Sitting and forgetting longevity

Chapter 1943 Bloodsucking Locust

Li Shan laughed and said, "Are you trying to lure us over there?"

Liu Qinghuan raised the firefly lantern high, but the light could not penetrate the thick black fog, only expanding the view in the foreground slightly.

The three decided to ignore the strange noises for the time being and continue on their way.

With the Mist Demon killed, the eyes on those stone pillars seemed to have died as well, and the eerie sense of being watched disappeared, making this journey unusually smooth.

Li Shan sighed, "Luckily, Brother Liu, you have a phoenix. Otherwise, given our current situation, we wouldn't even have a chance to fly into the sky, let alone deal with that fog demon!"

The danger of the Black Mist Tide lies precisely in this: cultivators who have lost their magical power are like birds with clipped wings, unable to cope with threats from the sky.

Before long, they finally emerged from the stone pillar forest and arrived at the edge of a forest.

The fog seemed to have thinned out a bit, but it also allowed them to see more clearly. The forest before them was like a scene from a nightmare, with trees that grew twisted and bizarre, their branches and leaves bared as if they were about to pounce at any moment.

Liu Qinghuan couldn't help but frown: he couldn't sense the slightest bit of life in the plants, but there was no death in them either.

Li Shan clicked his tongue and said, "This forest doesn't look normal at all. I really don't want to go in, but it seems like there's no other way to go."

From afar, the five-colored stone mountain towers high at the edge of the boundless forest, tempting greedy people to approach.

"Then let's go!" Tian Nu said, a thick-backed longsword appearing in his hand.

Li Shan said, "I'm very curious, where did you get this knife, and the meteor hammer from before, from?"

Surely Tian Nu isn't like Liu Qinghuan, the only one here completely devoid of magic power?
Tian Nu showed him the storage bag at his waist: "Made by the weapon-refining master Jin Jin, this storage bag can be used without magic power, only spirit stones. I originally bought it just in case, but I didn't expect to actually use it."

"How could I not have thought of this!" Li Shan clapped his hands in frustration.

"I heard that the master was once trapped in a secret realm where he couldn't use his magic, and he crafted many similar magical treasures. It seems that after I get out of here, I'll have to ask for one or two of them."

Liu Qinghuan kept her eyes down, not saying a word.

As they talked, the three of them entered the forest, where the ground was covered with withered branches and leaves that crunched underfoot.

The rustling sounds in the woods increased, and there were many poisonous insects hiding under the leaves; one could easily get bitten if one wasn't careful.
The little bird perched on the branch, though thin and frail, showed no fear of people. Instead, it stared at them with its reddish eyes, unblinking.

With a single stroke, Tian Nu cleaved a suddenly appearing black shadow in two. Only after confirming that the creature was beyond dead did he turn the body over for a closer look.

"...A wolf beast?"

"Aren't wolves usually in packs? How come there's only one?"

Li Shan cautiously looked around to make sure there were no other wolves hiding behind the trees, then went over to examine the corpse and quickly noticed something was wrong.

"This wolf seemed to have lost a lot of blood before it died, so there wasn't much blood left to bleed out..."

He examined the fur again: "There are many red spots on its body, like marks left by mosquito bites. It seems there are quite a few poisonous insects in this forest."

"So, this wolf was forced into this situation," Tiannu said.

Liu Qinghuan's expression turned serious: "Poisonous insects are hard to defend against, everyone be careful!"

The forest was very dense, with branches and leaves overhead blocking out the sky, and weeds and tree roots growing on the ground, making it very difficult to walk.

Suddenly, a rustling sound like rain came from the sky, but no rain actually fell.

The three were puzzled when they saw something falling from the branches and leaves, landing headless and faceless. "Oh no, it's a bloodsucking locust!" Li Shan exclaimed, quickly patting his clothes.

But there were too many bloodsucking locusts. If you swatted one away, two more would appear, and if you swatted ten away, a hundred more would appear. And once they landed on a person, they would desperately try to burrow into their clothes.

"Don't run around, come here right now!"

Liu Qinghuan could no longer hide her magic power and quickly erected a defensive shield. Li Shan and Tian Nu hurriedly crawled inside.

He also hurriedly helped the two of them clean the bloodsucking locusts off their bodies. In just a short while, dozens of locusts had burrowed into their flesh and were frantically sucking their blood.

The bloodsucking locusts, which were originally as thin as silk threads, were now plump and round from eating, while Li Shan and Tian Nu's faces visibly turned pale.

"I, Li, have roamed the cultivation world for so many years, but I never expected to fall from grace and be bullied by dogs, to be made so miserable by a few bloodsucking locusts!"

Li Shan stripped down to his undergarments, and upon closer inspection, one could see numerous bloodsucking locusts had been slaughtered from his back, waist, abdomen, hands, and feet.

He gritted his teeth and spent a lot of effort to finally tear off a strip.

If you use too much force, the bloodsucking locust will break in two, leaving its head embedded in your flesh; if you use too little force, you won't be able to pull it out.

Encountering the bloodsucking locusts left the three feeling powerless, as the heads of these poisonous insects were as sharp as thorns. Even if they had not lost their magic power, the best way to deal with them was to avoid getting them on their bodies.

After a flurry of activity, the three of them finally managed to clean themselves off, but the bloodsucking locusts that had survived on the ground still relentlessly tried to jump onto them.

Fortunately, Youxuan was there. The Netherworld Phoenix frantically pecked at the locusts, one after another, and soon finished them all.

But at this moment, the defensive shield had turned almost black, because it was covered with countless insects that were constantly gnawing at it.

Liu Qinghuan picked up the phoenix and said, "My magic power can't last much longer, so we have to leave here quickly!"

Li Shan and the other two had already dressed, so the three of them immediately set off and ran forward.

The branches on both sides swayed incessantly, and the bloodsucking locusts fell like rain, sending chills down one's spine.

It wasn't until the three of them ran out of the woods and climbed over a slope that they finally got rid of those terrible poisonous insects.

Afterwards, they encountered packs of blue-eyed blood wolves, packs of iron-backed pigs, and two-winged flying tigers, but none of them were as terrifying as the blood-sucking locusts.

The journey has been fraught with difficulties, almost every step has been a struggle.

The three of them walked for ten days, but it felt like they hadn't gone very far. The forest still stretched as far as the eye could see, and they didn't know how many dangers it hid.

On this day, the three arrived at a valley, drove away the giant bear family, and decided to rest for a while.

"I'm exhausted!" Li Shan stopped by the stream in the valley and scooped up a handful of water to wash his face.

Tiannu also went over and washed the bloodstains off his thick-backed longsword: "Finally, I can rest for a bit. My hands are sore from all the chopping these past few days."

After traveling for many days, all three of them looked weathered, and their clothes were stained with blood and dirt, so they really needed to wash themselves.

Liu Qinghuan took out a protective array and walked towards the valley entrance: "I'll go set it up, otherwise I won't be able to rest peacefully tonight."

When he reached the valley entrance, he saw only a short, thin monster, its body seemingly shrouded in a transparent membrane, peeking out from behind a tree.

Liu Qinghuan's gaze lingered on the scene without pausing for a moment, but she simply raised the firefly lantern in her hand slightly, wanting to see what this guy was up to.

(End of this chapter)