'Something is not right', Zhan Chen thought to himself while looking at the Sabretooth leopards surrounding him.
It had been a while since he had started his fight with the group of Sabretooth leopards and the result left him surprised.
There were several casualties among the Sabretooth leopards but they were still fighting steadily despite their losses. It was impossible to see in normal cases because Sabretooth leopards became berserk if any adversary kill their breatherns in a fight.
"Just what is going on here!", Zhan Chen murmured to himself and spread his soul consciousness to the surrounding. He saw several magical beasts lying in wait for the upcoming participants.
"There is definitely something wrong here. How can these magical beasts act so cautious despite being wild and violent in general", he thought to himself with a frown on his face.
He defended himself while facing the attacks of the sabretooth leopards and searched with his soul consciousness to see if there were any anomaly in the Serpentine forest.
"Strange! There is nothing here except these cunning magical beasts", he thought to himself after searching for a while.
"If the scenario is so unpredictable then there is no point in entangling myself with these bests. I should leave this place and see what lies ahead of me in third layer of the test", he thought to himself.
He used the Cloud chasing steps and his figure disappeared from the sight of the Sabretooth leopards. The next moment he appeared, he was already at few meters distance away from the Sabretooth leopards.
The Sabretooth leopards gave chase to him after seeing his silhouette but it was too late. They could only growl in displeasure as Zhan Chen entered the core area of the Serpentine forest.
"Little Kittys, no need to feel so frustrated. Come here quickly. There will be more preys if you obey my words", a sweet voice heard in the place where Zhan Chen was fighting just a while ago.
The silhouette of a little girl appeared on the branch of a tree after Zhan Chen left towards the core area. "That human, he is far too dangerous. Moreover, I can feel the presence of sacred tree from his bloodline", the little girl thought to himself while looking at the distant.
The group of the Sabretooth leopards returned after hearing the words of the little girl. A strange thing occurred as they raised their heads to look at the little girl sitting on the branch.
All of them stretched their forelegs and touched their heads in the ground to show their subservience. It was quite a sight to behold if anyone could see the situation in the Serpentine forest.
Other might be surprised but the little girl was not. A bored look appeared on her adorable face as she shifted her gaze towards a nearby area. "I hope the stupid bears do not mess it up. Otherwise, I will borrow their paws for dinner today", she thought to herself while drooling from her mouth.
The bowing leopards became more obedient after hearing her mumbling. A terrified look appeared on their faces after they saw the little girl drooling.
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Zhan Chen had no idea about the changes in the second layer. He was currently in the core area of the Sepentine forest and observing its environment with curiousity on his face.
'This place is rather beautiful', he thought to himself while walking in the core area of the Serpentine forest.
Compared to the outer area and the inner area, the core area was less denser and Zhan Chen could feel the aura of very few magical beasts in the surrounding.
'It is strange. There is no stronger magical beasts in this place. Then, what is the test of the third layer?', he thought to himself.
A look of understanding appeared on his face after he walked farther. There was a hidden formation lied ahead of him which was invisible to the naked eyes of a cultivator.
The formation was another huge formation. So, Zhan Chen immediately guessed it as the third test of the competition. As for going around it, he decided against such an option.
Such large formations were built by Spirit palace to test the participants. If participants could skip it easily, then there was no point in building such a large formation in the first place.
He was unsure of what lied ahead but still made up his mind and stepped inside the formation. Nothing seemed to change at fast as he walked forward while observing his environment.
Suddenly he felt something and moved to the side. A shallow wound appeared on his shoulder as he barely saved himself from an incoming attack.
He had yet to find his bearing when an attack came towards him. Zhan Chen stopped the attack just before his chest and looked towards the attacker.
The attacker was a humanoid creature which had same height as him. It had human like appearance but what set it apart from the humans was it's sword like scales coming out from its body.
It's eyes were also irregular as it had completely scarlet eyes. It licked it's lips with its tongue and pounced towards Zhan Chen once again.
Zhan Chen had to step back few steps to offset the force of it's attack. "So, the last test is fighting with a real devil", he thought to himself while looking at his attacker.
He was currently supressing his power to Core condensation realm as he had no desire to show his true cultivation infront of anyone. So, he fought with the devil with a cultivation of peak Core condensation realm.
The humanoid looking devil rained attack on Zhan Chen agressively and Zhan Chen found it hard to stop the belligerence of the devil.
He slashed at its body for few times but his attack which could have killed a normal Core condensation realm cultivator could only leave some shallow marks on the monstrous body of the devil.
The devil got frustrated after a while. While it could push Zhan Chen with it's attacks but it was impossible for it to do any real damage to Zhan Chen's body.
Zhan Chen had solid defence as he blocked all of it's attacks with the sword in his hand. "Puny human, don't think you can escape today. Your sword play is impressive but it does not mean I have no other way to take you down", the devil growled at Zhan Chen with a different dialect.
Zhan Chen could understand what it was saying because it was the divine laguage of imomrtals. He threw a mocking look at the devil to see it's reaction.
"Human, you are asking for it", the devil growled and charged towards Zhan Chen. Zhan Chen was preparing to launch an attack to stop it but a sudden prenomition made him think otherwise. He hurriedly leaned towards his left as an energy beam just left past his neck.
A cold look appeared on his face as he looked towards the devil. The devil currently had three eyes on it's face as it looked towards Zhan Chen with an incredulous look.
"How did you escape my attack?", it asked with a confused look on it's face.
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