I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate-Chapter 121: Blood Earth Forest

The Blood Earth Forest was not located within the Lin Hua Continent. Instead, it was a forest northeast of the Dongli Kingdom, bordering both the Dongli Kingdom and the Sovereign Country, Lin Hua Country.

Legend had it that during the Evolution War hundreds of years ago, the area had originally been a wasteland where a great war between humans and beasts had erupted.

The battle was incredibly brutal, with corpses strewn everywhere. The blood of humans and beasts soaked every inch of the land.

Decades after the great war, the land there became exceptionally fertile. Plants grew rapidly, soon forming a dense forest, which was why it was named the Blood Earth Forest.

The Thousand Heroes Tomb, which Su Ze planned to visit and where a Gravity Demon might be found, was located in the Blood Earth Forest.

The Thousand Heroes Tomb was said to be the burial site of over a thousand evolvers who had died in that great war, making it a popular treasure-hunting destination for many adventurers.

It would be quite dangerous for Su Ze to go to the Blood Earth Forest alone. However, if he could tag along with the military training detachment, he’d be escorted by experts from Dongli University to and from the location, making it much safer.

’I need to find a way to join the Practical Combat Department freshmen for their military training...’

Su Ze thought for a moment. He decided not to bother Mr. Zhou over such a small matter, instead calling Pei Wuhua, the head of the Practical Combat Department.

Ultimately, it didn’t take much persuasion to get Pei Wuhua to agree to let him join the Practical Combat Department freshmen for their military training in the Blood Earth Forest.

Pei Wuhua’s reasoning was quite simple. ’With Su Ze’s strength as the number one freshman, isn’t it a waste of time to have him practice standing at attention on the school’s drill ground? It’s better to let him go to the Blood Earth Forest for some real experience.’

After sorting things out with Pei Wuhua, Su Ze explained the situation to his own academic advisor.

The advisor knew that a star student like Su Ze was a busy man. He was also very pleased that Su Ze had just taken first place in the freshman assessment, bringing honor to their class, so he agreed without hesitation.

’Great, the itinerary is set. Next, I need to plan how to hunt the Gravity Demon...’ Su Ze immediately called Mr. Ya. To hunt a Gravity Demon thousands of meters underground, Mr. Ya was the perfect man for the job.

Besides, if they were attacked by the Filth Earth Organization after leaving Dongli and entering the wilderness, having Mr. Ya along would make things much safer.

Mr. Ya, a lifelong daredevil who loved to court death, was incredibly enthusiastic about this sort of thing and agreed in a heartbeat.

"Boss, I should be able to completely digest the extract in my body in a few days. Then I can undergo my third evolution. Once I reach the Butterfly Stage, with me assisting you, we’ll be an unstoppable team. What’s a Gravity Demon? It’ll be a piece of cake, won’t it?"

"Good. Then hurry up. We’ll set off first thing the day after tomorrow!"

Su Ze hung up. He had the right people and the right place; now all he had to do was wait for the right time.

...

As evening fell, Su Ze was in the courtyard, dancing with Mrs. Yun.

With some time on his hands, he didn’t forget to give Mrs. Yun a little prod:

"Mrs. Yun, you really need to pick up the pace. Don’t tell me I’ll reach Saint-level before you’ve even finished digesting that extract. What use would you be to me then?"

Mrs. Yun shot him a cold glance. "Feeling brave today, are we, kid?"

Su Ze just chuckled. As luck would have it, the doorbell rang, and he immediately used it as an excuse to slip away.

Watching Su Ze scamper off, Mrs. Yun actually felt a pang of pressure. In less than two months, Su Ze had evolved all the way from a Mortal-level Life Form to a Cocoon Stage life form. That kind of speed...

...was definitely putting the pressure on her.

’I can’t let that kid’s prediction come true. No, I have to work even harder. No sleep for me tonight!’

Meanwhile, Su Ze opened the door to find the person Mr. Zhou had sent to deliver the extract.

He thanked the person and took the Deep Sea Electric Eel Extract they were holding.

Staring at the vial of Tier-3 S-rank extract in his hand, Su Ze knew that absorbing it would probably make hunting the Gravity Demon easier.

He hadn’t absorbed a single extract since his second evolution, and he didn’t possess any Tier-3 attack skills. This Deep Sea Electric Eel Extract would give a direct boost to his combat effectiveness.

Just then, Liou Wenxin returned from work. Seeing Su Ze, she smiled and said, "I saw the video of the freshman assessment today. You performed well."

Su Ze smugly waved the extract in his hand. "Sis, help me out here. Tell me what you think, is this Deep Sea Electric Eel Extract a good fit for me?"

Liou Wenxin thought for a moment. "It’s pretty good," she said, "but it’s not the best of the best."

"Alright, then I won’t absorb it."

Su Ze didn’t even ask why, choosing to trust Liou Wenxin’s judgment completely.

...

Su Ze finished all his preparations for the military training trip. Early on the morning of January 17th, he and Mr. Ya set out from home.

"Be safe out there," Liou Wenxin murmured, placing a food container in Su Ze’s hands. "This is breakfast. You two can eat it on the road."

After saying goodbye to Liou Wenxin and Mrs. Yun, the two of them quickly made their way to the school gate to meet up.

The freshmen were already lined up in formation, waiting to depart.

When the freshmen saw Su Ze join their ranks in a training uniform, a wave of whispers immediately broke out. Many of the female students’ faces flushed with excitement.

The only reason the lines didn’t fall into chaos was that the instructors were still present.

Pei Wuhua was personally leading this year’s freshman military training. Although they were only heading to the outskirts of the Blood Earth Forest, where the danger was low, accidents could happen at any time during field training. His presence as a veteran Butterfly Stage expert was essential to ensure their safety.

Among the crowd of young, energetic freshmen, Mr. Ya’s older face stuck out like a sore thumb. Strictly speaking, however, he was also a newly enrolled freshman—and a bona fide student of the Practical Combat Department at that—so it was perfectly reasonable for him to be participating in the training.

Soon, several large buses pulled up to the school gate. The freshmen queued up to board, and Su Ze and Mr. Ya got on the same bus, taking seats next to each other.

Before long, the buses departed, heading for the Dongping City airport.

Once the bus was moving, Su Ze and Mr. Ya started enjoying the breakfast Liou Wenxin had prepared for them. It wasn’t long before a crowd of students had gathered around them.

It wasn’t that they were after Su Ze’s breakfast; they just wanted a closer look at the legendary genius.

Su Ze remained perfectly composed, eating his breakfast in a slow, deliberate manner.

One girl took out some snacks she had stashed away and offered them to Su Ze. "Want some?" she asked.

Su Ze glanced at them, saw they were a favorite of his, and accepted them with a "Thanks."

With this girl having broken the ice, the other girls also started taking out their own snacks to offer to Su Ze.

Mr. Ya watched from the side, green with envy. He began to wonder if he’d gone to a fake university before this.

By the time Su Ze finished breakfast, the buses had arrived at the Dongping City airport. Dongli University had chartered two planes, enough to seat all the freshmen participating in the military training.

Dongli University enrolled several thousand new students each year, but only six to seven hundred of them made it into the Practical Combat Department. The majority were students in the Research Department.

Since the Blood Earth Forest was so far away, traveling by bus would take too much time. That’s why every year, the Dongli University freshmen flew there for military training.

The freshmen boarded the planes in an orderly fashion. Su Ze and Mr. Ya ambled onto their plane and found their seats.

Ignoring the occasional, furtive glances from those around him, Su Ze flopped back in his seat and immediately fell asleep, with no regard for his image. Mr. Ya, meanwhile, took the opportunity to pop some pills to help digest his extract.

By the time Su Ze woke from his nap, the plane was just touching down.

They had arrived in Fengshui City, a city on the border of the Dongli Kingdom.

After deplaning, the freshmen boarded another set of buses that took them to Fengshui Pass, located within Fengshui City. This was the very edge of the Dongli Kingdom, the place where it bordered the "wilderness."

For the people of the Lin Hua Continent, the "wilderness" typically referred to the territories outside the continent that were dominated by beasts and Spiritual Plants.

Humanity was no longer the master of Blue Star. Besides the three major human agglomerations and a few scattered, smaller settlements, the rest of the globe had been overrun by beasts and Spiritual Plants.

As a barrier protecting the people of Dongli from beast incursions, Fengshui Pass was fortified with high, thick walls and was permanently garrisoned by the Dongli Kingdom’s army.

The annual freshman military training at Dongli University was a long-standing tradition. The commanding officer of the Fengshui Pass garrison had been notified well in advance and had already arranged for the food and lodging of the university’s students and faculty.

It was already after four in the afternoon when Su Ze and the others arrived at Fengshui Pass. They were assigned to dorm rooms, with six people to a room.

After they had stowed their luggage, Pei Wuhua gathered all the freshmen to give them a speech. The gist of it was that they absolutely had to follow the instructions of the teachers and instructors during the training and were not to act on their own. He also briefly went over the plan for the next day.

They would be staying inside Fengshui Pass for the night. Early the next morning, they would pass through the gates, officially leaving the territory of the Dongli Kingdom and entering the wilderness.

Beyond Fengshui Pass lay the Blood Earth Forest. However, the outskirts of the forest had been purged countless times by the Dongli Kingdom and the Sovereign Country, so there were no high-level beasts.

The freshmen’s task for the next day was to learn wilderness survival skills on the outskirts of the Blood Earth Forest, as well as gain some practical experience fighting beasts. Furthermore, from tomorrow night until the end of the training, they would be required to camp in the wilderness.

Su Ze had no interest in any of this training; he was here for the Gravity Demon.

That night, Su Ze went to bed early. He didn’t sleep, however. Instead, he studied a map of the Blood Earth Forest, pinpointing the exact location of the Thousand Heroes Tomb.

The Thousand Heroes Tomb was a fairly well-known landmark in the Blood Earth Forest, but it wasn’t on the outskirts.

Su Ze wasn’t sure if the training would eventually take them deeper into the Blood Earth Forest. If not, he would just have to find a chance for him and Mr. Ya to slip away from the group and go on their own.

’Still, it would be safer to wait for Mr. Ya to complete his third evolution.’

Mr. Ya had snuck out tonight, presumably to practice his Swan Dance in some hidden spot.

According to Mr. Ya himself, it would only take another day or two at most for him to finish digesting the extract and attempt his third evolution.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Su Ze and the others were jolted awake by an early morning bell.

All the freshmen quickly got out of bed, freshened up, and finished their breakfast before gathering behind the main gate of Fengshui Pass.

The heavy metal gate slid open automatically, and the freshmen marched out in several columns.

This was the first time Su Ze had ever left the Lin Hua Continent, his first time seeing the world beyond its borders.

A squad of more than twenty elite soldiers from the Fengshui Pass garrison followed behind the group of freshmen. They would serve as both instructors for the training and as protectors for the students.

After all, with so many freshmen, it would be impossible for Pei Wuhua and the handful of other teachers to keep an eye on everyone.

The gate slowly closed behind them as the hundreds of freshmen stared out at the new world, their eyes filled with curiosity.