Chapter 1545: Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushroom
Using a Minor Teleportation Talisman, Song Wen narrowly escaped the jaws of death, teleporting himself three hundred miles away.
The moment he materialized, his first act was to swiftly extend his divine sense, sweeping it in all directions.
His tense heart gradually relaxed as he detected no immediate threats in the surrounding area.
He then noticed that the Yin Energy here was significantly thinner compared to the battlefield where he had clashed with Lu Ling earlier.
His divine sense could perceive an area roughly fifty miles in radius.
After confirming his safety, Song Wen turned to gaze northwest.
Distant rumbling sounds and violent fluctuations of Spiritual Qi emanated from that direction, indicating that Lu Ling and the Ghost-Faced Demonic Python had already engaged in a fierce battle.
Song Wen slowly withdrew his gaze, his brow suddenly furrowing.
He had detected a peculiar zone approximately thirty miles south—a region several miles wide filled with natural stone bamboo stalks ranging from ten to a hundred feet in height.
As his divine sense approached the center of the Stone Bamboo Forest, it became inexplicably distorted, creating an unknown dark zone in his perception, as if his divine sense were being devoured upon entering the area.
Song Wen steadied his mind, retrieved a Minor Teleportation Talisman, and pressed it into his palm. He then slowly approached the Stone Bamboo Forest.
Despite deliberately slowing his pace, Song Wen quickly reached the edge of the forest.
He landed on the tallest stone bamboo at the perimeter and focused his divine sense forward.
His divine sense still couldn’t penetrate deep into the forest.
The omnipresent pitch-black ghost qi further obstructed his vision, making it impossible to discern anything within the forest’s depths.
“What could be hidden in there?” he murmured to himself.
With a soft whisper, Song Wen stepped onto another stone bamboo several dozen feet away.
After waiting two breaths and detecting no anomalies, he took another step.
Moving in this stop-and-go manner, it took him over an hour to finally reach the heart of the Stone Bamboo Forest.
Here, the stone bamboo vanished, replaced by a flat, hundred-foot-wide clearing.
At the center of the clearing lay a ten-foot-wide pit, resembling a massive, pitch-black eye staring up from the earth, or perhaps a deep well leading straight to the Nine Nether.
The well contained no water, but instead churned with Yin Energy as thick as ink, surging endlessly within its confines.
Yet this Yin Energy seemed bound by an invisible barrier, swirling only within the well without a single wisp escaping.
Around the well’s rim, six spirit plants grew in stark contrast to the surrounding darkness.
The mushrooms resembled lingzhi, each about the size of a bowl’s mouth. Their bodies were jet-black, yet their texture was not woody but rather a warm, jade-like smoothness.
Nine apertures dotted the caps of each mushroom.
Strangely, the lingzhi seemed to breathe. As the Yin Energy surged within the well, the nine apertures subtly opened and closed, rhythmically inhaling and exhaling pure Netherworld Qi, emitting a faint, dark glow.
Song Wen immediately recognized these as the Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms he had been painstakingly searching for.
However, upon closer inspection, he realized that the six mushrooms before him fell short of his requirements.
According to Gu Que, only Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms with a medicinal age of ten thousand years or more could aid one in breaking through to the Great Ascension Realm.
The age of these mushrooms could be determined by observing their stems.
For every thousand years of growth, a dark red vertical line would form on the stem, gradually extending downward until it pierced through the entire length.
Among the six mushrooms, the two oldest specimens displayed only nine dark red vertical lines. The final line had emerged but had yet to fully penetrate the stem.
Based on the length of this incomplete line, Song Wen estimated that these two mushrooms still required at least another two hundred years to reach the ten-thousand-year medicinal age.
“No wonder Lu Ling and the others are guarding this place. But does Lu Ling really plan to stay here for a century or two?”
The Fallen Demon Valley was firmly under the control of the Divine Blood Gate. Logically, even if the Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushroom was crucial to Lu Ling, there was no need for constant vigilance. He could simply calculate the time it would take for the mushrooms to mature into ten-thousand-year Spirit Herbs and return precisely when they were ready for harvest, eliminating the need for this arduous wait.
“There must be a reason for this.”
With this thought, Song Wen meticulously examined the six Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms growing around the well’s mouth and immediately noticed something peculiar.
Scattered across the ground near the well were dark red stains—dried blood.
Song Wen’s mind flashed back to the pile of bleached bones he had seen upon entering the cave.
“The flesh and blood that once covered those bones were likely thrown into this well. By feeding the Yin Energy with such a massive quantity of flesh, they’re cultivating the Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms with this pure Yin Energy, accelerating their growth into ten-thousand-year Spirit Herbs.”
“This well must be the Yin Spring.”
“But Yin Springs should spew Yin Energy outward. Yet the Yin Energy within this spring remains concentrated and doesn’t dissipate.”
“Could there be a formation here? Designed to condense the Yin Energy?”
“This would explain why the concentration of Yin Energy decreases as one approaches the Yin Spring.”
Though these were merely Song Wen’s conjectures, they formed a coherent and logical chain of reasoning. He felt confident that his deductions were at least eighty-nine percent accurate.
Carefully examining the hundred-zhang-wide flat ground, he indeed discovered faint formation patterns etched into the surface.
The patterns had been deliberately concealed, hidden yet present, and showed no unusual phenomena. Shrouded in Yin Energy, they would have been nearly impossible to detect without meticulous scrutiny.
“It seems… Lu Ling still has some value. I can’t let him be devoured by the Ghost-Faced Demonic Python so easily. As the foremost Body Integration Stage cultivator of the Divine Blood Gate, dealing with that python should be no problem for him.”
Song Wen began to ponder:
Should he ambush the Ghost-Faced Demonic Python and Lu Ling during their battle, eliminating the python and capturing Lu Ling in one swift move? Or should he remain here, waiting for Lu Ling to defeat the python and then come willingly into his trap?
Just then, Song Wen sensed someone rapidly approaching from outside the Stone Bamboo Forest.
It was Rong Shao.
Rong Shao had actually found his way here too.
However, this didn’t surprise Song Wen.
Rong Shao had disengaged from the battle earlier and likely followed the converging Yin Energy to this location.
It’s worth noting that from outside the Stone Bamboo Forest, one cannot perceive anything within it. However, inside the forest, divine sense remains undisturbed, allowing easy perception of everything outside.
Song Wen speculated that this phenomenon might be related to the Yin Spring or that Lu Ling had set up some kind of formation here.
“Fellow Daoist Rong Shao, there’s no danger here. You can come in now,” Song Wen transmitted telepathically.
“Fellow Daoist Gu Huang, is that you? Where are you?”
Rong Shao suddenly received Song Wen’s divine sense transmission but couldn’t locate him. Perplexed, he stopped in his tracks and scanned his surroundings.
Unable to sense Song Wen, Rong Shao could only speak aloud. However, since Song Wen could transmit telepathically, his divine sense clearly covered the area, allowing him to “hear” Rong Shao’s spoken words.
“I’m inside the Stone Bamboo Forest. You can come in without worry,” Song Wen transmitted again.
Hearing this, Rong Shao hesitated no further. He transformed into a streak of light and plunged into the forest, quickly arriving at Song Wen’s side.
Song Wen was surprised by Rong Shao’s trust, but he merely glanced at him without asking any questions.
Rong Shao’s gaze was immediately drawn to the Yin Spring and the six Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms.
“This… these are Nine Aperture Profound Connection Mushrooms!” Rong Shao exclaimed, his voice trembling with excitement.
(End of the Chapter)