Chapter 375: Secret Realm Creatures
SMACK!
Xiong Xin clapped his fan-like hands together.
Bai Mo and the other two shot him a look as if electrocuted. They saw a leech jump out from his palm, shake its body, and start squirming about energetically.
All of them were shocked.
Xiong Xin leaped up like a tiger, a ferocious look flashing across his face as his potent Spiritual Qi surged.
He was halfway through mustering his strength when he seemed to hear something in a daze, and his entire body froze.
At that moment, a dense swarm of leeches surged up from the ground, overwhelming him and covering him from head to toe.
"...Don’t move..."
After muttering just those two words, Xiong Xin fell silent.
The remaining three watched in terror, but when they saw the leeches ignoring them, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Could this be Xiong Xin’s path to survival?"
Yuan Chu said with a grimace, watching the black mass that bulged and twitched from time to time.
Bai Mo, on the other hand, made a couple of attempts before using a bone shard to pick up a leech that had been squeezed out, examining it closely.
This thing was indeed different from an ordinary leech. Its body had much less elasticity and couldn’t be stretched.
But the ring of fine, saw-like teeth in its mouthparts, capable of gnawing on bone with ease, was terrifying enough.
They waited cautiously until dawn finally broke.
The leeches receded into the ground like a tide, vanishing from sight.
When Xiong Xin saw the light of day again, he was a changed man.
His once-sturdy body was now just a frame of bones, making him look like a great bear that had starved for months. It was a terrifying sight.
He struggled to his feet, letting out a few pained groans.
"Does anyone have anything to eat?"
Bai Mo quickly handed over two Pills, which felt quite substantial.
"They replenish your vital energy."
Xiong Xin didn’t even look at them, just tossed them into his mouth, chewed them up, and swallowed.
Yuan Chu, for his part, took out piece after piece of dried Demon Beast jerky, all of which went into Xiong Xin’s stomach.
His stomach could be seen bulging and then contracting, and after this repeated several times, the flesh on his body gradually began to fill out again.
The ball of fire nearby had lasted through the night and was now gradually shrinking.
Just as Xiong Xin finished replenishing his blood and flesh, the ball of fire flickered and went out with a soft POOF.
The four of them froze and looked around.
The ghostly wisps of fire, once as numerous as stars, were also gradually fading away.
But about a hundred paces away from them, one wisp was flickering without fading. Instead, it grew larger and changed color.
In just a moment, a bright yellow flame landed on the ground, took root, and began to burn the white bones with a crackling sound.
"It’s a good thing this fire lasted the night. Who knows what would have happened otherwise?"
Gong Gui muttered, then looked at Xiong Xin.
"How are you?"
Xiong Xin let out a huge burp and spoke, his voice booming.
"Much better. At least that deathly feeling of weakness is gone."
He thought for a moment and said,
"I think I was cursed. These strange things broke the curse, so I should be fine now."
"It’s truly bizarre! Even Junior Martial Uncle Shang couldn’t find any trace of this curse!"
The calm after the storm was, of course, a good thing.
The four of them set out again, searching for the so-called "Corpse Burning Ground" and hoping to find some fortuitous opportunities.
The corpses of the leeches, baked by the sun, all melted away without a trace.
Judging by what happened last night, there were likely unseen dangers beyond the illumination of the fire.
They had to find another ball of fire before nightfall.
Since the balls of fire were formed from the nightly wisps growing and transforming, there should be no shortage of them in other places.
Xiong Xin smacked his lips. Though still a bit weak, he was much more spirited and asked casually,
"Junior Brother, what kind of Pill did you give me just now? I feel like strength is just bubbling up inside me!"
Bai Mo said, "It’s a great restorative Pill. I carry them with me, and it was perfect for your condition, Senior Brother!"
"Tsk, tsk..."
As the four traveled, they saw many things they had never seen before.
For example, a humanoid creature squatting and gnawing on bones as if they were cabbage, which the four of them spotted from a distance and avoided.
There were also some insects that liked to grow in the bone piles.
This Secret Realm was indeed teeming with living creatures.
But aside from them, there was nothing else.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the group had long since lost track of their location.
"Heh, I guess we just aren’t blessed enough. I really thought we’d stumble upon some opportunity."
Gong Gui said.
Xiong Xin’s footsteps landed softly.
"Look... what’s that..."
Not fifty paces ahead of them, a creature that was humanoid yet somewhat resembled a large, hairless rat was pushing aside white bones as it emerged from the ground.
It hadn’t seen the four of them. It clutched a large, jade-like bone in one hand, gnawing on it greedily.
Judging by the large pile of bones separated around it, the creature had clearly been foraging and had put in a great deal of effort.
"Let’s walk quietly."
Xiong Xin whispered, lifting his big feet and moving slowly, one step at a time.
SCREECH!
BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a piercing sound with a long echo erupted from extremely far away.
It was the agreed-upon signal. Someone had found the Corpse Burning Ground, which was excellent news.
The four of them felt their scalps tingle, their bodies frozen in place.
Sure enough, the humanoid great-rat, which had been gnawing on the bone, was startled. It whipped its head from side to side and immediately spotted the four people who were just about to run.
SQUEAK!
The humanoid great-rat bared its teeth fiercely, kicked off with its hind legs, and in an instant, it was right in front of them.
In the blink of an eye, its mouthful of large, yellow teeth was right in his face. Bai Mo felt like he could smell its breath.
With a flicker of thought, Bai Mo summoned a Pill Furnace out of thin air, covering the great-rat’s head.
A long arm reached out from the side. Yuan Chu blocked and redirected it, pulling the charging great-rat off course.
"Hah!"
Xiong Xin’s arms bulged. Seizing the opportunity as the creature was pulled in front of him, he brought his sandbag-sized fists down like hammers.
The sound of grinding bones came from within its body as the great-rat was smashed directly into the pile of bones, creating a huge crater.
Vaguely, a few leech-like things could be seen scurrying away frantically among the white bones.
Xiong Xin looked down, his tiger-like eyes widening as he started cursing.
"Son of a bitch, I knew everything in this place was messed up."
At the bottom of the crater, the great-rat swayed unsteadily and stood up, still wearing the Pill Furnace on its head.
From the looks of it, it was mostly unharmed. Its skin wasn’t even broken. Instead, it raised a claw to pull off the unknown object on its head.
Bai Mo flipped his palm, producing a handful of Pills, and without a second thought, hurled them into the bottom of the crater.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Pills exploded one after another, releasing multi-colored smoke.
Then, one of the Pills triggered, unleashing a swirl of pitch-black smoke that completely swallowed up the colorful haze.
The others had long since drifted far away.
Just a whiff of that smoke was enough to make one choke uncontrollably.
And that was just at the edge; the foul, noxious aura roiling where the Pills had landed was even more alarming.
Especially as Bai Mo’s attainments in the Alchemy Dao advanced, his combinations of Pills could generate mutually reinforcing noxious auras, making them even more shocking.
A sharp glint flashed in Gong Gui’s eyes.
"Junior Brother, what kind of Pills are those? Truly formidable!"
Bai Mo shook his head, his gaze fixed on the roiling black smoke.
"Just something I tinkered with in my spare time. They’re not very useful, so I never bothered to name them."
After a moment, something crawled out from the center of the smoke.
The Pill Furnace was long since broken. It was the great-rat, with snot and tears streaming down its face, apparently choking horribly.
The four of them sucked in a sharp breath of cold air and fled without looking back.
"What the hell was that thing!"
After this incident, the four became even more cautious. It took them two days of winding travel to reach the location where the signal was sent.
Shang Wunian stood with his hands behind his back, dressed in a red robe.
The disciples arrived one after another; our four were not the last to arrive.
In the direction Shang Wunian was facing, a sky full of swirling bone ash rose and fell, so dense it was like an impenetrable wall, a fortress.