Corpses were everywhere in the temple complex.
There were guards, followers, and a few corpses who had an understanding of the dangers in the forbidden zone. The corpses of the youths retained the terror they had when they were alive as they stared blankly at the sky.
Other than that, there were dead jellyfish.
It was different from humans. After the jellyfish died, it would turn into a gray mud-like object that emitted waves of stench. It was completely different from the colorful scene when it was alive.
At the same time, it emitted an extremely dense anomalous substance that invaded the surroundings and corroded everything.
This sudden calamity was still ongoing.
As the young men and women retreated in panic, the swarm of jellyfish howled as they pursued them. At the periphery of this jungle forbidden zone, slaughter and death continued to play out.
When Xu Qing arrived at the temple cluster, it was already two hours later.
As he walked through the cluster of temples, Xu Qing looked at the corpses strewn all over the ground. His expression didn’t change much.
He had seen too many corpses.
When he passed by the corpses of guards and followers, Xu Qing kept some of the dead jellyfish and prepared to head back to study them.
As for the items on these corpses, almost all of them were invaded by the dense anomalous substances formed after the jellyfish died. They were no longer usable.
This continued until Xu Qing arrived beside a corpse. His footsteps then stopped.
This was the corpse of an old man. There was a large hole in his chest and the blood that flowed out had already dried up. Within his dull eyes that were wide open, there seemed to be regret from when he was alive.
Looking at this corpse, Xu Qing sighed softly.
He wasn’t a god, so even if the other party had bought his insurance, he couldn’t guarantee his safety completely, especially when the fog hadn’t appeared.
After a moment of silence, Xu Qing squatted down and covered Old Stone’s open eyes before burying him.
There was no stele. Captain Lei had said before that scavengers didn’t have any relatives when they were alive, so there was no need for them to pay their respects.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
This was the life of a scavenger. When they were alive, they would struggle in the world. After they died… they would be quiet.
This kind of sad stories was normal for most scavengers.
Standing in front of Old Stone’s grave, Xu Qing looked in the direction of the campsite outside the forbidden zone and recalled his life over the past few months.
It had been four months since he arrived at the scavenger campsite.
The Bloodshadow Team Captain was dead, Fire Crow was dead, Fat Mountain and Horse-Four were dead, Barbaric Ghost was dead, Old Stone was dead, Captain Lei retreated into seclusion, Bone Blade escaped, and even more scavengers died silently.
In this cruel chaotic world, human lives were worthless.
“Only by becoming stronger can I survive,” Xu Qing muttered. His expression slowly turned cold as he turned and left.
At that moment, amidst the afterglow of the setting sun, a gust of wind blew over, causing the clothes of the distant youth to rustle.
This sound seemed to contain a hint of coldness as it gradually grew weaker until it disappeared into the jungle along with his figure.
As the afterglow scattered down, the light gradually weakened. However, it still forcefully passed through the dense tree leaves, wanting to cast the sparse light onto the running youth in the jungle.
However, the youth’s speed was too fast. Even the light seemed a little powerless to chase after him.
Not long later, Xu Qing suddenly stopped in his tracks. After he stopped, he lowered his head and stared at the ground as doubt appeared in his eyes.
Not long later, Xu Qing squatted down and sniffed carefully. Finally, his gaze landed on a blade of grass. There was a smear of powder on it that was hard to detect.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Xu Qing had a more solid grasp of the poisonous grass and his understanding of the smell in this forbidden zone, it would probably be very difficult for him to detect any abnormalities.
At that moment, it took him a long time to identify it before he picked up the leaf that had a layer of powder on it. After a moment of concentration, he muttered.
“The exact composition is unknown but there must be the blood of the Aged Centipede inside!”
Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed. In Grandmaster Bai’s lesson, there was an introduction to the Aged Centipede Blood.
This blood had a certain amount of medicinal properties but it was mostly a catalyst. Therefore, when combined with other medicines, it could be concocted into a medicinal catalyst that attracted specific beasts. It was often needed during hunting.
“Is the arrival of those jellyfish related to this?” Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. He put down this leaf that contained a fatal danger and took out a bag of poison powder to sprinkle on his body.
After using this to disperse the aura of the Old Centipede’s blood that he had touched earlier, his body swayed and he moved in a different direction.
Xu Qing didn’t plan to head to the place where the youths brought by Old Stone had retreated. This matter had nothing to do with him and he wasn’t willing to participate.
Even if Chen Feiyuan’s friends were among these people, he had no obligation to help them. Moreover, these people had experts who could fight against the giant jellyfish. To Xu Qing, it was equally dangerous.
Most importantly, among these young men and women, there was a high chance that someone had intentionally lured the jellyfish over for an unknown purpose.
Hence, after sensing their location, Xu Qing changed his direction and circled around them. He then returned to the lab in the canyon when the sky was turning dark.
After putting away the medicinal herbs he had picked, he continued to study the white pills.
It was just that although Xu Qing didn’t go to the place where the young men and women had retreated to, when the night arrived, Xu Qing, who was concocting medicinal herbs in the pharmacy, still heard the sounds of explosions and fighting in the distance. Moreover, it was getting closer and closer. This caused him to frown.
After the sound of footsteps rang out, Xu Qing sighed silently.
He stood up and walked out of the lab. Under the moonlight, he looked in the direction of the canyon’s entrance. There were sounds of surprise coming from there.
“There’s a path here!!”
“Everyone, come in quickly.”
As the voice rang out, a few disheveled youths in tattered clothes appeared.
Their faces were filled with horror. There were over ten people behind them and most of them were companions of similar age as them. There were also seven to eight guards who were covered in injuries.
A total of more than 20 people ran into the canyon. When the few guards guarded the entrance with all their might, these young men and women who had survived the calamity heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time, they noticed the environment in the canyon.
They soon saw Xu Qing’s lab and also saw Xu Qing standing there.
“Someone’s here!”
The instant they saw Xu Qing, these young men and women were like birds startled by the twang of a bow. They cried out in alarm and immediately retreated. The three guards behind them also arrived quickly and looked at Xu Qing with vigilance and killing intent.
This killing intent caused Xu Qing’s gaze to turn a little cold. After he coldly swept his gaze past these guards, he then looked at the group of youths. There were two among them that he paid special attention to.
One of them was a little older than him, about 16 or 17 years old. Although he was also in a sorry state, he was different from the others. There was very little panic on his face, and he was more vigilant.
The other person was a young girl with a very sweet appearance. Although her clothes were dirty and there was fear in them, Xu Qing, who was used to seeing all kinds of people, could tell at a glance that this person’s fear was fake.
This was especially so since… this woman was wearing a glove on her right hand. It looked like it was for the sake of cleanliness but to Xu Qing who used poison, the glove had many uses.
For example, sprinkling medicinal powder.
“There are eight guards and their cultivation levels are between the sixth and seventh level of Qi Condensation. As for the others, their cultivation levels are below the fifth level and they are divided into three small teams.
“Only those two people. The man’s cultivation level is at the seventh level and the woman… should be the person who lured the jellyfish. As for the few experts who fought with the big jellyfish, they aren’t among them either. There’s a high chance that they lured the big jellyfish away.”
This was Xu Qing’s habit and those young men and women had no idea that Xu Qing could see so many details with just a glance.
However, these guards were different from those young men and women. They could sense the coldness in Xu Qing’s eyes and glanced at the medicinal room. They were all extremely vigilant.
To be able to find such a canyon in the forbidden zone and build houses in it, all of this meant that this youth was not only familiar with the forbidden zone but also lived here.
Such a person was extremely dangerous.
“Fellow Daoist, is your lord here? We don’t have any ill intentions. It’s just that the mutated beasts are chasing us outside, so we’re using this place to hide.”
“We’ll leave at dawn. Please forgive us for disturbing you.”
These guards instinctively spoke politely.
Their words also made the young men and women behind them, who were still in a state of shock, feel that something was amiss. They all looked at Xu Qing.
Among them, the oldest youth cast a few more glances at Xu Qing with a solemn expression. As for the young girl wearing gloves, she narrowed her eyes.
She swept her gaze across the pharmacy and smelled the faint scent of herbs in the surroundings. She now had a better understanding of this youth before her.
Xu Qing frowned and looked at them before looking at the entrance. He didn’t speak for a long time and only tacitly acknowledged their existence. He then turned and walked toward the lab.
His tacit agreement caused those guards to heave a sigh of relief. As for the young men and women behind them, they were mostly apprehensive.
Only the young girl wearing gloves had a strange glint in her eyes. After that, she spoke in a low voice that was filled with caution and grievance.
“You… you’re so rude. We just want to hide here for a while. There are mutated beasts everywhere outside. We’ll definitely die if we go out.”
Her voice carried a sense of heartache and love, causing the surrounding youths who adored her to muster their courage and speak to Xu Qing one after another.
“That’s right. Why are you so cold-blooded?”
“We don’t have any ill intentions. We’re just resting here.”
“The forbidden zone doesn’t belong to his family. Why should we ask him?!”
Their casual words caused some people to feel hostility toward Xu Qing. Although there wasn’t much hostility, it still made the young girl feel a little smug.
She wanted to make use of others to probe this youth’s background.
However, at the next instant, a cold light suddenly flashed from Xu Qing’s body. A whistling sound then rang out as a dagger shot out like a bolt of lightning, approaching the proud young girl.
Her expression changed and she was about to dodge when the dagger flew past her ear, cutting off some of her hair. With a bang, it stabbed deeply into the stone wall behind her, creating some sparks.
The young girl’s heart trembled. As her breathing hastened, she instinctively lifted her right hand. When she looked at Xu Qing, what she saw was the youth in front of her. His gaze was as cold as a wolf and contained killing intent.
This gaze caused her heart to tremble. The surrounding guards and the other young men and women were all shocked. The former was extremely vigilant, while the latter made many alarmed cries.
“We met only by chance. Don’t test me.” Xu Qing cast a deep glance at the young girl and suppressed the killing intent in his heart. He then slowly spoke and turned to walk toward the lab.
Under the moonlight, his figure seemed to merge with the moonlight, revealing the coldness of the night. It flowed through the hearts of everyone in the canyon, causing them to slowly fall silent.
To many people, the canyon seemed to be as dangerous as the jellyfish outside.
In this silence, the instant Xu Qing reached the entrance of the lab, a mournful cry suddenly rang out from the entrance.
A small jellyfish found the entrance and penetrated the body of a guard. After devouring his internal organs, it rushed into the canyon.
Behind it, a group of jellyfish whistled over.