35: Chapter 35 Stone Forest

Wu Li and the Crow Flock flew the entire way.

A distance of three hundred li.

During this time, Wu Li and the Crow Flock passed by two Human Race villages and towns. Between resting and resupplying, they finally saw their target three days later.

At sunset.

The terrain ahead began to change.

That magnificent mountain range.

The mountains rolled and undulated, layer upon layer, like a giant Dragon lying across the earth. The peaks towered into the clouds, with mist swirling around the mountainsides. Sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting dappled light and shadows upon the mountains.

Thick Spiritual Qi rushed towards them.

At sunset, the golden afterglow blanketed the entire mountain range, a brilliant expanse that was truly eye-catching.

Such a sight.

Wu Li reckoned that if the poets he knew from his past life were here, they could probably add another hundred or so poems to their repertoire.

"Caw, caw, caw~"

The Crow Flock landed on the outskirts.

Wu Li's body was suffused with Demon Power.

"Such dense Spiritual Qi?"

"Old Ancestor, this really is a good place."

Black Feather couldn't help but say at this moment.

This place.

The air was filled with the fragrance of plants and trees, mixed with the faint scent of Spirit Medicine, making one feel refreshed and relaxed.

But Wu Li did not respond. Wu Li folded his wings, landed on a low hill, and scanned his surroundings vigilantly with his bean-sized black pupils.

This mountain range was too magnificent, and the Spiritual Qi was too dense. In a place like this, it was impossible for there to be no Yao Beast occupying it. He didn't know the layout of the mountains; rushing in blindly would be courting death.

Black Feather landed beside Wu Li and asked in a low voice, "Old Ancestor, shall we go in?"

"No rush."

Wu Li shook his head, and the Blood Eye Shadow slowly opened.

A scarlet glow lit up in the twilight, like a dim red lamp, sweeping across the entire mountain range.

Currently, Wu Li's cultivation was limited. Although the Blood Pupil was strange, he could only scout within a radius of thirty li.

Under the Blood Pupil, the distribution of Spiritual Qi near the mountains was clear at a glance.

Even on the outskirts, there were many places with dense Spiritual Qi, but those places all had dark red blood energy surging, meaning they should be occupied.

There were also many Tier 1 Demonic Beasts around. In some places, the blood energy was even denser, which Wu Li guessed to be Tier 2 Demonic Beasts.

Further into the depths, those few massive clusters of dark red blood energy were particularly blinding. One of them was astonishingly large, and Wu Li's Blood Pupil didn't dare to look directly at it for too long before looking elsewhere.

Wu Li's pupils contracted slightly, and he sighed in his heart. Although this mountain range was lush with Spiritual Qi, almost all the places with dense Spiritual Qi were already occupied.

As an outsider at the Late Stage of Tier 1, rushing in blindly would be courting death.

'Hmm?'

While observing.

Wu Li suddenly discovered something amiss.

Within those blood energy clusters he had just seen, why did they all seem to have a faint, special 'Chuan' character pattern?

Wu Li took another look.

The Blood Pupil swept over, confirming he hadn't misseen it.

But this 'Chuan' character pattern wasn't in all the blood energy clusters, and it didn't affect the circulation of any blood energy or Spiritual Qi.

'Strange.'

Wu Li didn't dwell on this inexplicable matter. Right now, he needed to find a place to settle down first. The Blood Pupil continued to move, sweeping across the outskirts of the mountain range.

Soon, he discovered a special place.

In the southeast corner of the mountain range, there was a low-lying pit.

The Spiritual Qi there was pitifully thin, completely out of place with the surroundings.

A layer of gray-black Death Qi permeated above the pit.

The surrounding trees were withered and blackened, as if drained of their vitality by something, with bare branches reaching towards the sky, twisted and eerie.

Strange stones stood in disarray, forming a stark contrast with the magnificent mountain range, like a forgotten, desolate land.

Wu Li originally wanted to skip it, but when the Blood Pupil swept over that pit, he noticed something behind it.

Behind the pit was a Stone Forest.

Gray-white stone pillars rose from the ground, varying in height and shape.

That Stone Forest looked thin in Spiritual Qi, desolate and barren from the outside, but in the Blood Pupil's vision, there was a cluster of Spiritual Qi deep within the Stone Forest that gathered and did not disperse, so dense it was almost about to condense into substance.

Most importantly, there was no dark red blood energy, meaning there were no Yao Beasts occupying it, and there was even very little scent of wild beasts.

Wu Li's eyes lit up.

"Follow me!"

Wu Li retracted the Blood Pupil, spread his wings, and flew toward the pit. The Crow Flock followed closely behind, a black mass like a drifting dark cloud in the twilight.

As they flew close to the pit, Wu Li looked down and understood why this place was permeated with Death Qi.

This was actually a Mass Grave.

The pit was full of grave mounds, densely packed and uneven.

Some grave mounds had collapsed, revealing the rotten coffins and white bones inside; others were still intact but overgrown with withered yellow weeds, with crooked tombstones. The air was filled with a faint stench of decay, mixed with the Death Qi.

Even as Wu Li led the Crow Flock flying over, there were two people pushing a cart, casually burying two headless corpses.

A strange look flashed in Wu Li's eyes, while the other crows were immediately excited, letting out cawing noises.

Below.

The two people burying the corpses couldn't help but look up.

The black mass of the Crow Flock flew overhead, blocking the last bit of daylight in the twilight. The cawing of the crows echoed across the empty pit, harsh and noisy.

One of them stopped the shovel in his hand, squinted for a moment, and couldn't help but say, "Strange, it's been a long time since we've seen crows here. Why are there so many today?"

The other person didn't even raise his head, the shovel in his hand scooping up soil bit by bit, covering the two headless corpses.

His movements were practiced and numb, as if he were doing something he had done a thousand times.

"What does that have to do with us?"

"The Xuanyi Sect discovered traces of the Demon Sect in the Long City area and, together with the authorities, are killing people everywhere. Many people have died inside and outside the city. Let's hurry up and finish our work; the sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back."

The man shrank his neck upon hearing this, stopped looking, lowered his head, and continued burying the corpses.

The sound of the shovel scooping soil was exceptionally clear in the silent pit, once, and then again.

The Crow Flock flew over their heads without stopping, a black mass heading toward the Stone Forest behind the pit.

The two were adjacent.

Past the Mass Grave was that gray-white Stone Forest.

Wu Li landed on the highest stone pillar on the outskirts of the Stone Forest, scanning the Stone Forest with his bean-sized black pupils.

The gaps between the stone pillars were narrow, so large Yao Beasts couldn't enter. It was hidden and safe. Although desolate, for the Crow Flock, it was an excellent place to dwell.

"This is the place."

Wu Li turned his head and said to Black Feather, "Everyone, find a place to settle down."

Black Feather nodded hurriedly, flapped his wings, and flew toward the Crow Flock to convey Wu Li's order.

Over a hundred crows flew in all directions. Some landed on the tops of the stone pillars, some burrowed into the stone crevices, and some circled at low altitude. Soon, they each found a place to roost.

After settling the Crow Flock, Wu Li did not rest. He spread his wings and flew alone into the depths of the Stone Forest.

As seen by the Blood Pupil, the outskirts of this Stone Forest were thin in Spiritual Qi, but deep inside, there was an extremely dense gathering point of Spiritual Qi. That was what he was truly interested in.

The Stone Forest as a whole was not large, but the further in he went, the denser and sharper the stone pillars became.

They were no longer the scattered, uneven stone pillars of the outskirts, but rather interlocking like jagged teeth, like countless giant fangs piercing out from the ground, crossing and overlapping. Some slightly larger wild beasts couldn't even enter; it was completely a natural barrier.

The twilight had deepened.

A few breaths later.

Wu Li passed through the outskirts of the Stone Forest. The terrain here was higher than the Stone Forest; it was a split Limestone Cave, a fissure naturally formed after the earth split open.

There were no traces of artificial carving; on the stone walls were gullies washed out by water over millions of years.