Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Chance Encounter

In the temple complex, corpses were everywhere.

There were the corpses of guards and followers, and also a few corpses of people who knew the dangers of the forbidden area. These corpses all stared blankly at the sky, and their lifeless eyes clearly revealed the terror they had felt when death came to them.

In addition to those corpses, there were countless dead jellyfish.

These jellyfish were different from humans. After death, they turned into masses of gray mud that emitted a foul stench. They were completely different from the gorgeous and colorful existences from when they were alive.

At the same time, the gray mud also exuded rich heterogeneity that pervaded the surroundings and corroded everything.

And this sudden disaster still hadn’t come to an end.

As the young men and women retreated in a panic, the swarm of jellyfish chased after them. Even as they retreated to the outskirts of the forbidden area jungle, they continued to kill and be killed.

By the time Xu Qing arrived at the temple complex, two hours had passed.

As he walked through the temple complex, Xu Qing looked at the corpses all over the place with an indifferent expression.

When it came to corpses, he had already seen too many.

As he passed by the corpses of some guards and followers, Xu Qing picked up some of the gray mud transformed from the dead jellyfish, preparing to study it when he returned to the valley.

Unfortunately, the corpses’ belongings had all been turned to scrap by the strong heterogeneity after the jellyfish died.

Xu Qing continued walking until he came to a certain corpse, and his footsteps suddenly stopped.

This was the corpse of an old man, and there was a huge hole in his chest. His blood had long dried up, and his eyes were still open. In his eyes seemed to be some lingering regrets.

Looking at this corpse, Xu Qing sighed softly.

He wasn’t a god, so even if someone bought his insurance, he couldn’t fully guarantee their safety, especially if they weren’t trapped by the fog.

After a moment of silence, Xu Qing knelt down and closed Old Stone’s eyes before burying him.

There was no gravestone. Captain Thunder had said that most scavengers didn’t have any family, so there was no one to mourn their deaths.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

This was the life of a scavenger. While they were alive, they struggled in this harsh world, and after they died… it was at least peaceful.

This kind of tragedy was actually the endpoint of most scavengers.

Standing in front of Old Stone’s grave, Xu Qing looked into the distance, in the direction of the camp. He recalled his past few months.

It had been four months since he came to the scavenger camp.

Blood Shadow Team Leader died, Fire Crow died, Fat Mountain and Horse-Four died, Barbarian died, Old Stone died, Captain Thunder retired, Bone Blade died, and many more scavengers also died without a sound.

In this cruel and chaotic world, human life was worthless.

“I can only survive if I become stronger.” Xu Qing muttered as his expression slowly became indifferent. He turned to leave.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, a gust of wind blew, causing the clothes of a young man in the distance to rustle.

This wind seemed to carry a chill with it, and it gradually weakened until it disappeared into the jungle along with the young man’s figure.

As dusk fell, the light of the setting sun began to fade. However, its stubborn rays still attempted to penetrate the dense jungle canopy, as if trying to shine on the young man’s running body.

But the young man was too fast, fast to the point that even the light seemed to be unable to catch him.

Not long later, Xu Qing’s footsteps suddenly stopped. He looked down at the ground, and his eyes revealed traces of doubt.

Xu Qing squatted down and sniffed carefully. After a while, his gaze fell onto a certain leaf. This leaf actually had a trace of barely discernible powder on it.

If it weren’t for Xu Qing’s deep understanding of poisons and his extreme familiarity with the scent of the forbidden area, it would be difficult to detect this abnormality.

Even for him, it took a while to locate it. He picked up the powder-covered leaf and inspected it carefully, muttering.

“I’m not sure what exact ingredients it has, but there must be the blood of the year-centipede in it!”

A glimmer flashed through Xu Qing’s eyes. Grandmaster Bai had once talked about year-centipede blood in one of his lectures.

This kind of blood had certain medicinal properties, but it was more often used as a catalyst. When combined with other medicines, it could attract certain beasts, so Xu Qing often used it while hunting.

“Those jellyfish were attracted over by this thing?” Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and put down the crisis-bringing leaf. Then he took out a packet of poison powder and sprinkled it all over his body.

After using this to cleanse himself of the aura of the year-centipede blood, he changed his direction before continuing to move.

Xu Qing didn’t intend to head to the place where those young men and women retreated to. This matter had nothing to do with him, and he didn’t want to get involved.

Even if there were some of Chen Feiyuan’s friends among those people, Xu Qing had no obligation to help. In addition, the group had experts who could battle the giant jellyfish, so Xu Qing would be in danger no matter what.

The most important thing was that among the group, there was most likely someone who was attracting the jellyfish for unknown purposes.

So after taking note of their direction, Xu Qing circled around and returned to the medicine house in the valley. By this time, it was already getting dark.

After putting away his new herbs, he resumed studying the White Pill.

However… although Xu Qing didn’t follow the young men and women, when night fell, he still heard the sounds of battle in the distance as he practiced mixing herbs. The clashing and shouting seemed to be getting closer, causing a frown to appear on his face.

After he began to hear the sound of footsteps as well, Xu Qing sighed internally.

Standing up and walking out of the medicine house, he looked in the direction of the valley entrance under the moonlight and heard a shout of surprise.

“There’s a path over here!”

“Everyone, let’s go in.”

Along with the voices came a few young men and women, dressed in ragged clothes and overall in a very sorry state.

Horror was written all over their faces, and they were followed by more than a dozen others. Most of them were young men and women of similar age, and there were also some guards who were covered in injuries.

More than twenty people ran into the valley one after another. While the guards desperately guarded the entrance, the young men and women in the valley breathed a sigh of relief, full of the joy of having narrowly survived a calamity. At the same time, they finally took a look at the valley around them.

They quickly noticed Xu Qing’s medicine house and also saw Xu Qing standing outside.

"There’s someone!"

The moment they saw Xu Qing, these young men and women were like frightened little birds, immediately shouting and backing away. Three guards left the entrance and came over to them, glaring at Xu Qing with vigilance and killing intent.

This killing intent made Xu Qing’s gaze turn cold. After glancing coldly at the guards, he looked at the group of young men and women. There were two of them in particular who drew his attention.

One of them was a young man a little older than Xu Qing, about sixteen or seventeen years old. Although he was also in a sorry state, his face didn’t hold as much panic as the others and instead was full of vigilance.

The other was a beautiful young woman. Although her clothes were tattered and her face was frightened, Xu Qing had seen too many people over the course of his life. He could tell at a glance that the fear on this person’s face was all fake.

Even more so because… There was a glove on this woman’s right hand. Perhaps it was just for cleanliness, but Xu Qing was a user of poison, and he knew that gloves had many other functions.

For example, sprinkling powder.

“The eight guards have cultivation bases between the sixth and seventh level of Qi Condensation. The others are divided into three groups, and their cultivation bases don’t surpass the fifth level.”

“There’s also those two. The man seems to be in the seventh level, and the woman… should be the one who lured the jellyfish over. As for those experts who were fighting the big jellyfish, they’re not here. Most likely, they went to lure the big jellyfish away.”

This rapid analysis was Xu Qing’s habit. Those young men and women couldn’t imagine that Xu Qing was able to see so many details just by glancing over them.

But the guards were obviously different from the young men and women. They felt the coldness in Xu Qing’s gaze and looked at the medicine house vigilantly.

Being able to find this valley was one thing, but he had also built a house here. This let the guards know that the young man in front of them was not only familiar with the forbidden area, he was even capable of living here.

Such a person was extremely dangerous.

“Fellow Daoist, might we intrude on your home? We don’t have any malicious intentions. It’s just that the mutated beasts outside have been chasing us, so we want to use this place to hide.”

“We’ll leave as soon as day breaks. Please forgive us for disturbing you.”

The guards’ instincts made their words very polite.

This also made the panicked young men and women behind them sense that something was off. They looked at Xu Qing one after another.

Among them, the oldest young man took a few more glances at Xu Qing with a serious expression, and the glove-wearing girl squinted her eyes.

She looked over at the medicine house and smelled the faint scent of herbs all around. This gave her some understanding of the young man in front of her.

Xu Qing frowned as he looked at the group. After a long time, he didn’t speak, but silently agreed to their presence before turning to walk back to the medicine house.

His agreement made those guards heave a sigh of relief, but most of the young men and women behind them were still uneasy.

A strange light flashed through the gloved girl’s eyes. She suddenly spoke out cautiously in an aggrieved voice.

“You… you are so rude. We just want to hide in here. There are mutated beasts outside, and we will die if we go out.”

Her voice was very lovable and carried a sense of distress, causing the surrounding young men to gather up the courage to speak to Xu Qing one after another.

“Yeah, you’re too cold-blooded.”

“We don’t have any bad intentions, we just want to take a rest.”

“The forbidden area doesn’t belong to his family, why should we ask him for permission!”

A simple sentence caused the group to become hostile to Xu Qing. Although the hostility wasn’t to a high degree, it still made the girl a little proud.

She wanted to use the others to test out the depths of the young man in front of her.

But the next moment, a cold light flashed through Xu Qing’s eyes, and a whistling sound pierced through the air. A dagger suddenly approached the girl like a flash of lightning.

Her expression changed instantly, and she was just about to dodge when the dagger had already flown past her ear. It chopped off a few strands of hair as it embedded itself deeply in the stone wall next to her.

The girl’s heart trembled, and her breathing hastened as she instinctively raised her head. When she looked at Xu Qing, she saw a pair of indifferent and wolf-like eyes filled with towering killing intent.

His gaze made her tremble, and the surrounding guards and other members of the group were all shocked. The guards became extremely vigilant, and many of the young men and women cried out.

“We met by chance. Don’t test me.” Xu Qing spoke slowly as he took a deep look at the girl. Suppressing the killing intent in his heart, he turned around and walked back to the medicine house.

His silhouette seemed to merge with the moonlight, giving off a chill that seemed to combine with the cold of the night. This chill flowed into the hearts and minds of all the people in the valley, making them fall silent.

At that moment, many people felt that the valley might be just as dangerous as the jellyfish outside.

Xu Qing walked to the door of the medicine house in silence when a shrill scream suddenly came from the valley entrance.

A small jellyfish had found the entrance to the valley. It penetrated the body of one of the guards, devoured his internal organs, and rushed into the valley.

And the jellyfish swarm was following behind it.

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