Chapter 203: The Old Shaman Lord

Although worried that this food might be poisonous, Xu Chen still tried his best to pick out the items that looked more normal and ate a few mouthfuls; after all, if the Feng people of the Mortal World could eat it, then he supposed he could eat some of the food from the Underworld as well.

The most important thing was that he had to try to accept this food, otherwise, if he really couldn't find a way out in a short time, he had to find a way to survive as best he could.

Even if he truly couldn't find a way out and had to stay here for the rest of his life, he would eventually end up completely becoming an in-marrying native of Minghuang.

He believed that by relying on the various knowledge he had learned in Yuqing Hall—such as alchemy, artifact refining, arrays, talisman making, and magic spells—he might still be able to lead the human race to carve out a new world in Minghuang.

Because he had already discovered through the Feng clan that this dark and sunless Minghuang was actually not pitch black, but rather had light and many good things, allowing one to live well and even possess strength greater than cultivators in the Mortal World.

Therefore, Xu Chen was not as anxious about finding a way out as he had been at the beginning.

All the food of the Feng clan tasted strange when eaten, carrying a cold aura unique to Minghuang that eroded the soul and body.

However, this erosion posed no harm to him, because after his soul merged with the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, he was almost immune to all poisons, and his body had been repeatedly strengthened and transformed by the white Qi refined by the Demon Refining Art, so the tiny bit of aura within the food posed no threat at all.

Especially the Divine Blood Paste; after drinking a mouthful, his whole body felt as if he had swallowed a mouthful of scalding magma, and the intense heat was the very nemesis of this cold aura, even constantly stimulating his vital energy to expand and churn, scorching the coldness within his tendons, bones, blood, and flesh until it was completely broken down.

Seeing the way Xu Chen ate and drank, many children could not help but swallow their saliva.

This food was extremely precious to the entire tribe, and the amount allocated to each person was extremely limited.

Food, Ghost Soul Water, and Divine Blood Paste were the three material pillars of the entire tribe's survival, but apart from the Divine Blood Paste, the other two were becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.

Xu Chen had no fondness for this strange food either, so he only tasted it lightly, sampled each one, and drank half a bowl of Divine Blood Paste, before smiling and transmitting his voice to the Elder and the Clan Leader to ask:

"In such a dark, sunless, and cold place as Minghuang, to think there is such a miraculous thing as Divine Blood Paste is truly incredible. Just now, when I saw the God Blood Pool, the surroundings seemed to be an ancient array that gathered this Divine Blood Paste together. I wonder if the Elder and Clan Leader could teach me this array; perhaps it will be of great use after I return to the Mortal World!"

The Clan Leader and the Elder looked at each other, then simultaneously revealed bitter smiles, and the Elder transmitted his voice: "Every tribe has a God Blood Pool, and the construction methods are much the same, but they were all passed down by our ancestors. In fact, in our more ancient traditions, the God Blood Pool has another name called the Creation Pool. It is said that when the human race first arrived in Minghuang, all large cities where humans gathered would build extremely large-scale Creation Pools. After warriors entered the Creation Pool to soak and absorb the power of the Divine Blood, they could gain the blessing of divine patterns and become more powerful. Even if injured, as long as they were not dead, they could fully recover in the Creation Pool. However, as the Underworld Qi continuously eroded and Nether Beasts continuously broke through human defenses, a large number of cities were destroyed, and these Creation Pools were all abandoned, and the methods for building them were continuously lost. Our tribe's Creation Pool was built by ancestors over ten generations ago; passed down to us now, no one knows the construction method anymore. We would be very willing to teach you the method, but unfortunately, we cannot."

Xu Chen could only sigh and say: "Sigh, then forget it."

Seeing Xu Chen's face full of regret, many Feng people felt somewhat ashamed. One middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, stood up, and said: "Actually, if we could awaken the Old Shaman Lord who is still in slumber, perhaps he would know some methods."

A violent commotion broke out in the crowd. The Elder was silent for a long time before shaking his head: "The Old Shaman Lord has been in slumber for a very, very long time. His body has long since decayed, and his soul must have been deeply eroded by the Underworld Qi. Not to mention that we currently have no way to awaken him, even if we did, I fear he would only be as ferocious as a Nether Beast. Once he loses control, our entire tribe will not be able to survive. It is better not to risk this matter."

"Indeed, this is too dangerous!" The Clan Leader also nodded in agreement.

Xu Chen, however, became interested all of a sudden. After asking a few detailed questions, he learned that the Feng clan still had an elder who had survived for at least seven or eight generations and had been in a state of slumber all along.

It was said that when the Old Shaman Lord was alive, his strength was extremely formidable, almost capable of contending with the most powerful Nether Beasts in the Minghuang region. However, after being injured once, he could no longer suppress the Blood Poison and could only put himself into a self-induced slumber. He was now kept in another separate stone cave outside the valley.

According to the Feng people, although the Old Shaman Lord was not yet completely dead, he was actually already decayed beyond repair, and the people of the tribe did not dare to touch him, only able to wait for him to slowly die completely.

Of course, if he could be saved, it would almost be a great blessing for the Feng clan and even the human race in the Minghuang region.

It was just that at present, including the Feng clan, all the nearby tribes did not have enough resources and strength to awaken the Old Shaman Lord, because it was simply too dangerous.

Although Nether Beasts were a threat to all humans in the Underworld, once the Old Shaman Lord was awakened and lost his intelligence, he would be even more dangerous than a Nether Beast, which could be called the end of the tribe.

"I wonder if you could take me to see the Old Shaman Lord?" Xu Chen was both curious and somewhat excited.

As the saying goes, having an elder in the house is like having a treasure.

The older a person is, the more profound their knowledge, the broader their experience, and the richer their expertise. At present, he was at his wit's end to find a way back. In reality, as the Elder said, even if he went to other tribes, there was a 99% chance he would gain nothing. But if he could revive this old antique who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, perhaps his difficulties would be easily solved.

An existence capable of contending with the most powerful Nether Beast in Minghuang would have at least the strength of a fifth-tier Nether Beast, equivalent to a True Spirit Realm Great Cultivator among humans.

Chixia Zhenjun of the True Spirit Realm in Yuqing Hall was already one of the few powerhouses in the Shenzhou region, and in the Great Song Immortal World, his word was law, and no one could contend with him.

Such a peerless powerhouse naturally had a very vast range of activity. Not to mention flying across the Underworld River, but at least in this area of tens of millions of miles, he was definitely a top-tier existence. With his broad knowledge and experience, there was a high probability that he would gain something.

If even such a person had absolutely no clues, Xu Chen believed he could almost give up the thought of returning and just grow old and die here in loneliness.

At present, he had the Blue Light Treasure Bottle with him, and the food here was not inedible, so there would certainly be no major problem surviving for the time being.

He might even think more about it, perhaps marry some tough woman from the Feng clan who was half a head taller than him, then have a few kids, and from then on be a true barbarian native.

He couldn't help but glance at the several old and young Feng women sitting there, couldn't help but shiver several times, and then quickly strangled this thought of his completely, and even used the Yi Zi Chang She Zhen, the Two Dragons Playing with Water Array, the Five Elements Returning to Origin Array, and the Taiji Bagua Array to suppress it thoroughly.

The sense of species barrier was too strong.

It was fine to chat as friends, but to sleep together—just thinking about it made him feel unwell.

In an instant, Xu Chen's mind was in a mess as if struck by electricity, but the Feng people were all somewhat hesitant. Finally, the Elder made the decision: "Actually, it's fine to just go and take a look. When do you want to go?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Chen stood up impatiently and said: "Let's go now!"

"Good, I will take you!" The Elder stood up.

Consequently, everyone stood up as well. Many people were clamoring to follow and watch, and the Elder did not refuse, only reminding them a few times with great dignity, and then a large group of people surrounded Xu Chen and followed the Elder as they walked out.

Walking out of the cave, the black coffin-like shell boat was still floating at the entrance. Several Feng men responsible for guarding the door were standing on it, rocking back and forth and having a great time. Suddenly seeing a large group of people pouring out, they all blushed and jumped off the shell boat.

Xu Chen didn't pay any attention to it. This shell boat was actually very simple to operate and steer, but it could only be propelled by vital energy, and these Minghuang humans did not cultivate the Qi of the Spirit, so they had no way to use it at all.

"The Old Shaman Lord is slumbering in that cave." The Elder pointed to a place emitting white light across the valley and transmitted his voice to remind him.

Xu Chen nodded, released his vital energy, and stepped into the air, flying directly toward the opposite side. Amidst the exclamations of the large crowd, they all released the red light wings on their tight-fitting leather suits and followed him into the air with a whoosh, the scene being very spectacular.

Because he had been here for too short a time, Xu Chen hadn't carefully asked about the principles behind this kind of armor and light wings that were like Magic Treasures. However, when he was saving Feng Feiyi previously, he had carefully observed some of the structures on her tight-fitting suit and discovered it was an incomprehensible array device, with some strange Ancient Runes engraved on two pieces of equipment resembling bones, embedded on both sides of the shoulders, which seemed to be activated through the soul.

This should be the same as the structure of the God Blood Pool, belonging to the heritage left behind by ancient human cultivators, which was very different from the artifact refining and array structures popular in the Mortal World and the Immortal World today. It should be very ancient, so ancient that there were almost no records of it in the Immortal World.

He was in no mood to study these things now.

Arrays and alchemy were two crafts that consumed an extreme amount of time and energy.

Not to mention a system he had never come into contact with; wanting to figure it out was even more difficult. He estimated that without a few years, he wouldn't even be able to find the entrance.

Soon, the group flew to the place emitting white light.

Here, an artificial stone cave had also been excavated on the steep cliff, but the entrance was completely blocked by huge stone bricks, with almost no gaps. Around the entrance, some glowing crystals were embedded.

He did not know what attributes these crystals had; they not only provided illumination but also seemed to repel the Underworld Qi black mist.

"Open the cave!"

The Elder gave the order, and then Feng Zhao and a group of strong men swarmed up, and with many hands, they quickly pried out all the stone bricks at the entrance and placed them to the side.

Xu Chen's eyelids twitched a little as he watched.

These stones were like stones from the Mortal World that had been compressed countless times, extremely dense, with one piece weighing thousands of catties. Even using magic spells to move them would require consuming a great deal of vital energy, but these tall and strong guys moved them aside with their bare hands, which showed that the bodies of these Minghuang natives had completely mutated to an almost perverted degree.

(End of chapter)