Chapter 73: Thrilling, Escape

Chapter 73: Thrilling, Escape

Chapter 73: Thrilling, Escape

Shang Mengchun led everyone forward along the gravel of the mountains and forests, sometimes drilling holes, sometimes climbing walls. The few practitioners here had no decency at all.

Wei Zhong knocked on the rock at hand and found that it was as hard as iron. It was obviously a rock that had been imbued with spiritual energy.

Looking at the huge rocks leaning against each other above their heads, it is no wonder that Shang Mengchun led everyone to move forward along the cracks in the rocks.

If the balance of the rocks in the forest is broken, a few people can rely on their own skills to escape, but they will not be able to find the secret place.

"We'll be there soon after we climb over this pile of rocks," said Shang Mengchun, pointing to a pile of rocks about nine feet high in front of them.

Everyone climbed over the pile of rocks step by step, avoiding touching the rubble above their heads.

When they arrived at the pile of rocks, Wei Zhong found that there was a valley covered with clouds and mist under his feet. Looking back, the few people seemed to have come out from the crevice of a mountain.

With the light shining from above, Tan Bo asked, "Fellow Daoist Shang, can't we just fly over from the top of the mountain using a magic weapon?"

At this moment, a roar was heard in the sky, and a group of fiery red crows flew over everyone's heads.

"If Fellow Daoist Tan has a way to deal with those Fiery Crows, it's not impossible."

The latter blushed and said no more.

According to Wei Zhong's observation, there were seven or eight second-level auras among the group of Blazing Crows just now. If everyone flew through this place, they would definitely encounter them.

It would be extremely unwise to fight with this group of crows in the air.

Then Shang Mengchun flew his flying sword into the clouds below, and the four people including Wei Zhong fell down with him.

After passing through the clouds, they found that the valley was only ten feet deep. In front of them was a mountain gate made up of two half-broken pillars, and behind it was a long stone staircase extending into the air.

Shang Mengchun led everyone up the stairs, explaining as he walked:

"The clouds and mist just now evolved from the protective formation for this place. It is an illusion formation."

Wei Zhong looked forward at the steps that were getting higher and higher and nodded.

'No wonder we have walked up the stairs for so long but still have no sign of getting out of the mist.'

"There aren't many stairs here, please be patient," Shang Mengchun pointed to the top of his head, "Also, there is a no-fly zone here, so please don't try to fly."

"Fellow Daoist Shang, even the restrictions at the mountain gate are still there. Is the formation really broken where the Xuanming Spiritual Grass is?"

Wei Zhong asked doubtfully.

At the same time, these words also attracted the attention of several other people.

Lan Fangyi explained, "Fellow Daoist Song will know once he steps over this staircase."

With some doubts, everyone stepped to the top of the stone steps and passed through a gray-white film that blocked their spiritual consciousness.

Wei Zhong couldn't help but take a breath when he saw the scenery behind him.

Compared with the relatively intact steps of the mountain gate, this place appears extremely dilapidated.

It's not the decay caused by the years, but the dilapidated state caused by the fighting.

The stone bricks on the ground were swept up by an unknown attack and turned into scattered rubble. The hall in the distance was also cut in the middle, and the roof was blown off...
'What kind of battle was this?'

The sound of crows cawing was heard above everyone's heads, and a group of fiery crows flew down from above and landed nearby.

"This group of scorching crows lives in the southeast corner of the ruins. Everyone, please try not to disturb these monsters."

"The Xuanming Spiritual Herb is over here, everyone follow me."

Stepping on the gravel under their feet, everyone walked along a narrow path.

On both sides of the road grew trees that Wei Zhong did not recognize. Their drooping branches touched everyone's heads, and a unique fragrance emanated from the green leaves.

There are also plants at the feet that squeeze out the gravel and grow upwards tenaciously...

"It's just around the corner," Lan Fangyi said after walking for a while.

After passing a tall dead tree, Wei Zhong finally saw the scenery behind it.

The formation restriction in the air was like a broken bowl, with only a light green Xuanming spiritual grass visible in the gap.

"One, two... eleven. It really has more than ten nodes. It is a well-deserved thousand-year-old spiritual herb."

Everyone discovered this magical herb at the same time, and they couldn't help but get excited.

"Let Brother Tan and I start breaking the formation now," Shang Mengchun said to Tan Bo, then turned to look at the others.

"I still need the help of two Daoists to break the formation. Also, the noise might be a bit loud on the way, so Daoist Xugu, please help to keep watch on the surroundings."

"No problem," Lan Fangyi said, then he took out a second-level breath-suppressing talisman, slapped it on himself, and turned into a wisp of smoke, escaping into the distance.

Although the other party hid well, he was still exposed under Wei Zhong's spiritual sense.

"However, it is still possible to hide from spiritual beasts with low intelligence."

Shang Mengchun took out three yellow formation flags, handed two of them to Mou Yuanfeng and Wei Zhong respectively, and held the other one in his own hand.

Then he looked at Tan Bo beside him and said, "Fellow Daoist Tan, please show us your true abilities. There are monsters invading nearby, and I don't have much time to wait."

Tan Bo nodded and took out a palm-sized tortoise shell from his sleeve. The tortoise shell was dark green with black runes painted on it. It was obviously the tool he used to break the formation.

"Please help me, fellow Taoists."

"That's how it should be."

Just as Wei Zhong and his companions were discussing how to break the formation, the monkeys in the autumn maple forest became active.

Summoned by some unknown voice, they kept gathering in one place.

Four yellow-browed monkeys led the team, followed by countless white-browed red monkeys, jumping on the branches and moving towards the stone forest at the back of the woods.

A moment later, led by the golden-browed monkey and hundreds of other monkeys, they moved along the route taken by Wei Zhong and the others.

The leading golden-browed red monkey shrank its nose and mouth slightly, and followed the animal-repelling incense left on Wei Zhong and others to find their direction.

The group would never have thought that the animal-repelling incense that was originally specially made for this kind of monkey would actually become the guiding incense for this special monkey.

The monkeys at the back were a little displeased with the smell lingering in the air, but they quickly suppressed it under the intimidation of the golden-browed red monkeys.

Finally, hundreds of monkeys walked out of the stone forest and came to the valley.

Looking at the clouds below, the golden-browed red monkey let out a roar and jumped down first. The yellow-browed red monkeys and white-browed red monkeys behind it also fell into the clouds like dumplings.

Following the mountain gate steps that lead straight into the sky in front, a group of monkeys, led by a golden-browed red monkey, marched forward along the stone steps in a mighty procession.

······
Wei Zhong injected spiritual power into the chess pieces in his hand. As the main chess piece in Shang Mengchun's hand was inserted, a node in the formation made a "bang" sound and was instantly broken.

According to Wei Zhong's observation, Shang Mengchun's method of breaking the formation was to use the formation to break the formation. He used the counting sticks in his hand to calculate the weaker nodes of the formation, and then used these three formation flags to destroy them by brute force.

On the other hand, Tan Bo's method of breaking the formation seemed relatively advanced.

The tortoise shell magic weapon in his hand was flickering with spiritual light, and every once in a while he could always accurately find the weakness of the formation. Then he could insert a few formation flags and inject a little spiritual power into it, and then he could break a corner of the formation without the help of others.

"No wonder Lan Fangyi would choose this person to cooperate with. Although he has a bad temper, he is indeed capable."

After Shang Mengchun in front of him broke a few nodes, he began to scratch his head. It was obvious that his knowledge of point arrays was not enough to deal with it, or it would take time.

Lan Fangyi's voice came to everyone's ears: "Fellow Daoists, please take a moment. There are already Blazing Crows approaching this side."

Shang Mengchun sighed and took out a small cone that was about the length of his palm and as thick as a finger. It was the second-level forbidden-breaking cone he had prepared.

Throwing it into the formation ahead, the small cone immediately connected with the formation's spiritual light, making a series of rumbling sounds. A large area of ​​the formation's nodes were then broken.

Originally, a mere second-order forbidden-breaking cone could not have any effect on the fourth-order formation. However, the formation in front of him had been broken for unknown reasons, revealing large loopholes, so he was able to do nothing about it.

As they got closer and closer to the spiritual herb, Wei Zhong suddenly felt that everyone's breathing quickened.

Thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are rarely seen even at auctions.

Not to mention the Xuanming spiritual herb used to refine the Dust-Reducing Pill.

Seeing this, Tan Bo became anxious and accidentally slipped his hand, causing the spiritual light on the tortoise shell to collide and emit green smoke. It was obvious that the divination had failed.

Shang Mengchun, who had made great achievements with a forbidden cone, was in trouble again. The situation before him seemed to be more complicated.

Wei Zhong said helplessly: "Fellow Daoist Tan, why don't you cooperate with us to break the formation together? With your divination ability and fellow Daoist Shang's treasure for breaking the formation, the formation here should not be difficult for us."

Mou Yuanfeng also advised: "Fellow Daoist Song, what you said makes sense. If we continue like this, I'm afraid we won't be able to succeed until we are discovered by the group of Blazing Crows.

Why don't we work together to get this magical herb and then divide it up together."

Tan Bo and Shang Mengchun also understood the pros and cons of this matter. They looked at each other for a moment and nodded.

After that, the two of them worked together and the progress of breaking the formation was obviously faster. Occasionally, when the two of them were unable to handle it, Shang Mengchun would take out the Breaking Ban Cone to push forward...
"My three fellow Taoists, something terrible has happened. I don't know how those monkeys got here..."

When they heard Lan Fangyi's voice, the four of them looked pale in an instant.

"How did those monkeys come here?"

The four of them looked at each other, and for a moment even the actions of breaking the formation in their hands stopped.

"Could it be that it followed the path of the five of us? That's impossible. How could an ordinary monkey have such a capability?"

While he was hesitating, Lan Fangyi had already rushed over.

"Damn it, those monkeys have alarmed the nearby Blazing Crows. How are you doing in breaking the formation?"

The five people looked at the Xuanming Spiritual Herb in the formation at the same time. At this moment, the spiritual herb was only a palm's distance away from them, separated by a layer of colorful restriction.

No matter how hard Tan Bo and Shang Mengchun tried, they could not find a way to break the formation. Even using a second-order forbidden cone was of no use at all.

"Roar!"

A beast roar instantly changed the expressions of the five people.

Wei Zhong flew into the sky and landed on a dead branch nearby. Looking into the distance, he saw dense groups of monkeys and blazing crows fighting each other.

A particularly strong monkey grabbed the neck of the crow next to it and broke it casually, and the latter's eyes immediately lost their luster.

Looking at the monkey's strong body and its unique golden eyebrows, Wei Zhong's face changed.

Then he fell: "Oh no, there seems to be a third-level spirit monkey."

As soon as these words were spoken, the four of them changed their expressions. After they flew over to check, they realized that what Wei Zhong said was true.

Looking at the last layer of the five-colored restriction, the unwillingness in the eyes of several people became more and more obvious.

"Roar!"

A beast roar was heard and the ground beneath their feet shook.

After using his spiritual sense to explore, he discovered that the Fire Crow, which was only at the second level, had fallen into a disadvantage under the attack of the third level spirit monkey.

The golden-browed monkey had already torn a bloody path through the crows and was rushing towards the five people.

Seeing this, Wei Zhong sighed, raised his hand slightly, and a small golden cone appeared on his right palm. "Level 3 Breaking Forbidden Cone!"

A look of surprise suddenly appeared on Shang Mengchun's face.

"Fellow Daoist Song has been hiding this from us for a long time. If he had taken out this item earlier, why would we have waited until now to break the formation?"

Wei Zhong shook his head: "This item is my life-saving item, it cannot be used lightly, I hope you fellow Taoists will forgive me."

Then the golden cone in Wei Zhong's hand floated in the air, leaving a residual shadow and piercing the colorful spiritual light.

A layer of golden light emanated from the small cone and seeped into the colorful restriction. The two merged with each other and then dissolved layer by layer, revealing a small gap.

Shang Mengchun timely planted his own formation flag around the five-colored restriction, and with a bang, the restriction was broken.

Then he grabbed the Xuanming Lingcao and casually put away the formation flag.

Everyone saw that there were no other spiritual herbs in the forbidden area, and a trace of disappointment flashed in their eyes. But when they saw the vague shadow behind them, they were all excited.

There are other treasures in the subsequent ban.

Seeing Shang Mengchun get the spiritual herb, several people were overjoyed, but soon they heard the roar of beasts getting closer and closer.

Lan Fangyi immediately said: "Everyone, the third-level spirit monkey is coming, hurry up and leave."

After saying that, he pulled Shang Mengchun over and went back the way they came. Tan Bo and Mou Yuanfeng did the same.

Wei Zhong listened to the roar that was getting closer and closer, and walked to the place where the colorful restriction was broken.

The eyes blessed by the spirit-seeking technique suddenly saw the black spiritual soil in a small pit emitting colorful spiritual light.

This small pit is exactly where the Xuanming Spiritual Grass was located just now.

'This spiritual soil is a treasure.'

Wei Zhong condensed a huge hand of spiritual power in his hand, grabbed a handful of the black spiritual soil in an instant, and stuffed it into the cave.

Then he followed in the footsteps of the crowd.

"Quick!"

Everyone slid down the stairs, and before they reached the mountain gate, they heard roars one after another.

"These monkeys are so smart, they even block the door?" Lan Fangyi said with some annoyance.

"It's probably the third-level spirit monkey who's in charge," Wei Zhong turned to look at Shang Mengchun and asked, "Fellow Daoist Shang, will there be any restrictions after leaving this mountain gate?"

"That's not the case. Brother Song, do you want to?"

Wei Zhong nodded: "With the monkey blocking the door, the way we came here is no longer feasible. It is better to fly out of this valley and escape over that mountain.

The Blazing Crow was badly hurt by the monkey, so he probably has no time to care about us."

Several people nodded when they heard this. After going out of the mountain gate made of two broken pillars, Wei Zhong casually killed the monkey that pounced on him.

Seeing that Tan Bo was entangled by a second-level spirit monkey, he slapped the wine gourd on his waist, and instantly several golden swords shot out from it, shooting at the spirit monkey's vital points.

The yellow-browed monkey sensed the danger and retreated to avoid it, but Tan Bo seized the opportunity and chopped off its head with a sword.

After collecting the monkey's corpse, Tan Bo stepped on the flying sword and rose into the air with Wei Zhong.

He bowed to Wei Zhong and said, "Thank you, Brother Song."

Wei Zhong shook his head to indicate that there was no need to be polite.

As the few of them took off into the air, the monkey beneath them no longer posed a threat to them. Even the Fiery Crow that had always been "patrolling" in the sky disappeared.

'Finally safe'

Just when the few people relaxed, the golden-browed red monkey arrived and roared at everyone in the sky.

Then he grabbed a rock the size of a human head from his hand. The red hair was glowing with fire and attached to the stone. He immediately ignited it and threw it into the air.

The attack of the third-level spirit beast was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, the stone was already in front of everyone.

Wei Zhong's face changed drastically because the attack was aimed at him.

【The Way of Time】is put into practice, entering the late stage of foundation building.

The black water spirit robe that had been attached to Wei Zhong's body suddenly extended outward under the infusion of spiritual power in the late stage of foundation building. A shield made purely of spiritual power instantly appeared in front of Wei Zhong.

Time was running out. As soon as Wei Zhong made this move, the flaming stone hit the shield formed by the Black Water Spiritual Robe.

Wei Zhong only felt a sudden and powerful force coming, and the water shield defense formed by the Black Water Spiritual Robe only lasted for two breaths before it was broken with a loud bang.

A spiritual shield took this opportunity to open in front of Wei Zhong, and the second-level robe on his body was also activated at the same time.

The third-level spirit monkey's attack was still powerful enough to hit Wei Zhong's spirit shield and robes, smashing Wei Zhong's body into the mountain nearby, creating a depression several feet in size on the mountain wall.

"Fellow Daoist Song!"

Several people exclaimed and hurriedly moved closer to where Wei Zhong was.

Wei Zhong pushed away the second-level spiritual shield that had been broken into pieces and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Song Zhong", with tattered clothes and in a disheveled state, appeared in front of everyone.

With no time to stop and rest, Wei Zhong hastily swallowed a elixir and flew back into the air on the magic sword.

"go!"

Seeing that Wei Zhong was fine, they felt relieved and flew towards the top of the mountain together.

The golden-browed red monkey below saw that the people were getting farther and farther away, and pounded its chest in anger and roared. The surrounding monkeys were frightened by its power and lowered their heads.

"Fortunately, the third-level spirit monkey can't fly, otherwise we would be in danger," Lan Fangyi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the spirit monkey below did not chase him.

Looking at Wei Zhong standing aside, he said with emotion: "I never thought that Fellow Daoist Song could actually withstand a blow from a third-level monster. This really opened my eyes."

As soon as these words were spoken, the three people's attention immediately turned to Wei Zhong.

"Cough cough!"

Wei Zhong spat out a few drops of blood and said, "It's just that I'm lucky."

Then he slightly revealed the aura of a mid-stage foundation building cultivator.

Everyone looked surprised, but they knew better than to ask any further questions.

All casual cultivators will hide, and there are many who hide only a small realm of cultivation like "Song Zhong".

It's just that it's quite rare to be able to take on an attack from a third-level monster in such a hurry, not suffer much injury, and escape calmly.

The group climbed over the mountain and flew over the autumn maple forest.

Wei Zhong suddenly suggested, "That third-level spirit monkey has gone out with all its monkeys and descendants. How about we take this opportunity to rob its hometown?"

They looked at each other, nodded, and then flew towards the forest below.

The two second-level monkeys and some first-level monkeys that stayed behind were simply unable to resist the attack from Wei Zhong and the other five foundation-building monkeys.

They teamed up in pairs to kill the second-level spirit monkey, and the remaining first-level white-browed red monkeys fled instantly after losing their leader.

Several people searched its nest and harvested many spiritual objects and spiritual stones, including several spiritual herbs that were more than 500 years old.

Wei Zhong found a red spirit wine in a pool.

After tasting it once or twice, I discovered a refreshing feeling in my consciousness.

"Is this a spirit wine that targets the divine consciousness?"

Wei Zhong was instantly excited when he thought of this. His "Warm Tears" spirit wine was at a bottleneck, and he didn't expect to find a breakthrough opportunity here.

A handful of residues were scooped out from the bottom of the pool. These were the spiritual objects used to brew this kind of spiritual wine.

As long as Wei Zhong goes back and identifies them one by one, and combines them with the actual spiritual wine, there is a high probability that he can reversely deduce the recipe of the wine.

He shared the pool of spiritual wine with several other people, and then thoroughly searched the place, then quickly left on his flying sword.

After a long time, the golden-browed red monkey finally arrived. When it saw the ruined gathering place, it immediately let out an angry roar.

When he entered the cave and saw the empty pool of wine, he became furious and started beating the rocks around him.

Wei Zhong didn't know that this spiritual wine was exactly what these monkeys used to develop their intelligence, and it was the most precious thing among their tribe.

The five of them rode their flying swords back to the gathering place of the monks where the teleportation array was located, and then left without stopping.

······
On the small island in the lake, the five people gathered again.

The other four people's faces were all full of joy, except Wei Zhong, who looked a little pale and coughed from time to time.

Apart from offending a third-level monster, the trip was extremely smooth. Not only did everyone successfully obtain the thousand-year-old elixir Xuanming grass, they also plundered the tribe led by the third-level monster and made a fortune.

"Brother Song has made the greatest contribution on this trip. How about letting Brother Song choose first?" Lan Fangyi spoke first.

"I have no objection."

······
Seeing that no one objected, Wei Zhong spoke directly:

"I only want the Xuanming grass and some of the spiritual wine. I won't take anything else."

This choice immediately put the four of them in a dilemma.

This thousand-year-old spiritual herb can be said to be the incentive for everyone on this trip to explore the secret place together, and it is also the most precious thing they have gained on this trip.

Even among the collections of third-level spirit beasts, no other treasure could compare to it.

"Although Fellow Daoist Song has contributed the most, I'm afraid it is not enough for him to monopolize this item," Tan Bo said, without any emotion in his words.

Obviously, Wei Zhong's help in escaping danger just now made him feel a little good about him.

The remaining Mou Yuanfeng, Shang Mengchun and Lan Fangyi also held the same opinion.

"How about I add a bottle of top-grade Qi-combining pill for each of you fellow Taoists?"

As a spiritual elixir used by foundation-building cultivators, a bottle of top-grade Qi-integrating elixir requires at least one thousand five hundred spirit stones, and four bottles require six thousand.

Xuanming grass, a thousand-year-old elixir, is only worth about 15,000 spirit stones at the auction.

The value of the four bottles of pills was almost half of it.

Wei Zhong's compensation was full of sincerity.

Moreover, the Xuanming Spiritual Herb is only one of several thousand-year-old spiritual herbs needed to refine the Dust-Reducing Pill, so the group had no plans to work together to refine the pill.

Instead of spending time collecting elixirs, it would be better to improve your cultivation to the late stage of foundation building.

"Then I'll follow you, fellow Taoist."

(End of this chapter)