Chapter 24 Chapter 24 "See if she finds it and doesn't give it a good beating..."
Jiang Qing blinked and said, "Maybe it's just a brain teaser."
"Fat Butterfly, hahahaha... I can't do it anymore." Li Xiu laughed when she saw the answer.
Zhao Peng & Meng Yanlang: "..."
It turns out that people with the same train of thought can play together.
The two "academic masters" had never thought about this.
There are three bottles of clean drinking water, two serums and a strong hemostatic agent in the war preparation box.
"We don't need these things, so let's put them here for now," said Meng Yanlang.
He actually didn't understand why Zhao Peng went to so much trouble to open the box. The first supply box encountered on the road to the Dark Valley was often useless and was reserved for those who needed emergency life-saving treatment.
They are now fully equipped with equipment and supplies and do not need any emergency response.
Meng Yanlang urged, "Let's hurry down. We have to get back to the academy before dark."
There is only one necessary road around that winds downwards. The deeper you go, the more you can feel a chill in the valley hitting your chest.
The cave space below is quite large, and the pools of water of varying sizes are like pieces of emerald.
After a while, several people went down to the deepest part.
The narrow passage suddenly opened up at the end, and a cold, damp air with a strong mineral smell rushed in, instantly enveloping the four people.
Only then did they truly enter the core area of the Dark Valley.
The world before my eyes was shrouded in a hazy gray-blue mist. The light was extremely dim. Only the dotted "dark crystals" on the rock wall emitted a cold, ghost-like glow, barely outlining the contours of the rugged rocks.
Underfoot were slippery rocks and pools of varying depths that reflected a faint phosphorescent light.
A slow-flowing underground river meanders along, the water is an unnatural dark green color and exudes a chill.
The surroundings were eerily silent, with only the "tick-tick" sound of water drops falling from the top of the rock and hitting the pool or rocks, echoing in the empty valley, adding a bit of eeriness.
"Hiss... It's so cold." Li Xiu subconsciously hugged the snow rabbit in her arms tightly. The latter also pricked up its ears vigilantly, and its pink nostrils flared.
"The lighting in this damn place is too bad." Zhao Peng complained and reached out to press the searchlight switch on the horn of the armored bull.
"Don't turn on the strong light yet." Meng Yanlang pressed Zhao Peng's hand to stop him.
He quickly explained, "Although the plants and exotic beasts here are photophobic, strong light could instantly anger them and lead to a large-scale attack. Use night vision goggles and low-light observation first."
Zhao Peng withdrew his hand angrily, muttering, "I know, I know, trouble."
But he still obediently took out the night vision goggles from the side pocket of his backpack and put them on.
Jiang Qing also put on the night vision equipment that Li Xiu prepared for her. In the green field of vision, the details of the valley bottom became much clearer.
Thick, wet mosses and ferns cling to the rock walls, and some strangely shaped "crystal mushrooms" emitting faint blue-green fluorescence grow in clusters on the edge of the pool or in the cracks of the rocks.
Extremely fine, almost invisible dust particles floated in the air.
Zhu Tianba was originally fine in the seal of the contract, but as if he smelled something, he took the initiative to get out and jumped into Jiang Qing's arms.
Jiang Qing gave it a soothing look, and seeing that it was fine, he let it rest in his arms.
The few of them continued to move forward. Under the illumination of the night vision goggles and the dim light of the dark crystals, several crystals emitting strong blue light clusters appeared on the surrounding rock walls. Their color and texture looked very similar to beast cores, but they were several times larger than the beast cores they usually saw.
"Those are the abnormal nodes." Meng Yanlang's deep voice sounded behind them. "But the nodes nearby have all been collected by others. We need to find other nodes."
"There's no name on the node, so how do you know it's been collected?" Zhao Peng asked in confusion.
Without waiting for Meng Yanlang's explanation, Jiang Qing pointed to the center of an abnormal node and said, "Isn't this obvious?"
I saw that there was a small piece missing from the middle of the blue crystal, as if someone had dug it out from the middle.
"So... crude?" Li Xiu's mouth twitched. "I thought direct contact would cause some backlash or something."
Jiang Qing withdrew her hand, lowered her head and fell into deep thought. She was also thinking about this question.
"Just find a node to test it and you'll know." Zhao Peng turned to the front.
I saw that the rock wall in front was covered with a thick layer of gray-black velvet-like substance.
Looking closely, the "velvet" is made up of countless motionless moths.
They clung tightly to the rock wall, and the edges of their wings and abdomen emitted an extremely faint blue phosphorescence that flickered like breathing.
It is these hundreds and thousands of faint light points that together form a hazy spot of light on the rock wall.
The fine scales on their wings are faintly visible in the dim light, with a strange beauty.
"It's the nest of phosphorescent moths..." Meng Yanlang's voice grew serious. "There are more than expected. Everyone, be gentle and try not to disturb them. Our goal is to collect node energy samples, not to clean out the nest."
The four of them held their breath and carefully moved along the relatively dry rock edge, avoiding the dark green pools that seemed bottomless, and moved deeper into the valley.
"Stop!" Jiang Qing, who was walking in front, suddenly raised his hand and stopped.
One step ahead, a seemingly flat rock was covered with a nearly transparent sticky silk net that almost blended in with the color of the rock.
The silk screen reflected an extremely faint luster under the dim crystal light, which could not be seen at all without careful observation.
"A cave spider's web." Meng Yanlang took a closer look and gently touched it with a branch. The branch immediately stuck firmly to it, with amazing toughness. "Go around it, don't touch it."
As they passed the spider web area, a circle of tiny ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the pool next to them.
"There's something in the water!" Zhao Peng reacted extremely quickly, and the Armored Bull immediately stood in front of him.
Almost at the same time, a slender, gray-black shadow shot out silently from the shadows at the edge of the pool like an arrow, aiming directly at the calf of Li Xiu at the back.
"Xiu'er, watch your step!" Jiang Qingchao glanced back and reminded her quickly.
Li Xiu's reaction was not slow either. He subconsciously stepped back after hearing the warning.
But the shadow was too fast.
At the critical moment, a white object flew over.
The snow rabbit jumped down from Li Xiu's shoulder like lightning, and its small front paws, with a mark of snowflakes, hit the gray shadow accurately.
"唳——"
A sharp and short hissing sounded.
The gray figure was frozen by the cold air and froze in place, then fell to the ground with a "thump".
When they looked closely, they saw that it was a strange insect nearly half a meter long and as thick as a thumb. It had a slippery body and a suction cup-like mouthpart on its head. It was twisting in pain due to being frozen.
"It's a shadow leech." Meng Yanlang recognized it immediately. "Edelweiss Rabbit, well done."
Li Xiu patted his chest with lingering fear, and gratefully hugged the snow rabbit that had made such a great contribution and gave it a kiss.
Jiang Qing also breathed a sigh of relief.
"There are so many bugs in this damn place!" Zhao Peng cursed, took out a strong insect repellent spray and sprayed it into the surrounding air and the edge of the pool. The pungent smell spread, which seemed to temporarily dispel some of the prying eyes in the dark corners.
This little episode made everyone's nerves even more tense.
The few of them advanced more cautiously, always paying attention to the "moth carpet" above their heads, the spider webs under their feet, the ripples in the pool, and the cracks in the rocks.
After walking for about ten more minutes and passing a huge stalactite covered with dark crystals, an instrument similar to a compass in Meng Yanlang's hand suddenly made a slight buzzing sound, and the pointer pointed sharply to a cave entrance half-hidden by several huge rocks in the front left.
"Found it." Meng Yanlang's eyes flashed with excitement, and he lowered his voice, "The energy readings are abnormally high. Behind the hole in front is likely the abnormal node we are looking for."
The entrance to the cave is not big and you can only pass through by bending over.
The faint blue light shining from inside was much brighter than outside, even a little dazzling, and was accompanied by a low, strange humming sound, as if some energy core was pulsating inside.
Meng Yanlang said: "According to the description and energy characteristics, this should be a stable energy node that has not been over-exploited. The sample we need is inside it."
He quickly pulled out four palm-sized metal boxes from his backpack. Made of a special material and inscribed with complex circuits, he distributed them to the four people. "The energy in the node core is powerful and requires special containers to isolate and stabilize it. We must act quickly and evacuate immediately after collecting it."
The energy fluctuations emanating from the cave entrance caused the totem on Jiang Qing's wrist to slightly heat up. Zhu Tianba also seemed a little anxious, making a low "kang kang" sound in his throat.
Zhao Peng and Li Xiu also felt an invisible pressure, as if the air had become sticky.
The closer they got to the cave, the more cautious they became.
Large spiritual beasts such as the Iron-Armored Bull and the Undead Rat were collected by Zhao Peng and Meng Yanlang.
There is a dead end at the end of the cave, but it is not completely closed. There is a way to go up from the bottom.
There is an underground river passing below, and there is a huge blue stone in the middle of the river that blocks the water. The water can only flow through the two sides of the stone.
Jiang Qing walked close to the wall, with Zhu Tianba on her shoulders. She lowered her head and glanced down.
There are about four or five instruments guarding the huge blue stone, scanning it non-stop.
She guessed that it should be the main energy debris of KDOG.
"It's almost there, right in front." Meng Yanlang's voice came from the front.
Jiang Qing stepped over a piece of gravel and was about to jump to the next place when Zhu Tianba on his shoulder suddenly moved.
It leaped lightly and moved towards the rock under the cave at an extremely fast speed.
"Zhu Tianba!" Jiang Qing's heart beat suddenly, and he wanted to let go and reach Zhu Tianba.
However, its jump was so sudden that Jiang Qing was too late to catch it. She tried to forcibly recall Zhu Tianba through the seal of contract, but felt a strong resistance.
There were very limited fulcrums on the cliff, and after a while, her figure began to shake and she almost fell down.
If the three people in front had not heard her scream and turned around and hurriedly grabbed her.
Fortunately, her scream did not alarm other creatures in the valley.
"puff--"
At the same time, a muffled sound came from below.
Jiang Qing looked down and saw Zhu Tianba landing steadily on the stone.
She let out a long sigh.
"You guys collect first, I'll go down to see Zhu Tianba." Jiang Qing said to them.
Damn it! If she doesn’t beat him up when she finds him, she won’t trust Jiang!
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