Chapter 9

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Chapter 9: The Gatekeeper of the Dark Forest

The green hippo’s colossal corpse dissolved into tendrils of black mist, unraveling into the night until nothing remained but a dark pool of blood, staining the center of the slope—a grim echo of Yun Xi’s countless deaths.

“Huh… hoo…” Yun Xi staggered, leaning heavily on his battered iron sword. Each breath was a labored gasp as his chest heaved, the weight of exhaustion crashing over him like a tidal wave. In the heat of battle, his mind had been consumed, singularly focused on survival, but now that it was over, the toll on his body was impossible to ignore.

Every muscle burned, his bones felt brittle, and his nerves screamed in protest at the relentless strain. Though he couldn’t see his face, he imagined it twisted in pain and weariness. Victory had come, but it had been anything but easy.

If it wasn’t for the green light that flew out from the green hippo’s corpse; which replenished his consumed energy, he was afraid that he wouldn’t even be able to stand up.

“Not… enough…” After facing death 120 times, Yun Xi now knew every part of his body.

After swallowing the green light, both his body and joint’s flexibility had increased a lot and now, he wasn’t as stiff as a zombie.

While leaning on the broken tree hit by the hippo, Yun Xi closed his eyes as began to regulate his breathing, adjusting his body, and savouring the remaining excitement from after that intense fight.

“The 3rd sword timing, I was too hasty using the sword and my step was also shifted by 3 centimeters.”

“The 7th sword timing, I was too late and too anxious.”

“The final three swords could be considered as decent enough.”

It took 21 slashes to kill that green hippo. Yun Xi could clearly replay the scene vividly in his mind in each attack.

Every mistake and every imperfect move reappeared clearly in his mind. He realized that his performance was by no means perfect. There were at least 10 minor flaws.

There was even a fatal mistake of which almost cost him his life.

Fortunately, that green hippo’s weak point was far more obvious than his and committed more mistakes than he did. Especially the attack which made the hippo turn around, gallop forward and crash in a straight line. In Yun Xi’s view, this was the hippo’s biggest flaw.

He then used a crevice to contain this ‘roller crusher’ move. Yun Xi had chopped its back at least 10 times but the final three slashes were the ones that dealt the killing blow.

After killing this green hippo, he realized that strength was not a focal point. An accurate judgment to utilize an opportunity and timing for his attacks were far more important, coupled with caution to not move rashly.

This was the true reason why mortals needed to fight many battles and temper themselves countless times to grasp the true essence of sword arts. Relying on his superior ability to replay the scenes of the fight, Yun Xi naturally grasped this aspect.

Because he basically never had a tiny bit of time to relax in his fight with this green hippo.

Only after immersing himself in his sword and predicting the hippo’s attack in advance was he able to achieve this result. Even then, he could only defeat this beast with a rigid and stiff body.

“This is… the fight…” After dying for 120 times as the price, Yun Xi had grown rapidly.

Those battle-hardened veterans who fought many battles gained their experience after countless battles. Most people even died in their enemies’ hands the first time they entered the battle.

The experience to live through life and death situations was the most profound and most precious experience.

“Death… terror…” Yun Xi tightly gripped his rusty iron sword. A special feeling grew in his heart toward this nameless rusty sword.

Without this rusty sword, he couldn’t have injured the green hippo. Even if there were ten of him, it was impossible to defeat that ferocious beast.

A sword is a tool and weapon, it could be used to commit crimes and it was also used as a weapon to kill.

Revering the sword, this was the mainstream ideology in the Sword God’s Domain.

Now, Yun Xi was greatly anticipating the final reward of this quest. What would the treasure, the Sword Arts Seed look like?

“There is also a monster here…” Looking at the map, Yun Xi slowly stood up. Holding the sword, he headed forward towards the Dark Forest.

The landscape on top of the hill was much more devastated compared to Yun Xi’s imagination. The earth was scorched, the rocks turned ash gray, and even the mountain’s wall was as if it had been burnt down. The entire scenery gave off a strong deathly aura.

But, in his straight line of vision at the far end of the Dark Forest, there was an ominous living being exerting a dangerous and menacing aura.

In front of the entrance to the Dark Forest, the red dot, as if waiting for Yun Xi to come, was motionless and didn’t move.

“One… Two…”

“One… Two…”

After a short while in this place, Yun Xi had a better understanding of what his childhood sweetheart — Hua Huo— had taught him about the breathing practice method.

Hua Huo had passed onto him a particular breathing method. Not only did he use that method in the deathmatch against that green hippo, but it also had helped him restore his strength over time in that fight.

His heartbeats, his breathing rhythm, and the sounds of the blood flowing in his body intertwined, forming a marvelous music.

Hua Huo seemed to be able to maintain this breathing state all the time, but Yun Xi was only able to maintain it for a quarter of an hour. Longer than that made his breathing rhythm fall into disorder.

This was the difference between a genius and an ordinary person. Even if he had experienced life and death situations 120 times, some things, like speeding up his practice’s result, could not be rushed up forever.

Fifteen minutes to be able to fight with all of his strength was Yun Xi’s limit at present. He could only maintain this state for this time period and if he passed this time limit, then his battle efficiency would suffer and decline greatly.

In essence, his battle efficiency actually didn’t even improve; it was just that he could temporarily bring out all of his body’s potential to fight.

If his battle prowess were to be calculated with numbers, then when the green hippo killed him for the first time, he could be graded between a 6 and 7. However, after he killed the green hippo, his battle prowess was perhaps about 20. He could defeat the green hippo thanks to his observation over the beast’s attack styles.

“I don’t know… what type of beast is there…” Judging from the red spot size on the map, Yun Xi could only estimate that this beast’s size was probably a little smaller than his body.

The green hippo had a strong skin and its flesh was thick. It was definitely a strong and aggressive beast. Its speed perhaps wasn’t slow, but its attack had a fatal flaw. This was also dependent on the body shape.

Then, if this beast’s body and his build were similar, could this beast be an agility type?

Perhaps this beast would not be so simple. When he first received this new quest, a powerful feeling crossed his intuition. Yun Xi could somewhat vaguely sense an ominous foreboding.

His premonition quickly came to reality.

At the Dark Forest’s entrance, his second opponent stood majestically aloof there, waiting for his challenge.

“How could it be you?” Yun Xi’s complexion was pretty much desperate as he looked at the opponent he was about to face.

He couldn’t beat it, this opponent… he really couldn’t beat it!

Because he was much too familiar with this opponent.

An energetic and lively double ponytail; a white lotus and long sword marks engraved on the sword’s hilt; long arched eyebrows with big wide dark eyes like the moon. This was Yun Xi’s first love, the most famous swordswoman genius ever in his small village.

It was his childhood sweetheart — Hua Huo.

“Cough… strange… why am I here?” Hua Huo mumbled, her voice tinged with drowsiness as her half-closed eyes struggled to focus. She blinked, confusion clouding her face, then murmured, “Wait… let me see… Stop the invader from entering the dark forest. Protect the beautiful princess from being desecrated!”

Her expression twisted in outrage as the words registered. “What? The princess?! Be desecrated?! Be kissed? By Yun Xi, you?!”

Her fiery gaze snapped to him, and her aura flared with unmistakable fury. “Yun Xi! I won’t let you pass through here!”

It was over. Yun Xi stared helplessly at Hua Huo, who had fully awakened, her jealousy now a force of nature. What could he possibly do?