Chapter 403: The ruins (1)

When Lin Fan heard this roar, he immediately raised his guard and covered himself with his spatial law and his shadow law. That was because he could tell from this roar that it wasn't from a weak beast.

While the life energy contained within this roar had mostly dissipated since it was quite far from where Lin Fan was currently standing, he could tell by how concentrated the laws were that it was definitely a powerful beast.

These laws were weaker than the laws he felt from Qing Ao, but not by much. They were also just a bit weaker than the laws from the Qiao Family's old man.

If Lin Fan had to guess, he wouldn't put this beast in the True Soul Realm, but rather in the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, close to breaking through.

But even if it was only in the Nascent Soul Realm, that didn't mean that this was a beast that could be underestimated. A beast in the Nascent Soul Realm was still more than enough to take care of everyone that had participated in this exam.

However, the fact that there was a Nascent Soul Realm beast down here did raise a question in Lin Fan's mind. Just what was the Hunters Organization planning on doing here? 

Were they planning on using them to draw away this Nascent Soul Realm beast under the guise of an exam or was there something else planned?

Lin Fan only thought about this for a second before turning his attention back to the exam.

He ignored the beast that this roar came from since he could feel from the life energy fluctuations that this beast was still far away from him. Also judging by those life energy fluctuations, it almost seemed like someone was currently fighting it.

Were there people crazy enough to fight a Nascent Soul Realm beast?

As Lin Fan continued moving forward, he suddenly felt those life energy fluctuations stop.

It seemed like the fight was over and there was no need to guess, it was clear that the Nascent Soul Realm beast had won since there were only faint fluctuations of life energy coming from it, but that also disappeared quite quickly.

The Nascent Soul Realm beast seemed like it was on the move, which was definitely bad news, but it was a good thing that Lin Fan had something that no one else had.

While moving along in the ruins, Lin Fan began scattering different small beasts that he had stored for Brainy, letting them move all over. Brainy linked to all of them and began scouting out the area for Lin Fan.

The moment the Nascent Soul Realm beast even came close, Brainy would notice it immediately and tell Lin Fan its location.

That was why Lin Fan was able to boldly move through the halls of the ruins.

Well, boldly was a bit of an exaggeration since he had covered himself in his shadow laws the entire time, but at least he wasn't moving at a snail's pace.

As he continued along, he saw many traces of triggered traps and traces of blood in the ground. It was clear that these were left behind by the first examinees that had gone into the ruins first.

They had triggered these traps and judging by the blots of blood that covered the ground, it had caught them off guard and injured them. It might have even injured them enough for them to use their safe charm and exit the ruins.

Of course, it wasn't only blood that he found, he also found a few corpses that were scattered along the way that were quite fresh…

Lin Fan was tempted to take their corpses for Brainy, but he went against that thought since he was certain that it would bite him in the butt in the future. After all, these ruins were controlled by the Hunters Organization and would be monitored by them, so he wasn't sure if they would know if he took these bodies or not.

If they did find out about that, they might dig deeper and expose one of his greatest trump cards in Brainy.

Brainy was a mutated beast with a special skill that allowed Lin Fan to create a giant army, it was definitely not a pet that everyone had. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he didn't want to reveal it in this upper realm just yet.

Of course, that didn't mean that Lin Fan didn't take the artifacts from these corpses. These artifacts were left behind after they had died and they were just what Lin Fan needed to pass this exam, so why would he just leave them here?

But there were still the active traps that they had died in that got in Lin Fan's way. Still, with how powerful Lin Fan was, it wasn't hard for him to get rid of those traps at all to move these corpses away.

After looting them, Lin Fan put these corpses on the side. At the very least, he could give them some semblance of a burial by making a small tombstone from the shattered pieces of the wall to place beside their corpses. He hoped that just this little act of kindness would give him enough karma that they wouldn't haunt him for looting their corpses.

It was too bad that Lin Fan wasn't a bit bolder since the Hunters Organization wouldn't have cared if he did take these corpses since there was no reason for them to care about dead people. The only thing they did care about in these ruins was the same thing that Lin Fan cared about.

These ruins were guarded by a Nascent Soul Realm beast that patrolled it, it clearly had something special hidden within.

Lin Fan was now more than certain that the test was just a ruse for them to use their lives to explore these ruins, but what he didn't know was whether this was Shi Yan's idea or the Hunters Organization's ideas…

Still, that didn't matter to the current Lin Fan since his only thought now was to explore and find the secrets of these ruins.

Lin Fan left these corpses behind and continued forward, moving deeper and deeper into the ruins.

Lin Fan could also feel that the floors beneath him were also slightly slanted, which meant that he was going deeper and deeper underground. Along the way, he also didn't forget to have Brainy leave a few vines behind them to mark the way they came in just in case he needed to make a quick getaway.

As he went deeper and deeper in, there were less traces of fresh exploration, but there were corpses that were lining these halls.

Well, to call them corpses would have been a bit too much because there was no flesh left on them at all. They were only skeletons that were made of pure white bones that lined these hallways.

It was clear from the cobwebs and dust that covered them that they had been here a long time. Moreover, it wasn't just a normal definition of a long time since these bones were still filled with life energy, which was why they hadn't decayed yet.

The corpses of Soul Realm Experts were different from those of normal people because fundamentally, those bodies had been changed because of the soul being refined, which made them much more powerful than normal bodies. It also allowed their bodies to last longer even after death because they were better at keeping in life energy.

But even with these powerful bodies, these corpses all around Lin Fan had still been reduced to nothing but bones. It was enough to show just how long these corpses had been here.

That also raised even more questions for Lin Fan since it was clear that there was a past excavation of these ruins, but the Hunters Organization, or rather Shi Yan was claiming that this was a newly discovered set of ruins.

Just what were they hiding?

Lin Fan continued to look around at these corpses, finding slight traces of remaining laws that stuck to the bones. Judging by how powerful these fragments of laws were, it was clear that these corpses weren't weak when they had still been alive.

This should have been an elite excavation team from one of the twelve factions, most likely the Hunters Organization that came here in the past…

It seems like there were quite a few secrets that were hidden in these ruins.

Lin Fan was about to keep searching through them since he hadn't found any artifacts or anything valuable among them yet, but then he heard a scream in the distance.

"Help!"

This was a shrill cry from a girl that came from further into the ruins.

Lin Fan knitted his brows, but then he charged forward towards the sound of the cry for help.

It didn't take long for Lin Fan to arrive in a room where there was a barrier in the center of the room, being surrounded by various spiked traps. Inside that barrier was a girl who was cowering with her hands over her head as she kept screaming for help.

Lin Fan was still wrapped up in his laws, so the girl didn't notice him when he came in, but he released his laws in the end and said, "Are you alright?"

When the girl heard this voice, she immediately looked up and saw Lin Fan, revealing a look of hope as she said, "Help me! Get me out of here right now!"