16: Wilderness Intelligence

“You, you’re simply not human.”

The Martial Artist couldn’t help but shriek in terror.

“You can’t take this already?”

Shen Xi continued, unmoved: “I was planning to dig out your eyes and let you experience all of this in darkness!”

“Oh, and I heard that when a person loses one sense, their other senses become sharper. If you can’t see, perhaps you’ll be able to feel the changes in your body even more acutely.”

This person is a devil!

The Martial Artist felt a chill run down his spine.

Just a few words made him imagine his limbs being severed, trapped in darkness, slowly rotting and stinking.

Just thinking about it made goosebumps erupt all over his body.

“You can choose to commit suicide, of course, provided you can do it right under my nose.”

Shen Xi’s last sentence was the final straw that completely shattered the Martial Artist’s psychological defense.

Rather than dying so painfully, it was better to end it all.

“I’ll talk! Is it not enough if I talk?”

The Martial Artist said in a panic.

“Don’t rush, let me finish what I’m doing first before I question you.”

Shen Xi gagged the Martial Artist, then knocked out his subordinates and threw them as far away as possible.

Then, he came before Wang Xiangui.

“Boss Shen, I am absolutely loyal to you!”

Wang Xiangui’s legs trembled uncontrollably.

During this time, he had thought about escaping, but he could clearly feel that Shen Xi’s attention had never left him.

If he made any move, the other party would strike with thunderous force.

“Loyal enough to find people to hunt me down?”

Shen Xi sneered.

He didn’t say any more nonsense, directly and cleanly delivering a punch that took Wang Xiangui’s life.

Afterward, he returned to the Martial Artist.

“Speak! Don’t lie to me. I will question each of your subordinates one by one. If even one of you says something different, you should be very clear about what your fate will be.”

Hiss!

The Martial Artist couldn’t help but gasp.

No wonder Shen Xi threw his subordinates far away; he was worried they would collude and dig a pit for him.

The Martial Artist completely gave up struggling and said helplessly: “Just ask whatever you want to know! I will tell you everything without reservation.”

“You seem very familiar with the Forbidden Ground. How dare you enter so brazenly?” Shen Xi asked.

The Martial Artist nodded: “We wilderness people live in the wilderness year-round. Many places that are like Dragon’s Den and Tiger’s Lair to you, we actually know like the back of our hands.”

“For example, this Forbidden Ground is divided into three areas: the outer withered forest, the central heavenly spirit swamp where we are now, and the core Nether Zone.”

“You must have already seen the withered forest, right? These are special plants cultivated by the flesh and blood of Martial Artists who have died in the withered forest over thousands of years. They have their own consciousness, and each one’s strength is comparable to the Blood Refining Realm, with powerful ones even reaching the Blood Refining and Energy Transformation Realm.”

“Not only that, but they can also release toxins that affect perception, creating illusions. Even someone in the Initial Stage of Yuanqi Realm would die if they didn’t understand the situation.”

Shen Xi had experienced these things, so he naturally knew the Martial Artist wasn’t lying.

If he hadn’t been vigilant enough to escape the withered forest before the toxins took effect, he would be a corpse by now.

“Continue!” Shen Xi gestured.

“And the heavenly spirit swamp is the main production area for heavenly spirit stone, but collecting heavenly spirit stone is not easy. Just the demon spirits alone are enough to give a Martial Artist a hard time.”

“Furthermore, there is an extremely terrifying monster here that, through some special means, can turn Martial Artists into Black-Haired Monsters that are neither human nor ghost.”

“So when we come to this area, we try our best to avoid that monster.”

The wilderness people indeed knew a lot about this Forbidden Ground.

No wonder they could come here unimpeded all the way.

Because they understood enough, they knew where the dangers were and where it was safe, allowing them to avoid dangerous places as much as possible.

“What about the Nether Zone?”

Shen Xi asked again.

“Various nether ghosts live there. It is said that the Souls of Martial Artists who died in the Forbidden Ground are trapped in the Nether Zone in another form.”

“In the Nether Zone, the strength of any ghost is extremely terrifying. The weakest are all in the Initial Stage of Yuanqi Realm, and there are even many in the Yuan Qi Transformation Realm.”

“And to leave the Forbidden Ground, one must also go to the Nether Zone. In the center, there is a teleportation altar, through which one can leave.”

The Martial Artist spilled all the information about the Forbidden Ground in one go.

He was clearly terrified by Shen Xi’s words and dared not hide anything.

“Is there a way to bypass those ghosts?”

Shen Xi pressed.

Let alone the Yuan Qi Transformation Realm, even the Great Accomplishment of Yuanqi Realm would be extremely difficult for him to deal with at his current strength.

“In my storage bag, there is a route map. It’s the safest route to the altar that countless wilderness people have explored, but even with this, if your luck is bad, you’ll still encounter ghosts.”

Saying this, the Martial Artist voluntarily handed over the route map.

“Very good!”

Shen Xi carefully studied the route map, confirmed it wasn’t fake, and then nodded with satisfaction.

It seemed that even for the wilderness people, the Forbidden Ground was still dangerous; the other party had only minimized the danger.

No wonder he had only encountered the Martial Artist and his group for so many days.

If not for the heavenly spirit stone, who would risk their life to come to the Forbidden Ground?

“What exactly is going on with the wilderness people?”

Shen Xi asked.

“Wilderness people are just a bunch of poor wretches whose ancestors were abandoned by those damned federations.”

“To survive, we could only gather together to keep warm, gradually evolving from tribes into cities.”

“But because we are in the wilderness, we often encounter Yao Beast predation, and due to insufficient resources, the living space of us wilderness people is extremely harsh.”

The wilderness people even have their own cities?

Shen Xi became curious.

He somewhat wanted to see the cities of the wilderness people, to see how they differed from the safe cities governed by the federation.

Furthermore, he might be able to obtain more information about the wilderness, so that if he encountered situations similar to the Forbidden Ground in the future, he wouldn't be at a loss.

“Where are the cities of the wilderness people?” Shen Xi asked curiously.

“The wilderness is simply too vast. I don’t know the locations of other cities; I only know that Zhu Feng City, where I live, is located five hundred li south of the Forbidden Ground.”

“I have already told you everything you wanted to know. Give me a quick death; I don’t want to suffer any more.”

“Also, if you are going to Zhu Feng City, could you please send a message to my parents? Just say that their son found a heaven-shaking Opportunity, and once it succeeds, it can change the family’s fate, so he won’t be able to return for a while.”

The Martial Artist pleaded.