The Eternal Farmer: I Trade My Harvest for Immortality

Chapter 273: A Display of Power

As the ten-person squad pushed deeper into the wilderness, the light began to fail.

Only the occasional, anemic ray of sunlight managed to pierce the canopy of black branches, casting long, slanted shadows across their path.

“Everyone,” Red Tiger called out from the front. “Twenty more li and we’ll reach the Hunter’s Enclave. We can rest, resupply, and wait out the night. Once we cross that threshold tomorrow, we will be truly deep within the Dark Forest.”

“How far to Huang Yuanhua’s cave estate?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.

If he possessed the flight capabilities of a Golden Core master, he would have soared there hours ago. While traveling with this squad offered camouflage, their pace was agonizingly inefficient.

“If we marched without stopping, we’d arrive past midnight,” Red Tiger replied flatly. “But for the sake of keeping our heads attached to our necks, I strongly advise against it.”

Ling Mo, the Junior Alchemist, frowned. “Why?”

Red Tiger offered a grim, humorless smile. “Because the Dark Forest at night is ten times more terrifying than during the day.”

He gestured to the dimming surroundings. “By day, the light is merely scarce. By night, this place becomes a domain of absolute darkness. And before you mention spiritual sense or night vision techniques—save your breath.

“Once the sun sets, the forest exhales a poisonous fog known as the Shadow Miasma. It suppresses all light sources and crushes your spiritual sense range down to a third of its daytime capacity.

“Worse, the darkness awakens the Phantom Mica. It’s an extreme Yin plant that releases hallucinogenic spores, distorting reality. You might think you’re walking past a tree, only to step straight into the gullet of an Ink Scale Snake.”

He paused for effect. “And those are just environmental hazards. The nocturnal predators—Nightmare Demon Wolves, Blood-Sucking Spirit Moths—hunt in swarms. I’ve seen Foundation Establishment cultivators stripped to clean skeletons in the blink of an eye.”

The five tourists exchanged uneasy glances, a chill settling over them.

“Actually,” Deputy Captain Zhang Laizi spoke up, his voice raspy and abrupt. “The most dangerous thing in the Dark Forest isn’t the beasts or the miasma. It’s…”

“It’s what?” Ling Mo pressed.

“Evil Cultivators.”

The two words sucked the oxygen out of the conversation.

The tourists, who had been treating this excursion with a mix of curiosity and excitement, went pale. They would prefer monsters; monsters were tangible, predictable beasts of claw and fang.

Evil Cultivators were a different breed of nightmare. Masters of forbidden arts and deceit, they often disguised themselves as ordinary travelers, infiltrating groups only to slaughter them when their guard was down.

Caw! Caw!

Above the canopy, the Fire Crows let out sharp, agitated cries.

Jiang Chen’s mind snapped into focus. He instantly toggled into their shared vision, and his expression darkened behind the mask.

Fire Crows possessed thermal vision, allowing them to pierce through the gloom. Through their eyes, the forest floor lit up like a constellation of hostility.

Red heat signatures. Everywhere.

Moving fast.

“Something’s coming,” Jiang Chen announced, his voice cutting through the silence. “A lot of them. At least twenty.”

“What?” Red Tiger signaled his team. They frantically swept the area with their spiritual sense, but the encroaching Shadow Miasma had already begun to dull their perception.

Suddenly, the two tame Greenback Wolves serving as mounts stiffened. They sniffed the air, hackles raising, before throwing their heads back in a terrified, mournful howl.

Awoooo—!

It was a call of submission.

In response, the forest erupted.

AWOOOO!

Howls rose from every direction, overlapping into a chaotic, blood-curdling symphony. The sound was shrill and piercing, vibrating in their very bones.

“We’re surrounded,” Red Tiger growled, his face turning the color of ash. “The wolf pack… didn’t the old cripple say only these two stragglers were left in this territory?”

“I’m afraid he only managed to catch two,” Jiang Chen sneered.

“Orders?” Ling Mo asked, his voice tight.

Red Tiger pointed forward. “Run! The Enclave is ten li away. If we make it there, the defensive arrays will shred them. We don’t stop to fight!”

It was the only logical choice. Fighting a swarm in the gathering dark was suicide.

The formation shifted instantly. Red Tiger dropped to the rear to cover their retreat, while Zhang Laizi took the vanguard, his flying wheels spinning as he carved a path through the undergrowth.

Everyone pushed their mounts and Paper Cranes to the limit. The wind roared in their ears as they sprinted toward safety.

But suddenly, the two tame Greenback Wolves stumbled. Their limbs locked up, and they began to shake violently, paralyzed by an overwhelming, primal terror.

The sudden deceleration was catastrophic.

Jiang Chen reacted instantly, grabbing Crow One and launching himself into the air.

Zhou Cui, riding in front of him, wasn’t as lucky. She was catapulted forward.

“Got you!” Zhang Laizi reacted with lightning reflexes, abandoning his wheels to catch the tumbling woman.

But the momentary delay was all the predator needed.

CRACK!

The bushes exploded. A massive shape tore through the foliage, eclipsing the fading light.

It was a Greenback Wolf, but of a caliber that defied logic.

It was a titan—six, maybe seven meters long, with a shoulder height rivaling a small house. Its fur was a lush, deep emerald, rippling like a wind-swept lake. Its belly and inner limbs were coated in regal silver-gray fur, while its tail, long and whip-like, ended in a tuft of black hair that snapped like a war banner.

Its head was broad, heavy, and armored in muscle. When it opened its jaws, rows of serrated, finger-long fangs gleamed with cold malice.

“A Wolf King…” someone whispered in horror. “Look at the ears!”

The beast’s ears were tall and pointed like iron spires, marked with distinct spiral patterns of fuzz.

“One spiral for every century… one, two… five rings,” Red Tiger choked out. “That beast is five hundred years old!”

The tame wolves had frozen because their patriarch had arrived to reclaim them.

The Wolf King didn’t hesitate. It lunged, its massive jaws gaping wide, targeting the tangled forms of Zhang Laizi and Zhou Cui. They were less than three meters away.

The two women froze, the stench of rotting meat and blood from the beast’s maw washing over them. They could see the individual textures of its gums, the madness in its golden eyes.

Red Tiger and the others screamed, rushing forward to intercept, but they were too slow. The distance was too great.

The jaws snapped shut—

Hiss—!

A beam of crimson light, thin as a needle and hot as a star, slashed through the twilight.

There was no explosion. No concussive force.

Just the sound of matter instantly sublimating.

The Wolf King’s massive, terrifying head simply… dissolved. Flesh, bone, and fur melted into a slurry of molten slag before it could even register the pain.

Splat.

A fountain of superheated blood and gore erupted, drenching the two women.

The headless carcass of the five-hundred-year-old monster carried forward on its momentum, crashing into the earth beside them with a heavy, wet thud. It twitched once, nerve endings firing blindly, before falling still.

Silence descended. Absolute, stunned silence.

Slowly, necks craned upward, following the trajectory of the beam.

Floating above them was the temporary member, “Zhu Rong.”

He hovered effortlessly, his left hand cradling a fat Fire Crow. His right arm was extended, index finger pointing at the corpse. A wisp of smoke curled from his fingertip, and the air around it shimmered, distorted by the lingering, terrifying heat.

Jiang Chen relished the shock on their faces—a perfect score for his “Zhu Rong” persona. Outwardly, however, he remained an icy statue of arrogance.

He looked down at them with sneering impatience, his voice dripping with disdain.

“Well? Are you waiting for an invitation? Move!”