After passing through the last dense, ancient forest, the scenery suddenly changed.
Without the obstruction of towering ancient trees, the view suddenly opened up, only to be filled with an even more terrifying sight—dense vines, like countless dark green pythons, intertwined and coiled together, forming a natural barrier that blocked the way forward.
These vines are about the thickness of an arm, and their surfaces are covered with thorns about an inch long. The tips of the thorns have a bluish luster. Occasionally, a few drops of viscous liquid drip from the thorns and land on the decaying leaves on the ground, instantly corroding small pits and emitting pungent white smoke.
"Hiss—the poison in these vines is so potent!" Stone instinctively took a half step back, his black iron armor burning slightly from the pungent smell.
A sweet, cloying fragrance filled the air, yet it carried a subtle numbing sensation. Jiang Li held her breath, her brows furrowed: "Not only is it poisonous, but this fragrance can also disturb one's mind. If one smells it for a long time, one's spiritual energy will become disordered."
Further into the forest, the distant roars of demonic beasts could be faintly heard, sometimes deep and thunderous, sometimes sharp and piercing. Judging from the sounds, at least three or four demonic beasts were lingering nearby, and their auras were not weak. They had obviously been attracted by the commotion.
"We need to find a way out quickly," Jiang Li whispered. "If we get blocked by these vines and attract a few more demonic beasts at the Dao Inquiry Realm, we'll be trapped like turtles in a jar."
Xiao Chen nodded, his gaze sweeping over the vine barrier. He noticed a glimpse of something deeper through the gaps in the vines—a patch of colorful flowers with strange shapes. Some had serrated leaves, while others had black lines along the edges of their petals, all exuding an aura of "danger."
The three cautiously approached the vine barrier, and as soon as they got close, they saw more than a dozen corpses scattered on the open ground in front of the barrier.
Some of the corpses were completely black, clearly poisoned; some were bound together with vines like dumplings, their bones crushed; others had distorted expressions, as if they had suffered great pain before death, with black blood flowing from their seven orifices—clearly, they were all cultivators who had tried to break through the barrier but failed and perished.
"These vines and flowers can't be destroyed?" Xiao Chen noticed that there were broken magical artifacts scattered next to several corpses, obviously someone had tried to split the vines with brute force but failed.
“We can’t force our way through.” Jiang Li pointed to a severed vine fragment. “Look, new shoots have quickly sprouted from the broken end, and the toxicity seems to be even stronger.”
Sure enough, at the broken end of that section, pale green new vines were visibly sprouting, their sharp, eerie blue sheen even more intense than the surrounding vines.
Just then, a low murmur of discussion came from ahead.
Following the sound, Xiao Chen and his companions looked and saw that a number of cultivators had gathered on an open space to the left of the barrier. These were the same forces they had seen in Gancheng before—people from the Pan Shi family of the Southern Region, representatives of the Central Region Loose Cultivator Alliance, cultivators from the Qingmu Alliance of the Eastern Region, and even a few figures dressed in black robes, whose auras were obscure yet unfathomable.
“These ‘Netherworld Vine’ and ‘Soul-Severing Flower’ are symbiotic; forcing your way in is suicide!” An old cultivator with a dark complexion tapped his cane.
With a grave tone, he said, "The poison of the Netherworld Vine can corrode bones, and the fragrance of the Soul-Severing Flower can bewitch the soul. The most deadly thing is that they work together—as soon as you are entangled by the vines, those flowers will spray poisonous mist, and even immortals will find it difficult to survive!"
"What should we do? We can't just stay here!" someone said anxiously. "The treasure's aura is inside. If we delay any longer, someone else might get there first!"
"I heard these two exotic plants are afraid of fire? How about we try attacking them with fire?"
"We tried it!" someone immediately retorted. "Last night, a fire-type cultivator who had just completed his tribulation set off a huge fire, but instead of burning them down, it made them grow even more wildly and attracted a demonic beast at the Dao Inquiry Realm, which almost wiped us all out!"
The discussion grew increasingly chaotic, with everyone chiming in, but no one could come up with a reliable solution. Their faces were filled with anxiety and resentment.
Xiao Chen and the other two didn't get involved. Instead, they found a secluded corner and listened quietly.
“There are quite a few people here.” Jiang Li’s gaze swept across the crowd, and she suddenly lowered her voice, “Moreover, there are more cultivators at the Dao Inquiry Realm than we expected.”
Xiao Chen followed her gaze—
The patriarch of the Southern Rock Family, the old man in black iron armor, stood calmly at the front of the group with an aura as deep as an abyss. He was clearly at the Dao Inquiry Realm.
The gray-robed old man from the Central Region Loose Cultivator Alliance held a string of skull prayer beads in his hand. They looked ordinary, but they could make the surrounding cultivators subconsciously stay away. His aura fluctuations far exceeded those of the Tribulation Transcending Realm.
And then there were those men in black robes. One of them, a tall man, stood casually, yet a layer of white frost was faintly forming on the ground beneath his feet. The pressure he exuded was even stronger than that of Xuan Yun…
A rough count revealed seven or eight auras of the Dao Inquiry Realm!
"This is troublesome." Stone scratched his head. "With so many powerful old guys, if they start fighting over it, will we even get anything good?"
"It's hard to say." Xiao Chen's gaze fell on the vine barrier, and he seemed to be deep in thought. "Even if they have high cultivation levels, they may not be able to get through this. This exotic plant barrier may be the biggest test."
Just then, several more figures arrived, namely Gui You, Zhao Wu, and Qian Duoduo.
Gui You stared at the barrier, black mist churning, seemingly plotting something. Zhao Wu frowned slightly, clearly also observing the characteristics of the strange plant. Qian Duoduo took out a jade bottle, poured out a few crystal-clear pills, and distributed them to his attendants: "Take the antidote pills first, lest you be bewitched by this awful fragrance."
More and more cultivators gathered, even those geniuses who originally acted alone came, and the open space in front of the barrier gradually became crowded, and the atmosphere became more and more solemn.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the tangled vines and eerie flowers, their gazes filled with both fear of danger and longing for the treasure within.
Xiao Chen took a deep breath, the sweet fragrance in the air growing stronger. He circulated his spiritual power to resist the numbing sensation and whispered, "It seems that if I want to get inside, I have to deal with these strange plants first."
Jiang Li nodded, her fingertips gently stroking the hilt of the rusty iron sword: "Let's see who can find their weakness first."
Shi Tou stared at the Dao Inquiry Realm cultivators in the crowd, clenching his fists—there were so many powerful guys; if a fight broke out later, he had to protect his senior brothers and sisters.
The forest breeze carried the pungent smell of poison ivy and the sweet fragrance of flowers and grass, blowing through the gathered crowd. No one spoke, yet everyone could feel the tension in each other's hearts.
The aura of the treasure was growing clearer and clearer behind the barrier, as if it were silently beckoning them.
But the barrier of alien plants before them was like a venomous python, blocking everyone's way, and no one dared to take a step.
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