Rise of the White Dragon
chapter-45

After seeing the crack he and Ingrid had approached, Luan frowned briefly.

"I'm being pulled...!" Ingrid said in an aggravating tone. She felt a strong pull as she approached the crack.

"Let's go back." Luan didn't wait for a moment and started to retreat with Ingrid... But who could have imagined that the fissure would expand and spread out in their direction instead?

Even if they wanted to escape, it was too late now. Somehow, they were swallowed up by the fissure and passed through a dark passage until they found themselves in a red forest.

Ingrid was feeling dizzy, leaning on Luan's shoulder to keep from falling. She looked from side to side and what she saw was a blood-red forest. Everything was red: the leaves of the trees, the plants, everything. Below Ingrid's feet there was red water which looked more like blood. When she raised her foot a little, she noticed that it actually looked like blood or something like that.

"Are we inside the crack?" Ingrid was feeling a little scared. This place looked very sinister, but she just didn't panic because Luan was with her.

"Mm, this is a forest of blood," Luan said. "Stay alert; there may be carnivorous animals here."

"So, this is really blood?" she was asking as she pointed to the red liquid on the floor.

"Mm, it's a lake of blood," Luan replied and walked under the blood red canopy of leaves across the crimson soil.

"Wait." Luan prevented Ingrid from stepping on a flower.

"Yes?" Ingrid was startled, thinking she did something wrong.

"This flower that you almost stepped on is very useful for creating pills; I want it," Luan said.

"Ohh." Only now did Ingrid understand.

Luan crouched down and carefully removed the flower. The biggest problem was that he had nothing with which to carry it. That's when he took off his blazer and made it out of a bag, as he hoped to get more stuff from this place to make pills.

"Mm, we need to find the exit. When someone enters the opening of the crack, it tends to change the position of the exit, but I can feel the energy of the crack, and it is not far." Even before Ingrid asked, Luan explained.

Ingrid, who was looking around trying to find the exit from this place, heard what Luan told her and turned towards him and said with a sigh, "I see. That's why I couldn't see the crack regardless of where I looked."

"Caution!" Luan clutched Ingrid to his embrace and lept from where they were standing.

"..." Ingrid was confused. She thought she had almost stepped on another rare flower again, but that's when she realized that she had been picked up and carried, trapped in Luan's embrace.

Everything happened very fast. Luan had already felt the presence of a spotted hyena but wanted to let Ingrid experiment for herself and improve her senses, but it seems that she still needed more training.

Seeing that it had missed its target, the red-eyed spotted hyena howled looking up at the red sky, and the sounds of footsteps were heard.

"Waaa!" Ingrid was scared. It was the first time she had seen this type of savage attack.

Seeing a pack of spotted hyenas gathering around, Ingrid was scared. She was still a normal girl. Although she was stronger than normal people, she had never faced anything like this before.

The spotted hyenas laughed as they surrounded their prey and were about to attack.

"Stay focused; don't be afraid. The strength of these spotted hyenas is no more than 15 times stronger than ordinary men. However, don't let yourself be bitten, as these hyenas' teeth are very sharp," Luan said, explaining to her.

Okay." Ingrid forced herself to swallow her nervousness and prepared to fight the spotted hyenas.

Ingrid was not stupid. She could understand that if Luan wanted to, he could kill all these spotted hyenas alone. However, he did not do this because he wanted her to learn to protect herself. He wanted Ingrid to be able to fight alone, even when he wasn't around.

While the spotted hyenas howled showing their sharp teeth, Ingrid prepared for the fight and made her move. Using the trees to her advantage, Ingrid chose mainly to stay not too close or too far from the their trunks to avoid being attacked on all sides by the spotted hyenas.

When a spotted hyena jumped towards her, she used one of the movements of the body technique, giving a spin with her foot, grabbing the jaw of the spotted hyena's mouth.

*Beng!* The body of the spotted hyena, which weighed almost 70 kilos, flew towards a tree, breaking the tree, and then fell to the ground, shaking a little, until it stopped moving.

Ingrid didn't even have time to breathe when two other spotted hyenas jumped in her direction. She did a backflip, and with her two feet, Ingrid hit the head and stomach of the two hyenas.

*Beng!* *Beng!*

The two spotted hyenas fell heavily to the ground but did not die. However, Ingrid noticed that she lost the protection of the trees when she left from the position she was in before. Since she somersaulted backwards, she was not so close to the trees anymore, so it was easy for the spotted hyenas to surround her.

Ingrid was now about to be attacked by 4 other spotted hyenas.

It was at that moment that Luan put his blazer on the floor, which he had placed all the things he could find in the forest of blood inside, and moved silently.

In Ingrid's eyes, Luan was like a poisonous anaconda in the water, attacking in a flash and slaughtering his prey. The movement was graceful and agile, like a professional assassin who was born to kill. One by one, the spotted hyenas were killed by each punch and kick from Luan. In seconds, they were all turned into corpses.

"Thanks," Ingrid said gratefully.

"En." Luan nodded matter-of-factly. This was not at all problematic for him. In fact, he was very interested in the bones of these animals.

Ingrid, watching Luan dismantle the spotted hyenas with his bare hands, was shocked. She asked, "Why are you doing this, Luan?"

"Mm, the bones of these animals are very nutritious. They are very useful for creating pills and formations," Luan responded and continued to dismantle the spotted hyenas. He wished at the time to have a knife, but since he didn't, he used his hands initially, and took one of the bones of a spotted hyena and modeled it to look like a knife. Using his Qi, Luan made the bone even sharper than an obsidian knife.

A few minutes later, Luan finished dismantling the spotted hyenas, stacking them in his blazer and using his Qi to get rid of the blood on his hands. Luan said, "Let's keep walking; we are not far from the exit."

"Yes." Ingrid nodded and added, "In fact, I feel like I'm stronger inside this place. When I was fighting the spotted hyenas, I realized that it was easier for me to move and use my strength."

Luan was surprised to hear this since he himself felt no difference being in that place. After thinking about it, he said, "If you notice anything different, let me know."

"Yes," Ingrid nodded.

The spotted hyenas were not the only animals that Luan and Ingrid saw along the way. Hart and rabbits, as well as squirrels and even snakes were seen. However, due to Luan and Ingrid's aura that they mainly couldn't control properly, most of the creatures fled when they felt their presence.

But their path was far from being smooth. Something had appeared in front of them which even surprised Luan.

{Edited by: Azurtha}