“Yue’er, wait for me a moment.”
Ye Qiu said, then strode towards the Red Spirit Bone.
“What are you doing?” Fairy Hundred Flowers grabbed his hand, asking, “Are you trying to pick the Red Spirit Bone?”
“Yes,” Ye Qiu nodded.
“It is highly poisonous,” Fairy Hundred Flowers said.
“I know,” Ye Qiu replied. Immune to all poisons, he was not the least bit afraid, even of the Red Spirit Bone’s potent toxicity.
He thought, since the Red Spirit Bone could poison a cultivator at the early Nascent Soul stage, how could he pass it up?
“Be careful,” Fairy Hundred Flowers said, still worried.
“Do not worry, I will be fine,” Ye Qiu said, walking to the Red Spirit Bone and grasping its stem.
The next moment, he noticed his right hand turning purplish-black, a sign of poisoning.
“Such a ferocious toxin?”
Ye Qiu’s expression shifted slightly, but in an instant, his hand returned to normal.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ye Qiu uprooted the entire Red Spirit Bone and placed it in his Qiankun Bag.
“People of the Yin-Yang Sect, you had better stay far away from me, or I will poison you all.”
Ye Qiu thought to himself.
Seeing that Ye Qiu harvested the Red Spirit Bone without being poisoned, the worry in Fairy Hundred Flowers’ eyes faded, replaced by a smile.
“By the way, where are Lüluo and the Daoist? Why haven’t we seen them in so long?” Fairy Hundred Flowers asked about Lüluo and the Long Eyebrow Immortal.
“I do not know where they are right now,” Ye Qiu said, then briefly recounted the earlier events to her.
After listening, Fairy Hundred Flowers said in amazement, “I never imagined this place would be a saint’s tomb.”
“I once heard my master say that saint tombs are extremely perilous.”
“Ye Qiu, we must hurry and find Lüluo and the Daoist to avoid any mishaps.”
Ye Qiu said, “That is exactly my intention. Let us leave here and try to find the old fellow and Lüluo as soon as possible.”
With that, Ye Qiu and Fairy Hundred Flowers held hands and walked forward together.
As they walked, the scene before them suddenly changed, revealing a canyon.
Ye Qiu and Fairy Hundred Flowers stopped at the canyon’s edge. Looking up, they saw towering glaciers on both sides, stretching endlessly, like divine swords piercing the heavens.
Within the canyon, a layer of black mist lingered, like indelible ink, exuding an eerie and sinister aura.
“Is this black mist poisonous?” Fairy Hundred Flowers asked.
“It is not poisonous,” Ye Qiu said confidently. As a medical saint skilled in pharmacology and immune to all poisons, he would have sensed any toxicity in the mist immediately.
Then, Ye Qiu activated his Heavenly Eye.
Instantly, he discovered that the black mist in the canyon was formed from deathly qi.
“So much deathly qi?”
Ye Qiu was shocked, realizing that many people must have died in this canyon.
He tried to see what else was inside, but the deathly qi was too dense, and even his Heavenly Eye could not penetrate it.
“What is wrong?” Fairy Hundred Flowers asked, noticing Ye Qiu’s troubled expression.
“This canyon is very dangerous. It seems we will have to take a detour,” Ye Qiu said, unwilling to take risks. After all, this was a saint’s tomb, and with their relatively low cultivation, a single misstep could mean death.
Fairy Hundred Flowers also sensed the canyon’s ominous nature. Having given her heart to Ye Qiu, she naturally deferred to him, saying, “I will follow your lead.”
Hand in hand, they were about to turn and leave when a piercing scream echoed from within the canyon: “Ah…”
Immediately, Ye Qiu and Fairy Hundred Flowers stopped, both turning to look into the canyon.
“I think I just heard the Daoist’s voice. Did I hear wrong?” Fairy Hundred Flowers said.
“You heard right. It was the old fellow’s voice,” Ye Qiu said, his expression grave.
He had planned to bypass the canyon with Fairy Hundred Flowers, but now, hearing the Long Eyebrow Immortal’s scream, it seemed the old man was in danger inside.
“It looks like we cannot avoid this canyon. We have to go in.”
Ye Qiu said, pulling Fairy Hundred Flowers along as he stepped into the canyon.
Instantly, deathly qi rushed towards them, like ten-thousand-year-old ice, making them shiver with cold.
Moreover, the deathly qi was so thick they could only see within a three-metre radius.
“Be careful,” Ye Qiu warned.
Fairy Hundred Flowers nodded slightly, her expression serious, her eyes constantly scanning their surroundings for any danger.
Thus, the two ventured into the canyon.
After a few steps, a crisp sound came from under Ye Qiu’s foot.
“Crack!”
Ye Qiu stopped immediately, looking down to see he had stepped on a black skeleton.
“Poisoned to death?”
Ye Qiu’s eyes narrowed.
At that moment, Fairy Hundred Flowers let out a startled cry: “Ah—”
“What is it?” Ye Qiu asked urgently.
Fairy Hundred Flowers pointed at her feet.
Ye Qiu looked down again and saw over a dozen skulls beneath her, all black, looking particularly eerie.
“Do not be afraid. These people have been dead for a long time,” Ye Qiu comforted.
“How did they die?” Fairy Hundred Flowers asked.
“Poisoned to death,” Ye Qiu answered.
“Poisoned?” Fairy Hundred Flowers was startled. “Did you not say there was no poison here?”
Ye Qiu said, “I said the black mist in the canyon is not poisonous. As for how these people were poisoned or what poison it was, I cannot tell yet.”
“Let us not worry about them. We need to hurry.”
“We must find the old fellow as soon as possible.”
Ye Qiu and Fairy Hundred Flowers continued forward, encountering thousands upon thousands of skeletons along the way.
This place felt less like a canyon and more like a mass grave.
Moreover, all the skeletons were pitch black, having died from poisoning.
As they walked, their steps crunched over the bones, producing constant “crack, crack” sounds. Anyone with less courage would likely be scared to death here.
“Squeak, squeak—”
Suddenly, a faint sound reached Ye Qiu’s ears.
He stopped immediately, his sharp gaze sweeping the surroundings.
As he looked, he said, “I think I heard something just now, Yue’er. Did you hear it?”
Fairy Hundred Flowers asked nervously, “What sound?”
“It sounded like a rat’s squeak,” Ye Qiu said.
“Impossible,” Fairy Hundred Flowers said. “This place is so cold, not even ordinary spirit beasts could survive here, let alone rats. Did you hear wrong?”
“Maybe I was too tense,” Ye Qiu said, lifting his foot to move forward.
“Squeak, squeak—”
The strange sound reached his ears again.
“Huh, it really does sound like a rat,” Fairy Hundred Flowers said, having heard it this time, her face full of astonishment.
Ye Qiu’s gaze fell to his feet, where he was stepping on a skull.
He had clearly heard the sound coming from inside that skull.
What was in there?
Ye Qiu was about to activate his Heavenly Eye when, suddenly, a furry little thing crawled out from the eye socket of the skull…
