Chapter 82: Beast Swarm! The Discovery of Dragon Inscriptions

Athena looked at the long bag that Chen Rui took out and curiously asked, “What is that?”

“This is called a sleeping bag. Its interior is covered with sable’s fur and it’s very warm. You’ll know when you try it.”

“Okay…” Athena suddenly thought of something and her face was slightly red, “Is there one only?”

“I only have time to make one. This is for you, I have a blanket.” Chen Rui smiled and handed a roast meat to her.

Athena took the roast meat, calmed down, talked for a while and entered the tent to rest. The warm sleeping bag and her good habits in the wild made her fall asleep quickly, but her greatsword still remained with her in the sleeping bag.

Despite riding the wyvern for a day, Chen Rui was no longer an ordinary human, so he wasn’t really sleepy. He activated <Analytical Eyes> and extended his perception area to keep an eye on the situation nearby.

Suddenly, his perception detected a strange movement in the jungle. The two sensitive wyverns also discovered something. They raised their heads and looked down while growling in uneasiness.

Athena who was originally in an alerted, semi-dormant state suddenly wake up from the wyvern’s groans. She immediately jumped up and opened the tent, “Chen Rui, there’s a situation!”

Chen Rui was going to find out what happened. Unexpectedly, Athena reacted so quickly, so he had to give up.

The two wyverns were both expressing the same thing, “Dangers, a lot! A lot!”

Chen Rui keenly heard that the rustling sound in the jungle from a distant place was getting closer and closer. For the sake of safety, she kept the tent. Just as Athena extinguished the fire, she heard Chen Rui’s translation of wyvern’s growl, she suddenly recalled a rumor and said anxiously, “Quick, ride on the wyverns and rise to the sky!”

Chen Rui didn’t dare to be sloppy, so he quickly rode on the wyvern and ascended into the sky with Athena.

At that time, the rustling sound had become as heavy as the drums. He saw the groups of black things moving toward them quickly like tides with a mixture of various low growls.

“Rise higher!” Athena yelled and they controlled the wyverns to rise higher.

Chen Rui’s eyesight at this time was quite amazing. He could clearly see that the large, tide-like thing below was actually millions of demonic beasts. There were all kinds of demonic beasts, including both upper and lower layers of the food chain. However, their current movement were strikingly uniform; they were all running outward desperately!

Other than the demonic beasts on the ground, there were also a large group of bats and birds flying outward quickly in the sky. Fortunately, under Athena’s reminder, the wyvern’s height was enough to avoid conflicting with these flying demonic beasts. However, these demonic beasts were too busy running that they didn’t dare to stop even if they noticed the wyverns. Soon, the demonic beasts crossed the hillside and continued to run outward.

If it weren’t for Athena’s early notice, their current situation would’ve been dangerous. Although the strength of these demonic beasts wasn’t particularly strong, their numbers were too horrifying. Besides, it was endless. If they truly fought head-on, they would most likely die.

Chen Rui asked with surprise, “Why is that?”

“This is the beast swarm of the black rainforest. All the demonic beasts in the forest will escape outward. After a while, they will slowly return.” Athena looked feared. “Rumors say that the beast swarm will appear once every few hundred years in the black rainforest, but the reason is still unknown. Even the best demonic beasts hunters, wouldn’t dare to approach the jungle during beast swarm. I can’t believe we actually encounter it.”

Chen Rui smiled and nodded. We actually encounter the “grand prize” that only appears every few hundred years. It seems that this outing’s luck is really good.

After a swarm past, another swarm followed, as if all the demonic beasts in the jungle ran out. Chen Rui felt the horror and anxiety of these creatures from his analysis, but due to the large amount of data and fast speed, he couldn’t discern clearly. He thought of something and asked Athena, “Can you catch a demonic beast? I want to try my beast taming skill to understand why they are like this.”

He could’ve done it himself, but he couldn’t expose himself before Athena, so he made such a request.

Athena didn’t think much and drove Kegu to descend. After circling several times in a small area, there was already a respectively big demonic beast in her hand. It looked like a mole, but it actually had a pair of wings and sharp claws.

Similarly, the emotion of this “mole” was quite frightening. After Chen Rui calmed it for a while and he also let Athena fed it something, it finally calmed slightly. However, the intelligence of this demonic beast wasn’t too high. There were only a few words from its growls, “Devil Fruit! Run!”

Devil fruit [1]? Chen Rui felt a little familiar as if he heard it in an anime before. He was interested suddenly, but unfortunately, the information that the “mole” could provide was too little.

To his surprise, when Athena heard the word “devil fruit”, she suddenly looked extremely shocked.

“Chen Rui! Can you ask for more information? Otherwise, I can catch another one!” It seemed that Athena was very sensitive to this devil fruit. She threw the “mole” and drove the wyvern down to pluck again. The “mole” flapped its wings and followed the escaping crowd in horror.

Athena caught several demonic beasts in succession, but these demonic beasts knew even less. They only knew that a powerful ghost dragon was driving them away. If they don’t escape, they would become the food for ghost dragon. Combining these fragments, Chen Rui analyzed that the devil fruit in the depths of the jungle was ripening and a ghost dragon wanted to eat the fruit, so he drove all these demonic beasts out.

That was probably the reason why the beast swarm appeared in the black rainforest every few hundred years, but Chen Rui was somewhat puzzled. Since the ghost dragon has such a powerful strength, why does it drive away other demonic beast? Is it worried about the fruit being eaten by other demonic beasts? Or is it to block outsiders from taking the fruit?

After listening to Chen Rui’s analysis, Athena thought for a moment and said, “Chen Rui, the devil fruit is very important to me. I must get it! I am going to explore the jungle now. /you can stay here. Don’t land before the beast swarm completely disappear. Escape with the wyvern if there’s really any danger.”

“Wait!” Chen Rui also wanted to take a look. Perhaps it could be a fruit that could provide massive aura. Seeing her wanted to take the risk alone, he quickly said, “Let’s go together!”

“No!” Athena shook her head, “Although I don’t know which type of dragon is the ghost dragon, based on the fact that it could create this beast swarm, its power is definitely quite strong. I just want to try my luck; it’s too dangerous for you.”

“Athena, Mountain Xilang is also dangerous. Why did you accompany me? Don’t worry, I won’t burden you. I have beast taming skill. If it’s really dangerous, I will wait for you at a safe place, okay?”

Seeing that Athena was still hesitating, Chen Rui simply asked, “Aren’t we partners?”

Athena was shocked. Coincidentally, her eyes met Chen Rui’s eyes. Under the cold moonlight, his eyes were particularly fascinating.

Suddenly, Athena lost her shyness and gained warmth and confidence. She took a deep breath and nodded, “Let’s go.”

They controlled the wyverns, lowered their altitude and carefully proceeded in the opposite direction of the beast swarm.

Chen Rui learned from Athena that the devil fruit was a very rare fruit that matured once in a few hundred years; it was highly toxic. However, it had an extraordinary significance for the demons. As everyone knew, although demons were powerful, they had far less potential than humans. Other than the best of the royal family, the remaining demons’ room of improvement was greatly limited. For example, most of the centaurs remained at the level of Intermediate Demon and couldn’t go further. If a Great Demon didn’t have a mutated bloodline, there were basically no hope to break through the limit of Higher Demon. Even Athena, a Great Demon with mutated bloodline, it only increased the probability of breaking the limits to a certain extent. So, the difficulty was still insane.

The devil fruit not only could increase strength, but most importantly, it also had a special effect. That was to greatly enhance the potential of demons and multiply the probability of breaking through the bottleneck by several times. There was even a tiny chance to obtain additional special ability. The premise was that one must endure the deadly poison of the fruit. The stronger someone was, the stronger the poison and effect manifested by the fruit.

For demons, the devil fruit was equivalent to a priceless treasure to break through their limits. No wonder Athena was so moved.

Even for the royal family, other than potential, the grow in strength and the additional special ability were also quite tempting.

The forest was getting thicker; it was no longer suitable for wyvern’s flight. Fortunately, the beast swarm was coming to an end now, so Chen Rui and Athena landed and moved forward carefully while holding the two wyverns.

At that time, there was a low growl in a distance. There was endless ruthlessness and fierceness in the voice. Mengda and Kegu were petrified at the same time; their eyes were filled with horror. In any case, they dared not go any further.

Chen Rui thought for a moment, and he didn’t force the two wyverns to proceed. He left them in place and comforted for a while. Then, he continued to move toward the sound with Athena. Athena intended to let Chen Rui stay, but she couldn’t fight the human’s persistence; they could only move forward together.

Since most of the nearby demonic beasts fled to the outskirts of the jungle, there was no danger along the way. The two gradually approached the source of the sound. Surprisingly, after a while of exploration, Chen Rui and Athena went back to their original place.

“I remember the sound should be in front. Why is like this?” Athena looked suspicious. Chen Rui and Athena had the same impression, but he had one more additional feeling than Athena; a familiar strange feeling.

Wait! This seems to be…

“Chen Rui!” Athena saw that Chen Rui walked straight into a big tree behind the shrub and disappeared. She was shocked inexplicably.

She then saw half of Chen Rui’s body came out of the tree, “Athena, this way!”

Athena went forward with surprise. When she touched the tree, it was truly fake. However, the shrub in front was real. There’s a mixture of real and fake. No wonder we couldn’t find the right path for so long. However, how did Chen Rui find it? It seems that letting him come along is really the right choice.

After Athena walked into the big tree, she felt that the scene in front of her hadn’t changed. However, when Chen Rui came in, she couldn’t see him from the outside. Athena pulled out her greatsword. As she wanted to walk in front to continue exploring the road, she suddenly heard Chen Rui muttered, “Don’t move!”

Chen Rui’s face was very serious, but his eyes had a faint excitement. That was because a new knowledge gained in his brain let him unravel the mystery of this area.

Dragon Inscription! This is the role of Dragon Inscription!

[1] https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Devil_Fruit