White Forest

However, the next moment, those gazes shifted away from his location.

Seeing this, the breath Lin Xiao had been holding in his chest finally eased a little.

It seemed they hadn't discovered him; his concealment technique was still quite effective.

He had heard about this white forest behind the great snow mountain adjacent to the Ice Snow Lake back in Yuanling City. It was said to be one of the most dangerous places in the entire Ice Plains Mystic Realm.

Rumor had it that the demonic beasts inside were incredibly numerous and extremely fierce—several times more ferocious than the ordinary beasts roaming elsewhere in the mystic realm!

Furthermore, those demonic beasts were almost all white. Coupled with something inside that seemed to interfere with divine sense detection, it was very difficult for people to distinguish the beasts that blended in with the white snow and trees.

Many cultivators who entered failed to retreat unscathed, and those who did manage to come out left empty-handed.

They spent half the day narrowly escaping death, only to end up wasting their efforts and gaining nothing.

Gradually, everyone began to give this white forest a wide berth.

Therefore, the fishing cultivators would rather crowd together on one side of the lake; no one ran to the lakeside over by the snow mountain to fish.

Meanwhile, the fierce demonic beasts in this white forest always lingered within the woods and would not easily come out.

Thinking about it now, Lin Xiao felt there was something fishy going on here.

After all, according to the laws of mystic realms, generally, the more powerful the demonic beasts guarding a place, the more likely there was a treasure.

He guessed that many cultivators who entered back then had thought the same way.

It was just that perhaps the things inside were not necessarily treasures to them.

It seemed he should go in and take a trip.

Perhaps the solution he was looking for was right here.

Lin Xiao immediately sneaked quietly into the dense forest.

After entering the forest, Lin Xiao found that his divine sense was indeed subjected to varying degrees of interference.

In some places, the interference was weaker, while in others, it was very strong, causing the detection range of his divine sense to fluctuate, and the clarity of his detection to rise and fall unpredictably.

Once, he even almost stepped on a demonic beast crawling in the snowy woods. If the dozing beast hadn't suddenly snorted, he wouldn't have noticed it at all!

Fortunately, that only happened once. Afterward, he kept his spirits up and remained highly vigilant. His journey inward was relatively smooth, and he didn't alarm any of the demonic beasts he encountered.

He discovered that the demonic beasts here were all at the Core Transformation stage, which was equivalent to a cultivator's Foundation Establishment stage.

Regarding the classification of demonic beasts, Senior Liao had briefly mentioned it to him during their free time.

After that came the Core Solidification stage, equivalent to a human cultivator's Golden Core stage.

Further up was the Source Penetration stage, the same as the Silver Frost Python Demon, which was equivalent to a cultivator's Nascent Soul stage.

At that time, Lin Xiao had even asked in passing if there was a Shape Transformation stage.

Senior Liao Pantu had been somewhat surprised that he would mention this, but still explained it to him. The Shape Transformation stage belonged to especially high-level demonic beasts, and he had never seen one so far anyway.

Moreover, the so-called shape transformation was not transforming into a human form as Lin Xiao had thought, but rather transforming into the most optimal form within each demonic beast's bloodline. Liao Pantu had given a detailed explanation regarding this point.

After hearing this, Lin Xiao formulated his own understanding. Generally, the bloodlines of demonic beasts were mixed and had many mutations. He figured that a demonic beast's Shape Transformation stage should be considered a kind of refinement and reproduction of superior genes.

Thinking of this, he suddenly thought of Little Luan.

He wondered if, when it cultivated to the Shape Transformation stage, it would directly extract that one-in-a-billion Luan bird bloodline and transform into an ultimate Luan bird?

He was looking forward to it a little.

Sigh, suddenly, he felt a bit homesick.

Counting the days, he had been out for over ten days now.

He wondered if his dad was balancing work and rest, and if his grandpa and grandma at the old house were in good health. When he got out of this mystic realm, he had to go look around to see if there was anything in this cultivation world that could strengthen the body and prolong life, and buy it to bring back to them.

When he went back, he definitely had to drag the two elders to cultivate together, regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

If they said they didn't want to, it was definitely because they were afraid of causing him trouble.

His grandparents had lived a hard life, but he could see they never tired of it; they were people who lived life earnestly.

How could anyone who earnestly loved life complain about living too long?

He wondered how everyone in the sect was doing and how their cultivation was going...

Fuzi had been obsessed with cooking lately; he wondered if it had delayed his cultivation.

Jiang He was out working hard on his own; he wondered if he had written back recently.

There was also Yigao's private school; he wondered how it was running.

Tietou's cultivation was growing the slowest among the brothers, and he hadn't had time to encourage him. He wondered if he would feel somewhat discouraged...

It was fine when he didn't think about it, but once he thought of everything in Xiushui Village, Lin Xiao suddenly wished he could fly back right this instant.

So this was what homesickness felt like.

He had never experienced this feeling in his past life.

To think that leaving home alone for the first time in this life, he would actually taste the flavor of homesickness.

Anxious to return home like an arrow—this must be it.

Lin Xiao sneaked quietly through the white forest, focusing on avoiding the demonic beasts roaming about.

Yet, there was only one thought in his mind.

Quickly resolve these matters, rescue the person, get out immediately after the mystic realm opens, and then, go home!

That's right, he no longer wanted to take advantage of this travel fare and wait until all his tasks for this trip were done before going back.

Forget about the Heart-Questioning Stone, forget about making connections—those could wait for next time.

If the travel fare was a bit expensive, so be it; it wasn't like he couldn't afford it anyway.

Wasn't it just over two thousand spirit stones for a round trip?

He could just chip away a few more times in the mine and he'd have it.

Nothing was more important than his desire to go home!

After slowly sneaking through this white forest heavily infested with demonic beasts for over four hours.

Finally, he arrived at the deepest part of the forest.