Chapter 236 - Onward

Tang Wulin’s hands closed around its head.

He twisted the red figure’s head a full 180 degrees, snapping its neck in the process! Its muscular body stiffened for an instant before collapsing like a rag doll.

A ball of spirit energy flew out to join the rest that swirled around his body.

“It’s a hundred-year Brute Ape.” It was only now that the others could identify the beast Tang Wulin had killed.

Only a few seconds had passed from the moment the Brute Ape leapt out to Tang Wulin snapping its neck.

The Brute Ape possessed excellent strength, surpassing most of its peers in the same year level. Unfortunately, its foe today was Tang Wulin, a monster brimming with power. The conclusion had been set in stone the moment it decided to attack Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin was also quite satisfied with himself. He had become more proficient in Controlling Crane, Capturing Dragon, which also complemented the Mysterious Heaven Method. Although his soul power rank was only in the twenties still, long term use of the Mysterious Heaven Method had stabilized his condensed soul power, increasing its explosiveness by far when compared to his peers.

After leaving the Blazing Demon Lions’ territory, they encountered so many soul beasts it was like an endless stream. This was to be expected of the rebellion spirit ascension platform.

A pack of Wind Demon Wolves had attacked them on the way but were swiftly dealt with by Tang Wulin’s Bluesilver Impaling Array. These types of soul beasts usually relied on their numbers rather than individual strength. Tang Wulin chose not to pursue them since their spirit energy was simply too meager to bother with.

After warding off the wolves, they continued onward.

They would take half an hour to rest every two hours before advancing deeper into the forest. They began to accumulate more and more spirit energy as they progressed, so much so that they exceeded their ability to absorb it all.

The sky grew bright; they were on the eve of finishing their first day in the rebellion spirit ascension platform. They had survived for much more than ten hours now, but their final exam required they pass a full twenty-four hours.

Of course, they had never thought that they would have any difficulty passing the final exam in the first place.

“Everyone, let’s take a break.” hunger was not an issue in the spirit ascension platform since they were merely projections of their real selves. Naturally, they would have to satiate themselves once they exited.

Dawn broke. Tang Wulin cultivated the Purple Demon Eyes silently as he gazed at the distant creeping white fog. He had tried cultivating the Purple Demon Eyes here in the past and discovered, to his surprise, that not only was it possible, it was also far more efficient. Though he wasn’t sure why that was the case, he couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

Wu Zhangkong had told him that once he cultivated the Purple Demon Eyes to the second level, it would become exponentially harder to make progress. He needed to cultivate it diligently every single day of the year, slowly building his proficiency toward the next level. Furthermore, his perception and luck would play a major role in whether he could break through. Even Wu Zhangkong, who was now a seven-ringed soul master, was stuck at the second level.

Xu Xiaoyan stood beside him, also cultivating it. Xie Xie, however, had yet to reach the third rank in his profession and hence still limited to two Tang Sect secret arts—the Mysterious Heaven Method and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. On the other hand, Xu Xiaoyan had chosen the Purple Demon Eyes for the sake of raising her spiritual power.

Xie Xie had cultivated diligently in the past few years. He had long decided that the Purple Demon Eyes would be his next art.

Not to mention its utility in combat, its function as a spiritual power cultivation method was top-tier!

“We’ll pass our final exam at noon today,” Xie Xie snickered.

Tang Wulin nodded. “Don’t let your guard down or daydream. Even if this is the elementary spirit ascension platform, there are still threats.”

Xie Xie chuckled. “There wouldn’t be such coincidences! There are only a few beasts that can still be considered a threat to us here. There’s no way our luck is that bad.”

Gu Yue glared at him. “Shut your crow’s beak.”

Although he snorted, Xie Xie did not retort. Her strength was truly inhuman. Now that she had three rings, not even the others of class zero knew just how strong she was.

Although Tang Wulin could probably restrain Gu Yue in close combat, her ability to teleport away at a moment’s notice left him at a loss. Thus, Gu Yue’s overall strength was the greatest in class zero.

By the time they were rested and reorganized, the sun was out in its full splendor. Tang Wulin said, “We still need to be careful. We’ll pass our exam first before making any other plans. Being on top of a hill, we have the advantage and can observe our surroundings. We’re going to wait here until we’ve passed our exam, then we’ll charge into the forest’s depths.”

The deeper into the forest they ventured, the more powerful the soul beasts they would encounter.

Penetrating into the depths posed no problem to them. The vegetation grew lusher and the trees more solid the closer to the forest’s heart they were. They had tried to explore it numerous times before, but each attempt would be foiled by the presence of powerful soul beasts.

Today was possibly their last chance to explore the spirit ascension platform for a while, so they wanted to investigate what lied deep in the forest.

The location Tang Wulin picked proved excellent. Although soul beasts had attacked them several times, the terrain helped them to drive them off easily. Tang Wulin had ordered the team to refrain from killing for the sake of not attracting more beasts; they were to ward them off and only kill the most determined and vicious.

By relying on their terrain advantage, they were able to detect powerful soul beasts in advance and avoid them. Once the beasts left, they would return to their original spot.

Another benefit of waiting here was that they had ample time to absorb the lingering spirit energy on their bodies. Now, even if they were swiftly killed upon entering the forest’s depths, neither the spirit energy would be wasted nor their trip this time.

It was exactly noon.

“It’s pretty much time.” Excitement replaced Tang Wulin’s calm as a sharp aura wrapped around him.

“Let’s go!” He shot forward like the wind, heading straight into the heart of the forest.

Green lights enveloped all four of them, boosting their agility.

Caution was tossed to the wind this time as they charged onward at full speed.

However far they could go, they would go!

Gu Yue summoned birds of wind to scout ahead. With Tang Wulin in the lead and guided by the wind birds, they were able to evade detection of several mighty soul beasts.

They continued to advance with lightning speed just like this.

The vegetation thickened as they progressed, forcing Tang Wulin to sweep apart the foliage and open up a path with his Bluesilver Grass.

Maintaining this high-speed rush, they covered more distance in two hours than they had in the entire previous day.