Chapter Thirty-Nine: You Have Marked a Location—Great Dragon

Though he called it reconnaissance, in truth it was a blatant search. It was broad daylight, the sun blazing overhead, forcing even the most sinister spirits to shy away from its radiance.

He crossed mountains and forded streams, his solar spirit traversing the verdant hills and clear waters, continually absorbing various beneficial spiritual energies. When he returned to his physical form, he would refine these energies alongside his vital essence, transforming them into pure true qi for his myriad arcane arts.

There were many strange beasts in the mountains. Upon seeing Luozu’s solar spirit, which took the form of a child, they trembled and prostrated themselves, not daring to move.

It could only be said that within these hundred miles of wilderness, there were no heroes—allowing Luozu, this small pseudo-immortal of the primordial era, to reign supreme.

Of course, things were different at night. In the untold billions of years of the primordial wilderness, countless great beasts had fallen, and innumerable mighty figures had perished—some reduced to dust, others surviving as lingering spirits, eking out another existence. Thus, one could never know how many eminent beings and monstrous creatures lay buried beneath these lands.

For this reason, the primordial wilderness at night must never be underestimated.

But at this moment, Luozu was quite pleased with the effects of his solar spirit; it commanded the beasts, radiating authority in all directions.

His solar spirit had already traveled ten miles from his body, and he still felt he had energy to spare—he sensed he could float even farther.

The valley he sought lay thirty miles from the cave-dwellers’ camp in a straight line, and with the twists and turns of the terrain, the journey was closer to sixty miles.

Yet Luozu’s solar spirit soared through the air, able to shift between corporeal and incorporeal states, easily passing through forests and earth, unhindered.

Soon, he arrived at the valley.

Now, the valley had suffered repeated pollution; each party had taken its turn, but the soil’s fertility far surpassed what it had been before. Unfortunately, the spiritual energy of the river valley had mostly degraded into gloomy, malignant qi—poisonous miasmas now occupied the land. The cave-dwellers would have to abandon it entirely.

After so many setbacks, Luozu naturally felt frustrated. With nowhere to vent his resentment, his mood soured, which could hinder his cultivation and breed further discontent. With his mind divided, progress would be delayed.

Thus, Luozu made this journey.

He intended to pay a proper visit to these demons and monsters.

Upon reaching the valley, Luozu summoned sunlight, piercing the thick mist of poisonous miasma.

The gathering of spirits and monsters had turned the river valley into their dwelling. They drew earth’s malignant energy and amassed the surrounding turbid and dark qi, creating a place where they could reside. By day, they did not need to hide deep underground; burying themselves five or six fathoms beneath the surface sufficed. At night, they could quickly emerge to hunt.

As for the ghosts formed solely from spirit and sinister qi, they did not need to trouble themselves so. They hid deep beneath the earth, causing mischief underground, emerging at night. The surface teemed with more living creatures than below, their flesh and blood suffused with solar energy, which the ghosts favored. Yet their fondness had limits; if the cave-dwellers’ campfires burned, the ghosts would steer well clear.

As for Luozu’s solar spirit, the monsters avoided it as best they could. Even the slightest touch was as if they were scorched by sunlight—death came swiftly, perhaps transforming into a revenant; if not, they would be utterly annihilated, returning their essence to the primordial cycle.

Luozu’s solar energy was like arrows, shooting into the miasma and gradually dissolving amid harsh, sputtering sounds.

Though it proved effective, Luozu’s expression remained grim, for the valley’s poisonous miasma was so dense that even if he exhausted all his true qi, leaving only the framework of his solar spirit composed of eighty-one arcane arts, he could not eliminate a third of it.

He then invoked his fire-controlling spell.

Now upgraded to a proper arcane art, its power had increased dramatically. Previously, controlling fire required a catalyst—blood, flammable materials, oils, wood. Now, he could ignite flames out of thin air.

Especially since Luozu infused his solar energy, a fireball over a hundred feet high erupted in the center of the valley.

The fireball illuminated the entire gorge, but it would soon be subdued, for the poisonous miasma surged to engulf and extinguish it.

Yet Luozu was not playing a game of turns—after one explosion came a second, a third...

Until the tenth.

The thunderous blasts echoed in the valley, shaking the withered old trees at its edge and causing the few remaining yellow leaves to flutter down.

A roar!

At last, after the final explosion, a wild beast’s furious howl rang out from beneath the valley.

Luozu ignored it, continuing to hurl fireballs into the miasma, detonating them.

With his relentless assault, the blazing sunlight poured down from above, aiding in the dissolution of the toxic haze.

Roar, roar, roar!

The subterranean creature grew ever more frenzied.

A rolling thunder!

Like a volcanic eruption, the soil of the five-mile-wide valley shot skyward, surging a hundred feet into the air.

Luozu was not alarmed; this signified that the underground monsters could endure no longer.

He quietly shifted from solid to ethereal form, hiding in the surrounding dead woods.

Then he witnessed a colossal wormlike creature emerge in the valley. Its body was a hundred feet in diameter, its blue-gray surface veined with crimson arteries, which constantly spewed eerie, greenish poisonous miasma. This replenished the toxic qi recently depleted, plunging the valley once more into a foul and perilous environment.

Having finished, the worm slowly burrowed back underground.

Luozu observed all this.

He had not expected that the valley was now occupied not by zombies and evil spirits, but by such a monstrous worm.

It drew malignant energy from below, shrouding the valley in poisonous miasma, preventing other creatures from entering.

Recognizing its ferocity, Luozu decided to leave the valley for now and search for a second suitable campsite.

This worm was beyond Luozu’s current abilities. It seemed mindless, but its strength was formidable, and it held the advantage of terrain. At the slightest provocation, it would burrow away, and Luozu could not hope to catch it. If he pursued it underground, the danger would be his own.

Seeing no way forward, Luozu quietly returned to the cave-dwellers’ tribe, reentering his physical body, whose heartbeat was barely perceptible and whose mind held not a flicker of consciousness.

On his way back, he heard a hunting party from the tribe had brought good news.

They had found more people.

Not just one or two, but a whole group—thirty-eight in total.

This was truly a momentous discovery. Luozu’s gloomy mood improved greatly, and he hurried back to his body to receive the tidings.