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墨書 Inktalez
The further east one travels, the larger and lower the circular Basins become, almost resembling a vast, flat-bottomed pit deep underground. The Toxic Miasma above the Basin grows thicker and does not dissipate at night. From a high vantage point, it looks like a massive stagnant pond, dark green to the point of blackness.
Those various monsters that wanted to sneak into the medicinal garden at night completely disappeared after marking the land number of the Basin. It seems they only venture into Basins One to Five, which are at higher elevations where the Toxic Miasma dissipates at night. This place is one they greatly fear.
This everlasting Toxic Miasma is extremely terrifying; even a slight touch can cause rotting down to the bone. Li Hong personally witnessed a type of dragon that could run fall from the mountainside during a fight. However, upon touching the edge of the Toxic Miasma, it let out a series of agonizing screams as its upper body rapidly decayed while its strong hind legs continued to run. In an instant, its upper body turned into a puddle of pus and bones, collapsing into a heap of blackened remains at the mountain's edge.
The potency of the poison is evident.
When Li Hong entered the Basin to gather herbs, he had to be extremely cautious. He no longer relied on his own cultivation to charge into the Toxic Miasma but activated the Starfire Shield for protection as he flew down. The Basin grew deeper and deeper, and it took a long time to pass through the Toxic Miasma. By the time he reached below, each medicinal garden stretched endlessly before him. Consequently, time was consumed more and more; eventually, it took most of the day to collect all samples of celestial herbs.
The White Jade Box had long been used up, leaving only two—specifically reserved for storing Fragrant Grass and Longan Flower, which could not be easily disturbed. However, Li Hong thought of a good solution. He teamed up with Chu Xi to dig out many extremely hard stones and fashioned them into simple stone Boxes. Each stone Box contained a small piece of Supreme Celestial Stone. Moreover, all these stone Boxes were placed inside the Cosmic Bag. While there was nothing else in the Cosmic Bag, it was filled with piles of Supreme Celestial Stones, making the Multicolored Spiritual Energy inside so dense that even Li Hong could absorb it from outside at any time—not to mention those celestial herbs that thrived on Supreme Celestial Stones. With this dual approach, it ensured that the herbs would not lose their medicinal properties; even ordinary stone Boxes could temporarily store them.
Thus, the issue with the White Jade Box was finally resolved. However, new problems arose.
Li Hong had to go out alone for extended periods every day, which kept getting longer. The Nine Li Sect team often spent half a day waiting on a peak for him. Chu Huai grew increasingly dissatisfied with this situation. He repeatedly suggested that since no other sect disciples were visible now, indicating that no one was lingering here, the Nine Li Sect's participating team should hasten their pace forward instead of stopping at every Basin. There was no need to map out such detailed areas.
Li Hong ignored him. In his mind, nothing was more important than finding Fragrant Grass and Longan Flower; mapping out areas was merely a pretext.
Early one morning, Li Hong took out a piece of specially made silver paper and wrote: "Day Ten, Tenth Peak and Tenth Basin." Just as he put away the silver paper into his Cosmic Bag, Chu Huai stormed over with an angry expression.
"We're not going into Tenth Basin today! We're heading straight for Eleventh Peak!"
Li Hong shook his head indifferently: "No way; I still need to go down and check."
"Check what? It's just passing through Toxic Miasma and wasting half a day’s effort. All these Basins are like big bowls; they’re all the same! You’re wasting everyone’s time!" Chu Huai's eyes blazed with anger, showing no signs of compromise.
Li Hong rolled his eyes inwardly and thought to himself: What do you know? Do you have a Cosmic Bag or a secret mission entrusted by your master?
He was feeling angry inside. Every morning at dawn, Chu Huai would come over and nag him, and today was no exception. It was hard enough not to have to deal with monsters, but now his expression was quite unpleasant.
Chu Xi walked over. She knew Li Hong's secret mission, and although she couldn't tell Chu Huai, she immediately began to support Li Hong: "Chu Huai, have you ever thought about what this competition is really for? What is our purpose in being here?"
"Isn't it obvious? It's to win the competition." Seeing Chu Xi, Chu Huai's expression finally softened a bit.
"Winning the competition is certainly one aspect, but the most important thing is to find out why the production of Heavenly Grain's elixirs is decreasing. This is crucial for our Immortal Sect's plans. Just let Chu Hong continue investigating; he might have some discoveries." Chu Xi patiently explained, but still found it difficult to mention Li Hong's secret mission and had to use this as a reason to persuade Chu Huai.
Chu Huai's expression fluctuated. He recalled what Ling Xuzi had said before they entered, mentioning that he must unconditionally support whatever requests Chu Hong had. So that was the reason! Why didn't his master explain this to him? Why wasn't he allowed to investigate? The jealousy within him began to burn fiercely again.
Chu Huai made up his mind; after all, he was leading the team now and called the shots. Why should he listen to Chu Hong?! Report him? Hmph, it's so dangerous here; who knows if he could even get out!
He forgot a serious issue: if even the highest-ranked Li Hong couldn't get out, how could he?
Li Hong, however, had no intention of bickering with Chu Huai. He stood up and flew down on Lingyi without looking back, a flash of red light signaling the activation of the Starfire Shield. He quickly disappeared into the black-green Toxic Miasma.
"Look! Does he even see me as the captain?" Chu Huai shouted angrily at Chu Xi.
Chu Xi was too lazy to respond further. The more dangerous the situation, the more one could see a person's true character. If in Nine Li Sect Chu Huai still had some semblance of a gentleman, under the pressure and setbacks of these days, he had completely revealed his true nature—suspicious, petty, irritable, and even somewhat lecherous... She calmly said, "Chu Huai should just cultivate while waiting." Then she turned and walked towards the others.
Chuxuan in the crowd had been watching this scene with a calm expression, his composure reaching its peak.
In Tenth Basin, Li Hong began gathering herbs again. These celestial herbs were part of the secret mission given by Spirit Stone and needed to be collected. Now that the issue with the Box had been resolved and there were no more worries, he naturally continued to gather extensively. Each type of sample filled a stone Box. However, gradually an odd feeling began to rise in his heart.
Li Hong noticed that although Tenth Basin was much larger, the variety of celestial herbs was not greater than in the previous basins; each herb garden simply had a larger area but still contained single varieties. Therefore, the number of Boxes used in each Basin was almost identical.
Li Hong found this situation very suspicious.
As he finished gathering herbs for the day, he summoned Lingyi and the Starfire Shield, flying out of the Toxic Miasma. He flew upward for a long time before his surroundings brightened. The sky had darkened, with twinkling stars shining above. Li Hong's gaze flickered; he had spent more time today, and he feared that Chu Huai would be nagging again.
Feeling a bit annoyed, he retracted the Starfire Shield, stepped on Lingyi, and flew towards Tenth Peak.
After flying for a while, a strange feeling surged in his heart again. He stopped to look around and then gazed up at the starry sky.
The starry sky in the Ancient Celestial Field seemed similar to that of Middle-Earth Star, but the positions of the stars were slightly shifted. Therefore, Li Hong never used the stars to determine direction. However, he remembered that every night a bright star would rise from behind the mountain in the east; it had been like this for at least three days. So, he temporarily marked its appearance as due east.
But now, that bright star was still shining in the sky, and the problem was that it was not located at the eastern position of Tenth Peak. Below it was an unfamiliar Peak.
Li Hong's heart began to sink. The terrain in the Ancient Celestial Field indeed changed constantly, even altering directions. This was truly strange. He needed to find Chu Xi and the others immediately.
He stared at that bright star for a long time in contemplation. Suddenly inspired, he decided to try flying in the opposite direction of that star's position. Before long, he indeed saw the familiar Tenth Peak with vague figures at its Summit.
He hurried over, still pondering the strange directional issue.
Chu Huai was not cultivating; instead, he was pacing around the Summit like an ant on a hot pan—now relying on having the Supreme Fire Jade Essence in hand, he often skipped cultivating with everyone to replenish his spiritual energy. Upon seeing Li Hong's figure, he immediately shouted, "He's back! Everyone stop cultivating; I’ve decided we’re setting off tonight. Get up and let's go!"
Chuxuan and the others opened their eyes and stood up after retracting their spiritual energy. Li Hong sighed and reluctantly flew over to persuade them: "It's too dangerous at night, and it seems like directions are strange in the Ancient Celestial Field once night falls. It would be better to wait until daytime to set off."
"You still have the nerve to say that! It's all your fault for wasting everyone's precious time!" Chu Huai's face turned dark as he waved his hand dismissively and said stubbornly, "No need to say more; I've made my decision. We're leaving now. Pairs of two will set off!"
Li Hong felt his head throb with anger; just as he was about to argue recklessly, Chu Xi stepped forward and tugged at Li Hong's sleeve calmly saying, "Since Senior Brother Chu Huai insists on doing this, there must be his reasons. Let's travel through the night."
Li Hong sighed, saying nothing more as he packed up to leave, but he sent a message to Chuxiong, informing him that they needed to stay close.
The starry sky sparkled with countless stars. Li Hong gazed at the heavens for a long time, a strange feeling rising in his heart as he fell into deep thought.
As they flew on, a towering Peak appeared ahead; it should be the Eleventh Peak. Chu Huai, at the front of the group, stopped and took out the Heavenly Grain map from his pocket. He hurriedly marked it with a charcoal pencil, his expression finally looking somewhat better. "We are currently at the Eleventh Peak. Let's rest for an hour before setting off again." He glanced sideways at Li Hong and coldly added, "If you want to scout the Basin below, you only have one hour; otherwise, don't blame us for not waiting."
"You!" Li Hong couldn't hold back any longer and was about to explode.
"Wait! Everyone look closely; this is bad!" Chuxuan's voice was anxious, completely different from his usual calm demeanor.
"What are you shouting about?" Chu Huai scolded.
Chuxuan ignored him and turned to Li Hong. "Sixth Senior Brother is right! The terrain here does change at night. Look, this isn't the Eleventh Peak at all; it's Peak One from our first day here!"
Everyone was immediately shocked. Looking around, even those with poor memories could recognize that this was indeed Peak One, where they had encountered the Bat Swarm on the first night! The ground still bore familiar signs of battle, with a circle of charred black marks clearly indicating the use of Fire Shield.
They had actually returned!
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