"Qiao Nan!"
Xu Gaizhi, who was exploring the way ahead, led several Tianxuan Mountain disciples through the invisible purple clouds and mist, and hurriedly flew back to the rendezvous point on his sword. He coughed and said, "The miasma in the southwest is extremely serious. It's hard to tell whether it's the source. How are Chi Yu and the others?"
Qiao Nan felt dizzy from the miasma all around him. He used a Shangqing Jue to temporarily purify the miasma wrapped around his body and frowned, "They haven't come back yet."
Xu Gaizhi asked again: "What did you find?"
Qiao Nan shook his head and said, "We encountered some monsters attracted by the miasma, but other than that, we didn't find anything else." He looked around and wondered, "This is so strange. Wulingyuan and Lingshan are only separated by a state, so why is the miasma so serious?"
As they were talking, another group of people appeared in the miasma. They were Hua Chiyu and Gu Changnian who had gone to the northeast to inquire.
Qiao Nan stepped forward and asked, "How is it? Did you find anything?"
Gu Changnian said solemnly, "We found a valley in the northeast. The miasma is more serious than anything we have seen along the way. I suspect that is the source of the miasma."
Hua Chiyu nodded in agreement and said, "And if you look closely at the terrain nearby, that valley looks like it was created by some powerful force. I don't know if it's a human or a monster hiding in it."
Xu Gaizhi pondered for a moment and suggested, "Okay, let's go together. By the way, Changnian, you are not good at purification, so don't take the lead this time."
"Okay, I'll follow your arrangements."
Following the direction pointed by Gu Changnian, we saw that all the vegetation had rotted. Some were so badly damaged that they had been polluted by miasma and turned into a huge quagmire with rotting corpses of animals trapped in it. The rotting corpses were bubbling and the stench was overwhelming.
Qiao Nan looked at the severely destroyed forest and mountain spirits, and sighed with both pity and relief: "Fortunately, this place is usually very humid and sparsely populated, so the nearest town was not severely affected."
With such a rare concentration of miasma, if an ordinary person came into close contact, he would be poisoned and die in less than a quarter of an hour.
"Yes." Xu Gaizhi echoed, "Fortunately, Master had the foresight to borrow some personnel from Kaiyang Palace. Otherwise, who knows how many people would have died of illness."
A group of more than ten people walked towards the northeast for about two minutes. Gu Changnian, who was protected in the middle by the disciples of Tianxuan Mountain, suddenly stopped and looked around.
Seeing this, Hua Chiyu also stopped and asked, "What's wrong? Chang Nian."
Gu Changnian did not answer for a moment, but his expression became more serious. The other disciples of Tianxuan Mountain looked at each other, and although they felt strange, no one urged him.
After a long while, Gu Changnian's face darkened as he asked, "Does anyone here know the location of the formation that sealed the demon gods tens of thousands of years ago?"
"The core of the formation that seals the demon god?" Qiao Nan's eyes widened. "Why did you suddenly mention this?"
Hua Chiyu also looked puzzled and said, "In the class, we only mentioned that we gathered all the strength of the immortal sects to set up the formation and used the two swords together to seal the demon god. It seems that the specific location of the center of the formation was not mentioned."
Gu Changnian frowned and quickly searched his memory: Where was it? He vaguely remembered where he had seen this record.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to him, and Gu Changnian said in a deep voice: "I happened to take a look at the ancient book that Master read recently. It mentioned that ten formation points were used to seal the demon god, and one of them was at Wulingyuan under our feet."
"Ah?!" Everyone gasped.
One day, a disciple of Xuanshan said doubtfully, "Did you remember it wrongly? The demon god is sealed in the north, so how can the center of the formation be in the south?"
Gu Changnian hesitated for a moment, then asked everyone: "During the lecture, the old immortal master who is still alive mentioned that the demon god seems to be able to summon demon beasts."
After hearing Gu Changnian's mention, Hua Chiyu and others from the same class also recalled carefully -
It is unknown how many years the old immortal master has lived. When he teaches, he likes to improvise and recall the past, and the content he mentions casually is more than what is written in the book.
But after thinking about it carefully, Hua Chiyu suddenly said nervously: "Yes! I remember now. The old immortal master said that he guessed that the devil can use devil energy to create devil beasts, and when devil beasts appear and disappear, they will produce a lot of miasma!"
That is to say, the ten centers of the formation are most likely to be sealing the demon god's magical beasts.
After these words were spoken, all the disciples of Tianxuan Mountain became even more panicked. Xu Gaizhi signaled everyone to calm down and said, "Don't panic yet. This is just a guess. Besides, there are many reasons for the formation of this miasma. Don't panic."
Qiao Nan also nodded and said, "Yes, the demon god has been sealed for tens of thousands of years, how could it be possible to summon a demon beast? Let's send a message to the head master first, and then go to the edge of the valley to investigate the details and determine whether it is true or not."
Gu Changnian felt vaguely uneasy. He had encountered too many strange things recently, and he was not sure if he was too sensitive.
However, since it might be related to the devil, Gu Changnian thought about it again and again, and also sent a letter to his master He Qing alone.
This was the first time he sent a message to He Qing while he was down the mountain for training since he discovered that He Qing had ill intentions towards him.
※
"How's it going?" Du Ruo, who had just finished refining the elixir, came late in front of the round light technique in the main hall of Tianshu Gate. With his hands folded, he leaned forward and asked Guan Yue, "Where is it going?"
Guan Yue said without even turning his head: "We are almost out of the illusion."
Xuan Qingzi watched carefully, hummed in approval, pointed two fingers at Le Qingru who was performing the technique, and said to He Qing: "Your little disciple is very good."
Guan Yue also nodded and praised: "Yes, I have observed her for a long time. Among this group of disciples, her spiritual power, observation ability, and reaction ability are all outstanding."
"Thank you for the compliment." As a master, He Qing was naturally proud of his disciple being praised by others, and his lips couldn't help but smile.
But facing Guanyue, He Qing felt a little embarrassed. After all, Yue Qingru was supposed to be his disciple from Tianxuan Mountain, but was snatched away by her.
Daoyi shook his head and moved the screen to focus on Lu Li: "As for this disciple, he is far from being as good as before. If he hadn't had his fellow disciples protecting him, I think it would be difficult for him to get out of the illusion."
"..." He Qing looked at the screen, and saw Lu Li, who looked so leisurely and lazy as if he was traveling. He tilted his head awkwardly, pretending not to hear.
Seeing her like this, Xuan Qingzi couldn't help but sigh and said, "He Qing, if you really like this disciple, why don't you let him go to the mountain gate to train for a few years, and then take him in as your personal disciple when he has made progress in the future? You should still focus on Chang Nian."
This was a reminder for her to get rid of him. He Qing took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, nodded slightly and said politely: "Thank you for the advice, Master. However, although his aptitude is ordinary, he is diligent. He and Qingru have established their foundations one after another. I want to train him for a while longer."
"But he..."
Without giving Xuan Qingzi a chance to say anything more, He Qing seized the opportunity to change the subject and said, "Hey, they have reached the exit of the illusion."
Xuan Qingzi: ...