I changed the world.

Zhang Jing moved slightly. It seemed there were animals, or at least insects, in this jungle. It made sense; such a large jungle wouldn't be complete without any animals, at least not in a balanced ecosystem.

Strangely, the surrounding environment was unusually quiet; not even a bird could be heard. This even gave him the illusion that all the creatures here were trying their best to suppress their voices.

If things really turn out the way I think, what does that mean?

It's highly likely that a terrifying predator exists here...

With this guess in mind, Zhang Jing subconsciously became more cautious in his actions.

....................................

Not long after walking, Zhang Jing smelled a rotten smell in the air, as if it were the smell of something decaying.

With growing vigilance, Zhang Jing continued forward and soon saw a sparsely wooded area ahead, where a piece of withered leaf-like object lay on the ground.

He slowly walked forward and used his longsword to lift it up. He discovered that it was not a withered leaf at all, but the skin of an unknown beast. The flesh and bones inside had been completely hollowed out, leaving only the skin hanging on the ground, which was now dry.

The rotten smell I just caught must have come from there.

Just then, a warning suddenly came to my mind, and at the same time, I heard the sound of something cutting through the air.

Zhang Jing instantly raised the arm shield on his left arm to protect his side. The next moment, he felt a sudden impact on the arm shield, and then he saw that a monster the size of a plate had appeared on the arm shield!

The monster's body was covered in dazzling stripes and had thick, spiky limbs. Its appearance was somewhat similar to a spider, with short bristles on its eight claws and a long tail like a scorpion.

At this moment, it was gripping the surface of the arm shield tightly with its eight claws and trying to attack the front of the arm shield with its venomous fangs.

Zhang Jing instinctively flung the strange spider toward a tree trunk not far away. However, instead of bursting as expected when it hit the tree, the spider retracted its eight legs in mid-air and suddenly changed direction to dodge. Zhang Jing was surprised to find that a transparent silk thread had popped out from behind its rear end!

After landing on a nearby branch, the strange spider adjusted its angle and then suddenly launched itself at Zhang Jing again.

These spiders launched themselves with incredible speed, even faster than arrows. However, Zhang Jing was already prepared and didn't care. Instead of retreating, he advanced, using his left arm as a shield to block the side and prevent bodily fluids from splashing. He then slashed down with his right longsword at the strange spider that was launching him!

With a crisp "crack," the strange spider, despite its seemingly thick carapace, was clearly no match for the longsword's slash. Upon being struck, green sap splattered, and a section of its entire rear end, along with its scorpion-like tail, was severed. White fluid seeped from the broken section, falling to the ground. It struggled desperately, but it was too late to escape its fate of death.

However, Zhang Jing's expression remained serious. Before its death, the strange spider had secreted a large amount of hormones and bodily fluids, filling the air with a pungent, unpleasant odor. Even his shield and longsword were stained with this smell due to the splattered liquid.

Then, something even more chilling happened: several strange spiders of different sizes crawled out from the trees and the ground near Zhang Jing.

Clearly influenced by the irritating bodily fluids from the death of the previous mutated spider, these strange spiders became frenzied... whether out of revenge for the previous spider or simply due to the most basic urge to feed, it was unclear. In any case, their originally dark brown exoskeletons gradually turned red, and their already plate-sized bodies swelled to the size of a small washbasin. They charged towards Zhang Jing from all directions, even faster than the dead spider!

Zhang Jing used a teleportation technique to dodge the attacks of several spiders, then slashed left and right, breaking the shells of two strange spiders, one large and one small.

A faint, pungent smell, similar to hydrochloric acid, began to permeate the air.

Immediately afterward, something that made Zhang Jing's scalp tingle happened. He heard leaping sounds coming from all around him, followed by more strange spiders appearing around him.

Even more unusually large spiders began to stand upright, using the venom glands behind their fangs as water guns to spray Zhang Jing...

Although the venom didn't spray very far, it was incredibly fast. Zhang Jing dodged the spray several times with somersaults and leaps, but the sweet, cloying smell that started to appear in the air still gave him a sense of danger.

Leaping onto a tree branch, Zhang Jing dodged the spray of a large spider, then swung his sword backhand, slashing another attacking spider from mid-air to the ground. The basin-sized creature made a crisp "crack" sound, splattering juice everywhere, but the scorpion tail growing from its rear end still struggled in its death throes, snapping back into a nearby tree root with a ferocious thud.

Chapter 183 Perilous Encounters

At this moment, Zhang Jing had no time to even glance at the dying performance of the spider on the ground, because he was facing an even more troublesome scene.

He leaped and dodged through the forest, fighting back, and strange spiders kept falling to the ground. Soon, more than a dozen struggling spiders lay on the ground around him.

However, the number of spiders around Zhang Jing did not decrease; on the contrary, even more spiders swarmed around him.

Zhang Jing felt as if he had stirred up a hornet's nest; these creatures seemed endless. Dozens of strange spiders had already surrounded him within an area of ​​over a hundred square meters, and their numbers appeared to be increasing.

These spiders ricochet like bullets, even changing angles mid-air. Moreover, some spiders know how to use venom to coordinate with their own kind's attacks.

What annoyed him even more was that, perhaps because this spider's life form was too low, the Demon Refining Pot in his arms did not react at all after he killed it. Clearly, this low-level life form could not provide him with any replenishment.

This was a bit disgusting. Zhang Jing suddenly felt that he had been fighting for so long and it was all for nothing.

So, after slaying several spiders that were leaping towards him in succession, Zhang Jing jumped onto a treetop to buy himself about two seconds of space. Then, three more spiders followed and shot towards him. Just as they were about to hit Zhang Jing, his figure suddenly faded away and disappeared from his original position.

The next moment, Zhang Jing appeared on a treetop about thirty meters to the east, and before most of the spiders could react, he vanished again...

After entering this area, Zhang Jing noticed that his escape technique was somewhat suppressed here, with a limit of about thirty meters.

Even so, in a dense forest, a distance of just over thirty meters is enough to greatly obstruct vision, let alone for a spider, an insect with a not-so-developed brain.

To create distance, Zhang Jing used his escape technique four times in one go, covering a distance of over a hundred meters. After completely creating distance, Zhang Jing quickly took out a bottle of purified water from his backpack, opened it, and began to wash the spider fluid that had gotten on the blade of his longsword and his arm shield.

After rinsing, the attached bodily fluids were quickly washed away. Zhang Jing took out a tissue and carefully dried the sword and shield. Then he examined his clothes. Fortunately, because he had been careful beforehand, there was no trace of the strong-smelling bodily fluids on his clothes.

Faint sounds came from afar, clearly indicating that spiders were continuing to follow the scent.

Zhang Jing threw the tissue on the ground and disappeared again...

However, when Zhang Jing reappeared from the void, before he could carefully observe his surroundings, he felt a gust of evil wind coming from his side. He instinctively ducked down, and then a huge monster pounced on his head.

The monster landed without stopping, its hooked tail bent and shot out fiercely towards Zhang Jing.

Clearly, Zhang Jing used his escape technique in an unfamiliar dense forest, and unfortunately, he ended up right next to this monster.

At this moment, Zhang Jing couldn't care about anything else. He instinctively raised his arm shield to block. The monster's tail hook struck his arm shield with a dull thud, followed by a tooth-grinding scraping sound. The tail hook dragged a deep white mark on his arm shield.

Ignoring his slightly numb left arm, Zhang Jing slashed down with his longsword without holding back, only to feel as if he had struck something extremely slippery and tough. He cut a deep gash in the monster's neck. Taking advantage of the moment when the monster was sidestepping, Zhang Jing dragged the gash further, widening it a little, and blood splattered everywhere!

After being injured, the monster immediately rolled away five or six meters. It landed on all fours, letting out a threatening growl from its throat. Its eyes were gleaming with ferocity and were bloodshot! Its tail suddenly extended, with sharp, retractable bone hooks coiling like a snake.

Only then did Zhang Jing get a clear look at the monster in front of him. It was slightly larger than a lion, grayish-black in color, with no obvious body hair, and rough skin exposed. Some scales were irregularly distributed on certain vital areas. Its muscles were bulging all over its body, giving people a clear feeling of strength and power. Its head was somewhat like a mixture of a lion and a dog, with a thick neck and several bone spikes resembling short horns on both sides of its head. Its tail had a sharp bone hook at the end.

Furthermore, its eyes gleamed with a ghostly light like two flames, unlike any ordinary animal Zhang Jing had ever seen on Earth.

At the same time, Zhang Jing could also see a clear wound on the monster's neck near its shoulder blade. The area was clearly covered with dense scales, but it looked like it had been pierced through, obviously caused by his attack just now.

At this moment, the monster was clearly enraged by its injury. Its body had almost grown larger due to the rapid expansion of its muscles, making it appear even more ferocious and powerful.

The next moment, the monster suddenly raised its head, lunged to the side, and then its entire body vanished into its own shadow!

Shadow Escape!

Zhang Jing reacted almost instantly. He threw down his backpack and leaped onto a tree branch overhead. At the same time, he drew the Heavenly Punishment Sword from his waist with his left hand, scanning his surroundings with a dual-wielding stance.

Less than half a breath after Zhang Jing leaped out, the monster pounced out from the shadows behind and to the side of where he had just stood. It attacked the spot where Zhang Jing had been standing, but missed and disappeared back into the shadows.

The surrounding jungle is full of shadows, making it an excellent place to hide.

A murderous intent surged within Zhang Jing; he had to kill this guy, otherwise, if it used its shadow-stealing ability to follow him, his operation would become much more troublesome.

As Zhang Jing pondered, he leaped and changed positions erratically. The monster quickly made a second attempt, but still failed to pounce on Zhang Jing. It then immediately disappeared into the shadows to prepare for its next attack.

At this moment, two golden flames flickered in Zhang Jing's eyes as he began to detect clues about the monster.

Finally, he noticed an imperceptible fluctuation in the space beneath a tree beside him. This fluctuation was invisible to the naked eye, but Zhang Jing managed to detect a subtle clue under the True Fire Refining Eyes.

Without hesitation, Zhang Jing leaped up and swung the longsword in his right hand...

The moment Zhang Jing swung his longsword, the monster roared and pounced out of the shadows again!

The sword spun and drew an arc, bypassing a tree that blocked its path, before its sharp edge sliced ​​into the monster's body from the side, mercilessly piercing its relatively soft abdomen.

The monster let out a sharp, agonizing scream! It suddenly turned its head and swung its sharp right claw, trying to pull out the longsword that was deeply embedded in its body. However, its claws were suitable for attacking, but not for such delicate work. With one swipe, it did not pull out the longsword, but instead further aggravated the damage.

Another scream rang out, the pain mixed with an increasingly intense rage. However, this monster was not an intelligent human, and it was clearly struggling to cope. Just then, another longsword drew an even wider arc, arriving from its side and rear in an instant, piercing its other abdomen.

This was Zhang Jing using the spinning sword technique again! At this moment, he could wield three longswords simultaneously, attacking with lightning speed like acrobats. The spinning swords were briefly controlled by his divine sense.

This attack clearly dealt a heavy blow to the monster, completely shattering its sanity. Blood spurted from its mouth as it roared and lunged at Zhang Jing again.

Zhang Jing's body swayed, seemingly creating several double images. The monster missed its target, and at the same time, Zhang Jing appeared beside it.

With a loud thud, Zhang Jing reached out and grabbed one of the longswords embedded in his abdomen, then used the momentum of his forward thrust to pull it out forcefully…

The longsword was already almost halfway embedded in his abdomen, but as Zhang Jing pulled it out, he deliberately rotated the blade to maximize the damage, allowing it to cut straight through his lower abdomen and emerge from his body...

As he drew his longsword, Zhang Jing simultaneously shifted his body to the side, curled up like a ball, and rolled away to avoid the fierce attack from its tail, while leaping away.

A deafening scream suddenly rang out. The monster, struck by the attack, staggered a few steps before beginning to writhe. Beneath it, a large mass of entrails, along with foul blood, dangled from its severed abdomen.

The monster swayed a few times before finally collapsing to the ground, growling and struggling but unable to get up.

Zhang Jing slowly walked to the monster's side and saw the monster struggling to stand up and attack Zhang Jing again, but it failed several times.

Without a trace of pity on his face, Zhang Jing walked to its side, picked up his blood-stained blue longsword, and thrust it straight into the monster's temple.

The fatal blow instantly stiffened the monster's entire body. It let out a short roar and collapsed to its side, a trail of dark red blood flowing from the corner of its mouth, completely still.

A blurry shadow flew out from the monster's corpse and burrowed into Zhang Jing's chest.

Zhang Jing walked to the monster's side, reached out and grasped the hilt of the other longsword embedded in its abdomen, pulling it out forcefully. Then, he moved aside, took out tissues from his backpack, and carefully wiped the bloodstains from both swords. This was not only for weapon preservation, as the blood of many monsters is inherently toxic or corrosive, and prolonged residue would be detrimental to the weapon's durability, but also for the sake of lingering scent, as the scent of bodily fluids could sometimes attract predators.

Chapter 184 Warning Signs

After dealing with the weapons, Zhang Jing retracted them into two bracelets, fastened them to his wrists, then slung his backpack over his shoulder, took a couple of sips of water, and continued his advance into the depths of the dense forest…

Because of what had just happened, Zhang Jing stopped using his escape technique to advance. After all, in unfamiliar woodlands, using this method could easily lead him directly into a dangerous situation. Furthermore, while in stealth mode, one's observation of the outside world is somewhat obscured, and can never be as acute as in the real world.

..............................

As Zhang Jing traversed the dimly lit environment, after encountering two more dangers, he became increasingly cautious. He had discovered that the level of danger here was more than two orders of magnitude higher than that of jungles on Earth. This danger primarily stemmed from the creatures here, which were clearly vastly different from those on Earth.

Zhang Jing was not a zoologist or botanist and had no intention of exploring the ecological evolution path of this area. However, he did know that in this environment, he could not be too careful.

At this moment, raindrops began to fall from the sky, and soon the rain began to intensify, the raindrops making a rustling sound as they fell on the leaves above.

Zhang Jing was wearing waterproof camouflage suitable for outdoor activities. Interestingly, Zhang Jing found that he did not feel any aversion to this kind of environment, which most people would theoretically not like.