Xuanxia

Chapter 681 Black Bone Fish

"Please wear this sachet."

Hua Xiaolan pinched her nose, took out two sachets and threw them to Fu Qingzhou and Lin Wangshu: "Wear it, the corpse poison will not invade your body - but if the corpse poison is too strong and you feel something wrong with your body, open the sachets and eat the contents."

Fu Qingzhou took it and was about to put it in front of his nose to sniff it, but he didn't expect that the sachet actually moved slightly in his hand.

He was startled: "Is there a living thing in here?"

"It's better for you not to know."

Hua Xiaolan smiled wryly: "When the time comes to eat, I advise you not to look at it."

Fu Qingzhou: “…”

On the other side, Lin Wangshu took the lead and jumped off the boat, heading towards the Yinquan Water.

Strictly speaking, this should not be called a "spring" but a stream.

It came from the higher side of the mountain and flowed down along a slight slope. The water was not rushing. Although the water color was mixed with some strange dark color, it was actually very clear. There were even some thumb-sized black fish swimming in the water.

"For the tiankeng underground river where the monsters were born, is this place considered upstream or downstream?" Fu Qingzhou asked with a frown.

Hua Xiaolan said, "Didn't Elder Ma write it down in his notes? Below the tiankeng, a river flows under the mountains and flows out of the West Valley to form a spring. The terrain of the Shiwan Mountains is complex, and the ground under the tiankeng might be even higher than here."

"Then we have to go upstream." Lin Wangshu said softly: "Let's go and trace the source of the stream first."

Without any further ado, the three of them began to walk upstream along the Yinquan Creek.

This time they did not take Lin Wangshu's boat. The air was filled with corpse poison in this place. Even with Lingxu, they did not dare to breathe in and out at will. The true energy consumed in this place was only out and not in, so they naturally tried to save as much as possible.

"The thing in the stream should be the black bone fish that Rong Yu mentioned, right?"

Fu Qingzhou looked at the fish in the water and asked, "The corpse poison is so strong here that no grass or trees can grow, no animals or birds can get close, and there are not even flies. How can this fish survive here?"

"What's so strange about that?"

Hua Xiaolan casually said, "Even in the most terrifying and dangerous places in the world, there are living things. There are countless mysteries in this world, so it's not strange that there is a fish that lives on corpse poison."

"No... I seem to understand what Master Fu is wondering about." Lin Wangshu frowned slightly and said, "The peculiarity of this black bone fish may be related to the evil spirit."

Fu Qingzhou smiled.

Before he could say anything, Hua Xiaolan slapped her head and said, "That makes sense!"

Her eyes lit up and she said, "If what Rong Yu said is true, the method of controlling the demon is the same as that of controlling the bad blood poison... then this black bone fish may have a lot in common with the demon in essence!"

After saying this, Lin Wangshu waved towards the stream without any hesitation.

With a splash, a water ball containing a black bone fish broke away from the stream and floated towards the three people.

The little fish in the water ball didn't notice anything unusual and continued swimming around.

The three of them took a closer look and saw that this thumb-sized black fish was actually translucent. Its "black" was the black of fish bones.

"No wonder it's called the black bone fish. It's a very simple and crude way of naming it."

Fu Qingzhou looked at the little fish carefully: "What's so special about it?"

"According to my records in Wandu Mountain, this fish feeds on meat and digests it very quickly. No matter how big the beast or corpse is, it can eat it up in a flash, as if it doesn't need to be digested or excreted."

Hua Xiaolan replied: "It is precisely because of this that they can be used as the main material for refining bad blood."

"He ate so much..." Fu Qingzhou frowned and said, "This doesn't look like a demon."

"insanity……"

Lin Wangshu said softly, "I have been fighting against demons on the front line for more than a month. I can't say I know them well, but I do have some understanding. I personally think that the special thing about those demons is not their escape methods, but their use of poison techniques."

"Whether they hurt people on their own initiative or are killed or injured by others, they can always leave various kinds of poison on people... They are like a living Gu furnace."

Hearing this, Fu Qingzhou's eyes lit up: "Yes! And this thing can also affect people's mind! Rong Yu used this trick before, and it affected Hua Xiaolan and you, didn't it?"

"That's right." Hua Xiaolan said in a deep voice: "It's impossible to tell how many poisons and poisons are hidden in their bodies."

"Master Lin is guessing that this black bone fish is related to the demon's ability to control witchcraft?" Fu Qingzhou narrowed his eyes.

"Just a guess."

Lin Wangshu smiled and said, "Since Yinquan Creek is the lower reaches of the Tiankeng underground river, most of these black bone fish must have come from the place where the evil spirits were born. They have amazing carrion-eating abilities..."

"But there's no point in guessing." Fu Qingzhou shook his head and said, "Let's keep going up. We can't see anything from these one or two small fish."

Lin Wangshu nodded and waved his hand. The water ball returned to the Yinquan water. The little black-bone fish also returned to the familiar stream and swam away leisurely.

The three of them continued to walk upwards, and suddenly they heard a sound of heavy footsteps.

Of course, those were not the footsteps of a human, but of a wild beast.

The three men looked in the direction of the sound and saw a leopard chasing a deer about a hundred steps away, moving through the woods at a very fast speed, one in front and one behind.

They rushed too fast, and probably before they could feel the stench and discomfort of the corpses, they had already rushed into the Yinquan Creek.

Then, the deer and the leopard stepped into the Yinquan water together!
Yinquan Creek is actually very narrow, only about ten feet wide. With the running speed and stride of this deer and this leopard, they can cross it in the blink of an eye.

However, the moment they stepped into the stream, something strange happened.

The black bone fishes that had been living peacefully around them suddenly went crazy and rushed towards the two beasts!

Their speed was so fast that it was astonishing. Almost the moment the two beasts stepped into the stream, their ankles were eaten up by the black bone fish!

The two beasts fell into the water wailing, and the black bone fish immediately pounced forward to eat them more frantically. In the blink of an eye, most of the bodies of the two beasts turned into white bones.

They didn't even bleed, or rather, the blood was swallowed up by the fish the moment it shed out.

"Look!"

Hua Xiaolan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she pointed to a place not far away and said, "They can also escape!"

Fu Qingzhou was startled and turned his head to look, only to see a small group of black-bone fish coming upstream to compete for food, and they actually passed through a large rock in the middle of the stream like a demon escaping underground!
"They really are related to evil spirits."

Lin Wangshu also saw this scene and thought: "We should leave a message here. If we can't get out of this later, at least we should leave this discovery behind for future generations to continue exploring."

After saying this, he immediately raised his hand, drew water from the stream, condensed the water into a sword, and carved words on a large exposed rock nearby.

Water splashed and stone chips flew, and in a blink of an eye, two lines of words were written.

"When a living thing enters the stream, the black-bone fish go crazy and devour it in groups until it dies."

"Also, the black bone fish can escape and may have poison hidden in its body, which is closely related to evil spirits."

After writing, he smiled and said, "Okay, let's go."

Fu Qingzhou said solemnly: "Master Lin has thought it over carefully."

"Don't dare."

Lin Wangshu chuckled and said, "Master Fu just doesn't worry about losing. He is very brave and I admire him."

"Stop praising each other." Hua Xiaolan urged, "Hurry up and leave."

This time, the three didn't go far.

After a cup of tea, we arrived at the "Xixi Valley" mentioned in Elder Ma's notes.

It is called a valley, but in fact it is just a small col. Yinquan Creek flows out from a narrow opening in this small col. The narrow opening is dark and deep, and looks like it is only wide enough for a person to bend over and enter.

"There are also black bone fish in the water flowing out from here... Don't take any risks."

Lin Wangshu said: "You two should get ready. I will clear the water for you."

(End of this chapter)