Chapter 285

The fog was very thick. In this dense mountain forest, it spread rapidly, enveloping Xu Qing and the Captain in the mist.

Looking around, everything was fog. The gaze couldn't penetrate it, and one couldn't see even a foot ahead. It was hazy, as if even the sky was covered by the fog, boundless and endless.

This fog appeared too quickly and was icy cold. It couldn't have formed naturally; it was highly likely caused by weirdness. Especially after touching Xu Qing at this moment, it gave Xu Qing the feeling that countless tiny existences were hidden in the fog, currently following his skin pores, trying to drill into his body.

But with the protection of the Life Lamp, all the invasions of the weird fog had no effect at all.

"It's somewhat similar to the mist in the forbidden zone outside the scavenger camp, but it's much worse in degree." Xu Qing checked his surroundings. The Captain's aura was also blocked by the arrival of the fog. Clearly, he had been right beside him before, but now he couldn't perceive him.

However, Xu Qing didn't worry about the Captain. He felt that unless it was a forbidden zone, compared to the Captain, it wasn't certain who was fiercer...

Especially at this moment, the Little Shadow, which had just eaten one of its own kind, revealed a sense of hunger after this ghost fog appeared, and then happily absorbed this fog that carried traces of chill.

It gave Xu Qing the feeling that it was like someone who had eaten their fill and wanted a drink of water, when suddenly someone handed water over, so the Little Shadow was very happy.

Following the shadow's absorption, the fog in front of Xu Qing became thinner. He walked forward with a calm expression, aiming for the source of this weird fog. He wanted to see what kind of weirdness it was that harbored malice toward him and turned into fog to invade.

As he moved forward, the fog became thinner under the shadow's absorption, revealing the forest trees inside. In the haze, these trees looked ferocious, like demons and monsters. At the same time, there were bursts of eerie laughter echoing in this quiet forest.

It was impossible to tell if it was a male or female voice; it seemed to be both, intertwined, now on the left, now on the right, constantly circling around Xu Qing.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and controlled the shadow, letting it restrain itself from devouring. He was worried that if the shadow swallowed it in one gulp now, it would scare away the true weirdness here.

He intended to kill this weirdness that harbored malicious intent toward him!

Under the shadow's restraint, Xu Qing hid his killing intent and continued forward, walking through the forest and up a small hill. Until half an hour later, a hazy shadow appeared in the fog in front of him.

Vaguely visible, it seemed to be a wooden house.

As Xu Qing approached, this wooden house revealed itself more clearly in Xu Qing's eyes.

It was a very old house. The wooden boards on it were tattered, with large holes in many places. It seemed as if the house could collapse at any moment, filled with a sense of decay.

In front of the door, there was a rocking chair, also severely damaged.

Originally, there were a courtyard and a garden around it, but now the courtyard was covered in weeds, and the garden had withered. While filled with a sense of vicissitudes, the location of this wooden house was also somewhat strange.

It was on the mountainside, with dense forest above, below, left, and right. Only here existed such a lonely wooden house. Especially as he approached, the yin wind howled, blowing the surrounding trees to rustle, as if countless people were whispering.

Xu Qing's gaze swept over, and he suddenly looked at the rocking chair.

This rocking chair, clearly no one was sitting there at this moment, but it moved, rocking slightly. The degree wasn't very large; it was like the wind blowing, and also like an old person at the end of their life, rocking the years and memories of their life there.

Xu Qing's expression was normal. He glanced at the rocking chair. He remembered that when he arrived, the chair didn't move. It seemed that after he blinked, the wind rose, and it moved.

So Xu Qing blinked once.

In an instant, a rope appeared in front of the wooden house door.

Xu Qing simply blinked multiple times. Just like that, the rope suddenly twisted, and then a corpse appeared.

A corpse of an old man hanging from the rope.

He didn't know how long he had been hanging; he had become a dried corpse, with only withered white hair hanging there.

His face was like a skeleton, the eye sockets sunken into black holes, and his mouth was open, as if instinctively trying to breathe before death.

Xu Qing blinked again.

The chair stopped rocking, and a hazy figure stood up from the chair, walking step by step toward the old man. Until he reached the corpse, the figure became clear, transforming into a hunchbacked old woman.

She held a stone bowl in her hand, filled with blood-colored porridge, and was feeding it mouthful by mouthful into the open mouth of the hanging corpse.

The yin wind grew colder, and sounds like crying and laughing echoed in all directions. The weeds on the ground swayed in unison at this moment. While the overall range was extremely eerie, one could see that both the hanging old man and the old woman feeding him had extremely pale complexions, with only their lips being very red.

At this moment, under Xu Qing's gaze, after the old woman fed half of the blood-colored porridge from the stone bowl, she suddenly raised her hand and snapped off the old man's head.

"Old man, it's your turn to feed me!" The old woman's voice was extremely hoarse, like stones rubbing together, extremely harsh.

The corpse still floated, with a hanging rope above and a void in the middle. Although the head was gone, they still maintained their previous appearance, motionless.

As for the old woman, she satisfiedly placed the old man's head aside, then actually snapped off her own head and placed it on the old man's neck and the hanging rope.

She herself felt for the old man's head aside and placed it on her own neck.

After swapping heads, the old man's head suddenly revealed a ghostly light in its eyes, picked up the bowl, and fed it mouthful by mouthful into the mouth of the hanging old woman.

It seemed they were loving toward each other. Especially during the feeding, the old man seemed worried about scalding his partner, so he would blow a mouthful of yin wind before feeding it into the old woman's mouth.

This scene was weird and, at the same time, incomparably strange.

Xu Qing was expressionless, silently watching them feeding each other mouthful by mouthful. He didn't disturb them, until a moment later, he found that the other party didn't seem to intend to attack him, so he planned to leave.

But just as he turned and walked a few steps, the old man and his partner, who were being loving, turned their heads instantly and looked straight at Xu Qing. The location of the house changed, appearing in front of Xu Qing again.

At the same time, they grinned, revealing mouths of darkness and uneven, sharp teeth, and together emitted a ghostly sound.

"Son is back. Do you want to come and drink some porridge?"

Xu Qing heard this and looked calmly at the weirdness in front of him, walking toward them. At the same time, a sound of swallowing saliva came from under his feet.

Pools of mucus even spread out from the shadow, corroding the ground wherever they covered. That was the saliva the Little Shadow couldn't control anymore.

It was clearly restraining itself to the limit.

This scene instantly caused the old man and old woman in front of the wooden house to change their expressions.

"Eat it." Xu Qing spoke indifferently.

As soon as the words were spoken, the shadow, which had long been restrained to its limit, instantly stood up fiercely from behind Xu Qing, transforming into a giant black tree shadow.

On it, thousands of eyes were densely packed, currently opening in unison, staring straight at the old man and old woman. A giant mouth split open, blowing out terrifying yin wind.

This scene caused the old man and old woman to tremble all over, terror appearing in their eyes. In an instant, the wooden house became hazy, wanting to flee, but it was too late.

The Little Shadow lunged fiercely, and in an instant, the nearby area turned into a black shadow domain, covering everything inside. Only chewing and shrill sounds continued to emanate, until a moment later, as the shadow domain shrank and the Little Shadow returned to Xu Qing's feet, it sent out a clear fluctuation of joy and satisfaction.

"Good... eat..."

The fog around them also dissipated rapidly due to the death of that pair of weirdness. Until a few breaths later, it completely disappeared without a trace. Xu Qing continued forward and soon saw the Captain walking toward him from the front.

The Captain was walking while eating a black apple.

On this apple, one could see a weirdness sealed inside. Its appearance was similar to that old man and old woman. At this moment, it was letting out shrill screams, currently being eaten mouthful by mouthful by the Captain.

Seeing Xu Qing, the Captain raised his hand to greet him while eating. Until the two walked together, the Captain had finished the apple, looking satisfied, licking the corners of his mouth, and looking at Xu Qing.

"Half-full, it stirred up my cravings. Shall we look for more around here?"

Hearing the Captain's words, the shadow sent a sense of desire to Xu Qing rapidly, even carrying pleading, as if acting like a spoiled child... It wasn't full yet, and it was still a bit thirsty.

So Xu Qing nodded.

This scene made the Old Ancestor of the Jin Gang Sect extremely vigilant. He felt that the Little Shadow's fawning technique had clearly improved, and his sense of crisis became intense immediately.

"Actually acting spoiled? Too much! Disgusting!"

Amidst the anxiety of the Old Ancestor of the Jin Gang Sect, Xu Qing and the Captain strolled through the forest, looking for weirdness. It was just that weirdness was the kind of thing that would appear on its own when you didn't want to encounter it on weekdays, but now that Xu Qing and the other were looking for it, they couldn't find any for a while.

Although they didn't find weirdness, after they walked for a while, they found a patch of immortal spirit grass on the withered ground filled with strange substances.

"There's actually spirit grass here?" The Captain said in surprise after seeing it.

In the environment of the Taisi Mountain of Calamity, spirit grass basically couldn't grow. This kind of immortal spirit grass only grew in places without strange substances, often in areas circled out by various forces, using formations to disperse the strange substances before it could be planted.

So the appearance of this patch of grass was very unusual. Especially their leaves were very small, clearly also somewhat malnourished. This could be understood, but what was even stranger was that the area where the spirit grass grew was actually a long line, one end spreading into the deep mountains, and the other toward the direction of the Eternal River of Immortals.

Xu Qing squatted down, took a spirit grass to examine, touched the soil where the spirit grass grew, looked toward the Eternal River of Immortals, and spoke in a low voice.

"There is an undercurrent below this."

The Captain narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground. Soon, a ghostly light appeared in his eyes, as if he could penetrate the soil to see below. A few breaths later, he laughed.

"What great guts. This is diverting an underground passage from the Eternal River of Immortals." The Captain raised his head, looked at the end spreading into the deep mountains, and his body flickered, approaching instantly.

Xu Qing frowned. He felt that doing this wasn't stable, but seeing the Captain go, he followed. Soon, the two of them saw the end of this undercurrent.

That place... was actually a great tomb!

On the tombstone were three eerie blood-red characters.

Profound Nether Sect