Nan Zhi sat cross-legged on a "small island" that was less than twenty square meters. Floating before her was a small, clear cluster of spiritual energy.
The fist-sized ball of light emitted a gentle, bright glow, illuminating everything around her with clarity.
This was an extremely strange place.
The ceiling was a layer of fleshy membrane about half an inch thick, pulsating incessantly. Through the membrane, she could vaguely see massive, thick, white bones encased in bright red flesh.
The "small island" beneath Nan Zhi's feet was not land at all, but the shell of a giant turtle that had yet to be digested. It floated precariously in the giant fish's stomach, its lower half submerged in rotting, shredded meat and an unidentified, sour-smelling acidic liquid.
After a short while, once the spiritual energy within her had completed a full cycle, Nan Zhi opened her eyes and exhaled softly.
"It's been so long. Why hasn't this fish reached the end of the waterway yet?"
I didn't pick a fish with no sense of direction for a hitchhike, did I?
More than half a month had passed since she had voluntarily entered the fish's mouth.
Fortunately, the stomach of the giant fish Nan Zhi had chosen was large enough to accommodate her, and the accumulated air had solved her immediate problem of breathing.
Additionally, since there was no shortage of demon beasts at the bottom of the water, she would head out every three days to hunt giant fish, using their bladders to replenish her oxygen and collecting underwater spirit herbs along the way.
During her continued descent, besides Spirit Swallowing Grass, Nan Zhi had discovered two other types of spirit herbs.
The first was the Life-Sorrow Flower. Its stems were thread-like and fragile, resembling dodder, while its leaves looked like two large hearts joined together. According to the 《Spirit Plant Cultivation Guide》, this flower mostly grew in places where corpses rotted. Influenced by spiritual energy, the seeds would take root in decaying flesh and mature once every three hundred years. It was one of the auxiliary ingredients for refining beauty-retaining pills and longevity pills.
The second was Bone-Prostrate Wood. Its appearance was similar to withered peony branches, and the entire plant was leafless. Its color was an eerie, translucent white that, at first glance, looked like human skeletal joints stripped of flesh. Eating it strengthened the bones, and long-term consumption would make the skeleton incredibly robust. However, if taken in large quantities, bony organs similar to barbs or tails would grow from the knuckles and spine.
The waterway was deep and dark, filled with nothing but demon beasts attracted by the fragrance and the floating corpses of water ghosts, which had turned out to be a boon for Nan Zhi.
Since then, she had spent her time cultivating at fixed intervals every day, then heading out to kill monsters to level up, gather spirit herbs, and find oxygen. She didn't feel lonely; instead, she had found a bit of fun in the routine.
"Mm—"
Nan Zhi stood up and stretched her limbs on the back of the turtle shell. She took out a Qi-Supplementing Pill and popped it, then pulled out over a dozen gold ingots and diligently began shaping them into boxes.
Bone-Prostrate Wood and Life-Sorrow Flowers were even more delicate than Mutated Spirit Swallowing Grass. Once harvested, they had to be preserved in sealed gold boxes, or they would completely lose their medicinal properties.
Thus, whenever Nan Zhi had a spare moment, she would use the gold to make boxes, which served as one of her few forms of entertainment.
Boom—
A muffled, massive sound echoed from outside the fish's belly. It sounded quite distant, like the noise of an explosion. Nan Zhi's ears twitched, and she carefully extended her divine sense, but she discovered nothing.
The giant fish she was currently residing in was of an unknown species, but it had a fierce temperament and charged recklessly through the waterway every day.
Sometimes, while inside the fish's stomach, Nan Zhi could even feel the strong force of impact pushing against her back.
Fortunately, it was just barely tolerable.
Nan Zhi tilted her head, listening intently for a while, but she still came up empty-handed.
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 this distance, the commotion couldn't have been small.
Nan Zhi grew thoughtful.
The giant fish had been traveling downward for over half a month. Because of Nan Zhi, it hadn't been affected by the Spirit Swallowing Grass; instead, it was full of vitality as it moved steadily toward the depths of the underground hole.
However, the waterway was long. Anyone else might have had their remaining patience exhausted by this journey with no end in sight.
But for Nan Zhi, there was nothing she couldn't endure.
She even optimistically guessed that if she stayed in the fish's belly for another six months or a year, she might actually reach the center of the earth.
**
The day after the explosion occurred, Nan Zhi looked at the seventy-three lottery tickets she had worked so hard to save up over this period. She couldn't resist and performed three consecutive 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, 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 pills ×5, spirit beast pill ×1, spirit beast pill ×1, inedia pills ×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 pills ×5, Spirit Beast Talisman (green quality) ×1, Yin Niangzi Brand Radish Kimchi ×3, inedia pills ×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 Yin Niangzi to the game developers?
And don't think she couldn't tell—although a few blue-quality items had appeared, they were actually just an entire herbalist tool kit sold separately!
Things like Shaoxing yellow wine and an ordinary mud ox statue actually managed to get mixed in.
Scam artists.
Nan Zhi held a jar of fresh radish kimchi and chewed on them with a loud "crunch, crunch" to vent her frustration before checking the green-quality Spirit Beast Talismans.
【Spirit Beast Talisman (green quality) ×3: A practice piece by a Foundation Establishment disciple of the Spirit Beast Sect. Can be used to form a contract with a demon beast. Once the contract is formed, the contracted demon can reside within the Spirit Beast Talisman. If the contracted demon harms the contract master, its soul will shatter and its demonic power will dissipate, leading to death. (The higher the quality, the greater the chance of a successful contract.)】
Isn't this just the Spirit Beast Contract that often appears in cultivation novels?
Nan Zhi suddenly remembered something and took a damaged red-skinned gourd from her system inventory.
This was a trophy she had seized from Ma San. Later, during her battle with Huaguzi, it had been gnawed on by the insect swarm. Since it could no longer cast spells, she had been quite heartbroken over it.
Nan Zhi shook the large gourd, and from the opening, two small beasts emerged, one large and one small.
The small one was Corn, golden all over and squeaking loudly. The larger one was a red-furred little hedgehog with a unique color.
This gourd was actually quite a treasure. Although half of it was broken and it could no longer spray acidic water, it could still hold living creatures. Before Nan Zhi went underwater, she had hidden Corn inside.
"Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak!"
As soon as Corn saw Nan Zhi, it recognized her and waved its two paws, squeaking incessantly. It seemed to be complaining about her locking it in the dark gourd for so long.
"Squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak squeak!"
The red-furred little hedgehog, on the other hand, had never seen Nan Zhi in her "Ma Guniang" form. Seeing the terrifying scenery around it, it curled into a ball, and large, round tears began to fall from its big eyes with a "pitter-patter."
Rate on N.U.
