An Arrow to the Rescue

"Xueluo Continent is teeming with powerhouses, even Immortals exist here." Luo Feng gazed at the approaching Xueluo Continent. "I must be extremely cautious and absolutely cannot reveal my identity!" "But it's also strange!" "With the Virtual Universe Company's might, sweeping through the entire Xueluo Continent would be effortless. They clearly have the power to easily control it, yet they prefer to establish the 'Sky Eclipse Palace' to monitor it from the void, rather than directly ruling Xueluo Continent." Luo Feng secretly wondered, this doesn't quite fit the style of a major cosmic power. "Well, it's not my concern," Luo Feng shook his head. ... Three hours later. The mechanical ship, disguised as a meteorite fragment, finally plunged into the outermost cloud layer of Xueluo Continent. "I can't go any further!" With a thought, Luo Feng flew out of the ship's hatch and immediately had Babata store the mechanical ship in his storage space. "Xueluo Continent has eighteen cloud layers in its sky." The cultivation mission brief Luo Feng had read included a general overview of Xueluo Continent. There were eighteen layers of clouds in the sky, and the pressure increased with altitude. Only Universe Level cultivators could pass through these eighteen layers on their own. However, the natives of Xueluo Continent could only fly up to the 18th layer and dared not venture further. They knew that 'extraterrestrial races' would kill any native who flew out of Xueluo Continent. No one who had flown beyond the 18th cloud layer had ever returned alive to the ground. "There's no need to worry in the void." "But within these cloud layers, I might encounter natives of Xueluo Continent." Luo Feng, clad in black combat armor and combat boots, with a combat saber and shield on his back, looked like a standard, ordinary Xueluo Continent warrior. From the 18th cloud layer, Luo Feng plummeted downwards, driven by the terrifying gravitational pull. "The gravity is immense." "With such strong gravity, only Star Level cultivators can fly in the air," Luo Feng calculated. "The magnetic gravity generated by Planet Level cultivators simply can't counteract such a powerful pull." Swish! Swish! Swish! Luo Feng descended like a meteor, rapidly falling from the eighteenth cloud layer. His speed increased as he fell, then he controlled it to maintain a relatively normal descent. After falling for about fifteen minutes, he finally broke through the lowest, first cloud layer. The scenery of Xueluo Continent finally appeared before him. "Wow," Luo Feng exclaimed involuntarily. Below, the endless land was covered by vast, majestic mountain ranges and forests. By Luo Feng's estimation, this ancient forest spanned at least tens of thousands of kilometers. In the distant outskirts of the forest, he could vaguely make out tiny silhouettes, which were the outlines of cities. ... In the ancient mountain forest, an extraterrestrial visitor arrived. As the black figure descended into the mountain forest, the air currents around his body directly snapped the surrounding branches. His speed then sharply decreased, and he slowly landed on the ground, his boots crunching on the decaying leaves. "The gravity is terrifyingly strong. Ordinary people living in Xueluo Continent with such strong gravity must be close to Planet Level in strength," Luo Feng stood there, his consciousness rapidly calculating. "The air here, nurtured by cosmic origin energy, has an astonishing body-strengthening effect." "No wonder Xueluo Continent has so many powerhouses." "Living in a cosmic secret realm makes them naturally strong and makes cultivation easier. However... precisely because they live in a cosmic secret realm, it's destined that even if they become Immortals, they cannot leave the cosmic secret realm to venture into the vast universe. Unless those Immortals join the Virtual Universe Company," Luo Feng mused. "But the decaying and foul smell in this ancient forest is truly unpleasant." Just then... About two thousand meters away from Luo Feng, on a thick, twisted tree that would require over twenty people to encircle, was an eerie creature with a green snake body and a human face. The human face had no nose, only eyes and a mouth. It was staring through the gaps in the tangled branches at the figure two thousand meters away. "Hiss!" A piercing sound, like a shockwave, assaulted Luo Feng's ears. Simultaneously, a green snake-bodied, human-faced monster, over sixty meters long, shot towards Luo Feng with a streak of light and afterimage, instantly appearing beside him. Its human-like mouth suddenly opened, forming a black hole three to four meters in diameter, directly attempting to swallow Luo Feng. Luo Feng turned his head, his eyes sharp as blades, looking at the ferocious snake-bodied, human-faced monster. The monster was twenty stories tall, making Luo Feng seem tiny in comparison. But as Luo Feng looked at it, a hint of terror appeared on the monster's human face. "Hmph!" Luo Feng snorted coldly. Boom! The monster instantly became powerless in mid-air, crashing into the main trunk and branches of a nearby thick tree due to inertia, then falling heavily to the ground. Its massive snake body lay on the ground, and green blood oozed from its human-like eyes, unmoving. "Is this what the natives of Xueluo Continent call a 'wild beast'? This is just a wild beast with roughly Star Level five or six strength," Luo Feng thought to himself. "It actually sought death by provoking me." Luo Feng had merely used his spiritual force pressure, instantly overwhelming it, turning the wild beast's brain into mush. Luo Feng's spiritual force was extremely powerful, at the peak of Domain Lord. Spiritual force pressure is usually only effective when there's a huge disparity in strength. If he were to pressure a Universe Level cultivator, it would at most make them uncomfortable! But to pressure a Star Level cultivator, two tiers below him... a single glance would cause them to collapse. "Any random wild beast that appears has Star Level six or seven strength. Living in a cosmic secret realm... they truly have a unique advantage," Luo Feng then looked into the distance. "I need to leave this forest first and head to the nearest city. Only in a city can I more quickly obtain Xueluo Crystals." Xueluo Crystals, a treasure unique to Xueluo Continent. Swish! Luo Feng left a trail of afterimages and instantly vanished into the distance. ... At the edge of this forest, a team was advancing. "Young Master, this is your first time in the Wild Beast Forest. Don't be careless. Just explore the outer perimeter and hunt some outer wild beasts to practice," said a member of the team. He was about 1.8 meters tall, but incredibly burly, especially his bare arms, which were as thick as an adult Earthling's thigh. His face was covered in a beard like thorns, and his brown eyes were sharp as he spoke in a local dialect. "Uncle Lei, with you here, what's there to worry about?" The silver-armored youth in the team, with purple secret patterns on his forehead, said with a cheerful smile. The youth casually held a black composite bow and had a quiver of arrows on his back. The burly, robust man smiled, but then suddenly sniffed, his expression changing slightly. He whispered, "Everyone, be careful. This should be the territory of the 'Manggu Beast' wild beast." "Manggu Beast?" The other guards in the team looked slightly more serious, but still relaxed. It was a common saying in Xueluo Continent that one should never be careless with any wild beast, but the Manggu Beast was not a particularly powerful wild beast. The guards knew that as long as their team was careful, killing a Manggu Beast would be easy. "Manggu Beast? Leave it to me," the youth said excitedly. "Young Master!" Uncle Lei frowned. "It's fine." The youth had already drawn an arrow from his quiver, nocked it onto his black composite bow, ready to draw and shoot. The team advanced cautiously. A moment later... As the team pushed aside plants and branches to continue, they suddenly saw a lean young man in black combat armor with a saber and shield on his back, sitting by a lake in the distance, eating roasted meat. Just then, a huge gray phantom shot out from afar, startling the entire team. The lean young man sitting by the lake seemed to sense something, turning his head to look 'foolishly' at the huge gray phantom. "He's asking for death!" Many of the guards in the small team, seeing this scene, thought that this foolish young man who had stumbled into the Wild Beast Forest must be inexperienced. Otherwise, why would he foolishly look at the attacking Manggu Beast? A true warrior should immediately put themselves in an advantageous position. At the very least, don't sit there! "It's a Manggu Beast, a Sky Level Manggu Beast," Uncle Lei transmitted, his voice urgent. "Whoosh!" A black streak instantly cut across the sky, directly striking the gray phantom. The gray phantom let out a pained "Goo!" cry, then quickly twisted and landed. It turned out to be a large, furry creature, but it only had one claw, yet that claw was as big as its entire body. An arrow was now embedded in its body, and red blood flowed from its fur. Swish! As soon as it landed, it let out angry "Goo-goo" cries and charged furiously towards the small team. "Whoosh!" The silver-armored youth's expression was serious, the purple secret patterns on his forehead faintly glowing. His hand moved like a phantom, quickly nocking another arrow and drawing his bow to shoot again. But this time, the prepared Manggu Beast twisted in mid-air, and with a swing of its sharp, chilling claw, it swatted away the black streak of the arrow. "Hah!" The burly man drew the two axes from his waist, and his arms suddenly grew even thicker. Boom! In mid-air, a curved axe blade seemed to appear, slicing directly through the Manggu Beast's body. The curved axe blade then dissipated, and the burly man was already dozens of meters behind the Manggu Beast. Snap! The Manggu Beast's body fell from mid-air, splitting into two halves, its blood and internal organs spilling onto the ground. "Uncle Lei is amazing, truly amazing!" The silver-armored youth clapped his hands repeatedly, overjoyed. "Don't be careless in the future. The Manggu Beast has two major killing moves: its claws and its poisonous gas. This Manggu Beast has reached Sky Level. If it had gotten close and released its poisonous gas, it would have been a huge problem," the burly man lectured, while also instructing the other guards, "Collect the wild beast materials." "Yes," the other guards immediately went to collect them with smiles. The silver-armored youth, however, walked towards the black-armored young man in the distance, greeting him with a smile and an old-fashioned tone: "Brother, where are you from?" At this moment, the silver-armored youth felt a unique thrill of having saved someone. In his opinion, if it weren't for his arrow, this black-armored young man would probably have died. "Thank you," Luo Feng looked at the silver-armored youth before him and nodded slightly. That wild beast earlier was only at Star Level one or two strength. Luo Feng had long known about its sneak attack and was just about to instantly kill it with a glance... but then this 'warm-hearted' silver-armored youth had stepped in to save him. Nevertheless... Even though the people of Xueluo Continent worshipped strength, there were still such simple, pure youths. Looking at the slightly excited silver-armored youth before him, Luo Feng began to feel a sense of anticipation for Xueluo Continent.