65: Chapter 65 Exploring the Nest and the Emergence of Gu Traces

Lin Chen withdrew his gaze from the deep, dark cave entrance and let it fall upon an inconspicuous rock crevice in the corner of the cave.

"Swish... Swish..."

The faint sound of water, like the breathing of a dying person, came from deep within the crevice, confirming the information in the Jade Slip.

Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and walked toward the crevice.

"Family Head!" Liu Yuan followed a step behind, his expression grave. "If what the Jade Slip says is true, then the 'Insect Swarm Lair' is right beneath the Spiritual Vein; it is too dangerous!"

"Wealth and prosperity are found in danger." Lin Chen's voice was calm. He squatted down and pressed his palm against the rock, feeling the cold, damp air mixed with water vapor rising from deep underground. "But we are not going there to die."

"Senior Lu Qing is in the Foundation Establishment Stage, and even when severely injured, he was able to escape for a distance. As long as we are careful enough to ascertain the situation and then retreat, we may still have a chance."

His fingertips brushed across the rough stone ring, the cold sensation making his mind increasingly clear.

The heart-condensing flower was related to Su Qingyao's Foundation, the future direction of the Lin Family, and even more importantly, whether they could leverage the influence of Master Chiyang to completely remove the thorn that was the Ge Family.

He had no way back.

"I will clear the way." Chen Dashan said in a muffled voice, stepping forward voluntarily to use his door-sized broadsword to carefully pry open and widen the rock crevice.

Gravel fell with a rustling sound, and a wider slope leading underground appeared before them.

A wave of cold air, mixed with a strong, earthy, and fishy smell, rushed toward them, causing everyone to shiver in unison.

"Han Ji, use a Clear Miasma Talisman." Lin Chen commanded in a low voice.

Han Ji nodded, and two Talismans ignited without fire, spreading a soft, clear light forward that purified the air ahead, creating a passable corridor.

"Liu Yuan, Formation Plate."

Liu Yuan was well-prepared; he took out six palm-sized, wooden discs covered in complex patterns from his Storage Pouch.

He muttered an incantation, tapped his fingertips with Spiritual Qi, and the six Formation Plates hummed, each emitting a faint cyan light as they hovered about half a foot above the ground.

"Family Head, this is the 'Floating Leaf Plate' I refined—a simple levitation formation tool. Just step on it, and it can help avoid the poisonous creatures in the water."

Lin Chen was the first to step onto a Floating Leaf Plate; a gentle lifting force came from beneath his feet, and it was very stable.

Seeing this, the others followed suit.

"Let's go."

With Lin Chen's command, the six formed a compact formation, with Chen Dashan in front, Liu Yuan in the middle coordinating, and Han Ji and the other two guards protecting the flanks and rear, slowly sliding into the pitch-black underground passage.

The passage sloped downward for about a hundred zhang, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.

An underground river, about three zhang wide, appeared before them.

The river water was an eerie dark green, and the current was swift, crashing against the rock walls on both sides and making a "swish-swish" roaring sound that echoed endlessly in the vast underground space.

An ice-cold, bone-chilling coldness, mixed with faint toxic miasma, rose from the water's surface.

Even a Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage would feel their Spiritual Qi circulation become sluggish after staying in this environment for too long.

"Go upstream." Lin Chen identified the direction of the water flow and spoke concisely.

Liu Yuan controlled the Floating Leaf Plates, making the entire team move like a giant lotus leaf, staying less than a foot above the water surface, moving steadily upstream against the swift current.

Han Ji stood in the middle of the team, throwing a Clear Miasma Talisman forward every incense stick's time.

The clear light transformed from the Talisman was like a searchlight, dispelling the toxic fog ahead, but it could only last for a short moment before being swallowed up again by the thicker miasma surrounding them.

The further they went, the faster he consumed the Talismans.

Chen Dashan stood at the very front, a thick layer of earthy-yellow Spiritual light illuminating the blade of his broadsword.

His eyes were sharp, vigilantly staring at the dark river water ahead and below.

"Ssh!"

Suddenly, a black shadow shot out from the water, lunging straight at Chen Dashan's ankle.

It was a black crayfish as long as a forearm, its two pincers gleaming with a metallic, eerie light, clearly highly poisonous.

"Get lost!"

Chen Dashan had been prepared; he roared, and without even looking, backhanded with a horizontal slash of his broadsword.

"Clang!"

Sparks flew, and the poisonous crayfish was sent flying by the violent force, a deep white mark cracking its hard shell.

It fell back into the water, struggled a few times, and then quickly sank.

During the journey, similar sneak attacks occurred from time to time.

Underwater seemed to be a complete ecosystem, full of all kinds of poisonous creatures.

But they were all fended off one by one by the vigilant Chen Dashan and the guards.

After struggling forward for about fifteen miles, the roaring of the underground river began to become complex.

Three forks appeared ahead, and the swift current formed a small whirlpool here, causing the Floating Leaf Plates to begin to shake slightly.

"Stop." Liu Yuan suddenly whispered a warning.

He stared fixedly at the rock wall next to the entrance of the left tributary, where, among countless natural water-eroded marks, a few carvings appeared exceptionally abrupt.

It was a simple arrow symbol, and next to the arrow were three parallel short lines.

"It is a man-made mark." Liu Yuan lowered his voice. "The carvings are very fresh; the edges have not been completely soaked by water vapor, so it should be no more than three days old."

Lin Chen's gaze followed Liu Yuan's guidance, and sure enough, he discovered the mark.

His gaze then moved downward, landing on a small mudflat below the mark.

There, scattered were a few clusters of trampled, unknown poisonous mushrooms, and beside the remains of the mushrooms, a few dark, fingernail-sized strips of cloth lay quietly.

Lin Chen signaled for Liu Yuan to bring the Floating Leaf Plate over.

He squatted down carefully and used a twig to flick the strips of cloth over.

The texture of the fabric was very ordinary; it was the kind of coarse linen commonly used by Loose Cultivators.

But one of the strips of cloth was stained with dried blood.

The blood was not bright red, but a dull, dark reddish-black. When brought closer, one could even smell a faint, fishy odor mixed with the scent of herbs.

Lin Chen's heart sank.

This confirmed his guess.

Besides them, and besides the wave of ambushers sent by the Ge Family, a third-party force had already penetrated this deep.

Moreover, judging by the color of the blood, the other party was likely poisoned by some kind of potent toxin or injured by something sinister and evil.

"Take this path." Lin Chen pointed to the left tributary indicated by the mark, making his decision.

Regardless of who this third party was, their goal was most likely also the heart-condensing flower.

Following their trail might save them quite a bit of trouble.

The team set off again, continuing deeper along the marked tributary.

This tributary was significantly narrower than the main river, and the current was swifter. Large patches of slippery moss and strange-looking fungal plants, emitting a faint fluorescent glow, began to appear on the rock walls on both sides.

After traveling for about another mile, a dense, drum-like "croaking" sound came from a forest of mushrooms emitting colorful fluorescent light ahead.

The sound came from far to near, getting louder and louder, making one's scalp tingle.

"Be on guard!" Lin Chen shouted in a low voice.

Before his voice had even faded, a sudden change occurred!

Dozens of black shadows, like arrows released from a bow, leaped out from the mushroom forest and landed steadily on the rock walls on both sides of the river channel.

It was a group of poisonous frogs, the size of fists, their skin covered in colorful red, yellow, and blue patterns.

Their eyes were bulging like light bulbs, staring fixedly at Lin Chen and his group on the water.

"Croak—!"

The leading poison dart frog suddenly puffed up its cheeks and let out a sharp cry.

In an instant, the cheeks of all the poison dart frogs puffed up like balloons, and the dense toxic glands on their backs visibly contracted.

"Swish, swish, swish, swish—"

The next moment, a rainstorm-like barrage of fine, poisonous liquid arrows shot in from all directions, forming a death net with no blind spots, completely enveloping the small Floating Leaf Plates!

"You're courting death!"

Chen Dashan's eyes widened in anger, and he poured his sixth level of the Qi Refinement Stage Spiritual Qi into his broadsword without reservation.

He roared wildly, his entire body spinning like a top, and his broadsword danced into an impenetrable, earthy-yellow curtain of light, protecting the entire team in the center.

"Ding-ding-dang-dang—"

The dense sound of impacts was like hail hitting a tin roof, continuous and unending.

Most of the poisonous liquid arrows were deflected by the curtain of light, falling into the river and making "sizzling" corrosive sounds, rising in plumes of foul-smelling white smoke.

However, a few tricky water arrows still managed to pierce through the defense.

"Explode!"

Han Ji, who had remained calm throughout, struck decisively at this moment.

He raised both hands, instantly activating five crimson Fire Talismans, which transformed into five head-sized fireballs that whistled as they slammed into the densest part of the frog swarm.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Violent explosions rang out in the narrow river channel, kicking up rolling waves of heat.

The scorching flames instantly ignited the slippery mushrooms, and the high temperature caused the swarm of Poison Arrow Frogs to let out a chorus of terrified "croaks," causing their offensive to falter.

"Now!" Liu Yuan seized the opportunity and abruptly flung a black incense burner Formation Plate from his sleeve.

The Formation Plate was activated, and an extremely pungent, strange odor that all venomous insects found repulsive instantly spread out.

The frog swarm fell into complete chaos.

"Family Head, look out!"

Just then, a cry of alarm came from the side.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Chen caught sight of a guard who, in order to block a stray poison arrow for him, had his right arm splashed by a drop of venom.

With just that single drop, the guard's arm swelled and turned black at a speed visible to the naked eye; the skin rapidly rotted away, exposing the stark white muscle beneath.

He let out a muffled grunt, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans instantly rolled down his forehead.

"Retreat!" Lin Chen decided instantly.

Liu Yuan immediately controlled the Floating Leaf Disc, taking advantage of the frog swarm's chaos to accelerate fiercely and charge out of the encirclement.

"Apply the detoxifying powder to him!" Lin Chen commanded Liu Yuan.

Liu Yuan did not dare to delay; he immediately pulled a jade bottle from his Storage Pouch and applied the white medicinal powder thickly onto the wound.

The guard's complexion improved slightly, but his entire arm had temporarily lost sensation, greatly reducing his combat effectiveness.

The atmosphere within the team became even more somber.

After traveling for several more miles, the surrounding environment changed once again.

The river channel widened, and the nauseating miasma in the air actually began to fade, replaced by an increasingly clear and dense Spiritual Qi.

Within the Spiritual Qi, there was also a faint, refreshing, and exotic fragrance.

This fragrance... it was exactly the same as the scent described by Su Qingyao, emitted by the heart-condensing flower seedling that had been snatched away by the Ge Family!

Everyone's spirits lifted; they were almost at their destination.

However, Liu Yuan's expression became increasingly ugly.

He stared fixedly at the Spirit-Seeking Formation Plate in his hand; the needle on its face was spinning and jumping wildly, indicating that the energy field ahead was extremely chaotic and dangerous.

Even more bizarrely, the surroundings had become abnormally silent.

The previously ceaseless chirping of insects, dripping of water, and even the faint whistling of wind through rock crevices had all vanished at this moment.

A deathly silence.

"Stop." Lin Chen raised his hand abruptly, his voice kept extremely low.

He signaled for Liu Yuan to steer the Floating Leaf Disc silently behind a massive stalactite on the bank.

The seven of them held their breath, blending into the shadows like reefs.

Lin Chen poked half his head out and cautiously looked ahead.

About a hundred zhang away, the source of the underground river had been reached.

A small underground waterfall cascaded down from a dome a dozen zhang high, forming a pool about ten zhang in circumference below.

Dense Spiritual Qi steamed up from the pool water, turning into visible white mist that lingered without dispersing.

This was undoubtedly the spring of that small Spiritual Vein!

And on the edge of the pool, on several wet rocks near where the waterfall washed over, three strange plants were growing.

Their entire bodies glowed with an eerie blue light, their leaves were like jade, and their flowers resembled lotus pedestals, with the stamens in the center appearing like miniature stars emitting a faint radiance.

heart-condensing flower!

They were seven or eight parts similar to the illustrations recorded in the Records of Scenery and Objects!

Lin Chen's heart jumped, but the next moment, a chill shot straight from the soles of his feet to his scalp.

He saw it.

Around the pool, whether on the ground, the rock walls, or the scattered stones, everything was covered in a dense layer of tiny, grayish-white holes that looked as if they had been bored out by insects.

These holes were bottomless, exuding a sense of deathly silence and ominousness.

In the air, that faint, elusive scent of Gu insects—the same one that had emanated from the animal-skin pouches at the waists of the previous ambushers—became clearly perceptible here.

Liu Yuan did not dare to make a sound; he only cautiously operated the Spirit-Seeking Formation Plate, narrowing the detection range to perform a more precise scan.

A moment later, he silently mouthed two words to Lin Chen:

"Underground... it's hollow."

The feedback from the Formation Plate showed that beneath those grayish-white holes was an unimaginably massive System of underground cavities, like a giant anthill.

And inside the nest, it was teeming with tens of thousands of tiny, yet cold and sinister, life energy fluctuations.

Han Ji's face also turned deathly pale.

He took a specially made, pale yellow Insect-Seeking Talisman from his Talisman pouch, wrapped it in Spiritual Qi, and cautiously pushed it toward the hole closest to them.

The Talisman paper had barely come within three feet of the hole when, with a "whoosh," it ignited into a ghostly green flame that had no temperature but emitted a foul, nauseating stench.

This scent was exactly the same as that of the Gu insects found on the captured ambusher!

Lin Chen's gaze swept across the entire spring area.

On a patch of open ground at the edge of the insect nest, there were scattered fragments of long-weathered Yao Beast carapaces, as well as several Yao Beast skeletons that had been gnawed down to nothing but stark white bones.

His pupils contracted sharply.

Between the ribs of the largest Yao Beast skeleton, a broken half of a black short blade was stuck at an angle.

The style of the blade, that unique blood groove...

It was the exact same design as the weapons used by the seven ambushers from before!

Around the short blade, there were clear signs of dragging and struggling on the ground, extending all the way to the edge of the pool before finally disappearing.

All the clues connected at this moment.

Lin Chen's brows knitted together into a frown.

The heart-condensing flower was right before his eyes, within easy reach.

But below was a terrifying insect swarm nest large enough to devour a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator.

And this nest was very likely the source of the Ge Family's Gu insect breeding, or at least closely related to it.

He glanced at the guard beside him, whose arm was black and whose breathing was becoming labored.

Liu Yuan's detoxifying powder could only temporarily suppress the poison; the longer it dragged on, the harder it would be to eradicate once the toxins invaded the internal organs.

Continue deeper and harvest the Spirit Medicine?

The risk was too high.

Once the insect swarm below was alerted, all seven of them might not escape alive.

A thought flashed through Lin Chen's mind, and he made his decision immediately.

"Liu Yuan," he said in a breathy whisper, "record this place—the terrain, energy fluctuations, all the characteristics—the more detailed, the better."

"Han Ji, go over there," he pointed to a stone on the periphery where a few petals had been blown off, "collect those withered petals, and also, get some soil stained with the scent of the insect nest."

"Dashan, keep watch."

The orders were clear and decisive.

Liu Yuan immediately activated the Formation Plate, imprinting the scene ahead and the energy fluctuations onto a blank Jade Slip.

Han Ji snuck over silently like a civet cat and quickly completed the sampling.

When everything was ready, Lin Chen did not hesitate at all and decisively gave the order.

The team retreated quietly along the original path at the fastest possible speed.

Along the way, Liu Yuan also took the opportunity to erase some of the overly obvious traces they had left behind.

Soon, they returned to the cave where they had first discovered the skeleton.

Lin Chen looked back, taking one last glance at the skeleton of the Cultivator who had quietly passed away, as well as the entrance leading to the underground river that they had blocked back up.

His vigilance against the "insect swarm" in his heart had been raised to the maximum.

This matter required careful consideration.

"Let's go," he said in a low voice, leading everyone out of the cave.

Outside the cave, the sky had completely darkened.

The moonlight was obscured by the thick miasma, and the entire outer region of the Ten Thousand Poison Swamp was plunged into pitch-black darkness.

The grayish-white miasma, even thicker than when they had arrived, flooded the forest like a rising tide, reducing visibility to less than three feet.

The speed of their retreat had to be increased.