CH 29

The Yunxi Secret Realm was very large, and the southern region was mostly full of jungle and mountains.

There was an endless expanse of emerald green, and as the breeze passed through, the rustling of the branches could be heard.

Although Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge left the original mountain range and had been traveling for seven days, they still hadn’t made it out of the southern region of the Yunxi Secret Realm.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast nestled on Chu Qi’s shoulder, with its green tail dangling behind his back. Recently, it had seen a lot of emerald green things and it found that it wasn’t as repulsed by it as it was in the beginning. It felt that it could accept having a green tail.

Chu Qi strictly controlled the amount of food that it ate, only giving it a single bag of spiritual animal food each day.

“Ai? We seem to be leaving the forest.”

Seeing the vibrant green color in front of him begin to gradually fade, and the scenery start to change, Chu Qi’s eyes brightened as he turned to share the news with Yan Jiuge.

“Probably, yes. The concentration of spiritual energy up ahead is very high, so there will probably be some rare treasures to find.”

Yan Jiuge responded as he adjusted the speed of the flying sword, preparing to land below.

However, as they got closer, they realized that they hadn’t actually reached the edge of the forest.

Instead, they saw that there was a thick layer of fog obscuring the mountains ahead. 

The air was filled with a faint damp smell and the ground was muddy, as if it had just rained not too long ago.

Because the area was covered by a fog so dense that the sun couldn’t be seen, the vegetation inside had a dark and gloomy feel.

“Could this dense fog be a poisonous miasma…” Chu Qi hesitated. Thinking of this possibility, he took out some Detoxification pills from his qiankun bag.

“Ah-Yan, take these just in case.” Chu Qi handed the pills to Yan Jiuge.

These Detoxification pills could protect them against some common poisons, including poisonous miasma. However, something as large-scale as this would continue to affect a cultivator’s body over time, so they would have to continue to take another dose every hour.

After taking the bottle of medicine from Chu Qi, Yan Jiuge put it away in his qiankun bag without thinking. Over the years, Chu Qi had refined countless medicinal pills for him, so the act of storing them like this had almost become a habit.

After Yan Jiuge stored away the pills, he looked at the thick fog in front of them and began to explain, “It shouldn’t be a poisonous miasma. It looks more like a natural swamp forest where fog will condense.”

“There may still be poisonous insects in the swamp, you should still eat one first.”

Chu Qi took out another bottle of Detoxification pills, uncorked it, took one for himself, and handed another to Yan Jige.

Yan Jiuge took it.

The Detoxification pills refined by Chu Qi tasted very clean. They weren’t bitter, and even left a sweet aftertaste.

Although the Detoxification pill was refined from low-level herbs, it had various effects and could also clear the heart and calm the spirit. It didn’t matter if you ate more than one or two.

“Ah!”

After Yan Jiuge swallowed the Detoxification pill, the Gold-Swallowing Beast on Chu Qi’s shoulder opened its mouth wide and made a sound to indicate that it also wanted one.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast was immune to all poisons.

But eating a Detoxification pill shouldn’t hurt it. Chu Qi only hoped that xiao-Jin wouldn’t change color again.

After thinking it over, Chu Qi finally stuffed a Detoxification pill into its mouth.

Waiting quietly for a moment, it seemed that other than opening its mouth again to beg Chu Qi for food, the Gold-Swallowing Beast didn’t have any adverse reactions.

“Leave it alone, one is enough. Does it want to eat all your medicine too?”

Yan Jiuge glanced over with an accusatory gaze, looking cold and indifferent.

Under Yan Jiuge’s eyes, the Gold-Swallowing Beast shivered and subconsciously closed its mouth. When it had come back to its senses and realized what it had done, it could only stare silently at him in annoyance.

Obviously it had only eaten one. Why did Yan Jiuge get to take a whole bottle?

Everyone got to try its Master’s medicine. There wasn’t anything wrong with it having some.

The more it thought about it, the angrier the Gold-Swallowing Beast became. In the end, it decided to turn around and point its ass at Yan Jiuge.

Seeing this scene, Chu Qi raised his hand and comforted the Gold-Swallowing Beast with some amusement.

Sometimes xiao-Jin liked to eat too much. Especially if it was something that it had never seen before, it would always try to take a bite. As long as you fed it, it was easy to coax after it lost its temper.

After petting the head of the Gold-Swallowing Beast, Chu Qi suggested to Yan Jiuge, “Let’s go into the swamp and have a look?”

Yan Jiuge slowly relaxed the brows that were creased from the Gold-Swallowing Beast’s actions just now and nodded as he said, “Okay.”

The concentration of spiritual energy in the swamp was very high. It was likely that there would be some high-level herbs that Chu Qi needed. Maybe they would gain something if they went in.

—

The calm didn’t last long.

The moment Yan Jiuge stepped into the swamp ahead of Chu Qi, his expression changed suddenly.

—There was a maze formation in this swamp forest.

The maze formation was not inherently dangerous, and since there were no hostile spiritual power fluctuations, it was difficult for cultivators to detect it from the outside.

A maze formation would transport any cultivator who entered to a random part of the formation, as if they were lost in a maze.

If the people who entered the formation weren’t connected by something like a rope or holding hands, they would in all likelihood be scattered throughout the maze formation.

Yan Jiuge was annoyed. He should have brought Chu Qi with him at that time. He was negligent.

Suppressing the restless emotions in his heart, Yan Jiuge immediately took off his identity token from his waist and called Chu Qi.

The call was quickly connected.

“Ah-Yan? Why did you walk away so fast? I can’t even see you after walking in.” On the other end, Chu Qi’s voice was full of doubts.

Hearing Chu Qi’s last sentence, Yan Jiuge had a bad premonition.

“Ah-Qi, did you already go into the swamp?” Yan Jiuge asked him.

Chu Qi replied, “En, I walked in with you, but I couldn’t see you anymore after I walked in. I was really surprised.”

The area around him was empty.

There was no sign of Chu Qi beside Yan Jiuge. Obviously, they had been separated in different parts of the maze formation.

His original plan of having Chu Qi wait for him to come out of the swamp forest was ruined, so Yan Jiuge could only explain the maze formation to him.

After listening to him explain, Chu Qi concluded, “So should we meet each other halfway, or wait until we get out of the maze formation ourselves?”

“Let’s meet up first. Carve marks on the trees around you and I will come find you within half a day at most. If there’s any danger, protect yourself with a defensive spiritual tool and send a message to me right away.”

Yan Jiuge told Chu Qi.

Chu Qi responded, “Okay. Ah-Yan, you have to carve a mark too. I also want to look for you.”

Hearing Chu Qi’s soft voice, Yan Jiuge’s anxiety eased by a lot.

He and Ah-Qi were only separated temporarily. There shouldn’t be any major problems.

What’s more, he had already formed a blood contract with Ah-Qi. The contract would not only serve as a means to find him, but was also a guarantee of his safety.

Yan Jiuge repeated this to himself as he drew Long Yin from its sheath, sensed the direction of the blood contract, and continued walking through the fog-shrouded swamp.

—

On the other side of the swamp…

Chu Qi had just disconnected from the communication with Yan Jiuge and drew Gui Yin from his waist. He raised his vigilance of his surroundings to a higher level.

Before he entered the Yunxi Secret Realm, he was accompanied by Yan Jiuge. Since he was a sword cultivator, he always felt very safe.

Now that Chu Qi was on his own, although he was a talented medical cultivator, he still needed to be careful.

“Lulu.”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast lying on Chu Qi’s shoulder flicked its tail. It understood its Master’s situation from the discussion just now. It jumped down and walked in front to explore the way ahead for Chu Qi.

With this thick fog, even cultivators couldn’t see more than thirty chi ahead. Coupled with the maze formation, Chu Qi’s perception was weakened. He could only detect spiritual power fluctuations within a hundred chi at most.

Unexpectedly, there was a place in the Yunxi Secret Realm where someone specially set up a maze formation. He didn’t know if it was set up by the seniors who came to the secret realm before, or if it was something that was left behind by the realm’s master.

As far as Chu Qi knew, secret realms generally didn’t have owners. They were small worlds of their own, hidden from the Heavenly Dao. Cultivators used them to improve their strength, but they couldn’t undergo a tribulation and advance their cultivation in them. Only after they went out of the secret realm would the thunder tribulation come.

However, in the records about the secret realms, most of them were said to be remnants from when the Great Immortals fell in ancient times.

These pocket dimensions were removed from the Heavenly Dao, but they still had ties to Yunhua Realm. Every so often, they would reopen for future generations to enter and gain experience.

If it was a maze formation left by the realm’s master, it may contain clues about their identity.

If it was something set up by the seniors who came to the secret realm in the past, there may be some resources or treasures that they didn’t have the time to take with them, instead hiding it for the younger generations of their sect to find.

In any case, fate was unpredictable. Heaven, Earth, and those with power were all subject to it. Fortune and misfortune depended on each other.

All kinds of possibilities ran through Chu Qi’s mind. He forced himself to calm down and began to patiently search for the exit of the maze formation.

The ground in the swamp was very soft. He needed to wrap spiritual power around the soles of his feet to distribute his weight so that he wouldn’t get stuck in the mud.

Chu Qi hadn’t even gone that far when the Gold-Swallowing Beast returned.

It was covered in moisture, and whatever it ate randomly was causing its body to slowly blacken.

“Xiao-Jin, you’ve been poisoned.” Chu Qi raised his hand and performed a cleansing technique on the Gold-Swallowing Beast before picking it up and examining it more closely.

“Lululu.”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast lifted its tail and showed off the thing it found to Chu Qi.

It was a piece of amber with a semi-transparent texture. Looking closely, he could see that there was a small scorpion frozen inside.

Chu Qi had heard from Elder Qingyue that this kind of stone could be used with spiritual herbs to refine a medicine that could detoxify most poisons from poisonous insects.

But the stone itself was also poisonous.

Chu Qi took the piece of amber from the Gold-Swallowing Beast and asked hesitantly, “Did you eat a stone like this just now?”

The poisonous insects inside the amber were still alive when they were trapped inside. It wasn’t just a carving.

After so many years, if it was kept in a place with abundant spiritual energy, the poisonous insect may not necessarily be dead.

“Lulu.”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast shook its head. It didn’t have time to eat, so it rushed to grab it and bring it back to its Master.

“That’s good. This kind of strange stone can’t be eaten indiscriminately, you know?” Seeing the Gold-Swallowing Beast’s response, Chu Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

“Lu…”

But it looks good, although it’s not very fragrant.

“You can eat this.”

Chu Qi made an exception and took out a bag of spiritual animal food from his qiankun bag and gave it to it.

“Lululu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast was happy, and soon forgot about whether it could eat the strange rock as it contentedly climbed into the bag of spiritual animal food to eat.

Successfully coaxing the Gold-Swallowing Beast, Chu Qi was about to but the piece of amber into his qiankun bag when he suddenly sensed a strang spiritual power fluctuation a hundred chi away.

The spiritual energy was very small, but there were many of them, and they were all headed towards Chu Qi.

Shasha….

There was no wind, but the blades of grass made a slight whirling sound, as if something was crawling over them.

There wasn’t just trees in the swamp forest, but also large clumps of grass which were as tall as four Gold-Swallowing Beasts stacked ontop of each other.

Chu Qi frowned and he coated Gui Yin’s blade with his spiritual power before he released a burst of sword energy in the direction of the movement.

Although he wasn’t a sword cultivator, he was still very proficient in the basic sword forms of Tianxuan Sect.

As the sword fell, the sharp sword energy cut down a large clump of grass, spraying thousands of blades of grass and catkins into the air, revealing all the things hidden inside.

“…”

Chu Qi inhaled sharply.

As far as the eye could see, the ground was covered in poisonous insects!

Scorpions, spiders, ants, centipedes, and even small venomous snakes… At first glance, it looked like a black tide had gathered around them, which looked particularly terrifying.

Sensing that something was wrong, the Gold-Swallowing Beast, that had just finished eating a whole bag of food, poked its head out of the mouth of the bag.

Before it could come to its senses, Chu Qi directly grabbed the bag of spiritual animal food that it was still inside and started to run.

“Run, don’t eat.”

Chu Qi held his sword in one hand and carried the Gold-Swallowing Beast in the other. He hurriedly turned around and slashed behind him, intending to get away from these poisonous insects.

The strength of these insects was below Grade One, but there were too many of them. It would be better to directly avoid them.

However, these insects seemed intent on following them.

Doubts formed in Chu Qi’s mind as the Gold-Swallowing Beast he was carrying made a rumbling sound, seemingly explaining where that piece of amber came from just now.

It turned out that the Gold-Swallowing Beast went deep into the lair of those poisonous insects and took advantage of the time when they weren’t paying attention to pull out the strange rock and take it away.

Chu Qi: “…”

If he had known that this mess was caused by xiao-Jin, he would have left much earlier.

Of course, they couldn’t just return the piece of amber. In order to get it, the Gold-Swallowing Beast was stabbed twice by a scorpion. It had paid a heavy price, as the black color still hadn’t faded completely.

The poisonous insects behind them had no intention of backing down. They stubbornly chased after Chu Qi, and they were even gaining on him.

“We can’t go on like this.”

Chu Qi thought for a moment, and decided that it wasn’t wise to waste his energy running away from these poisonous insects.

“Lu?”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast consciously wrapped its tail around Chu Qi’s arm and hung itself on its Master’s arm so that he wouldn’t have to waste more effort to carry it.

“Later, you run up that tree and hide. I’ll clean up those poisonous insects that are chasing us.” Chu Qi told the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

Although the Gold-Swallowing Beast was immune to all poisons and invulnerable to swords and arrows, except for its sharp teeth, strong body, and ability to hunt for treasures, it basically had no attack power.

He couldn’t let xiao-Jin bite those poisonous insects.

Just thinking about such a scene, Chu Qi felt it was too scary.

“Lulu.”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast nodded its head and jumped out of Chu Qi’s arms to climb the tree that he mentioned.

If it was about running away, the Gold-Swallowing Beast thought that its Master probably wasn’t as good as it.

Chu Qi naturally didn’t know what was going on in his pet’s mind. Seeing that xiao-Jin had already found a high place to hide, he stopped not far from the tree and turned around, preparing to fight.

Poisonous insects without intelligence generally relied on their survival instincts to act, so they often bullied the weak while fearing the strong.

Unless they were deterred by force, they would keep chasing their prey.

Ever since he switched to become a medical cultivator, the spiritual sword in Chu Qi’s hand was rarely used for killing.

There was still a difference between practicing the sword and using one in real life.

Now that he held it again, the sharp sword qi was faintly transmitted from the blade, giving Chu Qi a familiar feeling.

In his last life, he was obsessed with swordsmanship, but he couldn’t comprehend the sword intent. He didn’t know what it was about the spiritual sword in his hand that attracted him.

If not for this, with his water and wood dual spiritual roots, he could have also taken the path of healing.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Qi closed his eyes and a memory flashed through his mind, as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

Don’t think about the restrictiveness of an inch. Don’t think about the vastness of Heaven and Earth.

The direction that his sword pointed was his dao.

This was the sword intent that had impressed Chu Qi when he was young, and it was also the sword intent that belonged to Yan Jiuge.

He was like a moth attracted to the light of a candle, practicing hard day after day, hoping that he could reach even a thousandth of Yan Jiuge’s level.

However, he went through his whole life without really understanding Yan Jiuge.

No matter how powerful the sword intent was, it would still be trapped one day by his heart.

In another life, Chu Qi would still remember Yan Jiuge’s sword intent and would still be enamored by his skills. 

It’s just that now, Chu Qi didn’t want to pursue this kind of swordsmanship. He just wanted to understand Yan Jiuge more.

As a medical cultivator, he wasn’t as sharp as a sword cultivator. He would still be disturbed by the restrictiveness of an inch and trapped by the vastness of Heaven and Earth. The only thing he knew was that he would no longer be imprisoned by the thoughts in his heart.

These thoughts flashed by in an instant, and Chu Qi opened his eyes.

Gui Yin’s blade trembled, and because of the change in Chu Qi’s mood, it let out a low sound as the momentum of the sword’s edge rose sharply.

The next moment, a piercing sword energy cleared the thick fog and fell towards the surroundings, startling the poisonous insects to instinctively retreat.

But the poisonous insects weren’t as fast at the speed of the sword. For a moment, they seemed to have fallen into a net woven from sword light, before they were chopped to pieces.

The insects at the front were all the strongest, and they were also the fastest to die.

After the group of insects at the front were killed, the ones in the back were frightened by the sword’s energy and they all fled deeper into the swamp.

In the blink of an eye, the poisonous insects that were densely packed like a black tide before were all gone or cut to pieces by the sword.

Shing—!

Gui Yin was returned to its sheath with a crisp and clear sound.

After resolving the matter just now, Chu Qi didn’t get a chance to relax before he heard a familiar shout from a treetop nearby—

“A sword cultivator from Tianxuan Sect? Fellow Cultivator, please help!!”

???

Hearing these words, Chu Qi looked around, but didn’t see Yan Jiuge or other fellow disciples nearby, and felt a little disappointed.

But the shouting continued, “Just now I saw the heroic moves of the Fellow Cultivator with the sword, it was like a blessing from Heaven! I have been trapped here for three days and three nights before I finally met you! Fellow Sword Cultivator, it must be the will of the Heavens to have met you! I can’t bear to remain in this swamp full of poisonous insects any longer!”

Chu Qi: “…”

Wait a minute, this sword cultivator from Tianxuan Sect… Could he be talking about himself?