Fourteen members of the Baiye Sanmeng Alliance, also dispersed and joined temporary teams of two people each.
The white-clad youth Tuo Zhe walked into the team where Yuan Ming was, showing a meaningful smile towards him. Vice Alliance Leader Huan Shi happened to be in their team as well.
Afterwards, the seven teams set off and entered the Ghost Cry Gorge.
The narrow Ghost Cry Gorge was hundreds of zhang long. The outermost section was normal, but as they walked halfway, white mist began to fill the gorge, becoming denser the further they went.
“Don’t be nervous, we have already investigated this area. It’s just ordinary mist. The color of the poison mist is yellow. You will see it when we enter the Snake King Valley.” Huan Shi timely reassured, dispelling everyone’s doubts.
The members of each team began to whisper and communicate in low voices.
“Please introduce yourselves, so we can address each other inside. I am Tuo Zhe from the Baiye Sanmeng Alliance.” Yuan Ming, in the six-person team, took the initiative to speak.
“Ha Gong.” Yuan Ming responded first.
“I am Mang Tun.” The burly man with an iron tower-like voice said.
“I am Bai Rong.” The woman in black veil said softly, her voice pleasant to the ears.
The young man in a black short-sleeved shirt spoke last, his voice hoarse like that of a seventy-year-old.
“Kun Sha.” He succinctly uttered two words.
That’s how they got to know each other.
The distance of a hundred zhang was not far, and they quickly reached the end of the gorge.
Yuan Ming looked into the distance and saw not a narrow and cramped valley, but a vast ancient forest.
The trees in the forest were towering, each reaching a hundred zhang in height. What was peculiar was that their crowns were extremely high, almost concentrated at the top of the trees. From a distance, they looked like towering umbrellas.
Within a range of tens of zhang below the trees, there was a dense white mist.
The mist near the gorge was still white, but as they went further in, it became a thick and unbreakable milky white.
Before Huan Shi could speak, Yuan Ming had already rushed into the dense fog.
The pervasive mist instantly concealed his figure.
“Come back, don’t act on your own.” Huan Shi immediately shouted upon seeing this.
Tuo Zhe’s expression also changed, obviously not expecting Yuan Ming to be so reckless, and couldn’t help but curse silently, “Idiot.”
The members of the other teams from the Baiye Sanmeng Alliance frowned, while the temporary members looked on with a mocking attitude, as if watching a show.
Fortunately, after Huan Shi spoke, Yuan Ming quickly returned.
“What’s wrong with you all? Aren’t you going in?” He looked surprised, as if he didn’t know he had made a mistake.
“The poison mist is dangerous, don’t act on your own.” Huan Shi felt embarrassed by the gazes of the members of the other teams, but still suppressed his anger and reminded them.
“Didn’t you say that the white mist is not poisonous?” Yuan Ming blinked his eyes in confusion.
“Just because it’s not poisonous doesn’t mean you can run around recklessly. If you continue to act like this, if you fall into danger, no one will save you.” Huan Shi frowned and reminded.
Without further ado, Yuan Ming immediately returned to the team.
His gaze subconsciously glanced upwards, only to see a black crow circling silently and flying into the dense fog at the upper end of the mist.
His seemingly reckless action just now was to release the Soul Crow silently and assist in exploring the path. The mist was a natural barrier, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do it without attracting anyone’s attention.
With his current cultivation and soul power, maintaining a Soul Crow for a long time was not difficult.
After this little incident, Huan Shi began to assign exploration areas to each team in order.
Different teams were responsible for exploring and searching in different directions within a fan-shaped area.
The team Yuan Ming was in did not rush to explore the valley, but first followed the boundary between the white mist and the yellow poison mist, heading towards the left side of the valley. After finding the left side of the valley wall, they would then explore inwards, using the left side of the valley as the boundary and expanding their search towards the direction of the adjacent team.
“All teams, maintain a distance of a hundred zhang and set off.” Huan Shi gave the order.
All the teams began to move one after another, heading towards their respective assigned areas.
The team Yuan Ming was in did not rush to explore the valley, but first followed the boundary between the white mist and the yellow poison mist, heading towards the left side of the valley. After finding the left side of the valley wall, they would then explore inwards, using the left side of the valley as the boundary and expanding their search towards the direction of the adjacent team.
“Everyone, spread out and search on your own. If there is any danger, don’t forget to shout loudly and remind each other, support each other.” Huan Shi spoke up.
After everyone responded, they moved away from each other and walked towards the depths of the valley.
In order to easily distinguish their positions, Yuan Ming voluntarily chose the side closer to the valley cliff.
He carefully infused his mana into the Antidote Bead.
In the next moment, the Antidote Bead emitted a circle of glass-like light, spreading outwards.
Under the reflection of the glass-like light, the surrounding mist still pervaded, but the sticky and dense feeling seemed to have eased a bit.
Upon entering the mist, there was no abnormality, only obstructed vision.
Although they were cultivators, they still couldn’t see through the mist.
Yuan Ming’s eyesight was slightly stronger than others, but he could only see things within ten zhang, and beyond that, he couldn’t see anything clearly. His spiritual sense range was even smaller than his eyesight, so he didn’t bother using it since he had the Soul Crow exploring the surroundings.Upon hearing his reminder, everyone became fully alert.
The black-clothed youth, Kun Sha, unfastened a black porcelain bottle from his waist and removed the stopper.
From the mouth of the bottle, a peanut-sized, bright red ant slowly crawled out, dropped to the ground, and crawled into the poisonous fog.
Yuan Ming looked up at the sky. A black crow spread its wings and glided, entering the poisonous fog ahead of him.
The fog inside was even denser, obstructing the view more than before.
However, the crow was not attacked, so Yuan Ming followed it in.
As soon as he entered the yellow fog, he felt a slight prickling pain on his exposed skin. After a few steps, a burning sensation arose in his nostrils.
Yuan Ming checked his condition, and only after confirming that it was a mild reaction, not poisoning, did he breathe a sigh of relief.
In the hazy fog, he could faintly hear the others’ muffled coughs, suggesting that their throats were also uncomfortable.
Just then, an image from the crow’s perspective suddenly appeared in Yuan Ming’s mind. A mass of small black dots in the dense fog was pressing towards them.
At the same time, Kun Sha’s shout came from afar:
“Poisonous creatures are coming.”
Not long after his words fell, a flurry of wing flapping sounds came from the fog. Then, a large swarm of black dots broke through the poisonous fog, numbering in the thousands, and rushed towards them.
Yuan Ming took a closer look and found that they were a swarm of walnut-sized poisonous bees. Their bodies were covered in black and yellow fur, and they had sharp poisonous stingers at their tails.
“Tiger-tail bees, highly poisonous,” Yuan Ming recognized them at a glance.
The books said that these poisonous bees could be found in many places in the southern border, but their size was much larger than described, much larger indeed.
Yuan Ming’s eyes narrowed, and he drew out his Cold Star Sword. Without using any magic power, he relied solely on the cold aura emitted by the sword itself to slash at the flying poisonous bees around him.
Wherever the sword aura passed, even the bees that were not killed but got too close were eroded by the cold and fell stiffly.
They were crushed by Yuan Ming’s foot, bursting with a “pop”.
In the fog, everyone else also took action.
Huan Shi raised his palm and waved it forward. A red light shone from his palm, and a large flame surged out, instantly engulfing half of the bees rushing towards him.
Bai Rong wore a pair of black gloves, seemingly made of metal. They emitted a faint black mist. Every time she swung her hand, a wisp of smoke enveloped the bees.
In no time, the tiger-tail bees stopped flying and fell to the ground.
Kun Sha opened another red porcelain bottle, and a swarm of white poisonous insects flew out, fighting the tiger-tail bees with poison against poison, causing casualties on both sides.
Under his feet, the red ant was eating frantically, continuously devouring the bodies of the fallen tiger-tail bees.
The burly man was more direct. He held a wolf-tooth club in his hand, swinging it with great force, continuously striking the attacking bees.
In the “bang bang” explosion sounds, the tiger-tail bees burst open, splattering blood mist.
These creatures, which couldn’t even be considered as low-level beasts, only slightly hindered their progress and didn’t pose much danger to them.
After a bit of effort, everyone managed to eliminate all the attacking bees.
Compared to them, the other teams had similar experiences, but there were also some unlucky ones.
One team had been safe and sound during their journey, not attacked by any poisonous insects or beasts.
At first, they thought they were just lucky. But as they continued, they noticed something was wrong when their necks inexplicably swelled up.
By the time they noticed the anomaly, it was too late.
Out of the six people in the team, besides the two official members and one temporary member of the White Night League, the rest of the temporary members mistakenly thought they were poisoned and tried to force out the toxins in their necks with magic power.
In reality, they had mistakenly entered a breeding area of grey haze poisonous mushrooms and were parasitized by the mushroom spores.
When they tried to force out the toxins with magic power, they were actually feeding the spores parasitizing their necks, accelerating their growth until they matured and burst, severing their necks.
Another team stumbled into an area where poisonous vines grew.
Those green vines full of poisonous thorns were extremely sensitive to living creatures. The moment they entered, the vines attacked like sentient demon vines.
The overwhelming demon vines surged forward, instantly strangling two temporary members.
The others, after recovering from their initial panic, immediately fought back and finally managed to escape.
(End of Chapter)