77: Chapter 77 Star Sand Vein, Star-Eating Insects

Bang!

That top-grade poisonous thunderball, mixed with blood-dissolving powder and Frost Absolute Shadow, smashed with absolute precision right at the feet of that Qingyu Sect Disciple and detonated with a roar!

Under the violent churning of the star-magnetic storm, the pitch-black poisonous fog suddenly exploded, directly enveloping all five of those Qingyu Sect Disciples within it!

"Ah!!!"

A shrill scream echoed within the mine cave.

"My eyes! My Qi... Why has it scattered?!"

The gloomy youth covered his face in panic. His Protective Aura, which was sufficient to withstand a first-grade Magical Artifact, failed to hold out for even a single breath in front of the poisonous fog.

The extreme cold ice poison froze his Meridians, while the terrifying corrosive force was frantically melting his flesh and blood!

In a mere three breaths of time, these five Qingyu Sect elites turned into five pools of black water emitting a pungent white smoke, not even leaving behind bone scraps!

Those few Loose Cultivators who were originally kneeling on the ground begging for mercy were now completely dumbfounded.

They blankly looked at the stooped gray-robed old man, as if looking at a fierce ghost crawling out of Hell.

Qi Yang ignored those Loose Cultivators. He briskly stepped forward and used his spiritual power to grab all the Storage Pouches within the five pools of black water, putting them into his bosom.

Then, he took out a small jade bottle, sprinkled a few drops of corpse-dissolving water, and completely wiped away the very last trace of the scene.

"Murder and goods seizure—these righteous sects still know how to play dirty. Unfortunately, today you ran into me."

Qi Yang sneered, turned around to leave the main passage where the large group of Loose Cultivators was advancing, flashed his figure into a fork in the road, and stealthily headed deeper into Yunxing Abyss alone.

...

Deep within Yunxing Abyss, the dim mine cave was filled with violent star-magnetic storms.

This formless storm was like countless knives, constantly cutting at the Cultivator's Protective Aura at every moment.

Even a Qi Condensation 11th Layer expert, if staying here for a few hours, would die of exhausted spiritual power.

What was even more terrifying was that the suppression of perceptive power by the star-magnetic force reached a perverted degree; with the slightest carelessness, one would step into a spatial rift and die without a single scrap left.

But Qi Yang was like a slippery loach, moving with ease in this dead forbidden zone.

Having survived in the outer sect of Xuantian Sect for so many years without learning any other skills, his instincts for concealment and hazard avoidance had long been engraved into his bones.

Relying on the keen perception of the surrounding poisonous miasma provided by the Five Poisons Nourishing Spirit Art, he forcibly avoided seven or eight fatal natural traps and groped all the way to the deepest part of Yunxing Abyss along a hidden underground fissure.

"The gravity in this place is simply outrageous; even my bones are trembling."

Qi Yang hunched his back, his dark-gray long robe already soaked in sweat.

He panted heavily and turned a corner along the fissure. The view ahead suddenly broadened, and a huge underground karst cave appeared before his eyes.

Qi Yang's cloudy old eyes suddenly shrank.

Looking ahead, the rock wall in front of the karst cave was densely embedded with countless crystals twinkling like stars.

These crystals emitted a soft silver halo, appearing exceptionally dazzling in the dim underground, while wisps of pure star-magnetic force were radiating from the crystals.

"starlight sand vein! It's actually an entire mineral vein!"

Qi Yang's heart beat wildly in his chest.

This was a top-grade Artifact Refining material!

As long as a little bit of it was mixed into the scapegoat paper doll, it could cause a qualitative change in the doll's strength.

More importantly, this thing was an excellent medicinal primer for stabilizing the Qi Sea and strengthening the Meridians.

With this much starlight sand, his hidden meridian hazards when breaking through to the Qi Condensation 11th Layer or even the Qi Condensation 12th Layer Great Perfection would completely cease to exist!

Qi Yang subconsciously wanted to rush over to mine it, but the moment his foot was halfway up, he abruptly stopped in mid-air.

His keen perception detected a hint of anomaly around the mineral vein.

Qi Yang immediately executed the breath-concealing art, pressing his entire body tightly against the cold rock wall, and carefully looked along the edge of the mineral vein.

He saw that beneath the twinkling starlight sand vein, a thick layer of a "black carpet" was covering it.

That was not a carpet at all, but tens of thousands of beetles the size of fists, pitch-black all over, with carapaces covered in eerie patterns!

They densely lurked around the mineral vein, swallowing and exhaling star-magnetic force, making a scalp-numbing rustling sound.

"Late Stage gregarious Yao Beast, Star-Devouring Insects!"

Qi Yang sucked in a breath of cold air, his back soaked in cold sweat.

The ferocious reputation of this thing was even more terrifying than those Peak first-grade giant Yao Beasts.

The carapace of the Star-Devouring Insects was incomparably hard, and ordinary first-grade Magical Artifacts simply couldn't cut through it.

The most fatal part was that they could ignore the Protective Aura and directly devour the Cultivator's spiritual power!

Once surrounded by this insect swarm, even an expert at the Qi Condensation 12th Layer Great Perfection would be sucked dry into a withered corpse within ten breaths!

"Trying to snatch it by force is definitely courting death; with the number of this insect swarm, each insect spitting a mouthful of saliva could drown me."

A trace of dread flashed across the depths of Qi Yang's eyes.

But he would never give up the starlight sand before him.

Since he could not defeat them by brute force, he could only outwit them.

Qi Yang retreated back along the original path for over a hundred zhang. After confirming absolute safety, he quickly formed hand seals with both hands, circulated earth-type spiritual power, and forcefully dug out an underground cave about a zhang square within the hard rock layer.

Sitting cross-legged, Qi Yang flipped his wrist, and the mysterious black gourd appeared in his palm.

He carefully pulled out the stopper and dripped a drop of emerald-green liquid onto a withered gray Spiritual Plant.

This was the drunken demon grass, a low-grade Spiritual Plant he had picked up in the Ghost Market, which had a very strong paralyzing effect on Yao Beasts, but its effect on Late Stage Yao Beasts was negligible.

However, under the ripening of the black gourd, a miracle happened.

In a mere few breaths, the drunken demon grass grew crazily, its color changing from gray to an eerie dark purple, emitting a rich, sweet fragrance that made one dizzy.

A century-old top-grade drunken demon grass!

Qi Yang did not stop. He summoned the purple copper alchemical furnace, threw the top-grade drunken demon grass into it, and then poured in a full three large bottles of bone-corroding poison liquid.

Under the crimson pill fire, the medicinal power of the drunken demon grass and the bone-corroding poison liquid achieved a perfect Fusion, transforming into a clump of ink-black, viscous toxic agent emitting a pungent, foul stench.

"No matter how hard the insects' carapaces are, they cannot withstand the melting of the top-grade bone-corroding poison liquid. No matter how large the quantity is, they cannot endure the paralysis of the century-old drunken demon grass."

A grim sneer appeared on Qi Yang's face.

He loaded this mixed toxic agent into a specially made jade bottle, then circulated his earth-type spiritual power once again, carefully constructing a pressurized channel along the underground rock layer towards the direction of the Star-Devouring Insects' nest—a channel only as thick as a thumb yet incomparably sturdy.

The exit of the channel was precisely aimed at the core area where the Star-Devouring Insects were most dense.

Qi Yang took a deep breath, poured all the toxic agent from the jade bottle into the channel, and then crazily compressed the thick earth-type spiritual power within his body, shoving it fiercely into the bottom of the channel.

Boom!

Accompanied by a muffled explosion, the mixed toxic agent compressed to the extreme began to atomize, resembling a black poisonous rain, frantically spraying into the nest of the Star-Devouring Insects through the channel exit!

"Hissss—!"

The underground karst cave instantly boiled over.

Tens of thousands of Star-Devouring Insects were enveloped by the poisonous fog, and the domineering medicinal power of the century-old drunken demon grass invaded their bodies.

Those fierce insects, which were originally extremely fast, immediately became sluggish and stiff in their movements, swaying crookedly on the ground as if they were drunk.

Following closely, the terrifying power of the bone-corroding poison liquid erupted!

The sizzling sounds of corrosion merged into one piece.

The hard carapaces of the Star-Devouring Insects were rapidly melted in front of the top-grade poison liquid.

A large amount of black poisonous water spread within the karst cave, and accompanied by the desperate screeches of the insect swarm, the entire area beneath the mineral vein turned into an Asura Purgatory.