Nobilis of War novel Chapter 43

Darren searched around carefully with his spiritual sense for something or someone that could be watching, but he found nothing around him. He could only hear the chirping of insects in his ears. Darren felt odd about the situation.

Perhaps it was just his imagination.

Darren rubbed his head and turned around to continue his march into the wet and dense forest.

After traveling for a while, the corpses of several giant beasts appeared before Darren's eyes.

"Judging from the scents, these appear to be diabolic beasts, which are even more fierce than the ordinary ones." Darren moved on, walking past the corpses that had been gnawed on by other creatures.

Darren was pleased to find these mighty beasts. If he could kill just a few of them, his talent would be significantly improved. The cardiac cores of the diabolic beasts also contained a lot of spiritual energy, which would be particularly helpful to his cultivation.

In front of him, an Armor Beast moved leisurely through the trees, looking for food. It had not yet noticed Darren's presence.

"Wow, this Armor Beast is level eight."

Armor Beasts typically stayed in the lower levels. In the area of the forest that Darren previously visited, the Armor Beasts were at most level three or four. But in here, even an Armor Beast could be level eight. It was really extraordinary.

However, this was exactly the type of opportunity Darren needed now.

Darren tried to hide his breath and quietly approached the level eight beast. His hand gripped on a cold sword, ready to release an attack at any moment.

Suddenly, the sword stretched.

Darren rushed to the Armor Beast with all his speed, and with a single stroke of the sword, he split open its throat.

"The dumb creature didn't even notice me."

Darren laughed. Then he absorbed the talent of the Armor Beast and immediately began to assimilate its cardiac core.

But the spiritual energy contained in the level eight beast's cardiac core was still not enough for Darren. He needed even more spiritual energy for both curing his wounds and accumulating internal force.

As he moved through the forest, he killed more than thirty level-seven and level-eight beasts, and slowly he began to recover from his injuries. Now, his physical condition was almost fully restored to peak condition. He had accumulated plenty of internal force inside his body.

A sudden noise rang through the air.

Darren felt something flash by in front of him and disappear just as quickly. It was like an illusion.

"No," he said to himself. "Something is going on." Darren was a little nervous. He was now certain something was following him, but he still could not detect it.

He decided to act as if nothing had happened and continued moving forward into the forest, waiting for the presence to present itself.

A few steps later, Darren saw a corpse laid strewn on the ground. It was a human corpse with dark and sunken eyes. The lower half of its body was missing as if it had been eaten by scavenging animals, leaving a trail of internal organs. The whole scene was horrifyingly disgusting.

Darren held his breath and frowned. He inspected the corpse more closely and was shocked to find that the corpse was dressed in the uniform of Ilmen Sect. Judging from the pieces, Darren knew that the uniform belonged to one of the people who had followed Dalton that he had seen before he entered the forest.

"Those people are at the fifth or sixth stage of the Spirit Realm, and the leader is at the ninth stage. Even if they encountered a level nine diabolic beast, they could still escape. How did he die?"

Darren could not understand it. Moreover, they had moved in the opposite direction of Darren, so this dead disciple could not be here!

At this moment, several shadowed figures surrounded him. They released strong breaths.

"It's you?" One of them shouted out.

Among those who surrounded Darren, the leading young man recognized him and stepped forward.

"Dalton, look, Cole Chen is dead!" said one of Dalton's compatriots. A scream came from another at the sight of the corpse.

"How could it be?" Dalton stepped over and asked, "Matt, Cole was with you just now. How could you not see him disappear?"

"I don't know. I was talking to Cole, but when I turned around, he was gone. I only saw traces on the grass, and roughly identified that he left in this direction."

"Huh, boy, tell me, how did Cole die?" one of the disciples who followed Dalton shouted at Darren.

"How do I know? When I found him, he was already like this," Darren replied.

That disciple came up to Darren and pulled out his sword. "You killed Cole. I will send you to the grave!"

"You idiot!" When the disciple was just about to start fighting, he was stopped by Dalton. "How could he kill Cole at his level of power? You stupid donkey."

The logic of Dalton's words registered momentarily on the disciple's face. Then he said, "What are you doing here? Tell me."

"Of course," Darren said. "I'm just doing my task."

At that, the disciple stepped forward and took Darren's task plate.

"Dalton, this boy took the task of exploring the depths of the Barren Wasteland!"

"Aha?" Dalton's eyes lit up and said, "Okay, this task just belongs to me now. Leave the task plate, and you can walk away."

Darren did not say anything. These people were too powerful. If the conflict arose, he certainly could not defeat them.

"Dalton, the elder told us the place was too dangerous, we should not go there. I think we'd better give up on this task," a disciple beside him said with some panic in his voice. "Besides, Cole's death is too strange. I think we'd better go back to the sect first. We can't play with our lives."

"You're a damn coward. What are you afraid of?"

"Yeah," said another disciple. "Dalton is with us, what are you afraid of? Cole may have encountered some special beasts, which we can take on as a group. We'll be fine if we stick together."

"Come on, let's go," Dalton announced.

"Wait a minute, Dalton. Maybe the boy has some good items for us. Let me have a check." The disciple named Matt Zhu went to Darren with a sinister smile. "Boy, hand over all the resources you have brought."

Darren's face turned cold immediately. Before he gave any reply, Dalton spoke up. "Oh yeah, I remember this guy. He killed William. Although I don't like William, anyway, he's still in my father's school. This guy has to pay for it. Matt, you can kill him," Dalton said simply. Then he turned around and headed toward the center of the forest with the rest of the group. "Hurry up. Catch up with us when you're done."

Darren's heart suddenly tightened. In Dalton's view, Darren was just like a beast that could be killed whenever he wanted.

"Boy, hand over everything you have nice and easy, and I promise I'll let you die painlessly."

"My elder did give me a great treasure before I left the mountain. I will give it to you, but I hope you can spare my life," Darren said, pretending to be frightened.

"Oh?" Matt's eyes lit up. "Boy, you are so naive. I will take both your treasure and your life, ha-ha!"

He laughed greedily and strode toward Darren.

Darren shivered and took a few steps backward, putting up his arms in feigned terror.

As Matt approached, Darren moved quickly, bringing forward the internal forces of sword and blade, raising them violently until they reached their limit.

A cold sword went straight at Matt's throat.

He had no defense against Darren's unexpected attack. But as a sixth stage Spirit Realm cultivator, his strength was much stronger than Darren's. When the tip of the sword was about to pierce his throat, Matt turned away his body with extreme speed, and only a shallow line of blood was left on his neck.

"Little bastard, I will split your body into pieces," Matt said with extreme fury.

Darren sneered back and said, "You'll need the chance to do it first!"

When Matt escaped Darren's sword, the blade in Darren's other hand reached the back of Matt's head. Now the internal force of the blade was surging wildly.

As the blade punctured Matt, his pupils enlarged with more curiosity than anger. His final thought was a disbelief that he was being killed by a boy with less power.

Alerted by a scream, Dalton and the others, who had not yet gone far, turned back and saw Matt's limp body drop to the ground.

"It can't be! He killed Matt!"

Darren immediately acted. A split second later, he had disappeared into the dark vines, making leaps over dense foliage, racing through the trees, and trying his best to escape.

He was able to kill Matt because the man had greatly underestimated Darren's strength. Matt did not have his defenses up and had not expected the second move. Otherwise, Darren would not have won.

"Bring him to me! Kill that bastard!" At the command of Dalton, his followers ran into the forest, chasing after Darren in the direction of his disappearance.