Chapter 573: Remains Like a Mountain

Duan Rong stepped out of that half-meter-wide stone crevice and into the bright daylight.

A little over a zhang away, the few people who had been sitting cross-legged resting stood up with a start the moment they saw Duan Rong emerge, all of them looking at him with expressions of astonishment.

Duan Rong had previously said he would wait for him for an hour, but by current calculations, he had only been inside for a little over the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Seeing Duan Rong's calm expression, Guo Tian asked, "Brother Duan, have you obtained the Green Flame Grass of a mature age?"

Duan Rong said, "I obtained three stalks; that is enough."

Hearing this, the expressions of the group shifted slightly.

What they were surprised by was not the three stalks of Green Flame Grass. Although Green Flame Grass was a Divine Medicine with quite miraculous effects, its value was actually not very high; the greatest drawback of this Divine Medicine lay in the difficulty of preserving it—after being brought out of the God-Demon Relic, it had to be used within a few hours, or it would lose its medicinal properties.

The reason the group's expressions shifted was that Duan Rong had actually been able to obtain the Green Flame Grass in such a short time and retreat unscathed. One had to know that there was a ghost infant Evil Spirit in that space!

This once again proved that Duan Rong indeed possessed secret methods for dealing with Evil Spirits.

The group felt certain in their hearts about Duan Rong's safe return; after all, with a powerful teammate like Duan Rong in the party, their own safety was better guaranteed.

But in the crowd, Su Xinjue's heart was swept by heavy disappointment; standing beside Jiang Hanyan, she could not help but cast a sidelong glance at Duan Rong.

Just at this moment, Duan Rong abruptly turned his head to look at Jiang Hanyan, and in that instant, Duan Rong's cold, sharp gaze swept over Su Xinjue, whether intentionally or not. Su Xinjue was startled, a flash of panic crossing her eyes.

Duan Rong, however, said, "How is the ghost infant's kiss on Jiang Hanyan's neck doing now?"

Su Xinjue was stunned for a moment, only then realizing that Duan Rong was asking her, and replied, "No... no changes..."

Duan Rong could see that Jiang Hanyan's mental state seemed poor, and he did not know if it was caused by the shock and trauma she had suffered or if it was the influence of that ghost infant's kiss.

Guo Tian suddenly said, "Let us continue on our way! It is not very peaceful here."

As Guo Tian spoke, he glanced at the space beneath the collapsed rubble a zhang away. There was an Evil Spirit in there! If it were not for waiting for Duan Rong, they would never have stayed so close to an Evil Spirit for long.

Looking at Guo Tian's expression, Duan Rong knew what he meant. Guo Tian and the others were clearly very afraid of that ghost infant Evil Spirit. After all, Jiang Hanyan's state was right there; if they stayed here, no one could guarantee that they would not be the next Jiang Hanyan.

Duan Rong said, "Let us go. This place is indeed not a place to linger."

The group followed the markings on the map and continued walking forward.

Walking during the bright daytime, there was basically no need for much vigilance, because the visibility was wide during the day, and if there were any unusual movements, they would be able to spot abnormalities from far away.

Although Jiang Hanyan's state was poor, she was still able to mechanically keep up while traveling with the group.

Duan Rong walked at the back, looking at the back of Jiang Hanyan's neck, where the ghost infant's lip print appeared quite eerie; after looking at it for a long time, it even gave a sense of being vivid and lifelike.

As he watched, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. "That's not right! That lip print is the main body of the Evil Spirit..."

To say it that way was actually not quite accurate. A more precise way to put it was that the lip print was a part manifested from the ghost infant Evil Spirit's main body, and it was very likely to possess intelligence.

Duan Rong stared again at the lifelike, somewhat agile blue-black lip print for a while, a strange look flashing in his eyes.

That lip print reminded him of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's eerie methods by the water pool. That was the Red Bridal Veil that floated and spun on its own in the night sky, and under every Red Bridal Veil was a pale ghost face.

Duan Rong felt that the relationship between the ghost infant's kiss lip print and the pale ghost face under the Red Bridal Veil and their respective Evil Spirit main bodies was actually similar.

That is to say, they were all manifested by the Evil Spirit's main body, were some kind of eerie attack method possessing intelligence, and they should all be part of the Evil Spirit's main body.

Duan Rong remembered that by the water pool, the first time he used the Soul Piercing Needle to pierce the pale ghost face under the Red Bridal Veil above his head, that ghost face turned into a wisp of white smoke. In that instant, the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's body clearly trembled.

Duan Rong was very certain that destroying one pale ghost face caused damage to the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's main body; otherwise, the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit would not have finally retracted all those Red Bridal Veils and pale ghost faces into the thick darkness beneath its feet.

Likewise, this ghost infant's kiss lip print was also manifested from the ghost infant Evil Spirit's main body. The ghost infant Evil Spirit's main body was hidden deep within its lips.

Duan Rong then thought that there seemed to be a great connection between this ghost infant Evil Spirit and the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, because the attack methods of these two Evil Spirits had an inherent similarity.

Although the outward appearances were different, the underlying laws beneath the appearances were shockingly similar.

It was just that, by the water pool, because Duan Rong had used the Soul Piercing Needle to destroy three of the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit's pale ghost faces in succession, the rest were retracted by the Evil Spirit into its main body. Therefore, those pale ghost faces did not achieve any success; otherwise, Duan Rong could have even deduced the true evil nature of this ghost infant's kiss from the attack effects of those pale ghost faces.

Duan Rong was immersed in the deep thought of his logical deduction when he suddenly heard a chorus of gasps of shock from the team!

Thinking something had happened, he immediately raised his eyes to look around!

But he saw that five or six zhang ahead, a gray-white mountain lay horizontally there, blocking their path!

"This is..." When Duan Rong saw that strange gray-white mountain, a flash of astonishment also crossed his face.

Because Duan Rong had been deep in thought about the Evil Spirit, he had not looked at the map much during this time, and the group's itinerary planning had always been done by Guo Tian. He was relatively at ease with Guo Tian.

That gray-white mountain was actually not a mountain, but the body of a God-Demon! A corpse whose soul had dissipated and which had not decayed for ten thousand years!

The God-Demon's ten-thousand-year-old undecayed corpse was so huge, lying horizontally there, blocking the group's path.

Although they were separated by a distance of five or six zhang, the pressure of a tiger's lingering might still faintly reached them.

The corpse was entirely gray-white, covered in eerie wrinkles, just like some kind of stone. The God-Demon was lying face down on the ground; although its face could not be seen, its skull was bald, like a mountain peak that was extremely difficult to climb.

Lin Youjian and Liu Su had told them during training about the immense size of God-Demon bodies, but seeing it with one's own eyes, even from a distance, still gave one a sense of shock that penetrated the body—it was something words could not describe!

The God-Demon's body was actually this huge!

Could it be that in the endless ages past, this Jiuzhou Continent was the world of Gods and Demons?

They found it truly hard to imagine how such a huge body could walk between heaven and earth! It was just like ants being unable to imagine an elephant!

Duan Rong also opened the map, searching for their location on it.

At this time, he heard Guo Tian say, "We must climb onto this God-Demon body, walk across its torso, and then walk down from where its right hand hangs, and we will be able to enter the next main road."

Duan Rong looked at the markings on the map regarding this place; they were actually walking a zigzag line on the God-Demon body, turning from the current path into another, quite distant path.

Duan Rong's eyelids twitched slightly. This God-Demon body here was somewhat similar to the elevated bridges in the cities of Blue Star in his past life.

The map marked it very clearly: where to climb from, which route to follow, and where to walk down from, as if this God-Demon body were truly a large mountain.

Since the map had already marked it very clearly, the group walked toward the ten-thousand-year-old undecayed God-Demon corpse.

According to the map's markings, they were to climb upward from the left foot of the God-Demon body.

Looking at the tilted foot-mountain in front of them with the sole facing downward, once they saw the terrain here, the group knew why the map marked that they should climb up from here.

Because the foot was tilted and extended there, and the sole of the foot was full of wrinkled creases; to them, those were all footholds for climbing.

The group first climbed onto the little toe closest to them, which was basically already buried in the soil.

The group leaped lightly and jumped up, then they climbed over a shallow groove and followed the sole of the foot upward.

Lu Chu laughed while climbing, "If this giant were alive, wouldn't we be tickling him by climbing like this?!"

Du Wan even crawled into the depths of a fold, sniffed hard, and said, "This God-Demon corpse not only hasn't rotted in ten thousand years, but it doesn't even have a strange odor."

Duan Rong knitted his brows, thinking to himself: What kind of habits do these two have!

The group soon crawled past the soles of the feet, climbed from the side of the heel onto the ankle, and finally climbed onto the calf of the God-Demon corpse's left leg.

That calf was like a vast, distant hillside; standing there, one could see two huge, towering peaks in the distance, which were precisely the two buttocks of the God-Demon corpse.

Looking at those two towering peaks, Du Wan suddenly asked a rather poetic question. "You tell me, is this God-Demon a man or a woman?"

This question left everyone stunned.

Lu Chu said, "The instructor never taught us this! Do God-Demons even have genders?"

"Nonsense!" Du Wan couldn't be bothered with Lu Chu and just stared at the two huge, towering peaks in the distance.

"Stop dawdling back there, you two!? Hurry up and keep up!" Guo Tian suddenly turned his head to look at Du Wan and Lu Chu, who had fallen behind the group and were still studying it there, and roared.

"Coming!" the two replied, then picked up their pace to catch up.

The God-Demon was lying there; the way they were doing it, it was impossible to study it clearly at all.

The God-Demon's body had a hard texture and was covered in skin textures, making it very easy to walk on; the group soon climbed over one of the two peaks and stood on the tailbone of the giant's corpse.

Standing here, one could see the entire back of the God-Demon's body, vast and spreading, slightly undulating like a plateau.

The group knew they had to walk across this plateau, turn toward his right arm at the giant's shoulder, and walk down along his right arm.

"Humans are like ants!" Xu Hui suddenly sighed out of the blue.

Xu Hui's casual remark seemed to strike a chord in everyone's hearts; Du Wan, Lu Chu, and the others all looked at Xu Hui with dazed expressions!

The group stared blankly at his expression, which made Xu Hui feel somewhat embarrassed.

Guo Tian said, "Let's go!"

After Guo Tian finished speaking, he immediately strode forward, Xu Hui followed immediately, and everyone else followed the group as well.

They walked for a distance when suddenly Du Wan pointed to a certain place in the distance and said with an ugly expression, "Is there a red dot over there?"

Hearing this, everyone looked toward the place Du Wan was pointing! Upon looking, they couldn't help but be shocked! There was indeed a blurry red dot there. On the gray-white ground, it was quite eye-catching.

Although the distance was still far and the specific outline could not be seen clearly, the blood-red color could not be mistaken.

A layer of frost covered everyone's faces!

That red dot was very likely the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit! What was going on? As soon as they entered the God-Demon Relic, it was as if they had poked a nest of Evil Spirits, with one after another coming to make trouble for them.

Guo Tian said with a grave expression, "Let's walk a bit further and see! It's not very clear from here. It's hard to confirm!"

But just at this moment, Jiang Hanyan said with a trembling voice, "It's it! It's it!"

Although Jiang Hanyan's voice was trembling, her meaning was extremely certain.

When the group heard this and looked at her, they saw that she could not stop trembling. It was just that Jiang Hanyan's state had not been good, so the group had not paid attention to her words.

Just then, they saw the blurry red dot in the distance already flying toward them, at an extreme speed.

On the gray-white plateau with undulating mountain terrain, a strange, blurry red dot was rapidly coming toward them. The scene before their eyes made everyone's hearts jump with fear.

"It's coming!?" Jiang Hanyan suddenly clutched her head, her body already trembling like a sieve.

The red dot was closing the distance with them at an extremely fast speed, becoming clearer and clearer.

After a few breaths, everyone had seen clearly that it was indeed the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit.

The moment it was confirmed to be the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, Duan Rong couldn't help but glance at Jiang Hanyan not far beside him. Jiang Hanyan had clearly confirmed long ago that the blurry red dot was the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, and the way she confirmed it was clearly not through sight.

After confirming that the red dot flying toward them was the "Ghost Bride" Evil Spirit, everyone's faces became even more terrified.

Lu Chu suddenly said with a terrified look in his eyes, "Should we retreat?"

Du Wan clearly meant the same thing; after Lu Chu finished speaking, both of them looked at Duan Rong and Guo Tian in the group with questioning eyes. At a critical moment, the opinions of these two clearly carried quite a bit of weight in everyone's hearts.

Duan Rong said, "Retreat where?! Is there still a path behind us?"

Duan Rong looked at the red dot getting closer and closer with a cold, sharp gaze; Duan Rong's meaning was very obvious: they had nowhere to retreat to at all.

"That's right!" Guo Tian said, "If we retreat backward, there are only two paths! The first path is to walk down along the God-Demon corpse's left leg and retreat back to the path we came from, but there is still a Ghost Infant Evil Spirit over there! If two Evil Spirits surround us from front and back, we will fall into an even deeper dead end!"

"The second path is to walk down along the God-Demon corpse's right leg and walk into another space. But if we do that, our journey will be going in the opposite direction, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to complete the round trip from the Central Altar in twenty days. Looking at it this way, both paths are dead ends!"

"Duan Rong is right, there is actually no path left behind us!" Guo Tian's voice was cold and firm.

(End of this chapter)