Chapter 237: Lurking in the Sea of Flowers (3.5k)
Under the moonlight.
“Those Gugu Birds rushed down, but they disappeared. Should this seaweed be roughly the same as the one outside?”
Placing one foot gently on a bluestone on the bank beside her, Su Jiu scanned her surroundings. Frowning slightly, she then bent over and picked up a patch of green from the bluestone. She rubbed it lightly through her external qi, only to find her hands covered in small green particles.
While she was thinking, Xiao Qiqi’s voice came from not far away, as if she had made a discovery.
“Indeed, the seaweed outside is no different from this one; it’s the same species. There are indeed special alchemy arrays here to maintain the purity of the environment and to replenish energy regularly. Wait, there’s surveillance here!”
Hearing this, Su Jiu was slightly stunned. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Xiao Qiqi squatting beside a black stone slab about three feet wide, fiddling with it. Her expression gradually became solemn.
The black stone slab had peculiar patterns, and the electric arcs from Xiao Qiqi’s fingertips lightly tapped the slab rhythmically.
The electric arcs followed the patterns on the slab, but they stopped at certain nodes.
A black gecko crawled out of her wrist. With a faint white light, the gecko transformed into a black spike. Under Su Jiu’s gaze, Xiao Qiqi suddenly grabbed it and then stabbed it forcefully, carving patterns onto the black stone slab.
“Senior Xiao, you are…”
Coming up behind her and seeing her solemn expression, Su Jiu looked at her with some confusion, but also, at her signal, did not disturb her.
A few more minutes passed, and a “ding” sound rang out. The black stone slab emitted a blue light, and then something seemed to be missing from the algae pond. In the moonlight, the algae became even more translucent.
“I’ve modified the thermal monitoring inside; now, if you go down there, it will appear to the monitoring source as a slightly larger Gugu Bird entering.”
Putting the spike back into her pocket, Xiao Qiqi exhaled a breath of relief, turned her head, and said softly to Su Jiu with a slight smile.
“I don’t know whose beast pet this is. If its owner reacts, will it be dangerous to go down there so rashly?”
Blinking her eyes, Su Jiu nodded slightly, transformed the giant scythe back into a butterfly necklace, and looked at the enormous black pseudo-dragon corpse. Frowning slightly, she said with some concern.
Seeing Su Jiu’s worry, Xiao Qiqi calmly took out a silvery-white monocular from her pocket. She lightly flicked the leg of the glasses with her finger, revealing a white alchemy chip. She inserted the chip from the glasses into a specialized notebook she carried in her backpack and said softly,
“Most likely not. Its owner shouldn’t be here; otherwise, they would have appeared already. Junior schoolmate, you go in first, and I’ll hide in a corner outside and tell you if anyone comes. Let’s see if we can locate Fuyin Zhi using the position of that Gugu Bird.”
“Wear these glasses. Their specific functions are positioning and thermal display, similar to what’s in Detective Conan, you know?”
After saying that, she handed the glasses to Su Jiu and began fiddling with her laptop, repeatedly typing code, apparently to connect with the glasses.
“Okay!”
Taking the silvery-white monocular frame from Xiao Qiqi, Su Jiu looked at the girl with the messy hair in front of her with some surprise. She couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly about how there was always someone better.
Although this senior sister’s combat power wasn’t great, her support skills were truly top-notch. She could bring out and overcome things like these ordinary people wouldn’t prepare, and alchemy arrays.
Putting on the glasses, Su Jiu found that a plane-like map appeared in her eyes. Based on her previous knowledge, those two Gugu Birds actually appeared several kilometers away from here.
This was highly unreasonable.
There was only one possibility: the bottom of this pond must be extraordinary. As for what it looked like specifically, she would only know after going down.
“Then I’ll go down first (six) zero two two 衤 sān sǐ ba (four) qún liáo xià qù ba.”
Glancing at the black-robed shadow beside the black dragon, Su Jiu’s eyes narrowed. She stepped forward and pulled off the robe, looking at the mummified corpse under the robe.
To avoid accidents, she suppressed her disgust and put on the robe, covering herself entirely with the hood.
As a vampire, the moment Su Jiu pulled up the hood, the cold feeling intensified, making her temperament quite similar to that shadow.
“Don’t rush. Your goal is to destroy Fuyin Zhi, because Ruomeng Root is its parasitic plant. As long as Fuyin Zhi is destroyed, these Ruomeng Roots will die on their own.”
Xiao Qiqi stood up again, took a ping-pong ball-sized metal sphere from her backpack, and threw it to Su Jiu, saying very seriously,
“This is a mica bomb, worth over ten million. As long as you inject external qi into it, it can be activated. Its power is comparable to a demigod’s attack. This was left to me by my grandpa for self-defense. Take it. If you have a chance, just blow up that Fuyin Zhi.”
Su Jiu quickly caught the metal sphere with both hands, was slightly taken aback, then put it into the storage bag at her waist. She nodded and slowly walked to the algae pond, gently pulling down the brim of her hood, and smiling lightly, said, “Here I go.”
“Fuyin Zhi is originally used for breaking through to the third level of extraordinary attributes with spiritual bloodlines. Be vigilant when you approach it, and do not touch it directly. If you are affected, Fuyin Ruomeng is not a joke. You will very likely also become a chery.”
Staring quietly at Su Jiu’s stern little face under the black robe, Xiao Qiqi said softly.
She knew that going to the bottom of the green pond required immense courage. Su Jiu going there would be a near-certain death, even with this mica bomb, it was still similar.
“I won’t…”
Hearing what the other party said, Su Jiu was first stunned, then silent for a few breaths, and then laughed with great洒脱.
“Pfft!”
She then leaped directly into it. Before her eyes was a mass of green algae, and beneath the green algae was crystal clear water.
The water seemed exceptionally pure, and through the water, one could see traces of shimmering golden spores floating within the algae. Perhaps because of the spores, there were no fish or shrimp.
“Is this water? But with the Gugu Birds’ level, without the protection of an external qi shield, they wouldn’t be able to swim this far. Let’s swim towards the marker.”
Following the marker on her glasses, Su Jiu swam between the algae and the water. After swimming to the left for about ten seconds, she saw a white shadow flash among the algae masses, with a piece of green in its mouth.
“Is this a Gugu Bird?”
She was slightly startled and quickly kicked lightly in that direction, turning into a black shadow and rushing over, blocking the white shadow in a corner and grabbing it.
It was a relatively small Gugu Bird, with a grass-like object in its mouth.
“Gugu!!”
“Stop cawing, or I’ll make pigeon soup with you!”
Amidst the Gugu Bird’s frantic struggle, Su Jiu fiercely pulled off the grass-like object and then released the Gugu Bird.
Examining the grass-like object in her hand, it was about the size of an earthworm, strangely emerald green in shape, with glittering specks on it, seemingly traces of spores.
Then, Su Jiu’s gaze slightly condensed. She gently tapped her glasses and looked at the photos of Fuyin Zhi and Ruomeng Root displayed on them. After confirming again, she murmured to herself:
“This thing seems to be a false root of that Ruomeng Root. This thing is a potent neurotoxin for humans. This Gugu Bird is carrying it without any issue—there must be something wrong.”
Thinking this, she looked around, only to find that she had reached the edge and could not go any further. She reached out and felt along the rock wall, trying to find some kind of switch.
After trying for a long time without success, she looked at the bottomless pool beneath her, with some doubt in her heart: “Could it be downwards? That shouldn’t be right?”
“Miss, the Gugu Bird is back,” Bernice’s voice came from the necklace around Su Jiu’s neck, gently interrupting her thoughts.
Su Jiu followed Bernice’s words and looked up towards the direction above her head.
With a “whoosh,” the Gugu Bird actually turned back, heading directly towards her. “Gugu!” It glared at Su Jiu, then suddenly darted into the algae above her head and then disappeared without a trace.
“Not around, nor below, but above!?”
Su Jiu immediately understood. She stopped exploring the surroundings and instead pushed off with both feet, rushing upwards. A point of light suddenly appeared in front of her. After a moment, she rushed out, enveloped in external qi.
With a “plop,” Su Jiu directly pierced through the surface of the algae.
Faint moonlight sprinkled down from the sky. As Su Jiu glanced around at the scene, she was slightly stunned, her face showing a surprised expression.
At this moment, Su Jiu was clearly in a mountain valley depression. Steep cliffs extended upwards to the end of her line of sight. Amidst the three sheer cliffs, there was a small wooden house on the side.
And in the center, there was a remarkably vast sea of flowers, with small blue flowers completely surrounding a gigantic blue flower bud. A blue-haired woman sat on that flower bud.
At this time, countless Gugu Birds were fluttering above the sea of flowers, and surprisingly, there were over a dozen people dressed in black robes like Su Jiu. They carried baskets and were continuously scattering those dark little roots—exactly the things the Gugu Birds had been carrying earlier.
“This giant blue flower doesn’t look like Fuyin Zhi either, but more like Ruomeng Root. Who is this woman? If I were to set it off right now…”
Su Jiu’s gaze fell on the blue-haired woman. The hem of her skirt was so lifelike it resembled petals. When she saw the woman’s face clearly, she was suddenly shocked—this face…
Is it the Silly Duke? Yun Xi, how is that possible?!
Following that, the blue-haired woman lightly licked her lips, her delicate eyebrows slightly narrowed, possessing a captivating charm.
Su Jiu lightly tapped the ground beside her, looking at that face, she was instantly stunned—the tear mole on her face was also exactly the same. However, she was sure that this person was definitely not the Silly Duke.
One was cold and elegant, while the other was merely seductive. Their temperaments were completely incomparable.
“We are in a cooperative relationship! Stop making fun of my subordinates. If the mission cannot be completed, your young lady will not be able to advance to War God Level, and I will be punished by the Sect Leader.” A hoarse, angry shout echoed through the plain of flowers.
Following the reprimand, a black figure slowly walked towards the woman. He was wearing a black priest’s robe, with a feline-like demon on his shoulder.
“Priest Lin Xiao, don’t be in such a hurry… I just sensed that one of your subordinates harbors some ill will towards me, which makes it difficult for me to resist killing her.”
The blue-haired woman looked at Su Jiu with interest, her charming eyes narrowing slightly, and she chuckled coquettishly.
Hearing the woman’s words, all eyes turned to Su Jiu. The priest named Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes and slowly walked towards Su Jiu, asking with a hint of questioning,
“Muyang, why did you come in here instead of guarding outside?”
