Chapter 128: Ice Chigu

Gurgle—

The grayish-black muddy ground kept bubbling up with pitch-black bubbles, and as the bubbles burst they gave off an extremely strong foul odor.

Rotting unknown corpses and plants, twisted tree roots and stems of bizarre shapes, accompanied by tufts of bright green grass that looked exceptionally vivid.

This was the scene Yunhe saw after blinking through a special membrane.

Without caring about his inner repulsion toward the environment, he vigilantly looked around while extending his Demon Sense, and only after confirming that no danger or hazardous creature appeared within its range did he secretly let out a breath.

But he did not completely relax his vigilance, continuing to stay still and began observing his surroundings.

The scene before him undoubtedly indicated that he was now in a swamp of unspecified size.

This was not particularly surprising to him.

Because the stone tablet mentioned that upon entering the secret realm, one would randomly appear at any corner of it.

Those with better luck might even appear directly near the "Beast-Washing Pool" or at the location where a precious spiritual plant grows.

Those with worse luck might, upon entering the secret realm, find themselves surrounded by several powerful demon beasts, facing a siege.

Like him—neither particularly lucky nor unlucky—this was the most common situation.

After that, how to proceed could only be figured out by himself slowly.

However, just this much already allows a rough judgment that the owner who left this secret realm must be quite capable, even ranking among the top in the vast Thus line: Yao Shou Shijie.

While observing, he compared what he saw with the information left on the stone tablet in his mind, and thus roughly understood his location.

"Rotten Swamp."

On that stone tablet, not only was a lot of information left, but it even included a map of some relatively prominent terrain within the secret realm.

This is also something that many second-tier beasts like Yunhe who entered this secret realm have not mastered, and it is one of his advantages.

"The Rotten Swamp lies to the northeast of this secret realm; it not only harbors some demon beasts that favor this place, but also contains many poisonous insects and toxic substances."

Although the information is scarce and not comprehensive, at least it gave him a rough idea of this place.

"In the secret realms of the Thus line: Yao Shou Shijie, there are also demon beasts."

Yunhe still felt rather helpless about this.

In the cultivation world, many dangers in secret realms come from the demon beasts inhabiting them.

I never expected that in the secret realms of the Thus line: Yao Shou Shijie, the danger would still come from demon beasts.

"That's also right; only demon beasts can survive and grow in such hazardous natural environments—if it were cultivators, they'd either die early from the danger, or the secret realm would become a primitive human tribe."

In gathering and using resources, aside from human cultivators, no one should surpass them.

In this secret realm, besides Yunhe and these other foreign demon beasts, there are also many native demon beasts that have always lived here; they bear no trace of the aura from crossing into the secret realm, so they will not be expelled when the time limit expires.

But consequently, it is very likely that demon beasts of the third stage or even higher live within this secret realm.

"Even if there are third-stage demon beasts, there probably aren't many of them."

After all, even if this secret realm were huge, its resources would definitely be limited, and given how demon beasts utilize resources, it could not support so many third-stage demon beasts.

Because after entering this place, Yunhe felt that the spiritual energy here was decent but had not yet reached the level of a third-stage spiritual vein.

Having figured these out, he still did not act immediately.

Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully sensed.

Soon his eyes opened again.

"Indeed, the connection between a demon beast's body and a cultivator's body cannot be severed by merely a secret realm."

This finally let him completely relax, restrain his aura, and begin a slow advance.

The mire-filled wetland was not easy to traverse, but fortunately he was a turtle-type demon beast, so the impact was not great.

As for the insects and even weak spiritual worms in the swamp, he didn't regard them at all; even if they were poisonous, they could not pierce his turtle shell and scale armor, whereas if he were in a cultivator's body, the preparations needed would be comparatively more troublesome.

After traveling a distance, he also encountered some weaker demon beasts along the way; but he restrained his aura, and those demon beasts almost all ignored him, and even if some regarded him as food, he easily crushed them with a backhand.

After a while.

Yunhe heard a "splashing" water sound.

Following the sound, he pushed aside several clumps of shrubs, and what came into view was a small waterfall.

The water rushed into the pond below, kicking up large sheets of mist intertwined with delicate strands of cold air.

By the pond's edge, a lot of frost had condensed.

The rising water vapor spread out, adding extra moisture to the already damp swamp.

But what most caught Yunhe's attention was, without doubt, a few small pale-blue plants resembling mint growing by the pond near the waterfall, absorbing the cold air rising from the pond and glimmering slightly.

"Frostgrass."

Upon seeing this grass, Yunhe's eyes lit up slightly.

It's not that this grass is highly valuable, but rather that the place where it grows often indicates that the survival conditions for a certain kind of worm have been met.

"Ice Chigu."

After cultivating the "Thousand Gu Myriad Worms Technique", Yunhe gained more understanding of the worms he originally did not value much or even ignored, and he paid more attention to them.

But before he could approach, his Demon Sense suddenly detected a figure rapidly approaching.

Soon.

A spider not small in size, with eight sturdy legs as firm as spears, covered densely with ice‑blue fur, emerged from the swamp not far from Yunhe, its six eyes flashing with a spirited glow.

At a glance, it likewise noticed those few "Frostgrass" plants, and a flash of delight crossed its eyes.

Its eight spider legs allowed it to run toward the "Frostgrass" as if on level ground.

Yunhe, hidden nearby, silently shook his head.

Seeing the spider approach the Frostgrass, it then gulped down several stalks in one bite.

It showed an expression of ease and satisfaction.

A faint blue luminescence appeared on its body.

But the next second.

Gush—

The pond surface exploded.

A huge blue-and-white striped snake-like beast leapt out of the pond, its sharp, slender fangs sinking hard into the spider beast's body.

For a moment.

Deep blue juice sprayed out accompanied by the spider's hiss.

The spider still tried to resist, but the snake beast showed no hesitation, its massive body coiling around it in an instant, tightly binding the spider.

Amid the soft rustle of its fine scales, the spider emitted a crisp 'click-click' sound, then fell silent.

That blue-and-white striped python seemed accustomed to such prey; after the spider breathed its last, it dragged it slowly back into the pond.

At that very moment, Yunhe, hiding in the shadows, moved.

His body suddenly dispersed like a mass of water, and when he reappeared, he was already on the python's retreat path.

【Frost Ice Python.】

As he silently named the beast in his heart, Yunhe clenched his claws into a fist and struck out without hesitation.

Moving Mountain!

The Frost Ice Python, startled by Yunhe's sudden appearance, hadn't even time to react before being blown away by his punch.

"Hiss!!"

In pain, it let out a hiss.

The instant its mouth opened, a blast of white frost shot toward Yunhe.

But Yunhe also opened his mouth, exhaling a warm stream of water that covered his claw, meeting the white frost, and struck out again.

Moving Mountain!

Bang!!

The frost and water met, but the frost simply melted away; the Frost Ice Python offered no resistance to Yunhe's descending fist, its head smashed hard into the cliff.

The huge impact left the Frost Ice Python's body stiff for a moment, then it instinctively flicked its tail toward Yunhe.

Smack!!

A crisp sound.

Yet it left no mark on the turtle's back.

And Yunhe's third punch followed suit.

Boom!!

The cliff cracked layer by layer, the python's head driven deep inside, motionless.

Yunhe's expression remained calm.

It was merely an early Second Stage spider beast and a mid Second Stage Frost Ice Python—neither posed any threat to him.

He approached the lifeless spider beast.

He plucked a nearby stalk of 'Coldfrost Grass' that had not yet been eaten.

He placed it on the spider's abdomen.

He formed the seal knot.

"Ice as the lure, frost as the bait, emerge!"

Sizzle——

The spider's abdomen emitted a faint sound, then a thin layer of cold frost spread over it; finally the sac split, and a tiny creature less than one-tenth the size of a pinky fingernail, clad in a light blue shell, crawled out bit by bit.

They gathered on the leaves of the 'Coldfrost Grass'.

If Yunhe did not use his art to draw them forth, or if the spider beast were not dead, these Ice Chi Worms could not stir up much trouble and would likely be digested outright.

In fact, aside from a few innately peculiar gu worms, most gu worms cause little effect after being swallowed.

The Ice Chi Worm is a decent sort of gu worm, but its threat is only significant against first‑stage beasts; against second‑stage beasts it remains relatively low.

But after Yunhe transferred the Ice Chi Worms that had crawled onto the Coldfrost Grass onto the corpse of the Frost Ice Python, this swarm of tiny creatures became excited and active.

On the Frost Ice Python's body, a thin layer of frost gradually formed.

The Ice Chi Worms broke a tiny opening in its scales and quickly burrowed inside.

Soon.

Although the Frost Ice Python, naturally adept at wielding frost, ended up coated in a thick layer of ice—appearing hardly changed on the outside—its interior was being devoured by the gu worms at breakneck speed.

When Yunhe again activated his spell seal to draw forth the Ice Chi Worms, they exploded from a mere few dozen to over a thousand in an instant!

The Frost Ice Python's body instantly shriveled, leaving only a snake skin and its head.

Moreover.

The initial batch of Ice Chi Worms faintly emitted a dangerous aura.

Thus, the initial cultivation of this Ice Chi Worm swarm was complete.

Yunhe took out two jade gourds of distinct quality, drawing many into one and few into the other.

He stoppered the gourds.

"Keep a small portion as reserve mother gu; the rest can be used as nourishment for cultivating 'corpse gu'."

Having dealt with these, Yunhe gathered the remaining materials and climbed the cliff of the waterfall.

He gazed off into the distance.

He found himself still within the swamp's bounds.

This cold pool seemed merely an insignificant spot in the vast swamp.

But upon gazing far ahead, Yunhe, having opened his Spiritual Eye, saw some things that piqued his interest.

For example, not far from here, there is a large area of skeletal remains; one should be able to find many interesting spirit insects or poison insects there.

Furthermore, in a more distant place filled with miasma, he faintly saw a thriving vine, and on it a sauce‑red gourd.

————

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(End of chapter)