[Vol. 6] Chapter 33: The Excluded
Upon hearing this, Murong Yun couldn’t help but smile wryly.
“Senior Vi, I am rely an ordinary mortal without the ability to traverse the skies or control the seas as you do. How could I dare to explore the unknown waters with just my body? One must understand that in water, even the most skilled fighter can barely exert 30% of their strength. If I were proficient in swimming, I wouldn’t have to wait for low tide every ti to explore the valley.”
“True enough~”
Dusting herself off as she stood, Violet returned to Ling Feng and another woman’s side. In a low voice, audible only to them, she asked,
“Well, have you figured out the situation?”
Miss Ling Feng, tucking away a talisman that was faintly glowing, nodded with a grave expression.
“This place is a foundation point of a [Yokai-Suppressing Seal], but… it’s already showing signs of instability.”
“[Yokai-Suppressing Seal]?”
“Yes, a [Yokai-Suppressing Seal].”
The gray-haired girl smoothed her sleeves and softly explained,
“The so-called [Yokai-Suppressing Seal] is a large-scale sealing technique constructed by a mighty expert using their abilities, combined with spiritual tools, treasures, or formations. Even the simplest [Yokai-Suppressing Seal] requires the combined effort of several experts at the [Eternal Life] realm to create. Any malevolent spirit below the level of a ‘Yokai King’ trapped within it has no chance of escape.”
“Originally, these seals were mostly used to suppress great demons prone to causing harm. However, ever since the ergence of evil entities in the [Ancient Spirit Realm], the use of this technique has changed to so extent.”
“Throughout history, locations with [Yokai-Suppressing Seals] have always been heavily guarded: either locked away in the deep walls of imperial capitals or hidden in the forbidden grounds of prestigious sects. Ordinary people could never hope to co near them.”
As Miss Ling Feng explained all this in detail without hesitation, Violet cast her a knowing glance, unsurprised.
“It seems you already knew there was a [Yokai-Suppressing Seal] below us?”
“…Yes, but I didn’t expect the situation to have deteriorated to this extent. No wonder the [Spirit Maiden] issued an urgent order for the Prefect Wen Fu to intervene. But how did she know about this…?”
Though the topic ended there, neither Violet nor Ling Feng delved deeper.
So things, if one wanted to speak of them, would already have been said. Since they were deliberately avoiding certain subjects, there was no need to press and risk making things awkward for both sides.
Half an incense stick’s ti later, the group resud their journey.
The cave where this underground lake was a maze of interconnected passages, with more than a dozen tunnels branching out in all directions. Although it was separated from the waters of the [Tidal Deep Valley], for so reason, it now seed to connect to these various paths. A first-ti visitor would undoubtedly feel lost amidst the excessively intricate network.
Fortunately, Murong Yun had explored this area multiple tis before. Consulting the map in his hand, he easily led the group back to the path heading toward the sighting area of the holy beast, the Qilin.
After the earlier attack by the skeletal monsters and the departure of Yuan Zhi and Yuan Hong, this temporary team had beco much more united than before. Even Du Zhe, who had been the most contentious, refrained from making snide remarks or criticizing Murong Yun’s instructions.
Thus, they carefully avoided the powerful wandering evil spirits and continued advancing through the maze-like, rugged terrain of the ravine, with its unpredictable ups and downs. Before they knew it, several hours had passed.
Curiously, the deeper they went, the larger the interior space of the [Tidal Deep Valley] seed to beco. Its sheer scale likely extended far beyond the basin at the entrance, spreading outward toward even more distant areas of Yangyuan County.
Under Murong Yun’s seasoned guidance, despite the increasingly complex paths, they managed to avoid major battles or casualties. They were getting closer.
Suddenly—
“Wait!”
The middle-aged man in white at the front abruptly raised his hand. The group imdiately stopped, with Du Zhe and the three disciples of the Guiyuan Sect quickly summoning their bronze swords and scanning their surroundings vigilantly.
“What is it? Another evil spirit approaching?”
“…No, it’s the aura of the dead.”
“Huh? What do you an by ‘the aura of the dead’? Are you saying you can see dead people’s ghosts or sothing?”
Just as Murong Yun was about to explain, a black-haired girl had already sensed sothing. She stepped forward confidently, leaping nimbly like a spirit cat to a platform ten ters above their current position.
Soon, her voice rang out from above, where she was no longer visible.
“Oh dear, oh dear… what a grueso sight.”
“What the hell is it? And are you so kind of rabbit spirit?!”
Unable to leap effortlessly like a certain priestess, the group could only take a detour to slowly climb onto the platform from the side.
“Hey, you… this is…”
Du Zhe started to speak, but upon seeing the grim scene before him, he fell silent.
It was evident that this place had recently been a battlefield.
Seven or eight figures, dressed in various outfits, lay scattered on the ground. Though there wasn’t a strong scent of blood in the air, it was clear that they were all lifeless.
Murong Yun and the others split up to examine the bodies, soon reaching an undeniable conclusion.
“They’re all dead. These people… were mbers of an exploration team.”
Closing the wide, unseeing eyes of a burly man beside him, Murong Yun spoke in a somber tone.
“This man’s na was Xu Lian. Like , he was entrusted by the magistrate to lead an exploration team. A master of the spiked great club, he possessed extraordinary strength. Even I would struggle to block one of his full-powered strikes. Among all the investigation team leaders, Xu Lian ranked in the top three in terms of skill. I never imagined he’d et his end here…”
Ling Feng, after removing a blackened silver needle from one of the corpses, offered her assessnt.
“Bleeding from the seven orifices, purple lips, severely constricted pupils, and foam at the mouth. No apparent fatal injuries. These are classic symptoms of poisoning. All of them were poisoned to death.”
“Could it be,” Bai’er asked curiously, “that they encountered sothing similar to those skeletal monsters from before, but imbued with deadly venom?”
Ling Feng simply shook her head in response.
“[Undead Bone Demon] rarely carry poison. Even when they do, it’s usually not imdiately lethal. Poison is a thod more commonly employed among humans or certain monsters. I suspect…”
“No need to guess. It’s [Black Mamba Venom],” Du Zhe interjected, clicking his tongue in irritation. “Ugh, looks like there’s a real scumbag in the mix.”
Seeing the curious looks from everyone else, he reluctantly elaborated.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I just happen to recognize the signs.”
“Near my hotown, there’s a rare, mild-mannered, but highly venomous black snake called the black mamba. These snakes are intelligent and considered excellent material for spiritual dicine. When I was a kid, I saw a few foolish people try to catch black mambas, only to be poisoned to death instead. Their corpses looked almost identical to these.”
“This snake is not a water snake. It prefers birds and fruit for food and lives year-round in high places, only found in particularly lush and leafy canopies. It could never naturally appear in a dark and damp place like the [Tidal Deep Valley].”
Hearing this, Murong Yun crouched down and pulled up the trouser leg of the burly man, Xu Lian. Sure enough, he found a snake bite mark oozing black blood. His expression turned to one of astonishnt.
“Brother Zhe, are you suggesting that soone brought such a snake down here and used it to secretly attack the exploration team?”
“Hmph, do you have another explanation?”
“That does make sense, but everyone here was killed by the sa poison, likely in a simultaneous attack. How could ordinary snakes achieve sothing like that?”
Murong Yun seed puzzled, but Ling Feng, after so thought, offered a hypothesis.
“A Yokai… it must be a snake beast.”
She exchanged a glance with Violet, and without a word, the two won from the sa faction ca to a mutual understanding.
Black mambas are typically docile creatures, let alone after transforming into a spirit or Yokai. For such a being to deliberately co to this place and attack exploration team mbers seed improbable. Likewise, Yangyuan City’s officials wouldn’t be foolish enough to let a Yokai infiltrate the teams.
This left only one explanation: the [Yokai Controlling Sect].
These notorious individuals, who had recently co to the priestess’s attention after a [Mole Spirit] inadvertently unearthed a piece of spiritual flesh, were indeed making their move.
The exploration team likely first encountered a relatively weak Yokai. While they fought it, mbers of the [Yokai Controlling Sect] within their ranks secretly unleashed the venomous snakes, attacking them from both sides. Caught off guard, they ultimately succumbed to the poison and perished.
It’s highly possible that other exploration teams have also been infiltrated by the [Yokai Controlling Sect]. In contrast, Violet’s team, though a motley group, at least seed free of such influences.
The chaotic struggle over the holy beast Qilin and the interests it represented had now fully begun.
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