Naked Sword Art

Chapter 246 - Swamp Beast

[ Ancestral Training Grounds ]

Standing by the entrance to the 7th floor of the Ancestral Training Grounds, Xiao Fang told Xiao Hei to wait for him while he went in alone. The reason why he even asked her to come was because it was mandatory for disciples to be in groups if they were going past the 4th floor.

Xiao Fang took his blindfold off, then he started to release his spirit attribute. In the next moment his body glowed, his hair turned white, and occasional streaks of lightning Qi could be seen swimming in his aura. In the next moment, he took off running.

Since he absorbed the blue abnormal beast core, his speed had increased by another level, making him much faster than the last time he was here. He was running so fast it only took him a few minutes to arrive outside of the Abnormal Cannibal Beast’s cave.

Before entering, he could hear everything that was inside the cave, including the Abnormal Beast. However, the moment he detected all the dead beast corpses in the cave, a grin finally appeared on Xiao Fang’s face.

’It seems someone’s been busy,’ Xiao Fang thought.

The cave was dark, quiet, and damp. The air smelled a bit salty, and water occasionally dripped down from the ceiling.

In front of Xiao Fang, the Abnormal Cannibal Beast sat against the wall with its large burly arms crossed and its eyes closed. It seemed to be asleep.

Xiao Fang quietly stood roughly 5 meters away from it as he inspected its body. There seemed to be a few new scars on its body since the last time he saw it, but it seemed to have gotten a bit stronger overall.

’Not bad,’ Xiao Fang thought.

While Xiao Fang was admiring its progress, the Abnormal Cannibal Beast’s nose started to sniff curiously as if it had smelled something interesting in its sleep. Finally, it opened its eyes, then became frightened by what it saw.

Its heartbeat quickened, its breathing became erratic, and its pupils shrunk as it looked into Xiao Fang’s violet eyes. It quickly got up from the ground, but since its back was against the wall, it felt cornered.

It didn’t know why Xiao Fang returned, so it assumed the worst. But upon noticing that Xiao Fang wasn’t holding a sword, it began to cool down.

"It seems you’re still scared of me. I suppose that’s a good thing for now," Xiao Fang said.

The Abnormal Cannibal Beast couldn’t understand his words nor reply to them. It simply stood against the wall, still unsure about Xiao Fang’s intentions.

Eventually, Xiao Fang started to walk away, but the direction he was headed to was not towards the exit, he was instead walking towards the piles of 8th and 9th tiered beast cores littered on the ground. Once the Cannibal Abnormal Beast realized what he was doing, he finally relaxed his guard.

While Xiao Fang had been away, the Cannibal Abnormal Beast had been hunting and eating high tier beasts in his cave. The only thing he wouldn’t eat were the beast cores. This was perfect for Xiao Fang since that was the only thing he needed.

Using the 5 new High-Grade spirit pendants he got from Supreme Elder Quan, Xiao Fang was able to fill 3 out of the 5 of them simply from all the beast cores that were in this cave. Although he was happy that he got a lot, he wanted to fill the other 2 empty spirit pendants before he left.

’I need more,’ Xiao Fang thought.

Since he arranged to meet up with Peng Ting and Lai Yun today, he couldn’t stay in the Ancestral Training Ground for as long. He knew it would take too long to collect another 2 spirit pendants worth of beast cores on his own, so he looked back at the Abnormal Cannibal Beast to see if he could get it to help him find some 9th tiered beasts. The only problem was the communication barrier between them.

Xiao Fang had tried to communicate with it in the past, but with no luck. So he tried to think of ways to say that he wanted to find strong beasts, but no matter how he tried to gesture with his hands, the beast didn’t seem to understand anything he was saying.

’There has to be another way,’ Xiao Fang thought.

Eventually, he started to think about Xiao Hei and how she was able to communicate with him in her feline form. Xiao Fang finally had an idea.

{"Hey, Cannibal, I need you to find me more of these powerful beasts. Can you do that for me?"} Xiao Fang said it through a spirit transmission.

The Abnormal Cannibal Beast’s eyes widened. in disbelief. Seeing that look on its face, Xiao Fang assumed it worked.

All thoughts start out as just pure thoughts, it’s only after the thought was had that it could be converted into a language one could understand in one’s own mind. The way the [ Spirit Transmission ] technique worked was that it sent pure thoughts into another person’s head before it could be translated into a language one understands. So it didn’t matter what language one spoke, as long as they had the ability to think, they would have the ability to understand the message that was being sent.

The Abnormal Spirit Beast gestured its head at the exit as if it was trying to communicate with Xiao Fang. Xiao Fang understood what it was trying to say, so he replied back.

{"Lead the way."}

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After following the Abnormal Spirit Beast out of the cave, they travelled in a certain direction for nearly an hour. If Xiao Fang was to travel alone, the trip would have taken him a few minutes. Xiao Fang knew that it knew where it was going because it had been travelling in a straight line all this time. So he patiently followed the beast.

Eventually, the two of them arrived at the edge of the forest. In front of them was a large oasis, but the water was black and thick. Xiao Fang didn’t understand why the Abnormal Cannibal Beast would stop here from all places, so he finally frowned.

All this time, he thought the Abnormal Cannibal Beast knew where it was going, but the place they arrived at was completely empty and he couldn’t hear any beasts within miles of where they were.

’This swamp is toxic,’ Xiao Fang thought.

It reeked a foul smell, and it bubbled as if it was alive and ready to consume whatever was unfortunate enough to fall into it.

Xiao Fang was beginning to think that the Abnormal Cannibal Beast had brought him here to kill him instead. Xiao Fang never trusted it to begin with, but he had so much to gain from their cooperation.

{"Where are the powerful beasts?"} Xiao Fang said to it, paying attention to how it would react.

If this was really a trap like he assumed it was, then he definitely wouldn’t give the Abnormal Cannibal Beast a chance to escape. However, the Abnormal Cannibal Beast suddenly pointed at the ground.

’Does it really expect me to jump into a toxic swamp?’

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the Abnormal Cannibal Beast suddenly raised its arms then slammed its fists on the ground. In the next moment, it roared at the swamp so loud anything within miles would be able to hear it.

Xiao Fang finally realized what it was trying to say, but what it was suggesting made Xiao Fang’s body shudder.

Xiao Fang couldn’t detect things very deep into the ground because the Earth was too good of an insulator. Just trying to hear anything beneath 20 meter below him was impossible.

Although he couldn’t hear the enemy, Xiao Fang had a feeling that the Abnormal Cannibal Beast was telling the truth, so he waited.

Shortly after the Abnormal Cannibal Beast roared, Xiao Fang began to see something move within the swamp.

’It’s huge...’ Xiao Fang thought in hesitation.

Suddenly, a geyser of toxic swamp water shot out headed straight for them, but they were able to dodge in time.

The fresh green forest where the earlier stood was marred black from the toxic swamp water. Xiao Fang cringed when he saw how toxic it really was.

’There’s no way it expects me to fight whatever is in that swamp,’ Xiao Fang thought.

The reason he hesitated to fight it was because he knew it had to be a poison-type tiered beast. Xiao Fang could defend himself against kicks, punches, and spirit attacks, but he was no good against poison. At least he never tried.. Also, from the looks of it, the beast within the swamp was no ordinary tiered beast, it was likely another Abnormal Beast.