Chapter 65: A quick way to train
In the vast expanse of the southern reaches of the Dark Forest, near the cemetery of death.
There was a raging waterfall that flowed down with grand, magnificent momentum into an expansive deep pool below. There was a bubbling stream that ran off the side of the pool and forked into three directions. The towering trees by the side of the pool were luxuriantly green and all sorts of bizarre and exotic large stones could be seen everywhere. Fish could be seen swimming in the clear, crystalline pool waters.
The silvery sheen of flowing water cascaded down like the Milky Way, concentrating in the pool below and emitting loud roars. The water flowing down like a long river spewed violently, crashing down onto the random rocks below and giving cause to impressive traces of water, splashing down on all four sides.
There was a hard piece of round stone in the corner, slightly off to the side of where the waterfall crashed down. A naked person sat on the round stone and the muscles on his body were evenly fit and full of energy. His legs were crossed as he sat on the round stone, using his body to withstand the violent force of the strong cascade of water.
The agitated water currents sounded out with loud pilipala sounds when they landed on the surface of his body. His body wavered slightly, the expression on his face was cold as the meridians on his body bulged and pulsed. A faint, black light seemed to sparkle over his flesh and skin.
This person was naturally Han Shuo. After he’d arrived at the cemetery of death, his first order of business was to thoroughly digest the fighting aura that the “Shadow Ghost” killers had left in his body.
After his magic level ascended from the “solid” realm to the “open passages” realm, Han Shuo’s body had been reforged again. Even the behavior of the fighting aura within his body had also changed. Previously when he had visited the Boozt Merchant Guild, the fighting aura that had cleaved its way into Han Shuo’s body had always been enclosed by the magical yuan. Han Shuo had originally thought that things would proceed as they’d always had, with the magical yuan slowly being absorbed as Han Shuo went about his business.
However, the truth proved that Han Shuo’s judgment was wrong. The fighting aura wasn’t digested and absorbed by the magical yuan like he had suspected. On the contrary, the magical yuan seemed to be slowly and purposefully loosening its restraints, letting this cloud of fighting aura continuously run rampant within Han Shuo’s meridians, causing continuous damage to Han Shuo’s meridians and even breaking a few bones beneath the stress.
Logically speaking, this should have been a very painful matter. However, Han Shuo astonishingly discovered that the meridians and bones, that had been damaged by the fighting aura, once again underwent some sort of change. The reforged meridians had become more tensile and widened compared to before, and the magical yuan circulated at a much higher speed here than compared to the other areas of his body. The bones were also similarly much more durable.
After understanding this, Han Shuo discovered to his great joy that if he continued training at this speed, then according to the rule of magic rebuilding after a breakthrough, the training speed of the “open passages” realm would be several times faster than the speed of normal training.
Whilst he was remarking with emotion that practicing magic was indeed a path of masochism and death, Han Shuo happened upon this waterfall. According to the importance of building up one’s body while practicing magic, Han Shuo suddenly had the unique thought of utilizing the waterfall’s force to practice magic. The truth proved that Han Shuo’s thought was absolutely correct.
Just as Han Shuo was using his physical body to withstand the force of the violent waterfall on one hand, while experiencing the pain brought about by the fighting aura wreaking havoc in his meridians on the other, the speed of his magic training progressed at an astonishing pace. The meridians that were ravaged and broken by the fighting aura all became incredibly, pervertedly stronger.
The force within the center of the waterfall was the greatest, Han Shuo had only tried it for a brief moment before seeing stars from the enormous force. He held on for three seconds before almost fainting dead away. In his resignation, he could only rely on a corner to train in which the waterfall wasn’t too violent, hoping that once his physical body was strengthened, he would be able to stand in the most wildly raging center to withstand the largest amountof the waterfall’s force.
He caught fish to bake a meal when he was hungry, and used the rest of his time to practice magic. After who knew how long, Han Shuo suddenly realized that the training speed of the “open passages” realm had slowed down again after the fighting aura, that the assassin had left in his body, had disappeared completely.
“Looks like I need to think of another way to hurry and breakthrough the open passages realm. It doesn’t seem to be the thing to do in order to keep training so slowly.” Han Shuo muttered to himself as his body was as agile as a large fish, flying through the pool beneath the waterfall.
His two hands probed out like lightning in the pool, grabbing two strange looking fish. He swam back to shore, put his clothes back on, and took out his fire starting implements to bake the fish. When Han Shuo had eaten his fill and planned on returning back to the cemetery of death, his ears heard the faint sounds of footsteps.
Han Shuo’s senses were now more and more perceptive. He focused his concentration and then shot swiftly towards the origin of the sound. There was danger lurking in every corner of the Dark forest.
Not only were there high level magic creatures, all sorts of exotic races and numerous adventurers on exploration, Han Shuo had even seen a silvery, long dragon one day, flying to an even deeper portion of the southern region of the Dark Forest.
Dragons were the mightiest existence in this world. Legends said that their bodies were as tough as iron rocks and their mastery of incredibly powerful magic was high. It was an exceedingly strong advanced magical creature that was a level higher than a level one magic creature. Every dragon boasted of unparalleled power, and the appearance of a dragon often meant that treasure existed nearby. Every warrior that could slay a dragon received the respect and admiration of all.
Of course, with Han Shuo’s current strength, he wouldn’t be so foolish as to go be some dragonslayer, but the appearance of the silver, long dragon had alerted Han Shuo to the fact that an even more frightening region existed deeper within the Dark Forest.
After a while, Han Shuo arrived at the scene where the sounds had originated. After he’d taken in his surroundings, Han Shuo smiled involuntarily. Who would’ve thought he’d run into familiar faces here.
Ten swarthy dwarves with long, braided mustaches standing only a meter tall were wielding iron hammers, pickaxes, and spades used for mining ore and using them to fight against thirty or so forest trolls. Two dwarves had already been hit by long spears and lay on the ground, dead. The dwarves were all flushed red. Although they knew they wouldn’t win against their enemies, none of them retreated and fled. They all stayed where they were, doing battle against the forest trolls.
Han Shuo no longer professed complete ignorance of the wondrous races of the Profound Continent. Dwarves possessed extraordinary beer brewing abilities and were even more adept at forging weapons. Their personalities were conservative and valued beer as much as they valued their lives. Their temper was stubborn and fiery, but once someone gained their friendship, their generosity would know no bounds.
Looking at the dwarves still raising their hammers and pickaxes, hollering and shouting bravely, wholly unafraid of death, even though they were no match for the forest trolls, Han Shuo actually felt a bit kindly disposed towards these dwarves.
Han Shuo also thought that the two areas in which dwarves were proficient in may be of some use to him, so he only thought for a brief moment before suddenly rushing out, slashing quickly with the dagger in his hand, resulting in the fall of one of the forest trolls.
When Han Shuo was standing between the forest trolls and the dwarves and had summoned the little skeleton after chanting an incantation, the green face of the forest troll leader turned very ugly indeed, fearfully calling out, “That evil human has brought the demon back. Retreat, retreat!”
These forest trolls were obviously very afraid of the little skeleton with seven bone spurs on its back. As soon as they saw the dagger wielding little skeleton appear, they actually broke up in an uproar under direct orders of the forest troll leader.
“Mighty warrior, I, Bennett, thank you for your help.” After the forest trolls had left, one of the strongest dwarves, who wielded a metal hammer, raised it in the manner of the trolls to express his gratitude.
“Not a problem. I very much admire your staunch fighting spirit. Right, why were these forest trolls attacking you?” Han Shuo spread out his hands and spoke with humility and politeness.
“Huuh. Those greedy scoundrels are robbers. They never put themselves to work and only think of how to rob others. They wanted us to forge weapons for them for free so that their pillaging would go more smoothly. We refused their request and those dastardly robbers harassed us endlessly and killed our kin.” Bennett blew out his mustache and said huffily.
Nodding, Han Shuo added, “So that’s the case. They once wanted to rob my merchant caravan. These dastardly scoundrels are evil indeed!”
“Noble warrior, you’ve saved us. We want to use fine beer to express our gratitude. Please follow us back to our village!” Bennett looked at Han Shuo as he expressed an invitation out of friendliness.
