Chapter 35: Unexpected Meeting (Third Update)

Inside the temple complex, corpses were everywhere.

There were guards, attendants, and also the corpses of a few youths who had stayed in books regarding their understanding of the dangers of the forbidden zone. They retained the terror before their deaths, staring blankly at the sky.

Besides these, there were dead jellyfish.

Unlike the human race, jellyfish would turn into a mass of gray mud after death, emitting bursts of foul odor, completely different from the colorful brilliance before death.

At the same time, they also emitted extremely dense foreign matter, invading the surroundings and eroding everything.

And this sudden disaster was still continuing.

Following the panicked retreat of the young boys and girls, the jellyfish group whistled in pursuit. In the outer perimeter of this forbidden zone jungle, slaughter and death were still being staged.

When Xu Qing arrived at the temple complex, it was already an hour later.

Walking in the temple complex, Xu Qing looked at the corpses everywhere, but there wasn't much change in his expression.

He had seen too many corpses.

Passing by the corpses of guards and attendants one by one, Xu Qing collected some dead jellyfish, preparing to go back and study them.

As for the items on these corpses, almost all had been invaded by the dense foreign matter formed after the jellyfish died and were unusable.

Until Xu Qing arrived beside a corpse, his footsteps paused.

This was an old man's corpse, with a large hole in his chest. The blood that flowed out had already dried, and in his dim, wide-open eyes, it seemed there was still regret remaining from before his death.

Looking at this corpse, Xu Qing sighed softly.

He was not a god, so even if the other party had bought his insurance, he couldn't guarantee their safety completely, especially when the mist hadn't appeared.

After silence, Xu Qing squatted down, covered Old Stone's wide-open eyes, and buried him.

There was no tombstone, because Lei Ting had said that scavengers didn't have relatives before they died, and there was no need to offer sacrifices.

Dust to dust, earth to earth.

This was the life of a scavenger: struggling in the world before death, and after death... quietness was enough.

This kind of desolation was actually the destination of the vast majority of scavengers.

Standing before Old Stone's grave, Xu Qing looked toward the direction of the camp outside the forbidden zone, recalling the life of these past few months.

He had come to this scavenger camp four months ago.

Blood Shadow captain was dead, Fire Crow was dead, Fatty Shan and Ma Si were dead, Savage Ghost was dead, Old Stone was dead, Lei Ting had retired, Bone Blade had fled, and more scavengers had also died silently.

In the cruel chaotic world, human life was like grass.

"Only by becoming stronger can I survive." Xu Qing muttered, his expression slowly turning cold, and he turned to leave.

At this moment, amidst the sunset glow, a wind blew, causing the youth's clothes to rustle as he walked far away.

This sound seemed to carry some coldness, gradually weakening, until it disappeared into the jungle together with his figure.

The sunset glow spilled down, and the light had gradually weakened, but it still tried hard to shine its sparse light on the youth running in the jungle through the dense leaves.

But the youth's speed was too fast; the light seemed unable to catch up.

Not long after, Xu Qing's footsteps paused abruptly. After stopping, he lowered his head to look at the ground, a look of doubt appearing in his eyes.

Not long after, Xu Qing squatted down, smelled it carefully, and finally his gaze fell on a blade of grass. On it was a layer of powder that was very difficult to detect.

If it weren't for Xu Qing's more solid grasp of poisonous herbs and his familiarity with the scent of this forbidden zone, I'm afraid it would be very difficult to detect the abnormality.

At this moment, it was also after identifying it for a long time that he picked up the leaf stained with a layer of powder and muttered in a low voice after contemplation.

"The specific composition is unknown, but it must contain Centipede Blood!"

A sharp light flashed in Xu Qing's eyes. Master Bai's lessons had an introduction to Centipede Blood.

This kind of blood had certain medicinal properties, but more of it was catalysis, so when combined with other drugs, it could be formulated into a medicinal initiator that attracted specific beasts, which was often needed during hunting.

"The arrival of those jellyfish is related to this?" Xu Qing narrowed his eyes, put down this leaf carrying a fatal crisis, and took out a packet of poison powder to sprinkle on his body.

After using this to disperse the scent of the Centipede Blood he had just stained, his body swayed, and he changed direction to move forward.

Xu Qing didn't intend to head toward where those young boys and girls brought by Old Stone had retreated. This matter had nothing to do with him, and he didn't want to participate in it.

Even if there were friends of Chen Feiyuan among these people, he had no obligation to help, and these people had experts beside them who could fight large jellyfish, which was equally dangerous for Xu Qing.

Most importantly, among these young boys and girls, it was highly likely that someone had deliberately lured the jellyfish, and the purpose was unknown.

So after perceiving their orientation, Xu Qing changed direction, circled around, and returned to the pharmacy in the canyon when the sky turned dark.

After putting away the medicinal herbs he had picked, he continued to research the White Elixir.

Although Xu Qing didn't go to where those young boys and girls had retreated, when night fell, Xu Qing, who was formulating herbs in the pharmacy, still heard the roar and slaughter from the distance, and it was getting closer and closer, which caused his brows to furrow.

Until footsteps also drifted over, Xu Qing sighed softly.

He stood up, walked out of the pharmacy, and borrowed the moonlight to see the direction of the canyon entrance, where sounds of surprise drifted over.

"There's a path here!!"

"Everyone, hurry in."

Following the appearance of the sound were a few youths whose clothes were tattered and who looked very disheveled.

Their faces carried terror, and behind them were more than ten people, mostly companions of similar age, and seven or eight guards covered in injuries.

A total of more than twenty people ran into the canyon one after another. When those few guards guarded the entrance desperately, these young boys and girls who had survived the disaster also breathed a sigh of relief one after another, and at the same time noticed the environment in the canyon.

They soon saw Xu Qing's pharmacy and also saw Xu Qing standing there.

"Someone!"

The instant they saw Xu Qing, these young boys and girls were like frightened birds. They retreated immediately amidst exclamations, and three guards behind them also arrived at high speed, looking at Xu Qing with vigilance and killing intent.

This killing intent caused Xu Qing's gaze to turn somewhat cold. He swept coldly across these few guards and then looked at the group of young boys and girls, among whom there were two people he paid special attention to.

One of them was a bit older than him, about sixteen or seventeen years old. Although he was also disheveled, he was different from the others; there was very little panic on his face, but rather vigilance.

The other was a girl. Her appearance was very sweet. Although her clothes were dirty and she carried terror, Xu Qing, who was used to the myriad states of life, saw at a glance that the terrified component of this person was largely fake.

Especially... the girl's right hand was wearing a glove. It seemed to be for cleanliness, but for Xu Qing, who used poison, there were many uses for gloves.

For example, scattering medicine powder.

"Eight guards, cultivation between the sixth and seventh layer of Qi Condensation, others below the fifth layer, divided into three small teams."

"Only those two, the man's cultivation is about the seventh layer, the girl... should be the one who lured the jellyfish. As for those experts who fought the large jellyfish, they are not among them. It is highly likely they lured the large jellyfish away."

This was Xu Qing's habit, and those young boys and girls couldn't imagine that Xu Qing had seen so many details with just one sweep.

But these guards were clearly different from those young boys and girls. They felt the coldness in Xu Qing's gaze and looked at the pharmacy, their hearts filled with strong vigilance.

Being able to find such a canyon in the forbidden zone and build a house in the canyon, all of this represented that this youth before them was not only familiar with the forbidden zone but also lived here.

Such a person was extremely dangerous.

"Daoist friend, is your elder at home? We have no malice; we are just being pursued by exotic beasts outside, so we are borrowing this place to hide."

"Once the sky brightens, we will leave. Please forgive us for the disturbance."

These few guards spoke politely by instinct.

Their words also caused the young boys and girls who were still terrified behind them to feel that something was wrong, and they looked at Xu Qing one after another.

Among them, the oldest youth looked at Xu Qing a few more times, his expression revealing gravity. As for the girl wearing gloves, she narrowed her eyes.

She swept over the pharmacy and also smelled the faint scent of medicinal herbs in the surroundings. Regarding this youth before her, she had a cognition.

Xu Qing furrowed his brows, looked at them, and then looked at the entrance. After half a moment, he didn't speak, tacitly agreeing to their existence, and turned to walk toward the pharmacy.

His tacit agreement caused those guards to breathe a sigh of relief, while the young boys and girls behind them were mostly trepidatious.

Only the girl wearing gloves had a strange light flash in her eyes, and then, with a cautious yet aggrieved voice, she spoke in a low voice.

"You... you are so impolite. We just want to hide here for a while. There are exotic beasts outside; we will definitely die if we go out."

Her voice carried a sense of making people feel heartache and pity, causing a few youths who admired her to also muster their courage and speak to Xu Qing one after another.

"Yeah, how can you be so cold-blooded."

"We have no malice either; we are just resting here for a while."

"The forbidden zone isn't his family's; why do we have to ask him!"

With a relaxed sentence, she aroused some people's hostility toward Xu Qing. Although this hostility wasn't much, it still made the girl somewhat proud.

She wanted to use others to test the bottom of this youth.

But the next instant, a cold glint flashed abruptly from Xu Qing's side, and a whistling sound drifted out. A dagger was like lightning, approaching the proud girl in an instant.

Her expression changed and she was about to dodge, but the dagger had already flown past her ear, cutting off some of her hair, and with a bang, it pierced deeply into the stone wall behind her, sparking some fire.

The girl's heart shook. Breathing rapidly, her right hand raised instinctively. When she looked at Xu Qing, what she saw was the youth in front, with eyes as cold as a wolf, carrying killing intent.

This gaze caused her heart to tremble. The surrounding guards and other young boys and girls were all terrified one after another. The former were vigilant to the limit, and the latter had many people emitting exclamations.

"We are just passing acquaintances; don't come to test me." Xu Qing looked deeply at the girl, suppressed the killing intent in his heart, spoke slowly, and turned to walk toward the pharmacy.

Under the moonlight, his figure seemed to merge with the moonlight, revealing the coldness of the night, flowing into the hearts of everyone in the canyon, causing these people to slowly fall silent one after another.

In the perception of many people, the canyon at this moment seemed to be as dangerous as the jellyfish group outside.

In this silence, the moment Xu Qing walked to the door of the pharmacy, suddenly a shrill scream drifted from the entrance.

A small jellyfish found the entrance, passed through a guard's body, swallowed his internal organs, and rushed into the canyon.

Behind it, a group of jellyfish whistled over.

Is it unexpected? Is it a surprise? Brothers and sisters, do you want a fourth update?

If you do, tell Little Mengxin, and Little Mengxin will go drink a bottle of wine and work hard! ===== CHAPTER 36 =====