Chapter 37: Spirit Shocking, Soul Splitting

Su Chen shook the vial in his hands. A few drops of liquid finally fell out of the vial’s opening before his supply dried up completely.

Su Chen tossed the vial away carelessly, then glanced at his surroundings.

He looked off in the distance, his vision filled with the green of densely packed mountains. The few drops he poured out would most likely not attract any more Vicious Beasts.

Without any hesitation, Su Chen picked up his sack and placed it on his back, then walked down the hill.

Su Chen had decided to continue venturing deeper.

Without a doubt, venturing deeper into the mountain range was very dangerous. However, Su Chen didn’t have any more Beast Drawing Medicine, and he didn’t want to waste the limited time that he had left. Thus, he was forced to go to areas where Vicious Beasts were more common. After all, he could not use the safest method to do battle forever.

He had been reforged in the past month. Having experienced thirty days of tempering, Su Chen already had a significant amount of survival experience. He also possessed the confidence to do battle in more dangerous areas.

Su Chen followed the path forward for three days.

In these three days, Su Chen didn’t encounter any Vicious Beasts. However, he suffered from all kinds of other problems, some of which nearly cost him his life. One time, he had inadvertently broken a bug nest, and was chased by a huge horde of poisonous bugs as a result. Another time, a harmless-looking plant suddenly emitted a ferocious poison, which almost knocked him out instantly. Thankfully, Su Chen responded quickly and was able to escape. Even so, the poison paralyzed Su Chen for the greater half of a day.

What made one even more speechless was that one could be ambushed even while drinking water from a small stream. There was a type of fish that swam in these waters whose size was not large; however, it was extremely vicious and would suddenly jump out of the water to bite its target. No matter what its target was, the fish would always tear away a piece of meat. When there were enough of these kinds of small fish, even Vicious Beasts could be eaten clean in an instant.

Su Chen had watched an Iron Bone Demon get wholly consumed by thousands of the small fish. Not even a skeleton was left behind.

In the Scarlet Mountain Range, frightening objects were everywhere.

However, this was not enough to make Su Chen retreat. Instead, he continued to advance forwards.

In the following days, Su Chen ran into many different kinds of Vicious Beasts. Thankfully, his luck was pretty good and he never ran into any that were too strong. All of those Vicious Beasts were taken care of individually by Su Chen.

On the fifty-sixth day of arriving at the mountain range, Su Chen once again encountered danger.

A Jade-Eyed Ape blocked his path forward.

This giant ape was around ten feet tall. It was one of the more powerful low-tier Vicious Beasts. Its strength was not much lower than that of the Giant Bucktoothed Bear, but its speed was much greater. If he had run into this beast while he was still ambushing enemies on the mountaintop, Su Chen would have elected to flee.

However, he was now face to face with his enemy.

He had no road of retreat and no way of evading it. The only options before him were victory or death.

Su Chen unhesitatingly pulled out the crossbow, shooting the giant ape. However, when the bolts hit the Jade-Eyed Ape’s body, it was as if they had slammed into a steel board. They were completely unable to pierce through the ape’s skin. That giant ape then let out a loud howl at Su Chen.

When that howl reached Su Chen’s ears, his vision was shaken and became blurry.

Origin Skill!

This howl was an Rooting Origin Skill. Su Chen stood there, unable to move..

He did not panic. Instead, he switched out the crossbow for the Flaming Hunter Blunderbuss, and quickly fired off a shot at the giant ape.

BANG!

As the black smoke diffused, a flower of blood bloomed from that giant ape’s body

The pain enraged the giant beast. It roared as it charged Su Chen, crushing all the trees in its path.

At this moment, Su Chen regained his ability to move. He quickly retreated, while firing shots at the giant ape. The huge recoil shook his body again and again.

Three gunshots sounded out, but only one found its target as splash of blood appeared on the ape’s body.

That damned accuracy.

The Jade-Eyed Ape had already rushed Su Chen, sending out a palm at him.

Su Chen activated the Snaking Mist Steps along with the Cloud-Stepping Boots. His figure was as agile as smoke. At the same time, he struck out with the blade at the giant ape, and the Black Streak Battle Blade released a crimson streak of light. When it struck the giant ape’s body, the might of a grade eight Origin Tool’s Origin Skill cut deeply into the giant ape.

The giant ape was still extremely vicious. With another “AWOO”, the ape activated its rooting Origin Skill once again.

Su Chen’s figure trembled. That giant ape’s paw directly landed on Su Chen’s chest, where there was no defensive protection. Despite wearing a protective armor, Su Chen still spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.

He hurriedly retreated, using the force of the blow to move backwards.. At the same time, he once again lifted the Flaming Blunderbuss, and fired off another four shots. This time, he aimed specifically for the ape’s injuries, and two shots hit. The giant ape’s wounds exploded, causing two large rivers of blood to flow out.

The giant ape, crazed with pain, charged Su Chen again, striking out with its paw. Su Chen retaliated with another blade strike, and the bloody aura appeared once again, directly cutting off that giant ape’s arm.

However, the giant ape had extreme vitality. It did not die even after taking two blood aura strikes. Instead, Su Chen’s vision began to blur from his use of the Black Streak Battle Blade. He was almost unable to withstand it.

At this exact moment, the Jade-Eyed Ape leapt into the air once again, and struck downwards with its paw once more towards Su Chen’s head.

Su Chen activated the Snaking Mist Steps, wanting to avoid it. Then, he saw the Jade-Eyed Ape open its mouth. He knew that the situation was not great and that the ape was about to use its Origin Skill to root him in place again.

At the same time that the giant ape let out a howl, Su Chen tossed out an item.

Cracked Soul Magic Pearl.

“AWOO!” The soul-shocking howl sounded out. At the same time, the Cracked Soul Magic Pearl began to release a formless light, that spread out in all directions.

Rooting Howl.

Soul-Splitting Skill.

The two soul attacks exploded at the same time. Su Chen only felt his vision dim, as if something was ripping at his soul, and the pain was almost unbearable.

He couldn’t withstand the pain anymore. He hugged his own head and began to let out a piercing cry.

It felt like something was wreaking havoc in his head, tearing his mind apart with a savage fury. Just when Su Chen felt that he had no way of enduring, a cooling sense suddenly began to flow from his eyes. The soul attack that had almost driven him mad left as quickly as it came through his eyes, as if it had found an outlet.

The pain disappeared.

Su Chen was stunned. When he opened his eyes, he saw the Jade-Eyed Ape was still cradling its head and letting out howls of pain.

It had also been hit by the Cracked Soul Magic Pearl and was experiencing the pain of soul-splitting.

Su Chen knew that this was his last opportunity. He raised the Black Streak Battle Blade, then activated the blood aura once again.

Shua!

Blood flew into the air.

That Jade-Eyed ape crashed to the ground. Su Chen’s figure also shook a few times, then fell down to the ground, unable to crawl back to his feet.

Lying on the forest floor, Su Chen felt that he couldn’t even raise a single finger.

The battle had not been long, but it had been extremely brutal.

To take care of that bastard, Su Chen had used all four of the Origin Tools that he had. He had also been forced to use one of the Cracked Soul Magic Pearls.

Having experienced the power of the Cracked Soul Magic Pearl once, he would definitely not want to experience it a second time.

Indeed, the Scarlet Mountain Range was full of dangers. Even in an area on the border, every step was thorny and was filled with danger.

However, the core reason for this was still that his own strength was just too weak.

If only he could enter the Qi Drawing Realm earlier.

As long as he entered the Qi Drawing Realm, he would finally be able control Origin Energy and Origin Skills. The possibilities would be limitless.

In front of an Origin Skill, any Flaming Tiger Fist or similar skill would just be a regular move.

However, based on his current circumstances, if he could reach the peak of the Body Tempering stage by the time the Scarlet Punishment ended, that would be pretty good. As for breaking into the Qi Drawing Realm, it was better to forget about it. If he hadn’t accumulated enough Origin Energy, it would be impossible to draw Qi into his body, opening his Dan Sea.

While he was busy wallowing in his self-pity, Su Chen suddenly saw that a few small dots of light had suddenly appeared out of nowhere from the Jade-Eyed Ape’s corpse.

“What is that?” Su Chen wondered.

He tried his best to sit up, but the energy in his body didn’t listen to his control. He could only watch as one dot of light after another appeared from the giant ape’s corpse. They only existed for a very short period of time before disappearing into thin air.

They were just like drops of water falling into the sea.

A dot of light landed on Su Chen’s face. After bouncing on Su Chen’s face a few times, it actually drifted away.

“Could this be...... Origin Energy?” Su Chen said, having an epiphany.

Origin Energy could not be seen by the eyes of man. The claim that “Vicious Beasts would release their Origin Energy upon dying” was a conclusion made by extremely strong Origin Qi Scholars, who had drawn on their perception and sense of Origin Energy.

Just like how humans could not see air, yet knew that air existed.

But now, Su Chen was able to see the dots of light that were very likely Origin Energy.

It would be apparent once he tested it out.

Su Chen waited.

Shortly, a dot of light floated onto Su Chen’s body, landing on his arm.

As Su Chen watched that dot of light, he began to exercise his absorbance technique, focusing his gaze on that light.

This time, the dot of light didn’t bounce off.

It rolled a few times on Su Chen’s skin, then, as if it were very unwilling, entered Su Chen’s body.