A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 428 Blade Light

Duan Rong prepared all the things he needed to bring, then walked down the wooden stairs on the east side of the pavilion and came to the door on the first floor again.

This door is at the entrance of the first floor stairs, in a dark corner some distance away, and the color of the door is dark. If Fan Hongjiao and the others had not taken him through it last time, Duan Rong would not have noticed that there was a door here.

He walked to the door and pushed it open with a creak. Behind the door was a thick darkness, and the dim stairs at his feet extended downwards and gradually submerged in the darkness.

Duan Rong took out the prepared torch and lit it with a tinder.

He stood at the door holding a torch. The wind blew past him, and the swinging flames burned his ears.

Duan Rong took a step forward and stepped into the darkness. The door behind him creaked and closed by itself.

The sound of the wind stopped abruptly, and the flame of the torch in his hand instantly pointed upwards. The sound of the burning flame was very loud in the silent space.

The first time they walked this dark downward ladder, Fan Hongjiao and the others walked with Duan Rong, but this time he was the only one left.

In the dead silence and darkness, he walked down alone, holding a torch. The light of the torch could illuminate about ten feet of the stairs, and then there was endless darkness, a darkness that seemed to have no end...

Duan Rong walked like this for an unknown amount of time. He repeated a certain stiff movement, constantly alternating his feet as he walked downwards. There was thick darkness in front and behind him.

After listening to the sound of the burning torch for a long time, it seemed to become a part of this dead silent environment... It kept ringing on Duan Rong's eardrums.

A thought suddenly popped up in his mind: As long as this staircase is long enough, anyone who keeps walking like this will definitely go completely crazy at some point.

Duan Rong just walked in the dead silence. Just when he felt his brain going from numb to active, like boiling water, all kinds of random thoughts emerged, completely out of control... After a while, he saw a glimmer of light at the end of the darkness.

Finally we are almost at the underground crack.

Duan Rong quickened his pace and walked downwards, finally stopping for a moment in a dim light.

He let out a long sigh, and a hint of fear flashed in his eyes.

A dim light shone through the open stone door in front of him, illuminating his feet. Duan Rong stood there, looking at the endless darkness behind him.

This dead silent road is really a bit creepy.

He looked at the almost burned-out torch in his hand, threw it aside, and stepped into the dimly lit stone gate.

In the corner of this stone room, there is still the old man sitting in meditation.

Duan Rong stood there, clasped his fists, bowed, and respectfully called out, "Mr. Yi!"

The old man looked at Duan Rong strangely and remained silent.

Duan Rong didn't say anything else. He just walked to the stone wall with carved animal patterns, took out the key, and stuffed it into the mouth of an animal head. As the key turned, the stone door opened, and Duan Rong slipped in without stopping.

As the stone door closed, the old man muttered something and continued to meditate with his eyes closed.

Duan Rong took a deep breath in the tunnel. He was not worried that the old man would stop him. Lu Geng had said that he and Wang Yue had been here before. The Dark Forest was free for inner disciples to enter and exit. The old man might be curious about why a new inner disciple like him would go down to the Dark Forest alone. However, the old man looked like he didn't want to get close to strangers. He was not a nosy person at first glance. So Duan Rong clasped his fists and said hello, then immediately entered the tunnel.

Although the corridor was not long, Duan Rong still lit another torch before moving forward.

After turning the corner at the end of the corridor, they came to the narrow stone chamber at the entrance of the underground crevice. Duan Rong came to the edge of the crevice, grabbed an iron chain, extinguished the torch in his hand, threw it at his feet, grabbed the iron chain, and jumped into the crevice.

This was not the first time that Duan Rong had slid down the chain. As soon as he jumped down, he got into the state.

At the edge of the dark forest, in a patch of grass emitting a faint glow, a figure suddenly jumped down from the cliff.

As soon as Duan Rong's body was steady, he suddenly released his spiritual sense, which instantly covered a large area outside the grassland.

This was also the reason why Duan Rong dared to go into the dark forest alone. He had already achieved the eleventh level of the Taizang Sutra, and the range of his spiritual sense exploration was definitely not comparable to Fan Hongjiao's. What's more, he was not planning to go deep into the forest at all. He only wanted to fight some low-level beasts on the edge.

Duan Rong kept moving in the darkness. Suddenly, with a flash of his knife, he cut the little snake that had jumped out of the shadows into two pieces. Duan Rong opened his cloth bag, and the little snake's body fell into it.

Duan Rong tried his best not to travel in the dense forest, because he remembered Fan Hongjiao's last advice: in the dark forest, plants are sometimes more terrifying than beasts!
Duan Rong's figure flickered in the darkness. He suddenly squatted slightly and crouched in front of a bush. At this time, at the edge of his spiritual sense, he saw several inner disciples joining forces to besiege a full-grown arrow pig.

The skin of an adult arrow-swine has become keratinized, and it is difficult for the vital energy to penetrate it. Several inner disciples were sweating profusely and kept attacking the neck of the arrow-swine. A shallow pit had been cut in the stratum corneum there, but it would take a while to penetrate it completely.

At this moment, the arrow-bearing pig suddenly straightened its back, and the vital energy on its back surged. A group of arrows shot out immediately, and the rain of arrows instantly covered the inner disciples.

Two people were a little slower and were stabbed by arrows, but these arrows were non-toxic and the people just now had protected their vital parts, so even if they were stabbed by the arrows, it was not a critical position.

The arrow-shaped pig wanted to break out of the chaos, but was blocked by several people.

Duan Rong avoided this area, changed direction and continued moving forward.

In the grass somewhere on the outer edge of the dark forest, a furry little thing suddenly stretched out from the gap in the grass. In the middle of the furry thing was a large upright eyeball.

The big eyeball flickered, and the furry thing that stretched out from the bushes began to move. As it moved, the big eyeball looked around.

And just below this big eyeball, deep in the grass, there was a dark shadow crouching.

It lay there without making a sound, its sharp claws and fangs emitting a faint cold glow even in the darkness.

This low-level beast is called Muwei Ni.

The furry thing sticking out of the grass above its head is its tail, and there is an eye on its tail. It is crouching in the grass at this moment, with the eye on its tail sticking out to help it search for prey. Once it finds its target, it will slowly approach it in the grass. Once it reaches the hunting distance, it will pounce from the grass and bite the prey to death.

But when the Muwei Ni was lying in the bushes searching for prey, suddenly a little fluorescence flashed in front of its eyes. The fluorescence was like a firefly in the outside world.

There are no fireflies in the dark forest, but the leader Wei Ni doesn't care much. After all, it is at the critical moment of searching for prey, and the fluorescence is so tiny. What effect can such a small thing have on it?

But in the next moment, the flickering firefly suddenly flashed and disappeared directly into its head.

The next moment, the leader, the tail-Ni, became petrified and did not move at all. Even the big eye on its furry tail sticking out of the grass was closed.

Then, a dark shadow floated down beside it like a ghost! That dark shadow was Duan Rong.

Duan Rong looked at the Muwei Ni in front of him, and the knife flashed. A half-inch of knife light flashed on the blade in an instant.

Although this Muwei Ni is still a low-level Yuan beast, the Yuan Qi in its body is much stronger than that of a warrior like him who has not even achieved the first level of Yuan Qi realm.

If he didn't use the artistic conception of the sword, Duan Rong would never have been able to pierce the body of the leader Wei Ni.

In fact, it is not a problem for Fan Hongjiao and Wu Shidao to capture a Yuan Beast like Muwei Ni, but if it is Lu Geng and Wang Yue, it may still be a bit tricky even if the two of them join forces.

In the darkness, a cold light flashed, and the blade with a half-inch blade light pierced through the heart of the leader Wei Ni with incredible precision. Duan Rong pulled out the knife, but the frost-patterned phosphorus crystal knife in his hand was still not stained with blood.

The moment the blade pierced its heart, the leader, Wei Ni, trembled and fell sideways at Duan Rong's feet.

Only a trace of blood oozed from its wound.

Duan Rong did not stay here for long. He put the body of the leader Wei Ni into a cloth bag, put it on his back, and then he shuttled away in the darkness.

The soul illusion and spiritual consciousness detection are the reasons why Duan Rong dares to enter this dark forest alone.

Once these Yuan Beasts were trapped in Yinghuo's soul illusion, they could only be slaughtered by him. Moreover, Duan Rong had the means of artistic conception of sword light, which could pierce the Yuan Beasts whose vitality was far stronger than his.

Therefore, for him, entering the dark forest alone and capturing the Yuan Beast was not a difficult task as long as he was careful.

Of course, there were countless alien species in the dark forest, and there were still many unspeakable dangers. Without Fan Hongjiao and the others by his side, Duan Rong did not dare to stay for long. Now that he had caught a Muwei Ni, he was ready to leave immediately.

Under the coverage of his spiritual sense, Duan Rong avoided many dangers and quickly jumped into the meadow of clear grass near the crash site.

The moment he jumped onto the grass, he finally let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Once they arrived at the area of Qingguang Grass, they were basically much safer, but Duan Rong's spiritual sense was still detecting the surrounding situation. Qingguang Grass could only restrict Yuan Beasts, but not his fellow disciples.

For Duan Rong, this leader Wei Ni is only a month's worth of training resources, but for ordinary disciples, it is half a year's worth of training resources. Moreover, Duan Rong is alone, and his body movements show that his realm is not high. Therefore, for Duan Rong, his fellow disciples are the most dangerous.

Duan Rong had just walked for a while in the Qingguang Grass carrying Muwei Ni on his back when he suddenly frowned. He moved again and, as fast as a ghost, he jumped out of the area and hid in a bush not far away.

He had just hidden himself when he saw several figures suddenly sliding down from the iron chains on the cliff at the end of the clear grass field.

Several people fell onto the grass, and after a brief discussion, they rushed into the dark forest in a certain direction.

Duan Rong detected with his spiritual sense that the people had gone far away, then he jumped out of the bushes and walked quickly towards the cliff.

Those few people just now should be the inner disciples registered under the name of the Internal History Department. However, Duan Rong had just arrived at Yunfu Peak and did not know them.

Duan Rong came to the cliff and walked over the iron chains that several disciples had just slipped down and were still shaking slightly.

Although these inner disciples also came down from this falling point, the iron chain for these direct disciples to descend was specially used.

Duan Rong walked to the chains where he had slid down, tied the cloth bag on his back tightly to his body, then pulled an iron chain tight with both hands and climbed up. Soon his figure disappeared into the darkness.

Although the size of this chief tail lion is not small, it is far inferior to the two-legged python and the blue-eyed giant lizard from before.

But even so, when Duan Rong crawled out of the underground crack, he was already exhausted and out of breath. He collapsed on the ground, almost in the same state as Wang Yue last time.

"This thing... is it really going to cost me my life to climb it once!?"

Duan Rong panted for a long time before he struggled to get up in the darkness. He took out a tinder and lit a torch. Wind blew out from the cracks in the ground, making the torch in his hand whirr.

The last time he slid, Duan Rong had used his spiritual sense to detect the underground crack. He discovered that the length of the underground crack was far beyond the range of his spiritual sense.

The stone chamber he was in at the moment only occupied a short section of the underground crack. There should be a lot of space extending to both sides. And those inner disciples who were registered under the name of the Internal History Department obviously slipped into the dark forest from other places.

Duan Rong, carrying a cloth bag, walked out of the stone chamber, passed through the corridor, and went out of the stone door, and came to the place where the old man who was sitting in meditation was guarding.

The old man didn't even open his eyes. After Duan Rong walked out, he just bowed slightly to him and turned to walk out.

At this moment, the old man sitting cross-legged in the corner suddenly opened his eyes. He saw a furry thing hanging out of the cloth bag on Duan Rong's back.

There was a closed eye on the drooping furry thing.

The old man's heart skipped a beat. "Muwei Ni?!"

He had penetrated this kid's Dantian with his spiritual sense before, but it had only been a few days since he advanced to the Yuanqi realm.

Not only did he enter the dark forest alone, but he also hunted down a Muwei Ni.

This guy is quite interesting!

A hint of interest suddenly flashed across the old man's cold eyes, and the next moment he used his spiritual sense to penetrate Duan Rong's dantian again.

Duan Rong sensed it the moment a powerful spiritual consciousness penetrated his dantian, but he went on as usual, with no abnormality in his movements or steps.

The old man's face twisted into a ball in an instant, and his expression became very interesting.

"How is this possible?! Was I wrong a month ago? How is it possible that in just one month, he is almost breaking through the first level of Yuan Qi Realm?"

What kind of speed is this? I couldn't have such a speed back then.

No! I'm afraid Chu Qiushan and Gu Daoling can't have such a speed.

I must have seen it wrong last time. Maybe I sat in meditation for too long and got the time wrong?

At this moment, this usually cold and taciturn old man, after Duan Rong left, was alone in the stone chamber, and fell into deep self-doubt...

(End of this chapter)