Chapter 40 opens by revealing the ruthless and cold-blooded nature of the Ice Family.
Nearly every family and sect present placed their own survival above everything else.
To protect their own people, they sacrificed a number of cultivators while choosing different paths through the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest, hoping to escape the relentless pursuit of the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts.
However...
There was one force that stood completely apart from all the others—
The Ice Family.
They were not sacrificing people merely to survive.
Instead...
They were doing it for their own amusement.
Their cultivation far surpassed that of most of the cultivators present.
Because of this overwhelming strength, they deliberately gathered a large number of Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts around themselves, intending not only to lure the beasts closer but also to ensure that as many cultivators as possible would perish alongside them.
Before long, hundreds of cultivators—including disciples from smaller sects, independent cultivators, and even Demonic Cultivators—had been deliberately herded into a single location by one of the Ice Family's female geniuses.
Her objective was crystal clear.
She wanted every one of them to die in the same place.
That way, anyone who arrived afterward would naturally assume that all of them had perished in a fierce battle between the Righteous Cultivators, the Demonic Cultivators, and the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts.
And in doing so...
No one would ever discover the truth behind the massacre—
Or the identity of the one truly responsible for their deaths.
Among all the Great Families present, the most terrifying of them all was—
The Ice Family.
The family was infamous for its merciless and ice-cold nature.
In their eyes, the weak possessed no value whatsoever.
Whether it was an ordinary disciple, a Spiritual Beast, or a wandering cultivator, they regarded them as worth even less than the dust beneath their feet.
Anyone who stood in their path was crushed like an insect, as though their life held no more value than a piece of worthless trash.
Among them, the Ice Family's greatest female genius was the cruelest of all.
There was neither compassion nor mercy in her eyes.
To her, the lives of others meant absolutely nothing.
With a mere wave of her hand, she unleashed her terrifying Ice Energy, instantly freezing anyone who crossed her path into lifeless statues of ice.
Before long, the entire battlefield was littered with frozen corpses and Spiritual Beasts imprisoned within solid blocks of ice.
Interestingly, most of the Great Families had fought more against other disciples than against the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts themselves.
Yet even the Ice Family was different from the rest.
They froze the majority of the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts with their overwhelming Ice Energy.
However, they did not kill them.
Instead, they simply sealed the beasts inside layers of eternal ice, abandoned them where they stood, and continued moving forward without so much as a backward glance.
As time passed, the number of Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts gradually decreased.
Seeing this opportunity, the surviving disciples quickly escaped the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest and entered the depths of the forest one after another.
Their objective was obvious—
To obtain the rare treasures and cultivation resources hidden within the Secret Realm.
Before long, nearly every cultivator had crossed the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest and disappeared into the forest.
But...
Even after everyone else had left...
One cultivator still remained standing there.
In reality, the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts were incapable of entering the Bamboo Forest.
Every region within the Secret Realm was governed by its own unique laws, and not every living creature was permitted to enter every area.
The place where the cultivators had been fighting was the Outer Layer—the First Layer of the Secret Realm.
Beyond the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest lay the Second Layer, where all of the cultivators were now heading.
For that very reason, the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts were restricted to the First Layer and could not pursue anyone into the Bamboo Forest.
The story then shifts back to the protagonist, Kim.
As time passed and nearly every cultivator crossed the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest, Kim remained standing there in complete silence.
He had deliberately chosen not to enter the Bamboo Forest first.
Because he understood one truth better than anyone else.
"Human nature is strange. Even if a person gains nothing for themselves, they still cannot bear to watch someone else obtain the prize instead."
Having experienced an entire lifetime before, Kim understood human nature all too well.
He had already predicted that a brutal bloodbath would inevitably erupt at the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest.
And everything happened exactly as he had expected.
Countless cultivators slaughtered one another, and before long, the entire battlefield had been stained crimson with blood.
Only then did Kim summon his Renu God Realm Insect.
Looking at it, he calmly gave an order.
"Do not absorb the Death Energy from any of the corpses here. Other than that, you're free to absorb every other type of energy you can find."
The Renu God Realm Insect immediately obeyed.
It slowly began absorbing the remaining life force and every other useful form of energy from the corpses of the Emerald Fang Squirrel Beasts and the fallen cultivators scattered across the battlefield.
However, it deliberately left the enormous amount of Death Energy untouched.
That energy was reserved for Kim himself.
Using his Inner Courtyard, Kim gradually absorbed all of the surrounding Death Energy into his own personal space.
As more and more Death Energy gathered inside the Inner Courtyard, its atmosphere became increasingly ominous, sinister, and mysterious.
Afterward, Kim turned his gaze toward the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest once again.
By this time, nearly every cultivator had already entered the Bamboo Forest through different paths, advancing into the Second Layer of the Secret Realm.
The once-chaotic battlefield had become almost completely deserted.
However...
Kim deliberately chose to remain at the Entrance of the Bamboo Forest.
He stood there alone, calmly waiting.
Now, he was fully prepared to face every remaining Emerald Fang Squirrel Beast by himself.
For Kim, this was more than just another battle.
It was an opportunity to grow stronger.
With that, Chapter 40 comes to an end.
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Chapter 40 - End
Chapter 41 - Coming Soon...
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