On the third night, Jiang Kai brought Hu Yan and Ruan Yu to a fork at Taiping Mountain.
In the direction of the main road ahead was a dense fog—that led to the unknown new map—while to the right was another path that led into a continuous mountain range.
The three stepped onto that small road.
After walking for nearly an hour, the path was already blocked by the mountain ahead.
Hidden maps are different from secret realms; many secret realms disappear once cleared, and even if they don't, it takes a long time for them to reappear.
But hidden maps always exist—only requiring some special trigger conditions to enter.
Hu Yan looked at his watch, "42 minutes to midnight."
Jiang Kai handed over the blood crystal and talent skull to the two of them, then checked the medicines, food, and water they were carrying.
After the preparations were done, the time was almost up.
"The beasts in the hidden map might be new species, let's keep a low profile first," Jiang Kai said.
Hu Yan nodded, "The level of Immortal Trace Valley is lower than Taiping Mountain, there's no map BOSS here, but there still might be king-level and commander-level BOSSes, so better to be cautious."
As Jiang Kai and Hu Yan were discussing, Ruan Yu suddenly said, "Old Hu, that night, did you release some more vital energy?"
Hu Yan turned his head and looked at Ruan Yu gloomily, "Ruan Yu, we're about to enter a hidden map, it's dangerous in there! Captain Kai, can you please do something about Ruan Yu, he's already asked me that eight times!"
But when Hu Yan looked toward Jiang Kai, he found Jiang Kai also looking at him expectantly.
Hu Yan immediately had a dark expression, "You two… can't you be serious…"
Ruan Yu said, "Old Hu, I don't even ask for any sisters from Dongli anymore. Just ask her next time if she can introduce me to someone. BOSS or no BOSS, demon race or not, I can accept."
"My vital energy is in full supply!"
Hu Yan held his forehead, "What kind of teammates are these? No! Didn't Dongli say that she only got the vital energy attribute after her strength increased?"
"Stingy!"
"Don't ramble, it's almost time!"
As soon as Hu Yan finished speaking, the many cards in the hands of the three members of Team Vulcan began to decompose into fine particles of light, drifting up into the air.
All the blood crystals and talent skulls prepared by Jiang Kai decomposed and floated into the moonlit sky.
The light particles kept gathering, and actually formed a glowing floating path, the end of which extended into the mountain.
"The hidden map is open!" Jiang Kai took the first step and stood on the glowing path.
Amazingly, that path made of light particles actually supported Jiang Kai's body.
"It works!" Jiang Kai said to those behind him, "Quick! The map only stays open for one minute!" With that, he ran forward along the path.
Hu Yan and Ruan Yu followed closely behind.
The path behind Hu Yan was disappearing rapidly, and they hurried to speed up. Before the path vanished, they leaped into the "mountain."
After falling from midair, Jiang Kai and the others were stunned by the scene before them.
It looked like they had jumped toward a cliff, but now they stood firmly on the ground.
In front of them stretched a vast forest, and the shadows of the surrounding mountains were endless. Under the night sky, it was impossible to judge distance.
But it was still clear that Immortal Trace Valley was definitely not a tiny place like Black Ape Valley.
Since this was a hidden map, there was no map of Immortal Trace Valley on the market, so Jiang Kai and the others could only explore the entire area on their own.
At this moment, visibility in Immortal Trace Valley was too poor. Considering that Hu Yan and Ruan Yu would be heavily affected, Jiang Kai first gave the order to rest.
By early morning of the next day, as the sky lightened slightly, Jiang Kai woke his teammates.
"I'll go ahead, you follow me. Try to find a lone beast first to test its strength," Jiang Kai whispered.
The three moved through the forest.
A little over ten minutes later, Jiang Kai found the first beast in the jungle.
It was a creature covered in black fur, with a head similar to a black panther.
At this moment, it was curled up in a ball, sleeping in a soft patch of grass.
Jiang Kai hid in the grass, took out Pursuit, charged for a moment, and fired directly!
With Jiang Kai's current stats, dealing with this kind of ordinary beast was almost a sure thing. A critical hit could easily kill it.
But just as Pursuit was about to hit the black panther's body, a burst of qi shield suddenly erupted from around the black panther, directly deflecting all five of Jiang Kai's Pursuit shots!
"This!" Jiang Kai's eyes widened.
At that moment, the black panther had already awakened. It stood up on two legs and locked its gaze onto the three of them.
"This guy stands on two legs… it's a black panther spirit!" Ruan Yu exclaimed softly, "Was that true qi just now? That can't be!"
After standing up, the black panther spirit reached a height of about two and a half meters. But in the next second, when it pounced at Jiang Kai, it was running on all fours again. With that, its movement speed instantly rose a level.
Jiang Kai's mind raced.
Judging by the size of the black panther spirit, it should be just a normal beast. But a normal beast being able to block his Nine Tribulation Pursuit was terrifying.
At this moment, the black panther's speed was even more exaggerated. With the help of Ghost Eye, Jiang Kai found that its limbs didn't actually touch the ground—they were stepping on a layer of qi force!
Do ordinary beasts all have true qi? What the hell is this!
The black panther spirit was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it pounced toward Jiang Kai.
Jiang Kai made a feint to bait the black panther spirit. In the next second, he suddenly turned and sidestepped, firing four Pursuit shots!
Bang bang bang! Pursuit again hit the black panther spirit's protective qi force.
"Ghost Wail Wolf Howl!" Hu Yan, hiding in the grass, immediately activated his skill.
Over a dozen black phantoms rose from the ground and pounced on the black panther, instantly passing through its body.
The black panther was suddenly unable to move.
Seeing this, Jiang Kai immediately fired seven Pursuit shots.
Faced with a stationary target, Jiang Kai chose to focus his attack on a single point.
The first three Pursuit shots were deflected again. It wasn't until the fourth one that the opponent's qi defense was finally broken.
After breaking through the qi defense, Pursuit encountered almost no resistance and directly pierced the black panther spirit's body.
The following Pursuit shots hit in quick succession. With three wet splats, they each pierced through the panther spirit's body.
The black panther spirit, suffering heavy injuries, finally collapsed motionless on the ground.
[Congratulations on killing Secret Cultivated Black Panther Spirit (10 stars). Your experience is full and cannot be gained. Please level up your class as soon as possible.]
[Obtained Secret Cultivated Black Panther Spirit corpse *1, obtained Secret Cultivated Spirit Core (10 stars) *1]
The system's voice rang in Jiang Kai's ear, and he quickly approached the black panther spirit.
The black panther spirit's corpse had already turned into a card, and from its mouth rolled out a glowing crystal.
"Secret Cultivated Spirit Core?" Jiang Kai picked up the crystal and used an identification card to appraise it.
[Secret Cultivated Spirit Core (10 stars): Can replace the mutated blood crystal in basic attribute elixir materials. Direct use grants 5000 experience. Ordinary Secret Cultivated Spirit Cores cannot exist independently for long and cannot fuse with the body.]
[Two Spirit Cores can be fused to get a higher-star Spirit Core.]
[Spirit Cores cannot exist independently for long. The lower the star rating, the shorter the duration. Use quickly.]
Hu Yan and Ruan Yu also saw the result given by the identification card, and all three widened their eyes.
This was the first time they had seen a Secret Cultivated Spirit Core!
"Ordinary cores can't fuse with the body… so special ones can?" Jiang Kai looked at his teammates in surprise.
What's abundant in hidden maps? Mutated monsters!
"What happens if it fuses with the body?" Hu Yan asked, confused.
"No idea… I've never heard of such a thing." Even the well-informed Ruan Yu had never heard of it, showing just how rare this thing was!
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