bookbashuk Chapter 289 Poisonous Miasma Pearl
Chapter 289 Poisonous Miasma Pearl
Chapter 289 Poisonous Miasma Pearl
The puppet neither dodged nor evaded, letting the long tongue wrap around its waist. Just as it was being dragged toward the giant mouth, its spiritual power suddenly erupted, and it threw three Explosive Flame Pills toward the giant mouth with its backhand!
"Explosive Thunder Fire Pill, explode!"
With Chen Jinshu's command, three Tier 3 Blazing Flame Pills detonated simultaneously!
A burst of scorching fire and thunder exploded, blasting the toad king's massive mouth into a bloody mess, causing it to scream and retract its jaws.
The puppet was thrown backward by the impact of the explosion. Although its arms were charred, it was not seriously damaged overall!
"A great opportunity!"
Seeing that the Toad King was severely injured, Chen Jinshu flashed a cold light, and the Star Moon Ancient Qin appeared out of thin air.
She sat cross-legged beside Qingheng, her ten fingers caressing the strings. Before the music even began, moonlight was already flowing around her.
"The Celestial Star and Moon Guide - Moon Soul Sealing!"
The strings vibrated, and the clear, cool sound waves spread out.
Although it was still dawn in the sky, a wisp of illusory moonlight pierced through the poisonous miasma and enveloped the three toad kings.
Their movements suddenly slowed, and confusion appeared in their scarlet eyes.
The central toad king was the first to break free. It roared wildly, and all the venom glands on its back burst open at the same time, spitting out dark green venomous blood!
The poisonous blood merged with the poisonous miasma, transforming into countless tiny poisonous insects that buzzed towards Chen Jinshu.
"A mere trick." Chen Jinshu scoffed, his fingers lightly plucking the strings, and the music suddenly shifted.
"Purification of 'Star Fallen into the Cold Pool'!"
The sound waves transformed into scattered starlight.
When the starlight touched the poisonous insects, they all melted and dissipated.
The purifying power spread to the surface of the toad king's body, and its dirty green skin began to emit blue smoke and a burnt smell.
The toad king on the left finally shattered the ice layer, but its venom glands were damaged, and the venomous mist it emitted was much thinner.
It leaped up in a rage and crashed down on Chen Jinshu like a mountain!
"Frozen swamp!"
The Yinshan titmouse cried out again, its wings flapping fiercely as a biting wind swept across the mud below, freezing the filthy mud into ice at a visible speed.
When the toad king crashed down, the ice surface cracked open, but its massive body was also trapped in the icy mud, making it difficult to break free.
Upon seeing this, the Toad King on the right turned to flee. Its survival instinct told it that this human cultivator was more like a monster than any of them.
"Trying to leave?" Chen Jinshu flicked his finger across the strings, unleashing a sharp sonic blade that struck the toad king's hind leg precisely.
It screamed and fell to the ground, while the substitute puppet pounced on its back, its hands like iron clamps gripping its bulging eyes and ripping them hard!
"Pfft!"
The foul-smelling liquid splattered.
The toad king rolled wildly, throwing the puppet away, but the toad king was already blind and could only struggle painfully in the icy mud.
At this point, one of the three toad kings was injured, one was trapped, and one had escaped; the outcome of the battle was already decided.
Chen Jinshu, however, did not let his guard down.
She put away her zither and rushed to the edge of the Corrupted Heart Pool.
Before them lay a dark pool of water, no more than ten feet in diameter, its water thick and viscous, with white bone fragments floating on its surface.
Seven strange and magical herbs grow by the pool. Their bone-white petals are like human finger bones pieced together, and their dark blue stamens resemble will-o'-the-wisps. These are the Nine Yin Corrupting Heart Herbs.
She took out a pair of long-handled tweezers made of "poison-repelling jade" and carefully picked it.
When each heart-rotting grass is removed from the soil, its petals ooze a dark red sap that turns into poisonous smoke upon contact with the air.
Chen Jinshu held his breath and focused his mind, enveloping the grass with the spiritual energy of the green wood and quickly placing it into a specially made cold jade box.
All seven rotten heart grass plants were put into his possession.
Just as they were about to leave, the water in the rotten heart pool suddenly surged violently.
A faint, eerie green light peeked out from the mud at the bottom of the pool.
Chen Jinshu scanned the area with his divine sense, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"This is……"
She used her spiritual power to form a hand and reached into the bottom of the pool. After groping around for a while, she pulled out a bead the size of a pigeon egg.
The beads are dark green and covered with natural miasma patterns on their surface.
"Poisonous Miasma Pearl?" Chen Jinshu sensed it carefully, his eyes filled with surprise.
"This bead should have been crafted by an ancient cultivator... at least a fragment of a fourth-order magic weapon."
Buried here for hundreds of years, it has absorbed the essence of decay and poison, becoming a natural source of toxins.
If activated using a secret technique, it can release a highly toxic miasma covering an area of ten miles, which even a Golden Core cultivator would find difficult to withstand.
Although this substance is poisonous, it is an excellent weapon for self-defense.
She sealed it in a three-layered jade box, affixed a talisman to suppress the poison, and put it into a storage bag.
At this moment, the Yinshan Sparrow had completely frozen the trapped toad king into a sculpture.
Chen Jinshu cut off the three toad kings' most precious "corrosive poison pearls" and "poison gland cores," and also peeled off some of their tough toad skin before taking his stand puppet away from the swamp.
Before leaving, she glanced back at the Corrupted Heart Pool. The pool had returned to its deathly stillness, but her divine sense vaguely detected deeper fluctuations of yin energy at the bottom.
Perhaps, as the Gap said, it truly holds more secrets left behind by ancient cultivators.
But that's a story for another time.
……
Five days later, the cave was filled with the fragrance of cinnabar.
Chen Jinshu used the Mysterious Female Treasure Furnace to refine the Heart-Corroding Soul-Renewing Pill.
Jiang Yi sat cross-legged three zhang in front of the alchemy furnace, his palms sweating with nervousness, his eyes fixed on the dark red liquid in the furnace.
The green hibiscus floated by the stove, occasionally injecting a wisp of plant life and neutralizing the toxicity of the heart-rotting grass in the elixir.
The Yinshan tit stood guard at the cave entrance, its wings fluttering lightly to dispel the occasional poisonous miasma that seeped in.
"Condense!" Chen Jinshu shouted softly, forming a hand seal.
The liquid in the furnace spun rapidly, eventually condensing into three pills the size of longan fruits, with bone-white patterns on their surfaces.
She patted the furnace, and the pills shot out, which she caught in a jade bottle.
"Take one and circulate your internal energy to neutralize the medicinal effects." She tossed Jiang Yi a Heart-Corroding Soul-Sustaining Pill.
"This elixir is extremely potent. It will feel like a thousand needles piercing your soul, repairing the cracks. The process is extremely painful. You must remain conscious and use the 'Crimson Flame Sword Technique' to guide the medicinal power, otherwise your soul may dissipate."
Jiang Yi took the pill, his eyes slightly red, a strange emotion welling up inside him.
He looked at Chen Jinshu, took a deep breath, and said resolutely, "Jiang Yi understands."
The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth, transforming into a torrent of scorching heat mixed with bone-chilling cold, rushing straight into the sea of consciousness!
In that instant, Jiang Yi's whole body trembled violently, his facial features contorted, and he almost screamed in agony.
It felt like someone was inserting red-hot iron needles into every crack in the soul, or like ice freezing the cracks and then forcibly sealing them together.
He bit his lower lip hard, blood seeping out, but he forced himself to sit still and circulate the "Crimson Flame Sword Technique".
The crimson spiritual energy surged through his meridians, merging with the power of the elixir, repeatedly cleansing his sea of consciousness.
An hour later, crimson flames suddenly rose around him, and a pale golden sword pattern appeared between his brows.
The illusory flames slowly subsided after three breaths. Jiang Yi opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and bright. Although his face was still pale, the weakness he felt from the dissipation of his soul had largely dissipated.
"My mid-Foundation Establishment spiritual sense... has returned." He murmured, feeling the spiritual energy replenishing his body, his eyes welling up with tears.
He rose and solemnly performed the three kneelings and nine kowtows ceremony before Chen Jinshu: "I will never forget your kindness in giving me a second chance at life!"
Chen Jinshu accepted his bow before saying:
"You need to take three Heart-Corroding Soul-Renewing Pills consecutively, with a seven-day interval between them. Once your soul has stabilized, give me the complete 'Crimson Flame Sword Manual,' and we'll be even."
"Yes!" Jiang Yi did not hesitate and took out the complete jade slip and presented it with both hands.
Chen Jinshu scanned it with his divine sense, and after confirming that it was correct, he put it into his bosom.
"Next, we need to go to the Netherworld Pavilion."
"Netherworld Pavilion?" Jiang Yi was taken aback, and his expression became more conflicted.
"That underground ghost market? Senior is going there to trade materials for the Corrupted Toad King?"
"Hmm." Chen Jinshu took out the three Corrosive Poison Beads and the core of the Poison Gland.
"These things are useless to me. I'm just short of some spiritual herbs for alchemy. The Netherworld Pavilion is a mixed bag, making it the perfect place to make my move."
“But your appearance has already been wanted by the Sand Bandit Alliance, so it is not appropriate for you to show yourself directly.”
Jiang Yi touched the scar on his face.
"What you mean, senior, is..."
Chen Jinshu took out a black robe and a demon mask from his storage bag: "Disguise yourself as my follower. I will enter as a demonic cultivator. You just need to keep your head down and follow me, without speaking or showing your face."
She then took out several more demonic artifacts from Xuan Yinzi's storage bag: a bone bell, a necklace of human teeth, and a blood-stained banner, and hung them on her body.
She circulated her cultivation technique, transforming the green wood spiritual energy into a sinister ghostly aura. In an instant, her temperament changed drastically, a faint but palpable murderous aura lingered between her brows, and even her eyes became cold and eerie.
Jiang Yi felt a chill run down his spine and quickly put on a black robe and mask.
"Qingheng, Yinshan Que, you two return to the spirit plant space for now," Chen Jinshu instructed, then gave orders to the substitute puppet.
"You shall remain three miles outside the cave to keep watch. If anything unusual happens, notify us with a communication talisman."
"The entrance to the Netherworld Palace is in a karst cave 1,200 miles south of the Blackwater Marsh. It's quite a distance, so we must hurry!"
"Let's go."
"Remember, once you enter the Netherworld Palace, you will only be the mute servant 'Shadow Seven'."
Jiang Yi nodded emphatically and followed behind her, heading towards the south side of Blackwater Marsh.