Chapter 522: Extreme Yin, Extreme Evil

The giant snake attacked, Wu Tie let out a strange cry, the mixed iron rod in his hand was flung out violently, and then his body suddenly turned into a bolt of lightning; with a Boom— he flew backward.

Along the way, thunderous booms echoed, unknown how many towering trees were shattered, countless wood chips flew and were ignited by the thunder and fire on his body, black smoke filled the forest, Wu Tie fled on lightning, extremely fast, several tenths faster than the giant snake.

The mixed iron rod he threw was extremely heavy, a fairly decent immortal weapon; although it lacked powerful divine abilities, its advantage was its extreme weight. The mixed iron rod smashed heavily into the snake's head, instantly making the snake shake its head and sway its tail, and a swipe of its tail cut a Green Willow Village outlaw in half.

The three leaders of the Dark Dragon Sovereign fled, and aside from them, Wu Tie was the fastest runner.

Black Tiger and the others were also alert; the outlaws were no ordinary lot, when they had the wind at their backs they were like wolves and tigers, fierce and vicious, but if they ever fell behind, they naturally slipped away, running as fast as they could in desperation.

Escape lights flared up one after another, and some simply used earth escape to leave.

The giant snake angrily howled and screamed, its body spinning rapidly like a ghost as it chased and slaughtered in the forest for a while, killing over thirty Green Willow Village outlaws, then it could find no more prey. Enraged, it swallowed all the slain outlaws whole and transformed into a giant snake hundreds of li long, which it planted upright on the ground.

Like a flagpole, the giant snake thrust most of its body into the clouds, it strained its throat and let out a piercing whistle. Wave after wave of whistles spread in all directions, and soon the forest echoed with rising and falling whistles near and far.

Wu Tie escaped over a hundred li, having fled from the snake's mouth, he immediately restrained his aura, employed invisibility technique combined with wind escape, and drifted like a ghost, lightly weaving through the forest.

He also didn't know what schemes Old Master Hu and his group had for this island, nor what secrets lay on it; he simply headed toward the island's interior. Such a strangely shaped island, if it held any secrets, they would surely be at its core.

Along the way he saw countless hideous, grotesque insects and snakes never heard or seen before in the outside world, even unrecorded in Old Tie's knowledge base; various bizarre arthropods were like monsters that could only appear in nightmares, making Wu Tie's scalp tingle and daring him not to be the slightest bit careless.

He hovered silently at the treetops, skimming along the branches, afraid to disturb the bizarre forest creatures that looked dangerous at a glance.

After traveling over a thousand li, a sudden violent sound came from the forest ahead; a somewhat familiar wail rang out, then a patch of eerie greenish light flashed, and the wail was instantly cut off, leaving not a whisper.

Wu Tie opened his third eye, strands of chaotic spiritual light flickering; in his vision the forest turned transparent, and a few hundred zhang ahead, beside a small pool in the woods, several Green Willow Village outlaws lay sprawled on the ground.

A spider as large as a water tank, carved like jade and wholly translucent green, lay on an outlaw's body, slowly and methodically tearing at his flesh.

Though described as slow and steady, the spider's efficiency was truly fast; in the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, it had devoured every scrap of flesh from the outlaw, then strands of greenish light surged within its body and quickly poured into the two eye sockets of the skeleton left behind.

The outlaw's bones twitched violently, his skull filled with greenish light, and eerie greenish runes rapidly spread across his skeleton. After about a quarter of an hour, his frame slowly rose to its feet, and faint greenish flames ignited upon his bones.

A fine practitioner of the Embryonic Storage realm had suddenly turned into this ghost‑like aberration.

The spider then crawled onto another outlaw's corpse, sucked dry his flesh, and emitted greenish light from its body, turning his skeleton into a mobile undead.

Thus, following its nature, Wu Tie watched silently as the spider, in a short time, came to command five animated skeletons.

In the forest, a thick gray mist like drifting spiderwebs welled up from somewhere, and these seemingly sentient vapors continually poured into the five skeletons.

The five skeletons' aura swiftly strengthened, soon reaching their former levels and still climbing. Wu Tie also saw their bones begin to change oddly, taking on a hint of green and a touch of crystal‑clear translucence.

The spider let out a cheerful "squeak‑squeak," then leisurely walked to the pool's edge and plunged in with a "plop."

The five skeletons ran lightly to the pool's edge, following the spider and jumping in after it; the water surface trembled for a moment, then gradually calmed.

Wu Tie's mouth corner twitched.

This spider was obviously hiding in the pool; the five outlaws who had just approached it for no reason ended up tripping over it.

"Drawing water? No way!" Wu Tie muttered under his breath.

Old Master Hu was still quite generous; after the outlaws joined his retinue, even Wu Tie was issued a bracelet with the capacity of a small room, which before departure was filled with various daily supplies and useful items.

These outlaws would never shortchange themselves; their bracelets at least held enough fine liquor, clear water, and assorted provisions for several months. They would not approach the pool for no reason, so……

As Wu Tie pondered this, he saw a fist‑sized jewel, carved like jade, utterly clear and lustrous green, floating up from the pool.

The jewel emitted an obscure, restrained aura, yet its powerful spiritual undulations flickered, filling it with a bewitching charm.

From its aura, this jewel is absolutely an acquired‑tier spiritual treasure.

Wu Tie widened his eyes; evidently this was the reason—the five Green Willow Village outlaws did not come to the pool by chance, they were clearly drawn by that green jewel.

This giant spider even knows how to fish.

"Well, thanks, though I don't know if this is your inner elixir or what—anyway, it's a fine treasure!" Wu Tie gave a heh‑heh laugh, then opened his mouth wide and exhaled a swirl of black‑white yin‑yang qi, lightly brushing the pool with it.

With a hiss, the green jewel was sucked into the yin‑yang qi bottle.

Wu Tie silently rode the wind away, running a hundred times faster than being chased by a pack of hungry dogs.

Behind in the forest, the giant spider shot out of the water, threw its head back and let out a mad shriek; its internal greenish light flashed, and an eerie glow swept over several hundred mu of woods, silently turning every towering tree and thick vine into ash in an instant.

Even the black soil lost all vitality, turning gray‑white.

The spider screamed wildly, trailing a thin green light as it darted through the forest, its greenish divine light flashing rapidly; vast tracts of woods were swiftly obliterated, and within a few breaths the area of five to six hundred li was reduced to ash.

But Wu Tie had run too fast—he was already over a thousand li away; how could the spider catch him?

"Heh, I took your treasure but didn't kill you—just to give you a lesson… besides, outlaws aren't good people; if you run into them, you ought to give them a good thrashing, heh!"

Wu Tie played with the green jewel taken from the yin‑yang qi bottle; it truly is a fine acquired spiritual treasure, containing dozens of lethal grand dao principles such as deadly poison, withering, annihilation, and death.

Wu Tie's innate and acquired yin‑yang five‑elements grand dao has been pushed to the limit, perfectly merged with his divine fetus; for other grand dao principles to fully fuse with his disposition would require vast time and immense heavenly‑earth essence.

Similar innate‑acquired spiritual objects that self‑generate grand dao principles are natural dao treasure pills; obtaining one would swiftly advance Wu Tie's dao cultivation.

Wu Tie happily stowed the green jewel away, waiting for a free moment to retreat and absorb it, thereby strengthening his foundation a bit more.

Behind, a faintly familiar angry roar came: "Brothers, join forces—don't tell me the heroes of Green Willow Village are scared of a mere worm… hey, watch out, this guy spits poison!"

"Ah… what are these five monsters? Dodge, dodge, brothers, dodge—this beast still has backup!"

Wu Tie cocked his ear; his cultivation was strong enough to hear any creature's cries within ten thousand li if he chose to listen. Hearing the wretched cries and howls of those unlucky fellows, plus the spider's angry shriek, he felt great and gleefully hurried forward.

After spending over ten days moving through the forest, carefully avoiding a dozen or so hazardous spots, dodging dozens of bizarre and tyrannical spirits, and evading a swarm of incorporeal, wraith‑like blood‑sucking bats, Wu Tie had reached the island's interior.

Along the way Wu Tie encountered outlaws several times, but each time he carefully avoided them.

Traveling with these fellows, one must also watch for back‑stabbing; it's simpler to go alone.

That day at noon, Wu Tie hid on a small mound, gazing into the valley where a massive eight‑armed ape and a pitch‑black giant centipede were locked in bloody combat.

This valley was originally the centipede's territory; its body nearly three li long, it had painstakingly guarded a peculiarly shaped medicinal tree resembling a Huangshan pine, which bore three water‑tank‑sized fruits. No one knows how many years they have grown, but the medicinal potency they emit leaves Wu Tie in awe.

Suddenly, an eight‑armed ape over a hundred zhang tall, leading a troupe of great apes, burst in.

After a fierce battle, over a hundred great apes had been slain and devoured by the centipede, yet the ape managed to break off a small section of its body in the melee, its carapace shattered everywhere, bodily fluids pouring out, and its former ferocious vigor was gone.

Moreover, the ape had been sprayed in the face with poison by the centipede, now trembling all over, ready to collapse at any moment.

Wu Tie was delighted, waiting for the two beasts to perish together so he could harvest the fruit of that strange medicinal tree; however, sharing his idea was a rooster‑crest giant snake coiled in the grass on the opposite hill.

That rooster‑crest giant snake was seventy‑to‑eighty zhang long, slender as a sea‑bowl's width; hiding in the grass, Wu Tie almost missed it.

This fellow's eyes flickered with an extremely sinister, vicious gloom; clearly it had awakened its spiritual intelligence and possessed extraordinary wisdom, a demonic beast. It would sometimes glance at the eight-armed fighting ape and giant centipede locked in fierce battle, sometimes at the strangely shaped medicinal tree; occasionally it opened its mouth, its mouth full of poisonous fangs continuously spewing large amounts of venom, looking droolingly eager and impatient.

Wu Tie used his divine abilities to hide on the hilltop, alternately looking at this rooster-comb snake and then at the direction of the valley.

As the giant centipede clamped its jaws onto the eight-armed ape's shoulder, it frenziedly injected its venom into the ape, while the ape, not knowing where it came from, produced a large bone club and frenziedly smashed the centipede's head.

Seeing the two giants about to perish together, the rooster-comb snake could no longer restrain itself, slowly slithering out of the grass and cautiously crawling into the valley.

Wu Tie rummaged inside the Black Heaven Cauldron, about to find a suitable treasure to strike the rooster-comb snake from behind with a blunt blow, when suddenly, from afar, an extremely dark and sinister aura rose up—like something standing opposed to all living beings, intolerable to heaven and earth—shooting into the sky and rapidly forming a huge black-gray canopy tens of thousands of li in diameter.

The canopy spun rapidly, vast streams of black-gray qi condensing into drop after drop of black-gray liquid, turning into a torrential downpour that fell.

As the torrential rain fell, the flowers, trees, birds and beasts, even poisonous snakes and insects touched by the liquid began to undergo strange, scalp-tingling changes on their bodies.

Speaking of the rooster-comb snake before Wu Tie's eyes, two large tumors suddenly bulged on its neck; in just a few breaths, the tumors burst, and two more snake heads grew on its neck.

Wu Tie hastily employed his divine powers, consecutively forming dozens of layers of seals to protect himself.

At that moment, from the thousand-mile sound-transmitting talisman issued by the steward of Green Willow Manor when they set out, specifically for outlaws to keep in touch, the voice of Dark Dragon Sovereign came through: "Well, well, there is an extremely yin and evil perilous place here… there are good treasures, but we find them hard to obtain… are any brothers nearby? Come quickly, let's all take the treasure together!"

"My lord, my lord, this extremely yin and evil place was first discovered by your subordinate Dark Dragon Sovereign and my two brothers, Fire Tiger Lord and Hundred Ghosts Lord… this merit, should it be credited to us?"

Dark Dragon Sovereign gave a heh-heh laugh, and sure enough, the voice of Old Master Hu came from the thousand-mile sound-transmitting talisman.

"Sure thing, rest easy—this first merit is yours… once you retrieve the treasure inside, I, Old Master Hu, will keep what I find useful, and I will compensate you according to the treasure's value, so you won't be shortchanged."

"Whatever I have no use for will be yours!"

"All right, Old Master Hu will handle it—rest assured!"

Wu Tie drew a deep breath, opened his mouth, and dozens of divine weapons formed from the black qi within the Black Heaven Cauldron flew out soundlessly, instantly slaying the rooster-comb snake, the eight-armed ape, and the giant centipede on the spot; then yin and yang qi spewed from his mouth, and with a single sweep it wrapped around that oddly shaped medicinal herb.

At the same time, Wu Tie broke open the bodies of the three giants, collecting their three demon cores and eighteen formed centipede-dragon pearls.

Thereafter, he swiftly ran toward the direction where that terrifying evil aura had erupted.