Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Out of Control
"Don’t worry," Ning Xuan said to Lin Mo and the others with a smile. "He took my medicine during the day. I doctored it. If he dares to show up tonight, I can save his life, but I can also take it."
"Contractor, you aren’t just saying that to comfort us, are you?" Lin Mo asked, looking at Ning Xuan with suspicion. ’After all, she refined that medicine the night before. She had no idea who she’d use it on, and she couldn’t have predicted that the person she saved would repay kindness with malice.’
"You dare question me, Lin Mo? I have a new potion. Why don’t you try it and experience firsthand how I doctor my creations?" Ning Xuan said, her gaze fixed unabashedly on Lin Mo’s body, away from the others. As her eyes met his, a wave of heat surged through him, even beneath his layers of clothes.
Lin Mo lowered his head slightly and shifted a little closer to Ning Xuan.
Ning Xuan pulled Lin Mo toward the prepared cave. Leng Yue checked the time and told Zhao Qiu and Su He to go rest, while he and Chen Nan would continue the watch.
Ning Xuan had Lin Mo drink a bottle of Dragon Saliva Clearing Miasma Potion. Lin Mo had been in combat more often, so he had accumulated more Miasma Poison in his body than the others. However, this small amount of Miasma Poison had no real effect on him.
"Alright, time to feel it." Ning Xuan rubbed her fingers together and then snapped them with a sharp SNAP.
Following Ning Xuan’s gesture, an intense pain suddenly wracked Lin Mo’s entire body. It was the pain of his blood vessels spasming—every single one, large and small, constricted at once. The tension was so extreme that he felt like his veins and arteries would explode in the next moment.
In just a moment, he was drenched in a cold sweat. Ning Xuan quickly released her control. When Lin Mo looked up at her, his eyes were filled with shock.
"Contractor, how did you do that? Why were my blood vessels spasming just now?" Lin Mo asked, his voice full of fear.
"That gets into some specialized knowledge. It would take a while to explain," Ning Xuan said. "However, the effect only lasts for three to ten days. If he doesn’t show up within ten days, then I really won’t have any way to deal with him." Ning Xuan actually hoped the white wolf would come tonight. ’If he dares to show up, he won’t be leaving.’
After experiencing the potion’s effect firsthand, Lin Mo finally felt relieved. Seeing that Ning Xuan was looking a little sleepy, he quickly prepared her bed. "Contractor, you should get some rest."
Ning Xuan nodded and pulled Lin Mo onto the bed with her. She didn’t have anything particular in mind; she just hugged him like a body pillow, poking his chest muscles one moment and stroking his face the next. She soon fell asleep.
Listening to Ning Xuan’s steady breathing, Lin Mo gradually started to feel sleepy as well.
The next day, Ning Xuan’s group spent another half-day at the site. They dug up some more deeply buried ores but determined that the deeper veins were quite poor. So, they continued their search for other resources within the Spirit Medicine Valley.
Ning Xuan returned to her normal routine: searching for medicinal ingredients during the day, with Alchemy and Cultivation at night. During this period, her team found many precious Medicinal Plants. Ning Xuan herself located two Concentration Wood trees, which were hailed as natural amplifiers for spiritual power.
Of the top 30 medicinal ingredients on the bounty list for rare materials, Ning Xuan’s group found 14. Their haul was incredibly impressive.
After spending a long time in the valley, Su He was the first to show signs of being affected by the Miasma Poison, experiencing stagnation of qi and blood. Ning Xuan gave everyone, including herself, a dose of the Life-taking Soul-chasing Potion she had refined. After they drank it, the Miasma Poison was completely purged. Their spiritual power also seemed to have increased, but there was no change in their Bloodline Talent.
This also indicated that the improvement in Min Wu’s Bloodline Talent wasn’t solely due to the potion’s influence; there must have been other factors.
Due to the strange incident outside the Spirit Medicine Valley’s entrance, not many Alchemists had managed to get inside. Coupled with the valley’s vast size, Ning Xuan’s group didn’t encounter any more large teams. The few scattered individuals or small groups they did see mostly gave them a wide berth when they noticed the six people in their party.
Around the sixth or seventh day after they entered the valley, the number of Mutated Beastmen inside suddenly increased.
These Mutated Beastmen had completely lost their minds, relying only on instinct to hunt for bloody meals and search for the scent of the living.
The number of these Mutated Beastmen continued to grow. Since Ning Xuan and her group had already searched the Spirit Medicine Valley once over, they decided to leave and check out other resource-rich areas.
Just as Ning Xuan was leaving the Spirit Medicine Valley, she rendezvoused with Yan Fuzhen. Yan Fuzhen, who had twelve people with him, insisted that the Secret Realm was too dangerous now and that he absolutely had to stay with her group.
Ning Xuan, who had been about to refuse, immediately relented when Yan Fuzhen handed her a box of rare medicinal ingredients.
From that day on, she stayed inside the cave residence in Fog Hidden Gorge to practice Alchemy and Cultivation, no longer venturing out.
On the third day of Ning Xuan’s secluded Alchemy in Fog Hidden Gorge, the Ghost-faced Red Vine awoke from its slumber. After devouring the Devouring Spirit Flower’s core, the Ghost-faced Red Vine’s power surged. Although it had yet to recover its peak strength as a Seventh-level Demon Plant, its massive main body had been restored.
Ning Xuan’s days in the Lingxiao Secret Realm were quite fulfilling. Although she knew that the Lingxiao Secret Realm was behaving abnormally compared to before, these things had little effect on her.
Outside, however, all hell had broken loose.
On the fifth day after the Lingxiao Secret Realm opened, in the ink-black night, seven blood-red pillars of light pierced the heavens. In the underground monitoring room of the Alchemist Association headquarters, all three hundred and sixty holographic screens went black simultaneously. All visual feeds from within the Lingxiao Secret Realm vanished.
From that day forward, the situation inside the Lingxiao Secret Realm was no longer under the authorities’ control.
It wasn’t just the official monitoring. Many powerful organizations had maintained contact with their members inside the Secret Realm, but now, all those connections were severed.
On Seven Star Divine Mountain, Zhu Hongying paced anxiously around the main hall. Yun Han’s condition had been stable ever since Ning Xuan treated him last time. But in the last few days, his Life Force had begun to decline again. His Companion Spirit, a young White Tiger, was even regressing in age.
"Brother, what’s the news? Did you find out anything about Ning Xuan?" Zhu Hongying asked, rushing forward as soon as Zhu Hongxing returned.
"I couldn’t find out anything. No information is getting out of the Lingxiao Secret Realm right now," Zhu Hongxing said to his sister, sitting down and taking a sip of tea. "However, the situation is grim. The Life Plates of many disciples who left them at home have shattered. It’s said that many people have already died inside the Secret Realm."
"Then what do we do? If we’d known, we should have sent people in to protect Ning Xuan! Her strength isn’t high, and she’s so young. If she runs into danger in such a complicated situation, wouldn’t all hope be lost for Yun Han?"
