In the world of martial arts, one works tirelessly to attain enlightenment.

Chapter 28, Black and Red

Near the base.

Two tall figures descended from the sky, carrying Feng Wuhen and Yan Lingfei respectively. The expressions on their faces were nothing short of despair.

"Lin Ran, well done. This granddaughter has never wanted to study, and she even disobeyed her teachers before."

The two-meter-tall middle-aged man laughed heartily and put Yan Lingfei down.

Lin Ran smiled and waved.

"How should I address you, senior?"

"I am Yan Lingfei's grandfather, Yan Shuangying."

Lin Ran: ...

"Hello, Grandpa Yan, I am Lin Ran."

"Let me introduce you. This is Feng Qingyang, Feng Wuhen's grandfather. He's a man who's secretly worried about his grandson's studies, but he never says it out loud," Yan Shuangying said with a smile, pointing to another middle-aged man.

"If you can't speak, you don't have to," Feng Qingyang said with a dark face, nodding to Lin Ran.

"Thank you for your help, Feng Wuhen."

"Grandpa Feng, you flatter us. We are all human, and we should help each other," Lin Ran said.

Feng Qingyang nodded, his expression softening considerably.

"Alright, you young people chat, we're leaving."

Yan Shuangying patted Feng Qingyang on the shoulder, and the two of them vanished into thin air.

Lin Ran looked at the two of them with a half-smile.

Feng Wuhen and Yan Lingfei both lowered their heads, trying to dig open the ant nest.

"Alright, I'm not really blaming you guys. Come fight with me later."

The two of them looked up instantly, their eyes shining.

Lin Ran pointed to the distance,

"See the werewolves? If it's a random teleportation, don't let any of them get away. I'll take the blame if anything goes wrong."

"Captain is awesome!" Yan Lingfei smiled brightly and was about to pounce on him, but Lin Ran held her down.

Feng Wuhen's reaction was minimal, but his excitement was clearly visible.

Lin Ran laughed.

……

Around midnight,

The elves, fire spirits, and ice spirits have all sent creatures.

The elves have an acquaintance named Trist.

When Lin Ran spotted the other person, she was walking towards them.

"Lin Ran, it's been a long time."

"Ms. Trist, it's been a long time." Lin Ran nodded in acknowledgment.

"Can we go together when we enter the ruins later?" Trist asked.

"The situation inside the ruins is still unclear, and there may be risks in forming a team rashly."

"It's alright, let's go inside and talk."

Trist did not insist, nor did she intend to leave.

A moment later, the vortex in the air suddenly began to fluctuate, drawing everyone's attention.

"Time's up. The teleportation is random. I'll send you in." Yan Shuangying waved his hand, and everyone, including Trist, was sent into the vortex.

……

Inside the vortex tunnel.

Lin Ran felt a blur before his eyes and entered a bizarre and fantastical space. Before he could take a closer look, he felt his feet touching solid ground, and the bizarre and fantastical space suddenly became clear.

My wrist felt slightly warm, and a circular pattern appeared on it.

Lin Ran touched the pattern and received the information.

This is the switch to leave the ruins. As long as you inject spiritual energy to activate it, you can leave the ruins.

Looking around, the sky was filled with clouds that were a mix of crimson and pitch black, with flashes of lightning at the intersections, indicating that the remaining power of the Cat-people and Shadow-people warriors was still fighting.

The land was desolate, and the colors that met the eye were a mixture of darkness and crimson, as if reflecting the sky.

There were shadowy objects moving in the distance, which seemed to be some kind of living thing.

Lin Ran walked forward, and a faint layer of dragon scale armor reappeared on her body to prevent any accidents.

There is also abundant earth energy here, but it is mixed with madness, despair, deathly silence... a lot of negative energy. After absorbing it, it takes a lot of time to eliminate these emotions.

After walking for a short while, the moving object became clearer; it was a strange creature.

It looked like some kind of wild beast, but its body was a writhing darkness, with an unknown black liquid dripping down, slowly spreading after hitting the ground, leaving long trails in its wake.

Lin Ran stopped not far away, about to observe carefully, when he saw several dark creatures suddenly turn their heads, their crimson eyes fixed on him, and then they let out a silent roar and pounced on him.

Five dark creatures pounced at once, dropping even more black liquid from their bodies, which spread even faster.

But halfway there, a creature's body suddenly split in two, and the fallen body turned into liquid and writhed, transforming into a new dark creature.

Lin Ran frowned and raised her hand to unleash a whirlwind of lightning.

boom!

The leading dark creature was instantly blasted apart, and a large amount of black liquid flew out in all directions, with a black and red intertwined crystal standing out in particular.

Snapped!

An invisible force swept over, the crystal shattered instantly, and the writhing liquid lost control, falling to the ground and rising into black mist.

Lin Ran continued to unleash the Whirlwind Thunder, smashing the dark creatures that pounced at him one by one with a series of punches, and shattering their cores, leaving only one piece for research.

The crystal contains fire and darkness attributes, as well as a large amount of negative emotions. If these emotions are removed, it can be considered a good cultivation resource.

Lin Ran placed the crystal in the corner of the ring and continued exploring.

Not long after they started traveling, they encountered dark creatures again.

Lin Ran charged forward while maintaining his dragon scale armor, ending the battle in less than two minutes and reaping more than a dozen mixed crystals.

Fighting grants experience very quickly; each time you use it, a notification refreshes, and the experience notification for Hidden Dragon Body keeps coming.

After encountering four waves of dark creatures, a crack appeared in the ground ahead, from which thick black gas gushed forth.

Even before getting close, one could feel the intense dark energy and negative emotions such as despair and madness emanating from it. From above, the crack stretched to the horizon, and the black mist seemed like a waterfall flowing backwards, surging into the sky and continuously polluting the crimson parts.

After observing for a while, Lin Ran decided to go closer and take a look.

The dragon scale armor resisted all the negative emotions that tried to corrupt it, and it walked to the edge of the crack without any hesitation.

Looking down, surprisingly, it wasn't pitch black; instead, there were glimmers of light in the darkness.

Lin Ran squinted and saw a certain kind of crystal.

The pupil technique was activated, and a crystal was instantly severed, flying out of the crack as it was impacted by the black energy.

Lin Ran reacted quickly and grabbed it.

Once you acquire the crystal, you'll find it filled with rich dark-attribute spiritual energy, devoid of negative emotions. With a little purification, it can become your own power.

He tried to absorb it, but the crystal quickly disappeared, and a dark but translucent cubic crystal silently appeared in his dantian.

Lower-level Awakened One, Dark Attribute, Level 1!

Lin Ran looked down and found that there were many crystals, covering an area that was more than 30 meters wide and at least one kilometer long!

Roughly estimated, it should be enough to upgrade to a mid-level Awakener!

Lin Ran immediately activated the Dragon Scale Armor with all her might and leaped down from the edge of the crack.

The consumption of Qi and blood surged instantly, and the outer layer of the dragon scale armor was rapidly worn away. When about half of it was worn away, Lin Ran controlled the wind spirit energy to fall on his feet, and the descent speed immediately slowed down, and he landed steadily at the bottom of the crack.

Instead of towering black mist, what you see are translucent black crystals.

Lin Ran glanced at them, and more than a dozen crystals broke off, the pieces of which he put into his ring.

He then chose a direction and began collecting the crystals.

Meanwhile, on the other side...

It was the same crack, but the color that met the eye was crimson. Yan Lingfei was collecting crimson crystals.

Suddenly, she looked ahead.

"come out!"

(End of this chapter)