Chapter 3185: Chapter 3185: Repeated Settlement

Zen let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the motionless shadow.

According to the Regal Jade Spirit, so long as the black flames on the lamp stands were extinguished, then the Hidden Beasts would remain motionless.

After making sure that the dog wasn't going to move anytime soon, Zen turned to Elvinia. “Follow me. I'll extinguish the flames one by one, so we can pass through.”

Elvinia couldn't help but look at the motionless dog. “Are you sure this Hidden Beast won't move again?”

She had understood just now that the Hidden Beasts killed warriors relying on delayed settlement and accumulation.

If one got attacked by a Hidden Beast, the best course of action would be to leave the area to settle the damage. Consecutive, accumulated attacks were dangerous and could lead to a quick death.

How could Zen not understand this?

No matter how fast he moved, the Hidden Beasts would still land their attacks on him. If Zen could settle all their hits repeatedly, then it wouldn't be that hard for him and Elvinia to pass through this area.

He wanted to ask the Regal Jade Spirit for help but the latter was unable to give him any answers.

“The situation was critical when we encountered the Hidden Spirit Lamp. When the Wing King extinguished the flame, he took us deeper. I don't know if the Hidden Beast will move again,” the Regal Jade Spirit told him.

“Forget it then. Let's just go inside,” Zen said, giving Elvinia what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Before them were three lamps and each one had a Hidden Beast tied to its post. The shadows' shapes told them these were wolves.

Zen confirmed the direction just now. Since the path before him was the shortest, he chose to challenge the lamp post directly in front of him.

As he stepped forward, the wolves began to get restless, dragging the wicks and trying their best to pounce.

Zen merely ignored the wolves on the left and right sides. They couldn't reach him and all he needed to focus on was the one in front of him.

“Woo...”

Sensing his nearing presence, the wolf howled and prepared to give Zen a full blow.

When Zen noticed the wolf's movements, he took a decisive step forward and, as expected, the wolf suddenly pounced!

“This is an opportunity!”

Prepared for this sudden attack, Zen halted and dodged from the side.

Whoosh!

His speed was at the maximum but the wolf was also surprisingly agile, quickly catching up to him. It twisted its body and clawed at his back, leaving behind a distinct grey scratch. Ṝ𝘢₦ồ𐌱ΕȘ

Of course, it had no intention of only landing one hit. After it scratched Zen, the wolf snapped its jaws and attempted to bite off the man's head. Fortunately, Zen was able to snuff out the black flame before it got the chance to tear his head off. With the flame gone, the wolf froze in midair with its jaws open wide.

“I was scratched again,” Zen muttered bitterly.

“The power of this wolf's claw is strong,” Elvinia told him with evident concern on her face. “Let's settle it first, okay?”

Having figured out the rules of these Hidden Beasts, the two of them felt much more relaxed. Zen then simply turned back towards the first lamp post and left the desert, enduring the scratch on his back.

The wolf was stronger than the dog but not strong enough to tire out Zen's Chaotic Source Spirits.

However, the Hidden Beasts in the inner layer still worried him. Zen knew that the deeper they went, the stronger these beasts would be.

If those in the innermost layer turned out to be powerful enough to leave Zen unable to withstand their attacks, then that was going to be a big problem for him.

There was no way he was giving up though. He was already past the point of no return, so he simply entered the desert all over again.

This time, a huge tiger awaited him. With his quick reflexes, Zen managed to get through this one unscathed.

Next came a lion that was able to hit him twice, which forced him to leave in order to settle the claw marks on his body.

The fifth Hidden Beast he faced was a slow rhinoceros and Zen didn't have any problem extinguishing its lamp.

The sixth one...

The seventh one...

It was a cycle: he would go in, get a few scratches, and then withdraw for settlement. This went on for an hour before he finally arrived at the center of the desert. However, just when he and Elvinia thought that things had finally turned out in their favor, a depressing scene made their hearts sink to their stomachs.

Elvinia pointed at something behind him. “Zen, look!”

He had been so focused on dealing with the Hidden Beasts, so it had been Elvinia's job to look around.

Zen turned to where she was pointing at and found the dog. It was originally motionless but slowly began to move as its extinguished lamp lit up again.

“This is the worst part,” he sighed from exhaustion.

As the lamps lit up one by one, he found his retreat effectively blocked, so there was no way he would be able to settle his injuries now.

Elvinia wanted to grab Zen's hand and pull him all the way out. It wasn't too late to leave, but then she recalled just how determined the man was about all this. There was no way he was going to give up.

“I'll send you out first,” he told her.

The first desert was already so dangerous and the following grassland and round gobi area would be even more so. Zen wasn't going to put Elvinia in that sort of peril, so he grabbed her hand and prepared to take her away.

However, she wrenched herself away from his grip. “My body may not be as strong as yours but I can still take a couple of injuries!” she told him. “I can help you extinguish the lamps!”

So long as the damage they took was in the range of their endurance, then going through this area wasn't going to be so terrifying.

Elvinia had already made up her mind. If Zen was staying, then so was she.

The man looked on to the path they still needed to traverse. “We're going to have to be more careful from now on.”

A huge, grey bite mark was on Zen's chest after he passed through two more lamp posts. The Hidden Beast that had bitten him was huge and had a mouth so big that it could swallow him in one gulp. One could only imagine how powerful this grey bite mark would be after it was settled.

As he pushed forward, Zen couldn't help but look back at the lamp posts he had once extinguished but were now all lit up again.

There was no settling this grey bite mark. All he could do was let it accumulate on his body.

Just as he thought about this, three green flames suddenly appeared at the entrance in the distance.