Journey to the West: Cultivation Begins at Jindou Mountain

Chapter 341 Ancient Wood Centipede
"Disaster in southern Xinjiang?"

"Yes, my lord. This is what the Poison Witch said in his letter: a poisonous miasma of unknown origin has suddenly appeared in the southern borderlands and is constantly devouring all living things that can be seen."

In the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion of Baiyujing, Tianjizi, upon hearing the report from his subordinate, looked up at the dome above, which resembled countless stars. He made some calculations with his hands, and then looked at the sand table on the table beside him, which was shrouded in mist and had images of mountains and rivers flashing by.

With a flick of his sleeve, Tianjizi quickly captured the scene in the clouds and mist, eventually arriving at a majestic and magnificent mountain range.

At this moment, various colors of miasma were constantly drifting around these mountains. Upon closer inspection, tiny Gu worms could be seen fluttering their wings within the miasma.

Although these miasmas progress slowly, they are constantly devouring the life force of all living things they come into contact with, except for plants and trees.

Tianjizi witnessed a fawn that was foraging for food being accidentally touched by the poisonous miasma. In the blink of an eye, its life force was drained, and it was enveloped by the poisonous miasma before it could even utter a scream. In just a few moments, it turned into a pile of white bones.

Tianjizi's expression turned slightly solemn as he formed a hand seal. The Tianji Grand Array surrounding the sand table began to emit a burst of light and slowly began to operate.

As array patterns flickered on the ground, the scene on the sand table began to change constantly, as if it were following the trajectory of heavenly secrets in search of something.

A moment later, the scene in the cloud-shrouded sand table stopped on a seemingly ordinary mountain landscape.

Tianjizi frowned slightly, about to use his Heavenly Secrets Technique again to investigate, but at that moment, the mountains and rivers began to tremble.

"boom!!!"

As the tremors grew stronger, the entire scene on the cloud-shrouded sand table seemed to begin to vibrate as well!
Tianjizi's expression changed, and his hand seals shifted rapidly. The constantly shaking cloud sand table quickly stabilized under the operation of the brightly lit Tianji Grand Array.

"What an amazing thing!"

Their Heavenly Mystery Pavilion practically emptied its coffers from the past thousand years before, under the guidance of the Dao Lord, it took them several years to refine this Heavenly Mirror Sand Table.

With this sand table, no demon in the mortal world can escape its sight. It truly monitors the world and can even investigate the underworld.

But even such a treasure was shaken by something from the Southern Frontier, drawn by the workings of heaven.
"Interesting. There is such a big guy in the southern border region. I had overlooked it before."

Tianjizi, who was about to cast another spell to fight this unknown 'culprit', suddenly heard a clear voice coming from behind him. He quickly turned around and bowed to the person behind him.

"Master Dao, I never expected to have alarmed you."

Niu Yi waved his hand, slowly walked to the sand table, activated the Five Elements Dao, spread his five fingers, and slapped towards the mountain peaks on the sand table.

At the same time, above the mountains in southern Xinjiang, the sky seemed to suddenly darken, and the dark clouds quickly gathered into a huge vortex black hole.

Soon, a gigantic hand, seemingly descending from the heavens, emerged from the vortex black hole and slammed down directly onto the mountains below!
"boom----"

As if sensing the threat, a loud noise came from the mountainous area, and a multi-legged centipede with a body like an ancient tree, shrouded in seven-colored miasma, and two thousand feet long, rapidly broke out of the ground.

"Roar!!!" As soon as the centipede appeared, it coiled up on the mountain peak, baring its fangs and roaring to the sky. The surrounding seven-colored miasma and the Gu worms within it also flew out quickly, enveloping the thousand-foot-long giant hand.

But then they saw the five elements flowing on that giant hand, and all the miasma could not get close even a little bit.

The centipede wanted to bite the giant hand, but before it could get close, it was frozen in place by the five elements flowing in the giant hand's palm. It could only roar as it watched the giant hand grab its body, carry it away from the mountain peak, and pull it into the hollow, where it disappeared.

At this moment, the swirling dark clouds in the sky slowly dissipated, and the sky returned to calm, leaving only a devastated land and the four ancestral witches trembling upon witnessing this scene.
On the other side, inside the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, Niu Yi's palm emerged from the cloud-shrouded sand table, and in his hand appeared a seven-colored ancient wooden centipede that was constantly struggling.

Tianjizi watched this scene with awe. It had been a long time since he had personally witnessed the Dao Lord's actions, and now the Dao Lord's methods were indeed becoming more and more unfathomable.

The location of Baiyujing was tens of thousands of miles away from the Southern Frontier, yet, facing such a terrifying demon, their Dao Lord, even while inside Baiyujing, easily subdued the demon and brought it back. This was truly divine skill.
Looking at the menacing, seven-colored ancient wooden centipede in his hand, Niu Yi casually tapped its head. Soon, a jet-black fragment, shimmering like dust, shot out from the centipede's body, landed in Niu Yi's hand, and quickly grew larger, transforming into a fragment of a sword blade.

"Sure enough, it's that thing again. Could it be that person did it on purpose?"

As Niu Yi pondered this, he saw the fragment leave, and the ancient wood centipede immediately wilted. Niu Yi then turned and left with the fragment and the centipede, heading towards the outside of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.

"Tianjizi, send a message to the Poison Witch to return to Baiyujing. Although the poisonous insects will fall into a deep sleep after losing the control of the Ancient Wood Centipede, keeping them around will always be a problem."

"This time, let the Poison Witch take those children to the Southern Frontier to retrieve those Gu worms."

Upon hearing this, Tianjizi immediately bowed and agreed.

"Yes, I will obey the Lord's decree."

After receiving the message from Tianjizi, the Poison Witch quickly returned to Baiyujing with Xiaohai, and then led the group of children from Baiyujing who were on their first adventure to the Southern Frontier.

This sudden crisis in the southern border was quickly resolved by Niu Yi. Meanwhile, the victorious general has also arrived outside Baiyujing.

"Strategist, are you sure that ahead lies the legendary abode of immortals, the Jade Palace? And that our master is also there?"

A tall, imposing man dressed in general's armor sat astride a magnificent horse, followed by hundreds of black-armored cavalrymen.

Beside the man, a scholar waving a feather fan was stroking his beard and nodding.

"Indeed, Your Majesty, the legendary Jade Palace is located on this very mountain, but we mortals are unable to see it."

“But Your Majesty is different. As the Son of Heaven, you are qualified to go to Baiyujing to pay your respects. As long as you are sincere in your intentions, Baiyujing will be right before your eyes.”

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Sheng nodded slightly, leaped off his horse, and stepped onto the ground. He took a few steps forward, bowed respectfully, and said loudly:
"I have long heard that Baiyujing is the abode of immortals, and Zhuangzi has come here to pay my respects!"

(End of this chapter)