Chapter 1673: Entering Bei Yuan, Seeing Sights

“I...”

Qiwa was befuddled.

Before it could reply, Ye Qing added, “Besides, who knows if you lied to us or not? You could have pointed us to a random location, and we wouldn’t know any better, would we?”

Qiwa forced himself to be brave. “I didn’t lie! This is the place!”

Ye Qing shrugged. “How can you prove that?”

Qiwa was so anxious that it was scratching its ear and cheek furiously. “I... I swear this is the place!”

Ye Qing let out a chuckle. “If oaths actually work, then there would be no need for the law, am I wrong?”

Qiwa: “...” A gigantic question mark popped out of its tiny head. There was nothing it could say to that.

Ye Qing looked at the befuddled Qiwa in satisfaction. “Nothing else to say? In that case, let’s go.”

Qiwa shook its head fearfully. “No! There are Fiend Demons down there. They will kill me. I’m not going!”

Ye Qing’s eyes turned cold. “If you don’t come with us, then I will kill you right now.”

Qiwa immediately felt chilled to the core. It hurriedly hid behind Feng Qingyou while shivering like a leaf.

“Don’t frighten Qiwa when you can talk to it nicely.”

Feng Qingyou reprimanded Ye Qing while patting Qiwa’s head. Just when Qiwa was sighing in relief, she added, “You can kill Qiwa if it still doesn’t listen after you talk to it nicely. It needed to pay for the humans it ate anyway.”

“It shouldn’t be an easy death though. Actually, forget it, let’s just surrender it to Snowa. I’m sure they’ll mete out an appropriate punishment.”

A chill shot up from Qiwa’s feet all the way to its scalp. It nearly fainted there and then. Just what was wrong with these humans? Feng Qingyou turned out to be scarier than Ye Qing, the one threatening to kill it! Just why was the world such a cruel place?

“You have two choices. One, you take us down and lead us to the item we seek.”

Ye Qing reached out and grabbed Qiwa’s wrist, pulling it out from behind Feng Qingyou. His voice was gentle, but his words could only be described as murderous. “Two, I kill you right here and now.”

What other choice did Qiwa have? It could only nod and submit to Ye Qing’s threats!

“Good boy!”

Ye Qing gave it a head scratch. “Relax. The Fiend Demons can’t do anything to you while we’re around. And if we’re lucky, we might find what we seek before we even run into the Fiend Demons, right?”

Qiwa nodded silently and stared at Ye Qing for a moment. Then, it said seriously, “You promise. Also, you better let me go when we find the item. You can’t go back on your promise, okay?”

Ye Qing nodded. “Don’t worry. I swear it’s not a trick this time.”

Qiwa was speechless when he heard this. So you did trick me earlier!

“Let’s go.”

After successfully “persuading” Qiwa, Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou led the Water Demon Ape and the ancient corpse into Bei Yuan.

The reason Ye Qing insisted on bringing Qiwa wasn’t because the Stranger was lying to him. On the contrary, he could tell from the Stranger’s emotions that it definitely hadn’t lied to him. This was definitely the location where the phenomenon had appeared.

It was because Qiwa was a Water Demon Ape. A Water Demon Ape was a powerful Stranger even in a place like Bei Yuan, so much so that one could view them as the local bosses. He was sure that Qiwa was more familiar with Bei Yuan than them. Considering that anything could happen in the depths of Bei Yuan, and its dangers were such that even Sages like them could be killed if they weren’t careful, they desperately needed an experienced guide like Qiwa. Its mere presence would help them in avoiding countless dangers and threats.

In fact, Qiwa was the one who discovered the Celestial Becoming Fog first earlier.

This was the true reason he insisted on bringing Qiwa with them.

As soon as they jumped into Bei Yuan, an obscene amount of filth and fiendish qi assaulted their body and mind.

Although they could already feel Bei Yuan’s filth and fiendish aura when they were outside, it wasn’t until they stepped into Bei Yuan that they realized just how thick and terrible it was.

Anyone below Trueman or Grandmaster-stage would most likely succumb to the corruption and turn into a monster or a madman in less than an hour.

A Trueman or Grandmaster wouldn’t be able to last much longer either.

A Sage’s body was flawless, and their mind perfect. So, the corruption could not touch a Sage. However, quantity was a quality of its own. The filth and fiendish aura in this place was incredibly thick, and it only got worse the deeper they traveled. It wasn’t a concern for the time being, but assuming that their search took longer than expected, then just being in this environment would deplete much of their true qi and spirit.

However, Bei Yuan was a dangerous place. One must preserve their strength as much as possible so as to deal with any potential danger.

Luckily, they were prepared for this. Prior to jumping into Bei Yuan, they had stuck a Bodhi-seed inside their mouths.

A so-called Bodhi-seed was a fruit of the Bodhi tree, and the Bodhi tree was the sacred tree of Buddhism. Legend said that the Buddha had attained his Way under a Bodhi tree. Because of this, the Bodhi tree became affected by his power and gained a mysterious power of its own. As long as a Bodhi tree was growing in a Buddhist temple or other places where Buddhism was strong, it would gain boundless wisdom. It could aid someone in focusing their mind, calming their heart, repel the evil, cleanse the filth, and become immune to all things fiendish. This was why the Bodhi tree was also praised as the Tree of Wisdom, Tree of Profound Arts, Tree of Repelling Evil and more.

It took three hundred years for the Bodhi tree to flower, and another three hundred years to fruit. The fruit it bore was called the Bodhi-seed. It too possessed the same power as the Bodhi tree, capable of focusing one’s mind, calming one’s heart, repel the evil, cleanse the filth, and become immune to all things fiendish.

They had bought the two Bodhi-seeds on the Celestial Market On A Cloud specifically to deal with the dark qi of Bei Yuan.

Qiwa and the corpse didn’t need it because one was a Stranger who was born and raised in Bei Yuan, while the other was a corpse.

It wasn’t long before they were a full kilometer below the surface.

Surprisingly, Bei yuan was not as dark and lightless as it seemed from the outside. It was filled with colors and mysterious lights.

The lights came from all sorts of sources. Some were emitted by the rocks embedded in one side of a cliff. Some were emitted by unknown shrubs and mosses growing out of the walls. And some were emitted by mayflies floating in the air.

In any case, the lights mixed together and painted the dark and tainted depths of Bei Yuan in various colors. It lessened the gloomy, stifling sensation and added some much needed life and color to the place.

That said, just because they were beautiful did not mean they were safe. On the contrary, they were exceptionally dangerous.

If someone were to touch the glowing rocks thinking that it was a valuable resource or something, their arm would melt into bones in just a short time.

If someone dared to get close to the glowing shrubs and moss, they would find themselves dragged in and consumed whole. They would not leave even a bone behind.

If someone accidentally inhaled the mayflies floating in the air, their insides would be messed up in no time at all.

In conclusion, nothing was safe in Bei Yuan. The prettier something was, the more dangerous it was.

“Watch out for those colorful moths! If they bite you, you will be poisoned. It hurts a lot.”

The colorful moths were as big as a human palm. Their wings were transparent and luminescent, and they were covered in red, yellow, blue, white and purple patterns. The colors were bright and vibrant, and they blended together to form a beautiful and mysterious pattern. The moths looked extraordinarily pretty thanks to them.