Alchemy Master

Chapter 1149, A Sudden Turn of Events

Translator: Silavin

The Silent Forest, marked by all Races as a Dangerous Territory, was a place not even Saints dared to enter rashly.

For within the vast majority of these regions, remnant divine techniques lurked. Those divine techniques had been preserved across infinite ages through some special means, intact to this day.

Within the Silent Forest, every remnant divine technique that was triggered invariably signalled the fall of a powerful expert.

With Mo Sheng’s Disciple selection trial set here, the Silent Forest, rarely visited by any living Soul, had become a lively place. From within it, roars of furious Demonic Beasts rang out from time to time, and occasionally, the shrill cries of powerful experts from various mighty Races could also be heard.

Even those who carried so-called safe route maps found that within the space of merely a few days, at least several hundred, perhaps even a thousand or more powerful experts had perished within the forest.

For those maps only described routes capable of avoiding certain remnant divine techniques. They could not avoid Demonic Beasts.

Of course, the vast majority of those who had fallen were not killed by Demonic Beasts at all, but rather by the hidden and treacherous hands of experts from other Races.

Almost any expert with a shred of common sense rarely formed groups within the Silent Forest. After all, the treachery of the Human heart, and the greed of Mortal desire, were what posed the most terrifying danger of all.

Only those from the same Race, bound by a high degree of mutual trust, would travel together.

Yet at this moment, no one knew that a slender figure had appeared deep within the region marked as extremely dangerous by so many Races.

That figure was none other than Qin Yichen.

His expression at this moment was extraordinarily grave, and at the corners of his mouth, there was a helpless, bitter smile.

Having barely, narrowly avoided those remnant divine techniques one after another with great difficulty, who could have expected that the swamp ahead would now present this sort of aberration?

The scorching heat alone that came off those bursting bubbles was enough to make his heart go numb.

And that flowing black liquid was even more terrifying than red-hot lava.

With his powerful physical body, he was confident in being able to move freely within lava. But when it came to that flowing black liquid, he was fearful of it from the very depths of his heart.

He did not doubt for a moment that, powerful as he considered his physical body to be, it could not withstand that black liquid.

[How on earth had I ended up blundering into such a wretched place?] Qin Yichen groaned inwardly.

Even so, at this juncture, even knowing that unknowable and utterly terrifying dangers lay ahead, Qin Yichen did not dare to hesitate or linger here.

After all, he could not tell whether those remnant divine techniques had slowed because of the descent of night, or whether the next instant might see them return to full force.

He had cultivated the Supreme Tyrant Body of the Demon Subduing Great Saint to the point of Minor Accomplishment. Even when facing an ordinary Saint, he had confidence that he would not be directly crushed to dust.

But he was not so arrogant as to believe that even with this level of power, he could contend against these remnant divine techniques.

Knowing full well the danger posed by the space rifts above, Qin Yichen naturally no longer dared to fly through the air freely. And with the swamp ahead showing such strange signs, Qin Yichen also absolutely dared not rashly test the viability of passing through it directly.

At once, his body rose a metre above the ground, hovering as though weightless, and he drifted forward with extreme caution towards what lay ahead.

As he drifted, his mind remained fully taut, watching at all times for any remnant divine techniques in the mist around him. The moment he sensed a remnant divine technique within ten metres of him through the mist, he would give it a wide and careful berth.

It was fortunate indeed that his Spiritual Energy was comparatively powerful. Otherwise, in this mist where visibility barely extended more than a few metres, he would most likely have triggered a divine technique before he even noticed, dying in a manner as to leave no trace behind.

As Qin Yichen pressed on, the waves of heat rising from the swamp beneath his feet grew stronger and stronger. That terrifying scorching air was so intense that even Qin Yichen could barely endure it, and he had no choice but to activate his Yuan Energy to resist the heat waves, which were so suffocating as to be almost intolerable.

*Hmm…*

Yet just as Qin Yichen had barely activated his Yuan Energy to resist, he suddenly noticed that the entire stretch of space he was in seemed to have fallen completely silent.

He even sensed that several divine techniques in the distance had also ground to a halt.

“What is happening?”

Perceiving this strange development, Qin Yichen’s pupils contracted sharply. Faced with this situation, there was not a shred of joy in his heart. There was only vigilance towards the unknown, and even, a creeping sense of dread.

[Why did this happen so suddenly? Could it be that activating my Yuan Energy had triggered some divine technique or Restriction?]

*Pop! Pop!*

But before Qin Yichen could reason out a cause, he sensed that the swamp beneath his feet had also gone still for a brief moment. Those enormous bubbles appeared once more and then continued to burst without pause.

And with that repeated cycle of bursting and reforming, Qin Yichen also noticed that the size of the bubbles was growing larger and larger. From roughly one metre at the start, they had gradually swelled to three metres, even four metres in size.

The way of it was as though something terrifying beneath the swamp was in the process of awakening.

*Boom!*

Without warning, as though several bubbles had merged into one, a bubble ten metres in size surged violently upward. Before Qin Yichen had even time to react, it burst open with tremendous force, and a colossal wave of heat directly sent Qin Yichen flying.

[This is bad!] Qin Yichen cried out inwardly. He had deliberately maintained a cautious distance on account of the scorching heat, yet in this one unguarded moment, he had been struck head-on by the blast.

That scorching heat was nothing like ordinary heat. It seemed capable of igniting all things. Under the impact, Qin Yichen felt that the Yuan Energy within his body, even his blood and his very cells, were being scorched and wracked with unbearable suffering.

What was even more critical was that when Qin Yichen attempted to fly upward by force, he found that his Yuan Energy and his body were entirely beyond his control. Eyes wide and teeth clenched, he could only watch helplessly as he plummeted downward towards the parched and cracking swamp below.

He could see that the black liquid was not ordinary liquid at all. It was as though each trickle of it were a living creature, a tiny worm writhing and squirming slowly in its own right.

As he drew closer, Qin Yichen seemed to smell the scent of death itself.

[Am I really going to die in this wretched place in such a senseless and undignified manner!?] In that moment, Qin Yichen could not help but squeeze his eyes shut, and somewhere deep in his heart, a howl of utter indignation tore loose.

*Sizzle…*

Before he had even landed upon that black ‘liquid’, Qin Yichen had already caught the acrid smell of his own body being seared. Wisps of white smoke began to rise from his flesh.

The way of it was as though his entire being was being dissolved by that terrifying heat.