Chapter 302: Nether Valley Abyss
"A ship? Could it be a ship from Carefree Village?"
Qin Mu felt a surge of excitement. The other enormous ship that the village chief and the others had found had already been destroyed, making it impossible to travel to Carefree Village. If this ship was indeed from Carefree Village, could he use it to return to his homeland?
The two white bats led the way ahead. Their temperament was strange; they flew silently and without a trace. If Qin Mu wasn't careful, he would lose sight of them. But the next moment, he would hear a rustling sound, and the two white bats would be hanging upside down from a tree or a cliff face, before silently flapping their wings and flying off again.
The lifeforms in this Nether Valley were incredibly peculiar, and their methods of attack were also bizarre. However, the two white bats were the guardians here, knowing everything about the place. With them leading the way, Qin Mu's journey was without danger or surprise.
Sometimes, the two brothers would even go catch the strange creatures of the Nether Valley, grabbing them to eat.
"Hey, luck really comes when you least expect it! We've actually run into a Moth Turtle!"
Qin Mu saw the two brothers fly over a lake, then dive into the water, dragging out a massive creature. It was a hexagonal insect, its body covered in strange, regular hexagonal patterns. In front, it had two large pincers, looking quite formidable.
However, on the back of this strange insect were attached white pupal cocoons, each as tall as a person. Some of the cocoons had already opened, looking like elongated eggs with a neat lid flipped open.
The Moth Turtle's strength was astonishing. It didn't want to be caught by the two brothers. Its two large pincers snapped and snipped, the air around them cracking with thunderous explosions. Bolts of lightning were squeezed into existence, crackling and spinning around the Moth Turtle, a truly terrifying sight.
The Moth Turtle also sprayed streams of venom. Wherever the venom landed, whether on soil or rock, everything dissolved instantly!
Qin Mu's heart shuddered. The strength of this Moth Turtle was probably not much weaker than Dragon Qilin's. Its venom, especially, was terrifying, capable of dissolving anything!
Dragon Qilin's abilities were already formidable, straddling the line between the Seven Star Realm and the Heavenly Being Realm. But the toxicity of this Moth Turtle was likely something even an expert at the Heavenly Being Realm couldn't withstand. Of course, whether the venom could actually hit a Heavenly Being Realm expert was another question.
The two white bats were even stronger. Fu Yuqiu let out a sonic shockwave from his mouth, directly stunning the Moth Turtle. Then the two brothers jumped onto the Moth Turtle's back, flipped open two of the pupal cocoons, just like opening the hatches of an eggshell.
The two white bats jumped inside, letting out comfortable groans, then waved at Qin Mu and Dragon Qilin. "Come in, hurry up!"
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment, then led Dragon Qilin as they jumped onto the Moth Turtle's back.
Fu Yuchun poked his furry head out of the pupal shell, looking like a newly-furred mouse. His ears twitched as he said, "Quick, find a cocoon to hide in. This Moth Turtle is about to wake up. This guy is a master swimmer, a real tyrant of the water. He can take us from the lake into the river, and we can follow the river all the way to that deep pit! That's where its nest is!"
Qin Mu hesitated. "Can't we just stand on its back?"
Fu Yuqiu said, "This guy is very alert, but he loves his children dearly. If we hide in these cocoons, he won't attack us. If anything else attacks us, he'll take care of it."
Qin Mu looked at Dragon Qilin. "Can you shrink your body?"
Dragon Qilin was enormous, two zhang larger than this Moth Turtle. In his current form, there was no way he could fit into a cocoon.
Dragon Qilin snorted, shook his body, and slowly began to shrink. "You underestimate me, Sect Leader. I was, after all, taught by the Patriarch. I can change my size at will."
He shrank down to the size of a large dog, but then couldn't shrink any further. He stuck out his big belly, continuing to circulate his technique. After holding his breath for a moment, he said awkwardly, "Sect Leader, will this do?"
Qin Mu looked at this ball-shaped creature, picked the largest cocoon, flipped open the lid, and tried to lift him up and stuff him inside.
"It's been a long time since someone held me," Dragon Qilin said, reminiscing about the past.
Qin Mu squeezed his belly tightly, pushing down with all his might. But Dragon Qilin got stuck, unable to be pushed in or pulled out, with half his body still exposed.
Qin Mu was furious. He took the eggshell-like white lid and placed it on Dragon Qilin's head. "Stay in this position and don't move!"
Dragon Qilin, with the pupal shell on his head, didn't dare move an inch. He said pitifully, "Sect Leader, you won't cut my rations, will you? I'm still growing..."
Qin Mu also flipped open a cocoon and jumped inside. The inside felt like egg white. Soaking in it was incredibly comfortable, as if he had taken a miraculous elixir.
He felt some fine energy seeping in through his pores, entering his muscles, blood, meridians, and internal organs, nourishing his body and skin.
Even more, this energy penetrated into his soul, nourishing it!
Qin Mu was amazed. He tried to activate the Tyrant Body Three Dan Art, and immediately felt even more energy coming from the egg-white liquid, causing his primordial spirit to continuously grow stronger.
"This egg white is even better than any miraculous elixir. If I could stay inside and cultivate, my primordial spirit would become exceptionally powerful!"
He looked at the other pupal cocoons. Most of the cocoons on this Moth Turtle were already empty, meaning the Moth Turtles inside had matured and shed their shells. Only two or three immature cocoons remained.
"Good stuff. When we get to our destination, I'll steal these cocoons!"
Just as he had this thought, the giant Moth Turtle woke up, shook its head, and then plunged into the lake.
This lake was a tributary of one of the rivers in the valley. The Moth Turtle submerged, swimming from the tributary into the main channel, going downstream towards the confluence of the two rivers.
The river water was also very strange, filled with all kinds of Netherworld lifeforms: long worms covered in eyes, large fish with nothing but muscle and no scales, strange insects covered in tentacles with circular mouths full of barbs at the tips, and some glowing, soul-like things drifting around.
Qin Mu also saw some lotus flowers floating on the river. Some had withered, revealing lotus seed pods. From the holes in the pods, plump, fair-skinned babies emerged, naked, waving their arms and legs, giggling innocently.
Suddenly, one of the babies opened its mouth, and a tongue, six or seven zhang long, shot out, wrapping around a strange fish in the water. The tongue was hollow, and in an instant, it sucked the strange fish dry, leaving only the fish bones to drift and sink to the bottom.
The baby, now full, waved its arms and legs again, giggling. Then a large bird flew down from the sky, lightly pecked the baby up, and swallowed it whole.
"What kind of monsters are in the Netherworld!" Qin Mu's hair stood on end.
Finally, the Moth Turtle brought them to the deep pit the two white bats had mentioned. It was less a pit and more an abyss. The two rivers converged, and the massive waterfall plunged into this abyss, the roar like continuous thunder.
Just as they were about to follow the Moth Turtle into the abyss, it suddenly surfaced, leaped into the air, and with a *shua* sound, spread two hard wings. Beneath the hard wings were soft wings.
The soft wings vibrated, sharp as blades, buzzing loudly. It actually flew, heading into the abyss.
Qin Mu and the others were thrown around inside the pupal cocoons, which were stuck to the hard wings. When the Moth Turtle flew, its hard wings remained completely still, only the soft wings flapping continuously.
From inside the cocoon, Qin Mu looked around. Huge mushrooms hung on the walls of the abyss, spraying out spores. These spores actually glowed, drifting through the air like dandelion seeds.
From the rushing waterfall, strange fish and insects leaped out to eat the glowing spores. But as soon as they swallowed them, their bodies swelled up in mid-air and exploded with a *bang*, large mushrooms growing out from inside them.
These mushrooms were very strange. They burst out from the lower half of the fish and insects, but the upper half remained intact. And the fish and insects were still alive, though having a mushroom for a lower body looked rather bizarre.
The mushrooms grew long, fibrous roots, waving in the air and flying around. Some landed on the cliff walls and immediately took root. The fish and insects growing on the mushrooms would then help the mushrooms catch prey, forming a strange symbiotic relationship.
The Moth Turtle kept flying downwards. With these strange mushrooms providing light, the abyss wasn't completely dark.
They flew down for who knows how long before finally reaching the bottom of the abyss. The bottom was hot and humid, filled with glowing crystal pillars. Each pillar was crystal clear, their light enchanting, illuminating the underground.
The Moth Turtle flew to its nest, built on top of a large cluster of crystal pillars, and landed. As soon as it landed, Fu Yuqiu stunned it again with his demonic sound.
Qin Mu had just finished absorbing the energy from his cocoon. He jumped out, looking energetic, and immediately went to pull up the other three cocoons, storing them in his Gluttony Bag.
"Sect Leader, I can't get out!" Dragon Qilin looked over pitifully.
Qin Mu went over, grabbed him by both ears, and pulled with all his might. After exhausting all his strength, he finally managed to pull him out. Annoyed, he said, "If you get any fatter, you'll be eating dirt from now on!"
Dragon Qilin muttered quietly, "I've just gotten a bit more robust, not fat."
The two white bats flew up silently. "That ship fell from the heavens, smashing this deep pit. It slid a long way at the bottom, even breaking the seal on the Netherworld's barrier."
"The ship is just ahead, not far from here. But many Netherworld creatures have gathered there. If we follow the underground river, we can reach it."
Qin Mu followed the two white bats. Before they had gone far, he saw several corpses washed up on the riverbank. They were the bodies of experts from the Loulan Golden Palace, looking like they had died not long ago.
With the two white bats leading the way, he hadn't encountered any danger. But trying to cross the Nether Valley to get here would have been extremely perilous.
Those who managed to survive the journey and reach this point were basically all experts, at least at the Seven Star Realm. Unfortunately, they still lost their lives before even seeing the ship.
After walking a bit further, Qin Mu saw a few skeletons. From the relics on the skeletons, they should be disciples of the Celestial Demon Sect.
Qin Mu sighed softly. Just as he was about to pick up some stones to bury the skeletons, these "stones" suddenly took off running, splashing into the water with a *plop* and disappearing.
As they walked, they suddenly heard the faint sound of Buddhist chanting ahead, echoing through this underground space.
After a while, they arrived at the source of the chanting. They saw two old monks in yellow robes sitting cross-legged on the stone wall. Two niches had been carved into the wall, and the two old monks sat there, their long eyebrows hanging down outside the niches. Buddhist sounds continuously emanated from their bodies, and their Buddhist light flickered on and off, resisting the rolling waves of demonic energy.
"Monks from the Great Thunderclap Temple!" Qin Mu said in surprise.
"Are they dead?"
The two white bat brothers were also surprised. Fu Yuqiu said, "These two bald donkeys came here. They were extremely skilled. They said they were ordered by the Tathagata to help us suppress the disturbances in the Netherworld, to prevent the Netherworld creatures from escaping and harming all beings. We weren't too happy about it, but we couldn't beat them, so we had to let them stay here. They've been sitting here for over ten years, helping us a lot. A few times when the seal was about to break, they helped hold it down. I didn't think they would exhaust themselves to death..."
Fu Yuchun sighed, "We used to think they would be delicious, but now we don't want to eat them at all... Ahead is the ship that fell from the heavens."
Qin Mu looked up, his body trembling slightly.
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Catching a noon flight back to the country
Zhaizhu is catching a noon flight back to the country, arriving in Shanghai at 7 PM. Currently, Zhaizhu is in the hotel smoking room, writing in the lobby after a cigarette. The room has already been checked out, so he can only go to the lobby. If he can make it in time, he will update a chapter around noon.
The evening chapter probably won't make it in time.