Chapter 713: Such Causes, Such Conditions (Part 2)

Chapter 713: Chapter 436: Such Causes, Such Conditions (Part 2)

Duan Rong withdrew his Divine Sense and stared at the tranquil pond through the small hole in front of him, knowing that the Fire Toad was hiding in its depths.

Just as he was intently watching the pond, a Divine Sense suddenly swept over his head, clearly scanning the treetop of the large tree.

“Someone?!”

Startled, Duan Rong ducked his head and immediately held his breath.

Almost at the same time, he saw a shadow flash out from the edge of the dense forest, opposite him, through the small hole in the trunk.

The figure was graceful, holding a long sword, clad in a light green dress.

The firelight on the Black Fire Lotus illuminated her cold and beautiful face.

“It’s Lv Qingzhu?!” Duan Rong’s expression was one of surprise.

Lv Qingzhu stood not far from the pond, like a solitary flower in the darkness.

Duan Rong stared at her for a while, suspicion arising in his heart. Why did Lv Qingzhu come here? It surely wasn’t just to hunt the Fire Toad and Fire Weasel, those two Primordial Beasts, was it? Even Wu Shidao noted them as troublesome, let alone Lv Qingzhu, who hadn’t advanced to the Qi Vortex Realm yet.

Duan Rong noticed Lv Qingzhu’s gaze was fixed on a Black Lotus Seedpod beside the pond.

“She came for the Black Fire Lotus’s seeds too?!”

As Duan Rong puzzled, Lv Qingzhu had already slipped into the treetop beside her.

The branches and leaves of that tree shook with a rustling sound before settling into silence.

It was clear Lv Qingzhu used her Divine Sense to scan this area, but when she swept over Duan Rong’s hiding spot, she only scanned the foliage of the lush treetop and didn’t notice that the trunk was hollow.

Though this tree had been burned, its branches and leaves were dense, concealing the exposed hollow part of the trunk, making it hard to discover without a closer look.

Hiding inside the trunk, Duan Rong’s eyes shimmered. Since Lv Qingzhu was also here for the seeds of the Black Fire Lotus and he was hidden within the hollow trunk, not exposed, he could silently wait to reap the benefits.

After Lv Qingzhu dealt with the two Primordial Beasts and picked the lotus seedpod, he could come out and gather the seeds himself.

He didn’t believe Lv Qingzhu could pick all the seedpods from this pond.

After Lv Qingzhu hid within the treetop, about halfway through an incense stick’s burning duration.

Suddenly, bubbles began to emerge continuously from the lotus leaves in the pond, and soon a piece of lotus leaf trembled at the pond’s edge as a dark shadow crawled out from the depths.

The creature was soaking wet, as large as two muscular men stacked together, and its back was covered in pustules like thick pustulent sores.

The Fire Toad’s eyes were red as it crawled onto the pond bank, suddenly opening its massive mouth, its fiery red tongue darting out to wrap around a lotus seedpod, pulling it back into its mouth.

After swallowing the seedpod, the Fire Toad let out a satisfied croak, but at that moment, from the treetop not far away, the branches and leaves trembled violently, and a graceful figure sprang out.

As the figure emerged, the Fire Toad noticed, its red eyes flashing with rage, clearly furious at being disturbed while eating.

But just as it was about to shoot out its tongue toward the figure in the air, a flickering speck of light appeared before its eyes.

The light was like a firefly in the dark night.

Seeing the flickering speck of light from the tree’s small hole, Duan Rong’s heart trembled.

“It’s Ying Huo?!”

“Lv Qingzhu has already learned the Divine Soul Illusion Technique!”

Only then did Duan Rong understand why Lv Qingzhu, like him, came to pick the seeds of the Black Fire Lotus.

It turns out her Fetal Concealment Scripture had already reached the eleventh layer, and she was about to cultivate the twelfth.

No wonder she was alone when Duan Rong encountered her in the Dark Forest last time.

She was hunting Primordial Beasts using Ying Huo, so she was sufficient by herself.

Duan Rong met Lv Qingzhu twice in the Dark Forest, unsure if it’s fate at work.

However, Duan Rong was still curious.

He considered himself fortunate to progress his Fetal Concealment Scripture to the twelfth layer so quickly by Devouring the Tree Spirit.

The light threads contained within the Tree Spirit were exactly the same as those drawn from the mist in the Sea of Consciousness by the four Divine Statues during Fetal Concealment cultivation.

These types of light threads were the same kind of Divine Soul Origin.

Therefore, during cultivation, the light threads within the Tree Spirit were directly absorbed by the Fetal Concealment Scripture.

By this fortunate opportunity, Duan Rong could achieve the difficult feat of cultivating the Fetal Concealment Scripture layer by layer.

How did Lv Qingzhu manage to achieve the eleventh layer of the Fetal Concealment Scripture and learn the Divine Soul Illusion Technique Ying Huo so quickly?

Suddenly, Duan Rong recalled a phrase Zhu He told him.

Zhu He said Lv Qingzhu had the support of the sect’s ancestor, whom even their master must respect.

“The ancestor of Taiyi Sect, Lv Yinlin!”

Evidently, for Lv Qingzhu to accomplish the eleventh layer of the Fetal Concealment Scripture, the Taiyi Sect ancestor must have helped her cultivate with some means.

At that moment, by the pond’s edge where the Black Fire Lotus lay, the Fire Toad seemed to be petrified, motionless, with its tongue drooping by its mouth.

Lv Qingzhu’s figure, ghostly, flashed in front of the Fire Toad, and with a quick sword technique and a surge of Primordial Qi, she slashed open the toad’s belly.

Fresh blood spurted, splattering her face.

The Fire Toad’s strongest asset was its tongue, making it hard for Martial Artists to get close, often forcing them to retreat.

Yet, the Fire Toad’s greatest weakness was its belly, the softest part of its body, unlike its back, which was covered with poisonous warts.

The filthy blood of the Fire Toad’s viscera flowed all over the ground, rendering it dead beyond resurrection, the edge of the pond enveloped in a thick, bloody smell…

After the Fire Toad died, from the dark cave in the cliff above, a scarlet shadow suddenly darted out.

The shadow, resembling a flame, moved swiftly like a specter, attacking Lv Qingzhu at the pond’s edge.

This was another Primordial Beast, the Fire Weasel.

The Fire Weasel and the Fire Toad had accompanied each other for many years and developed a bond; seeing the Fire Toad dead, it was frenzy-stricken.

After killing the Fire Toad, Lv Qingzhu stood with her sword at the ready, eyes fixed on that cave.

She knew the Fire Weasel would inevitably smell the blood and come out to attack.

This was part of her previous plan, to first use Ying Huo to kill the Fire Toad, and then engage with the Fire Weasel.

The Fire Weasel circled Lv Qingzhu, appearing like a flame dancing around her in the dark.

Lv Qingzhu’s heart sank bit by bit; the Fire Weasel’s speed was so fast that her sword wielded to the utmost still couldn’t harm it a bit.

Lv Qingzhu quickly adjusted her strategy, shifting from attack to defense, believing that the Fire Weasel couldn’t sustain such a strange speed indefinitely.

Sure enough, after several circles of attack around her, the Fire Weasel’s speed seemed to have slowed slightly.

Seeing the Fire Weasel’s speed decrease, Lv Qingzhu suddenly attacked fiercely, wielding her sword edge to assault relentlessly, pushing the Fire Weasel into a perilous situation.

Suddenly, Lv Qingzhu’s sword aimed from behind, targeting the Fire Weasel’s neck, seemingly about to succeed, aiming for a critical point.

But at that moment, a strong yellow gas suddenly sprayed from the Fire Weasel’s behind.

From the tree hollow, Duan Rong saw that thick yellow gas instantly envelop Lv Qingzhu.

The Fire Weasel’s gas was its killer move!

Lv Qingzhu held her breath the instant the yellow gas was released, but it was too late, with thin wisps still rushing into her nasal cavity.

Yet she was still nauseated, almost failing to hold her breath.

The Fire Weasel’s gas, not only unbearably foul but also strongly anesthetic.

Lv Qingzhu’s vision darkened, her hand holding the sword became weak and limp.

At that moment, the Fire Weasel’s claw swung toward her throat.

Lv Qingzhu, at the instant of fainting, saw a shadow leap out from the tree trunk not far away.

There was someone hiding inside the tree trunk?!

Regardless of whether that person intended to save or harm her, it was already too late since the Fire Weasel’s claw was just half an inch from slashing her throat.

“Am I going to die?”

At the moment of her impending death, a dark-faced figure seemed to stand before her, smiling beautifully down at her.

She cursed playfully, “It’s you again,” and fainted.