There's Something in the Mist

Qin Ran did not only put the bubble membrane on himself when he entered this mushroom space, he had wrapped an extra layer of bubble film around himself from the very beginning, that is, before entering the fog, when he persuaded others to wear bubbles. After all, if you worry that microorganisms in the fog may get into your nose, wouldn't you worry that they might get into your skin too?

And the facts here prove that the microorganisms here can really get into the skin...

The mushroom in the very middle of the mushroom space constantly emits spores outwards, dissolving the fog and opening up this hemispherical space here.

And it was precisely because the air here contained spores that when Chu Batian poked the bubble on his head and tried to breathe, the spores in the air entered his body along his breath, attached to his internal organs, muscles, blood vessels, and then quickly took root and sprouted, with rhizomes spreading and mushrooms growing out.

Chu Batian's whole person, including his flesh, magic power, all became nutrients for the spore growth.

When the mushrooms were fully grown and had sucked him dry, he died...

Jian Yuanjie was the first to exit the mushroom space, and the remaining four people watched Chu Batian's figure slowly retreat back into the fog.

Before they retreated into the fog, they saw that Chu Batian had disappeared, he had turned into a human-shaped mushroom tree!

Standing in the fog, white and misty, the few people felt as if they were separated from the world... Bai Ruoxi sobbed lightly, and the four men were silent.

After a good while, Jian Yuanjie said, "Let's go!"

The few were about to move, but Su Changqing suddenly came to Qin Ran and said to Qin Ran, "The mushroom spores can dissolve the fog, then the spores are such a terrible thing, what about the fog? What horrors does the fog contain?! You have been shrouded in bubbles all this time, did you know from the beginning?"

Hearing this, the others reacted and thought back, the spores could kill a Golden Core cultivator in an instant, so what about this fog?

They became nervous, some peering closely at their exposed skin to see if anything unusual had appeared; some entered inner vision, checking their body for anything unusual, some tried to cover their palms by pulling down their sleeves...

And Jian Yuanjie looked at Qin Ran with murderous eyes.

He must have deliberately not said anything, in order to kill me, he said to himself.

"I don't know, I'm just being cautious," Qin Ran replied with an unchanged expression.

Recalling his understanding of Qin Ran, Su Changqing slowly calmed his emotions, then nodded and said, "I'm not suspicious of you either, I believe in Brother Qin's character... I was just agitated just now, I apologize to you."

"It's fine," Qin Ran replied.

"But since there may be things in the fog, I would ask Brother Qin to use some magic to surround us with bubbles too," Su Changqing sincerely requested.

"That's a small matter," Qin Ran said, and with a raise of his hand, he summoned several bubbles and put the remaining four people inside, the bubbles clinging tightly to their skin without leaving any gaps.

"Thank you," they expressed their thanks to Qin Ran.

Su Changqing and Qin Ran were both rational and intelligent people. They restrained their emotions and quickly settled down, then reorganized the team, determined the direction, and led the few people further into the deeper fog.

It was not known whether it was because there were fewer people now, or because someone had died. The five-man team looked much thinner than the previous six-man one, with a bleak and desolate air rising from the bottom of their hearts. The suffocating feeling shrouded by this fog became more intense, and the vague pressure weighed down several times more heavily on the five men's hearts than before.

"Clunk!"

"Clunk!"

"Clunk..."

It was not known when their footsteps had become very loud, clearly audible to their ears, echoing in the fog.

Gradually, they felt it was noisy, their footsteps were too loud!

At a certain moment...

"Who?!" Su Changqing, who was walking at the very front, suddenly shouted lightly.

Who?

Qin Ran's scalp tingled, there were still people in this broken place?

He hurriedly operated his eye technique to the maximum to look around...

There really was someone!

He saw a flash of a figure in the thick fog ahead, running deeper into the fog.

"Someone there?" Jian Yuanjie couldn't see anything and asked in panic.

"Is that a person?" Qin Ran asked.

Su Changqing glanced back at Jian Yuanjie and Qin Ran, and only said, "Catch up!"

That look in his eyes?

Qin Ran's heart skipped a beat. Su Changqing's eyes were meaningful, but with the fog in between, he didn't know if he was seeing things. But Su Changqing seemed to have really looked at him meaningfully.

Why?

He was very puzzled.

But he had no time to think much about it. Su Changqing at the front had already accelerated to chase the figure in the fog, so he could only catch up. And the others didn't think too much and just ran after them too.

"Is it imprudent to suddenly give chase?" Qin Ran asked from the middle of the team.

"Should we just walk so deathly silently? Get no feedback at all, the surroundings only unchanged fog?! Just keep walking like this?!" Bai Ruoxi retorted.

Qin Ran looked at the others. Although they didn't speak, it was very clear that they agreed with Bai Ruoxi. After walking in this eternally unchanging fog for so long without getting any information about the Extreme Demon Willow...

The team had even lost a member. If it wasn't that they all had resilient dispositions, who knows if they would have gone crazy long ago. Now that there was a change, they would definitely want to chase and check it out no matter what anyone said.

Seeing that they were all like this, although Qin Ran felt uneasy, he couldn't say much more, and could only secretly strengthen his vigilance and ensure that he was in the middle of the team.

They were all Golden Core cultivators, and their speed was actually very fast. Even though they deliberately slowed down to ensure the integrity of the team, it didn't take long for them to catch up with that figure.

Still at some distance, Qin Ran could only see that it was a figure. Su Changqing had already spoken up, "Fellow brother ahead, we mean no harm. Can we talk for a bit?"

The figure ahead made no response, only kept running.

Su Changqing tried persuading a couple more times, but to no avail. Then he pointed his sword forward and slashed out a silver-gray sword aura that went through the fog like a whip, disappearing into the fog and slashing that figure.

"Hiss ah..."

A strange inhuman shriek suddenly came from ahead, and then that figure disappeared out of thin air.

That figure seemed a bit familiar. Qin Ran frowned and asked, "Where did that figure go?"

Su Changqing didn't answer, while the others naturally couldn't speak about it since they hadn't even seen anything.

Without stopping, the team quickly followed Su Changqing's footsteps to the spot where the figure had vanished. Su Changqing walked a couple steps forward like he saw some important clue, and suddenly squatted down.

The others behind stirred and hurriedly surrounded over.

Qin Ran came up beside Su Changqing and saw what was in front of Su Changqing, then his heart jumped violently.

That was a section of...

tentacle?!

The thing looked extremely like an octopus' tentacle, pitch black, with the thickness of an adult's arm. There was viscous mucus on it, one side smooth, the other covered in barbs.

Moreover this tentacle section was still wriggling on the ground, seemingly still alive.

"Wasn't that a person?" Qin Ran couldn't help asking, "How could it be... a tentacle?"

"Could that be what we were chasing just now?" Jian Yuanjie also asked.

"It should be..." Su Changqing said, pointing at where the tentacle was cut, "My sword intent is still lingering over there, I slashed this off just now."

Qin Ran looked over, seeing blue-black blood flowing at the cut surface, the corrosive blood dissolving the ground. There seemed to be some inexplicable sharpness at the wound.

Sword intent?

There was a saying that passed down among sword cultivators - sword aura is easy to train, but sword intent is difficult to comprehend!

So this Su Changqing actually had sword intent?

Qin Ran couldn't help taking another two glances at him, not bad to be a genius from the Lingnan Immortal Sect.

Just then Su Changqing's expression suddenly changed to shock as he loudly warned, "Be careful!!"

Qin Ran immediately sensed something as well as he looked forward...

"Hiss..."

From within the deep fog ahead an enormous, terrifying, and extremely oppressive black shadow was coming towards them.