Infinite Bloodcore

Eight days later.

Zhen Jin and the others came to the border between the desert and the forest.

This time they finally got the right direction. They succeeded in leaving the desert and in coming to the forest zone once more.

Stepping forward would bring them into the lush vegetation. And behind them was a yellow desert that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The towering trees stretched to the sky above. The unbroken green “city wall” blocked the scope of their field of view. The “city wall” blocked sandstorms and contained thriving vitality within it.

Cang Xu spat and took out a sheepskin map.

He took out a charcoal pencil and began to sketch on the map.

“Although this isn’t the same place where I reentered the forest for the first time, it should not be far from here.

“Lord Zhen Jin, I suggest we do not go deep into the forest, rather we should walk along the border until we find where the exploration team was prior.

Cang Xu said while drawing on the map.

Zhen Jin’s gaze flickered, he carefully reflected over Cang Xu’s proposal.

Based on how much time had passed, there was still abundant time until the next teleportation. If they had the misfortune to be teleported into the desert again, the more complete the map they had, the more it would help them.

“Indeed, spending a bit of time exploring is necessary to improve our map.”

“However, I have stayed long enough in the desert. Let us enter the forest first.” Zhen Jin said.

Just as he said that someone at his side cheered like an animal that had been locked up for a long time, thrown off the hunting hounds, and had escaped to the forest in front of them.

“Ah, ah, ah!”

The youth happily exclaimed as he rushed into the forest.

He looked up, stretched out his arms, breathed in the forest air, and used his hoarse throat to cry: “This scent, this is the scent of the forest! Ah, how fragrant and sweet.”

After that, he kneeled on the ground and caressed the grass like the hair of his beloved lady: “How supple, how dense!”

He then got up, threw himself at a tree, hugged the tree trunk, and kissed the tree bark with his black lips: “This is where I ought to be.”

This youth was Bai Ya.

Bai Ya was the son of a hunting family, he grew up in a mountain village, and was most familiar with forests.

After nearly dying, he felt that he had returned home when he came into the forest.

He had changed a lot since the last time he had been in the forest.

His lips had thickened like fish intestines and were very black. His voice also became very hoarse.

These changes had happened because he had used his mouth to suck out poisonous black blood from Lan Zao’s wounds.

Zhen Jin had also sucked blood from Zi Di’s wound; however, the young knight’s vitality was very strong, it was nothing to him. However, Bai Ya was only an ordinary person, although he had taken a potion beforehand, the action had lasting repercussions.

Bai Ya’s changes were not only external, it also affected his temperament.

Going through the tempering of life and death seemed to open Bai Ya’s heart, a reserved individual bloomed into an outgoing one. It seemed to him that if he didn’t say everything he wanted, he would feel painful and regretful.

“This guy Bai Ya……” Everyone laughed, they all understood Bai Ya’s mood.

Only Lan Zao’s face was expressionless.

He brought up the group and carried many water bags. Most of these water bags were made from acid lizard stomachs with only a minority being made of pottery.

Perhaps the oasis earth had issues for Cang Xu failed repeatedly and could only make a few finished products.

However, the fat ball flying fish and Zhen Jin collaborated to force the green lizards to abandon many corpses at the oasis.

By the time the fat ball flying fish returned to the lake’s depths, Zhen Jin and the others had processed the green lizards, cut up their flesh, made leather clothes, and cleaned out their stomachs to sew into crude water bags.

Benefiting from Bai Ya’s risky action, Zi Di was able to mix a potion that saved Lan Zao’s life.

The originally calm and robust middle aged man also greatly changed. He became habitually silent, unable to say a word for a day. This gave others the misconception that he lost the ability to speak.

He only responded to Zhen Jin’s order.

“Yes master.”

“Understood master.”

“I will follow your order carefully my master.”

Zi Di’s expression suddenly changed, she stepped forward, grabbed Bai Ya’s shoulder, and pulled him back.

Bai Ya turned his cheek from the tree trunk and looked at Zi Di with doubt: “Lord Zi Di?”

Zi Di unhappily pointed her finger at the tree trunk: “You have been poisoned.”

Bai Ya was stunned: “Wha, what?”

Zhen Jin attentively looked at the tree trunk and saw it had a layer of green moss.

“Is this the moss that poisoned me in the past?” Zhen Jin immediately understood.

He could now use the magic core to transform into that poisonous moss!

Afterwards, Zi Di gathered the moss and used it to mix a potion to detoxify Bai Ya.

“Although we have returned to the forest, don’t forget we are still on a dangerous and strange island. We cannot be careless.” Cang Xu warned Bai Ya.

Bai Ya’s bitter experience calmed everyone down.

The dense trees were like a gigantic silk umbrella, they were rooted in the earth’s depths and their unrestrained growth of branches and leaves provided shelter from the vicious sun.

The temperature in the forest was a lot lower than in the desert.

At noon, Zhen Jin and the others did not dare trek through the desert, more often than not they would take a breather behind a sand dune.

But in the forest, they could continue their journey and greatly improve their travel efficiency.

Zhen Jin walked in front of the group.

Three iron feather birds suddenly dropped from the sky!

These birds were also the work of the island master, they were the size of an adult human’s fist and liked to climb up trees. Jumping from the treetops, they could use gravity to kill other lifeforms.

The iron feather birds pounced with the speed of a fired crossbow arrow.

Two flung themselves at Zhen Jin and one at Zi Di.

Zi Di lifted her head and had enough time to cry out in alarm when she heard the sharp noise.

Afterwards, the iron feather bird pouncing on her was hit by a wooden dart and was thrown in a horizontal direction.

Bang, the dart embedded the iron feather bird into a tree trunk like a kebab, its body was motionless.

At almost the same time that iron feather bird died, Zhen Jin’s left hand firmly held a wooden spear and keenly struck twice like a viper.

The two iron feather birds attacking him, upon being hit by the spear’s point, immediately lost their momentum, and fell to the ground dead.

A crisis had suddenly descended and was perfectly solved by Zhen Jin in a flash.

Lan Zao’s hand was on his sword and Bai Ya’s hair was standing up as his muscles tensed up.

Everything became tranquil.

“Wow, wow, wow! Lord Zhen Jin, you really are ferocious. How many times have these iron feather birds attacked us? You have saved us yet again. Your martial skill is simply……simply……” Bai Ya shouted, he brightly gazed at Zhen Jin with adoration and worship overflowing from the bottom of his heart.

“Concise, refined, simple, and without magnificence, yet every time you fight it resolute and impressive.” Cang Xu finished Bai Ya’s sentence.

“Yes, those are the words.” Bai Ya looked at Cang Xu, “Senior scholar, you are always able to say what the bottom of my heart wants to.”

“My Lord……” Zi Di smiled at Zhen Jin.

Lan Zao remained silent, but his eyes were not calm as they looked at Zhen Jin.

After the party of five had entered the forest, Zhen Jin took the lead and perfectly dealt with many attacks by himself.

Originally everyone was nervous, exploring this fast was very risky. But under Zhen Jin’s protection, any attack was fought off by him.

Hearing everyone’s assessment, Zhen Jin first controlled the magic core to transform his eyes from a lizard’s back to a human’s.

After he changed back his body, he looked at everyone and smiled with his handsome face. Even though his blond hair was dirty, it seemed to glisten along with his eyes.

“After passing through a tribulation, my martial skill seemed to enter a different state. Obviously, I cannot use battle qi and the power of each attack hasn’t changed. However, it is as if I do not need to think about my actions, it is all naturally done. Thus, it is as if I can use opportunities faster than before.”

In reality, Zhen Jin had used the green lizard eyes to see any lifeforms hiding around.

For example, the iron feather bird, although it concealed itself between the lush leaves, it appeared red in the lizard’s field of view and was very conspicuous.

Therefore, Zhen Jin could take precautions ahead of time.

Whenever the birds launched a surprise attack, Zhen Jin was already ready and would dispose of them promptly.

Of course, the green lizard eyes had a flaw, it could not see things clearly.

Therefore, after the first time Zhen Jin used it at the oasis, he improved its usage.

Currently he had one eye transformed and the other maintaining its human form. Every so often, the two eyes would switch their usage.

Because he was walking in front of everyone and narrowed his eyes when surveying, he kept the others in the dark.

Cang Xu muttered to himself: “Perhaps this is……the power of the spirit?”

Notes

At long last the desert arc is finally over, and not a single person suffered severe sunburns. You would have expected Bai Ya to have at least a few at minimum, unless of course they decided to be smart and use palm leaves as makeshift umbrellas. Zhen Jin is finally going full anime protagonist with those heterochromatic eyes with attached powers, hopefully he doesn’t start bleeding out of them cause that would be a dead giveaway.