What a lucky world!

Chapter 123: The bottomless pit of Xiankong Mountain?

"Why are you following us?" Zhang Mu frowned as he looked at Zhuge Nanxian who had caught up with him. "Didn't you say that the rat demon was quite powerful? Go back quickly!"

"You look down on others now that you've advanced, don't you?" Zhuge Nanxian snorted. "What's so great about the Yangye Realm?"

"I told you so."

“Burning bridges across rivers.”

Zhang Mu listened to Zhuge Nanxian's chatter without stopping, and advised, "Xuan Ji is at the Moon Eater Realm, and catching mice is her talent. If she finds the other party difficult to deal with and wants to lure them out of the city, I'm afraid the mouse demon is at least in the middle stage of the Moon Eater Realm. It's too dangerous for you to go."
"Little rat demon, it's nothing to worry about!" Zhuge Nanxian raised his chin and said, "Didn't I tell you that rat demons' magic is mostly based on poison?"

"As for poison, I'm not afraid even of someone in the late Moon Eater Realm!"

When Zhang Mu heard Zhuge Nanxian say this, he remembered her abilities.

Not to mention the poisonous palm technique from before, even that seemingly powerful old man Qin was poisoned silently by this girl. She had mentioned the Ten Thousand Poison Cave before...

At first glance, this is the embryo of the "Five Poison Saint" in the martial arts novels of the previous life!
Since that was the case, Zhang Mu stopped trying to persuade him and let Zhuge Nanxian follow him.

The little girl is seventeen or eighteen years old, which is the rebellious age. She wants to follow her handsome brother to rescue the kitten. This kind of thing cannot be persuaded!

Oh, my head is so itchy and I’m going to grow yellow hair.

Seeing that Zhang Mu no longer persuaded him to go back, Zhuge Nanxian curled up the corners of his mouth and followed him even closer.

……

"By the way, what is evil worship?" Zhang Mu suddenly asked, "Is it a cult?"

"Not entirely." Zhuge Nanxian said to Zhang Mu while talking to Jin Zhengmu, "Evil worship is relative to the righteous gods."

"The system of righteous gods was originally a strategy set by Li Si, the first prime minister of the Great Qi Dynasty, to win over the demon tribe. It was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites."

"At the end of the Great Qi period, Emperor Gaozu of Dayu and the Overlord of Western Chu vied for supremacy, agreeing that whoever entered Zhongzhou first would be king."

"The Overlord of Western Chu arrived first. The Minister of Rites of Daqi issued the Great Edict of Conferring Gods, mobilizing the last of Daqi's national destiny and summoning the appointed gods of mountains and rivers to come to his aid. He blocked the Overlord from Zhongzhou for three full months, causing heavy losses to the Overlord's army."

"This laid the groundwork for Emperor Gaozu of Dayu to finally conquer the world."

"Since then, from Dayu to today's Dayun, everyone has attached great importance to the enfeoffment of the God of Mountains and Rivers."

"The nation's fortune is limited, and it is impossible to grant unlimited titles. Therefore, this dynasty has a total of 365 seats for the true gods."

"However, some demon tribes resort to trickery, employing special rituals to achieve a similar effect to imperial decree, thereby stealing the nation's fortune. This ritual is called an evil sacrifice."

Zhuge Nanxian pointed to the red paper package hanging under the house and said, "If my guess is correct, then the rat wedding is a kind of evil worship. They threaten the people with plague to make them worship them, and every time the wedding ceremony begins, they have to give wedding money."

"And this wedding money actually embodies the destiny of the nation!"

After saying this, Zhuge Nanxian sighed again and said, "Fifty miles away is Lanling County City. Yet, there are still evil cults here, openly stealing the nation's fortune."

"The government doesn't care!"

Zhang Mu smiled disdainfully when he heard this.

People in the world have an inertial mindset that the emperor is far away and there will be more lawless things.

But in fact, what is happening around the center of power is beyond words.

At least from a distance, an imperial envoy can illuminate an area.

But what about nearby?
It is dark under the lamp. Do you think the lamp really doesn’t know?

Zhang Mu did not comment, but Zhuge Nanxian was still indignant.

"Second uncle said that the great fortune of the dynasty would only last ten years, and it seems he was right!"

……

The two of them walked out of the town gate. Zhang Mu determined a general direction based on the vague connection between him and Xuan Ji and continued forward.

Soon, they came across some dead rats. Following the dead rats, Zhang Mu and Zhuge Nanxian discovered that the trail disappeared into a hole about ten feet wide.

For no reason, a place name popped up in Zhang Mu's mind——

The bottomless pit of Xiankong Mountain!

Zhuge Nanxian took a step forward and made a gesture with her fingers. Then a wisp of white internal energy emerged from her fingertips, wandered around the cave entrance, and flew back to Zhuge Nanxian's eyes. However, this time the white energy was tainted with black.

"There's poison in the cave!" Zhuge Nanxian said, then patted a small sachet on his waist, and immediately a small insect with a golden back shell flew out from it.

"Don't move!" Zhuge Nanxian instructed Zhang Mu, then waved his hand, and the little insect with a golden back armor fell on Zhang Mu's neck. The next moment, Zhang Mu felt a chill on his neck, as if he was pricked by a needle.

Immediately, the insect's golden carapace quickly lost its luster, turning a rusty color. Zhuge Nanxian reached out and carefully removed the golden-armored insect from Zhang Mu's neck, returning it to his pouch.

"This is Nanzhao's poisonous general Gu," Zhuge Nanxian explained. "Look at your wrist."

Zhang Mu looked down at his wrist and saw a golden thread about three inches long.

"The Poison General Gu can fight against all poisons," Zhuge Nanxian said, "but you have to pay attention to this golden line. The stronger the external poison, the faster the golden line will shorten."

"Once the golden thread completely disappears, it means the effect of the Poison General Gu has also disappeared."

Hearing this, Zhang Mu looked at the golden thread in his hand curiously, nodded, and looked at Zhuge Nanxian: "What about you?"

"Me?" Zhuge Nanxian smiled. "I usually eat this poison with some vegetables."

Zhang Mu：ヽ(ー_ー)ノ

Okay, Five Poison Saintess.

Zhang Mu walked to the entrance of the cave, found a stone and threw it down. After waiting for a moment, he heard the sound of the stone falling to the ground.

Fortunately, it’s not really a bottomless pit.

Zhang Mu took a deep breath and jumped directly into the cave.

Zhuge Nanxian thought for a moment, then patted his pocket. Immediately, a small insect with a glowing tail, resembling a firefly, flew out of his pocket. Zhuge Nanxian tapped the insect with his finger, and it immediately flew to a nearby tree and lay down, its tail light gradually extinguished.

After making these preparations, Zhuge Nanxian came to the cave entrance and jumped down.

……

Zhang Mu landed on the ground and waited for a moment, then saw Zhuge Nanxian also falling down. He subconsciously reached out to catch Zhuge Nanxian.

"I'm fine." Zhuge Nanxian's gentle voice came from the darkness, "I brought a fire starter, wait."

As he spoke, a beam of light lit up in the cave. Zhang Mu and Zhuge Nanxian were both blinded by the flame, and then their vision returned to normal.

Zhuge Nanxian used a fire stick to look around and found that the cave in front of him was connected in all directions, like an underground palace.

Zhang Mu closed his eyes again and sensed his surroundings, but he could only hear countless rustling sounds.

Zhuge Nanxian took a deep breath and pointed in a direction: "The poison here is the strongest!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Mu immediately walked in the direction Zhuge Nanxian said.

……

At this time, deep in the cave, a gray-haired rat demon as big as an adult was lying on a barn-shaped couch, with white bones lying beneath it.

A white rat demon walked in from a cave, looked at the rat demon, and said, "The cat has been poisoned and fainted. What are you going to do?"

"I remind you, that's the guardian beast of Buddhism. Maybe there's someone behind it you can't afford to offend."

The gray-haired rat demon laughed and said, "What am I going to do?"

"I want to use that cat as a cauldron to help me reach perfection in the Moon-Eating Realm. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)