"A few days ago, an ice ape in the Cold Wind Pine Forest was tainted with the Abyss, not only did its body shape and appearance change, but its temperament also became brutal and frenzied, manipulated by an extreme appetite, constantly slaughtering and preying on all kinds of living beings, hunting it down is the content of your second trial."

After Lyle announced the new mission, Yechen's expression then surged with surprise, as he had not expected at all that his target this time around would be related to that dark, sticky, and bizarre substance.

"The beast is tainted with the Abyss?" The puzzled teenager couldn't help but murmur, "Doesn't the Abyss only exist beyond the borders? How could this happen?" .

"The Cold Wind Pine Forest was originally not far from the border, perhaps it was one of the cave tunnels running through the earth that was stumbled upon by those seamless undrilled things, but you don't have to think much about it if you're going to be dealing with the abyss early on, just focus on solving your prey."

Lyle replied gently, adding some more information.

"It's not a short journey so you'll be going on horseback, also, although the target this time is a beast that hasn't experienced a nightmare, tainted by the Abyss, it already possesses another power that is very different from the Aoling Technique, and thus is much more dangerous than the fugitive you just killed, so don't be careless, and always remember the Three Codes of the Hunter."

With that said, Lyle waved his hand, signalling the end of the conversation between the two.

"Understood, I'm on my way."

Yechen touched his head, although he was still confused about the situation of the Abyssal invasion, he had no intention to continue pestering his teacher, and briefly packed and checked the weapons on his waist as well as the props in his backpack before walking out of the church's door with quick steps.

On the open snowy ground outside the door, a steed with pitch-black fur and deep eyes, exuding a calm and extraordinary aura, was standing in the midst of the flying snow, stomping its hooves and huffing hot air, as if it had received the instructions from its master, Lyle, ahead of time, and had already made preparations to welcome Yechen.

This is Lyle's favourite horse, Blackie.

The big black horse had been with the master and disciple for as long as Yechen could remember, and Yechen's horsemanship had been honed from a young age on Blackie's broad back.

Even though Blackie was a horse, he was still as irreplaceable a relative to Yechen as Lyle was, and Blackie had watched Yechen grow up, so he looked at Yechen as if he were his own child.

The teenager gently stroked the old horse's thick neck, while the old horse also rubbed its head tenderly against the teenager, and for a while, one person and one horse looked intimate.

"Well, Coldwind Pines is to the west, Hecky, let's get going." Yechen said to Hedge as he skilfully sat on his horse and took the reins.

Blackchurch responded with a low voice, and although it had a look and posture reserved for an old horse, its leg strength, however, seemed to be forever fixed at its peak moment.

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Only to see it lift its strong hooves, and then it was like a wild wind, carrying Yechen towards the mountain.

The old church where Yechen lived for many years and the surrounding mountains are located in the south-eastern region of the Neverwinter Hidden Realm, and the Coldwind Pine Forest is located in the south-western region of the Neverwinter Hidden Realm.

Although the two were located at the two ends of the small world, the distance was only less than fifty kilometres, coupled with Heiqi's terrifying speed and stamina, in half an hour or so, Yechen had already arrived at a wide forest path amidst the howling winds.

And the snowy forest that surrounded him was the location of this second trial: the Cold Wind Pine Forest.

"It's here, but how are we going to find that ice ape in such a huge area"

Yechen sat on his horse, holding his jaw in thought.

The locations where he used to hone his hunting skills were usually the mountain ranges near the church, and this Cold Wind Pine Forest Yechen had never visited in person although he knew about it through books, so he was not familiar with the local terrain.

And the reason why Lyle didn't specify the exact location of this trial was probably because he wanted to see what kind of action Yechen would take to solve the puzzle in this situation where there were unknowns everywhere.

However, not long after Yechen began to think about his next move, a subtle rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes on one side of the path.

The combat instinct that had been cultivated for many years made Yechen not hesitate to draw the revolver at his waist that had long been filled with ammunition.

To his surprise, though, it wasn't some vicious beast that came out of the bushes, but five White Frosts wearing fur coats, carrying shotguns, and wielding bows and arrows.

At the first sight of the other, Yechen immediately lifted the mask he had hidden under his collar to conceal his face below the bridge of his nose.

Out of the bushes of the long-eared white people, at first each expression of grave and serious, holding a long bow with arrows, seems to be ready to fight to the death.

However, after realising that the source of the sound turned out to be nothing more than a pedestrian on horseback, they couldn't help but put down their bows and arrows, and looked at Yechen on horseback with a puzzled expression.

It looks like these people are not robbers that should be the residents of the villages near the Cold Wind Pine Forest.

Yechen surveyed the expressions on the faces of the crowd, and after analysing the situation, he too took the Slow Revolver back into his arms.

The lead White Frost man stepped forward and observed the face-covered Yechen for a while, before inquiring warily in White Frost, "I've never seen you in these mountains before, where did you come from? And what are you doing here?"

In the face of the sudden questioning, Yechen, however, did not panic and replied in a calm tone as well as the standard White Frost language, "I'm a resident of White Frost City, and I came here to look for traces of the local Ice Apes because I'm very interested in their ecology and wanted to take a look at it for myself."

Yechen tells his lies with a calm and natural emotion, and this skilful technique of discourse, the result of years of practice under Lyle, is enough to make these mountain villagers look the other way.

But after learning Yechen's identity, their faces remained uncharacteristically ugly.

What's with the reaction?

Just when Yechen was a bit puzzled, the leading White Frost man immediately shook his head and sighed long, his voice hoarse and explained: "Recently an extremely dangerous giant ape emerged here, stirring up the Cold Wind Pine Forest, resulting in the forest is now almost full of corpses and remains of creatures that it ate, and there are more than a dozen of us in the village who have been eaten in order to stop the beast's atrocities, which is why we came out in groups to hunt it! Atrocities, that's why they came out in groups to hunt it, so if you, an uninformed city dweller, want to live, you'd better get out of this forest while it's still dark!"

So that beast tainted by the abyss has had such a serious impact!

Yechen sighed inwardly for a moment before nodding to the squad of villagers crusading against the man-eating monster.

"I see, count me in then."

"Huh?"

The crowd's expressions were dumbfounded after hearing this, but they only saw the teenager sitting on the horse's back shake the silver glittering revolver in his hand and proclaimed in a calm tone, "I'm also a hunter, and this time I've come here for the sake of hunting apes, so please allow me to join you and help you out."