Beast-Attracting Incense

As Gao Yao's warm breath brushed past his earlobe, Shen Yi's neck tightened instantly. He instinctively supported the young woman's sliding knee bend, feeling her calf trembling slightly beneath her blood-stained skirt.

The wailing coming from the depths of the karst cave grew clearer, and the fluffy young beast inside the storage ring suddenly wrapped its tail around his finger.

"This cry..." The crimson compass in Mingyue's hand suddenly cracked with three golden patterns, and the bronze divination slip unexpectedly pointed "clack" toward the path the group had taken. "The spiritual rhinoceros is driving away intruders."

Qingfeng used his folding fan to push aside the vines hanging down from the cave wall, and the ancient seal script on the half-broken stele bloomed with a bloody hue in the system's light screen: [The spiritual rhinoceros guide shall endure the three tribulations of foundation establishment.]

Just as Shen Yi was about to look closer, his ankle was suddenly entangled by a moss-covered chain, and the entire floor tile flipped over with a crash.

"Hold on!" In the moment of the fall, he threw an arm around Gao Yao's waist, his palm brushing against the unhealed wound on her lower back, his hand stained with sticky blood.

The mechanical bird thrown by Mingyue exploded into firelight overhead. Taking advantage of the instantaneous light, Shen Yi saw dense silver runes on the surrounding stone walls oozing black mist.

The five of them tumbled heavily onto the moss-covered stone steps. Qingfeng clutched his wrist, which had been scorched by an electric current, and wailed, "These ghost runes bite!" His right hand, which he had used to brace himself earlier, was charred black, and his cuff was still smoking.

Shen Yi summoned the system light screen. The usually pearly-white interface now glowed with a sinister dark red: [Warning! Ancient spirit-sealing array remnant detected, spiritual energy fluctuations abnormal.]

He tried tossing out a vermilion fruit, but the fruit was ground into powder the moment it touched the wall runes.

"It's a variant of the Thunder Prison Array." Mingyue's fingertips condensed ice crystals, hovering three inches away from the runes. "Look at the flow of these cloud patterns. Don't they look like the Thousand-Mechanism Lock recorded in the *Heavenly Artisan's Remnant Scroll*?" The ice crystals suddenly shattered into seven copper-coin-shaped light spots, forming a Big Dipper formation above everyone's heads.

Gao Yao suddenly pressed down on Shen Yi's hand as he drew his sword. "Don't move." Her pale fingertips tapped the center of Shen Yi's brow, and a wisp of cool spiritual energy seeped into his meridians. "Your dantian is absorbing the thunder breath of the array."

Only then did Shen Yi notice the pale purple electric light lingering around his body; the wound on his leg left by the chain earlier was actually healing slowly.

The system light screen suddenly popped up a new prompt: [Thunder-attribute spiritual energy detected. Activate temporary skill [Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering]?]

"Watch out!" Qingfeng suddenly tackled Mingyue, who was studying the array eye. A bowl-thick bolt of purple lightning grazed his hair and struck the bluestone slab, and charred rock fragments splattered onto Gao Yao's skirt.

Shen Yi waved his sleeve to block the sparks, and the dark iron hoe hidden in his sleeve suddenly hummed.

Lie Yang's gloomy laughter came from overhead. "Many thanks to you all for paving the way." Crimson blade light flashed at the cave entrance where they had fallen, and dozens of poisoned hidden weapons poured down through the gaps in the dragon-blocking stone like a torrential rain.

Shen Yi hugged Gao Yao and rolled behind the broken stele, hearing the sharp whistle of bone flutes mixed with the sound of hidden weapons piercing the stone wall.

"It's beast-attracting incense!" Mingyue flicked her water sleeve to reel back a rhombus dart. The purple powder remaining in the dart's groove made her expression change. "They're driving the spiritual rhinoceros mad!"

As if confirming her words, the entire underground palace shook violently.

Shen Yi's system light screen flickered wildly, and the originally dark red warning text twisted like flowing blood.

Gao Yao bit her fingertip and drew a calming spell in his palm. The moment the ice-blue incantation sank into his skin, he saw that what was swimming in those silver runes was not spiritual qi at all, but countless black Gu worms as fine as hairs.

"Fall back to the Kan position!" Mingyue tossed the remains of the mechanical bird toward the Zhen position rune. The freezing mist spewed from the bird's beak temporarily froze the Gu worms. "These aren't ordinary arrays; they're living spirit-devouring Gu!"

Qingfeng leaned on his folding fan, trying to stand up, but Shen Yi pressed him down by the shoulder. "Don't move if you don't want to be a roasted chicken." He stared at the countdown ticking away on the system light screen—the [Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering] skill had thirty breaths left, and the encirclement formed by the spirit-devouring Gu was shrinking at a visible rate.

Gao Yao suddenly plunged her sword into the ground, and the moon-white stone embedded in the hilt burst into a soft halo.

Shen Yi smelled the cold fragrance overflowing from her sleeve, which was three parts richer than usual. This was the precursor of disciples of Yaoguang Peak burning their fundamental life essence.

"Are you out of your mind?" He clasped the young woman's wrist pulse, forcibly interrupting her spell, and transferred the thunder light in his palm through her meridians. "This young master hasn't fallen so low that he needs an injured person to block blades for him."

The swarm of spirit-devouring Gu was startled away by the thunder light, only to gather into the shape of a giant python under some eerie flute music.

Cold sweat beaded on Shen Yi's temples, and the system continuously popped up blood-red warnings in his spiritual consciousness.

He stared at the ice-crystal array diagram Mingyue was deducing, then looked at Gao Yao's lips, which had turned pale blue from excessive blood loss, and suddenly smashed the dark iron hoe heavily onto the ground.

"Want to take a gamble?" He raised an eyebrow at Mingyue, and the Gu corpses stained on the tip of the hoe suddenly sparked. "Use your mechanism arts to cooperate with my thunder spiritual energy, and let's give these bugs a barbecue feast."

Before Mingyue could answer, a loud crash of splitting rock came from overhead.

The wailing of the spiritual rhinoceros turned into an angry roar, and the entire wall covered in spirit-devouring Gu suddenly bulged with countless tumor-like protrusions.

Qingfeng let out a miserable shriek and covered his right eye, black blood seeping from between his fingers—a Gu worm had actually crawled into his pupil!

"Crouch down!" Gao Yao swung her sword to cut down a Gu worm lunging at Qingfeng, but the blade's edge was corroded, leaving a notch by the sticky black mist.

Taking the opportunity, Shen Yi activated [Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering], and the thunder light around his body surged into an electric net, pushing the spirit-devouring Gu back by half a foot.

The system light screen suddenly froze on a familiar rune combination, and Shen Yi's pupils constricted—the arrangement of these Gu worms was astonishingly similar to the meridian map of the seven-star grass he cultivated in the spirit field.

He backhanded the storage ring and hurled it toward Mingyue: "Scatter the medicinal dregs in the third compartment to the Li position!"

"Are you crazy? That's Five-Poison Powder..." The moment Mingyue caught the ring, realization dawned on her, and a brilliant light burst in her eyes. "Fight poison with poison!" The dark green powder she flung out touched the spirit-devouring Gu, actually causing the bugs to start tearing into each other.

Taking advantage of the internal strife among the Gu swarm, Shen Yi pulled Gao Yao and rushed toward the Gate of Life: "Follow my footprints!" Every step he took landed precisely in the gaps between the runes, and the meridian map on the system light screen perfectly overlapped with the array beneath his feet.

When the last trace of thunder light dissipated, the five of them finally tumbled out of the Gu array's range, and behind them came the sticky sound of spirit-devouring Gu devouring their own kind.

Mingyue's trembling fingers still pinched half a mechanical gear, and she suddenly stared at Shen Yi's waist with a cold smile: "Shouldn't Fellow Daoist Shen explain why the seven-star grass you grow shares the same origin with the ancient Gu array?"

Just as Shen Yi was about to make a quip, Gao Yao let out a muffled groan and collapsed softly into his arms.

Spider-web-like black veins had crawled all over the young woman's back at some point, and the finest one had already spread to her heart.

Shen Yi touched her cold wrist, and amid the blood-red warnings of the system light screen, he saw a slowly rotating phantom of a Gu worm entrenched in her dantian.

The moment Shen Yi's fingertips touched the pulsing blood vessel on Gao Yao's neck, the young woman suddenly grabbed his wrist.

The cold sweat on her palms soaked through the dark patterns on his cuff, yet the corners of her mouth tugged into a stubborn smile: "Deal with Qingfeng's eye first."

Mingyue was using ice-crystal tweezers to clamp the Gu worm beneath Qingfeng's eyelid; the tail of the worm was still connected to thread-like nerves.

Qingfeng winced in pain yet still managed to joke, "If this young master goes blind, Fairy Mingyue will have to be my guide dog."

"Talk nonsense again and I'll make you a one-eyed dragon." Mingyue flicked her finger, freezing the Gu worm into ice shards, and as she turned, the ends of her hair brushed past Shen Yi's shoulder. "These spirit-devouring Gu carry the aura of ancient taboos, and your seven-star grass..."

Shen Yi suddenly bent down, swept Gao Yao up horizontally, and his dark robes brushed past the remaining Gu corpses on the ground: "Find a clean place, and I'll teach you how to grow seven-star grass." He stepped on the glowing moss covering the ground and walked toward the fork in the cave, while muffled whimpering sounds came from the spirit beast cub in the storage pouch at his waist.

Mingyue gazed thoughtfully at his back, only to be yanked by the sleeve by Qingfeng: "That brat is showing off like a peacock in front of Fairy Yaoguang. Do you guess he has Acacia Powder hidden in his storage ring?"

"Shut up!" Two ice needles grazed Qingfeng's earlobe and embedded themselves into the stone wall.

Shen Yi placed Gao Yao on a protruding green jade platform, and the system light screen automatically scanned the Gu worm inside her body.

Under the scanning beam, those spider-web-like black veins twisted into eerie runes, bearing a seventy-percent resemblance to the gathering spirit array he carved in the spirit field.

"Don't move." He pressed two fingers three inches below Gao Yao's collarbone, and the thunder light at his fingertips roamed along her meridians. "System, initiate spiritual plant resonance."

[Matching... Discovered variant spirit-devouring Gu and seven-star grass genetic similarity 92%.] The light screen popped up a three-dimensional meridian map, and the Gu worm phantom at Gao Yao's dantian suddenly spread butterfly-wing-like appendages.

Shen Yi's pupils contracted slightly—this was clearly the "Netherworld Seven-Star Butterfly" larva he had seen in the system mall!

Gao Yao suddenly coughed violently, and the blood droplets overflowing from the corners of her lips condensed into ice crystals in mid-air.

Shen Yi formed a hand seal with one hand and slapped her on the back. The seven-star grass seeds shaken from his sleeve grew wildly upon meeting the blood, and fine roots pierced into her meridians: "Bear with it, I'll plant a temporary spiritual root for you."

"You... treating me like a flowerpot?" Gao Yao bit her lower lip in pain, only to see Shen Yi lightly tap the ground with the dark iron hoe.

The green jade platform instantly crawled with glowing vines, devouring the Gu poison overflowing within her body.

Mingyue's voice came from behind: "There is a spiritual energy void on the wall at the Kan position." Seven bronze divination slips hovered at her fingertips, projecting a three-dimensional array diagram onto Shen Yi's system light screen. "These runes are mimicking plant meridians, and every node acts like a nutrient delivery point for a spiritual plant."

Shen Yi tossed Mingyue a pouch of vermilion-red seeds: "Plant them at the intersection of the Zhen and Li positions, inserting them diagonally at a depth of three inches." As he turned, his belt brushed against Gao Yao's cold fingers, and the young woman suddenly hooked the tassel of his jade pendant: "Beware of backlash."

"Caring about me?" Shen Yi raised an eyebrow with a light smile, pressing her fingers onto the forming spiritual plant array eye. "Watch closely, this is the correct posture for farming."

The vermilion fruit Mingyue planted suddenly burst, and the red juice outlined complete rune veins on the stone wall.

Shen Yi's system light screen simultaneously displayed the trajectory of spiritual energy flow; those originally fierce black runes were smoothed out like a tamed herd of snakes under the infusion of the spiritual plant juice.

"So that's how it is!" Mingyue suddenly flicked her water sleeve, and the mechanical bird flying out from her sleeve pecked at the vermilion fruit residue on the runes. "These aren't defensive arrays at all; they're some kind of culture medium for cultivating spirit Gu!"

Shen Yi's hoe smashed heavily into the array eye, and purple slurry burst from the flying rock fragments. "So we're just turning the soil and fertilizing for the bugs." He stepped down, crushing a rune fragment attempting to escape, and the thunder light on the sole of his boot blasted the last wisp of black mist into nothingness.

When Qingfeng walked over holding a night-pearl, he happened to see the rune fragments all over the ground twitching like dying centipedes: "Is it over already? This young master thought we'd have a battle of three hundred rounds..."

A loud crash of splitting rock came from the top of the cave, and Lie Yang descended from the sky followed by a dozen men in black.

The crimson flame blade in his hand was still dripping with beast blood, yet the sparks on the tip of the blade extinguished with a "poof" when he saw Shen Yi and the others completely unscathed.

"Lie Yang, what fine methods you have." Shen Yi twirled the hoe and walked closer by two steps, intentionally grinding the bone whistle Lie Yang had dropped beneath his boot sole. "Using spirit-devouring Gu as scout hounds, this trick of borrowing a knife to kill is played brilliantly."

Gao Yao's scabbard suddenly emitted a crisp hum, and as she stood up, the ice-crystal earrings hanging from her hair brushed against Shen Yi's shoulder: "Thirty paces to the southeast, seven men." Her voice was as soft as lovers whispering in private, but her fingertips had already condensed three ice blades.

Mingyue feigned adjusting her temples, and the mechanical bird in her sleeve flew silently toward the northwest corner.

Qingfeng waved his folding fan to block Lie Yang's line of sight, and the fluorescent powder "accidentally" shaken from the fan surface dusted the man all over.

With a livid face, Lie Yang took half a step back and suddenly sneered: "Fellow Daoist Shen is truly blessed with great fortune." The hand hidden behind his back gestured in an eerie manner, and the team led by Qingyu instantly vanished into the shadows of the fork in the road.

Shen Yi rubbed his chin, sizing up the not-yet-dry vermilion fruit juice on the stone wall, and suddenly let out a whistle.

The spirit beast cub crawled out from the storage ring, nuzzling his palm with a piece of blood-stained fabric in its mouth—it was precisely what had fallen off Qingyu.

"It looks like someone wants to learn how pangolins tunnel." He flicked the fabric away with his finger, his dark cloak sweeping across Gao Yao's sword tassel as he turned. "Let's go, the main tomb chamber should be up ahead."

Mingyue raised her voice intentionally: "I hear spirit-devouring Gu love gnawing on fire-attribute spiritual roots like Fellow Daoist Lie Yang's!"

The five of them walked toward the depths of the karst cave chatting and laughing, followed by the loud crash of Lie Yang smashing the stone wall behind them.

Yet as they rounded the corner, Shen Yi suddenly pressed down on Gao Yao's wrist and mouthed: "Behind us."

Lowering her gaze, Gao Yao looked at their intertwined sleeves and suddenly shifted her sword to her left hand.

This angle allowed the reflection of the sword hilt to precisely reveal the shadows trailing behind them—seven stealthy figures were slowly moving amidst the moss.