Chapter 1288
In almost an instant, the antlers were about to slam into Yang Yan’s waist.
Only then did he come back to his senses; Star Night, already gripped in his hand, was swung out with a sudden sweep.
"Bang!"
With a dull thud, the reckless little deer didn’t even have time to let out a single cry of misery before it toppled straight to the ground, completely lifeless.
Staring at the Meijiao Deer in front of him, blood gushing out, all vitality gone, Yang Yan couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
He couldn’t help feeling a bit puzzled and muttered to himself, "What’s going on? Aren’t this kind of deer supposed to never actively attack humans?"
Unable to figure it out no matter how he thought about it, Yang Yan decided to check its body, so he used Star Night in his hand to flip the deer over.
At a glance he immediately saw where the problem lay.
It turned out the deer’s pupils had already turned black, clearly a sign of being eroded by evil energy.
Seeing this scene, Yang Yan’s eyes couldn’t help but turn sharp, and his relaxed heart instantly tensed up again.
Looks like the Dark Forest has already become extremely dangerous; he had to stay on high alert at all times.
After tidying up a bit, Yang Yan planned to continue on his way.
Just then, a faint, intermittent cry for help drifted over.
Yang Yan frowned, quickly held his breath, and quietly listened for the source of the sound.
Sure enough, the cries for help grew louder and louder.
After confirming he hadn’t misheard, Yang Yan headed toward the direction of the sound, wanting to see what exactly was happening.
"Help, is anyone there! Olivia, where did you go!"
Yang Yan parted the branches and saw a young boy lying on the ground, wrestling with a Fierce Beast that looked like a wolf.
The wounds on his body showed that the boy had already fallen into disadvantage and had lost quite a bit of blood.
Seeing this, Yang Yan quickly stepped forward a few paces and viciously thrust Star Night in his hand at the wolf.
Awoo—
The wolf let out a cry of pain, rolled once on the ground and backed up a few steps, baring its teeth and snarling continuously at Yang Yan.
Yang Yan was also somewhat surprised.
With his current combat strength, the fact that he hadn’t killed this wolf in one strike was truly a bit unbelievable.
He released his Spiritual Sense and briefly felt out the wolf’s aura, and Yang Yan was secretly taken aback.
This wolf had actually reached the early stage of the Golden Core realm!
Although that realm wasn’t considered high, one had to know that wolves were basically pack animals, normally moving in groups of at least hundreds or thousands.
And the appearance of this wolf meant that there was a high possibility that an entire pack of wolves with decent cultivation was nearby.
This wolf faced off with Yang Yan for a moment, then let out a howl, turned around, and ran off.
Watching the wolf’s retreating back, Yang Yan couldn’t help but knit his brows.
That wolf was probably going to find its other companions.
"It hurts..."
Seeing the boy on the ground howling in pain, Yang Yan quickly helped him up.
"Big brother, thank you so much. If I hadn’t run into you today, I’d probably have died here!" the boy said gratefully.
Yang Yan waved his hand and smiled as he said, "Don’t mention it yet. Let me put some medicine on your wounds first, or you might end up with lasting damage if it drags on too long."
As he spoke, Yang Yan took out some ointment and smeared it on the wounds on the boy’s body.
This was Yang Yan’s first time looking at this boy up close, and he unexpectedly found that the boy’s appearance was clearly different from that of humans.
The boy had a head of long green hair and a pair of green eyes.
Not only that, even his ears were different from ordinary people’s—they were pointed.
An Elf?
"You’re not human?!" Yang Yan asked in some surprise, though his hands didn’t pause in the slightest.
The boy hesitated slightly, then said weakly, "My name is Grace, from the Elf Race."
As expected!
Of course he’d long known that the Elf Race did indeed exist.
However, even in the Hidden World on Earth, the number of Elves was extremely small.
And every time they appeared, it was often as extraordinarily powerful High Elves.
Seeing the curiosity in Yang Yan’s eyes, the boy continued, "Our Elf Race has lived in seclusion here for generations, usually living off hunting the animals in this forest."
"But who would’ve thought that in recent days, the animals in the forest have somehow become extremely aggressive."
"Some have even broken through their realms because of this, causing us to lose quite a few people."
Hearing the boy’s explanation, Yang Yan immediately understood—sure enough, it was all the Demonic Qi’s fault.
It must have been the appearance of those of the Demon Race that caused Demonic Qi to surge, leading to such mutations.
"Then with your strength so weak, why did you come out alone?" Yang Yan couldn’t help but ask.
At this, a flush rose to Grace’s face, as if he felt a bit embarrassed by his performance just now.
"Actually, I didn’t come out by myself. I came with my sister. It’s just that we ran into a Fierce Beast just now, and my sister went alone to lure it away," Grace explained.
Yang Yan nodded, and was just about to keep asking the boy other questions when a crisp, rebuking shout suddenly rang out not far away.
"You human brat, let go of Grace right now and I can leave you a whole corpse!"
Following the voice, he saw a slender figure emerge from the thicket; it was a very beautiful young girl.
Like Grace, she had emerald-green eyes and hair, a tall, slender figure, and a face so exquisite it was almost perfect...
Yang Yan felt that among all the women he’d seen, her looks could easily rank in the top three.
"Who are you? Speak honestly, or don’t blame me for being rude!" the beautiful girl said with a soft shout, her Longsword pointed straight at Yang Yan as the aura on her body burst forth.
It seemed that at the slightest disagreement, she might launch a fierce attack.
"Sister, don’t misunderstand, please don’t misunderstand. He just saved me. If not for him, I would’ve been eaten by that evil wolf just now!" Grace’s crisp voice rang out, speaking up for Yang Yan.
Hearing this, the beautiful Elf girl’s expression became awkward, her face flushing bright red.
However, her temperament seemed very stubborn; even in a situation like this, she only said lightly, "Sorry, I didn’t mean it. I just thought you were the one who hurt Grace, so..."
At this point, she gave an awkward smile and simply left the rest unsaid.
Yang Yan was a bit speechless.
What kind of logic was that?
If he really had been the one to injure Grace, how could he still be helping bandage his wounds?
Watching the girl’s face turn redder and redder, Yang Yan quickly let it go.
Was the Elf Race all this simple and cute?
Suddenly, Yang Yan thought of something. According to Nascent Void, the Wood Attribute Extreme Soldier should be somewhere within this Dark Forest.
And the Elf Race was clearly the master of this place, so was it possible that this treasure was actually within the Elf tribe?
Even if it wasn’t, if he could get these Elves—who had lived in the forest for countless years—to help search for it, that would be far better than him aimlessly scouring the forest on his own.