Chapter 460: Entering the Plain, Blood Jade Pearls, the Terrifying Roman Flower Sea

“Town Guard Army, use Wind Dispelling to clear the miasma for five days!”

Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…

At the final moment before departure, Fan Qinghu issued his last order to the fifty thousand Town Guard soldiers: “Wind Dispelling.”

To the north of the Golden Bone Furnace, the Town Guard had already constructed a thirty-meter-tall giant bellows; along its sides were twenty ropes, each over two hundred meters long, made from Qingxun tree vine sinew, each bound to five hundred bare-chested Town Guard soldiers in sequence.

“Hey….”

At Fan Qinghu’s command, tens of thousands of Town Guard soldiers roared in unison, pulling the ropes with all their strength; the massive bellows immediately groaned, unleashing a terrifying gust of wind that surged toward the Golden Bone Furnace to the south.

Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…

The silver smoke rising from the furnace, which had previously risen vertically and only slightly twisted from air currents, now sharply veered under the force of the northern bellows’ blast, directly streaming toward the Blood Miasma Plain to the south.

“Only a Fanzhen could conceive such a method… no, merely conceiving it isn’t enough—materials, resources, manpower, strength: lose any one, and it’s impossible. Impressive, truly impressive…”

Xia Hong watched the silver smoke roll toward the Blood Miasma Zone, his heart stirred, yet his gaze grew subtly strange.

“But this Golden Bone Furnace still can’t compare to my Yang Xu Ding…”

Under the bellows’ force, the silver smoke redirected southward, seeping into Blood Miasma Zone 21 for about fifteen minutes; once the crimson miasma thinned slightly, Fan Qinghu issued his final order:

“Enter the Plain!”

Xia Hong’s eyes sharpened; he followed Fan Qinghu directly into the miasma zone.

When he entered the camp’s main command building yesterday, he had already demonstrated his strength, so now his position was among the five foremost.

Leading the way was naturally Fan Qinghu; behind him, besides Xia Hong, the other four were: Cai Yunlan, the eldest heir of Linchu County; Cai Yunsheng, the eldest heir of Qingcang County; Cai Yunwu, deputy Provincial Military Commander of the Silver Scale Army; and General Zhu Long, in charge of all military affairs in Linchu County.

Each of Cai Qiu’s counties controlled two military branches: the Town Guard and the County Guard; the term “General” referred to the commander overseeing both. The name Zhu Long instantly reminded Xia Hong of the Assistant Commander Zhu Yan, whom Cai Yunlan had mentioned yesterday.

“The Zhu clan is one of the six surnames besides the Fangbo lineage. Judging by Zhu Long’s appearance, he’s likely of the same generation as Zhu Yan—a General with 42 Jun strength, plus a 19 Jun Assistant Commander. Even together, they’re insufficient to sustain a major clan. So the Zhu clan likely has a Soul-Transcendence expert. Cai Qiu truly hides tigers and dragons…”

As Xia Hong marveled, he unconsciously glanced at Zhu Long several times.

The moment he did, trouble arose.

Zhu Long clearly sensed his gaze, turned his head, and locked eyes directly with Xia Hong.

He gave Xia Hong a slight nod, and a faint smile slowly spread across his face.

Xia Hong immediately smiled and nodded back; once he turned his gaze away, he felt a sudden warmth toward Zhu Long.

When secretly observed by someone unfamiliar, the first reaction should be anger.

Zhu Long clearly had a good temper.

Hum…

As Xia Hong pondered, he stepped with Cai Yunlan and the others, nearly side-by-side, into the miasma zone; the instant the crimson miasma surged against his skin, a buzzing sound filled his ears.

The crimson miasma was fiercely invasive—he had barely stepped forward before his entire lower half was dyed crimson by the rushing miasma, which relentlessly battered his skin, trying to seep through his pores into his flesh and even his bones.

Xia Hong didn’t dare underestimate it; his 47 Jun strength erupted instantly, scattering the miasma as his back foot landed, fully entering the miasma zone.

The next second, something miraculous happened.

Cai Yunlan, who had been no more than one or two meters to his right, suddenly vanished.

Of course, he hadn’t truly disappeared.

Cai Yunlan now stood over ten meters to his right.

“As I suspected—the interior is far larger than it appears from outside. Tenfold in every dimension. So the mapped 21 Zone, seeming only twenty square kilometers, is actually two thousand square kilometers. Combined with the miasma’s interference with perception, this makes perfect sense.”

A Xianyang-level expert’s perception range roughly equals the radius of their full-power heat dispersion. When Xia Hong broke through to Xianyang Mid-stage last year, his maximum perception range was three kilometers.

Now, his perception range had shrunk to only three hundred meters—a tenfold reduction.

“At least I still have three hundred meters. If I could only rely on sight, it’d be worse—my visible range is now barely a hundred meters; beyond that, everything is crimson red, nearly invisible.”

Xia Hong looked out across the miasma zone, his pupils narrowing slightly.

Unlike the icy snowscape outside, inside the miasma zone, the sky, ground, trees—even the swirling air currents and the clothing worn by himself and others—all were crimson, not a single other hue to be found.

“No wonder they say you either go mad or die. Even if the miasma had no physical effect, this environment would warp any normal person’s mind after prolonged exposure…”

The tree density inside the miasma zone wasn’t high; within a hundred-meter visual range, Xia Hong scanned the area and counted fewer than twenty trees total.

But interestingly, the trees’ size here was far more normal compared to the outside world—uniform in height, mostly between ten and twenty meters, with the thickest trunks no more than half a meter in diameter.

Aside from their bizarre color, the scale of the trees in the Blood Miasma Zone gave Xia Hong the illusion of returning to the forests of his past life on Earth.

“Different environments breed different vegetation—that’s nothing unusual. But the fact these trees grow normally here suggests they’re no ordinary plants. Cai Qiu has already cleared over four hundred square kilometers of Blood Miasma Zone, yet yesterday, around the Town Plain Camp, I saw not a single one like this…”

Xia Hong’s gaze flickered toward the trees; though he longed to investigate, he saw Fan Qinghu already summoning the troops and restrained himself, walking toward the group.

Fan Qinghu had already taken a leather map from his sleeve and unfurled it openly before everyone; the top of the map was labeled “Zone 21”—clearly their previous survey results for this area.

From the map, their overall survey progress in Zone 21 was still under thirty percent.

“Eight kilometers southwest lies a small hill covered in Roman flowers. Last time, Yunwu and I led a team and personally saw three Bronze Bone Corpse Demons moving on that hill. Our target this time is them.”

“We’ve already mapped the route. Though we’ve avoided three Blood Cold Beast clans along the way, remain vigilant to prevent accidents. If you encounter isolated Cold Beasts or small-scale beast surges, engage immediately. But if you trigger an entire clan, retreat instantly—no delays allowed.”

After speaking, Fan Qinghu gripped his waist blade, gave a hand signal to the group, and led them straight southwest.

What followed was peculiar: fifty Xianyang-level experts lined up in a single straight line, following him in slow, synchronized steps.

Xia Hong’s eyes flickered with curiosity, but after a moment’s thought, he understood the reason.

Inside the Blood Miasma Plain, every Xianyang-level expert must unleash their full strength constantly to resist the miasma’s invasion—making them all bright beacons within the zone. If they scattered randomly, they’d inevitably attract powerful entities from unknown regions.

“Cai Yunlan told me earlier that Cai Qiu has been surveying Zone 21 for two months. Two months, and they’re still this cautious? Is it truly that perilous at every step? If only I could see a Blood Cold Beast…”

Hiss…

The Blood Miasma Plain seemed to read Xia Hong’s thoughts; he had barely walked two kilometers southwest behind Cai Yunlan when his inner thought hadn’t even ended—a sharp, piercing snake hiss descended from the treetop to his left.

Whoosh…

Instantly, six men flew out from the formation, perfectly positioned in six directions—front, back, left, right, above, below—surrounding the tree, then without hesitation, drew their weapons and struck at the crimson serpent coiled atop the branches.

“Two meters long! Even in this outer zone, there are high-grade Cold Beasts!”

There were fifty-one people present. Xia Hong couldn’t claim he was the first to spot the serpent, but he was certainly among the top five. Seeing the serpent’s crimson jade body stretch over two meters, he froze for a moment.

How far had they come?

Barely two kilometers in—and already a high-grade Cold Beast?

Roar…

The next second, a sight that left him speechless occurred.

Sensing the ambush, the serpent roared, writhed violently, and instantly swelled to dozens of zhang in length—the exact size of a high-grade serpent Cold Beast in Xia Hong’s memory.

The serpent opened its massive maw and spat a torrent of black smoke, which instantly coalesced into a black blade over thirty meters long, then slashed violently toward the four Xianyang-level experts surrounding it.

Chiiii…

The black blade sliced through the thick crimson miasma, carving deep fissures, cutting trees cleanly in half, and upon hitting the ground, triggered violent reactions that melted the earth into deep trenches.

“Blood Jade Xuan Snake—its black smoke carries lethal poison. Avoid contact. We’re near its clan’s gathering ground. Lin Wu, finish it quickly.”

“Yes, Commander!”

At Fan Qinghu’s order, the man above shouted back and brought his long blade down in a powerful slash, striking directly atop the Xuan Snake’s head.

Simultaneously, the four Xianyang-level experts who had dodged the serpent’s blade lunged toward its body’s four points, driving their weapons in simultaneously, pinning the serpent’s body firmly to the ground.

“Ha…”

Crack!

Finally, the man beneath the serpent swung his massive axe with full force into its tail. Combined with the other four’s restraint, the serpent could now move only its head.

Roar…