A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 565 The Kiss of the Ghost Baby
Duan Rong looked at the Azure Flame Grass leaf in his hand with a solemn expression.

Guo Tian glanced at Duan Rong. He knew Duan Rong had been searching for the Azure Flame Grass, but this place was far too dangerous now. Although the ghost infant and evil spirit had been scared away, they could return at any moment.

Holding a torch, Guo Tian suddenly said, "Duan Rong, Xu Hui, you two take over the guard duties from Jiang Hanyan and Su Xinjue. We must leave here as soon as possible."

The crowd stared in terror into the surrounding darkness. The ghostly infant lurking in the depths of darkness might leap out at any moment… No one objected to Guo Tian's suggestion; everyone wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Duan Rong and Xu Hui each lit another torch and stood on either side of the procession, ready to defend themselves. Now there were four torches surrounding the procession, illuminating their surroundings even brighter.

Jiang Hanyan huddled in the middle of the group, supported by Su Xinjue. She was extremely frightened and only now slowly stopped sobbing.

The group quickened their pace towards the exit, their faces showing unease. After all, the ghostly infant was somewhere in the darkness, perhaps even following them nearby.

Although everyone was terrified along the way, the second half of the journey went quite smoothly. When they reached the exit, they saw sunlight streaming in through a half-meter-wide crack in the boulder, dispelling the darkness near the exit, and they all felt a slight sense of relief.

Guo Tian stood by the exit, holding a torch. He first let the four people in the center of the group go out, followed by Duan Rong and Xu Hui. After the two of them went out, Guo Tian glanced at Yang Sui, whose face was deathly pale, and said, "Yang Sui, you go out first."

"Thank you!" Yang Sui said as he stepped out.

Guo Tian stood there, glanced at the surrounding darkness, and quickly stepped out.

Upon seeing the bright daylight outside, everyone's expressions relaxed, and they all showed smiles of relief at having survived a disaster.

Du Wan said, "What bad luck! I just encountered an evil spirit by the pool last night, and now I've run into another one here. If it weren't for Instructor Lin and Instructor Liu repeatedly saying that there are at most two evil spirits here, I would have thought that this ruin of gods and demons was teeming with evil spirits!"

In fact, what Du Wan said reflected everyone's thoughts. They were indeed having a run of bad luck; they had only just entered the realm of gods and demons and had already encountered two evil spirits. This was a situation the instructors hadn't taught them during training!
At this moment, Su Xinjue's expression suddenly changed. Looking at the back of Jiang Hanyan's neck, she said, "Hanyan, what's that on the back of your neck?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hanyan was slightly taken aback and asked, "What is it?"

As she spoke, she reached up and touched the back of her neck, but found nothing. So she turned her head and looked at Su Xinjue with a strange expression.

"There's a dark, lumpy thing." Su Xinjue said, reaching out to wipe it, her expression slightly surprised. "It seems I can't wipe it off!"

Jiang Hanyan panicked slightly because she could tell that Su Xinjue's expression was serious and that he wasn't talking nonsense.

At this moment, everyone gathered around and looked at the back of Jiang Hanyan's neck.

Su Xinjue brushed Jiang Hanyan's hair aside, turned down her collar, and exposed Jiang Hanyan's snow-white neck.

Although it was somewhat indecent for a woman to be surrounded by so many men, Su Xinjue had already sensed the evil influence of that thing, and she no longer dared to wipe it with her hands.

Jiang Hanyan asked, her face deathly pale, "What exactly is on my neck?"

Her eyes were filled with fear. She was afraid that the thing was related to the evil spirit she had encountered before, after all, that thing had stayed on her back for quite some time. Evil spirits can harm people in countless ways and inexplicably, a point that Lin Youjian and Liu Su had emphasized many times during the training camp.

Lu Chu stared at the two bluish-black marks on the back of Jiang Hanyan's neck for a while, then suddenly said, "This looks like a lip print!"

"Lip print!?" Jiang Hanyan's expression froze; she didn't understand for a moment.

But as soon as Lu Chu said that, everyone realized what he meant. "Yes, it's a lip print! Look at the creases..."

Jiang Hanyan hugged herself tightly, her arms crossed over her chest. She understood. The evil spirit had actually left a kiss on her neck.

A ghost baby's kiss!?
She didn't know what this meant, but it was clearly not a good thing.

Jiang Hanyan panicked for a moment, then suddenly raised her head with a fierce expression. She looked at Su Xinjue and said, "Xinjue, where is that lip print? Point it out to me."

Su Xinjue picked up the lip print Jiang Hanyan had pressed on the back of her neck and said, "Right here, right in the middle of the back of your neck."

Jiang Hanyan pressed her two fingertips there and began to rub vigorously, the more she rubbed, the harder she rubbed.

Soon, blood began to flow from her fair neck.

Su Xinjue grabbed Jiang Hanyan's hand. "Hanyan, are you crazy?!"

Jiang Hanyan's expression was somewhat fierce, perhaps due to the repeated frights she had suffered.

Jiang Hanyan then realized that her two fingers were covered in blood. Without thinking, she quickly asked, "Is the lipstick mark still there?"

A flicker of fear crossed everyone's eyes at that moment.

They looked at the center of Jiang Hanyan's fair neck, where a patch of flesh had been rubbed raw and bloody, but the dark blue lip print was still clear, with not a trace of change even in the delicate folds.

"How is this possible?! This is too bizarre!"

Duan Rong stood there, also looking at the dark blue lip print on Jiang Hanyan's neck, his eyes deep and gleaming.

The lip print was clearly left by the ghost baby.

As for the ghost baby's purpose and the strangeness of the lip print, it is currently unknown, but the evil spirit's methods are absolutely inconceivable.

Just as everyone was in a panic, Duan Rong suddenly said, "You all rest here for an hour and wait for me while you wait."

"Waiting for you!?" Everyone looked at Duan Rong with puzzled expressions.

Duan Rong said, "I need to go back."

"Go back!?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's faces turned astonished.

Guo Tian gave Duan Rong a strange look and asked, "Is it because of the Azure Flame Grass?"

Duan Rong nodded. Everyone knew he was looking for the Azure Flame Grass.

Du Wan asked, "Duan Rong, are there any evil spirits in there?!"

Du Wan couldn't understand why the ghost infant was so malevolent, and what its intention was in leaving a kiss mark on Jiang Hanyan's neck. At this moment, Duan Rong wanted to return to the dark space.

Duan Rong said, "The Azure Flame Grass has very demanding requirements for its growing environment; it can only thrive in shady and damp places. Mature Azure Flame Grass is even rarer. If we give up on the Azure Flame Grass here, I don't know if we'll be able to find any more in the Ruins of Gods and Demons!"

Xu Hui, who was usually quiet, looked at Duan Rong and said, "Brother Duan, the Azure Flame Grass is indeed rare, but is it really worth taking such a risk for it?"

Duan Rong said with a firm look in his eyes, "The Azure Flame Grass is very important to me!" Everyone could see Duan Rong's determination, and some of the words they originally wanted to say to persuade him were swallowed back down.

Duan Rong said, "Wait here for me for one hour. If I haven't returned after one hour, you can leave without waiting any longer!"

After Duan Rong finished speaking, he stepped into the half-meter-wide crevice in the stone not far away without looking back, and disappeared.

The crowd's expressions were grim. If Duan Rong were to die, it would be a significant loss for them. Only Su Xinjue stood in the crowd, her eyes flickering. She was thinking, there might be evil spirits inside. If Duan Rong died there, she wouldn't have to lift a finger, and she could even give her master an explanation.

After Duan Rong stepped into the crevice, he took out a tinderbox and lit the torch. He had been wearing phosphorescent gloves on both hands since the beginning and had not taken them off.

He held a torch in one hand, and with the other, he flipped it over and grabbed the blood-red veil.

In his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness, only a single Soul Thorn remained, and to this day, he still did not know the location of the ghost infant's true form. He had very little confidence in relying on this Soul Thorn.

However, the ghost infant was clearly terrified of the red veil. Perhaps he could use it to suppress the ghost infant and harvest some mature Azure Flame Grass.

Duan Rong stood in the light at the edge of the crevice. He glanced at the dense darkness not far away and strode inside.

As he stepped into the darkness, a thought suddenly struck him, and he released his divine sense.

During the ten-day intensive training, Lin Youjian told them that divine sense could not be used to probe inside the ruins of gods and demons.

Therefore, from the moment he entered this relic of gods and demons, Duan Rong never released his divine sense.

But during his previous battle with the evil spirit "Ghost Bride" by the pool, he discovered that the Soul-Slaying Thorn could be used, and its power was quite astonishing.

Therefore, the moment he stepped into the darkness, he wanted to try using his divine sense to investigate whether it was really as Lin Youjian had said, completely unusable.

The moment his divine sense was released, a look of astonishment flashed in Duan Rong's eyes.

The world around him, as probed by his divine sense, was shrouded in thick fog, making it impossible to see anything clearly. Even the area illuminated by the firelight at his feet was obscured by the fog...

"This... Lin Youjian was right after all... Divine sense is completely unusable within the ruins of gods and demons..."

It wouldn't be easy for Duan Rong to find the place where the Azure Flame Grass grew in this pitch-black space, so he was somewhat unwilling to give up and tried to use his divine sense to search. Even if this divine sense search had some effect, it would be more reliable than him holding a torch and searching blindly.

However, in the world of Kyushu, the divine sense that was always effective seemed unable to penetrate the air within these ruins of gods and demons.

In fact, within these ruins of gods and demons, fragmented divine and demonic wills float everywhere. Over countless years, these divine and demonic wills have become increasingly blurred and broken, drifting like mist within this world.

Because of the presence of these divine and demonic wills floating in the air like mist, human divine sense cannot penetrate them.

The reason why the Soul Piercer can be used is because its penetrating power far exceeds that of divine sense. In the world of Kyushu, an ordinary person would die instantly from a single Soul Piercer strike, their soul shattered.

These floating mists of divine and demonic will can block the penetration of divine sense, but they cannot stop the piercing of the soul.

Duan Rong immediately withdrew his divine sense, finding it useless. How was he supposed to find the Azure Flame Grass in this pitch-black space? And what about the evil ghost infant lurking somewhere?

He gradually walked into the depths of darkness, his face growing increasingly somber and grave.

Duan Rong decided to return to the place where the ghost infant had first attacked them, which was the very center of this space.

Rather than searching blindly, he preferred to first identify a priority range.

The leaves of that Azure Flame Grass were clearly brought by the ghost infant, and the place where the ghost infant initially attacked them might not be far from where the Azure Flame Grass grows.

Duan Rong stood in the center of this space, surrounded by dense darkness, and a sense of fear rose in his heart.

Since the ghost baby attacked them here before, it is very likely that it will also attack him, so he has to be careful.

Duan Rong held a torch in one hand and the red veil in the other. As he walked, he twirled the red veil around as if performing a folk dance.

Duan Rong's cold gaze swept around. The crimson veil, as red as blood, flickered and spun in the firelight, looking rather eerie. He wasn't doing this to show off; he wanted to scare away the ghost infant lurking in the darkness.

He walked for a while, and suddenly his nose twitched. He smelled a strange odor.

"What's that smell?!" Duan Rong's nose twitched slightly, his eyes flickering in the darkness.

The text about the characteristics of the Azure Flame Grass that he had seen during the training camp flashed through his mind. He remembered it very clearly, almost without a single mistake.

Even mature Jade Flame Grass flowers have no scent.

It's like the crabapple blossoms on Earth in my past life—they have no fragrance.

Even so, Duan Rong still felt that the faint, strange smell here was related to the Jade Flame Grass.

Because of his previous journey, he was certain that only the central part of this space carried that faint, strange odor. And this was the place where the ghost infant attacked them; there must be some connection between them.

As Duan Rong was thinking this, he suddenly put the torch in his mouth and pinched out the leaf of the Azure Flame Grass that he had picked up here before.

He held the leaf in his hand, sniffed it, and a look of doubt flashed in his eyes. He thought to himself, "Something seems off. The leaf doesn't smell like anything!"

Duan Rong suddenly frowned. He rubbed two fingers together, crushing the clump of leaves in the middle of his fingers into a pulp.

He brought the crushed leaf juice to his nose and smelled it again.

This time, Duan Rong's expression suddenly changed!
The rotten leaves and the strange smell floating around here have the exact same smell!

Regardless of how it happened, the strange smell floating around here is clearly the smell of crushed Jade Flame Grass leaves.

Duan Rong then sniffed the scent and began searching. He kept twitching his nose, judging the strength of the smell, often walking in one direction and then turning back.

Gradually, he finally pinpointed the location.

He walked toward a corner of the dark space, his nose twitching slightly as the strange smell grew stronger.

Just then, Duan Rong suddenly noticed a leaf of the Azure Flame Grass at his feet!
A thought struck him, and he continued walking forward. He saw leaves of the Azure Flame Grass appearing on the ground, though sparsely scattered. This meant he had found the right place!
After walking for a while, the leaves on the ground gradually increased, and suddenly he looked at something not far in front of him.

The ground there was almost entirely covered with the leaves of the Azure Flame Grass... just like rat droppings near a rat's nest...

(End of this chapter)