The Pastoral Life of a Cultivation Master

Chapter 3030 Carrots are a Must

"Give it to him!" Qian Ying knew that if he wanted the horse to run fast, the fodder had to be supplied properly.

Qian Zhenghao was monitoring Ouyang Nan and his group on his behalf, so the honey still had to be given.

After all, while Qian Zhenghao had extra honey, it was all rightfully his. If they wanted him to join the expedition team, they needed to provide an additional bottle of honey. Whether he was poisoned during the expedition or not, it was only right that the honey ended up in Qian Zhenghao's hands.

Qian Wantong accepted the honey from Qian Ying, bowed respectfully, and then turned to leave.

Qian Ying watched Qian Wantong leave, feeling a pang of reluctance. Although he spoke generously, he couldn't bear to give away even more honey that could enhance cultivation. She really wanted to organize a group to go back to the beehive and get another batch.

Thinking about it, it's actually quite possible. Once the exploration is complete and we continue our journey, we might have a chance to harvest some honey.

After receiving the red thread fruit and honey, Qian Zhenghao leisurely walked back towards the entrance of the forest passage.

He was secretly pleased; he hadn't known until he tried, and he'd actually managed to pry a bottle from the elder's hand. He was truly impressed with himself. However, this might be a one-time thing; he might not have the chance again.

When Qian Zhenghao entered the entrance to the forest thicket passage, Ouyang Nan, Chen Mo, and the other three were already prepared and ready to depart as soon as he arrived. Furthermore, just to be on the safe side, they had placed many planks behind the defensive structure, as they planned to stay by the lake for a whole day. If they didn't have a place to defend themselves, they would have to dig tunnels, and these planks would come in handy then.

After Qian Zhenghao arrived, they all crawled into the defensive structure and began to push forward along the path through the bushes. Behind the defensive structure, a large bundle of wood was being dragged, but fortunately, it was tied very well, so it not only did not hinder the dragging but also would not fall apart while being pulled.

Every time Qian Zhenghao entered the bush passage, his muscles would twitch. He was terrified of being bitten by a red venomous snake more than twice, and once he almost died. Therefore, his muscles would tremble when he entered the passage area.

Chen Mo was pushing the defensive structure aside when he noticed Qian Zhenghao's body trembling uncontrollably. He was puzzled, unable to understand why the guy was shaking so much. Fortunately, the trembling didn't seem to affect the movement of the defensive structure, so he didn't say anything.

Propelled by the five people, the defensive unit moved quickly through the bushes and gradually arrived at the area where the first line of red appeared.

"Everyone be careful. Activate your own qi and blood protective shields to guard against the attack of the First Line Red," Ouyang Nan shouted to the people inside the defensive formation.

"Yes." Everyone activated their qi and blood defenses, preparing to attack them if the crimson diamond entered their defenses. Chen Mo also pretended to activate his qi and blood protective shield, since Qian Zhenghao was among them, so he had to go through the motions.

The number of red eels outside gradually increased as they tried to burrow into the defensive structure, but the structure was so thick that they couldn't even bite through it. They could only climb up and try to break the structure with their bodies.

However, because the defensive structure's branches were very thick, breaking them was not easy. Furthermore, the defensive structure was moving rapidly, making Yixianhong feel even more numb.

In addition, Chen Mo used his divine sense to quietly shake off some of the red streaks that had climbed onto the defensive structure, preventing them from damaging it. This resulted in the defensive structure being damaged very little in the passage.

After exiting the bush passage, the entire black soil area was about two hundred meters wide. Because it was night, only a line of red occasionally crawled across it, and the red bees did not appear. Therefore, the defensive body ran along the middle directly towards the lake area in the distance.

The entire Red Bee area is about five kilometers long, so the team pushing the defensive structure forward arrived near the lake in less than half an hour.

The black soil has disappeared in this area, and the path underfoot has been replaced by a stone-paved road.

However, the red-haired crickets seem to be quite fast, and they appear from time to time on the stone-paved road.

"There are still some Red-haired creatures around here. Let's keep pushing the defensive structure forward and take another look at the lakeside," Ouyang Nan said to the group after seeing the Red-haired creature crawling across the ground through the small observation port.

Upon hearing this, the others naturally did not object and continued to push the defensive structure forward.

The defensive structure moved more easily on the stones than on the soil, since the stone-paved road was smoother, and the weeds growing in the gaps between the stones provided some lubrication, making it easy to push.

As the defensive structure moved forward, Yixianhong's figure gradually disappeared. By the time they reached the lakeside, Yixianhong had vanished without a trace.

Ouyang Nan and the others emerged from the defensive structure and looked at the vast lake in front of them, which appeared dark in the night. They wondered if there was any danger in the water.

The valley remained dark as always, with no light source in sight, making it impossible to see anything clearly. Fortunately, Ouyang Nan and his companions had brought their own lighting equipment, which allowed them to observe the general condition of the lake water.

The lake area is vast, extending to the cliffs on both sides of the valley, and stretches for several hundred meters. Under the lights, the water was completely still, revealing no danger beneath. The area around the lake was barren, devoid of any vegetation.

Ever since Chen Mo approached the lake, he had felt a vague sense of danger about the area. This danger likely came from the lake itself, but he didn't know what was in the lake that made him sense it.

Ah, if only his divine sense hadn't been suppressed, he could have used it to investigate what was in the lake, instead of standing by the lake and discovering danger but being unable to see its source.

The three-and-a-half-meter range of divine sense observation was of no use even when walking to the edge of the lake. All that could be felt was that the lake was very deep and cold, and there was nothing in the lake. Nothing else could be sensed.

"Elder, look here!" Ouyang Nana shouted as everyone was observing their surroundings.

The light in my hand shone on the remaining buildings on the lakeside.

“This should be a bridge pier,” Ouyang Nan said after shining a light on it and observing it for a while.

Ouyang Nan's tone wasn't very firm, mainly because the building was rather strange. It was no more than four meters high and three meters wide, half on the shore and half extending into the water. Furthermore, the section on the shore stretched for nearly twenty meters, while the section extending into the water was constructed from massive blocks of bluestone.

The entire building is covered with slabs of bluestone, resembling a semi-oval shape, half on the shore and half in the water. There are no other protrusions on the building; it is entirely made of bluestone. On both sides of the building, there are cylindrical columns about one meter thick leaning at an angle, also half in the water and half on the shore.

The cylinder is made of rock, but it feels different from ordinary rock to the touch. Furthermore, the top of the cylinder is encased in a stone mortar, obscuring its appearance. The mortar tightly encases the cylinder, embedding itself into both sides of the building.

The last time Chen Mo came here, he didn't examine the building closely. Now, it seems Ouyang Nan was right; it should be a bridge pier. However, upon approaching the lake and using his divine sense to investigate, he discovered that the stone pillars were very long, and the underwater structure was also quite long, which his divine sense couldn't penetrate at all.

Sure enough, a range of three and a half meters of divine sense was really not enough.

Chen Mo used his divine sense to observe the interior of the building on the shore again, but found that there seemed to be an array on the entire building, which blocked his physical observation and prevented his divine sense from extending into the interior of the building to investigate.

"Huh? Aunt, look here, there seems to be a round hole." Ouyang Ruoxi carefully observed the building and found a round hole on the side of the building near the shore. When the light shone in, it was about a meter deep.

The round hole is cone-shaped, wider on the outside and narrower on the inside, with an outer diameter of about 20 centimeters. The inside of the hole wall has patterns.

Chen Mo observed the patterns on the cave walls; they were carved raised patterns, each about five millimeters high. Under the light, the entire pattern appeared harmonious and beautiful, these raised lines combining to form a lovely design within the deep cave.

Reaching out to touch the protrusion at the entrance of the hole, it felt very smooth, like marble. But who would be so bored as to create such a deep hole here, and even carve raised patterns? Scanning these patterns with divine sense, it was discovered that they were patterns of a kind of formation, but what kind of formation it was, it was impossible to tell from this cone-shaped hole that was only about a meter deep.

Perhaps Chen Mo had never encountered this kind of array pattern before; it must be an array pattern that he had never learned.

It seems that this sect called the Supreme Sect has a solid foundation; its mastery of formations alone surpasses the formation knowledge on the Transmission Jade Talisman.

"Could this deep hole be a place to stick your arm in?" Qian Zhenghao looked at the cone-shaped hole and, in a moment of great intelligence, reached out to probe inside.

"Be careful!" Ouyang Nan stopped her and advised, "We don't know anything, it's better to be cautious."

"Haha, Captain, don't worry, it's just a small stone cave, what's so surprising about it? Look, there are no traps or anything special inside, don't worry," Qian Zhenghao said immediately with a smile.

However, despite saying that, Qian Zhenghao did not continue to stick his arm in to probe. Instead, he took a step back and continued to observe the round hole with the flashlight in his hand.

When Ouyang Nan and the others saw Qian Zhenghao's reaction, they just smiled and didn't try to stir things up. After all, he was now a member of a team, and listening to advice was a good thing.

"Amo, you and Ruoxi go down this side to explore the bottom of the cliff and see what's there. Nana, Qian Zhenghao, and I will go down to the other side of the cliff and see what's there, then we'll meet up here again." To save time, Ouyang Nan divided the group into two teams, using the bridge pier as the center, and they explored along the lake shore.

She knew Chen Mo's strength and that being on Ruoxi's team should be safe. Her team, on the other hand, had Nana and Qian Zhenghao, so they could handle any danger and were relatively safe as well.

"Okay." The group nodded in agreement and then began to explore the cliff faces on both sides, using the building as the center.