Chapter 107
Ye Mo was a bit reluctant to give up on this thing that he had been chasing for a day and a night, but now he knew that it was hiding inside the desert, but there was nothing Ye Mo could do.
If only he had the third level of Qi training, at that time, Ye Mo would not hesitate to go into the desert. At the third level of Qi training, he would not be afraid of dying of thirst because the most important of the many spells available, the water ball, could be sent out.
Once the water ball spell was available, he could convert his aura into water and would not be afraid of dying of thirst at all. Moreover, at the third level, he would not die of suffocation even if he was inside the desert without breathing for a month. Unfortunately, there was a difference of one layer, too much of a difference, it was a watershed.
This black shadow was specifically targeting him, Ye Mo could even imagine that this thing was definitely interested in the ‘Purple Heart Vine’ on him. This was because apart from the ‘Purple Heart Vine’, the things he carried on him were the same as what everyone else carried. Only the ‘Violet Heart Vine’ was not available to others. However, this thing was cunning enough that it could think of f*cking Ye Mo first before robbing something.
Ye Mo suddenly remembered an important thing, that is, he had been chasing this black shadow for a day and a night, why did this black shadow not remember to come and burrow deeper until now? According to the shrewdness of this black shadow, it should have thought of this way of drilling in long ago.
What does this tell us? It could only mean that only in certain places could this black shadow drill in. The surface of the Taklamakan Desert looked no different from any other desert, but there were too many mysterious things underneath, including the many ancient cities that had been hidden in the long history.
Perhaps this was a pa*sage to an ancient underground city, only that the outside was no different from the ordinary desert. Or maybe the place where he almost fell into the sand and stone vortex last time was also a pa*sage to an underground ancient city.
Alas, Ye Mo sighed once again, if only he had the third level of Qi training. However, Ye Mo immediately landed his eyes on his backpack, which still had ten bottles of water inside, in addition to the bag of water from the woman in the yellow shirt, and mainly the numerous medicinal pills that Ye Mo had refined himself.
With these things, even if he was buried in sand and stones for ten days and half a month, he should not have a problem.
What was there to be afraid of? He had come to the desert for the ‘Purple Heart Vine’, and since this thing might have also come for the ‘Purple Heart Vine’, it meant that this thing had seen this thing, otherwise it wouldn’t be so sensitive.
Go in.
Once Ye Mo made up his mind, he could no longer stop it, he took out a steel shovel from inside his backpack and started digging in the sand where the black shadow had disappeared.
Sand and gravel flew up as Ye Mo dug deeper and deeper, and soon he was a dozen metres into the area. It was already quite stuffy here, but it was nothing to Ye Mo. He was a cultivator, and although he was only at the second level of Qi training, he could still breathe internally as long as he had a water source to replenish it.
Ye Mo’s speed was fast, and three hours later, he had advanced nearly a hundred metres. Ye Mo pushed the sand he dug out backwards and then squeezed the sand on both sides apart. If his bag hadn’t been too big, he might have advanced nearly two hundred metres by now. However, Ye Mo reckoned that the hole he had come in should be completely blocked by now.
After digging for about another two hundred metres or so, Ye Mo’s steel shovel suddenly touched something hard, and Ye Mo’s heart was pleased that he should have arrived. This hard one should be a stone. Ye Mo’s divine sense swept up and carefully observed it, and it was indeed a huge boulder.
The boulder was very thick, almost a metre or so. Ye Mo did not rush, but first sat down, took out a dan pill and ate it, and drank a bottle of water to recover his true essence. He was digging diagonally into this, and even if the distance was about three hundred metres, it was clear that the slab was at least nearly two hundred metres underground.
After another hour, Ye Mo recovered his spirit, and the steel shovel in his hand gathered his true essence and shovelled down at the green stone. In an instant, stone chips flew everywhere, and when the boulder met Ye Mo’s steel shovel, it was like soft mud, not much better than the sand and gravel just now.
In just under half an hour, a hole was completely dug in the one metre thick boulder by Ye Mo.
Just as Ye Mo got through the hole, the sand and gravel from outside fell on the hole, and soon the hole was covered.
The place where Ye Mo landed was very empty, it seemed to be a street in general, but there was an unpleasant smell emanating from all around the place, not like a mouldy smell or the smell of something rotting, this smell was very strange, but could not be described.
After walking along this street for dozens of metres, Ye Mo’s divine sense stretched out, but he finally found that this was not a street, but this underground road was all paved with stone slabs.
Ye Mo walked along this stone paved road carefully, his divine sense always paying attention to the movements around him. Because he was sure that the black shadow was also hiding here, he just didn’t know exactly where it was hiding. And Ye Mo was also sure that there must be other entrances in here apart from the hole he had come in and forcibly dug out, and there was no need to even dig anything.
This was because the two sides of this stone path were not houses or streets, but rather something like a valley or something like that. That was why Ye Mo was sure that this was not some underground city.
Seemingly sensing something, Ye Mo suddenly stopped in his tracks, and even though he was a cultivator, he felt his scalp tingling a little.
A row of poplar roots were arranged on two sides in front of him, and the one that made Ye Mo feel his scalp tingling was one of the poplar roots. He clearly observed with his divine sense that there was an iron nail on the top of that poplar root, the same iron nail that he had his divine sense attached to.
Even if Ye Mo did not believe it for a hundred times, he had to believe it in front of the truth. Even in the cultivation world, there was no such bizarre thing, and it was clearly happening in front of his eyes.
Ye Mo would never believe that a Hu Yang tree root could evade his tracking for a day and a night and run so fast. Even Ye Mo saw that the poplar tree was simply growing in that place, yet it was not transplanted there from behind.
Ye Mo walked to the side of the poplar tree’s roots with his full alert, and his divine sense took another closer look, and there was no mistake. The nail he had was indeed nailed to the top of the poplar root. To be even more sure, Ye Mo took out his mineral lamp again and still clearly found that the nail was on the poplar root, and his divine sense was not wrong.
A poplar root would run so fast? Ye Mo did not move the iron nail, but fell into contemplation.
Suddenly Ye Mo remembered that two days ago, he hit that black shadow with the iron nail was around the shoulder fossa. The iron nail on the root of the poplar tree in front of him was at the top, which was obviously not the right position. Then Ye Mo found another problem again, he saw that this iron nail even had a small part of it on the outside.
Ye Mo thought to himself, with his skills, if this were to hit this poplar root with an iron nail, there was absolutely no way that a nail could not be completely gone. All signs indicated that this nail was not hit by Ye Mo, but was later deliberately nailed to the root of this poplar tree.
Who could have gotten this nail above the root of the poplar tree? Ye Mo frowned and carefully pulled the nail out. Ye Mo soon found that there was still a trace of blood and even a thin hair on top of the iron nail.
The nail had indeed been deliberately nailed on, and looking at the hair, he could tell that what he had hit should be an animal similar to a monkey, and it was strange for Ye Mo to have such an animal inside the desert. However, animals like monkeys and orangutans were very intelligent and it was normal for them to be able to think of such a method.
When Ye Mo thought this through and knew what kind of animal the shadow he was chasing was, it all became clear. It looked like this animal was not only very smart, but also had a knack for escaping.
There was only one stone path under this desert, and on both sides, apart from some poplar roots, it was just sand and green stone slabs. It seemed that someone had purposely paved this stone path a long time ago to lead to a place in Mo, and the poplars on both sides of the stone path were also purposely planted.
He knew that since the shadow could escape into this place, it meant that it had already run ahead. As long as he followed this stone path he could definitely catch up with it.
But to Ye Mo’s disappointment, he had walked along the stone path for half a day, but not only did he not catch up with the shadow, he did not even know if the stone path had an end. If it wasn’t for the fact that this path only had one direction, Ye Mo would have thought that he was on his way again.
Already after such a long time, Ye Mo reckoned that he couldn’t chase this shadow either. There was some helplessness, one was that this guy had fled to an outrageous place, he had even fled to the desert floor, and another was that it was too smart.
Ye Mo didn’t want to chase the shadow, so he didn’t bother to pay attention to the things on the side, anyway, there were some poplar roots on both sides. He unfolded his speed and sprinted forward extremely fast.
It took another half day, and after seven turns, there was a ladder up ahead, but the ladder was not long, only about 20 to 30 metres. Ye Mo walked up the ladder and swept his divine sense out, only to understand that he had unexpectedly come to an open place again, only a green stone slab blocked the entrance.
He had been running for a whole day, just turning around on the underground stone path, wondering if he had been tricked by that long-haired beast.
This stone pathway was estimated to be dozens of miles long, only somewhat curved and twisted. Who was this, and what was the point of building such a place with poplar trees planted on both sides? And so long too? It’s not a small feat.
Can poplars grow underground? Ye Mo didn’t understand, was it originally above ground and later sunken?
Ye Mo thought for half a day without figuring it out, he shook his head and stepped directly onto the ladder and walked to the end, after lifting a green stone slab, no sand and stones fell down, it was surprising that this was not yet the top of the desert. Ye Mo walked out of this exit, only to find that it was a huge gobi beach, surprisingly an underground one.
However, after Ye Mo swept it carefully with his divine sense again, he was immediately stunned.!
Chapter 108
The most important thing is that the area around the beach is densely covered with “Purple Heart Vines”, and there are hundreds of them within Ye Mo’s divine sense. Ye Mo took out his mining lamp and shone a light on it, and in the distance there were densely packed with “Purple Heart Vines”.
The thicker ones were even thicker than the wrist, this was definitely a “Purple Heart Vine” that could take thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years to grow.
“Although the Purple Heart Vine is the lowest grade of spiritual herb in the cultivation world, if it is more than 3,000 years old, it is still very rare, and even one of them can be sold for hundreds of spirit stones. And there were so many of them here.
Ye Mo held his breath, he was indeed shocked. “The Purple Heart Vine, was found by him, and there were so many of them, and even the vintage was so high. But his heart did not feel the slightest sense of joy, and even only a faint sadness.
What was this all about?
Ye Mo didn’t move, he closed his eyes again and used his divine sense to feel it, yes, all around him were indeed “Purple Heart Vines”. He was not wrong, but the faint sadness in his heart was also real.
Suddenly Ye Mo noticed a problem, that is, the “Purple Heart Vine” was a spiritual herb, and these “Purple Heart Vine” had already reached a certain age, and belonged to the top grade of spiritual herbs. However, he could not feel a trace of spiritual energy here, what was going on? The Violet Heart Vine in front of him was still standing on the Gobi Beach, and its shape had not even changed. Even if all these Purple Heart Vines had withered, they could still be used for medicine.
Ye Mo slowly approached a Purple Heart Vine, and a feeling of decay came over him.
He walked up to several Purple Heart Vines in succession and blew on them, and they all turned into flying ashes and disappeared. It seemed to feel the movement of Ye Mo coming in, or it seemed to feel the breeze brought by Ye Mo’s figure, these nearly thousand Purple Heart Vines turned into flying ashes in an instant.
The “Purple Heart Vine” that had just entered the Gobi Beach disappeared in an instant.
He had searched for a long time and finally found the secret of the Purple Heart Vine, but it was useless to him. He had already lost interest in going to Kullu, since the Purple Heart Vine was found here, there was no point in going anywhere else, besides, even Kullu had the Purple Heart Vine, it should not be much better than here.
Ye Mo walked towards the inside of the Gobi Beach, it seemed that no one had ever come here, I wonder if it was because it was under the desert and had never been discovered by anyone.
This Gobi beach was not very big, and Ye Mo soon reached the end. A huge stone monument stood in front of Ye Mo’s eyes, with only two words “Kuhu” on it.
So this is “Ku Lake”, ah, it seems that “Ku Lake”, like Lop Nor, was a big lake, but later turned into a Gobi beach.
Ye Mo placed his hand on top of the stone tablet of “Ku Lake” and felt some faint disappointment in his heart, he did not get what he wanted in the desert, so it looked like he could only go back to the clinic and slowly cultivate the “Silver Heart Gra*s”. But to cultivate the Silver Heart Gra*s, he had to play the role of a grandson again, and Ye Mo was a bit reluctant. Even if he played the grandson, he had already revealed his identity in the Taklamakan Desert, so perhaps he could not even pretend to be a grandson.
Ye Mo’s thoughts were suddenly suspended and he looked at his palm in surprise, he even felt a spiritual qi if any, coming from the stone tablet to his hand. But that spiritual qi was so weak and feeble that it was almost impossible to cultivate.
But even if he couldn’t cultivate, Ye Mo still had to find out what was going on.
He dried the monolith up and cleaned the surrounding sand and soil, and a dried up spiritual spring appeared in front of Ye Mo. No wonder there was some spiritual energy, but it was a dried up spiritual spring.
Ye Mo was a little disappointed, but he also understood why there were so many “Purple Heart Vines” on this Gobi Beach, it was because there was a spiritual spring here.
It was a pity, if the spring still had water, perhaps Ye Mo would have wanted to settle here. Although it was dark, it was better than having no place to cultivate.
Ye Mo sighed as he mōd the spiritual spring and took out a bottle of water and poured it in, but said under his breath, “The spiritual spring actually has no water, give some water for you to drink.” In the middle of the desert, perhaps only Ye Mo would do such a thing, one being that he was a cultivator and had an innate sense of spiritual springs and spiritual things, and another was that he didn’t care about this bottle of water. Since he didn’t find the Purple Heart Vine, he had to go out.
When Ye Mo poured the water in his hand into the spiritual spring, something surprising happened to him, the spring actually emitted a faint spiritual energy, as if it was returning Ye Mo’s bottle of water.
Ye Mo felt some of it, and he was surprised to find that the spiritual qi could actually be absorbed by him for cultivation.
Thinking of this, Ye Mo was no longer stingy and poured in all the water in his hand, even the bag of water given by the woman in the yellow shirt. Sure enough, there was slightly more spiritual energy.
Ye Mo hurriedly sat down to cultivate, the reason he didn’t care about water was because he was already at the late second level of Qi training, as long as he could break through to the third level of Qi training with the help of this faint aura, he wouldn’t care even if there was no water, because at that time he would be able to send out a water ball technique and wouldn’t be afraid of dying of thirst at all.
The time spent cultivating pa*sed quickly, and Ye Mo didn’t know exactly how long he had been cultivating, but it was estimated to be at least around three or four days. When Ye Mo woke up, he found that the spiritual spring where he poured the water no longer had any spiritual energy in it. Ye Mo stood up somewhat helplessly, this spiritual spring was after all too long apart to allow him to break through to the third level of Qi cultivation.
However, Ye Mo felt his cultivation level, he was already at the peak of the second level of Qi training, the third level of Qi training was just a hair’s breadth away, maybe it wouldn’t take two years, just one opportunity and he could advance to the third level of Qi training.
Ye Mo bent down and gave a salute to the spirit spring, no matter what, this spirit spring was considered to have helped him a lot. However, Ye Mo also knew that even if he had more water, perhaps the spiritual spring would only be able to give off these last spiritual qi.
How this place was finally formed, Ye Mo did not know, it seemed that someone had purposely made a big hall to enclose this huge Gobi beach. It seems to be just to protect this spiritual spring and the “Purple Heart Vine”.
After simply eating something, Ye Mo walked to the place next to the ladder just now and climbed up another section of the stone ladder again. A few minutes later, Ye Mo arrived at the bottom of a green stone slab again, moved it out of the way, a circle of yellow sand fell down, a somewhat harsh sunlight shone on his eyes which hurt a little.
Ye Mo knew he had come out and he restored the slab to good order again and filled it with yellow sand again. Perhaps one day he would come back here, for no other reason than because there was a dried up spiritual spring here.
Only when he stood in the middle of the desert again did Ye Mo realise that he was standing inside a forest.
But it was a lifeless forest, with dead poplar roots everywhere.
Ye Mo was wondering if this was the legendary “Devil’s Forest” when a few gunshots interrupted Ye Mo’s thoughts and made him frown.
How could there be gunshots here? Could it be that Nan Qing’s men were coming after him? However, Ye Mo thought to himself, even if Nan Qing’s men were chasing him into the desert, they wouldn’t have fired if they didn’t see him.
However, Ye Mo soon realized that a woman in yellow stumbled past the Devil’s Forest and was the woman who had saved Ye Mo. At this moment, there was a red stain on her shoulder, obviously she had been shot, but her backpack was no longer there. Sure enough it didn’t take long for several men with guns to come after them.
Ye Mo only had to look at the men’s fierce demeanour to know that they were undoubtedly Nan Qing’s men. A wave of guilt rose in Ye Mo’s heart, he didn’t expect this woman to save him, but she was injured and even chased because of him.
Not only did this woman save Ye Mo, but she was also like a fairy in Ye Mo’s heart, yet she was being chased and killed by these b*****ds. Ye Mo’s heart immediately rose up with killing intent, he was going to kill someone.
The yellow-shirted woman’s feet staggered more and more, Ye Mo was a bit well surprised, even if she couldn’t dodge the gun, these men should not be her opponent, ah, how did she get like this.
It was too late to think about it, and when Ye Mo grabbed the iron nail and was about to hit it, suddenly a “chomp, chomp, chomp” sound rang out, which seemed a bit harsh in this desert. The sound became louder and louder, and not only Ye Mo heard it, but also the woman in the yellow shirt who was fleeing and the men heard the sound.
All of them coincidentally looked towards the place where the sound was emitted, and what they saw was a field of hua-spotted, ridged bugs that could make people sick to death, dense and countless, burrowing out of the sandy soil. In the blink of an eye, they covered the size of dozens of acres, and the area was still spreading, soon to be hundreds of acres in size.
These insects had four tuǐs and walked with incomparable speed, and their mouths in front seemed to have only teeth.
Countless of these insects suddenly appeared in the desert, making such a “chugging” sound that even though the sun was shining brightly, all the people felt a chilling sensation.
It took the three men of the South Green a long time to react, and they immediately turned around and tried to escape, but the insects had already swarmed on them, and in a matter of breaths, the three men were no more than scraps of bone, and even the guns in their hands were gone. The insects that had taken part in devouring the three men immediately grew larger and darker by a fraction, and even the huā patterns on their backs became more conspicuous.
Ye Mo sucked in a breath of cold air backwards, so good that it was harmful.
He immediately thought of the yellow-shirted woman, who also saw the bugs, but she seemed to be powerless, a hint of despair lingered in her eyes, and then soon surprisingly settled down and flopped down on top of the sand.
