Black Mist
Han Jiang thought she had a lot to say, but the more she thought about it, the less she could say anything.
She'd made up her mind. She was going home; there was someone more important waiting for her on the other side.
Just like when she was writing an essay in school, she finished writing and counted the numbers. It seemed a bit short. She looked left and right, but couldn't figure out where else she could add more.
That's fine, let it be.
She folded the letter several times, packed it carefully, and handed it to Cang Jingye.
"That should be enough for him to sleep for two days. I'll leave the Demon Lord's affairs to you for the next two days," Han Jiang said to Cang Jingye. "Don't peek at the letter."
Cang Jingye was puzzled: "Don't worry. But I don't really understand. It's just a trip to the desert, why is it like you're not coming back? And Cang Jingqi, he even cast a spell on you to prevent you from leaving the Demon Palace." To be honest, Cang Jingye once thought that the two of them had lost their minds after falling in love, but she still didn't say it to their faces.
Han Jiang said, "After all, the situation in the desert is unknown and very dangerous. Maybe he's worried about me."
Besides the necessities, Han Jiang borrowed a magical artifact from the Demon Palace, which could provide spiritual power and guidance when using a flying talisman. She would return it to Cang Jingmo after reaching the desert.
They set off at night and arrived at Feng Huo Ying Shuang Lou before dawn.
Summer is almost here, but it's not cold.
The guards at Feng Huo Ying Shuang Lou recognized Han Jiang and took her to see Gui Xu.
Hanqi had been there, but hadn't found any useful information. Due to the urgency of the situation, he went ahead to provide support to the desert.
Gui Xu stayed in the attic, searching through mountains of "historical artifacts" for anything related to the desert, but still found nothing.
The guards on the sixth floor couldn't go up, so they could only send Han Jiang to the stairwell.
The items in the attic were completely out of order. Once things were placed haphazardly, they became crowded and overflowed, tumbling down the stairs with a "whoosh," with a few items on each step.
Hanjiang called Guixu's name several times, but no one answered; all that could be heard was the sound of something being rummaged through.
She followed the sound and walked inside, careful not to step on the ritual implements under her feet, and straightened the rickety wooden frame as she went. Among a pile of pottery, Guixu was engrossed in studying them, several earthenware jars already smashed.
"What are you doing?" Han Jiang moved aside the things blocking her way, made room for herself, swept the dust off the ground, and sat down next to Gui Xu.
Gui Xu recognized the voice as Han Jiang's, or perhaps she had already guessed that Han Jiang would come.
"You know that there's a buried kingdom beneath the desert, right?"
Han Jiang nodded: "What country is this relic from?"
"No, it was just close to that time. The kingdom was destroyed overnight, and there was no record of it even among my mother's belongings." Gui Xu stopped hiding anything; Han Jiang already knew everything he needed to know.
Han Jiang briefly recounted to her the events she had experienced in the desert illusion, attempting to connect them with the runes and patterns engraved on these pottery jars.
"Was the Spirit Gathering Altar created by your mother?" Han Jiang asked.
After thinking it over, Gui Xu said, "This is what she told me: everything in this world that cannot be explained is created by her. The records currently available at the Spirit Gathering Altar were all written by her. I am only responsible for organizing them. As you said, the kingdom beneath the desert once used the Spirit Gathering Altar. Either my mother experienced that era, or my mother was just the recorder of the Spirit Gathering Altar."
“From your description, she sounds like a creator goddess,” Han Jiang said.
Gui Xu waved his hand dismissively: "When I pass on what I've learned to the next generation, I'll say the same thing, so they'll think I'm a god."
Upon hearing this, Han Jiang instantly understood the true value of that statement: it was practically worthless.
The biggest thing the mother and daughter have in common is that they both like to talk nonsense and can't distinguish between useful information and ramblings.
Let's call that woman Gui Qu for now. Gui said that this is the only name she remembers. That woman often changes her name, and "Gui Qu" is the most fitting name for her at the moment, because she has indeed "gone".
There are countless banned books, all signed by different people, but they are all basically written by that woman.
She would even change her handwriting to avoid being scolded, in order to prevent being found out that some of her stories were nonsense.
When the Vermilion Bird Pavilion initially identified the forbidden books, Gui Xu scoffed at them. She knew that many of the spells in those forbidden books were fake, and that Gui would fabricate some herself. But she never imagined that anyone would actually believe them and practice them, ultimately suffering a qi deviation.
"How do you know which ones are real and which ones are fake?" Han Jiang asked.
"The part that I edited is the real part. The rest was all made up by that woman. She has been traveling across the continent for hundreds of years. She is old and doesn't tell the truth much."
Han Jiang never imagined that the so-called banned books were just a makeshift operation.
When Guixu returned to adopt Guixu, he had already been traveling the world for many years, and Guixu's limited memory did not mention anything about what lay beneath the desert.
Han Jiang: "The black fog in the desert is similar to the legendary Black Sea invasion. If the illusion is indeed what happened back then, we can use the spirit-gathering altar under the ocean to reverse it and dispel it."
“I and several elders from the Four Continents Sect went in to investigate, but we couldn’t find the ancient castle that Wen Xu mentioned, nor could we find the origin of the black mist. The black mist seemed to have appeared out of thin air from underground, but we couldn’t find its source even after digging three feet into the ground. That darkness that devours spiritual energy is different from the Spirit Gathering Altar.”
The Spirit Gathering Altar transfers spiritual energy, but the black mist directly absorbs it, so it has no idea where the spiritual energy goes and it simply disappears.
Isn't there no solution? Han Jiang picked up a clay pot at random. The inner wall was painted with colors that were almost invisible: a young girl was sitting on an altar.
Is it that princess? I remember in the story the princess was pushed onto the altar by the king.
"Did you select this earthenware pot?" Han Jiang held up the pot and handed it to Gui Xu.
“Yes, who can tell which country or period this is from?” Gui Xu said. “Many countries sacrifice young girls; I’ve personally witnessed several. Besides, aren’t you talking about a spirit gathering altar? This looks more like a sacrificial altar.”
Gui Xu's words were light and unreal, as if the dead meant nothing to her.
She understood Han Jiang's expression: "Do you think I'm cold-blooded for saying this? I've lived for many years and seen too much life and death. Some things I can change, but many more are beyond my control. But as time goes by, people's thoughts change, and that is true salvation."
That story is too old, so nobody knows what to do.
The story is too short, and the details are vague. When the voice told Han Jiang the story, it glossed over many things in just one sentence. But for people at that time, a single sentence represented decades, their entire lives.
"Have you looked at all the paintings on the earthenware pot?" Han Jiang composed herself and began to pay attention to the earthenware pot in her hand again.
“I’ve seen it. I’ve already compiled part of it based on the letter you gave me. Now that you’ve come here, I know more details. These are a few that I find helpful. They roughly match what you said about the murals you saw underground.”
The four paintings are as follows: the first is an island on a cloud, the second is an island glowing, the third is an island at the bottom of the sea, and the last is a sea.
"Is that a cloud? Or the sea? It's all murky, I can't tell," Gui Xu said.
The order in which Han Jiang saw it in the underground palace is the same.
But the actual order should be reversed: first there is chaos, then chaos envelops the earth, the light of day descends upon the continent, all things come to life, and chaos sinks to the bottom.
According to the legend told by the Queen, the ocean was the barrier that led to the beginning of this world.
"Where does the light of day come from?" Han Jiang muttered to herself. When she repelled the Black Sea, she had followed the princess's instructions and channeled spiritual energy into a formation—that formation…
I can't remember where Hanjiang came from; I have to go to the desert to find the underground palace.
"Let's go together. Such a grand scene deserves to be recorded in history." Gui Xu immediately activated the teleportation array.
Following Guixu, there's no need to take a flying talisman and then a boat; she has plenty of ways to get from one place to another.
In the time it takes for Hanjiang to fall asleep, he has traveled from Fenghuoyingshuanglou to Manzhou City.
While complaining, Gui Xu brushed the dust off his body: "The black mist is consuming more and more spiritual energy. The teleportation wasn't this slow before. The spiritual energy was interrupted several times during the teleportation process."
Most of the residents of Manzhou City have been relocated, and now, apart from those who come to fight against the black mist, no one else will go to Manzhou Island.
Han Jiang paid his respects to Elders Chao Yu and Qing Juan.
Shu Yue and the people from the Vermilion Bird Pavilion went out on patrol to rescue those lost in the desert. Most of the residents of Manzhou lived in Manzhou City and had already been relocated, while a small number were scattered in the desert and had no ability to withstand the black fog.
The current base is also on the verge of collapse. The base's barrier is being held up by the three elders, Chaoyu, Qingjuan, and Wenwan. With the number of wounded increasing, Wenwan has to divert her attention to taking care of the sick, making the maintenance of the barrier increasingly difficult.
Storms and wild beasts took turns attacking, and Hanqi and Cangjingmo were always at the forefront.
The new sect leader of Chicheng was unable to leave, and Hantian also stayed behind at the Four Provinces Sect, while the other four elders came to the desert.
The black fog was more severe than expected. Wen Xu said that the system warned her every day: "We are approaching the edge of the world and are facing collapse. Please return immediately!"
"As soon as I enter the black mist, the system's voice will explode in my ears, repeatedly warning me to return," Wen Xu said with a smile.
The moment she saw Han Jiang, she understood without him needing to explain: she would take Han Jiang home with her.
Han Jiang sat obediently next to Wen Xu, and everyone gathered in the room to discuss countermeasures.
It is fairly certain that the next target is the sacrificial array in the underground palace.
Gui Xu drew no fewer than dozens of sacrificial formations on the blueprints and asked Han Jiang to identify them one by one. Han Jiang couldn't tell if they were the same or different, and he couldn't try them one by one, which made Gui Xu very frustrated.
Without the Tranquility Bead, the desert is even more unstable than before, making it impossible to venture deeper.
"We could try Sleep Grass," Han Jiang suggested. "Sleep Grass can suppress the dissipation of spiritual energy and reduce the possibility of spiritual energy being devoured by the black mist."
"What if we encounter danger? Hand-to-hand combat?" Chao Yu asked. "Besides, the dosage of Sleep Grass is hard to control. What if we fall asleep in the desert? Wouldn't that be even more dangerous?"
Gui Xu: "I heard someone say it's difficult? There are no problems for me. I'll figure out a way to suppress the sleep grass's power, ensuring that it can both suppress the dissipation of spiritual energy and also be used for self-defense."
The masterful use of sleeping grass in the Xuanzhou Mausoleum originated from Guixu, and Hanjiang had great confidence in Guixu.
Wen Xu watched with a look of satisfaction as Han Jiang discussed countermeasures with the others. He didn't speak, which was unusual, but simply followed the final task assignments.
"I remember someone initially just wanted to lie around and slack off?" Wen Xu joked before setting off. It was her turn to go out on patrol.
Feeling a bit embarrassed, Han Jiang said, "Be careful."
"You've truly connected with everyone here now, are you really going to leave?" Wen Xu asked, having gathered the talismans and weapons.
"Yes. I am very grateful to everyone I have met here. It is because of them that I want to try to live again, and true life is waiting for me in another world."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
