Chapter Twenty-Two: Red Leaf Forest

  Qin Yong quickly left Liu Yan's separate courtyard and left Yunhai Sect to go down the mountain. Except for Liu Yan, he soon saw Qin Tianhu in the mountains below.

  Qin Tianhu sat in a teahouse, looking very impatient. When he saw Qin Yong coming, he immediately stood up and said discontentedly: "Where have you been? Why did it take so long?"

  "Prepare some things." Qin Yong didn't mention what exactly, looking at the impatient expression on Qin Tianhu's face, he said: "Since Third Uncle can't wait any longer, let's start our journey then."

  "Hmph, no idea what's going on." Qin Tiantu let out a cold snort, increasingly disapproving of Qin Yong. Who would have thought that the previously quiet kid had become so despicable? However, Qin Tiantu couldn't openly turn against him, so he casually responded and then walked over to the nearby horse stable, pulled out a horse, and mounted it.

  Qin Yong didn't find it strange, although Yangmu City was only a few hundred miles away from Yunhai Sect, but this distance was still quite long for ordinary martial artists. Probably only those who had reached the Xuanwu Realm could afford to consume true energy and use footwork to travel, while those below the Xuanwu Realm generally chose horses or donkeys as mounts.

  "Hey, little brother, bring me a horse." Qin Yong shouted to the tea shed's partner, taking out a certain amount of silver from his body, enough for more than ten taels, which was enough to buy a horse.

  "Alright." The fellow took the silver and hastily responded with a "yes", then rushed to the tea shed to tie up Qin Yong's horse.

  Here is the translation:

  There are only two kinds of businesses that can be opened here, one is to provide tea for the outer door disciples or miscellaneous servant disciples who stop halfway, but not much money can be made from selling tea. The other is to sell horses for transportation, some outer door disciples and miscellaneous servant disciples will buy them sometimes, and occasionally, families of these disciples may also make a purchase. Therefore, a horse shed is always set up next to the teahouse, if someone needs it, they can just pay in silver.

  The groom quickly led the horse out and brought it before Qin Yong, saying a few respectful words before retreating. Qin Yong didn't mind, pressed down on the horse's back, and directly flipped onto the horseback, this movement was extremely elegant, as if he had done it many times before. In fact, Qin Yong could only recall a few instances from his memories, for someone who used to be poor and struggling in his previous life, riding horses was an activity that was too far-fetched.

  "Let's go." Qin Tiantu said without any suspicion, and then pulled the reins to drive the horse forward.

  Qin Yong didn't have any opinion on who went first or last, he wasn't one of those people who argued over such trivial matters. Besides, the road back was also unclear to him, but now with someone leading the way in front, Qin Yong was happy to follow leisurely, at least he didn't have to worry about taking a wrong turn. Riding his horse behind them, the journey was bumpy, but Qin Yong's first time riding a horse was surprisingly stable, after all, his strength was evident, as a sixth-level martial artist in the Qi Wu realm, even if he was considered a low-level martial artist in the True Martial Continent, he wasn't someone who could be easily shaken off by an ordinary horse.

  "Be careful, this is Red Leaf Forest. Let's go around the perimeter and avoid running into powerful demonic beasts." Qin Tianhu shouted out loud.

  At this time, they had already walked for half a day and entered a forest. The red and green trees crisscrossed to form a beautiful scenery. However, entering the forest was a warning phrase for all ordinary people, because the land of the forest was the cradle of demonic beasts, where demonic beasts roamed freely. This red leaf forest, named after the fact that more than half of the trees in the forest were red leaf trees, was considered a special scenic spot, but this red leaf forest was quite terrifying, with rumors even suggesting that there were Tianwu realm demonic beasts present.

  Of course, such a demon beast is already an existence that can dominate the entire Red Leaf Forest. It is said that demon beasts that reach the Tianwu realm can transform into humans and may not stay in the forest forever. However, these are distant existences from Qin Yong, let alone the Qin family, everything is just hearsay.

  The outer periphery of the Red Leaf Forest is not to be underestimated either. The demonic beasts that are active in this area mostly have a strength of at least five layers of Qi Refining Realm. If one goes further inside, into the middle layer, they may encounter demonic beasts of the Mystic Martial Realm. For Qin Rong and Qin Tianhu, even walking around the periphery is quite risky.

  But doing so is also helpless, the red leaf forest range is extremely wide, if you want to bypass the entire forest, it's probably a few days' time that is barely enough. And like now, walking on the periphery would take about a day's time to get through. If going straight through, it would probably take only half a day, unfortunately, wanting to do so requires weighing one's own strength.

  "I know." Qin Yong replied casually.

  The Red Leaf Forest is a habitat for demonic beasts, and these demonic beasts are excellent training objects for martial artists. Generally, the bodies of demonic beasts contain treasures. For example, their outer skin can be made into defensive armor, their tendons and bones can be used to craft weapons, and their internal organs can be used as medicine. Even if one eats the least valuable part, the meat, it can still enhance one's blood energy and strength. Therefore, many sects' missions are actually related to demonic beasts, and this Red Leaf Forest is an important training ground for the Yunhai Sect.

  However, generally speaking, those who come back here to do tasks are at least outer door disciples of the Qi Wu realm's ninth level, and only a few are above the Xuan Wu realm. If you walk around the periphery, it's actually very difficult to meet anyone. Qin Yong himself didn't expect to meet anyone, he just suddenly remembered when he arrived at Red Leaf Forest.

  Qin Yong naturally understood the situation, so he didn't bother to argue with Qin Tianhu. From Qin Tianhu's tone, Qin Yong also felt that this wasn't because he cared about him, but simply because he didn't want to provoke the demon beast and implicate himself.

  Although they tried to avoid the demonic beasts, once they entered the Red Leaf Forest, it was impossible to completely avoid them. Along the way, Qin and Yong encountered a total of three demonic beasts, all of which were fierce beasts like tigers and wolves. The strongest among them was a double-tailed tiger with two tails, possessing strength at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Realm.

  Tigers and wolves, the likes of ferocious beasts, are relatively ordinary among demonic beasts. Moreover, they are on the outskirts of the Red Leaf Forest, so they won't be any powerful demonic beasts. Despite this, a Qi Wu Realm Seventh Layer's strength is still a difficult role to deal with. The demonic beast itself has not only the true energy of martial arts but also its strong physique, making it more troublesome. Generally speaking, under the same circumstances, demonic beasts are more formidable than humans.

  Fortunately, Qin and Yong were only focused on hurrying along the road and didn't intend to fight it. The only trouble they encountered was that their horses were startled, but after being stimulated by the true energy, they didn't collapse and instead fled even faster. By the time night fell, Qin and Yong had already covered half the distance and estimated that they would be able to leave the Red Leaf Forest by noon tomorrow.

  It's not good to rush at night, so Qin and the young man walked to a relatively open area, where the possibility of encountering demonic beasts was lower, and even if they did, they wouldn't be too strong. The two then set up camp and prepared to rest.

  The fire was lit quickly, and Qin Yong and Qin Tianhu sat opposite each other around the bonfire. Qin Yong held a branch in his hand, with a pancake stuck on the end. This was Qin Yong's usual dry ration after practicing martial arts. As long as it was heated up, he could eat it. When it was cold, it was hard and felt like a stone, but when it was heated up, it became soft and tasted not bad.

  Qin Tiantu took a swig of wine from his flask, uninterested in eating the tasteless food. If not for fear of attracting demonic beasts with the smell, he would have liked to catch a small weak beast to roast. With his strength at the 8th level of Qi Wu Realm, he wouldn't starve after just one day without eating, besides, he had already eaten that morning. Qin Tiantu thought to himself, once they left the Red Leaf Forest, he would eat a good meal to make up for it.

  At this time, Qin Tianhu looked at Qin Yong, with a few points of surprise in his eyes, and said: "Qin Yong, it seems that you have made great progress in Yunhai Sect. Today, the double-tailed tiger almost bit you, but was repelled by your one punch."

  No wonder Qin Tianhu was surprised, today when they encountered the three-headed demon beast, the most troublesome one was the double-tailed tiger in the seventh layer of Qi Wu Realm. Even if Qin Tianhu himself had encountered it, he would have to be careful to deal with it. Who would have thought that the double-tailed tiger was actually repelled by Qin Yong? Taking advantage of that opportunity, they were able to shake off the double-tailed tiger. This made Qin Tianhu feel a bit shocked at the time, and he suspected in his heart that Qin Yong had reached the seventh layer of Qi Wu Realm. However, thinking about it again, if that was the case, then Qin Yong should be an outer door disciple instead of a miscellaneous servant disciple now.

  Despite this, Qin Tiantu was even more shocked, because he didn't reach the seventh level of Qi Wu, yet he repelled the double-tailed tiger of the seventh level of Qi Wu. This strength is indeed shocking, and it can be said that there is some faint hope for him. This is what Qin Tiantu thought, and the reason why he was only barely hopeful was because in his heart, he still considered Qin Yong to be an ordinary martial artist, and the most talented one in the Qin family had always been Qin Hong.

  "That pair of tiger tails underestimated me and didn't use their full strength, that's why I was able to beat them back." Qin Yong said nonchalantly.

  In fact, this is one of the reasons why the demon beast is stronger than humans. Even at the same level, they may look down on each other, let alone Qin Yong who is clearly weaker. So the double-tailed tiger's attack, although seemingly powerful, has not truly reached the power of the seventh layer of Qi Wu Realm. Furthermore, it's also due to Qin Yong's own strength. Qin Yong is not like Qin Tianhu, a half-baked goods. At the same realm, Qin Yong can almost crush Qin Tianhu. In fact, if Qin Yong's current cultivation is at the sixth layer of Qi Wu Realm, he can already exert power close to the seventh layer.

  Qin Yong faced the double-tailed tiger, naturally going all out. The two powers could be said to be evenly matched, and Qin Yong was slightly stronger. This managed to repel the double-tailed tiger, which was also somewhat dazed and didn't understand how it had lost, so it didn't catch up for a while, allowing them to shake off the double-tailed tiger in time.

  "It was like that." Qin Tiantu heard this and suddenly believed it, looking down on the shocking situation earlier. It turned out that Qin Yong was just like that after all.