Chapter 1398: The Inheritance of Hundred Flowers Valley (I)

The black swamp was gloomy and rotten. Foul mud lay everywhere, giving off a strange odor that made people want to retch, and black miasma blotted out the sun, leaving the swamp dim even at high noon.

Some of the miasma had formed from accumulated rot, while in certain places it carried deadly poison, enough to claim the life of even an immortal cultivator who touched it. The toxic patches mingled with ordinary miasma, nearly impossible to tell apart and extremely hard to guard against.

Strangely, the black swamp was no barren wasteland. Vegetation was plentiful, but the trees were black as well. They resembled rotten wood yet thrived, brimming with a vitality all their own. Like evil spirits, the black trees coiled in the dark miasma, forever waiting to devour intruders.

Few people set foot here, and immortal cultivation sects were scarce.

The black swamp was vast. Of all the terrains in Crescent Moon Realm, it covered the largest area and occupied the realm's very heart. Yet for all its size, spirit veins were hard to find, and the land was unsuited for growing spiritual herbs. It could only be called barren. Even treasure-hunting cultivators would not come to such a place unless they needed something peculiar.

The miasma churned as faint sounds of rushing wind rang out. Moments later, several points of light appeared deep within the miasma, some azure, some blue, each a different color. The lights drew closer and closer, revealing six immortal cultivators.

Five of them were around the tenth stage of the Qi Refining Realm, some young, others already showing clear signs of age. They surrounded a black-robed young man, the only Foundation Building cultivator among them.

Compared to the rest, he moved through the toxic miasma with ease, standing with his hands behind his back atop a silver-plate-shaped flying artifact, a barely visible barrier of light around him holding the miasma at bay.

The others had no such luxury. As they flew, they strained to sustain their crude protective artifacts, staying alert to dangers that could appear at any moment.

They seemed to have been flying for a long time and were gradually reaching their limit, but seeing that the black-robed young man had no intention of stopping, they could only grit their teeth and press on.

The only female cultivator among them, drenched in fragrant sweat, could not help but complain, "Daoist Yue, where exactly is this place? Why is it so far?"

A long-bearded man beside her smiled apologetically. "Fairy Ming, bear with it a little longer. We're almost there. That place is one of the few spots in the black swamp with abundant spiritual qi. If it were easy to find, it would never have been left for us."

The woman was skeptical. "If it's really such a treasured land, why has no one else discovered it?"

"Those mountains are surrounded by miasma even denser than the deepest parts of the black swamp, and it naturally carries an illusory power. I only stumbled inside by accident and noticed the signs. With my meager strength, I didn't dare venture in, so I could only invite Senior Huang and you fellow Daoists. If we can claim that land and establish cave dwellings, we—"

The black-robed young man suddenly cut him off. "Is this the place?"

Everyone halted their evasion lights. Ahead, the miasma hung thick as clouds, cold and sinister.

The long-bearded man nodded repeatedly. "This is it! Senior, please follow me."

He located the marker he had left earlier, steadied his breathing, and led the way into the miasma. The black-robed young man put away the silver plate and summoned a Cun Sword, while the others brought out their own artifacts and flew in after him.[1]

"Wait!"

The moment they entered the miasma, the black-robed young man called for a halt. He listened intently for a moment, and his expression shifted slightly. "What is that sound?"

Before he even finished, a great buzzing erupted around them, and the sight that followed made everyone gasp.

The depths of the miasma suddenly roiled as swarm after swarm of strange insects burst out, hurtling madly toward them. They were shaped like mosquitoes, but each was the size of an infant's fist, with long mouthparts like steel needles. The sight made their scalps prickle.

"Blood Poison Mosquitoes!" the young man cried out, his face draining of color.

The others looked equally terrified. Blood Poison Mosquitoes were notorious killers of the black swamp. A single one was nothing to speak of, but against a swarm, even a Foundation Building cultivator had to flee for his life.

Several hundred Blood Poison Mosquitoes had already flown out of the miasma, with a black, seething mass looming indistinctly behind them. There were probably endless numbers still to come.

If thousands of them closed in, none of the group would escape; they would be drained into desiccated corpses within moments.

"This is a Blood Poison Mosquito nest! Run!"

Cursing the long-bearded man a thousand times over in his heart, the black-robed young man turned and fled without daring to hesitate. The long-bearded man, never imagining he would cause such a disaster, went weak in the legs and stumbled after him.

In an instant the group was in utter disarray, each of them wishing they had been born with an extra pair of wings.

Fortunately, the Blood Poison Mosquitoes seemed unwilling to stray far from the miasma. Having escaped with their lives, the group flew until their strength gave out before daring to stop and recover, still badly shaken.

What they did not know was that after they fled, two figures flew out of the miasma, a man and a woman.

The two wore Daoist robes of similar make. Embroidered on the man's left sleeve was a spiritual insect shaped like a blind snake with two horns on its head; on the woman's, the pattern of a seven-petaled spiritual flower.

The female cultivator looked down at the spiritual insect in the man's palm and praised it, "Junior Brother, your Starlight Insect's supernatural ability of Light-Shadow Transformation has grown more and more refined."

The insect resembled an ordinary firefly, but its body was completely transparent, pulsing from within with a cold radiance like starlight. It lay in the man's palm, remarkably docile and deeply attached to him.

The two were disciples of Hundred Flowers Valley. Of the Blood Poison Mosquitoes that had just driven off the black-robed young man's group, only a small portion had been real. The rest were illusions of light and shadow conjured by the Starlight Insect.

The man chuckled, looking rather pleased with himself, though his mouth was full of complaints. "If the sect doesn't want anyone knowing this is Hundred Flowers Valley's headquarters, it should just seal the whole area with a grand array. Instead we're stuck patrolling back and forth, putting on this mystifying act to scare off intruders. The natural miasma and the few kinds of strange insects nesting inside aren't much use on their own. They won't stop anyone determined."

The female cultivator rolled her eyes. "You're the one who got lazy last time and failed to drive that person away in time. You caused this mess, and you still dare blame the sect? The sect-guarding array is enough to shelter Hundred Flowers Valley itself, but these mountain ranges are vast. Do you know what it would cost to seal them all with spiritual arrays? Besides, the sect simply doesn't want to be disturbed by low-level cultivators. If a true expert came looking, we couldn't stop them anyway."

"You're right, Senior Sister." The scolding didn't bother the man in the least. Grinning shamelessly, he gazed in the direction the young man had fled and blinked. "That Cun Sword of his was quite nice, though. Extremely agile. I hear that the youngest junior sister has always wanted an artifact like that."

The female cultivator glared daggers at him. "What are you planning? If Master hears you, you'll be punished with ten years guarding the Snake Cave! Now go patrol. If I catch you slacking again, I will report you to Master and make sure you're properly dealt with!"

The man muttered a few words but did not dare argue. He hurriedly drew the Starlight Insect into his dantian and flew back into the miasma.

1. Cun Sword is an ancient Chinese sword that is a cun long. ☜