A bright crimson luminescence blinded Tu Syaoran. For a second the world was red.
However, as the light died down, Tu Syaoran vision slowly warped. Before he knew it, he was back on the cold stone floor. He swallowed a mouthful of air as he gasped.
The last thing Tu Syaoran saw was a weird core symbol that had shook his soul. It was horrifying. He felt like he had died again when he made eye contact with the core symbol.
Tu Syaoran was truly terrified. He was affirmative that the power had exceeded the grand elder, who was a peak stage 5-sided cultivator. What made him feel even more fear was the fact that he was beginning to lose his memories about the core symbol.
Each second that had passed, seemed to take turns erroding that particular memory.
It didn't take more than a few minute for him to completely forget about that core symbol.
As Tu Syaoran calmed down, his mood took a turn for the better; he had heaps of knowledge.
Surprisingly, he had gone through all nine panels of memories during that one long journey. He had thought that was only one panel of memories.
However, what made Tu Syaoran really happy was that, apart from the journey that he had been through, he also gained a lot more general information about the world; from different core symbols to different materials, he had learnt about over 100 different variety of each.
Despite this, Tu Syaoran knowledge was like a drop in an ocean; there were over 100,000 types of core symbols and even more materials that one couldn't fathom.
Nonetheless, this time he had made the right decision. From the properties, to its usage, to where it could possibly be found, they were all detailed alongside the name of the material. In fact, there was an image of the object projected in his head allowing him to identify it if he ever came across it.
It only got better from here as the core symbols were packed with heaps of information; from its characteristics, functions, abilities to how to acquire them - whether if it is found in a certain area or the conditions required to get one.
Interestingly, some core symbol required recognition before one can store them in the core for later use. The more advanced one even had a conscious, though it was just a rumour.
From this heap of knowledge, he had also learnt that the world was called the core world. There were five large continents; Seafall of the East Continent; Dryland of the West Continent; Summerflame of the South Continent; Frozeneverest of the North Continent; and finally the Motherearth of the Central Continent.
The 'Death Forest' covered most of the land in the south of Motherearth Continent. Xie Tu town was situated very closed to the 'Death Forest' - they were like neighbours. Whilst Tu Clan was located slightly north of the 'Death Forest'.
Fortunately, Tu Syaoran had also received information of the layout of the 'Death Forest; there were three layers, the outer layer, inner layer and core layer. The cave entrance, that he had saw in the panels of memories was located on the boundary of the outer layer.
Predominantly, the information from the orb of memory he had assimilated had only consisted the details of the outer layer of the 'Death Forest'.
Despite being the outer layer, it was still extremely dangerous. There were over ten thousand different species of beasts living in the outer layer. These beast had varying cultivation, from the initial stage 3-sided core to peak stage 6-sided core. Furthermore, many of these beast were very bloodthirsty.
In addition to this, the terrain of the forest differed; there are four main biomes that made up the Outer Layer of the 'Death Forest'. The most common biome was the normal plain forest. Its characteristics was the plethora of tall trees with its arms of leaves covering the skies. Throughout the biome, there was a range of species of grass that filled the ground. Some were short but others were long. Pitifully, many of these grass has also been replaced with dirt footprints left behind by the beasts. The plain forest biome was also habitant to over 60% of the wild beast in the Outer Layer of the 'Death Forest' making it the most dangerous biome despite not having any environmental disadvantage.
Unlike the normal plain biome, the Swampy regions in the Outer Layer of the 'Death Forest' had lots of environmental disadvantages: murky and viscous ponds of varying sizes; some were poisonous whilst others were muddy, forcibly slowing their movement. Scattered throughout the Swampy regions, were poisonous plants that were mostly carnivores. Despite this, the Swamp region was very small; it only made up less than one percent of the Outer Layer of the 'Death Forest'. Furthermore, it was uncommon to find wild beast on the Swampy regions. If there was, one must be really unfortunate.
The third biome was the mountainous regions, which actually covered around thirty percent of the Outer Layer of the 'Death Forest'.
In Fact the mountainous region were more common at the edge of the Outer Layer. Many of these mountain true size remain mysterious; their height reached above the clouds. Looking at the mountain, it seemed as if there was a never-ending peak. Although quite magical, there were still lots of trees and plants thriving around and on the mountain. According to the memories, there were even some plants that lived near the peak of the mountain. To Tu Syaoran it was a miracle. He felt the temperature up there could probably freeze an elephant to death, but somehow there is still life up there.
The mountainous regions normally was a range of mountain with varying sizes, though they were all a lot taller and larger than the mountains Tu Syaoran had saw in his previous life. One of the main characteristic of the mountainous regions were the abundance of cave entrance.
On some of the mountains there were large cave entrance with icy dripstone hanging on the ceiling. Whereas, other mountains had a stream of water or a steep waterfall. Rarely, would one find a cave entrance elsewhere in the 'Death Forest' (except the cave where Tu Syaoran was 'stuck' in).
There were also over 100 different species living on these mountains. Although there were only 100 species of wild beast, each population was vast; they were at least in the 10,000 if not 100,000 and more. Furthermore, these wild beast tend to be stronger and more resilience than wild beast in the normal plain biome: they had a thicker skin coating - adding defence while ensuring they stay warm; they had a stronger physical body - allows movement up the mountain easier and stronger attacking prowess; and finally, a strong will - the coldness and rough life in the mountains, had tempered their will making them less likely to back down from a fight. These were the more general advantages these species had. Some specific species may have even more advantages that help improve their battle prowess further.
At last, it isn't really considered a biome in the perspective of a modern person like Tu Syaoran: Lake biome. There were many lakes, around 100 lakes. Most of them were very vast, with some lake stretching for tens of thousand of miles. Some lakes were so vast that one could never tell it was just a large lake; they would think it was an ocean.
These lake were not safe-heavens; occasionally, land-sea beast (both an aquatic and land animal) would leave the lake and roam the area around the lake. However, it was not as dangerous as the other biomes, until you enter the body of water. In fact, the lakes, especially the larger ones, are extremely dangerous. The deeper one goes into the depth of the lake, the more easy it was to encounter a higher cultivation level beast. These beast were no ordinary beast. The pressure of the water has tempered their body making it multiple times harder to pierce through their skin. Plus, with the suffocating and slightly viscous water, movement would be suppressed making it hard to manoeuvre and escape. At the same cultivation level, a human cultivator would definitely lose their life if they didn't have a very strong trump card during the battle.
These four biome made up the forbidden area 'Death Forest'. After consolidating this mountain of knowledge, Tu Syaoran was astounded. It was as if he was a frog that had climbed out of a well. He was confident that the amount of people who knew the in's and out's of the 'Death Forest' could only be counted one two hands.
Although, the danger has dwindled immensely, due to Tu Syaoran's cultivation it was still a perilous journey to return.
Originally, Tu Syaoran aim was to leave this desolate place. However, after the journey through the nine panels of memories, it had left him pondering. Pondering whether, he should try to leave or find this inheritance.
Ultimately, Tu Syaoran decided to look for this inheritance. He believed that whilst he was here he might as well take a look at the inheritance. He urgently needed strength; if the assassins appears again he would be dead. He needed sufficient strength to survive.
Even though, he didn't think the assassins were still actively looking for him, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Furthermore, he concluded that the inheritance seemed safe. Assured by his memories, he firmly decided to risk it.
The first problem that stood in his way was the large river - he had to find a way to cross it.