Feeling the soft muddy ground beneath his feet, Xue Chang trudged across the humid forest, his saber out in preparation for anything.
The forest on the border of their city was a vast area filled with mystery. Although many quests and expeditions have been done through it, no one had had truly passed through to the other side.
This was because the closer one got to the center, the stronger the beasts became.
It was rumored that there was even a level nine demonic beast ruling at that very center of the forest.
But this was only a rumor. No one had ever seen such a beast, and if it did exist it kept itself well hidden.
Xue Chang rarely went out to hunt in the forest anymore. He originally hunted to get money and beast cores in order to trade for cultivation resources from the guild.
But after Tian Kai and Tian Hai passed the third level, common pills and herbs no longer worked for them. And if they wanted more high level items they would need a lot more contribution than just a couple dozen level two beasts.
Luckily they could still trade for earth fire so their training didn't come to a complete stop.
But it reached a point where Xue Chang no longer held much interest in hunting beasts unless a powerful one arrived.
But now was different, now he had a serious reason to reenter the field. Looking down at the notes within his palm.
Xue Chang took the path the document claimed the woman and monster were sighted at. Surprisingly, they were quite deep within the forest, making him wonder if they had some sort of treasure that protected them from the demonic beasts.
As he was thinking this, as if on cue, a red blur flew from the brushes and screeched wildly at him.
Xue Chang didn't even look up as his arm flung out and sliced the beast in half.
"A berserk ape? I guess I must look like some easy prey then."
The berserk ape was a common level two beast that had pretty decent intelligence. Although they couldn't be reasoned with, they were still smart enough to know when they were outclassed. And as such rarely attacked those equal to or more powerful than them.
Yet here was one coming after him now. Of course it wasn't the beast's fault. How was it suppose to know that a human that displayed no strength or spiritual force whatsoever was actually many times stronger than itself?
Ignoring the beast, a quiet whimper could be heard emanating behind him. Looking back, the little asura was wagging its tail while staring at him pitiably.
"You really want to take the corpse? I mean I won't stop you but it's-"
Sounds of bone crunching and flesh being shredded apart interrupted Xue Chang as he mumbled the rest of his sentence to himself, "-dirty."
Seven years had passed and his relationship with the asura had grown somewhat. He couldn't communicate with the mysterious puppy perfectly, but they could now send their intentions to one another easily.
After all this time, the puppy had grown on Xue Chang quite a bit. Its cute appearance and rich, silky fur made one feel good will toward it. Not only that but Xue Chang felt as if he could really relate to it.
In these last seven years, it too had not change a bit in appearance. It was still the same cute baby pup that he met all those years ago.
Of course there was a few changes since back then. One of them being the subspace.
Xue Chang noticed a while back that the puppy would disappear for odd amounts of time, only to suddenly reappear at random moments.
Yong Heng explained that this was because it entered something called 'the subspace'. When Asuras are born, they naturally develop the ability to enter into a little pocket in space.
This was a defense mechanism of the far past before they created their own civilization. It acted as a method to hide themselves from predators.
Nowadays they were used as a storage instead since every Asura had their own unique subspace and it was extremely difficult for one to access another's subspace.
"If you train thousand armed Asura to a high enough level, you'll actually be able to access your partner's subspace as well. That way you don't have to keep carrying everything in that sack tied to your waist or in your robe." Yong Heng explained quickly without a care in the world.
He spoke as if this was something that wasn't even worth mentioning, but to Xue Chang that wasn't so.
A hidden space where he could hide a large amount of items safely without worry? Such a proposal was very attractive to him.
But even though seven years had passed he made very little progress in thousand armed asura, which soured his mood greatly.
Xue Chang, "I guess it makes sense the spell is so hard to practice. If not then it wouldn't be something you'd consider a great spell, right Yong Heng?"
Yong Heng nodded thoughtfully, "To be fair, the technique is extremely difficult to master. But even I am surprised by your lack of talent in training it. You started off pretty well but it's only gotten worse from there."
Sigh. "Don't mention it."
Xue Chang was having this conversation within his head when a rustling sound could be heard.
Deep growls resonated within the forest as many figures slid out of the shrubbery.
Staring at the ground, he could see the leaves and grass trembling.
Raising his head up to face the area in front of him, Xue Chang took in a deep breath.
Raising up his hand, he brought out a single finger to face the horde of monsters in front of him.
With a mocking smile on his face, he said,"What a grand welcoming."