Chapter 1671: Crossing The Night Valley

Brute force was absolutely not the way to do this.

Luckily, neither Ye Qing nor Feng Qingyou were stupid people. Naturally, they wouldn’t pick such a solution.

They had a superior answer to this conundrum.

After Feng Qingyou and the ancient corpse exited the paper horse carriage, Ye Qing put it away. Then, they all began moving toward the Night Valley.

Feng Qingyou had already refined the ancient corpse. She was now her puppet.

The closer they got to the Night Mountains and the Night Valley, the darker their surroundings became. Even people with powerful night vision like Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou found their field of view becoming narrower and narrower over time.

The good news was that their spiritual perception was unhindered. They could continue forward as normal.

At the same time, more and more bugs were appearing in the surroundings.

The bugs were lying on the ground, the rocks, the flowers, the trees, and the grass. They were either eating the air or the soil. They did not react to the humans’ approach whatsoever. It wasn’t that they didn’t notice them, they just didn’t care about them. They displayed neither fear nor hostile behavior.

These bugs were the Light Eaters.

Ye Qing produced a bottle and poured out some powder. Then, he scattered them on Feng Qingyou, the Water Demon Ape, and himself.

The next moment, the Light Eaters started crawling away from them as if sensing something disgusting or scary. They moved far, far away from them.

“Let’s go.”

Ye Qing put away the porcelain bottle and continued forward. Wherever they went, the Light Eaters gave them a wide berth and opened up a path for them.

The Light Eaters weren’t afraid of them, of course. They were disgusted by the powder they covered themselves with.

All things in the world promoted or restrained one another. The powder they covered themselves with was the bane of the Light Eaters.

The powder was created by drying a kind of grass called the Insect Repelling Grass and grounding them into powder, and the Insect Repelling Grass was a special grass that only grew in hot, humid places. Hot, humid places often attracted all kinds of bugs and insects. The Insect Repelling Grass emitted a special scent that was scentless to humans, but absolutely loathsome to all bugs and insects. It repelled any and all insects. That was how the grass earned its name.

People living in these regions often used the Insect Repelling Grass to create insect repelling items. They were extremely effective and very much adored by the locals.

However, the Insect Repelling Grass only worked against ordinary insects. It was useless against Strangers.

The Light Eater was an exception, however. The Light Eater lived in frigid lands and was a Phenomenon-class Stranger. The Insect Repelling Grass grew in hot, humid regions and was a perfectly ordinary plant. The difference between them was as wide as heaven and earth. And yet, for whatever reason, the Insect Repelling Grass was exceptionally effective against the Light Eaters, more so than even ordinary insects.

Why did this happen? No one knows. The fact that it worked was good enough for everyone including Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou.

From the beginning, the duo had prepared a massive amount of Insect Repelling Grass powder. It was their measure against the Light Eaters.

In other words, the terrifying swarm was really the easiest problem to solve out of all the problems they might encounter in the Night Mountains and the Night Valley.

The closer to the Night Mountains, the more Light Eaters they ran into. Wherever they looked and felt, there were Light Eaters everywhere. It was a disturbing image to say the least.

The Light Eaters moved swiftly away from them when they got closer. It looked like a surging tide or a billowing sea. It was both impressive and intimidating.

Even Ye Qing could not help but feel goosebumps on his skin.

It was too bad that the dragon-serpent runes were no longer of any use to him. Otherwise, this would be the perfect location to grind them.

As scary as they looked, they encountered no danger thanks to the Insect Repelling Grass. They quickly entered the Night Valley.

After they entered the Night Valley, they saw pits everywhere on the ground. There were holes and passages on the walls and cliffs as well.

They were clearly the work of the Light Eaters.

At the beginning, the path was fairly wide and flat. The group could clearly identify the path they needed to go to reach the other side of the valley.

However, the path gradually became winding and twisting. It was becoming one with the holes and passages gnawed by the Light Eaters as well. At some point, the path was crisscrossed like a child’s doodle and leading in all directions. It was almost impossible to distinguish the correct path with the naked eye.

It was at this moment they used a special plant called the Sky Looking Flower.

The Sky Looking Flower was a strange cactus flower with transparent stems and colorful petals. It only bloomed in an unclouded, unsheltered sky. As its stems were transparent, it looked like the flower was floating in the sky. The flower was also pointed straight up as if it was looking at the sky. Hence the name.

If the space directly above the Sky Looking Flower was blocked by something such as a roof, then the flower would droop immediately. If this continued for too long, then it would die.

They easily found the right path by exploiting the Sky Looking Flower’s unique trait. It was because the correct way to pass through the Night Valley was right through the center of the two mountains, and there was nothing above the path. One could look at the sky directly.

The sky was pitch black not because it was blocked from view, but because the Light Eaters were consuming all the light. On the other hand, the passages gnawed out by the Light Eaters all had ceilings and so did not have a direct line of view toward the sky.

This meant that, if the Sky Looking Flower was looking straight up, then they were traveling down the right path. Otherwise, they had gone down the wrong way.

That’s right, an ordinary plant had easily solved the problem that would have stumped most Sages. It was quite amazing.

The Night Valley’s biggest threats were the Light Eaters and the maze of dead ends and misleading paths. But with the Insect Repelling Grass powder and the Sky Looking Flower, neither were able to present a problem to them. Over four hours later, they finally passed through the Night Valley without trouble.

“Phew... we’re finally out of that god forsaken place.”

Ye Qing let out a long sigh of relief after shooting a glance at the Night Valley behind his back. Although it wasn’t dangerous, four hours of crawling bugs was enough to make anyone nauseous.

“It’s too soon to be delighted.”

It was at this moment Feng Qingyou poured a bucket of ice water over his head[1]. “Don’t forget that we need to pass through here when we head back!”

“Ugh...” Ye Qing groaned.

The sky slowly regained its brightness after they left the vicinity of the Night Mountains and Night Valley. They were greeted by the sight of an endless rocky desert. There were no signs of life anywhere, only fist-sized cobblestones all over the place. They glowed welcomingly under the warm sunlight.

The desert did not have a name. All they needed to do was to pass through it to reach Bei Yuan.

There was only one problem though. They needed to travel for nine days and nights to reach Bei Yuan. Literally.

That’s right. To reach Bei Yuan, one must trek across this rocky desert for exactly nine days and nights. It did not matter which direction you were traveling or how fast you were moving. You simply must travel for nine days and nights to be able to exit the rocky desert and reach Bei Yuan.

No one knew why this was the case. It was just the way it was since forever.

Ye Qing did not try to solve the mystery behind this. This was a mystery that had confounded countless people far smarter and erudite than him for thousands and thousands of years. He did not think he possessed the skills to solve this mystery, so he didn’t bother. He simply followed the script that he was given.

1. In English, it means giving someone a wake-up call. ☜