txolops Chapter 44 The Mist of the Taihang Mountains
Chapter 44 The Mist of the Taihang Mountains
Fangzhang and Yingzhou are vast regions with crisscrossing mountains and rivers. By the time Taibai finished exploring the two islands, tens of thousands of years had quietly passed.
Over the past tens of thousands of years, he has traversed sacred mountains and secluded valleys, ventured into deep sea currents, questioned ancient and silent cultivation caves, and deciphered some natural mazes and dangerous places.
He did gain something, but as he expected, the truly precious innate spiritual objects had already been taken by his predecessors.
Most of what he found were high-quality, ancient materials for refining weapons and spiritual herbs for alchemy.
"Although there are no extraordinary magical treasures, the value of these materials is quite considerable."
As Taibai tallied his harvest, he felt no great disappointment.
These rare and precious materials, while not top-tier in today's prehistoric world, are by no means ordinary.
Many of these are rare treasures that are hard to find elsewhere, only such blessed places can nurture them.
Having ascertained the current situation of the two islands and with a reasonably satisfactory harvest, Taibai no longer lingered.
He carefully collected the last batch of items, soared up from the East China Sea, and then flew towards the banks of the Yellow River.
For Taibai, the journey from the shores of the East China Sea to the banks of the Yellow River is only a four- or five-day journey, but it is still more than 200,000 years before Nuwa molded humans from clay.
Therefore, Venus did not rush on its journey, but instead flew slowly towards the upper reaches of the Yellow River at a leisurely pace.
At the same time, he spread his divine sense downwards, repeatedly scanning every corner of the mountains and rivers below, lest any missed opportunities slip away.
However, just as he was flying over a mountain range, an extremely strong negative emotional shock suddenly came from the edge of his divine sense.
That wasn't directed at him, but rather a boundless resentment that permeated the entire mountain range.
The resentment was so intense that it formed a gray-black mist almost invisible to the naked eye, shrouding the vast area below.
As he probed into it with his divine sense, the scene that returned made Taibai frown.
In the valley, creatures that should have been intelligent were fighting each other without any sense of reason.
What made Taibai even more uneasy was that in the heart of that chaotic and frenzied battle, he sensed the presence of Xiao Hei and Qingmu, and their condition was also starting to look strange.
"Kuro? Aoki?"
"What on earth is going on with this troublemaker?!"
Seeing that Xiao Hei and Qing Mu were in dire straits, Tai Bai was both anxious and angry, but he couldn't bother to investigate the reason. His figure blurred in the air.
Having already used the ability to shrink the distance to an inch, he instantly traversed the chaotic battlefield and precisely appeared beside Xiao Hei and Qingmu.
"master!"
Xiao Hei and Qing Mu sensed Tai Bai's aura almost simultaneously, turned their heads sharply, their eyes flashing with a desperate light, and shouted hoarsely.
"Hmph! I'll deal with you two after we get out of here! Let's get out of this awful place first!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already reached out his hands and grabbed Xiao Hei and Qingmu's arms respectively, ready to fly away from this place.
However, just as they were about to break through the gray-black fog, the surrounding scenery suddenly became blurry.
The next moment, Taibai was astonished to find that he, Xiaohei, and Qingmu had returned to where they had started.
"Um?!"
Taibai once again channeled his magic power, this time moving even faster and deliberately changing direction, charging in another direction.
But no matter which direction he tried to break through, no matter how fast he increased his speed, the final outcome was the same.
"Useless sir, this ghostly mist is extremely eerie!"
"Aoki and I have tried countless times, but we just can't get out."
Just as Taibai was about to ask something, the liches, corrupted by resentment, pounced on him again.
Taibai instantly realized that the spatial disorder and the frenzy of living beings in this place all stemmed from the erosion and distortion of that primordial resentment.
He looked at the two of them. Xiao Hei was still able to hold on, but Qingmu was already on the verge of collapse. His spirit was clouded, his eyes were unfocused and confused, and he was on the verge of completely losing control.
The situation was critical. A clear light appeared above Taibai's head, and the illusory image of a twelve-petaled Pure White Lotus appeared, supporting the three people.
"The Divine Light that Purifies the World!"
Taibai infused the Pure World White Lotus with the Five Elements Laws, and instantly the divine light changed again, with white as the base and five colors flowing around it.
The fusion of divine light erupted with a thunderous roar, sweeping across a thousand meters.
All the resentment and malevolent energy around them were eliminated, and the scorched earth began to come back to life, with tender shoots breaking through the soil and flowers and grasses adding color.
The crazed lich monks, cleansed by the divine light, lost all their resentment, their eyes regained their clarity, and they collapsed to the ground in droves, unconscious.
Xiao Hei and Qing Mu benefited the most, as the remaining resentment was completely eradicated, their souls were nourished, their magical powers were restored, and they regained their clarity.
Taibai quickly set up layers of sturdy barriers to isolate the inside from the outside, creating a temporary safe haven.
"Tell me, what happened?"
"My lord, please allow us to return to Kunlun to report the news and seek help."
While passing through this mountain, they were suddenly attacked without provocation by a large group of seemingly crazed lich cultivators.
Fighting and retreating, they mistakenly entered this valley and were trapped by the gray mist, finding no way to escape.
After hearing this, Taibai stopped asking questions and instead focused his mind, concentrating his spiritual thoughts into a single line to explore the mountain.
However, after his divine sense extended ten thousand meters, it could not extend any further.
"My divine sense can't penetrate that place. It seems I'll have to look for clues on them."
Taibai opened his eyes and looked at the unconscious lich cultivator on the ground.
He walked up to one of the unconscious cultivators from the Lich and Demon races, condensed a point of blue light at his fingertips, and injected it into their bodies.
At this moment, everyone gradually woke up.
Seeing that most of the cultivators were in a daze, Taibai went straight to a bull demon at the Celestial Immortal realm and asked directly:
"Where is this place? Why is it like this?"
"Immortal, spare our lives! This place is the 'Dragon-Severing Cliff' of the Taihang Mountains. We are here on the orders of the Demon General Zisu to establish the Demon Court's Weapon Forging Branch."
But after only a few days, his mind became increasingly agitated, until a few days ago when he completely lost control, and since then he knows nothing!
Taibai narrowed his eyes slightly, lost in thought.
It's not surprising that the Demon Court has set up a base in the Taihang Mountains, but the strange changes here are quite eerie.
It took several days for the bull demon and others to react, which shows that the evil energy and resentment here are sometimes strong and sometimes weak.
What concerned Taibai even more was that he used the Pure Lotus and the Five Elements Laws, but only purified an area of one thousand meters in radius.
"Have you investigated whether there is another exit from this place? Or any unusually weak points in the spatial arrangement?"
The bull demon's face showed bitterness and fear, and he shook his head repeatedly:
"Reporting to the Immortal, it is difficult to find the exact location of this place. We only know the way up the mountain."
Upon hearing this, Taibai glanced at the Wu Clan cultivators on the other side and made his judgment.
The Wu tribe is naturally vigorous and relies heavily on their strong physique and fierce fighting spirit.
Such beings are more susceptible to the corrosive influence of negative energy, making them more prone to unleashing their inherent rage.
They are very likely to lose control completely the moment they come into contact with the resentment in this place.
Asking them will probably not yield any more valuable clues.
Based on the Heavenly Immortal Wolf Demon's confession and his own understanding of the secrets of the prehistoric world, Taibai already had several possible directions for speculation.
This place is either a remnant of the conflict between the Dao and the Demonic Path, or a remnant of the Great Calamity of Ferocious Beasts.