Chapter 450: "Secret Discovery"
After the unexpected arrival of this Princess Qing Bi into their borders, Xia Hou Qi's (prince) been completely wrapped up with entertaining the girl the entire time.
One day it's to go on a hunt, the next it's to explore the black fog, this repeated annoyance has left the poor prince completely helpless and unable to leave. As a result, the boy had apologized repeatedly to Ling Yue to no avail. Then again, she herself didn't really care either way. In fact, it's far better this way. With her Black Cauldron in hand, it's easier to maneuver and keep any prying eyes from diving into her secrets.
Just like that, the investigation into the cause of this disaster has fallen entirely on Ling Yue's shoulder with the rest doing their own thing.
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Initially the girl believed that with her ability to devour the black fog and cure the sickly would be enough to stop or at least hinder the worsening of this disaster, but she was wrong, dead wrong....
Not only did the situation not weaken, the momentum actually intensified after she absorbed an entire landscape's worth of the dark matter. To say this was like a band aid trying to mend an open wound was an understatement. She have solved nothing thus far.
"Chief, look over there, the black fog is coming out of that part of the forest!" Pointing to the area further up ahead, A'bone and Ling Yue was currently riding atop of a flying spirit bird in search of the epicentre.
Scouting for this location was not hard at all, in fact it was too obvious with how pitch black the air was. They could hardly make out what's inside, let alone go investigate.
"That's the Black Valley.... So the epicentre is the Black Valley after all. This is too difficult. Even if we do make it past the outer layer, the resistant pills can only keep us safe for an hour at best against that level of taint." Just when Ling Yue was trying to come up with an idea to break through that darkness, a burning sensation around her chest had suddenly caught her attention - it was the flower vine in her possession.
Of all the things she owned, Ling Yue only carried two things on her body at all times: the first being Feng Shen's Phoenix Edict that she got recently, the other was the vine branch she got from the carnivorous plant. As for the rest, they're all stuffed into her pocket dimension for ease of transportation.
A while back due to Qiu Tian's failure to succeed in her advancement, the magical vine branch had withered away somewhat; however, that quickly changed once she revitalized the little plant within her Red Mist Sky.
Can it be, am I able to use this to re-enter the black Valley again like the last?
Excited over the possibility, she knew this was no time to delay.
First ordering A'bone to return to the herdsmen village, Ling Yue then found a quiet spot to herself for the experiment.
Just like the last, her consciousness soon faded into nothingness as her body warped out of existence following a quick flash of green.
Is this really the inside of the Black Valley?
Once her eyes opened again she was already in a different place that's completely enshrouded in darkness, the only exception being the little ball of green light glowing from within herself.
"Little Qiu tian, are you the one who helped me just now?"
It's unsure when this occurred but the sausage lipped plant had slipped out of the Red Mist Sky of her own accord just now.
In order to prevent the black fog from affecting her little friends, as well as avoid raising suspicion from Hong Ming Yue and Luo Song, Ling Yue had taken the liberty of keeping them all inside her pocket dimension the entire time. Unless she specifically summoned them, the little fellas wouldn't come on their own.
So why? Why would Qiu Tian suddenly come out without telling me? These questions kept coming up in the girl's head and it was starting to worry her.
Fortunately the confusion didn't last very long because Qiu Tian's next course of action was very direct and easy to understand. "Are-are you telling me to leave this instant and that the green ball of light in my chest won't protect me very long?"
She's not dumb enough to not realize all the shoving and poking at her chest by her friend meant danger, but still, did she here really have to be so pushy? Sadly for the girl, she really should've listened and ran for it because it was already too late in the following second when her ears picked up that strange rustling sound in the background.
Turning around to seek that strange disturbance, now that's when Ling Yue came eye to eye with something so out of this world that she didn't even know how to describe her momentary shock.
She really wanted to run, she really did there. Shame, that ungrateful pair of legs of hers simply wouldn't listen.
Ling Yue didn't notice it before mainly due to how disorientated she was from the warp, but now that she's focused in, it quickly dawned on her that the spot where she teleported to was the very same location that the meteor had crashed down upon. The only difference here being it's completely covered in a layer of frost as well as a giant eyeball embedded into the ground!
An underground sun?
That's not right.
A freaky giant eyeball that's giving off a strange eerie glow due to its golden iris?
That's not quite right either!
One thing's certain though, she can definitely see the black fog exuding out of this monstrosity following every movements it made. It could be a blink or a simple rotation of the eyeball, either way, the source of this darkness was definitely coming from this thing.
Perhaps it's the shock or the ruckus the girl was making, but the giant eyeball definitely seems to have noticed her existence by now. Materializing several ice blades out of thin air, the creature suddenly went on the offensive like it intends to kill the intruders.
Still stuck in her stupor of a state, Ling Yue honestly thought she was going to die today. Her whole body refuses to budge in light of her will to jump. Luckily she didn't have to because Qiu Tian was here.
Shooting out a series of emerald green vines to meet that hail of ice, the recoiling blast from the two forces finally knocked the girl back to her senses.
What the heck is that thing! Why didn't my senses notice that eyeball until now?
As curious and afraid as she was, Ling Yue knew this was no time to continue her idling here, especially when her friend kept shoving her even harder.
But there's just one little issue when the girl attempted to exit this dangerous place, the carnivorous plant that came with her refuses to leave!
"You mean, you want to stay here for the time being?" She truly didn't expect Qiu Tian to make such a request and was completely caught off guard.
Its not that Ling Yue doubted the ability of this carnivorous plant, after all, the little fella was still an ancient primal beast regardless of her current state. The problem lies in how tainted this area was. Forget about staying, even trying break into this Black Valley as a reincarnation master would be a daunting task in of itself, let alone the now weakened Qiu Tian.
In the girl's head, the mini version of Qiu Tian was the same as Little Crow and Little Squeak, they are all her close friends and companions. To know she must leave one behind in such a dangerous place, it's unavoidable that she would be hesitant and become doubtful.
But being doubtful was one thing, its still not going to sway the carnivorous plant in her decision. Nodding its sausage lipped flower head, Qiu Tian reaffirms her choice and once again shoved the girl to leave, which only saddened Ling Yue even further.
It's not that she didn't understand why the plant was doing this after coming back to her senses. This was the Black Valley, the original place where Qiu Tian was keeping the supposed evil suppressed underground, meaning that giant eyeball must be it.
"Alright, I will leave you here for the time being. However, if you are experiencing any discomfort then you must immediately return to the outside." As painful as this was, Ling Yue nevertheless withdrew at the end. She knew there's nothing more she can do in this situation.
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Unbeknownst to the girl though, shortly after her departure, another shadow had appeared within this pitch black darkness. It was a man and someone quite familiar too because he wore the very same type of mask as Feng Shen, only in silver this time.
That's right, this man was none other than that mysterious person back in Underground City #9, the very same one that's been spying on Ling Yue and her companions.
"How unexpected, to think someone else have also discovered this Demon Eye." After leaving behind this comment, the man also disappears from existence.