52: Chapter 52 Exploring the Black Mist Forest and the Horror of Gu Insects

The damp scent of rotting leaves instantly enveloped him, carrying a sickening, cloying stench of decay.

The Black Fog Forest lived up to its name; the gray miasma that lingered year-round seemed like living flocculent matter, clinging stickily to every solid object.

Visibility was ruthlessly suppressed to within three zhang of his body, and the towering, deformed trees all around clawed and snatched at the air like ghostly shadows.

Lin Chen held his breath and pressed the anti-miasma Medicinal Pill specially made by Su Qingyao under his tongue, letting wisps of cool medicinal power slide down his throat into his lungs, forcibly dispelling the feeling of drowsiness that was trying to invade his Meridians.

He did not rush to go deeper, but stood quietly at the edge of the forest, keeping the breath-concealing Formation Plate rushed out by Liu Yuan close to his body, allowing the plate to emit an extremely faint, invisible ripple that completely smoothed out his own spiritual energy fluctuations, merging him with the deathly silent environment.

His right thumb habitually rubbed the rough stone ring, its cold touch amplifying his five senses to the extreme at this moment.

The process of sneaking in was even more dull and long than expected.

He spent nearly half the night treading on thin ice through this zone of death.

The feel of the soil provided feedback on the reality ahead, and the subtle scents carried on the wind became his only standard for judging danger.

He successively avoided three overt patrol posts—the Cultivators wearing the outer attire of the Ge Family were clearly unaccustomed to this miasma; their steps were unsteady, and their complaints drifted into Lin Chen's ears on the wind.

Even more lethal were the warning traps hidden under the rotting leaves; relying on a spiritual sense far exceeding those of his own Realm, Lin Chen several times forcefully twisted his body at the very instant his boot soles were about to touch the eerie spiritual energy filaments.

Not until the moonlight was completely swallowed by thick clouds did Lin Chen stop in front of a steep cliff face that looked completely unremarkable.

This cliff was covered in dense, dark green withered vines, blending perfectly with the surrounding environment, but to Lin Chen's bloodshot eyes, strained from intense concentration, it revealed a hint of disharmony.

As he approached, Liu Yuan's Formation Plate emitted an extremely faint buzzing, like that of a mosquito.

There was a Formation.

And it was a high-grade composite Formation for concealment and surveillance.

Lin Chen did not rashly reach out to touch it, but crouched in the distant shrubbery like a stone, remaining motionless for a full hour.

He was observing.

There is no such thing as a perfect Formation in the world; as long as it relies on the terrain to operate, it must be constrained by changes in the landscape.

His gaze swept over the cliff inch by inch, feeling the trajectory of spiritual energy flowing through the air.

Gradually, he discovered the clue.

It seemed that an extremely slight subsidence had occurred within the mountain long ago, causing an imperceptible misalignment in one of the Formation's energy channels.

Every incense stick's time or so, when the Formation's spiritual energy flowed to that depression covered in withered vines, a microscopic lag would occur.

That was a fleeting "door."

Lin Chen counted the beats in his heart.

The moment that hint of lag appeared again, he moved.

His figure swept across the ground like an arrow released from a bow, his fingertips already gripping a yellow-edged Talisman.

This was the last barrier-breaking Talisman he had scavenged from the spoils of the Qi Family.

"Sshh—"

The Talisman spontaneously ignited the moment it touched the depression in the cliff, making no sound; only an extremely restrained ripple of spiritual energy abruptly pierced the Formation's weak point.

Lin Chen simultaneously mobilized the spiritual energy of his first layer of Foundation Establishment, and together with the gap torn by the barrier-breaking Talisman, forcibly squeezed forward.

The viscous feeling of resistance instantly vanished, and the scene before him suddenly changed.

He had successfully entered.

This was a massive underground space formed by forcibly hollowing out the mountain's belly; a few dim night-luminescent pearls were embedded in the ceiling, casting a ghastly white halo.

The air here was even more turbid than outside, and amidst the thick, almost solidified scent of herbs, there was a sickening odor of decay, like rotting flesh fermenting.

Lin Chen pressed against the cold rock wall, his gaze quickly sweeping across the entire space.

On the left side of the space was a large area of medicinal fields divided by a Formation light screen.

What grew there were not proper Spiritual Plants at all, but some poisonous things with gaudy colors and deformed shapes.

Some leaves were shaped like ghost claws, and some roots oozed pitch-black sap, exuding a chilling, evil aura in this claustrophobic underground.

On the right side of the space were simple stone houses connected in a row.

Two Qi Refining Middle Stage guards were leaning against the outermost stone pillar, yawning in boredom, completely unaware that the Grim Reaper had already infiltrated their defensive line.

Lin Chen held his breath, and like a weightless shadow, slid bit by bit along the ground toward the stone house at the very edge.

The stone house had no windows, only a long, narrow slit left on the stone door for ventilation.

Lin Chen leaned close to the gap and cast his gaze inside.

With just one glance, even someone as resolute as him felt his heart contract violently.

Inside the narrow, damp room, three or four people were chained with thick iron chains.

Their Daoist robes had long since become tattered rags; they were withered and gaunt with sunken eye sockets, looking like dried husks drained of their essence.

Most chilling of all, beneath the skin of their necks, wrists, and even their exposed cheeks, raised, dark blue-black lines were visible.

These lines were not static; they were slowly wriggling, as if some living creature was weaving through their flesh.

One of the white-haired old men had completely lost his sanity and was giggling at the wall; in another corner, a young Cultivator who looked to be in his early twenties was kneeling on the ground, mechanically scratching the hard stone floor with blood-stained fingernails.

Lin Chen narrowed his eyes to identify it carefully; the marks scratched by the fingernails were, shockingly, the runes of some extremely complex Pill Formula!

Even after being tortured to this extent, his subconscious was still deducing the Dao of alchemy.

Lin Chen's gaze locked onto the young Cultivator.

Although this person's eyes were equally unfocused, among these few, his body trembled the most, which meant he still had the sense of pain and a shred of clarity that had not yet been completely extinguished.

The two guards outside the door spoke a few words; one turned and walked towards the medicinal fields, seemingly to patrol, while the other turned his back to relieve himself.

Now.

A flash of light gleamed in Lin Chen's eyes; a wisp of Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual energy was compressed to the extreme by him, condensed into a thin thread invisible to the naked eye, and precisely passed through the slit in the stone door, piercing into the young Cultivator's ear.

Voice Transmission.

"Fellow Daoist, can you hear me? I am here to investigate the Ge Family's Medicinal Pill. Keep quiet."

The young Cultivator, who had been mechanically scratching with his fingers, gave a violent jolt.

In his turbid, dead eyes, it was as if a spark had suddenly been injected, erupting with a shocking, frantic desire to survive.

He bit down hard on his already rotting lips, not letting himself make the slightest sound, while his Adam's apple rolled with difficulty, and a trace of extremely weak, intermittent spiritual consciousness information was transmitted back along Lin Chen's thread of spiritual energy.

"Gu... worm... in the brain..."

That was the first sentence Lin Chen heard in the mind of this young alchemist named Liu Ming, permeating with endless despair and trembling.

"They... regularly give the 'antidote'... it can only make them... temporarily quiet... save... save me... I know... they use us... to test drugs... to improve the drug resistance of the 'Heart-Linking Gu'..."

Liu Ming's spiritual consciousness transmission was extremely unstable, like a spider thread about to snap at any moment.

However, just as he was trying his best to transmit more information, a sudden change occurred.

His already gaunt face suddenly twisted, and his features scrunched together due to extreme pain.

The dark blue-black lines under his skin, which had originally only been wriggling slowly, seemed to be suddenly stimulated by something and instantly surged, twisting frantically under his flesh like countless black earthworms!

Liu Ming made a strange "clucking" sound in his throat, clutched his head tightly with both hands, his whole body curled up like a shrimp, and rolled in pain on the stone floor.

If he were allowed to continue like this, within a few breaths, he would either be tortured to death or his screams would alert all the guards outside.

Lin Chen's gaze instantly dropped to freezing point.

He did not hesitate in the slightest; his right hand formed a sword shape with his fingers, and his spiritual energy, like a sharp blade, silently cut through the crude wooden door latch along the slit in the door.

The stone door let out an extremely dull "creak" as it was pushed open a crack.

Lin Chen flashed inside like a ghost, his left hand gripping Liu Ming's jaw to force his mouth open, and his right hand quickly forced a strong sedative Medicinal Pill specially made by Su Qingyao into his esophagus, mixed with a ball of spiritual energy.

The medicinal power instantly erupted, turning into an icy stream that rushed straight into his brain.

Liu Ming's violently twisting body suddenly stiffened, rolling his eyes back as he passed out. The rampaging Gu within his flesh seemed to be suppressed by the medicinal power, returning to a slow crawl.

Lin Chen ignored the other Cultivators who were already crippled. He grabbed Liu Ming by the collar, slung his impossibly light body onto his back, and turned to rush out.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Lin Chen stepped out of the stone door, preparing to return along the original path to that gap in the Formation.

However, the moment his boot hit the ground and his center of gravity shifted forward, a faint, strange sound suddenly came from the seemingly flat dust beneath his feet.

"Crack."

The sound was not loud, like accidentally crushing a withered leaf, or perhaps a fragile shell being cracked open.

Lin Chen's heart skipped a beat.

An unprecedented sense of life-and-death crisis instantly enveloped his entire body.

Without giving him any time to react, a piercing, extreme insect chirp suddenly erupted from the depths of the underground space, from the center of the herb field where deformed Spiritual Plants were planted!

The sound was extremely strange; it transcended the limits of what human ears could capture. It was not a sound wave, but rather transformed directly into steel needles, stabbing fiercely into Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness, causing him a moment of dizziness.

"What kind of rat dares to ruin this old man's place!"

A cold, violent roar, like a night owl, accompanied by suffocating Spiritual Pressure, exploded from the depths of the herb field.

The pressure of a Foundation Establishment Late Stage was released without reservation, making the air in the entire underground space as thick as mud.

A withered black shadow, like black lightning, tore through the faint halo. With a pungent, fishy wind, it shot toward Lin Chen at an incredible speed.

Hermit Duxin! The Hermit Poison-Heart that Elder Yunhe spoke of, who was personally responsible for guarding this sinful herb garden!

With the appearance of Hermit Duxin, the ground of the underground space began to roll violently.

Countless colorful, fingernail-sized venomous insects crawled out from the stone cracks and soil, like a multicolored tide, making a teeth-grinding "rustling" sound as they surged madly toward Lin Chen.

Exposed!

There was no panic in Lin Chen's eyes, only the extreme calmness of a beast breaking through a siege.

His hands moved like lightning as he slapped all three remaining Tier 2 Speed Talismans drawn by Liu Yuan onto his legs.

Wind-attribute spiritual power exploded, and his legs almost turned into afterimages. Carrying Liu Ming, he ran for his life like a meteorite flying close to the ground, heading toward the healing gap in the Formation he had come through.

"Want to leave?! Stay and become this old man's dregs!"

The roar behind him drew closer extremely fast.

Hermit Duxin's cultivation was a full two minor Realms higher than his; even with the boost from the Speed Talismans, the distance was being closed rapidly.

That fishy wind had already blown onto the back of Lin Chen's neck; he could even smell the stench of corpse decay on Hermit Duxin, the result of spending years with venomous insects.

What was even more fatal was what lay ahead.

At the gap torn open by the Break Restriction Talisman, a dense mass of black Gu had gathered at some point, piling on top of each other and frantically filling the cracks in the Formation.

Ahead, a sea of insects blocked the way; behind, a powerful enemy pursued him to his death.

In this moment of life and death, Lin Chen suddenly bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence.

He did not slow down at all, but instead reached his right hand into the Storage Pouch and pulled out the Thunder-Fire Talisman that he had always kept as a trump card, one he hadn't even been willing to use against the Qi Family.

He did not throw it forward, but instead threw the Talisman hard behind him without looking back, detonating it simultaneously!

"Boom—!"

Violent thunder and flames exploded in the narrow underground passage.

A scorching heat wave, mixed with a pungent burnt smell, instantly rolled back.

The venomous insects rushing at the front instantly turned to ashes, and the approaching withered black shadow was also slightly stalled for an instant by the shockwave of the explosion.

"You brat, how dare you!" Hermit Duxin's angry roar reverberated in the sea of fire.

Taking advantage of this moment, Lin Chen had already rushed to the gap.

He did not use any Spell; instead, he concentrated all his protective True Qi on his shoulders and back, and like a crazed bull, he slammed hard into the gap filled with black Gu.

Nauseating sounds of juices bursting rang in his ears, and his protective True Qi was being consumed rapidly.

Just as half his body had squeezed out of the Formation and was about to see the light of day, a shadow deeper than the night silently shot out from the darkness.

It was an extremely small, extremely thin black scorpion shadow; its speed was so fast that even Lin Chen's spiritual sense only captured a remnant image.

"Shh!"

It easily penetrated Lin Chen's protective True Qi, which had become weak due to him forcing his way through the Formation, like cutting through tofu, and grazed past the outside of his left arm.

No blood splattered.

For the first half-breath, Lin Chen did not feel any pain.

Carrying Liu Ming on his back, he rolled out from the mountain wall and slammed heavily onto the damp, rotting leaves of the Black Fog Forest.

Immediately afterward, an extreme cold exploded from the graze on his left arm, as if the chill of an entire iceberg had been forcibly squeezed into his blood vessels.

This cold lasted only for an instant before it turned into a burning pain, as if thousands of red-hot steel needles were frantically stabbing into his bone marrow!

Lin Chen let out a muffled groan, his entire left arm instantly lost all sensation and hung down powerlessly.

By the faint light, he clearly saw a strange black mark, like an ink line, spreading rapidly along the grazed skin toward his elbow, as if it were a living thing.

Poison! An extremely yin, extremely fierce poison!

There was no time to treat the wound because at the gap, the light of the Formation was flickering violently, and Hermit Duxin's violent aura was frantically impacting the disrupted spiritual veins of the Formation, as if it would break through the wall at any moment.

Lin Chen gritted his teeth, forcing himself up with his right hand.

He abandoned all pretense of stealth, squeezing all the remaining spiritual power in his body into the residual effects of the Speed Talismans. Carrying the unconscious Liu Ming, like an injured lone wolf, he plunged into the deepest darkness of the Black Fog Forest.

Relying on his extraordinary memory and beast-like intuition, he frantically circled and changed directions in the mountain forest filled with miasma and traps.

Tree branches scratched his cheeks, and mud filled his boots.

He heard the faint, angry roar of Hermit Duxin behind him, but the sound did not follow closely.

That old poison-user did not dare to stray far from the herb garden.

That was where the Ge Family's most core secret lay; he was afraid this was a ruse to lure the tiger away from the mountain.

This deduction became Lin Chen's only reliance for survival.

He did not know how long he had been running; it felt like a century, yet also like only a few hours.

When the thick fog overhead gradually dissipated, revealing a sliver of grayish-white morning light, Lin Chen finally saw the familiar craggy rocks on the outskirts of Shiyuan Valley.

His spiritual power had completely dried up, and it felt as if blades were scraping inside his Meridians.

He was supporting his legs entirely on a near-paranoid willpower.

And his left arm—that shocking black line had already crossed his elbow and was ruthlessly crawling toward his shoulder, toward his heart Meridians.

The entire arm had already taken on a deathly, gray, defeated color.

His vision began to darken in large areas, and golden stars danced wildly before his eyes.

Outside the Immortal Cave, two anxious figures were pacing back and forth.

Seeing the blood-covered man stumbling out of the morning mist, Su Qingyao and Liu Yuan's faces turned instantly pale, and they rushed up without hesitation.

Lin Chen's footsteps came to a halt.

He felt Liu Ming on his back getting heavier and heavier, as if he were carrying a great mountain.

In the second before losing consciousness, he used his last bit of strength to stiffly unload Liu Ming from his back, letting Liu Yuan catch him.

Then, his slightly trembling right hand pulled a low-quality jade box with a Spirit-Sealing Talisman attached from his bosom.

It was something he had caught in mid-air while running frantically with Liu Ming, having noticed something falling from the man's collar, and had forcibly shoved it into the jade box.

It was a rice-grain-sized, dying, blue-black beetle.

He shoved the jade box into Su Qingyao's cold hands. His gray, cracked lips parted slightly, and his voice was as hoarse as a broken bellows:

"Check the thing inside his body... and... this..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Qi supporting his body suddenly dissipated.

Lin Chen's vision plunged completely into a bottomless darkness, and his tall body, like a puppet that had lost control, fell straight forward.

And on his hanging left arm, that deadly black line, the moment it sensed the host's resistance disappear, accelerated violently, like a greedy viper, and instantly darted over his shoulder.