I, a cultivator, have ended up in the world of tomb raiding.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered a toad lying on its back with its white belly turned up on the ground.

Red Girl pulled out the throwing knife embedded in its body and flipped it over.

The toad was still twitching slightly; it was not completely dead.

Its back was a bright red, whether it was its natural color or stained by the blood in the coffin was unknown.

Upon seeing this, Hua Ling gasped in surprise, her face changing drastically.

"This is a vermilion toad! The toad venom from its parotid glands can be used in medicine, but the toad poison is extremely toxic and very dangerous to humans!"

She immediately rushed to the injured man's side, and upon seeing the wounds on his face, she declared with certainty, "It really is the venom of the vermilion toad!"

He immediately ordered the others to fetch more water from the pool to wash the man's wounds.

Perhaps because they were washed off in time, and the cool water in the pool eased their injuries and pain, the redness and swelling on the faces of the bandits who had been sprayed with venom did not continue to worsen.

Even with the help of the herbs given by Hua Ling, the injuries were slowly healing.

"Fortunately, the venom didn't splash into my eyes." Hua Ling breathed a sigh of relief.

She crouched down and examined the injured person's face again carefully before straightening up, tilting her head slightly, a look of confusion in her clear eyes, and muttering softly:

"Toads never attack people unless provoked, so why is this one spraying venom? That's really strange."

Ordinary sand frogs at most jump away when startled; it is unheard of for them to actively spray poison and injure people like this.

Li Yue said calmly, "The Yin energy gathers in Ping Mountain, and the poisonous creatures here are all tainted by the Yin energy, amplifying their ferocity and making them unusually aggressive. This toad should be the same."

Having said that, he turned to the bandits and said, "Realgar."

When tomb raiding, realgar has always been an essential item, used to ward off poisonous insects and snakes in ancient tombs.

Upon hearing this, someone immediately handed over a bag of realgar, weighing about three ounces.

Li Yue took the cloth bag, pushed open the coffin lid with one hand, poured half a bag of realgar over Li Yue's head, and then quickly closed the coffin lid.

Then they went to the end of the coffin and did the same thing, pouring in the remaining half of the realgar.

Hua Ling watched from the side, hesitant to speak, but finally whispered a reminder:

"Realgar is actually very weak in dealing with toads. If the amount used is insufficient, it may even irritate them."

Li Yue glanced at her and nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

It is commonly believed that realgar can ward off the five poisonous creatures, but in reality, toads have a dull sense of smell, and the pungent odor of realgar has limited effect on them.

He never expected that the realgar would directly poison the toad; it was just that there was a lot of liquid inside the coffin, and the realgar would diffuse inside, irritating the toad's skin and making it unable to spray poison for the time being.

Sure enough, not long after the realgar was sprinkled, a strange "tap tap tap" sound came from inside the coffin, dense and rapid, as if someone inside was constantly banging on the coffin lid.

Everyone immediately held their breath and focused their attention.

Standing atop a haphazard graveyard, I listened to strange noises emanating from the unfinished coffin in the center, as if the corpses inside were coming to life and trying to break free.

Coupled with the painful groans of the two wounded behind him, the atmosphere was indeed somewhat eerie.

Li Yue, however, remained calm, showing no fear whatsoever.

At this moment, he was like a chef waiting for the ingredients to go into the pot, pouring a basket of lively shrimp and crabs into boiling water, waiting for them to calm down, and then enjoying the most delicious taste.

After waiting a while longer, the noise inside the coffin gradually subsided and finally fell silent.

Li Yue then raised his hand and slowly pushed open the coffin lid.

As soon as the coffin lid was opened, a stench several times stronger than before hit us.

The crowd shone their lamps inside, and found that instead of a corpse, the coffin was filled with clumps of thick, sticky, fleshy fungi.

At this moment, they were crammed together in layers, their bodies dark red, their surfaces wet and gleaming with an eerie sheen, and thick, blackish-red liquid was continuously dripping down.

The smell and color are so striking that they make your stomach churn.

Among the fleshy fungus were four or five red-backed toads, all looking listless.

He was clearly dazed by the realgar powder, and his limbs were stiff, only twitching occasionally.

Li Yue glanced at them, borrowed a long shovel from the bandits next to him, and picked out the poisonous toads one by one and threw them on the ground.

Then the bandits swung their knives and clubs, and with a few thuds, they killed all the dazed toads, splattering blood and gore all over the ground.

After cleaning the toad, Li Yue dropped the shovel, stared at the blood-red flesh fungus in the coffin, and suddenly reached into the dark red coffin liquid.

The onlookers were all startled and their mouths were slightly open, as if they were about to speak up to stop them.

The three mountain-moving men and the red-clad girl also had slight changes in expression.

The coffin liquid had a pungent, fishy stench, and with poisonous toads lurking around it, it was unknown how much corpse poison and foul odor it contained.

Stirring it with bare hands like this, if it gets on your skin, can cause ulcers at best, or poisoning at worst; it's far too reckless.

Before they could even finish speaking, Li Yue's hand had already plunged into the sticky, filthy fleshy fungus.

He remained expressionless, merely tilting his head slightly to avoid the splashes of black liquid.

The crowd stood there, stunned, watching him rummage through the nauseating scum of decaying fungi, their expressions contorted and their mouths twitching.

Li Yue didn't see their expressions; otherwise, he might have found them a little funny.

He was naturally prepared, and used his magic to form a shield on the back of his hand.

Furthermore, with the protection of his body-forging technique, the putrid fumes and poisons of the mortal realm could not corrode his skin at all.

He explored deep within the fleshy fungus for a moment, when his fingertips suddenly touched a strange piece of flesh. With a little force, he dug it out of the sticky sap.

The object was dark red all over, with a wet and slippery surface covered in undried black blood. Its edges were still undulating and twitching slightly, like the heart of a living person, or a piece of rotten flesh.

"Living corpse fungus, and in such good condition, is quite rare." A hint of surprise flashed in Li Yue's eyes.

[Unknown Yin-attribute plant detected...]

[Analyzing... Yin energy concentration 16%... Corpse energy component 11%... Evil energy component 5%...]

[Source: Flesh-grown fungi fed on corpses]

[Quality: Inferior plant]

[Effect: Can be directly absorbed and converted into one's own cultivation level]

[Should we choose to devour it?]

This corpse fungus grows in coffins and on corpses, nourished by the corpse's essence and blood. It is shaped like a piece of flesh and is yin in nature and carries evil influences.

Li Yue had just touched the remaining bones at the bottom of the coffin, and he knew that the entire coffin of flesh and fungus must have been preserved to this day by using human corpses as soil.

However, the original species of this fungus contains a certain amount of spiritual energy, so although its appearance is lifeless, it contains a wisp of pure spiritual essence inside, which is even more potent than the previous blood ginseng. It was obviously done deliberately by ancient alchemists.

He thought to himself, "What a cruel method," and then silently recited "devour" in front of the information that had just refreshed the panel.

[Devouring in progress: 1%...2%...100%...]

[Devouring complete]

The next moment, a warm and mellow stream of energy flowed from his palm straight to his dantian.

The previously stable Qi Sea suddenly surged, the meridians bulged slightly, and a tingling sensation spread through the limbs and bones, faintly indicating a loosening and breakthrough.

It seemed as if only a trace of yin energy was needed to advance to the next level.

A faint smile appeared on Li Yue's lips.

The bloody, living flesh in his palm quickly lost its vitality.

Instead of drying up and shrinking, it cracked layer by layer, with rotten petals falling off, and thick blood dripping from between its fingers. In a short while, it shrank into a white ball of flesh the size of a fist.

"Once we leave this dark and secluded place, the remaining spiritual essence will dissipate in no time."

He pondered for a moment, then stepped down from the grave mound and headed straight for the pool, intending to wash the mushroom and feed it to the Angry Sun Chicken.

It was of no use to him, but it was of great benefit to such a spiritual bird.

Little did he know what kind of demon he appeared to everyone at that moment.