Alone and Infinite.

Chapter 171 The Terrifying Behemoth
"click"

Black Charcoal jumped off Li Xia, and Awoo put the observer down as well.

This appears to be a small platform, with a huge hole overhead. The entire underground is like a pressure cooker, releasing surging and violent air currents through the massive hole.

A dim, yellowish light, of unknown origin, provided some illumination to this dark underground space.

Li Xia silently gazed at the skull in the distance; the massive skull, as large as a mountain peak, brought a powerful sense of awe.

Like megalophobia, it is a human instinct stemming from the perception of danger posed by a body that is far larger than oneself.

Black Charcoal and Awoo were the first to notice Li Xia's 'abnormality'. They curiously moved closer and followed the direction Li Xia was looking.

Almost instantly, the fur on Black Charcoal's body stood on end, and his two ears fell back.

"Friends, where are you—"

The observer's words were stuck in his throat, and he stared blankly at the skull.

Only Aowu scratched his chin, showing no unusual feeling, and gave a succinct comment: "That's pretty intimidating!"

On the narrow platform, a dim yellow light illuminated the area not far away, and the mountain-like snake skull was faintly visible in the dim light.

Compared to it, the four figures were as tiny as grains of sand.

After a long while, the observer's voice finally came through, as if in a dream:
"This...this is a Serpent King Dragon?"

The Serpent King Dragon is an ancient dragon of extremely large size that once appeared in the Thousand Swords Mountain of the Old Continent.

The Hunter's Guild at the time paid a heavy price to successfully drive it away.

That serpent dragon was only about 500 meters long.

According to the Hunter's Guild's research, the Serpent King Dragon can grow to over 2000 meters in length.

The one right in front of me.
Based on visual estimation of the skull's size, Li Xia estimated it to be at least 5000 meters long!

A Lava Dragon that is three or four hundred meters long is already a behemoth; its back is even large enough for Li Xia and Nergigante to have a good fight.

But compared to this snake, the Lavasioth is just a little brother!

What does a 5,000-meter-long giant snake mean?
Even just the activity itself can bring about tremendous changes to the surrounding environment.

The observer's fingers trembled as he awkwardly opened his notebook and, by the dim light, searched through the pages for a while.

Then, after repeatedly comparing the data with the guild records, he let out a long sigh of relief:

"That's right, it's the Serpent King Dragon."
It was mentioned in the ancient legend "The Tale of Otogi".
Legend has it that atop the towering sacred mountain of Thousand Swords, which overlooks the sea of ​​clouds, an uninvited guest will appear along with the sacred Heavenly Light when he arrives. His true form is a colossal ancient dragon with the size to rival the winding mountains.

It's impossible to capture its entirety with just your own eyes.

She pursed her lips and uttered the mythological name for it, with a strong sense of awe.

That is reverence for individual lives that transcend imagination:

"The King who will never change throughout the ages. The Emperor who will never perish!"

Aowu had been listening the whole time, and finally couldn't help but chuckle softly.

The laughter broke the almost religious atmosphere that permeated the room. The observer snapped out of his daze, scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and closed the book.

"Hehe—I've always heard stories before. I've heard the legends of the Serpent King Dragon and the Serpent Emperor Dragon. By the way, Awoo, what are you laughing at?"

Aowu shook his head: "The King who will never change throughout the ages, the Emperor who will never perish?"

Who dares to claim invincibility? Who dares to say they are undefeated?

Looking at the somewhat desolate Aowu, Li Xia naturally knew what it was really thinking.

Even the Transcendent Palace, which once stood atop the Void Sea, controlling countless worlds and possessing incredible power, has fallen into an eternal slumber.

He patted Aowu's head and said meaningfully, "But for us right now, that's how it is."

He waved his hand, no longer looking at the enormous skull, and turned around to give the instructions:
"Put your protective gear on and keep your medications within easy reach. We're about to enter the Valley of Miasma."

The bristles on the black charcoal gradually subsided; the mask didn't fit the black charcoal very well.

But there's no better way right now. We can protect ourselves as much as we can, and rely on medication for the rest.

Not all parts of the Valley of Miasma are covered in miasma; some areas are still safe.

Li Xia's body slowly floated into the air, and the safety rope connected everyone. He was the first to jump off the platform.

The dim yellow light gradually intensified, and Li Xia then realized that this light seemed to be emitted by a type of moss.

A thin layer of 'mist' gradually covered the area, first as a thin layer, and then as it descended to the bottom, it became exceptionally dense.

After thinking for a moment, Li Xia decided to take off her mask and test the harm of the miasma on herself first, so as to know herself and her enemy.

[Executioner, you have entered an area shrouded in poisonous gas. Gas type: miasma]

[The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts, Unified as One, has been triggered]

Based on relevant resistances and physical attributes, you are currently taking 0.6% of your health as damage per minute.

When the miasma causes damage exceeding 50% of your health, it will inflict injury.

It's alright, the toxicity isn't too high, but the accumulated debuffs are quite annoying. Fortunately, there are fruits to dispel them.

When you put on a mask, the toxins immediately disappear. The mask can withstand the effects of these low-level toxins for about 10 hours.

"Black Charcoal, how are you?"

Li Xia looked at the only one who wasn't wearing a mask, but instead was using a miasma-avoiding pill.

"Meow!"

Black Charcoal shared his tip in the team chat.

[Miasma-Avoiding Pill: Defending against environmental miasma, 1 hour 29 minutes remaining]

You can only take a maximum of three of these pills before reaching your limit within a certain timeframe, which is four and a half hours.

Time is running out!

Li Xia nodded, said nothing more, and took the lead in heading towards the snake's head.

Deathly silence, no sound, no life, only death.

This was Li Xia's only impression of the Valley of Miasma, which was densely packed with corpses.

From large creatures like the Wind Wyvern to small ones like the Cat Lizard Dragon, you can find all the monsters that live on the Coral Highlands above here.

The piles of corpses fermented, producing miasma, and decomposed here, with foul-smelling yellow bodily fluids flowing down the rocky ground.

The corpses pooled together in pools of varying sizes, and the stench was so strong that even wearing a gas mask couldn't mask it.

The road to the snakehead was winding and quiet, which only made people more uneasy.

But when they finally arrived at the snake's head, nothing actually happened.

Li Xia raised his head and looked at the enormous skull. Only when you actually stand in front of the skull can you truly feel how huge it is.

The remaining fangs resemble the columns of an ancient Greek temple, and the entire skull is as tall as a building.

The next step is to step inside, follow the direction of the snake's body, and look for clues near the tail.

"As usual, I'll be in front. Aowu and Heitan, you stay with Aibo. Protect yourselves first in case of any emergency."

Stepping into the gaping maw of the snake's head, and traversing a short, dark stretch, the view suddenly opened up before us.

The sky, which had been obscured by layers of rock, was now faintly visible, revealing itself to be the Coral Highlands. All around were still mountains of corpses, far more than he had seen on his way here.

Occasionally, Li Xia could hear a slight 'bang' sound, which was most likely an explosion caused by the corpses being piled up for a long time and forming a giant shape.

Other sounds were those of dragons falling from the Coral Highlands and crashing onto the mountain of corpses.

The pale yellow miasma, like a thin yellow veil, enveloped the entire Valley of Miasma in the flowing air.

The rough rock surface was covered with something resembling a fungal carpet.

The fungal carpet is covered with white bones, and stepping on it produces a sickeningly loud cracking sound.

The observer felt that he didn't have enough eyes to see everything and wished he could write everything he saw into a book.

This is the first time a guild team has truly ventured deep into the Rotten Vale!

Li Xia stopped, made a stop gesture, and slowly walked forward.

The loud footsteps startled some creatures, and a small dragon that had been burying its head in a carcass not far away raised its head.

It revealed its scarlet, crazed eyes, then opened its mouth and let out a shrill roar before charging straight at them.

The cold light of the night flashed and disappeared in an instant, and the bright red eyes gradually lost their luster. Blood gushed from his head, and he collapsed to the ground.

Aibo rushed over and crouched down to carefully examine the carcasses of these small dragons.

The voice, which sounded somewhat muffled due to the mask, carried a hint of confusion:

"This is... a Thief Dragon? But how did a Thief Dragon turn into this?"

Li Xia put away the silence of the night. These dragons were indeed not normal. After successively killing large flying dragons and ancient dragons such as the Rathalos, Horned Dragon, Qilin, and Steel Dragon.

His aura alone was enough to paralyze small dragons; they had always fled from a great distance when they encountered them before.

Where would they get such courage and dare to launch an attack?
Aibo simply pulled out the knife issued by the guild and sliced ​​open the thief's head, exposing its white brain to the air, trembling and somewhat horrifying.

The brain of the daemon is very small, about the size of an egg.

"Hmm—partner, the thief's brain looks like it's been soaked in miasma; the whole thing is the color of miasma."

Within a minute or two, Abbott had already stood up again, wiped the knife clean, and put it away.

Li Xia nodded, "They really have lost their minds; they don't even know what fear is."

Moreover, he wasn't particularly interested in the ecology of the Miasma Valley; he only came here because of the world's hidden secrets.

"Hurry up and find a safe place to set up camp once we arrive."

Two kilometers isn't a long distance; as long as you follow the skeleton above your head, you won't get lost.

During this period, they encountered several invasions by mutated thief dragons, and they didn't even have the right to cause them any trouble.

In just one glance, they were all lying on the ground.

As they ventured deeper into the increasingly complex environment, the empty skeleton revealed piles of bones, weathered by dust and fungal infestations.

The 'bone mountain' formed by the dust has various bones 'piercing' the mountain in strange postures and exposed to the outside.

For a moment, I felt like I had entered hell.

After passing its tail, the snake's bones began to bend downwards, seemingly heading deeper into the ground once again.

It seems that the serpent dragon was emerging from the ground, but it suddenly died here after emerging only halfway, crashing heavily to the ground and forming a peculiar ravine.

The environment, which had just brightened up a bit, turned dim again, but fortunately, no particularly dangerous monsters appeared.

"Your Highness, shouldn't it be about time?"

"Awoo," he whispered, comparing the clues with his own intuition.

The surroundings were still shrouded in a dim yellow light. Huge snake bones formed a passageway, with weathered rocks and piles of bones on both sides.

The observer was using a small shovel and brush to scrape and scrape here and there during the brief pauses, putting the scrapes into the glass bottle.

These items will become valuable research materials once they return to the base.

Li Xia nodded. According to the clue map, it was indeed almost there.

But I had looked very carefully along the way and had not found anything unusual.

The clues provided by the Hall of Light will never be too far off, otherwise it would be meaningless. In other words, according to the proportion, the clues should be within a hundred meters of the vicinity.

But where are the clues?

Li Xia's gaze swept over the observer's small shovel.
Are you suggesting I dig with a shovel?

"Meow--"

Black Charcoal suddenly raised its claws.

Li Xia's expression shifted, and he looked at the black charcoal:
"You noticed an unusual smell?"

Black Charcoal nodded, looking somewhat confused, as the miasma greatly interfered with its sense of smell.

You can only faintly smell it; the scent is quite unique.

"Well done, Blackie! Take a good sniff—"

Awoo flew to the top of Black Charcoal's head, pulled out a nasal spray from somewhere, and was about to give Black Charcoal a couple of whacks.

Li Xia pondered for a moment, then slowly took two steps forward:
"Wait me a moment."

Suddenly, the true qi in his body changed from stillness to movement, becoming as active as boiling.

A faint white light, like flames, appeared on his body, and his hands opened as if embracing a circle.

The surrounding airflow seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, and was pulled by the true qi to condense around Li Xia.

The power of Tai Chi is difficult to visualize using only the physical body, but it becomes different when true Qi is added.

As Li Xia swayed, he actually condensed the surrounding miasma into his hand, forming a hazy yellow cloud of energy.

His body shuddered violently, and his hands suddenly parted, unleashing a torrent of violent air.

It created a distinct ring of air currents, pushing away all the surrounding miasma.

Black Charcoal felt a jolt of energy, and his constantly itchy nose felt much better.

He sniffed it hard, then turned around and looked at Li Xia with an innocent expression.

"Meow"

Oh no, the smell was blown away by that gust just now!
Li Xia slapped his forehead, realizing he'd been so focused on dispelling the miasma that he'd forgotten about this.
"Meow?"

Black charcoal's beard twitched twice, even its ears perked up, and its wet little nose twitched.

Finally, the whole cat jumped up and pointed high in a direction not far away.

"Meow!"

It's right there!

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Hmm, I'm taking my dad to see Operation Jiaolong tonight.
I'd better finish writing this quickly. I reckon there are three or four more chapters left before the Monster Hunter arc ends.

(End of this chapter)