Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 267 The snipe and the clam fight
Song Xian used the Qi Concealing Talisman and followed both sides two or three hundred feet away. Seeing that both sides were fighting fiercely and the man was almost exhausted, he quietly came behind the monster, and with a thought, the Netherworld Cold Flame broke out of his body and ignited a dark green flame around him.

He opened his hands, bent his palms, and joined his fingers together. As the flames on the surface of his body dissipated, a ball of palm-sized dark green flame appeared between his hands.

This monster has thick skin and extremely tough body, and ordinary magic can hardly cause a fatal blow to it. Song Xian has waited for this opportunity with great difficulty, so he naturally will not hold back. Therefore, the first move he makes is the most powerful magical power he possesses.

A palm-sized Netherworld cold flame shot towards the monster, and the bone-chilling cold spread rapidly, even the air seemed to have turned into frost.

The monster also sensed Song Xian at this time, but it was fighting with the man at a critical moment, and there was not much time left, so it did not turn back to deal with him.

The Netherworld Cold Flame shot into the black fog surrounding the monster, and wherever it passed, the black fog was immediately cleared away.

Although the Netherworld Cold Flame emits cold air on the surface, it is essentially fire.

Flames themselves have a certain restraining effect on these evil corrosive poisonous gases, not to mention the powerful strange fire.

Thick corrosive black fog enveloped the monster's body, isolating it from the inside and outside and playing a protective role. Therefore, the monster did not feel the extremely cold air emitted by the Netherworld Cold Flame at first. By the time the black fog around it was washed away by the Netherworld Cold Flame and the cold air spread throughout its body, it was too late.

The Netherworld Cold Flame was already close to it. The moment the palm-sized flame touched its body, the dark green flame had already ignited on its body, first from the back of the contact surface, then expanding larger and larger, and soon covering its entire body along its back.

The monster let out a hoarse and painful cry and fell straight down from mid-air, trying to dive into the swamp and extinguish the dark green flames covering its body.

With a loud thud, the monster sank into the swamp, but the cold flames of the underworld still enveloped it.

Its body melted visibly under the burning flames.

The monster's huge body kept surging in the swamp, roaring in pain, but the dark green flames clung to it like maggots on its tarsus.

The reason why this monster is the most difficult to deal with is, firstly, its body of iron and steel, and secondly, the black corrosive poisonous mist emitted from its body.

And both of these are restrained by the Netherworld Cold Flame.

No matter how tough its body was, once it was enveloped by the Netherworld Cold Flame, it would be unable to withstand it. As for the black fog, it was even more suppressed by this strange fire and posed no threat at all.

The monster churned and tossed in the swamp for a long time before gradually stopping. Most of its flesh and blood had been melted by the dark green flames.

Upon seeing this, Song Xian immediately activated the Xuantian Ronghuo Jue technique, and a ball of red light condensed in his palm.

The Netherworld Cold Flame seemed to be summoned, and the dark green flame broke away from the monster and swarmed into the red light ball in his palm. As he clasped his hands together, it disappeared.

The toad monster was dying at this time. He flipped his hand and took out a black banner from the storage bag. A blood-shadow ghost shot out from the banner, pounced on it, opened its bloody mouth, exposed its fangs, and bit down.

The monster was already dying, and its black skin, as hard as steel, had long since melted under the burning cold flames of the Netherworld.

After being bitten by the monster, the flesh and blood of the monster gradually shrivelled. After a while, the monster's flesh and blood were sucked clean, leaving only a skeleton.

The ghost raised its head and showed a strange expression. It licked its lips with its blood-red tongue, as if it was enjoying a delicious meal and was still not satisfied.

Seeing this scene, Song Xian was shocked.

He had never seen a ghost with such a human expression. He always thought that these ghosts were like puppets, but now seeing the ghost's expression, he realized that he was wrong.

The ghosts in the black banner are completely independent living beings. Judging from the way they are enjoying themselves, they obviously have human characteristics.

Song Xian became increasingly worried about whether these ghosts would turn against him in the future.

However, now is not the time to worry about these things. With a thought, the ghost turned into a ray of light and returned to the black banner.

After dealing with the monster, he jumped out of the swamp, only to see the man who was trembling with the monster floating on the surface of the swamp not far away.

Its body had turned black, and some parts had even begun to rot, obviously caused by the poisonous fog attacking its heart.

Song Xian flashed in front of him. The man was not dead at this time. He was still conscious. He looked at him straight as if he saw a life-saving straw. His eyes were filled with eager pleading and his mouth made hoarse coughing sounds. His expression seemed to be saying, save me.

This person's body has been completely corroded by the poisonous gas spewed by the monster. If he were in a safe place, he might take him away and help him recover from his injuries. After all, saving a foundation-building cultivator might bring him great rewards in the future.

But in this forbidden area, dangers are everywhere, the weak are preyed upon by the strong, and it would be unwise to bring a burden with you.

He waved his hand, releasing the spiritual power in his body, and took the storage bag on the man's waist into his hand. He was about to leave, but then he thought that he had created an enemy by taking the man's storage bag while he was in danger. If the man was lucky enough not to die, he might retaliate against him when he recovered in the future.

With this in mind, he decided to go all out. He took out a black banner from his hand, and the monster inside shot out and bit the man's neck.

When the ghost was sucking the man's flesh and blood, Song Xian's consciousness entered the storage bag and he found the crystal-clear Zhixuecao beads like white jade at first sight, and he was delighted.

Of course, he knew the function of Zhixuecao and knew that it was one of the main ingredients of Huanglong Dan to break through the bottleneck of the initial stage of foundation building.

After reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, you may encounter a bottleneck in your cultivation every time you advance.

Especially at levels from the early stage to the middle stage of foundation building, and from the middle stage to the late stage of foundation building, nine out of ten people will encounter bottlenecks.

At this time, relying solely on practice is no longer enough, and some special methods must be used to break through the bottleneck.

Relying on external forces and taking pills that help break through bottlenecks is the most common way in the cultivation world.

Of course, even with the help of elixirs, it can only increase the chance of breaking through the bottleneck, but it does not necessarily guarantee that the bottleneck can be broken through.

There are many different opinions in the practice world about the bottleneck of practice, and there is no unified conclusion yet. The more popular opinion is that the spiritual energy in the world is not pure and contains certain "toxins". This "toxin" does not mean it is really poisonous, but something with side effects.

Just like there is a small amount of mud in the water.

If ordinary people drink unboiled river water for a long time, they will eventually develop symptoms of urinary stones because the mud and sand in the water will settle in the body for a long time.

The same is true for cultivators. They absorb and refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for a long time, but cannot completely eliminate the toxins in the spiritual energy. When it accumulates to a certain level and reaches a certain critical point, a bottleneck will occur, and the Linghai acupoint will no longer be able to store the refined spiritual power.

In order to break the bottleneck, one must eliminate the "toxins" accumulated in the body. The elixir that breaks through the bottleneck uses this principle. It can purify the spiritual energy in the body and make it more refined.

In addition to relying on external forces such as elixirs, some cultivators will take unconventional approaches and engage in a life-and-death battle in order to break through bottlenecks.

Some people are able to break through the bottleneck of their cultivation in a life-and-death battle. As for why this is so, there is also a set of explanations.

For example, when a cultivator is in a life-and-death struggle, his spiritual power will be exhausted and he will often be seriously injured. In this way, the toxins accumulated in the body will be inadvertently discharged, thus achieving the effect of breaking through the bottleneck.

As for the real reason, no one knows whether it is as the mainstream of the cultivation world speculates.

Because not everyone can break through the bottleneck using these methods.

It works for some people, and doesn't work for others. But what is certain is that with the help of external forces and taking pills specifically designed to break through bottlenecks, there is indeed a certain probability of achieving a breakthrough.

This alone is enough for the monks to try at all costs.

Song Xian is now in the initial stage of foundation building, and he doesn't know whether he will encounter bottlenecks in the future. Now that he has obtained this Pearl Ganoderma Snow Grass, he is prepared for any eventuality.

In addition to the Zhixuecao, the storage bag also contained tens of thousands of spirit stones, two or three magic weapons, a book on martial arts techniques, and some pills.

After the man's blood and flesh were sucked clean, he put away the black banner and flew away without staying for long.

The invisibility talisman he had just used had lost its effectiveness when he cast the Netherworld Cold Flame. Although he still had some invisibility talismans on him, he didn't want to waste them, so he didn't use them again.

As for the invisibility talisman, it cannot be used during flight because the monk needs to circulate spiritual power when flying and release the spiritual power to form a shield.

The invisibility talisman can only hide the body shape, but once the spiritual power is activated, it will be revealed.

He fled all the way, keeping his eyes and ears open. When he met someone, he would rather go around in a circle and stay away from them than take the risk of traveling with them.

In this forbidden area, his foundation-building level was not good enough. If you randomly pick someone, their cultivation level would not be lower than his.

Therefore, he would try to avoid others if he could.

The journey was uneventful and after a long time, he finally arrived at the agreed location. It was a bare mountain with black rocks all over the mountain.

When his escape light fell, Apu and Han Yuan were already waiting there.

"Fellow Daoist Song, why are you so late? I hope nothing happened?" Apu asked.

He was not concerned about Song Xian, but was worried about complications and afraid that he might encounter something on the way and get into trouble.

The three of them acting together are like riding in the same boat. If Song Xian offends a powerful cultivator, he will inevitably be implicated, so he must find out clearly.

When Apu asked the question, Han Yuan looked as if nothing had happened, but his eyes were still looking at him, and it was obvious that he was also quite concerned about this issue.

"It's okay. I was far away. On the way here, I encountered a fight and was afraid of being implicated, so I took a long detour." Song Xian would not tell anyone about obtaining the Zhixuecao. The three of them were originally a temporary collaboration and their relationship was not that close.

Especially towards Han Yuan, he has always been wary of him, but because of Apu's guarantee, he had to associate with him temporarily.

"That's good, let's go!"

The three of them took off into the air and headed southwest.

…………

As the sun sets, night falls.

In this isolated forbidden area, ugliness and darkness quietly descended in the deserted corners.

In front of a black pool of water, two men and women were fighting with a vicious turtle monster.

The woman flipped her hand and took out a green scroll, and spat out several streams of blood from her mouth, sprinkling them on the scroll.

The green scroll shone brightly, and green silk threads shot out from the scroll, like green snakes wrapping around the body of the evil turtle and binding it tightly.

Black flames were rising from the evil turtle's body, but after being entangled by these green silk threads, the black flames around it grew bigger and bigger. As the green silk threads became tighter and tighter, the evil turtle monster whimpered and howled, and blood marks appeared on its tough body. Those green silk threads cut into its body, as if to cut it into pieces of flesh.

The monster twisted its body and struggled against the green silk thread, taking advantage of this opportunity.

A tall and handsome man shouted loudly, and a bloody glow shone around him. In his hand, a blood-red long sword condensed and slashed down.

The blood-red long sword cut the black wolf in half.

The woman felt relieved and immediately retracted the green silk thread wrapped around the monster, with a look of joy on her face.

The man also put away the bloody sword, and the blood energy around him had disappeared. He flashed to the side of the woman and asked with concern: "Junior sister, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. This Black Flame Demon Turtle is really tough. Fortunately, my senior brother has mastered the Blood Light Treasure Technique. Otherwise, it would not be so easy to kill this beast."

"If you hadn't borrowed this Green Light Talisman from Master to suppress the evil turtle's Black Flame ability, I wouldn't have been able to succeed so easily." The man looked at her affectionately. "To be honest, this is all thanks to you. Even my Blood Light Treasure Secret was obtained by you begging Master for it. I owe you so much."

The woman said happily, "My uncle taught me the Blood Light Treasure Secret because he saw that you are gifted and have a bright future. Let's not talk too much. Let's go in and see if the treasure is inside."

"Okay, I'll listen to you." The man took the woman's hand and jumped into the black pool. Diving to the bottom, he saw a gorgeous black lotus swaying inside, with a faint black light blooming all over its body.

The two were overjoyed. The man pulled the thing up by the roots, put it into his storage bag, and jumped out of the pool.

"Great! With this Pearl Mysterious Crystal Lotus, Senior Brother has gathered all the materials to refine the Xuanyuan Pill. As long as the Xuanyuan Pill is refined, Senior Brother can reach the Golden Core Realm."

"Yes! That's great, thanks to your help."

"Brother, as long as..." The woman was filled with joy, but before she finished her words, her expression suddenly changed. She looked down and saw a bloody sword blade piercing her chest.

It turned out that the man was behind her, and a bloody sword blade condensed in his palm, directly piercing her chest.

"You...you." The woman turned around with difficulty, looking at the man with horror on her face, blood gushing out of her mouth.

She couldn't believe it. Why would this man who spoke sweet words to her every day, cared about her in every way, and obeyed her every word suddenly attack her from behind? Were all the words and things he said before false?

"Why...why...why?" The woman fell down limply, one hand tightly grasping the man's sleeve, staring at him intently.

"I've had enough of you." The man no longer had the gentleness he had before, and his face was full of indifference.

"You idiot, you really think that old thief is your uncle. You are just a distant descendant of his family. Why do you think that old thief is so nice to you? You are just a pawn of his. The skills you practice are to serve as his substitute."

"Only in this forbidden place, isolated from heaven and earth, can he be unable to sense your situation and possess you."

"If I kill you, that old thief will probably feel heartbroken for a while! After all, you've been his substitute for years, and it's all wasted like that. I'm sure he'll be sad and angry."

The man said this with a smile on his face: "Ha! I really want to see the old thief's expression when he finds out that I killed you. He thought I knew nothing. I already knew the loopholes in the skills he passed on to me. Only you, idiot, are still in the dark."

"Get rid of it sooner rather than becoming that old thief's puppet. You should die without regrets now."

(End of this chapter)