ragginovel Chapter 170 Beneath the Black Mountain
Chapter 170 Beneath the Black Mountain
When Li Jieqing was browsing through Fairy Shecai's collection, he came across a sentence that said: "The cultivation of evil energy by a Foundation Establishment True Person has no fixed limit; one can absorb as much as one can."
It is evident that if more Blood Fiend and Spirit Devouring Fiend can be refined into this [Jie Qing Blood Absorption and Qi Transformation Divine Power], its power can continue to increase.
"Take it one step at a time. I have plenty of Blood Fiend, and as for Devouring Spirit Fiend, since Blood Heart Cave is a secret treasure land of the Blood Heart Sect, it should also have a few Devouring Fiend acupoints."
Li Jieqing put down the jade slip containing his compiled methods of supernatural powers.
While feeling quite pleased with himself, he also felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart.
He originally thought that it would take at least sixty years, or even a hundred years, for him to reach the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.
However, with the [Jie Qing's Blood-Draining and Qi-Transforming Divine Power], this time can be shortened by several times.
"It's just that the name of this supernatural power doesn't sound very appealing..."
Li Jieqing picked up the magical jade slip again, glanced at the dark mountain on the side wall, and simply erased the original name and changed it to a new one.
[Black Mountain's Blood-Draining and Qi-Transforming Supernatural Power]
Only then was Li Jieqing satisfied.
It doesn't matter if you accidentally reveal your true form to the world, but it's unnecessary to expose yourself.
Let's change the name.
If anyone comes, they will claim to be the Black Mountain Immortal or something similar.
"Roar~ Roar~ Roar!!"
Outside, Huang Chong'er's mournful and indignant voice suddenly rang out, followed by a long, heavy gasp for breath.
Li Jieqing was in a good mood. He put the magical jade slip into his sleeve, got up and looked outside.
It turned out that the yellow worm had just returned from digging in the soil, covered in black mud, and was guarding the passageway in the middle of the white corn spiritual field. It was heartbroken to see a piece of spiritual field that had been destroyed, and it was howling incessantly.
"Stop howling. It's all this beast's fault. You might as well eat it; at least you'll get some money back."
Li Jieqing walked over and casually patted the scales on the back of the yellow worm, preparing to trick it into trying the bloodless bat and see how it tasted.
However, Li Jieqing stopped halfway through his hand when he noticed the black mud covering the yellow worm.
"Usually, the more you dig underground, the drier it gets. Did you dig up some underground river today, or did you encounter some water monster?"
The yellow worm howled twice more, then used its tail to pull the bat-like monster's carcass from the spirit field, before carefully lifting up some white corn stalks that could still be saved.
He looks like an old-timer in farming.
Li Jieqing didn't notice anything unusual about the cave's grand formation, so he kicked Huang Lin beside him and said, "Go, go, go! Lead the way and go first. I'll go down and take a look today too."
The yellow worm was kicked twice, but dared not cry out in pain. It hung its head and slunk away to the side.
Upon arriving at the room where they used to dig, Huangchong hissed as a signal and led the way into the ground.
Li Jieqing followed, his divine sense spreading out to watch over the road ahead.
Ten years ago, Huang Chong started digging underground, and Li Jieqing would occasionally come down to burrow underground a few times.
In the first few years, I encountered a few monsters in the soil, but after that, there was no movement at all, only yellow worms panting as they dug down.
Nothing unexpected has happened in more than ten years.
Even so, Li Jieqing was still quite cautious when entering the underground this time.
After having the yellow worm lead the way, a group of paper puppets were released to take the center.
Li Jieqing stayed behind to hold the line, focusing on providing support.
The journey was silent.
Li Jieqing's divine sense encountered some obstacles underground, making it less convenient to traverse mountains and soil than to traverse the air. However, it had increased somewhat over the past ten years since he entered the Foundation Establishment stage, and observing the situation within two to three thousand feet around him was no problem at the moment.
However, as the yellow worms went deeper underground...
Li Jieqing noticed that the range of his spiritual perception was getting smaller and smaller.
This underground region, which he had never been to before, inexplicably hindered his senses even more than the ordinary mountain soil.
This situation reminded Li Jieqing of the time when Taipingfang City still existed. Back then, Fairy Shecai had prepared an underground passage beneath Taipingfang City, a passage that could also hinder or even block divine sense detection.
"I haven't been here for a year or two, it seems they really have dug something up."
Li Jieqing searched carefully for a while and sensed an omnipresent strange aura among the rocks above and below him. It was this aura that was subtly hindering his divine sense from probing.
At the same time, it is also the source of that ominous aura outside Black Mountain!
The surroundings remained eerily quiet.
The yellow worm led the way, then turned back and waited.
After considering it for a moment, Li Jieqing continued forward, but at a slightly slower pace.
Now that we've discovered the anomaly of this Black Mountain, how can we leave without seeing it for ourselves?
If you really see a huge hidden danger, then you should be more decisive and go back to move as soon as possible.
……
Further down, the range of divine sense was compressed smaller and smaller, and the ominous aura around became increasingly thick.
Finally, Li Jieqing's divine sense had been compressed to within a hundred feet, and it was still gradually shrinking.
"It's similar to demonic energy, moving with the will of the demon beast. It can resist the myriad spells of cultivators externally and reduce the power of magic, and it can also maintain the demon beast's physical body internally and help control that overly powerful physique... but it's not quite like that."
Li Jieqing carefully discerned the increasingly dense aura emanating from the surrounding mountains, while simultaneously slapping a concealment talisman onto his body.
The Azure Water Sword coiled around his body, poised to strike; the Thick Earth Bearing Pearl protected him above; his right hand held the Peace Sword; and his left hand formed the Blood Heart Disintegration Seal. (We solemnly recommend this book to you: *Blood Clan Cultivation Notes*, reading address: [link missing]).
Having made various preparations to guard against unforeseen circumstances, Li Jieqing continued.
After a while...
Ahead, the yellow worm finally stopped, at the end of the excavation tunnel.
The paper figures move forward, occupying all four directions.
All around was wet black mud. On the wall at the end of the passage, paper figures waved paper soldiers and slashed, continuing to dig forward.
"A deathly aura, so that's it, it's the demonic aura that continues to emanate even after death."
"The spiritual core of Black Mountain is also located here; it's hidden very deep."
Li Jieqing's divine sense was suppressed to fifty feet, but it didn't matter. At this moment, he had already seen what was behind the black mud wall.
Still maintaining the concealment talisman posture, Li Jieqing stepped forward, raised his hand and took out a five-hundred-year-old white corn kernel from his sleeve, round and fist-sized, and handed it to Huang Chong to hold.
Then, another concealment talisman was placed on it, making it invisible together.
"Go, step back!"
After dismissing the yellow worms, Li Jieqing stepped forward and continued to manipulate the paper figure to dig a path forward.
The passage was quickly cleared away, and puddles of black mud, contaminated by something, fell out. The deeper they dug, the more foul the new mud became.
Finally, a rotten mixture of flesh and bones emerged from the black mud, and an ominous aura wafted over.
The paper figure then dug in all directions.
Two paper figures held up the ground to prevent it from collapsing, while the rest of the paper figures dug out the surrounding area at an extremely fast pace—because this place was originally a deep underground cave, which had only collapsed here later.
Now, the collapsed area has been cleared out one by one by the paper figures, and the foul-smelling flesh, bones, and black mud have gathered together.
When Li Jieqing arrived in person, what appeared before him was a deep cave emerging from an unknown depth beneath the Black Mountain. Inside the cave was a pool of black mud about ten feet square, filled with rotting flesh, internal organs, bones, and skin. It was constantly bubbling, emitting an ominous aura and chaotic spiritual energy from the ground.
This is a monstrous creature that died and rotted here.
However, there seems to be a human skeleton faintly visible in the black mud pool that has been transformed.
After observing for a while, Li Jieqing commanded a paper figure to go forward and drag out the conspicuous humanoid skeleton.
The paper figure moved silently, its hand just touching the black mud.
Suddenly!
A dark, monstrous shadow emerged from the black mud pool, opening its mouth and howling.
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
The dark shadow expanded, instantly occupying the entire deep cave, and continued to expand, with howls coming from the black mountain.
"Hehehe—!"
The paper figure was jolted by the howl, and the ominous aura lingering in the black mud swirled up and pressed down on it.
In an instant, Li Jieqing lost control of the paper figure.
The paper figure turned black, and the blood-stained paper was soaked and peeled off one by one, until only the century-old blood bamboo skeleton inside remained, scattered all over the ground.
The monstrous black shadow shrank, but did not disappear. Instead, it turned its head to stare at Li Jieqing, its form becoming increasingly solid, silently guarding a pool of rotten black mud.
"What a wonderful monster!"
Li Jieqing was protected by the Thick Earth Bearing Treasure Pearl above his head, and the spiritual light of his Dharma body kept the ominous aura away. A word of praise came out of his mouth.
The shadowy figure was covered in a layer of jet-black scales, as if it had been dipped in ink and painted with lacquer, without a single other color. Its only feature was a pair of blood-red eyes and a sharp, split mouth that stretched to its cheeks, with strands of thick, black saliva dripping from between its teeth and into the black mud below.
With its pointed ears hooked back, deep-set eyes, and two pairs of membranous wings of different sizes, it seemed to echo the ominous aura emanating from the cave.
This was clearly a strange bat-like monster.
Moreover, his rank during his lifetime was definitely not low!
Even after death, the demonic aura did not dissipate. Accompanied by the decay and stench of the flesh, it infected the entire underground, which was unknown in depth, and even extended all the way to the surface, changing the entire terrain of Black Mountain, making it difficult for plants to grow and for demons to come.
"Xiao Fuyi!"
After examining it closely, Li Jieqing finally recognized the name of the strange bat-like monster in front of him.
Legend has it that in the East Sea there is a creature called the Fuyi, whose body is as black as ink and has two wings. It can blend into the shadows and is invisible at night. It often steps on the shadows to devour people. It is born at the peak of the first rank and becomes a second-rank great demon when it grows up. It is a descendant of the Great True Lord Fuyi Demon King of the Great Wilderness of the Divine Continent.
According to Li Jieqing, the phantom of the Xuanfuyi before him was probably more than a second-tier great demon in his previous life.
While he was inside the Red Kun's mouth, he witnessed Fairy Shecai summon a giant bird with blue and red colors, which spoke in human language and called out to the Red Kun, its voice booming like thunder.
The phantom of the crouching winged creature before them was naturally no match for the giant bird of blue and red, but it already possessed a certain charm.
Li Jieqing took another look and saw that this place was the central location of the Black Mountain Spirit Vein.
The spiritual veins from all directions converged and transformed into a spiritual spring.
A spiritual spring is the very symbol of a second-tier spiritual vein!
Li Jieqing could tell from the size of the spring opening on the ground that the spiritual vein here was at least of the highest grade, and that it would take hundreds or even thousands of miles of spiritual veins to converge to nurture such a spiritual spring.
Under normal circumstances, the spiritual energy emanating from this spring should transform the entire Black Mountain region into a blessed land.
However, now, after Xu Fuyi died, his body rotted right in the middle of the spiritual spring. The spiritual energy that had gathered from hundreds or thousands of miles away could not wash it away, and the entire superior spiritual spring was polluted, turning into a black mud pit.
No wonder the spiritual energy outside is so chaotic, making people live a hard life.