by Zhi Bai
However, in the depths of Mount Cang Man, there was indeed no place that was safer than the Qilin Eagle's lair. After an entire hour, An Zheng finally crawled under the Qilin Eagle's nest. Only when they got closer did they feel the size of the room. It was not a problem to be able to sleep with over a hundred people. The things that made up the nest were all the trees that had been broken down by the Qilin Eagle. An Zheng crawled his way through the crack and laid down, breathing heavily.
At the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about anything tonight.
After laying down, An Zheng noticed that the kitten in his arms was squirming uneasily, and then, An Zheng saw a pair of green eyes staring straight at him.
Chapter 31 - People and Sculptures
An Zheng's first reaction was that it was bad, there was actually a small Qilin Eagle inside. But soon, he realized that he must have seen wrongly. If it was a living thing, he wouldn't have felt it at all when he came up. Sometimes, even An Zheng himself felt that it was strange. His strength was currently weak, but because he was strong before he was heavily injured, he did things straightforwardly.
In other words, he was extremely ambitious. Everyone said that experts were brave, but An Zheng's skills were not as good as they were bold.
Using the moonlight to examine it carefully, An Zheng discovered that it really was not a living creature, but a corpse. To be exact, it was an incomplete corpse. The corpse's bones had a jade-like luster to them, An Zheng knew that only people with a high level of cultivation would have this kind of change in their bones. The skull was intact, as was the upper body, but no leg bones.
The two lumps of green light were coming from the eye sockets.
"An expert of the Lower Celestial Stage?"
An Zheng was slightly surprised, he really couldn't understand how a Qilin Eagle's nest could find a corpse of a Lower Celestial Stage cultivator. Once he reached the Lower Celestial Stage, he would be able to rule the world. The Qilin Eagle was just a mid-ranked beast, a powerful Lower Celestial Stage cultivator could easily turn a Qilin Eagle into ashes in the blink of an eye. As a result, this person was definitely not killed by Qilin Eagle. Most of the Qilin Eagle saw the corpse of this expert, so they took it back and gnawed on it bit by bit.
To magical beasts, eating the corpses of human cultivators could increase their own power as well. To Qilin Eagle, this kind of skeleton of a Lower Celestial Stage Ranker was the same as a human cultivator consuming Purple-Rank pills. However, the Qilin Eagle was not strong enough. It could gnaw on flesh and blood, but could not eat bones. The bones of the strong warriors of the Lower Celestial Stage had already turned jade. Let alone Qilin Eagle, even the bones of high level beasts could not easily be digested.
An Zheng thought to himself that it was no wonder the Qilin Eagle's aura was so strange, it was because it had absorbed the energy of the Lower Celestial Stage's flesh and blood.
He planned to bring the man's body with him and bury it somewhere before he left tomorrow. After all, he was once a powerful cultivator, so it was quite pitiful for him to end up like this. As An Zheng sat down to rest, he suddenly discovered that there was a weak light emitting from underneath the skeleton. Initially, he thought it was the glow from the Bone Jade Hair of the corpse. However, upon closer inspection, he felt that it was different from the glow from the Bone Jade.
An Zheng crawled over, opened up the corpse, and found something inside the pile of wood. When he saw it, An Zheng's face immediately changed.
That is … Hong Luanzan!
No one was more familiar with this item than An Zheng, so in an instant, An Zheng's anger rose from the bottom of his heart.
Hong Luanzan was An Zheng's possession, and was a benevolent gift from the Asgard Master of the Tian Haogong Palace at Cloud Mist Mountain. Hong Luanzan was Xu Meidai's personal treasure, but it was actually hers. Xu Meidai's talent was astonishing, the hairpin had never parted ways with her ever since she was young, feeling Xu Meidai's cultivation, it eventually evolved into a treasure. Later, Xu Meidai used his own Cultivation Power to nurture the Red Luan Thrust, making it a treasure that was able to cultivate Purple-Rank from an ordinary treasure.
In essence, what was more important about this hairpin was not its power, but its significance. Everyone knew that Tian Haogong was closely related to the Ming Fa Si. As long as there was something wrong with the Ming Fa Si, Tian Haogong would always help him with all his might. No matter who it was, as long as they took this hairpin to see Xu Meidai, she would definitely believe that this person was An Zheng's friend …
An Zheng felt chills down his spine, the people who were plotting against him actually wanted to kill them all. He must have taken this Hong Luanzan to see Xu Meidai, and then, he would be able to take the opportunity to kill her.
Therefore, this dead person was one of the people who had ambushed An Zheng at that time.
An Zheng gripped Hong Luanzan tightly, and his heart was unable to calm down for a long time.
This man died in the depths of Mount Cang Man, probably due to internal strife. There were quite a few treasures on An Zheng's body. Even to the experts of the Lower Celestial Stage, these treasures were enough to move their hearts. An Zheng remembered that at that time, the people who had attacked him were a total of more than ten Higher Completion Stage experts, as well as three Lower Celestial Stage experts. This person should be one of them. An Zheng rummaged through the Qilin Eagle's nest again, but other than Hong Luanzan, he didn't discover anything else.
"Take you back."
An Zheng coldly muttered to himself, "Presumably, you guys want to fight over my things, so you decided to go all out. At that time, even though my body was broken, I was able to injure most of you. You should be the person whose lumbar spine was cut by me.
An Zheng looked at the skeleton and found that it was different from an ordinary person's skull. There was a crack in the man's forehead, but it was definitely not an injury from birth. In other words, this person had three eyes.
"So it's someone from the Yang family."
An Zheng finally solved the mystery in his heart, and the faces of the people who were besieging him back then were all covered. This person didn't dare to show his face, because the third eye of the Yang family was too obvious.
An Zheng twisted and turned Hong Luanzan's body. A small and exquisite mechanism opened and a space immediately appeared around him. He placed the corpse inside, and then muttered to himself: "Du Shoushou's physique is too weak, even if he cultivated diligently, wanting to defeat Zhou Mushan half a year later is as difficult as ascending to the heavens. Once the bones of a Lower Celestial Stage Ranker were refined into pills, it would be able to change Du Shoushou's physique. However, without a pill furnace that can refine the Bone Jade, it will be troublesome. "
This was an unexpected gain, but after An Zheng's anger subsided a bit, he instead felt a little fortunate. If the person holding Hong Luanzan was not dead, then maybe Xu Meidai was also in an accident. After resting for a while, An Zheng took out the cloth bag he brought along with him and packed some things inside the Qilin Eagle's nest. Then, he also put the cloth bag into Hong Luanzan's space.
An Zheng did not dare to sleep that night. When the sky just started to light up, he climbed down from the huge nest and walked down the stone wall.
Halfway through crawling, An Zheng suddenly realized why he was so stupid.
Any magical beast would have treasures in their resting place. The higher the grade of the magical beast, the more likely it was to stay in a place with natural treasures. This Qilin Eagle was the overlord of a thousand miles radius. It clearly lived on this cliff for a reason. An Zheng guessed that there must be some kind of treasure within a hundred meter radius of the Qilin Eagle. Just as he was about to take the cat out of his arms for it to see, he saw a black shadow flying towards them from afar.
This is bad!
An Zheng secretly exclaimed in his heart. He did not expect the Qilin E
agle to return so quickly. With An Zheng's current cultivation, even if a thousand of them added up, he would still not be a match for the Qilin Eagle. Forget a thousand, even ten thousand wouldn't do. In such a situation, An Zheng could only watch as Hong Luanzan opened up his space. He then retrieved some of the things he had put in the cloth bag and quickly smeared them on his body … That was the Qilin Eagle's feces.
An Zheng originally brought this thing with him to protect himself during the night. In this forest, Qilin Eagle were the overlords. The other wild beasts did not dare to approach them. Therefore, An Zheng planned to bring some Qilin Eagle's feces and sprinkle it all over when he rested, so that the beasts and beasts would avoid him. Who would have thought that the Qilin Eagle would return so quickly? An Zheng had to make himself feel wronged.
He smeared the feces on his body and then smeared some on the cat. There was a small gap on the stone wall that could only fit a child. Not even sixteen or seventeen years old would be able to enter. Luckily, An Zheng was very thin, and was able to squeeze into the crevice of the cliff while rubbing against the wall.
Not long after he entered, the Qilin Eagle came back with a huge gust of wind. As An Zheng expected, not long after the Qilin Eagle returned to its nest, it started to go crazy. It flapped its huge wings and soared into the sky again, emitting furious bird cries in all directions. The sound spread very far, it immediately caused a commotion in the forest. The hegemons within a thousand kilometers went berserk. How could those weak wild beasts not be terrified?
Unable to find his own treasure, the Qilin Eagle began to circle the area and cry non-stop. Every time it flapped its seventy to eighty meters wide wings, there would be a hurricane. An Zheng kept on digging deeper and deeper into the crevice, but as it got smaller and smaller, he was unable to get closer.
Through the crack in the stone, he could see the Qilin Eagle's huge body continuously flying back and forth. A moment later, the Qilin Eagle flew off into the distance. An Zheng heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that it was all thanks to the excrement he brought.
He squeezed his way through the cracks in the rocks to rest. After realising that the Qilin Eagle had flown above the forest, he stopped and hovered there. Then, with a shake of his wings, the Feather of Vajra shot down like a torrential downpour. That area of the forest had been nurtured. It was unknown just how many trees had been destroyed and how many wild beasts had been killed. The Qilin Eagle did not know who stole its treasure, so it began to search for the Magic Beasts to kill.
A few minutes later, the forest turned into a mess. A series of mournful howls came out from the side. It was unknown what was killed by the enraged Qilin Eagle, but An Zheng apologized and caused you to die in vain.
The Qilin Eagle hovered in the air for a while before suddenly returning. An Zheng was originally resting, when he suddenly felt the strong wind and the strong stench approaching him. He looked outside the crevice and saw the Qilin Eagle's one angry eye. It was unknown how the Qilin Eagle found An Zheng, but when it saw that weak human, it immediately became furious.
It continuously used its steel-like beak to peck at the stone wall, causing pieces of rubble to fall off piece by piece. An Zheng went deeper into the crevice, and looked like he was about to be dug out by the Qilin Eagle.
An Zheng took out Hong Luanzan, and when the sharp blade was used, the crack on the stone started to widen. Hong Luanzan was a treasure of the Purple-Rank, but with An Zheng's current Cultivation Power, he simply could not activate it. He could only use Hong Luanzan as a shovel. Fortunately, Hong Luanzan was extremely sharp, and although it was small, cutting through rocks was as easy as cutting through tofu. When An Zheng delved deeper, the Qilin Eagle s outside kept hitting the stone walls, and the entire mountain seemed to be shaking.
Using Hong Luanzan's sharpness, An Zheng drilled another six or seven meters into the ground. Suddenly, everything was emptied as his body plummeted straight down. The space inside suddenly grew big, An Zheng occasionally turned his head to look at the location of the Qilin Eagle, not paying attention to his side, so he fell down from the cracks in the stone. He stabbed Hong Luanzan forward in the air, causing Hong Luanzan to sink into the stone wall, and reduced the momentum of An Zheng's descent. Then, An Zheng stepped on the cliffs on both sides before he stopped.
He discovered that the crevice had become wider, and it could allow a person to move forward in a very comfortable manner, with a width of more than one meter. Moreover, the stone walls on both sides of the wall looked much smoother, as if they were artificially carved.
Outside, the Qilin Eagle s were still going crazy. An Zheng did not dare to stay, and could only push himself forward with both of his arms and legs. Walking forward another few tens of meters, An Zheng discovered that a boardwalk actually appeared at the side of the stone wall. That plank road was already damaged, and it was unknown when it was built, but it seemed to be at least several hundred years old. However, this plank path was made from carved stone and not wood, so he was not worried that it would break if he stepped on it. The only issue was that most of the road had collapsed.
An Zheng had no other choice but to jump onto the deck and stick close to the stone wall as he walked forward. The Qilin Eagle outside had already smashed away a huge chunk of the mountain which was more than ten meters wide. No one knew when it would knock the mountain over.
An Zheng carefully walked along the path on the stone wall, and after walking for around two miles, his eyes suddenly widened.
On the stone wall, he saw the mottled mural.
Chapter 32 - People Who Defend 500 Years
Before An Zheng entered, he had always thought that the Fantasy City was the only place where humans lived. If it weren't for the fact that a group of desperate people had no other choice but to avoid disaster or seek refuge in this city, who would have come to this kind of destitute land? In order to avoid the chaotic battles of the people, the people of the sixteen states of Youyan were hunted down by villains. These two people had the same thoughts when they entered the Mount Cang Man, as they would die no matter what.
This place was so dangerous and fatigued, how could there be someone who would carve out a road for them? In addition, the cliff was so smooth that a mural appeared.
There were not many reasons for the appearance of these murals. In the southern border or in the western region where the orthodoxy of Zen religion resides, the mural is flourishing. However, it rarely appeared in the Bedlam Lands of the Northern Frontier. The contents of the frescoes were either descriptions of the sect stories, records of local customs, or important events that had been left behind in the form of frescoes.
What An Zheng saw now seemed to be a war.
Several murals began to show scenes of slaughter, and each one was filled with blood. The people who appeared in the murals were mostly laborers, as if they were digging something out. Then a group of dark creatures rushed out from the mountains and killed all the laborers. The murals behind it seemed like an army had entered the mountains, as well as cultivators who could ride on swords and fly. But from the looks of the scene, the army and the cultivators seemed to have achieved victory in the end, and the dark creatures were captured or killed.
However, due to the age of the mural behind it, it had already completely fallen apart, so he could not see anything else. In the direction behind An Zheng, the Qilin Eagle had not given up and was still knocking into the mountain, so An Zheng did not dare to stay. He continued along the jetty and climbed over the cliff where there was a break. After walking for about a dozen miles, the place suddenly opened up.
Behind the mountain, a huge gash had appeared, forming a gorge. From a high vantage point, the entrances on both sides of the canyon were extremely small. An Zheng had come in from the south side, and looking towards the north, he could vaguely see the mouth of the canyon suddenly shrink.
Once they were inside the canyon, the little cat came out from An Zheng's embrace, and the st
ars in his eyes rotated much faster. It called out a few times towards the canyon with excitement.
An Zheng walked down the stair from the cliff, and upon reaching the canyon, he discovered that the plants here were completely different from the ones outside. He was pleasantly surprised to find that all the plants here were medicinal herbs. Moreover, there was no lack of White and Red grade medicinal herbs. No wonder there was a Qilin Eagle outside. So there was actually a medicinal field inside the mountain. Judging by the size of the medicinal field, it should have been planted by humans. However, it had been a very, very long time since someone had taken care of it. As a result, the medicinal plants grew chaotically.
An Zheng could see the ridges formed by the small stones amidst the lush herbs, but most of them were already covered.
The more he looked at it, the more shocked he became. Because the herb fields had not been destroyed for a long time, they grew in a way that was borderline barbaric. There were at least a few acres of wild ginseng that was hard to find in the market. This was the mountain ginseng, this was the Grand Jade Lingzhi, and that was the Snake Bone Grass … This was a huge treasure trove.
If someone found out about this, the medicinal field would be enough to start a war. The armies of the sixteen states of Youlan would fight to steal the herbs here. If people from the martial arts world were to find out, this place would become the tomb of a cultivator.
Some ordinary medicinal plants, because they got the perfect environment to grow in, actually evolved into jade-like or even White-rank medicinal plants. Therefore, An Zheng began to suspect that the soil here must be extremely rare.
