Chapter 4252 — The Beast Boneyard

A careful study of the surroundings made it plain that this place was far gloomier and more sinister than what had come before. One might even say that the farther they went, the more lifeless the world became—grim and chilling to the bone.

Along the earlier stretch, they had at least occasionally come across spirit beasts. For people whose only thought was to press on in silence, that was no blessing, but at least it lent the air a trace of vitality.

Now, though, this bleakness made it feel as if they had unknowingly wandered into the lowest hells. Even the grasses and flowers around them were no longer lush and vivid; they had turned rank and withered, sallow and dim. And even where a patch of green survived, it carried an eerie, sickly pallor that sent a chill creeping unbidden up the spine.

Everyone's expression changed at once. That the depths should differ from the fringes was understandable enough—but surely it need not extend to the very plants and soil looking so utterly unlike the outer reaches?

For all that they were formidable cultivators, fine hands of the Golden Core stage, at this moment their confidence faltered. Like ordinary folk, they were filled with dread of the unknown—and because they understood more, their courage often fell short of that of ignorant, fearless commoners.

"Have we taken a wrong turn? This place is too grim and terrifying..." Huang Xiaotao tugged at Wei Zhao, unable to keep the fear from her face, and asked in a small, tense voice.

Huang Xiaotao might look the meek and quiet sort, but she was in truth soft on the outside and steel within. Years of trial missions in the field had given her a nerve far beyond most girls her age; even stranded alone in deep mountains and old forests, she might not have been afraid. But what lay before her eyes was simply too unnerving.

All around, every sound was swallowed; they could hear one another's breathing with perfect clarity. And though Huang Xiaotao spoke to Wei Zhao only in a whisper, those ahead could still hear her.

In fact it was not Huang Xiaotao alone—even hearty men like Guo Dengtao and Wang Feng felt their hearts quail, and at her words they could not help shrinking their necks.

This place was far too strange, nothing at all like what they had imagined. Had it been a lair of crouching tigers and coiled dragons, with mighty spirit beasts on every side, they could have accepted that more readily; at least they were prepared for such a thing.

But this scene—dead and stagnant, without a living creature to be seen, and the light so dim besides. The old saying held that when things run contrary to nature, some demon is surely at work. Something here was certainly wrong.

Holding Huang Xiaotao by the hand, Wei Zhao was no less uneasy. He had sensed this wrongness well before the others and had been on his guard, watching every blade of grass and tree around them. Yet strangely, apart from the grim and forbidding surroundings, there was nothing else amiss.

Odd as it was, Wei Zhao was not unduly worried. His jade pendant had a warning function: any danger he failed to notice, it would alert him on its own. So far the pendant had shown no reaction whatever, and he himself had sensed no danger.

So there was only one explanation. This grim and uncanny scene was no omen of peril or anomaly; it must simply be how the place was by nature. Only what had made it so, he could not yet work out.

"It seems your experience really is rather limited..." Chu Bubai, walking at the very front, glanced back and took in each of their expressions, one by one, and could not help laughing. "Have you only ever heard the great name of the infant ginseng, and never heard of the peculiar places where it grows?"

"Of course! That explains it!" At this reminder from Chu Bubai, Guo Dengtao clapped a hand to his head in sudden enlightenment, and the knot of tension and unease in his heart vanished clean away.

"The infant ginseng's growing grounds?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. He truly had never heard of it—he had only recently formed his core, and had not even glimpsed the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage, let alone reached its full perfection. Had he not refined the Core-Gathering Golden Pill for Tianxing Dao, he likely would not even have known what an infant ginseng was, much less anything else about it.

Nor was it only Wei Zhao: Huang Xiaotao, Wang Feng, and even Feng Hongyu, Chu Bubai's own dao companion, all wore blank looks. Their strength fell far short of that level, and none of them had made a special study of such matters; it was only natural that they knew little of the infant ginseng.

"Taozi, why don't you tell them, so they stop jumping at shadows and frightening themselves." Chu Bubai gave the order without breaking stride, pressing onward and gesturing for the others to keep up and not fall behind.

"Right you are. It seems none of you know—the infant ginseng is only what we commonly call it. It has another name, and in a sense that name is more apt, and it explains the surroundings we find ourselves in." Guo Dengtao made a show of mystery, deliberately whetting their appetites.

"What name? Out with it!" Wang Feng gave him a shove. Perhaps because of his earlier injury, he had not been feeling well to begin with, and in this grim, horrifying place his hands and feet had gone cold of their own accord, and his heart was trembling.

"All right, all right. The infant ginseng's other name is the ghost ginseng." Guo Dengtao paused on purpose, and seeing them all watching him with curiosity, went on: "As for why—it isn't that the thing looks like a ghost, but that it generally grows where the yin energy runs heavy. In boneyards and the like, for instance."

"A boneyard? No wonder this place has turned so grim!" They exchanged glances. Now that they knew the why and wherefore, their hearts were no longer in knots. Cultivators of the Golden Core stage, after all—they could hardly be afraid of a mere boneyard. Their earlier panic had been nothing but the fear of the unknown.

"Exactly. According to the map, there should be a spirit beast boneyard just ahead, so it's only natural that this area has grown somewhat grim. And it also proves that my map is accurate and reliable, so there's no need for anyone to worry anymore!" Chu Bubai declared with certainty, without so much as turning his head.

"Indeed! Following Brother Chu this time was well worth it!" Guo Dengtao and the others said happily. When they looked at their surroundings again, they were no longer tense or afraid; instead they grew more and more excited, for it meant they were drawing ever closer to the infant ginseng they had dreamed of.

Wei Zhao nodded and said nothing more. Reasonable as all this sounded—and it came from Guo Dengtao's mouth, not merely Chu Bubai's own—some nameless oddity still nagged at him, impossible to put into words, yet impossible to shake. (To be continued..) R527