The two mountains are close together. From a certain angle, they look like a couple cuddling together.
Local monks call it the Hermaphrodite Mountain.
Entering the basin from the pass of the Hermitage Mountain is one of the safe paths that local monks have explored over countless years. A group of low-level monks gathered on the mountain.
The miasma in the basin is very regular, rising at night and falling back during the day.
Night is the most dangerous.
As soon as the sun sets, they will escape from the basin and wait for the next day's sunrise at the Hermitage Mountain. Those with higher cultivation levels may prepare antidote elixirs and persist in the miasma for a longer time, but stay for a while.
You also need to come out and take a breather.
The Hermitage Mountain was originally very glorious, and once formed a small and medium-sized market. As the resources in this area were exhausted, it gradually declined, and those chambers of commerce also moved to other places.
Now only these low-level monks continue to stay here, barely surviving.
The old scenery is gone.
They entered the dilapidated market, randomly found a few empty houses, took out various bottles, jars, and medicinal herbs, and boiled them into a decoction. Everyone ate a bowl and immediately sweated like pulp to dispel the miasma in their bodies.
I have done this similar move countless times, and I am very skillful.
Everyone regained their energy, talked and laughed, and sorted out the harvest of this trip.
"Alas! There are fewer and fewer medicinal herbs in the area of Nanxiong Mountain. The harvest this time is only 80% of the last time. If this continues, in which year and month will I be able to change to a pair of Hualing Powder?"
The leader was a muscular man with a depressed expression.
"Hey, with the Hua Ling Powder, I can break through to the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage, and I still have to collect spirit stones to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill. One pill may not be enough to break through. Boss, if it's so difficult for you, we don't even dare to think about it. Make some money.
If you have a good family, you can go back and marry ten or eight wives, and if you are lucky enough to have a child with good talents, you will be satisfied," someone joked.
"That's not easy. We found a spiritual flower and distributed it, including a few foundation-building pills. There is a legend that a guy got a top-quality spiritual flower seed, and it is said that the chamber of commerce that took over turned around and
The price increased dozens of times when it was sold to a big shot. Even so, the guy made a fortune and moved his family directly." When the second person in the team talked about this, he looked envious.
The person next to him made a sound, "Second brother just said something irrelevant. The spiritual flower is precious, but it only appears when the miasma is at its most violent. With our little cultivation,
I don’t know how I died when I went in..."
The words have not yet fallen.
The door suddenly creaked and was pushed open from the outside, and two people walked in.
Everyone was shocked and picked up their magic weapons as if facing a formidable enemy.
The leading strong man stared at the two uninvited guests. The more he looked at them, the more frightened he became. He held his companion down and stepped forward, cupping his hands and saying: "Meeting each other means we are destined. It is windy and cold at night. If the two friends are looking for a place to stay, I will ask my brother to share it."
A friend’s room.”
The visitors were none other than Qin Sang and Lu Zhang.
Lu Zhang was eager to find traces of the stone toad, and was too lazy to talk nonsense. He just released a ray of true energy, and the group of people screamed and collapsed, leaving only the strong man with a frightened face.
"Where do the spiritual flowers you just mentioned appear?"
The strong man's legs were weak and his voice was trembling, "Senior Qi, we all heard it from hearsay. I heard it is not fixed every time, but it is probably in the center of the basin. If you want to get accurate information, senior, go west.
There is a market eight hundred miles away, and someone must know about it..."
Lu Zhang nodded slightly, threw a few spiritual stones to the strong man, and turned to leave.
Qin Sang remembered something and interjected: "Do you know what kind of gods are believed in in the nearby village?"
The strong man thought for a while and said cautiously: "Senior, are you talking about the Gu God Cult? The younger generation has heard that they are all things used by businessmen to make money and fool mortals. They spread the Gu God Cult everywhere, using the name of the Gu God Cult
, selling herbs containing psychedelic effects to those villages at high prices... We all don't believe it."
No wonder those mortals are so fanatical.
Taking psychedelic herbal medicines, the body has been affected by the medicine for many years, and coupled with psychological suggestions, the simplest talisman water can also have a certain effect.
If one took this kind of medicine all day long, a mortal's body would collapse long ago.
It only spreads in the mortal world, but the upper level is protected by the Nascent Soul.
Is it really the same force despite such separation?
Qin Sang felt strange secretly.
The two left the Male and Female Mountains and entered Fangshi. After a brief exploration, they braved the heavy miasma and entered the basin without stopping.
The interval between stone toads coming out to absorb the purple gas sometimes lasts for decades.
Moreover, Lu Zhang judged that this stone toad was close to maturity and could transform and escape at any time, so it could not wait outside.
There is a certain area where the stone toad spreads spores, and the main body must be hidden in this area. However, the area is not small, and they need to search for a while, and they are not sure whether it is on the surface or underground.
It is said that there are tunnels underneath the basin, extending in all directions, which are the source of miasma and are very dangerous.
'Huhu...'
Qin Sang and Lu Zhang fell straight to the ground, and the miasma hit their faces, stimulating their true energy to form a protective shield. Looking up again, the rich miasma blocked the moonlight.
Vision and spiritual awareness are affected.
Based on the information collected, Lu Zhang drew a rough range, flew through the miasma for a while, and took out the Baose Bell when he reached the target.
'Ring ring ring...'
In the open basin, the ringing sounds became clearer and crisper.
The precious light formed a halo and spread far away.
Lu Zhang could isolate the sound of the bell nearby, but he could not conceal the fluctuation of the treasure light, otherwise the treasure-colored bell would lose its effect of breaking the illusion.
Ordinary treasures cannot see through the camouflage of the stone toad.
They contacted several chambers of commerce on the way, but did not find a magic weapon that satisfied them, so they could only rely on the Baose Bell. There was no need to separate, one person controlled the Baose Bell, and the other person was on guard, and they took turns.
Lu Zhang held the treasure bell in his palm, nodded to Qin Sang, and began to search.
Qin Sang kept a few feet away from Lu Zhang. When Lu Zhang wasn't paying attention, he let go of the true energy shield and actively induced a wisp of miasma into his body.
The miasma circulated in the body, and Qin Sang did not feel any obvious discomfort.
Obviously, this miasma causes the most damage to the physical body, and the incarnation is the body of the spiritual tree, which can be immune to this damage to a certain extent.
This is a great benefit for subsequent actions.
Qin Sang estimated that it was unlikely to find stone toads on the ground, and they would definitely have to go deep underground.
The cramped underground environment is the source of miasma. It is a big burden to defend against miasma while maintaining the treasure-colored bells. Not to mention the poisonous beasts and insects hidden underground will also be attracted by the fluctuations of the treasure-colored bells and attack them.
Except for them, few people dared to enter the depths of the basin at this time.
I searched all night and didn't find a third person.
As expected, a lot of poisons were attracted during this period, but Qin Sang easily eliminated them all.
By the early morning of the next day, the miasma began to subside. Even if it reached its lowest point, there was still a layer on the ground, and their pressure would not be reduced.
However, their actions were more cautious than at night.
They have found out clearly that although this is not a major repair monastery, there is no lack of Nascent Soul forces in Nanzhou. Too much movement will attract the attention of local snakes and cause trouble.
The two took turns several times before searching the surface. As expected, no stone toads were found, and finally came to the entrance of an underground passage.
There are such entrances everywhere in the entire basin. They are covered with humus. You can see them if you open them. The small ones are as narrow as stone cracks, and the large ones can accommodate dozens of people to enter.
Every entrance is filled with miasma, and at night it will spurt out continuously.
"Get down from here."
Lu Zhang said.
Qin Sang nodded, handed the treasure bell in his hand to Lu Zhang, took out the spirit stone and held it in his hand to restore his true energy.
The road they chose is neither wide nor narrow. It is said that the underground is connected, and there are rarely dead ends, no matter where you enter.
Even during the day, there were only a few monks who dared to go underground.
How deep the underground passage is is still unclear.
Qin Sang and the others were going to measure it themselves.
They decided on a direction, passed through a series of dark passages, and kept going downwards. They couldn't tell how far they went, and finally arrived at a dark passage that they didn't know whether it was the end or not.
The miasma here is as thick as water, like an underground river formed by miasma.
Qin Sang was okay, but Lu Zhang had to spend more real energy to resist the miasma.
"hiss!"
Qin Sang had a headache. "It would probably take two or three months to search this area. I hope the stone toad hasn't moved around."
Lu Zhang did not expect that it would be so troublesome, and said helplessly: "The stone toad before maturity can only move by instinct, and is not very fast. It generally will not leave the nest where it was born... It will delay the Taoist priest for a while."
Qin Sang shook his head, "Since I promised fellow Taoist Lu, I must have a beginning and an end."
The two of them stopped talking and took action silently.
Underground passages crisscross.
Some are straight, some are curved, and the trends are unpredictable.
Fortunately, both of them are Nascent Soul monks, so no matter how complicated the terrain is, they cannot be confused.
Qin Sang constructed a topographic map in his mind.
As time passed, the map gradually became fuller and the dark passages became clearer.
One month has passed in the blink of an eye.
After searching nearly half of the area, there was still no trace of the stone toad, but both of them were determined people and would not waver in their determination.
There are also gains.
Qin Sang got a lot of poisonous beasts, poisonous insect bones and poisonous pills, and went back to give them to Fat Silkworm to see if he liked them. Lu Zhang saw that Qin Sang was interested in these things, so he gave them all to him.
The two walked through a secret passage several thousand feet long.
The end was connected to a stone path. It was the widest secret path they had walked through during this period.
Lu Zhang made a brief observation and then activated the Baose Bell to enter the stone path first.
Qin Sang followed behind.
The precious light illuminated the stone wall on one side, and the sound of the bell echoed around the two of them.
They were like passers-by holding lanterns, walking silently.
After walking like this for a while, Qin Sang's eyes showed suspicion, and he suddenly stopped Lu Zhang, "Friend Lu, something is not normal here. After walking for so long, I didn't see a poisonous insect or beast."
Lu Zhang stopped and his expression became more solemn.
Based on their experience, when this happens, the most likely reason is that the insect beast king's lair is nearby, and other insect beasts dare not approach the king's territory.
During this period, among the poisonous beasts they encountered, the most powerful was a poisonous python in the middle stage of the demon elixir.
Could it be that there is a great demon in the transformation stage or a spirit insect in the fourth transformation here?
The insect beasts that live here are likely to be good at poison resistance. In this special environment, the threat is greatly increased, and they dare not take it too seriously.
Lu Zhang compressed the range of Baose Ling.
Qin Sang grabbed the Snow-Stepping Divine Sword in the palm of his hand.
In this way, they traveled some distance without encountering any attacks.
Just as they were about to walk out of the stone path, a strange sound suddenly came from the depths of the miasma. It was very slight, like the sound of scales rubbing against the ground.
Lu Zhang reacted very quickly and pressed the Baose Bell.
Qin Sang's steps immediately stopped.
The two looked at each other and communicated a few words via voice transmission. Lu Zhang was in front of him to explore the way, while Qin Sang was holding the Snow-Stepping Divine Sword and secretly prepared his powerful hand of profound energy.
The two walked one behind the other, and after walking not far, they saw a dim fire ahead.
The fire flickered.
After walking a few more steps, I finally saw clearly what was ahead.
It turned out to be a ball of fire.
This ball of flame floated on the ground, expanding and contracting for a while. The flame wrapped around a poisonous spider the size of a human head, with weak breath and on the verge of death.
The flames clung to the poisonous spider's body and burned through the poisonous spider's outer shell.
The poisonous spider felt pain and its body convulsed, but it could not resist the flames. In the blink of an eye, its flesh and blood were swallowed up by the flames, leaving only a shell.
Lu Zhang frowned, unable to remember the origin of this flame for a while.
"It's the Corpse Flame Moth!"
Qin Sang said.
He collected secrets on how to control insects everywhere and recognized that it was a poisonous insect.
Corpse flame moths, like rotten phosphorus fireflies, are spiritual insects that live in groups, gathering and scattering like fire. The fire is their disguise, but it is actually the poisonous powder on their bodies, which contains highly toxic substances.
The fire broke away from the poisonous spider corpse.
You can vaguely see that in the firelight, there are dozens of yellow poisonous moths the size of fingernails, huddled together, like the heart of the fire.
"How many are there in a group of corpse flame moths?" Lu Zhang asked in a deep voice.
Qin Sang hesitated and said, "Not necessarily, as few as a thousand, as many as..."
Before he finished speaking, the miasma in front suddenly stirred, and groups of dim yellow firelights lit up one after another, so densely packed that there were thousands of them visible to the naked eye.
Only in such a poisonous place can so many corpse flame moths be bred!
"They found us," Lu Zhang shouted as a halo of light burst out from his body, sweeping the surrounding void, "Toxic powder!"
‘Buzz!’
The buzzing sound suddenly became louder, and in the enclosed underground, the sound seemed to have the power to penetrate the eardrums.
In an instant, all the firelight gathered together, and then rushed towards them, instinctively devouring any living thing they encountered.
There was a bright fire in the stone path.
Endless poisonous powder swept in like a hurricane.
It is unimaginable that such a weak corpse flame moth could launch such an astonishing attack.
Without saying anything, Qin Sang lightly shook his wrist, and the Snow-Stepping Divine Sword shot out a cold light, opening up a snow path.
The sharp sword energy split the fire in half like a piece of wood.
The corpse of the corpse flame moth was frozen into ice melon seeds and fell to the ground, but the group was not affected, dividing and reuniting, and pounced on them one after another.
Lu Zhang's movements were not slow, a green light flashed between his brows, and then his whole body was filled with this green light. Finally, Qin Sang was also covered in it, turning into a blue ancient bell.
The ancient bell protects the body, the green light rolls back towards the insect swarm, and cooperates with the Snow-Stepping Divine Sword to separate the insect swarm.
Just when they were fighting the swarm of insects.