Chapter 685: Test Flight

"Right, we share the field of vision with the Snail Toad while standing in the house. Whatever it sees, we can see too." Dong Rui patted the window, "These windows can observe the three directions behind, so it's four sides without blind spots." He Lingchuan kept saying it was interesting; he had been hunting the Snail Toad for more than two months, but this was the first time he had entered the "Snail Dwelling." So this was how the ancient immortal's magic treasure was used? "That's not right. Didn't the Snail Toad swallow a granary in Zhitian Township, filled with summer-withered grass?" He Lingchuan looked left and right, "This house is too small; it doesn't look like it can hold that much stuff."

"You underestimate the means of the ancient immortals." Dong Rui hissed, "Who told you that 'Snail Dwelling' only has one small house? There are several large and small ones in the back. It's just that Xi Yunhe's subordinates used to process prey inside, making it dirty and always smelling fishy, so I was too lazy to go in."

While speaking, the Snail Toad had already plunged into the ground, starting tonight's journey.

Lingxu City had rain today, which brought a lot of convenience to its actions. There was only a heavy rain near Pianxiang Villa, but the central and northern parts of Lingxu City had heavy rain that lasted for more than half an hour, soaking the ground through.

With humid soil, the Snail Toad could travel long distances underground.

Otherwise, taking Dong Rui to run away temporarily, it couldn't run very far, at most a few miles.

It was pitch black underground with nothing to see, only knowing that the Snail Toad was moving fast, far better than a fast horse, and it didn't need to turn around, a sharp contrast to its slow movements on the ground.

The wonder of the ancient immortal's treasure was already hard for modern people to imagine and understand.

He Lingchuan thought, if the spiritual energy of the human world became abundant again, what would happen? Would the good old days of ancient times return? For the past three thousand years, practitioners had been looking forward to it, but none had waited for such a magnificent scene.

Yeah, how could one wait for it just by "waiting"?

He didn't feel he had been dazed for long before the scenery outside the window changed—the Snail Toad had surfaced from the ground.

The two left the small house and climbed out of the snail shell. The clouds were thick tonight, the sky light was very weak, and the dense forest was pitch black, with only the vegetation rustling in the wind.

Occasionally, an owl hooted, now far, now near.

This was the outer mountain forest of Xushan, closer to Mount Tianji; the Tiangong guard camp was stationed under Mount Tianchu, far away from the two.

The mountains were hidden in the darkness, revealing only a few outlines. And deep in the mountains was the seat of the most powerful authority under heaven. Even in the wild mountain forest, surrounded only by bleak wind and light rain, Dong Rui still subconsciously lowered his voice: "According to your request, this location is only eight hundred zhang from Mount Tianji."

In front was the territory of Xushan Mountain Marsh, which the Snail Toad couldn't approach lightly.

It shrank as soon as it surfaced. Dong Rui took it into his bundle and carried it on his back.

"Why so quiet, are we thieves?" He Lingchuan patted the mirror on his chest, "Zuoju, I'm entering from the mountain forest in the south of Mount Tianji; where shall we meet?"

"South? Hmm—" Zuoju's voice sounded immediately, "Find me at the White Cave by the edge of the Lingzhi Forest."

When the Great Return Sect was still an immortal sect, the mountain was planted with countless spiritual herbs, and Lingzhi Forest was just the name of one of the immortal fields. But after the medieval period, spiritual herbs became rare, and they could only be found in high-altitude areas. Xushan at this height couldn't produce spiritual herbs, and Lingzhi Forest had become a fixed check-in point for tourists.

He Lingchuan had been to Mount Tianji twice and roughly knew where Lingzhi Forest was; at worst, there was the Soul-Stealing Mirror patting its chest and saying it knew the way, it could navigate.

The two put on masks and, taking advantage of the night, groped their way into the mountains in the dark.

The mask was specially made by the Lord of Songyang Prefecture and could isolate spiritual sense peeping.

A quarter of an hour later.

Zuoju asked: "Are you there yet?"

"Not yet."

Another quarter of an hour passed, and Zuoju asked again: "Are you there yet?"

"Ahem, not yet."

Zuoju didn't understand: "Why so slow? Even a snail would have crawled over by now!"

"Seems like we took the wrong path." He had walked on the mountain ridge the first two times, but this time he had to climb over the ravine. Walking on the mountain and walking under the mountain were two different things.

Not to mention there was no moon tonight, and the mountain gullies all looked the same, a natural ghost-hitting-wall.

Dong Rui was complaining: "I told you to take the left path earlier, but you wouldn't believe me!"

Zuoju: "..."

Just then, He Lingchuan noticed with the corner of his eye that a firelight drifted across the mountainside.

It seemed to be a giant fire monster, more than three zhang tall.

What was magical was that although it was surrounded by raging flames, the surrounding trees didn't catch fire, and even the leaves weren't scorched black.

This was the power to protect the mountain forest; as long as it didn't want to, it wouldn't burn the mountain or destroy the forest.

He Lingchuan hurriedly said: "One of your clones just passed by the mountainside, right above us."

The giant fire monster stopped immediately, looking left and right like a human, and then saw He Lingchuan. Afterward, it slid down the mountain wall and stopped in front of the two.

"Follow me." Zuoju's annoyed voice came from the fire man, "You two have been circling for a long time; this place isn't even Xushan territory!"

Otherwise, as soon as the two entered the mountain, it would have known immediately.

He Lingchuan shrugged and followed it with Dong Rui.

With the fire monster leading the way, the speed of travel was several times faster. This was a clone Zuoju released at night to patrol, so as not to have its perception occasionally blinded. Xushan at night was not open to the outside world, and one of the duties of the local mountain marsh was to drive away or capture intruders.

If he couldn't get its support, He Lingchuan wanted to sneak up the mountain at night, which was harder than ascending to heaven.

Passing several low peaks, the fire monster asked the two to move carefully, because the Tiangong guard camp was stationed on the peaks, and they would routinely look down.

Clearly, the Tiangong didn't dare to entrust the defense work entirely to Zuoju.

After walking for another two quarters of an hour, after the two were covered in dew, stepped on mossy mud, and turned a narrow road, the front suddenly opened up—

What a wide valley.

Lingzhi Forest had arrived.

Two thousand years ago, this place was full of lingzhi and various immortal herbs, and ginseng dolls and immortal lingzhi horses were running around everywhere.

Now, this was a wasteland, and except for wild grass, wild mushrooms, and a few crayfish, there was nothing.

There was a cave by the mountain, and the rock at the entrance was white.

The fire monster withdrew here and went to patrol elsewhere. And He Lingchuan and Dong Rui continued forward, sticking to the wall and sneaking into the cave.

For humans, this was a dead cave, at most two hundred steps to the end, but there were countless cracked rocks on the mountain wall.

As soon as He Lingchuan walked in, he saw more than a dozen balls of fire "squeezing" out from the rock crevices, and after landing, they reassembled, forming a huge rock fire monster.

What it turned into today was a semi-human form, that is, the upper body was like a human, and below the waist was a ball of raging fire.

He Lingchuan turned to Dong Rui and said: "This is the Xushan Mountain Marsh, Zuoju."

In fact, many tourists roaming Xushan were also attracted by the legend of the rock fire monster, but few people were lucky enough to see it. Lord Zuoju was not interested in living people who couldn't be eaten.

He Lingchuan felt the most interesting point was that no matter whether there was one guest or two, Zuoju always had a big scene when it appeared, wanting to gain the upper hand in momentum first.

From so far away, Dong Rui also felt the surrounding air was very hot, and the hair on his forehead curled.

He Lingchuan introduced to Zuoju: "This is my friend, and also my helper."

Since both sides were face-to-face, Zuoju ridiculed him: "We are going to cooperate, yet you still can't bear to show your true face?" Previously, this fellow threw its clone into the Soul Township without showing his face, just maintaining long-distance communication; today, when they met, he actually wore a mask, truly as timid as a mouse.

The masks of these two guys also had the ability to isolate spiritual sense, and it couldn't see through them.

He Lingchuan laughed: "This is mutual protection!"

Zuoju snorted: "The location of the array eye, have you calculated it?"

"Of course, isn't this coming for an on-site test?"

"Follow me." Zuoju turned and walked into the cave.

Under the illumination of the fire around it, the two discovered that there was a large crack deep in the rock cave, not even counting as a road, requiring both hands and feet.

Neither of them was fat, so they could barely squeeze in.

Fortunately, after squeezing in, the gap between the rocks became larger, and both of them had cultivation, climbing rocks and grabbing roots, climbing up more than fifty zhang along the way, and jumped onto a platform.

From here on up, there were ready-made tourist plank roads to walk on.

Of course, Tiangong guards would occasionally come to patrol, but with the local snake covering them, He Lingchuan didn't encounter them even once.

Soon, they abandoned the main road again and climbed to a wild mountain head opposite Mount Tianji.

To avoid being overly conspicuous, Zuoju's size was actually compressed to half a human height, its flames restrained, looking like a lit charcoal block, with only the joints and neck having red light, and other parts like scorched rock burned by fire, pitch black.

In this way, it hid in the dense forest and shrubs, and the guards on the opposite peak couldn't see it.

Of course, having to be so sneaky on its own turf was all for the two stowaways. Zuoju urged: "Start quickly!"

This fellow had been in the mountains for thousands of years, and now it was in a hurry? He Lingchuan ignored it and said to Dong Rui: "I'll point you in the direction. If there are stars tonight, it should fly toward the Tianxuan Star." After saying that, he pointed, "Send the bat puppet up."

Dong Rui recognized the Big Dipper's nine stars, but the clouds were so thick tonight that there was nothing in the sky, so he could only rely on He Lingchuan's orientation. At the moment, his shoulder sank, and the bat demon puppet flapped its wings and flew up.

He Lingchuan originally hoped it would maintain such an inconspicuous size and shape. It had just rained, and Xushan originally had many bats hovering and flying low; the demon puppet mixed in among them, not attracting attention.

But even if there was a faint light in the sky, after the demon puppet flew up ten zhang, even if He Lingchuan used all his eyesight, he couldn't see it.

It was too damn small, and it was still black!

"Become one size larger!"

When the demon puppet became the size of a dog, He Lingchuan could finally see it in the night sky.

"To the left... up... to the right, no, to the left!"

"Fly down twenty zhang and see."

Dong Rui: "There's nothing there." It was just a very empty piece of sky.

"What's the rush?" He Lingchuan pressed the formula given by Dean Xu Shichu and calculated silently in his heart, "A little more to the left, yes, right, continue to the left! Hey, no, this is about to hit the mountain peak."

Xu Shichu was indeed a man of his word; two days ago, he had Sun Fuling bring the formula back and handed it to He Lingchuan.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 686 =====