Nan Zhi sat cross-legged on a "small island" of less than twenty square meters, a small, clear spiritual energy cluster floating before her.
The fist-sized sphere of light emitted a gentle, bright glow, illuminating her surroundings with perfect clarity.
This was an exceptionally bizarre place.
The ceiling was a fleshy membrane about half an inch thick, constantly twitching. Through the membrane, she could faintly see massive, sturdy bones wrapped in thick, bright red flesh.
What lay beneath Nan Zhi's feet was no "small island" either, but rather the shell of an undigested giant turtle. It floated precariously inside the fish's stomach, with decomposing minced meat soaking in an unidentified, sour, foul-smelling liquid below.
After a moment, the spiritual energy inside Nan Zhi finished a Great Circulation. She opened her eyes and exhaled softly.
“How has this fish not swum to the end of the waterway after all this time?”
Surely she hadn't hitched a ride with a fish that had no sense of direction?
It had been more than half a month since she had willingly entered the giant fish's mouth.
Fortunately, the stomach of the giant fish she chose was large enough to accommodate her, and the trapped air solved her urgent need for oxygen.
Moreover, since there was no shortage of demon beasts at the bottom of the water, she would go out every three days to hunt them. She would extract their swim bladders to replenish her oxygen and harvest underwater spirit herbs along the way.
As she continued to descend, Nan Zhi discovered two other spirit herbs besides the Spirit Swallowing Grass.
The first was the Life-Sorrow Flower. Its stems were thread-like and weak, resembling dodder, and its leaves looked like two large hearts joined together. According to the 《Spirit Plant Cultivation Guide》, this flower mostly grew in places with rotting corpses. Influenced by spiritual energy, the seeds would take root in the decaying flesh, maturing once every three hundred years. It was one of the supplementary ingredients for refining beauty-retaining pills and longevity pills.
The second was the Bone-Prostrate Wood. Its appearance was similar to withered peony branches, completely leafless, and its color was an eerie, translucent white. At first glance, it looked like human skeletal joints stripped of flesh. Eating it strengthened the bones, and long-term consumption would make one's bones and muscles incredibly robust. However, if consumed in large quantities, bony organs resembling spurs and tails would grow from the knuckles, spine, and other areas.
The deep waterway was filled with either demon beasts attracted by the fragrance or water ghosts and floating corpses, which actually played to Nan Zhi's advantage.
During this period, she cultivated at fixed times every day, then went out to slay monsters, level up, harvest spirit herbs, and search for oxygen. She did not feel lonely at all; instead, she managed to find a bit of fun in it.
“Whew—”
Nan Zhi stood up, stretched her muscles on the back of the turtle shell, popped a Qi-Supplementing Pill, and then pulled out a dozen gold taels to diligently begin shaping boxes.
These two herbs, the Bone-Prostrate Wood and the Life-Sorrow Flower, were even more delicate than the Mutated Spirit Swallowing Grass. Once harvested, they had to be preserved in sealed gold boxes, or they would completely lose their medicinal properties.
Whenever Nan Zhi was free, she would use gold to shape boxes, which served as one of her few forms of entertainment.
Boom—
A somewhat muffled rumble echoed from outside the fish's belly. It sounded very far away, like an explosion. Nan Zhi twitched her ears and carefully extended her divine sense, but she found nothing.
She did not know what species the giant fish she was temporarily residing in belonged to, but it had a fierce temperament and rampaged through the waterway every day.
Sometimes, while inside the fish's stomach, Nan Zhi could even feel a strong impact pushing her back.
Fortunately, it was barely tolerable.
Nan Zhi tilted her head, listening intently for a while, but still heard nothing else.
The depth here had already far exceeded the limits of human exploration.
How could there be the sound of an explosion?
For it to be heard so clearly from such a distance, the commotion must not have been small.
Nan Zhi fell into thought.
The giant fish had been traveling downward for over half a month. Because of Nan Zhi, it had not been affected by the Spirit Swallowing Grass. Instead, it remained energetic, moving steadily toward the depths of the underground cavern.
But the waterway was incredibly long. Had it been anyone else, their remaining patience might have been entirely worn away by this journey with no apparent end.
For Nan Zhi, however, there was nothing she could not endure.
She even optimistically wondered if she would reach the center of the earth if she stayed in the fish's belly for another year or half a year.
...
On the day after the explosion, looking at the seventy-three lottery tickets she had painstakingly saved up during this period, Nan Zhi could not help but perform three rounds of ten-pulls.
【Shaoxing yellow wine × 1, medicine mortar (Blue Quality) × 1, Beauty-Retaining Pill Recipe × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 1, ordinary mud ox statue × 1, night pearl × 1, Spirit Beast Talisman (Green Quality) × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 5, night pearl × 1】
【Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 1, Snake-Bear Pill Recipe × 1, medicine pestle (Blue Quality) × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 1, medicine hoe (Blue Quality) × 1, Spirit Beast Talisman (Green Quality) × 1, spirit beast pill × 5, spirit beast pill × 1, spirit beast pill × 1, inedia pill × 5】
【Inedia pill × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 3, medicine scissors (Blue Quality) × 1, spirit beast pill × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 5, gold ingot × 1, spirit beast pill × 5, Spirit Beast Talisman (Green Quality) × 1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi × 3, inedia pill × 2】
The good news was that there was no more Yin Niangzi Brand Stinky Tofu.
The bad news was that Yin Niangzi had switched to pickling radish kimchi.
Just who was this Yin Niangzi to the game developers?
And did they think she couldn't tell? Although a few Blue Quality items had dropped, they had actually just split up a single herb-harvesting tool set and sold it in pieces!
Even things like Shaoxing yellow wine and an ordinary mud ox statue could be mixed in.
What a bunch of scammers.
Nan Zhi held a jar of crisp radish kimchi, chewing on it with a series of loud crunches to vent her anger, before checking the Green Quality Spirit Beast Talismans.
【Spirit Beast Talisman (Green Quality) × 3: Crafted by Foundation Establishment disciples of the Spirit Beast Sect for practice. Can be used to form a contract with a demon beast. Once the contract is established, the contracted beast can reside within the Spirit Beast Talisman. If the contracted beast harms its master, its soul will shatter, and its demon power will dissipate, resulting in death. (The higher the quality, the greater the chance of successful contracting.)】
Wasn't this the Spirit Beast Contract that often appeared in cultivation novels?
Nan Zhi suddenly remembered something and retrieved a half-broken, large red-skinned gourd from her system backpack.
This was a trophy she had seized from Ma San. It had later been gnawed on by the insect swarm during her battle with Huaguzi, leaving it unable to cast spells, which had made her feel incredibly heart-stricken.
Nan Zhi shook the large gourd in her hand, and two small beasts popped out from the mouth of the gourd, one after the other.
The smaller one was the golden, squeaking Corn, while the larger one was a red-haired little hedgehog with a peculiar color.
This gourd was actually quite a treasure. Although half of it was broken and it could no longer spray acid, it could still hold living creatures. Before diving into the water, Nan Zhi had hidden Corn inside it.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak!”
As soon as Corn saw Nan Zhi, it recognized her. It waved its two paws and squeaked at her incessantly, as if complaining that she had locked it in the dark, pitch-black gourd for so long.
“Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak!”
On the other hand, the little red hedgehog had never seen Nan Zhi in her "Ma Guniang" form. Seeing the terrifying surroundings, it shrank into a tight ball, and large, round tears began to plop down from its wide eyes.
Rate on N.U.
