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Without waiting for Li Hong to take action, a White Shadow darted in front of the tree.
The cool night breeze lifted Hui Feng's white skirt, her expression as calm as usual. Her face, resembling that of a Flower Beauty, was cold and detached, as if nothing mattered to her. However, the moment she saw Li Hong and Chu Xi, a glimmer of Crystal Light flickered in her tranquil starry eyes.
She slowly stepped forward, hands behind her back, and coldly said, "There are many monsters inside; let's not go in for now. We will discuss it later."
This indicated that she had already done some preliminary scouting and found many monsters in the mountains, suggesting they should wait for others before proceeding.
Li Hong smiled wryly. This girl, though only a few years older than him, acted so maturely and spoke so sparingly. Not wanting to say much, he could only clasp his hands and say, "Thank you, Sister Huifeng, for your advice."
Hui Feng nodded without saying anything further. However, she then took to the air on her sword and followed closely beside Li Hong, clearly determined not to leave his side.
Only she had entered Qixia Palace; the Ancient Celestial Field was very dangerous, so it was best to team up. Dai Yunzi had already entrusted the disciples of Nine Li Sect to look after her. Hui Feng following was expected. However, Li Hong felt somewhat overwhelmed. He preferred dealing with straightforward people, but this Hui Feng was a female disciple known for her beauty from Qixia Palace, making things somewhat awkward. Moreover, her demeanor made interactions uncomfortable; even though she was a stunning beauty, she had an air that made one feel stifled.
Li Hong silently lamented that if he had to face this porcelain-like North Wind face for three months, it would be terrifying. More importantly, it would greatly hinder his plans for gathering herbs; he needed to take some precautions. He smiled at his companion Chu Hai and said, "Junior Brother, you know Sister Huifeng; I won't say much more. I'll leave it to you!"
Chu Hai had a round face and slightly dark skin; he was an honest person. But being part of Nine Li Sect meant he was smart enough to understand that Li Hong wanted him to engage with Hui Feng. He sneaked a glance at Hui Feng but was met with her icy stare, causing his heart to skip a beat. Chu Hai quickly forced a smile and said, "I hope Sister Huifeng will take good care of me."
Hui Feng couldn't even be bothered to respond; she turned her head away and flew closer to Li Hong on her snow-colored Flying Sword.
Li Hong felt a headache coming on and thought he needed to find a way to get her away from him—of course, while ensuring safety.
After discussing for a while, they decided to search along the mountain's edge first—regardless of where Chuxiong and the others had been transported to, they would likely enter the mountain eventually. Perhaps they would encounter them along the way.
As dawn broke gradually in the sky after some twists and turns, they finally reunited with Chuxiong. However, Chuxiong was not alone; he was with Chu Huai and others. He flew over excitedly upon seeing Li Hong and Chu Xi, his eyes narrowing into slits as he cackled with joy.
At this point, all the participating disciples from Nine Li Sect had finally gathered.
Chu Huai resolved to take charge; seeing everyone present, he assumed a leader's posture and began addressing them: "The true purpose of this competition doesn't need me to elaborate; you all understand well enough. Regardless of any grievances among our elders, we must focus on our own tasks. Each of you has a map; mark any anomalies or discrepancies with the original map. You might not know yet that whichever sect places in the top three in this new disciple competition will receive full allocations of Elixir Heavenly Grain for the next ten years. This is significant for our sect; Nine Li Sect has always ranked fifth among Immortal Sects; we must improve our standing this time! Everyone needs to be spirited up—be united and follow orders." At this point, he cast a faint glance at Li Hong and continued: "Some people rely on their little cleverness and look down on others; they must remember this is the Ancient Celestial Field! If one person's selfishness jeopardizes our sect's major affairs and tarnishes Nine Li Sect's reputation, I will not tolerate it and will report truthfully to our Master upon returning!"
Li Hong's eyes sparked with irritation at his words but managed to suppress his anger after some thought.
He decided not to argue with this hypocrite; as long as what he did made sense, there would be no need for conflict. If he acted wrongly, should everyone else risk their lives alongside him? He wouldn't do that! At worst, he could gather herbs and leave!
Chuxuan and Chu Liang immediately moved closer to Chu Huai, clearly indicating their stance. Chu Xi slowly approached Li Hong while Chuxiong did the same. Only Chu Hai scratched his head awkwardly; having originally stood close to Li Hong, he subtly distanced himself by a few steps and ended up standing between two groups that were already starting to draw lines—resulting in an awkward situation for him.
Hui Feng Wen Si stood motionless beside Li Hong, which made Chu Huai's expression even more severe.
The team began to enter the mountains. Li Hong excused himself to take care of a personal matter and fell a few steps behind. He took out a strange, shimmering silver piece of paper from the Cosmic Bag and a specially made Vermilion pen, starting to write and draw on the silver paper.
"June 25, Day One, Entering the Mountains."
The bright red writing began to disappear one by one after a while. Li Hong paid no attention and started drawing shapes, annotating directions and approximate locations next to them. After some time, the shapes and annotations vanished again.
Li Hong then put away the silver paper and the special Vermilion pen into the Cosmic Bag and caught up with the team.
This was one of the secret missions entrusted to him by Spirit Stone: to keep a diary and privately draw a map of the Ancient Celestial Field. With the Cosmic Bag, he could hide any secret, and no one would suspect that such an inconspicuous Nine Li Sect Disciple as Li Hong possessed this near-Celestial Artifact treasure. Moreover, Spirit Stone had also provided Li Hong with many additional items.
These items would definitely come in handy over the next three months.
********
This mountain was very Strange, stretching endlessly from beginning to end, towering almost to the sky, appearing abruptly before them. The most Strange thing was that everything inside the mountain had shadows of Middle-Earth's features but was distinctly different from Middle-Earth.
For example, there were dragons here as well, but these dragons were vastly different; they had wings and could fly but were even better at running. With their strong hind legs pounding rapidly, each step could crush large areas of trees and jungle. There were also many strange birds, both large and small; the larger ones were likely spirit beasts that seemed intelligent. Whether they could cultivate was still unclear, but they all fought fiercely. All the birds looked bizarre, some completely featherless, resembling monkeys with two fleshy wings—ugly enough to leave one speechless.
Inside the mountain were various ancient Strange Snakes and insects that looked astonishing just by their appearance, many of which were highly venomous. Everyone witnessed a caterpillar-like colorful flesh worm fall onto a green Monkey Bird's head. The Monkey Bird began to ooze green liquid from its head, melting away from within until it turned into a puddle of green water right before everyone's eyes.
From that moment on, everyone started to be cautious about whether similar caterpillar-like toxins would fall from above.
Countless Strange creatures filled this place. The trees grew in ways that were vastly different from those in Middle-Earth. For instance, there were large trees resembling bamboo; although they looked like bamboo on the outside, they could grow as thick as several people could embrace—indeed trees. There were all sorts of strange flowers and plants that were too numerous to count.
To survey the terrain and scenery, the team slowly flew into the mountain at a height of three feet above ground, weaving through the woods. As they ventured deeper into the mountain, various Strange Creatures became more abundant and larger in size, sending chills down their spines.
At this point, everyone realized that the map they had was far too rough and simplistic.
This was a map issued uniformly by Heavenly Grain; it depicted a mountain range running east-west with a general direction that wasn’t incorrect. However, when everyone reached the first Peak before them and looked around, they discovered that the mountainous terrain here was quite Strange.
Almost every four or five peaks formed a circular Basin; this Basin was not small in area and was obscured by layers of greenery within it. Occasionally, there seemed to be reflections of water light. A series of circular Basins continued endlessly with surrounding peaks extending east-west; at first glance, it resembled an infinitely elongated chain of linked rings. The edges were nowhere in sight.
The map issued by Heavenly Grain did not detail this much; it only marked some higher peaks. For example, beneath their feet was marked with a "One," followed by another peak marked "Two" on its right side. That peak appeared to be at least fifty miles away on their right side; none of the nearby lower peaks were marked out either, let alone any Basins.
Why is this map so hastily made? It is quite strange.
On the map, there are about fifty or sixty peaks marked with numerical symbols, which means that this Ancient Celestial Field stretches at least over a thousand miles! Its vast area is quite astonishing.
The Kunlun Cave is the largest among the Nine Major Sects of the Immortal Sect, covering a radius of a thousand miles, yet this Ancient Celestial Field is not inferior to Kunlun and produces countless precious elixirs that only exist in the Immortal Realm. Li Hong immediately thought of a question: with such a good cave, where one man can hold off ten thousand—there's only one passage leading outside—why don't the people from Heavenly Grain simply move in and make it their cave?
Once he thought of this question, everyone else did too. Chu Xi's beautiful brows furrowed slightly, and a thoughtful expression appeared on her face.
Chuxiong was the first to break the silence. He scratched his scalp and muttered to himself, "Maybe it's because there are too many poisonous insects and strange beasts inside; these creatures are too toxic and fierce, making it inconvenient to live here."
Li Hong nodded at first but then shook his head after thinking for a moment. "That's not right. I haven't been to other places in Middle-Earth or the Nine Great Caves, but there are certainly plenty of spirit beasts and strange beasts in our Nine Li Sect. With more people, we have greater strength. After all these years, even if we can't subdue them all, at least we could carve out a few safe places for cultivation. I don't think that's the reason."
Chu Huai felt similarly puzzled but didn't want to show it on his face. He cleared his throat and said loudly, "Let's not guess aimlessly here. Searching through each mountain peak will surely lead us to the answer. We don't have many Pills of Starvation with us; if we find anything edible or clean water sources, we shouldn't let them go. During the day, we'll use our swords to scout ahead, and at night we'll cultivate to replenish the spiritual energy consumed during the day. Let's avoid provoking those strange things. Everyone must remember my words! Now let's set off on our swords and head down to that Basin first."
Saying this, Chu Huai took the lead on his Flowing Spring sword, hovering five feet above the ground to signal everyone to follow.
Li Hong did not object. He also wanted to check out that Basin below because he had just sensed an extremely faint familiar aura coming from it.
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