As soon as Will stepped into the mist surrounding the forest, he was assaulted by illusions, but he could not see them, so it was much easier for him to not fall for them. He was also resistant because he could mostly tell the difference between the emotions of real things and the emotions in the illusions. However, despite being able to resist it, this did not mean that he would be fine in the forest. After all, the illusions were stronger in some spots than in others.
As he was venturing into the forest, in the very center, there was a vast castle. This castle was protected by a formation and no cultivator had ever found it. It was this very formation that caused the illusion mist and the opportunities in the forest.
Inside of this formation, there was a castle of ice. It seemed that it was cold enough to freeze the whole world. Inside of the castle of ice, there was only one person, a young girl, sitting in the middle cultivating. However, the moment that Will entered the forest, she opened her eyes, sighing, saying, "It has been so many years since a spirit realm entered the forest. I wonder if he can get further than the previous ones,"
It seemed that multiple spirit realms had entered the forest before, but none of them had survived. It was clear that this young girl could sense all that was happening in the forest. However, no one could tell why she was there or what the purpose of this forest was.
As Will continued on his journey, he quickly ran into a beast. These wild beasts had grown up in this forest and were resistant to the illusions that it created. Hence, they were the most dangerous thing in here other than some natural disasters. The beast looked like a purple tiger, but it had deep blue eyes, which seemed to be bursting with intelligence.
When Will sensed this tiger, he could not help being confused because he could sense very human-like emotions from it. It was as if it was intelligent like him. But he had never heard of intelligent beasts before. However, he did not pay attention to this and immediately attacked.
The beast was at the second level of the silver core realm, the same as the disciples of Shadow Devil kingdom that he had killed.
He figured that this would be a good chance to test out his inner breath as he had never tried it before. At this moment, a pearl white inner breath burst out of his body, forming a simple blade of grass, which seemed utterly harmless. The moment that it hit the beast, the beast instantly stopped and seemed confused at the harmless attack. Instead, it could even feel its mind becoming clearer. However, this only lasted a moment before the inner breath ripped itself out of the beast's body, bringing along with it all semblance of calmness that the beast previously had. As this happened, the beast roared and scratched at the air around it, and it's eyes quickly turned crimson, as if it was going insane.
In reality, this was exactly what was happening. The inner breath which had entered its body had gone directly to its mind, and it was strengthening it. However, when Will took the inner breath strand out of the beast's body, it tore away all of the calmness and peace of mind that it previously had, leaving it a raging monster which would rather die than live another moment.
Its mind was in such chaos that it growled and yelped in pain before its mind finally just completely gave up. At this moment, it fell to the ground, unharmed, but completely dead.
Will could not help but be terrified of the scene which had just happened in front of him. He had thought that the inner breath would simply shatter the beast's body, as it had with the tree, but reality was different as the beast had died in the most agonizing way possible. In its last moments, Will could sense the pure chaos, overwhelming chaos, which had besieged its mind. He could also feel the immense suffering that it had gone through in only a matter of moments before it died.
As Will was not a vicious person, he had then decided that unless his life depended on it, he would not use the inner breath in that way to kill. It was simply too agonizing and painful. Never before had he been so scared of his own power. This left him relying on the two weapons in his belt, the saber and the dagger, as well as his wings on his back to defend himself. At this moment, he decided that the moment he found a safe place in the forest, he would meditate on how to use the inner breath without causing the agonizing death which he had just witnessed.
Very quickly, three days passed by. In these three days, Will went around the forest and did encounter some beasts, but all of them were killed by him using the saber and dagger. He wanted to train himself with these weapons so that he could defend himself if he came across a cultivator in the forest. After all, the weakest cultivator in the forest other than him would be at the second level of the silver core realm. As such, if he were to fight against them with his full abilities and they were to escape, then news might spread about him and there would be many cultivators of the Shadow Devil kingdom which might come looking for him. This was a risk he simply couldn't take at this moment, so he decided it better to train himself traditionally to not attract any attention.
On this day, he finally came upon a treasure. It was a clear spring, and in it sat a transparent flower. Will had no idea what this flower was or what it did, but he could feel a distinctly cold aura coming off of it. Every treasure in the forest had a beast guarding it though. What Will did not know was that the beasts all contained minimal intelligence that was enough to guard a treasure until it was ready to be used. Coincidentally, this flower had just bloomed under the spring and it would be the most useful at this moment.
As Will approached the stream, he suddenly heard a fierce hissing sound. As he looked towards it, he could sense a deadly snake lying in the bushes just out of sight. The moment he sensed its aura, he could not help getting excited. It was a snake at the third level of the silver core realm!! This was by far the strongest enemy he had come upon so far, and he was bursting with fighting intent at this moment.
This snake was purple in appearance, as were all the beasts in the forest. Its eyes were also a deep blue, but within them, one could sense that it was clearly more intelligent than the other beasts. Slowly, it slithered out of the bushes and appeared before Will. When it saw him, it could sense his aura only at the first thread of the spirit realm, but its animal instinct was kicking in and saying that this person was dangerous. Every animal or beast in this world had instincts, and some would be stronger than others. In the case of this snake, its instinct was hundreds of times better than other animals, and thousands of times stronger than normal cultivators.
Cultivators could also gain instinct, but it was something that was achieved after countless years of battle and struggle, and they would have to at least be above the silver core realm to get it. As such, to have such a strong sense of instinct was extremely rare in the world.
This was what made this forest so creepy. Everything about it was weird. First, there was the mist, which would cause illusions. Second, there was the fact that the beasts all had intelligence, even though it might not be comparable to a humans. Third, Will had discovered in the kingdom where he heard about the forest that anyone above the fourth stage of the silver core realm could not enter and they would be instantly turned away. Even those at the realm above the silver core realm were not an exception and could not enter no matter how hard they tried.
Seeing the human in front of it, the snake spoke in a half broken language, saying, "You should not be here, little one,"
Will was astonished by the fact that the snake had spoken, but when he thought about the intelligence that he sensed in the beasts that he had come across before, he ignored it and replied, saying, "Why should I not be here?"
"You are strong, but not strong enough. You have no idea the horrors that lie within the center of the forest," said the snake as it continued to slither towards him. It obviously had no intention to attack him, so Will put his weapons in their sheaths, but he still rested his hand on the hilt of the saber just in case. After all, he could be falling into an illusion now and it was better to be prepared, but if it truly was happening, then he better show that he's not a threat to get more information out of this snake which could apparently speak.
"All that your kingdoms have seen of this forest is merely a portion of it. No human has ever brought such a strong sense of danger as you, but even then, you cannot imagine what horrors and dangers lie within this forest. Leave, while you still can," said the long purple snake.
It did not reveal any information about the forest, but it spoke with a sheer horror evident that Will could clearly sense. This snake was not lying. This forest truly was a place of death.
But only in a place of conflict could the talented truly rise. Will had already learned long ago that geniuses were born out of conflict, and that without conflict, it was impossible to rise. As such, what the snake had said only motivated him more!!
"I made a vow to scour the world of its filth. I cannot do that by being a coward," said Will with a calmness far beyond anything the snake had ever seen. He was so calm that it terrified him down to his very being. The snake knew at this moment that he had made the right choice not to offend this blind child at the first thread of the spirit realm.
Author's note: sorry that the chapter isn't that good. I'm just setting up for some stuff later and I will come back later and edit it and pretty it up. I'm just really tired right now and can't do it at the moment.