Chapter 220: The Perils of Qing Xu

After walking further inward.

Various strange, rustling noises became increasingly frequent.

Within the gray-black mist, peculiar creatures could occasionally be seen.

Colorful insects with strange patterns, whose poison could make even a Nascent Soul cultivator dizzy and disoriented at a single glance.

Nauseating monsters with fat bodies, coarse skin like wriggling maggots, their grotesque mouths full of sharp short fangs dripping thick yellow stinking fluid.

Divine birds with purple flames burning around them, majestic and noble, yet emitting harsh, grating "gaga" sounds as they flapped through the mist.

And strange beings with square heads, purple-red eyes, jet-black bodies, and extremely slender limbs and torsos, flashing briefly through the mist at intervals…

Too many, too many.

Colorful, nauseating, strange…

The vast majority of these strange creatures evolved bizarre abilities due to the environment's extreme cruelty.

But a few were influenced by the shattered essences left behind when "Tai" perished.

Those were the most dangerous entities in the entire Qing Xu.

Even a Tongxuan or Dongzhen cultivator could not guarantee safety upon encountering the latter.

When it comes to the levels of "Immortal" and "Ancestor," many things become deeply "unreasonable."

Just like that colorful-patterned poison insect just now.

Its aura was extremely weak—even below Foundation Establishment.

But who could have imagined that such a tiny poison insect could harbor a poison capable of killing a Tongxuan and even injuring a Dongzhen?

How could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator injure a Dongzhen who had glimpsed the world's true essence and perceived all phenomena of the cosmos?

It was sheer fantasy!

But with the involvement of "Tai's" essence, it became something achievable.

Squeak-squeak~!

Before a massive boulder, crouched a giant gray rat over two meters tall.

Its fur gleamed slickly, its sharp incisors glinted with cold light, its eyes were blood-red, and it periodically lifted its head, watching its surroundings warily.

Xu Xing glanced at it: "An inheritance cave…?"

The rat's aura was already comparable to that of an ordinary Return to Void cultivator, but due to Qing Xu's peculiar nature, its spiritual awareness was extremely faint.

Only if it merged with the Dao could it escape this state of spiritual dullness.

Yet once it merged with the Dao, it would attract Huo.

In short, no matter its choice, it faced a dead end—better to remain as it is.

Xu Xing withdrew his gaze and continued forward.

Behind the rat, that massive boulder was the entrance to an inheritance cave.

The relics left inside the cave were still decent.

But for him, they were nothing special.

…………

Beep-beep-beep!

Beep-beep-beep!

A machine emitted urgent beeping, its needle jerking back and forth, the sound threatening to pierce the mist and reach far away, yet blocked by surrounding sound-dampening arrays.

Array patterns glowed on the ground, serving not only to dampen sound but also to conceal aura and form.

Inside the great array was a five-member team, men and women alike.

The highest-ranked was a body cultivator at the peak of Soul Transformation; the lowest-ranked was a magic cultivator, yet still at early Soul Transformation.

After all, any cultivator below Soul Transformation entering Qing Xu was no different from seeking death.

"Spatial fracture…"

The urgent beeping reached his ears; the body cultivator crouched low, staring at something just ahead.

It was a young sprout, about five inches tall, appearing ordinary, yet its roots entwined a crystal-clear, immaculate gemstone, its interior seeming to hold crimson divine blood.

"Looks like we have to give up," the magic cultivator sighed bitterly.

After going through so much trouble to find it, only to encounter a spatial fracture…

Though reluctant, they could only retreat.

The position they currently occupied was already too deep for their realms.

A powerful monster might emerge at any moment and devour them whole.

"I want to try again," the body cultivator slowly stood up. A flicker of resolve flashed in his eyes.

Like most body cultivators, he was tall and broad, his muscular frame stretching his clothes, his face rugged and resolute, his short hair neatly trimmed.

He inhaled deeply: "Disengage the array. Retreat to a safe distance."

Having developed deep rapport through years of companionship, the others said nothing more when they saw his determination; they immediately shut down the array and stepped aside.

The body cultivator, still standing in place, stared at the sprout and gemstone just before him.

"Hah!"

He let out a soft cry.

Instantly, his internal blood qi ignited, his dense magic power surging at full speed.

Scorching blood qi flowed through his flesh and meridians like a roaring river, surging noisily.

The air around him warped from the intense heat, yet the terrifying temperature generated by his blood qi was tightly contained within his skin's surface.

The body cultivator's eyes gleamed with sharp light.

Not every spatial fracture is equally dangerous.

Some are extremely fragile, requiring only a slight external force to cause the fault lines to collapse.

'Hope it doesn't trigger a space storm.'

A thought flashed through his mind.

Immediately, his five fingers curled into a claw and lunged forward.

Boom! Gray-black mist churned, and the shockwave swept clean everything ahead, tearing open a passage several meters wide that stretched hundreds of meters onward.

This was still the result of the Soul Transformation body cultivator restraining his power.

Gaaah!

Sss~!

Roar~!

Gu'ang~!

All manner of miscellaneous sounds intertwined, clearly indicating that many creatures nearby had been startled.

Yet the Soul Transformation body cultivator paid no heed, his eyes locked fixedly on what lay before him.

The curved fingers, now only three inches from the tender sprout and the treasure mineral, were suddenly halted, as if blocked by something immensely hard.

Crack! A sound like shattering glass echoed, and the void suddenly cracked with countless fine fissures, as if a shattered screen.

And that obstruction vanished instantly.

No longer hindered, he seized the translucent red treasure mineral in one grip.

Got it!

A flicker of joy crossed his eyes, and the team members who had retreated to the side also burst into wild delight.

But this joy did not last long.

Soon, the joy in their eyes was replaced by boundless terror.

Chss~!

On the back of the Soul Transformation body cultivator's hand that gripped the mineral, a thin wound suddenly appeared, drawing out a streak of blood.

No good!

He realized too late and tried to pull his hand back—but it was already too late.

In an instant, the hand clutching the mineral was sliced and shredded by countless blades, turning into a cloud of drifting blood mist.

What he saw seemed to split apart at that moment, as if composed of countless overlapping images stitched together.

Space storm!

'Am I going to die?'

A thought flashed through his mind.

'Don't be too greedy.'

A soft sigh came from nowhere.

In a daze, amidst the countless overlapping images, a faint, illusory figure appeared.

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(End of chapter)