Chapter 158: Dark Green Lotus

In front of the massive gates of the Central Divine Palace, the four individuals and one horse exchanged a single glance. Without wasting any breath, they simultaneously placed the jade seals into the five hollows.

Gold, green, blue, red, yellow!

Five brilliant beams of light burst into the air, condensing into liquid copper that rapidly churned across the entire surface of the gates. Between those beams of light, energy flowed and connected, forming a bizarre pattern.

Dozens of breaths later, the five jade seals automatically bounced outward, while the churning liquid copper raised itself into human figures bowing toward the sky.

Hum—

A deep, resounding hum echoed from the vast ruins of the external world, carrying a mournful undertone, as if weeping for the departed souls.

As the humming persisted, everyone felt the external space trembling more and more violently. This vibration was deeply unsettling, hinting that something ominous was about to happen.

Boom! Boom!

In the distance, the sound of collapsing ruins and shattered walls echoed through the air.

"The spatial tremors are getting worse, and the spatial forces are going haywire. If I'm not mistaken, this is the precursor to a collapse. Boy Junmei, remind them to hurry up if they want to seize their fortuitous encounters."

Lightning let out a long neigh, transmitting the message directly into Fang Junmei's mind.

Hearing this, Fang Junmei promptly relayed the warning to the other three.

All three of their expressions shifted upon hearing the news.

Gu Xijing and Ruan Shi Daolang cast peculiar glances at Lightning. If they still hadn't figured out by now that Lightning was likely a spatial spirit beast, they would have been complete fools—though even knowing it, the thought still felt hard to believe.

The three of them nodded in agreement.

However, the gates had not yet fully opened; eager as they were, they had no choice but to wait.

After another few dozen breaths, the liquid copper that had formed the bowing figures dissolved once again, cascading down onto the ground with a soft rush, finally revealing the world within the gates.

...

The world inside the gates was brightly illuminated.

It was a vast hall embedded with pearl-like objects, spanning several hundred zhang in circumference. Upon the white jade floor sat rows of humanoid skeletons. Stripped of skin and flesh long ago, they still maintained their cross-legged meditative postures, neatly arranged in two rows along the sides, numbering around thirty to forty.

Many of them had smaller bone frames, resembling those of children. The strangest part was that without exception, these skeletons emitted a dark green hue, presenting a startling and eerie sight.

There was no telling how long these gates had been sealed, but a wave of ancient decay rushed directly toward them.

"They died of poison. Be careful."

Gu Xijing spoke first, holding his breath, activating his protective energy shield, and swallowing a detoxifying pill in advance.

The others followed suit, while Fang Junmei crammed a detoxifying pill into Lightning's mouth.

"These people probably hid in here to seek refuge and preserve the spark of civilization before the great calamity ended. Perhaps even earlier, unaware that they had already been poisoned, and ended up dying together here," Long Jinying said.

Fang Junmei shook his head and said, "No, it's possible that one of them managed to go outside. The jade seal we obtained was arranged by him, and even our entry here might have been set up by him. But who he was, and whether he's dead or alive now, remains a mystery."

Fang Junmei's thoughts ran deeper.

In this world, a secret realm could never appear without reason; there had to be a cause and effect. As for whether things were truly as Fang Junmei surmised, naturally, no one could say for sure.

"I don't know about the rest, but among the faction that slaughtered this power, there must be a master of poisons. That might just be a clue," Ruan Shi Daolang chimed in.

"Let's worry about that later. We're going in."

Gu Xijing spoke again and stepped forward. Long Jinying took a large stride to match his pace, walking side by side with him.

With a flick of their hands, two waves of red flames surged outward.

Regardless of whether any lethal poison lingered, they decided to scorch the area first just to be safe.

Fang Junmei and Ruan Shi Daolang looked at the two of them, exchanged another glance, and smiled lightly, knowing that the task of clearing the path was completely undertaken by these two experts, leaving the two of them to simply reap the benefits.

After taking a few steps, Gu Xijing turned his head and glanced back toward the direction of the gates.

"Time is tight; there's no need to set up rear-guard traps. Lightning is extremely sensitive to the aura of living flesh and blood. If anyone comes, it will notify us immediately," Fang Junmei said.

"You really do know what I'm thinking," Gu Xijing said, casting a sideways glance at him with a slight smile.

The others chuckled and continued walking forward, their gazes searching the surroundings.

"Where are these fellows' storage pouches? Could it be they didn't use storage pouches? I don't see any storage rings either... Did the poison actually corrode the storage pouches as well?" Ruan Shi Daolang wore a puzzled expression.

The other three glanced over. True enough, beside the skeletons, there were no storage pouches or rings to be found.

Meanwhile, Lightning shot the four of them a look of utter disdain for their ignorance, as if it knew something but refused to tell Fang Junmei a single word.

They quickly reached the end of this hall.

Yet there was no sign of any fortuitous encounter. At the far end stood a giant faceless statue, standing over ten zhang tall, with no visible mechanisms whatsoever.

...

At this point, the gazes of the four individuals and one horse all shifted toward an open, door-like passage on the side. From the depths of the tunnel behind that door, a vine-like growth was creeping outward.

This vine was shaped like a snake, dark green in color, with leaves of the exact same deep emerald shade, as if droplets of dark green sap were about to drip from them. The hue was identical to the color of those skeletons.

Seeing the four figures and one horse staring at it, the vine actually shivered, then rapidly retracted back into the depths. It was clearly some sort of spiritual root.

"Be careful. This spiritual root has absorbed the poison from those fellows..."

Gu Xijing's reaction was exceptionally swift.

"It or its ancestors were likely spiritual roots planted by those living beings to grow somewhere deep within that tunnel. But after absorbing all that poison, not only did it survive, but it underwent some kind of mutation and gained sentience," Long Jinying added, adopting the posture of someone whose analytical reasoning was second to none.

Once he finished speaking, both men turned back simultaneously to look at Fang Junmei and Ruan Shi Daolang, as if waiting to hear their brilliant insights.

The two of them smiled awkwardly.

Fang Junmei laughed and said, "More or less. That's what I was thinking too."

Ruan Shi Daolang said, "I'm not using my brain anymore. You guys call the shots."

The two of them smiled and turned back around.

"Get ready. Our first blocking opponent should be this thing!"

Gu Xijing said. With a sharp flash, he drew his blue-edged sword, while Long Jinying instead put away his treasured sword and left his hands empty.

The four individuals and one horse entered the doorway and pressed forward.

...

The light within the tunnel had a mottled quality, resembling sunlight struggling to pierce through a dense jungle. This was because the luminous pearls embedded in the walls had been overgrown by dense, dark green vines. The roots and tendrils, winding like snakes, covered most of the ground, walls, and ceiling of the passage, making it look both gloomy and chaotic.

Swish—

Sensing the arrival of the four individuals and one horse, those vines retreated like a receding tide, emitting a rustling sound. The bizarre and surreal scene felt utterly unreal.

As the vines withdrew, the covered pearls were suddenly exposed once more, lighting up like torches extending far into the distance.

The ground was exceptionally dry, showing no trace of dampness.

The tunnel was not particularly long, and they soon reached its end. The four individuals and one horse finally caught a clear look at this spiritual root.

In the spacious chamber, which spanned several hundred zhang around and reached a height of a hundred zhang, sat what appeared to be a built-in circular pool at the very center. However, the water within had long since dried up, and growing inside was a spiritual root with exposed and exceptionally lush, sprawling roots.

This spiritual root was entirely composed of vine-like growths, resembling an aquatic plant, all of them dark green. At the crown of the root, which stood some seven or eight zhang high, bloomed seven flowers.

These seven flowers resembled lotuses, but were much larger, with diameters reaching nearly five or six feet—an adult could easily sit cross-legged atop one without any problem. Their color was the same dark green, exuding a demonic and eerie aura.

Noticing the intrusion, the seven dark green lotuses turned toward them in unison. Along with their stems, they twisted and danced, retreating backward.

However, they did not launch an immediate attack.

The group had originally prepared for a fight, but seeing these flowers cowering and trembling as they backed away, they felt somewhat unnatural instead.

"It may be riddled with lethal poison, but living alone here for goodness knows how many self-propagating generations, its mind is probably just like that of a newborn child. Seeing us break in has scared it out of its wits," Fang Junmei remarked.

Hearing his words, Ruan Shi Daolang nodded in agreement.

Ahead of them, Gu Xijing and Long Jinying exchanged a glance, tilted their heads, and looked toward the rear of the spiritual root. Sure enough, there was another passageway.

"We'll walk around it. If it attacks us, we'll slaughter it immediately," Long Jinying said coldly, his tone devoid of emotion. Yet, being willing to spare such a spiritual root was already an act of mercy, showing they weren't greedy for its toxic lotuses.

The others nodded.

Adhering to the edge of the wall, they headed toward the passageway ahead.

As the group took a step forward, the mass of vines retreated a step back, the rustling sound perfectly uniform. The seven lotuses swiveled their directions, keeping their gazes locked on the group the entire time, as if watching their every move.

This scene was indeed extraordinarily bizarre.

...

Time seemed to pass both in the blink of an eye and agonizingly slow.

Finally, the four individuals and one horse arrived at the passageway ahead. All the way through, the spiritual root had not offered any obstruction.

The four individuals and one horse breathed a sigh of relief and continued onward, with Gu Xijing taking the lead and stepping into the tunnel first.

At that exact moment, a bizarre, sharp, and ferocious screech erupted suddenly from behind. As if finally provoked to anger, the spiritual root straightened its thousands of vines like javelins, thrusting them forward to impale the intruders.

Whoosh—

The sound of air being violently torn apart made their scalps tingle.

Now positioned at the rear, Fang Junmei, Ruan Shi Daolang, and the white horse Lightning were left to face the onslaught of these vine-spears!

Brilliant bursts of sword and saber energy erupted from Fang Junmei and Ruan Shi Daolang as they spun around and counterattacked instantly.

Only Lightning, utterly useless and terrified by the poison, registered a look of horror before darting forward at top speed to escape the fray.