Chapter 61: Mist Forest

East of the Rocky Mound, the terrain suddenly leveled out, yet it became increasingly eerie.

The ancient trees ahead towered into the clouds, their intertwined branches resembling demonic claws reaching out from the Nine Netherworlds.

A thick, almost tangible white mist flowed slowly through the forest; this was no ordinary mountain fog, but the "Mist Forest," infused with rotting miasma and chaotic spiritual energy.

Once a Martial Artist ventured deep inside, not only would their vision be obstructed, but their Divine Sense would also be severely suppressed.

Chu Chang and Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue stood side by side at the edge of the Mist Forest.

Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue had already removed her bamboo hat, her cool, aloof face appearing somewhat surreal amidst the drifting mist.

She tightened her grip on the azure longsword in her hand, her ice-attribute True Qi held in check, causing the surrounding temperature to drop slightly.

"This mist is strange; it can erode protective True Qi," Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue said, her willow brows slightly furrowed as she reminded him in a soft voice.

Chu Chang circulated the True Qi within his body, feeling the cold, sinister aura burrowing into his skin, and nodded slightly: "It seems Zhao Meng put a lot of thought into choosing this place as his hideout. His injuries are severe, and he couldn't escape the Divine Sword Sect's search talismans in ordinary places. Only in a Mist Forest like this, capable of isolating Divine Sense and interfering with Heavenly Secrets, could he linger on. Senior Sister, take this Anti-Poison Pill."

Chu Chang handed over a round, fragrant Medicinal Pill, which he had purchased at a high price in the Black Wind Town black market earlier that day.

Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue did not hesitate, taking the Medicinal Pill and placing it in her mouth. A wave of coolness immediately spread throughout her body, dispelling every trace of miasma that had invaded her system.

"Let's go, we're going in."

The two flickered, like two ghosts, instantly vanishing into the rolling white mist.

After traveling for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the visibility around them had dropped to less than ten feet.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, with only the faint rustling sound of their footsteps on the decaying leaves.

Suddenly, Chu Chang paused, grabbed Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue's jade hand, and like a leopard ready to pounce, instantly retreated into the shadows of an ancient tree.

Her palm felt warm, and she instinctively wanted to pull away, but seeing Chu Chang's stern expression, she immediately calmed her heart, obediently pressed against his side, and held her breath.

"Rustle… rustle…"

From the thick fog ahead came a chaotic and hurried sound of footsteps, accompanied by low cursing.

"Damn it, this godforsaken place is no place for humans! If it weren't for the treasures on that Divine Sword Sect traitor, I wouldn't be suffering through this!" a coarse voice complained.

"Enough, stop the nonsense! The Stronghold Master said that Zhao Meng is severely injured and can't run far. Whoever can provide concrete clues will be rewarded with five hundred Spirit Stones and three 'Body Tempering Pills'! If anyone can retrieve the Storage Pouch on him, they will be promoted directly to the Third Leader of the Black Tiger Stronghold!" another sinister voice reprimanded.

The thick fog churned as five figures slowly emerged.

All five were wearing the standard leather armor of the Black Tiger Stronghold, wielding various weapons, and exuding a fierce Evil Qi.

Leading them was a burly, one-eyed man with a face full of flesh, his strength around the seventh level of the Qi Refining Realm, while the other four were also tough hands at the fifth or sixth level of the Qi Refining Realm.

They poked at the bushes ahead with their weapons, cursing as they walked toward the direction where Chu Chang and his companion were hiding.

"Boss, look at this!" Suddenly, one of the bandits pointed at a thicket and exclaimed.

On the leaves of the shrub, there were a few drops of dark red blood that had not yet completely dried.

The blood contained a faint but extremely pure fluctuation of spiritual energy, clearly left behind by a Disciple of a righteous Sect.

The one-eyed man stepped forward, dipped his finger into the blood, and sniffed it. A look of wild joy erupted in his eyes: "Haha! It's the scent of the Pure Yang Cultivation Technique! That traitor Zhao Meng practices the Divine Sword Sect's 'Pure Yang Cultivation Technique'! He is indeed in this vicinity, and his wounds have reopened! Quick, chase in this direction!"

Hidden in the darkness, Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue's beautiful eyes turned cold, and her True Qi began to coalesce.

Zhao Meng was a traitor of the Divine Sword Sect and must be brought back by the Divine Sword Sect or executed on the spot. He must never fall into the hands of these mountain bandits, and they certainly must not obtain the Sect's secret treasure.

Chu Chang gave Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue a look and made a gesture for "quick victory."

In this Mist Forest, there were not only mountain bandits but also Demonic Path Cultivators. If they delayed and attracted more powerful beings, things would become extremely troublesome.

They had to kill all five bandits in an instant!

"Do it!" Chu Chang whispered in his heart.

"Swish!" A harsh sound of breaking wind suddenly rang out in the silent mist.

The five bandits were immersed in the wild joy of impending wealth; how could they have expected that in this place of heavy mist where Divine Sense was suppressed, two deadly killers were lying in ambush?

Chu Chang shot out like a bolt of black lightning, the iron sword in his hand erupting with an intensely brilliant golden light at that moment.

The golden Sword Qi carved a dazzling arc through the mist, instantly tearing a huge gap in the thick fog.

"Not good, an ambush!" The one-eyed man was worthy of being a fierce bandit who lived by the blade; the moment the crisis descended, his hair stood on end, and he let out a roar.

Instinctively, he held his ghost-head saber horizontally, and the earth-attribute True Qi within his body surged frantically into the blade, forming a thick yellow curtain of light.

"Clang!" A deafening sound of metal clashing rang out. Sparks flew everywhere.

The one-eyed man felt a force like a landslide surging along the blade, shaking his arms numb and instantly splitting the webbing between his thumb and index finger, causing blood to drip.

He was sent flying backward uncontrollably, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the muddy ground.

"Qi Refining Realm? No, this quality of True Qi… it's a Sect Disciple!" The one-eyed man was terrified.

However, Chu Chang's attack was just the beginning. The same second Chu Chang acted, Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue also moved.

A glimmer of icy blue sword light quietly lit up from the other side of the thick fog.

The sword light carried not a shred of heat, not even a whisper of wind, yet it was fast to the extreme.

The two bandits, who were only in the Body Refining Realm, didn't even have time to scream; they only felt a slight chill at their necks.

Immediately after, the frigid ice-attribute True Qi surged down their throats, instantly freezing their blood, Meridians, and even their Divine Soul.

The two maintained their expressions of terror as a layer of white frost quickly covered their bodies, and then, like ice sculptures, they fell heavily to the ground, shattering into pieces.

Two killed in an instant!

"Er Gou! San Zi!" The other two bandits stared with eyes splitting from rage.

They couldn't see Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue's figure at all; they only felt the surrounding temperature drop to freezing in an instant, and crystalline snowflakes drifted through the air.

But every single snowflake contained lethal Sword Qi.

"Fight them to the death!" The two bandits roared like cornered beasts, brandishing their battle axes and spears, squeezing out every bit of True Qi in their bodies, and slashed crazily toward where Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue was standing with shrill, piercing sounds.

"Overestimating yourselves." Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue's cool, aloof voice drifted in the mist.

She shifted her body slightly, like a snow lotus swaying in the cold wind, extremely lightly dodging the heavy, powerful axe.

At the same time, she gently tapped her jade finger into the Void Realm.

"Ice Blossom Explosion!"

"Boom! Boom!" From the mud beneath the two bandits' feet, several extremely sharp, massive ice cones suddenly thrust out.

The ice cones not only pierced their bodies but also exploded violently the next moment.

Countless tiny ice shards, sharp as blades, instantly riddled the two bandits like a sieve, kicking up a large mist of blood.

In the blink of an eye, of the five-man team, only the one-eyed man who had been sent flying by Chu Chang's sword remained.

The one-eyed man was terrified to the extreme.

Watching the four capable men he had brought with him turn into cold corpses on the ground in less than three breaths, without even touching a corner of the opponents' clothes, the greed in his heart had long since been swallowed by endless fear.

Sect elites! They were definitely top-tier Geniuses ranked within the Inner Sect of the Divine Sword Sect!

"Run! I must take this news back!"

The one-eyed man had no desire to fight at all. Using the momentum from being sent flying earlier, he bit his tongue hard, spat out a mouthful of blood essence, and performed a secret technique that sacrificed his legs.

His speed doubled in an instant, and he turned into an afterimage, fleeing frantically along the path he had come.

As long as he could escape into the encirclement of the main force, he would be safe!

"Can you get away?" Chu Chang's cold voice seemed to ring right against his eardrum.

The one-eyed man turned his head in horror, only to see the youth dressed as a grey-clad Loose Cultivator, who had somehow been following him like a shadow.

On that seemingly plain face, there was now a chilling, indifferent smile.

"Brat, I'll fight you to the death! Gale Rock-Breaking Slash!"

Seeing that he couldn't escape, a flash of madness and despair crossed the one-eyed man's eyes.

He roared, gripped his ghost-head saber with both hands, and poured all the True Qi in his body into it, causing a layer of earthy-yellow flames to ignite on the blade.

From top to bottom, he unleashed the strongest move of his life, slashing fiercely toward Chu Chang's head.

With this slash, he exerted all his strength, to the point where his Meridians were faintly tearing.

Wherever the blade wind passed, the mud and gravel on the ground were forcibly swept up by the violent True Qi, turning into an earthen Dragon of flying sand and stones.

Facing this desperate strike, Chu Chang didn't even dodge.

He simply raised his right hand slowly.

At this moment, Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue even sensed that the True Qi within Chu Chang's body seemed to have completed some kind of mysterious reorganization in an instant.

On the surface of his skin, a layer of dark golden patterns faintly emerged, resembling the scales of an ancient god or demon.

"Break." Chu Chang softly spat out a single word.

He did not use his sword, but directly clenched his fist and threw a punch.

"Boom!" The golden fist light exploded in the Void Realm, the terrifying Physical Body strength combined with the indestructible metal-attribute True Qi, actually producing a thunderous roar in mid-air.

The aggressive earthen Dragon of sand and stone, the moment it contacted Chu Chang's fist, crumbled inch by inch like melting snow.

The one-eyed man felt an irresistible, terrifying force slam into his precious saber.

"Crack!" The mysterious iron ghost-head saber that had accompanied him for over a decade was actually shattered into countless cracks by this punch, and then exploded into a sky full of iron shards in the air.

Chu Chang's fist, its momentum undiminished, slammed heavily into the one-eyed man's chest.

"Pfft!!!" The one-eyed man's chest cavity collapsed instantly, and the corresponding clothing on his back was torn open into a large hole by the violent True Qi.

He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with bits of internal organs, and his whole body flew out like a kite with a broken string for over ten yards, snapping two ancient trees as thick as bowls before collapsing limply to the ground.

He widened his only remaining eye, staring fixedly at Chu Chang who was walking slowly toward him, opened his mouth to say something, but could only emit a "hissing" sound of bloody froth.

"Where exactly is Zhao Meng?"

Chu Chang walked up to him, looking down at him from above, his eyes devoid of any pity.

"I… I don't know… The Black Tiger Stronghold… won't let you go…" A trace of resentment flashed in the one-eyed man's eyes, then his head tilted to the side, and he breathed his last.

Chu Chang raised an eyebrow and flicked a small golden flame with his finger. The flame landed on the one-eyed man's corpse, instantly turning into a raging fire that burned him into a pile of ash, and even the bloodstains on the ground were evaporated by the high heat.

On the other side, Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue had also cleanly disposed of the other four corpses.

The scent of blood in the air was quickly covered up by the thick fog again, as if a fierce battle had never taken place here.

"Your skills have become increasingly clean." Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue walked to Chu Chang's side, looked at him, and a strange glint flashed deep within her cool, aloof eyes, "That punch just now, you used your Physical Body strength?"

"Just a minor gain." Chu Chang smiled, not explaining further, "However, Senior Sister, although these mountain bandits are of average strength, their presence here suggests that the Black Tiger Stronghold's main force, and perhaps even other factions, have already surrounded this area. We must speed up and find Zhao Meng before their encirclement completely tightens."

"Mm." Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue nodded.

The two dared not delay; they moved again, following the direction where the one-eyed man had discovered the bloodstains, and swept deeper into the heart of the Mist Forest.