the Mist Ground Dragon's Transcendent Gene, it would be exceptional among creatures of the same rank.
Then — a flash of black light. A Cat-kin in black leather armor appeared atop the dragon's back.
Dark sword light flashed in rapid succession, sweeping across the dragon's spine and carving ragged, savage gashes into the scale armor.
*Boom!!*
The already shattered dragon slammed to the earth again with a heavy impact, its voice dropping to a low, pitiful moan.
Just as Lu Yuan's shock peaked, the Cat-kin on the dragon's back suddenly went still — and looked directly toward him.
Lu Yuan's pupils shrank.
He stared at the Cat-kin standing atop the dragon, momentarily stunned.
*Yeye?!*
The jet-black ears. The jet-black tail. Hair cascading like a waterfall of dark silk. That extraordinarily beautiful face.
He recognized her in an instant.
*It was Yeye — that pampered little heiress.*
*She's in the Mist Forest too?*
His heart gave a sharp jolt. *Was he found?*
The next instant, Yeye vanished from where she stood.
Every hair on the back of his neck shot upright. A lethal threat bloomed directly behind him.
Then Yeye materialized in front of him. A black longsword wreathed in sharp sword light hovered less than a centimeter from his throat — perfectly, utterly still.
*"Wait!"*
He shouted immediately and threw everything he had into Crimson Copper Light.
*Sharp perception.*
The sword held.
Lu Yuan's mind was reeling. The last time he had met Yeye, he had already thought her unbeatable. Now — he still couldn't hold a candle to her.
*And her strength has grown this much?*
He had two Boss Grade Armaments on hand now, neither fully tempered — but it didn't matter. He was still no match. Killing her would be genuinely difficult.
*What level of gene did this Cat-kin engrave?* How had she managed to inscribe something this powerful?
*Just First-rank.* That was all she was. First-rank — the same as him.
*This is absolutely absurd.*