116: Chapter 116 Rotten Heart Fruit, Rotten Wood Centipede

"Interesting."

Qi Yang sneered inwardly.

Since no Sect chose to enter this passage, it actually gave Qi Yang the idea to sneak into it.

Moreover, the poisonous miasma in the Wood Poison Passage was simply a supreme tonic for him as he Cultivated the Five Poisons Nourishing Spirit Art.

Fang Chu led the team to start gathering inside the entrance of the Gold Poison Passage; the mutated poisonous herbs here were of extremely high quality, but their toxicity was also extremely strong.

In less than an hour, the team lost three handymen.

Fang Chu didn't even look at those corpses, only urging the others to speed up.

"If they die, they die. Keep working!"

Qi Yang followed at the very back of the team. On the surface, he was gathering poisonous herbs, but in reality, his divine sense was constantly observing the surrounding situation.

He discovered that spiritual power fluctuations came from deep within the Gold Poison Passage from time to time, clearly indicating that people from the Xuantian Sect had encountered something inside, whereas there was never any movement from the Wood Poison Passage.

"The opportunity has come."

Qi Yang's gaze flickered.

Taking advantage of Fang Chu's inattention, he quietly moved toward the edge of the team.

"I'll go take a look over there. It seems there is a poisonous herb with a decent appearance over there."

Qi Yang hunched his back and pointed to a rocky area in the distance.

Fang Chu was busy counting the harvest and casually waved his hand.

"Go on, go on, don't run around blindly."

Qi Yang nodded and bowed, walking slowly toward the rocky area.

Once he walked out of Fang Chu's line of sight, he immediately accelerated, bypassed the rocks, and headed straight for the entrance of the Wood Poison Passage.

The entrance of the Wood Poison Passage was overgrown with various dark green vines and moss, and the air was filled with a rich scent of rotting wood.

Qi Yang stood at the entrance, took a deep breath, and the next second, his figure flashed as he drilled straight into the depths of the passage.

At the same time, the black gourd in his bosom suddenly trembled violently.

The spiritual patterns on its surface emitted a dim light three times brighter than usual, as if urging him to move forward faster.

"It seems this path was chosen correctly."

Qi Yang's eyes flashed.

He attached a high-grade qi-suppressing talisman to completely conceal his aura, then circulated the Five Poisons Nourishing Spirit Art, taking large strides toward the depths of the passage.

The concentration of poisonous miasma within the Wood Poison Passage was more than a hundred times that of the outer perimeter; the air presented an eerie dark green, and even the stone walls were covered in various highly toxic mosses and fungi.

An ordinary Qi Refining Stage Cultivator would bleed from all seven orifices and die on the spot just by taking a breath of the air here.

But not only was Qi Yang fine, he instead felt extremely comfortable all over.

He circulated the Five Poisons Nourishing Spirit Art, causing the Five Elements Grindstone within his body to spin at high speed, crazily crushing and transforming the wood-type poisonous miasma pouring into his body, while the liquid Poison Wood Spiritual Power in his Dantian slowly grew at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Awesome!"

Qi Yang couldn't help shouting inwardly.

This feeling was like sweet dew after a long drought, comforting to the extreme!

However, now was not the time to Cultivate.

Qi Yang suppressed the impulse in his heart and continued moving forward toward the depths of the passage.

Mechanism traps were set up every certain distance within the passage: poisonous spikes suddenly shooting from the walls, pools of venom suddenly collapsing on the ground, paralyzing spores spraying from the rock crevices...

These were fatal threats to Qi Refining Stage Cultivators, but Qi Yang easily avoided them relying on his Foundation Establishment Stage divine sense and reaction speed.

He didn't even use any spell techniques, purely relying on his movement technique to dodge all the mechanisms.

After advancing about thirty miles, the passage suddenly opened up, revealing a huge underground cave.

The cave was as high as fifty zhang and a hundred zhang wide, with a dead tree growing in the center.

This dead tree was twenty zhang tall, and its trunk was thick enough for more than a dozen people to embrace.

Although it was called a dead tree, its trunk was covered in eerie purple-black patterns that looked like human blood vessels.

On the branches of the dead tree, purple-black fruits the size of fists hung densely.

Every single fruit emitted a rich toxic Qi, and just looking at them made one's scalp tingle.

"The rotting heart fruit!"

Qi Yang's pupils constricted.

He recognized these fruits at a glance.

This was core supplementary medicine for refining Tier 2 intermediate poison pills, extremely rare in the outside world, and the value of a single one was worth at least several thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones!

And on this tree, there were at least over a hundred!

"I've struck it rich."

Qi Yang was wild with joy inwardly.

But the next second, his smile froze.

Because he saw three huge Yao Beasts entrenched at the roots of the dead tree.

These Yao Beasts were entirely dark green, their bodies as large as oxen, covered in densely packed arthropods, and their heads were ferocious mouthparts that continuously dripped foul-smelling venom.

Rotting Wood Centipede!

Tier 2 Early Stage Yao Beast!

The strength of each was equivalent to Early Foundation Establishment!

"Three of them..."

Qi Yang furrowed his brows tightly.

If there was only one, he was confident he could easily take it down; if there were two, he could also manage, but with three attacking together, even if he could win, he would inevitably be injured.

And once injured, his aura would leak and be detected by the Foundation Establishment Elders of other Sects, which would be troublesome.

"I can't fight them head-on."

Qi Yang quickly calmed down, stepped back a few paces, hid in the shadows of the cave entrance, and began to carefully observe these three Rotting Wood Centipedes.

These three centipedes were clearly the guardian beasts of this dead tree; they usually entrenched themselves under the tree roots, Cultivating by absorbing the toxic Qi emitted by the rotting heart fruit.

Moreover, the intelligence of these three centipedes was not low; their division of labor was clear, with one guarding the front of the tree roots, one guarding the left side, and one guarding the right side.

Sneak attacks from any direction would be discovered by them at the very first moment.

"Force won't work, I can only outwit them."

Qi Yang calculated inwardly, then groped out a few stalks of century-old drunken demon grass ripened by the black gourd from his Storage Pouch.

This thing had a strong anesthetic effect on Yao Beasts; as long as a sufficient amount was inhaled, even a Tier 2 Yao Beast couldn't withstand it.

But the problem was, how to make these three centipedes inhale the juice of the drunken demon grass?

Throw it over directly?

That definitely wouldn't work.

These Yao Beasts lived in poisonous miasma year-round and had extremely high vigilance against all kinds of toxins; they wouldn't even touch anything with an abnormal odor.

Qi Yang pondered for a moment, and his eyes lit up.

"I have it."

He rummaged out a piece of bloody Yao Beast meat from his Storage Pouch—this was left behind from a Tier 1 Yao Beast he had casually hunted on the outer perimeter of the ruins earlier.

He originally planned to use it as rations, but now it came in handy.

Qi Yang carefully injected the juice of the drunken demon grass into the Yao Beast meat.

The drunken demon grass itself was colorless and odorless, coupled with the cover of the rich bloody smell of the Yao Beast meat, no abnormality could be detected at all.

After finishing all this, Qi Yang quietly detoured to the other side of the cave.

He found the right angle and flicked his finger; that piece of Yao Beast meat traced an arc, landing accurately behind a pile of gravel in the corner of the cave.

Clatter.

A slight landing sound rang out, and the three Rotting Wood Centipedes raised their heads simultaneously, their mouthparts opening and closing continuously, seeming to capture the scent in the air.

The smell of blood!

To Yao Beasts, fresh flesh and blood was the greatest temptation.

The centipede on the left moved first, its massive body twisting as it crawled toward the direction of the Yao Beast meat.

But before it had crawled a few steps, the centipede on the right moved, faster, directly overtaking the one on the left.

The two centipedes immediately wrestled together, letting out piercing hissing sounds.

The centipede guarding the front of the tree roots hesitated for a moment, but ultimately couldn't restrain itself and joined the competition.

The three centipedes bit and tore at each other crazily, the scene extremely chaotic.

In the end, the centipede with the largest size gained the upper hand, bit down on the Yao Beast meat, and swallowed it crazily.

The other two were unwilling to relent and each bit off a piece.

In a short dozen breaths or so, that piece of Yao Beast meat was divided up cleanly by the three centipedes.

Qi Yang hid in the shadows, waiting quietly.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths...

That largest centipede suddenly shook its head, and its massive body began to sway uncontrollably.

Shortly after, the other two also displayed the same symptoms.

They wanted to crawl back under the tree roots, but their bodies grew increasingly heavy and their movements increasingly sluggish.

Ultimately, the three centipedes collapsed to the ground one after another, completely falling into unconsciousness.

"It's done."

A sharp glint flashed in Qi Yang's eyes.

He didn't rush out immediately, instead waiting for another half-incense stick of time to confirm that the three centipedes had completely lost consciousness before cautiously walking out.

He came before the dead tree and looked up at those rotting heart fruits on the tree.

"So many rotting heart fruits, enough for me to refine several cauldrons of Tier 2 poison pills."

Qi Yang didn't waste time and immediately began harvesting.

His technique was extremely fast; in just the span of a cup of tea, he had plucked all the rotting heart fruits off the tree.

A total of twelve pieces, each the size of a fist, their surfaces covered with purple-black patterns, emitting a heart-palpitating toxic Qi.

Qi Yang packed the rotting heart fruits one by one into the warm jade boxes, affixed spirit-sealing talismans, and stored them properly.

After finishing all this, his gaze fell upon the roots of the dead tree, where there was a layer of thick rotting leaves.