In some depth of the unknown forest

Slash!

A grotesquely large black ape sliced into two parts vertically, then its lifeless body slumped down. There were already many corpses littered the ground as well as many huge craters everywhere.

Bang!!

With a huge explosion, its enormous gray figure landed heavily in front of a hazy silhouette.

Dressed in black from head to toe, A person with long hair that was as black as night and reached the middle of her waist. Her complexion was stiff and pale, and her eyes were lifeless without a hint of light in them. The aura emitted from her body carried a coldness that seeped into one’s bone marrow. If one actually looked deeper, one wouldn’t find the slightest hint of life within it… It was as if what stood there was not a living person, but a dead corpse.

“” Her face was still stiff, and when she spoke, whether it was her expression or dark eyes, there wasn’t the slightest bit of wavering, yet her voice carried an ice-cold, bone-piercing resentment. “You’re still alive… you’re actually still alive!!” She peered towards a distance.

The baleful aura which she had suddenly released caused the adjacent trees to turn lifeless.

The aura enveloping the surroundings instantly became colder many times over, the instant this black-robed person opened her mouth.

...

At the same time, within a certain cave filled with dried grass was a sleeping old man in ragged clothing!

His hair was disheveled and his body reeked of alcohol. At one glance, he looked nothing more than a drunk beggar.

Yet surprisingly, there were a Black Flame Wolf which was of the Spirit Formation Stage. It lay next to him shivering in cold.

The old man was in a deep sleep when he suddenly sat up in his straw bed and wriggled his nose, muttering, “What’s that smell? What is this strangeness?"

The Black Flame Wolf suddenly trembled, it's eyes filled with fear and was afraid to say anything as if it was worried that the old man would eat them.

The old man glared at it. “Good-for-nothing dog, what are you scared of? Your rotten meat isn’t even worthy to be considered by me!” scolded the old man before wriggling his nose again and taking a deep breath, his face exuded a look of pleasure.

After a few breaths, he licked his lips and looked at the Black Flame Wolf, speaking in a deep voice, “Have you investigated on what I’ve instructed? I would like to see who is the suicidal person that would dare trespass my territory."

The Black Flame Wolf trembled and hurriedly replied, “Y-Yes. Few days ago, a black robed person appeared in the peripheral area of the eastern part of this forest." it dared not hide the matter, immediately recounted everything explicitly, without leaving out any small details.

“Just like that? How ridiculous. What bullshit is those so-called Great Families ? They’re just a bunch of morons. A cheat comes along and tries to pass off as that b*stard people and they just believe him so easily?” The old man cursed while digging at his dirty feet.

"Unless there's some schemes in the play.." the old beggar's eyes shot towards the cave's entrance, peering into a distance.

“Oh, let's see what this fella is made of. After the killing, I'll ransack their palace for a compensation. Tsk, tsk, tsk… Still, how dare those people tried to use me on this whole farce. Were it not for the fact that I still had some use of them, I would have torn those people apart their mothers wouldn't be able to recognize! They are trying to destroy my lifelong legendary reputation! Hmph!” the old man grumbled indignantly.

...

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A short while later, Roy arrived at the hole entrance of the cave and entered without much determination. He was feeling uneasy the moment he got close to the entrance. Although his strength had increased a lot by leaps and bounds in these few days thanks to the system's guidance. Still, this feeling of discomfort grew bigger and bigger but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

Entering through the hole, Roy noticed the walls were dry and not slippery wet as one would imagine. On one side of the cave wall, there was a Fire Dispersing Pearl the size of a goose egg embedded in it.

If this pearl was taken out for an auction, its worth would exceed one hundred thousand gold coins.

One has to know that such a sum could easily be on par with any third-rate family's annual incomes! How great is that! Well, not bad at all.

This was one of the reason why Roy would want to accept the system's quest mission. After all, he was broke now without even a single penny in his possession. Though, he hadn't planned to go out of the forest yet. But it was best to have some savings should a crisis arise.

Roy couldn’t help but be curious about this cave. The lights are so dim, that you can’t see anything far away into the darkness, this was literally a maze. He took out a rather thin firewood, light it up. Thus, quickly a surge of flame was lit.

Walking along the tunnel for about dozen meters, he came to an empty hall about a hundred square meters wide yet it was obvious at a glance there was nothing inside the hall. There were three other rooms apart from the empty hall though. Roy walked towards the first room.

In the first room, he gained nothing. It was empty, just like the hall outside.

He moved on to the second room and it was also empty.

“F**k, don’t tell me the third room is empty too?!” Roy couldn’t help but exclaim to himself.

Standing in front of the third room, Roy slowly peeked inside. Finally, inside the third room there was a jade bed and on top of the jade bed was a book made from unknown materials. On the walls hung a pair of half-meter long black shiny blades.

"What the-,"

"This!"

Pausing for a moment, Roy’s eyes fell on the book placed on top of the jade bed, so he walked over and picked it up. The seemingly thin book was so heavy that his arms sank under the weight, startling him. What material was this book made of that it weighed close to thirty pounds for something so thin?

Looking at the book cover, there were three words written in ancient inscriptions: ‘Conqueror of the Abyss’.

[DING]

[Congratulations!]

[The host has found an ancient Divine Book: Conqueror of the Abyss ]

[The host obtaining the reward of 50 system points!]

At this exact moment, as if an explosion rang out, a terrifying aura of frenzied slaughter spread out in Roy’s mind. His eyes flickered and he appeared in a place surrounded by infinite mountains of bones with a boundless sea of blood at its boundary.

Standing on top of a mountain of bones, it was as if he was the embodiment of a Devil from Hell.

Above the endless mountains of bones, ghastly apparitions of resentful spirits tried to ‘invade’ him. Feeling the countless ghastly, resentful spirits’ desire to swallow him, a light flickered again in Roy’s eyes and he was back in the third room of the cave.

"What was that? illusion?" Although it was only for a brief moment, cold sweat drenched his body.

Looking with trepidation at the book in his hand titled Conqueror of the Abyss, the scene with the mountains of bones and boundless sea of blood did not appear again for a second time, allowing Roy to breathe out a heavy sigh of relief.

A while later, repressing the shock in his heart, with slightly trembling hands he opened the first page of the Conqueror of the Abyss.

Flipping to the first page of Conqueror of the Abyss, a pair of blood-red eyes seemed to jump out from the page. A humanoid illustration of a Devil standing upright. The Supreme Devil King is a shadowed figure dressed in black and red medieval knight-esque armor with numerous tendril-like spikes across his body, with the largest ones jutting out of the armor's back and 9 jutting out of the shoulders, a headdress with a tall collar and a floor-length black cape. In the middle of the black armor embedded a cerulean crystal in the form of icosahedron containing 20 triangular faces, with 5 faces meeting around each vertex.

Studying the humanoid Devil illustration, a sensation of being in hell crept up his skin, mad slaughter and an endless sea of bodies awash Roy’s senses, and his eyes turned blood-red; confused and in pain,

Roy had been consumed by a blood-thirsty frenzy, losing all control over his actions and thoughts. His mind was clouded with a red haze, his vision blurred and his movements erratic. But in that moment of complete chaos, a miraculous event occurred. Behind him, the double-headed serpent martial spirit materialized, roaring towards the sky with a deafening thunder that shook the very heavens themselves. The sound echoed through Roy's being, jolting him back to reality and pulling him out of the maddening state he had been in.

As the thunderous roar of the martial spirit subsided, Roy felt the red bloodlust slowly fade from his eyes, his vision clearing and his mind sharpening. He was conscious once again, but his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that it felt like it might burst out at any moment. The sudden return to reality had been overwhelming, and it took him a moment to gather his thoughts and orient himself in his surroundings. But as he took in the scene around him, he knew that he had been saved from himself by the intervention of the double-headed serpent martial spirit.

Roy slumped to the ground, his heart beating like crazy.

!!

"What?!"

He wasn't startled because of the strange phenomenon, rather he senses a person was standing behind him.