Chapter 441: Such Is the Cause, Such Is the Condition

Duan Rong traveled through the Dark Forest.

Although the location of the Black Fire Lotus was still on the outer periphery of the Dark Forest, it was significantly deeper than where Duan Rong had previously hunted Origin Beasts, so Duan Rong was even more cautious now, his Divine Sense fully extended to shroud the surroundings.

He had not encountered any accidents along the way, and he had avoided every Origin Beast, whether large or small.

He had not come to hunt Origin Beasts this time and did not want to invite extra trouble.

Besides, there was still plenty of Beast Meat in the Black Jade Pool of the Cultivation Secret Chamber that had yet to be refined.

Duan Rong locked onto his direction and proceeded forward.

Before long, he suddenly saw strange light and shadows flickering in and out of view through the gaps in the trees ahead.

Duan Rong immediately stopped in his tracks, hid behind a large rock, and his gaze flickered.

Those strange light and shadows in the forest were flickering back and forth like floating, fleeting light...

Moreover, that place was still a considerable distance from Duan Rong, even beyond the range of his Divine Sense, and it was only because the Dark Forest was inherently dim that Duan Rong could see it from afar.

Hiding behind the large rock, Duan Rong braced himself with twelve-fold vigilance.

Fan Hongjiao had said that in the Dark Forest, strange plants were even more dangerous than Origin Beasts.

"What exactly is that strange light flickering between the tree gaps ahead?"

Duan Rong crawled onto the ground and slowly snuck toward that place.

Before long, his Divine Sense had already shrouded that area.

He saw that it was a cliff face with a black hole on it, which seemed to be the lair of some kind of Origin Beast.

And beneath the cliff was a deep pool.

The surface of the pool was covered with pure black lotus flowers, lotus leaves, and lotus seed pods.

The lotus leaves and seed pods were fine; they were just as black as ink and had no other strange qualities.

However, the lotus flowers dotted among the leaves and pods—whether budding, in full bloom, or withered—all had their stamens and petals burning with thick black fire.

A light breeze blew, and the black lotuses swayed gently with the wind...

The shadows of the black fire flickered incessantly, like ghosts dancing in chaos.

When Duan Rong's Divine Sense perceived this, he breathed a slight sigh of relief; he had thought he had encountered some demons or monsters, but it turned out he had reached the place of the Black Fire Lotus.

However, this Black Fire Lotus was indeed strange enough; the fire shadows looked truly chilling from afar in the dark night.

Duan Rong stood up and walked slowly toward the spot, though his Divine Sense kept scanning the surroundings, not daring to relax in the slightest.

Duan Rong approached, slipped behind a large tree, and looked toward the cliff and the deep pool.

The surface of the pool was filled with pure black lotus leaves and seed pods, with clusters of black fire dotted in between; in an environment of endless darkness, the strange scene before him made Duan Rong's whole body feel waves of cold.

It was as if this were an illusion that could only appear in the deepest hell, yet it was manifesting so realistically before his eyes.

Duan Rong's gaze shifted, and he locked onto a lotus seed pod that had poked its head out from between the lotus leaves nearest to him.

That black lotus seed pod was plump with full seeds; it was precisely the Black Fire Lotus seeds he had come to obtain.

Although that lotus seed pod did not seem too far from him—only about two zhang away—Duan Rong did not use his movement technique to go over and pick it; his eyes stared at the lotus-covered pool and the cave on the cliff, his cold gaze flickering back and forth.

He knew that these Black Fire Lotus seeds were very important to the fire toad in the pool and the fire weasel in the cliff cave. That stuff was of great benefit to the growth of these two Origin Beasts.

They would absolutely not allow anyone to pick them away.

In Wu Shidao's records, it was only mentioned that the fire toad and fire weasel were difficult to deal with, but their abilities were not recorded in detail.

Duan Rong was not prepared to rush in rashly; after all, there were two Origin Beasts here. And his Divine Soul Illusion Bewilderment could currently only control one Origin Beast.

In other words, he had to rely on his strength to kill one Origin Beast before he could safely pick the lotus seed pod.

"I should first understand the habits of these two Origin Beasts..." Duan Rong stood there and muttered to himself.

At the very least, he had to see their forms so he could play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, deciding which Origin Beast to control with Divine Soul Illusion and which one to kill with raw power.

Observing the two Origin Beasts would obviously take quite a bit of time, so Duan Rong decided to find a place convenient for observation.

He chose a good position and was just about to hide in the canopy of that large tree when he suddenly discovered that the tree seemed to have been burned before, and then grown lush branches and leaves again.

Consequently, a large section of its trunk was actually hollow.

Duan Rong smiled slightly.

If he hid inside the trunk, his field of vision would be better than observing through the gaps in the branches from the canopy.

His figure moved, and like a ghost, he slipped into the hollow, burned trunk.

Hiding inside the trunk, Duan Rong's fingertips flashed with faint Origin Qi, and he tapped the trunk three times; three small holes immediately appeared in the trunk before his eyes.

Through those three small holes, Duan Rong could almost take in the entire area before him.

After hiding himself in the trunk, he withdrew his probing Divine Sense.

Since entering the Dark Forest, his Divine Sense had been fully extended, and this place of the Black Fire Lotus was quite deep; keeping his Divine Sense extended for the whole journey was quite taxing on his Divine Soul.

Therefore, he withdrew his Divine Sense to rest for a while; he would still need to use Divine Soul Illusion when necessary.

Moreover, since he was hidden in the trunk and this place was so secluded, there was no immediate danger, so there was no need to keep his Divine Sense in an open state. That would actually make it easier to be exposed.

Duan Rong withdrew his Divine Sense and stared through the small holes at the quiet pool; he knew the fire toad was hiding in the depths of that water.

Just as he was staring intently at the pool, a strand of Divine Sense suddenly passed over his head, clearly sweeping through the canopy of this large tree.

"Someone?!"

Duan Rong was startled, shrank his head, and immediately held his breath.

Almost at the same time, through the small holes in the trunk, he saw a figure flash out from the edge of the dense forest diagonally opposite.

The figure was slender, holding a Long Sword, and dressed in a pale green dress.

The fire shadows from the Black Fire Lotus reflected off her cold and beautiful face.

"It's Lv Qingzhu!?" Duan Rong's gaze was one of astonishment.

Lv Qingzhu stood not far from the pool, like a solitary, desolate flower in the darkness.

Duan Rong stared at her for a while, and suspicion began to rise in his heart. Why would Lv Qingzhu come here? It couldn't be that she came to hunt the two Origin Beasts, the fire toad and the fire weasel. Even Wu Shidao had marked those two Origin Beasts as difficult to deal with, let alone Lv Qingzhu, who hadn't even advanced to the Qi Cyclone Realm yet.

Duan Rong suddenly noticed Lv Qingzhu's gaze, which was fixed intently on a Black Fire Lotus seed pod by the pool not far from her.

"Is she also here for the seeds of the Black Fire Lotus?!"

Just as Duan Rong was startled and suspicious, Lv Qingzhu had already flashed into the canopy of a large tree beside her.

After a rustling flurry of movement from the tree's branches and leaves, it fell into silence.

Lv Qingzhu had clearly scanned this area with her Divine Sense just now, but when she swept over the place where Duan Rong was hiding, she only scanned the dense canopy and did not notice that the tree trunk was hollow.

Although this tree had been burned, its branches and leaves were very lush, obscuring the exposed hollow part of the trunk; if one did not walk close and look, it was indeed not easy to discover.

Duan Rong hid inside the tree trunk, his eyes flickering. Since Lv Qingzhu was also here for the Black Fire Lotus seeds, and he was hidden in this hollow trunk without being exposed, he could very well remain calm and reap the benefits.

After Lv Qingzhu dealt with those two Origin Beasts and left after picking the seed pods, he could go out and pick them himself.

He did not believe that Lv Qingzhu could pick the entire pool of seed pods clean.

Just as Lv Qingzhu hid in the canopy, about half a stick of incense later.

Suddenly, bubbles began to emerge incessantly from the lotus leaves in the pool, and then a patch of lotus leaves near the bank began to shake; a black shadow crawled out from the edge of the deep pool.

That thing was soaking wet, its size like two sturdy men stacked together, and its back was like a festering sore, covered in poisonous boils.

The Fire Toad had blood-red eyes; as it crawled onto the bank of the pool, it suddenly opened its large mouth, and a tongue as red as fire whipped out, snatching a seed pod and rolling it back into its mouth.

The Fire Toad swallowed the seed pod and let out a satisfied cry; at this moment, a graceful figure suddenly vaulted out from the dense branches and leaves of the canopy not far away.

The moment that figure vaulted out, the Fire Toad noticed it, and a flash of irritability crossed its blood-red eyes, clearly very angry that someone was disturbing its meal.

But just as it was about to spit out its tongue to coil around the person in the air, a flickering fluorescent light suddenly appeared before its eyes.

That fluorescent light was like a firefly in the dark night.

When Duan Rong saw that flickering fluorescent light through the small hole in the tree trunk, his heart trembled instantly.

"It's Bewilderment!?"

"Lv Qingzhu has also mastered Divine Soul Illusion!"

Only now did Duan Rong finally understand why Lv Qingzhu, like him, had come here to pick these Black Fire Lotus seeds.

It turned out that her Womb Treasury Sutra had also reached the eleventh level, and she was going to practice the twelfth level.

No wonder she was alone when he encountered Lv Qingzhu in the Dark Forest last time.

She was also using Bewilderment to hunt Origin Beasts, so being alone was sufficient.

He had encountered Lv Qingzhu both times he came down to the Dark Forest; he wondered if it was just a fated connection.

However, Duan Rong was still very curious.

He relied on Devouring Tree Spirit to be able to cultivate the Womb Treasury Sutra to the twelfth level in such a short time.

The light threads contained in the Tree Spirit were exactly the light threads that the Four Great Divine Statues stripped and extracted from the thick fog within the Spirit Sea during the cultivation of the Womb Treasury Sutra.

These two types of light threads were the same source of the Divine Soul.

Therefore, during cultivation, the light threads within the Tree Spirit were directly absorbed by the Womb Treasury Sutra.

It was by this stroke of luck that Duan Rong was able to quickly achieve the Womb Treasury Sutra, which was originally extremely difficult to master, level by level.

How did Lv Qingzhu manage to achieve the eleventh level of the Womb Treasury Sutra and master the Divine Soul Illusion Bewilderment in such a short time?

Duan Rong suddenly remembered a sentence Zhu He had told him.

Zhu He said that behind Lv Qingzhu was the Sect Ancestor, and even as a master, he had to give her three points of deference.

"The Ancestor of the Taiyi Sect, Lv Yinlin!"

Clearly, Lv Qingzhu being able to achieve the eleventh level of the Womb Treasury Sutra must have been due to the Taiyi Sect Ancestor using some means to assist her cultivation.

At this time, at the edge of the Black Fire Lotus pool, the Fire Toad was like a statue, motionless, with its tongue hanging by its mouth.

Lv Qingzhu's figure was like a ghost, flashing in front of the Fire Toad; with a flash of her Sword and the infusion of Origin Qi, she sliced open the Fire Toad's belly.

The spurting fresh blood sprayed all over her face.

The most formidable thing about this Fire Toad was its tongue; Martial Artists found it difficult to get close and were often forced back by it.

And the Fire Toad's greatest weakness was its belly; this was the softest part of its entire body, and it was not covered in poisonous tumors like its back.

The Fire Toad's internal organs and filthy blood flowed all over the ground; it was dead beyond any doubt, and a thick, pungent smell of blood began to permeate the edge of the pool...

Just after the Fire Toad died, a scarlet shadow suddenly darted out from the pitch-black cave on the cliff wall.

That shadow was like a ball of fire, its speed as fast as a ghost, attacking Lv Qingzhu at the edge of the pool.

It was the other Origin Beast, the Fire Weasel.

This Fire Weasel and the Fire Toad had been together for many years and had long since developed an attachment; seeing the Fire Toad die at this moment, it was even more manic.

After Lv Qingzhu killed the Fire Toad, she was already holding her Long Sword, staring intently at the cave.

She knew the Fire Weasel would definitely smell the blood and come out to attack.

This was also the plan she had devised beforehand: first use Bewilderment to kill the Fire Toad, then engage in a tangled fight with the Fire Weasel.

The Fire Weasel flashed around Lv Qingzhu, just like a ball of fire dancing wildly around her in the dark night.

Lv Qingzhu's heart was sinking bit by bit; the Fire Weasel's speed was unexpectedly this fast, and her Sword shadows had been swung to the limit, yet she still could not injure it in the slightest.

Lv Qingzhu quickly adjusted her tactics, changing from offense to defense; she believed that the Fire Weasel's bizarre speed could not be maintained forever.

Sure enough, after the Fire Weasel circled her and attacked several times, its speed seemed to have slowed down a bit.

After the Fire Weasel's speed slowed down, Lv Qingzhu suddenly launched an attack, her Sword edge fiercely assaulting the Fire Weasel, putting the Fire Weasel in precarious danger.

Suddenly, one of Lv Qingzhu's sword strikes was thrusting toward the Fire Weasel's neck from behind; it looked like she was about to succeed, and she was even striking the Fire Weasel's vital point.

But just at this moment, a large cloud of thick yellow gas suddenly sprayed out from the Fire Weasel's rear.

Duan Rong, inside the tree hole, saw that cloud of thick yellow gas through the small hole, instantly enveloping Lv Qingzhu.

The Fire Weasel's fart was its true killing move!

The moment the yellow gas sprayed out, Lv Qingzhu immediately held her breath, but it was already too late; although it was only a thin wisp of gas, it had darted into her nasal cavity.

Yet she was still gagging from the stench, and she almost failed to hold her breath.

The Fire Weasel's fart is not only incredibly foul-smelling, but also has a potent anesthetic effect.

Lv Qingzhu's vision went black, and the hand gripping her Sword had already gone weak and limp.

At this very moment, the Fire Weasel's sharp claws slashed toward her throat.

In the instant before she fainted, Lv Qingzhu saw a figure leap out from within a tree trunk not far away.

A person was actually hidden inside that tree trunk?!

But regardless of whether that person was there to save her or harm her, it was already too late, because the Fire Weasel's sharp claws were only half an inch away from slicing open her throat.

"Am I going to die?"

In the moment before Lv Qingzhu was about to die, a dark-complexioned figure seemed to stand right before her eyes, looking at her with a very handsome smile.

She cursed him with a smile, "It's you again," and then passed out.

(End of chapter)