Chapter 26 Footprints

The outer hinterland of the Ghost Howling Land.

"The netherworld power in the void in this hinterland is more concentrated than that in the outer area, and the evil spirit mixed in it is getting heavier." Xu Yang said.

"From now on, we must be more cautious and not waste time casually." Zhu Liuqing said.

...

According to the route planned by Zhu Liuqing on the map, the two continued to explore. They did not encounter any risks on the way, and also harvested the other three spiritual herbs in the atlas catalog.

Two days later, the two came to the outer hinterland of the Ghost Howling Land.

Looking up, a huge waterfall cascaded down from the opposite mountain, and a clear pool of water rushed out at the foot of the mountain.

"This is it. The water spirit power in the air around this waterfall is extremely rich. There should be a "water flower" near the waterfall marked on the map." Zhu Liuqing said.

"I didn't expect this map to be so accurate. You and I saved a lot of time by following the map all the way." Xu Yang said.

The two walked to the pool under the waterfall.

"Huh? It seems someone has been here before." Zhu Liuqing said, pointing to the shallow footprints left on the wet ground nearby.

"Looking at the clarity of these footprints, it is probably no more than an hour. It is probably other fellow disciples who came here first." Xu Yang said.

"Look, although there are not many footprints, they are a bit messy, and at least two people left them. Maybe they encountered some unexpected incidents and were so flustered that their footprints were so messy." Zhu Liuqing said.

The two carefully checked around the waterfall and found several "water-shining flower" branches that had been picked. The flowers that were useful had long disappeared.

Xu Yang squatted down and observed something carefully.

"Junior sister Zhu, what do you think this is?" Xu Yang reached out and picked up a light blue petal from the ground, saying, "This is clearly a petal that has fallen from the water-bright flower. And the folds on the branches are not neat. From these two points of view, this flower does not seem to be picked by humans, otherwise it would not be so reckless as to let the petals fall."

"There are no traces of spirit beasts left around here, which is a bit weird. Since there are no water-bright flowers here, let's continue on our way as planned." Zhu Liuqing said.

The two left the pool and found a relatively flat road to climb up the ridge. Looking from a high place, a large stone forest can be vaguely seen under the large gray fog on the opposite side of the mountain.

When we arrived in front of the stone forest, we could only see the shape of the stone forest in front of us. The stone forests in front of us were all five or six feet high, and the dark stone bodies seemed to be stained with ink. A faint black wind blew through the stone forest, making bursts of hissing sounds. After the wind, the gray fog around the stone forest seemed to be three points thicker. The strange black wind blew on him, and Xu Yang shuddered. Xu Yang tried to use his spiritual sense to explore, but his spiritual sense could not penetrate the gray fog at all.

"The evil spirit in this stone forest seems to be three times stronger. And the spiritual sense cannot penetrate the gray fog covering the outside. If we continue to move forward, there will be certain risks." Xu Yang said.

"According to the markings on the map, there are several relatively precious wind-attributed spiritual materials in this stone forest. The stone forest is scattered with large and small strange rocks, like a natural maze. If you want to get the spiritual materials inside, there will indeed be great risks. This map only records the road conditions in one corner. You and I only need to pass through a corner of this stone forest to pass according to the planned route. If you don't pass through this stone forest and take a detour, I'm afraid it will take at least one more day, and the time is a bit tight." Zhu Liuqing said.

"In this case, let's go in and see the situation first."

The two entered the stone forest one after the other.

In the stone forest, the gray fog rolled in waves, and the sight and spiritual sense could not see too far. Xu Yang held the pathfinder compass in his left hand, and checked the map from time to time to identify the direction. Zhu Liuqing followed closely behind him.

Xu Yang put the "Peach" on his shoulder. His two black gemstone-like eyes were shining, and his furry little head kept looking around, like a military spy carefully observing every move around, as if the evil spirit here had no effect on him at all.

After turning around a relatively large rock, a natural small square suddenly appeared in front of him. The originally uncertain wind swirled in the square and created a whirlwind for a long time.

"Brother, the wind attribute spiritual power here is very strong. The map shows that there is a dark wind grass on the stone wall outside the square. We might as well take a closer look and maybe we will get something."

"The dark wind grass is indeed a relatively precious spiritual material. The pills made from it are a rare help for practicing wind attribute ghost skills." Xu Yang said.

The two searched carefully along the rock walls around the small square.

Not long after, they found a dark wind grass in a depression in the rock. The plants of the Dark Wind Grass are short and grow almost close to the rock wall. Its long gray-green leaves are shiny and dripping.

After Zhu Liuqing picked the Dark Wind Grass and put it away, the two continued to search carefully and actually picked up seven pieces of Dark Wind Grass. Then they found a long and narrow passage at one end of the small square.

The passage was only about ten feet wide, with dark rock walls on both sides, and it felt extremely cold to the touch. The entire passage was also relatively dark, and the line of sight could only see a distance of about two feet.

Xu Yang was in front, and Zhu Liuqing was behind. After walking along the passage for a distance, a bright light shone into the far end of the passage.

"The exit should be in front. After passing this exit, we will leave this stone forest. If we encounter risks in this passage, I really don't know how to avoid it." Zhu Liuqing breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems that we are lucky."

"Squeak-squeak", at this moment, the originally quiet "Pantao" called out twice anxiously.

"Zhu Junior Sister, be careful, Pan Tao found that there was an abnormal spiritual power fluctuation outside the cave entrance, and it seemed that someone was fighting. Here, the spiritual consciousness cannot be spread too far, and Pan Tao's perception is more sensitive than you and me."

The two stopped, and Zhu Liuqing hurriedly took out the compass to watch. I saw two white dots on the compass flashing non-stop.

"It's two fellow disciples outside this exit. It seems that they are in trouble. Let's go out and see the situation first." Zhu Liuqing said.

The two quickened their pace and just walked a few steps away from the exit. Suddenly, someone shouted: "Don't let this spiritual animal run into this stone forest, otherwise it will be difficult to catch up."

At this time, Xu Yang jumped out of the exit of the stone forest passage.

I saw a black bird flying towards Xu Yang at a low altitude, and the two were almost about to collide with each other.

It happened in a flash. Xu Yang quickly operated the Nether Fire Art, his cheeks bulged, and he opened his mouth to spit out a ball of fire the size of a wooden basin. At the same time, he flipped his right hand, and the "Fine Steel Shield" appeared on his right hand. The magic power was poured into it, and circles of silver ripples appeared on the surface of the "Fine Steel Shield". Xu Yang pushed the fine steel shield in his hand forward.

Xu Yang could have dodged the impact of the black bird by turning sideways. But Zhu Liuqing had not come out of the passage behind him. If the bird flew directly into the narrow passage and collided with Zhu Liuqing, Zhu Liuqing would most likely be injured.

The big fireball that Xu Yang had just spit out hit the head of the bird. The black bird let out a sharp cry, and a blue light flashed at the crest of its head, and a rapidly rotating vortex of water spirit power appeared in front of its head.

There was a loud bang. The blue and red energy balls collided with each other, and the strong light that burst out instantly illuminated the entire space.

Because the distance was too close, the shock wave hit the steel shield in front of Xu Yang violently, making the steel shield buzz.

The vortex of water on the black bird's head disappeared at the same time as the fireball exploded, and its forward momentum also stopped abruptly. The black bird stared at Xu Yang in front of it with its blue eyes, and its two long wings flapped slowly in the air.

When the firelight dissipated, Xu Yang could see the true face of the flying bird. It turned out to be a black-feathered peacock, with a tuft of blue feathers on its head, which was particularly conspicuous.

Zhu Liuqing heard the sound and jumped out of the passage in three or two steps, holding the silver scimitar tightly in his hand.

At this time, two figures on the opposite side flashed out not far behind the black-feathered peacock. They were two young men wearing the clothes of the disciples of the Wood Spirit Academy, with the same appearance and figure.

At this moment, these two people and Xu Yang just blocked the black-feathered peacock in the middle.

Seeing Xu Yang and Zhu Liuqing jumping out of the passage, they stopped the black-feathered peacock. One of them said, "So you two are fellow disciples. I am Bi Yong, a disciple of the third group of the Wood Spirit Academy, and the one next to me is my twin brother Bi Zhi."

"I am Xu Yang, a disciple of the fourth group. The one next to me is my junior sister Zhu Liuqing from the same group as me. Nice to meet you, senior brothers." Xu Yang replied.

Zhu Liuqing didn't say anything, but just nodded politely.

"The two brothers of the Bi family are new disciples who entered the sect two years ago. They are also well-known among the outer disciples. The Bi family is an alchemy family in the Heavenly Ghost Sect, and its strength should not be underestimated." Zhu Liuqing said in a low voice.

"This black wind peacock has been hit by my soul-locking talisman, and it can't fly high for the time being. While the soul-locking talisman is still effective, let's work together to capture this spirit animal first. I don't need to say more about the value of this black wind peacock." Bi Yong said loudly.

Xu Yang looked carefully and saw that there was indeed a silver nail wrapped with a talisman on the back of the peacock, and there were faint circles of silver runes spreading from it.

The Black Wind Peacock is a spiritual bird with both wind and water attributes, and is rarely seen in the outside world. The aqua-blue feather crown on its head is a rare water-attributed spiritual material, the black feathers are wind-attributed spiritual materials, and the peacock gall is an excellent material for refining elixirs. If the Black Wind Peacock is handed over to the sect for breeding, it will receive a generous reward from the sect.