Chapter 2452 Black Marsh
An incense stick’s time of travel away from the battlefield was a black marsh. Within the depths of the marsh was a strange, flickering divine light.
Sometimes mist would surge out of that area, and the surrounding vegetation would distinctly light up. That was a bizarre phenomenon.
One of the squads of the Dragonblood warriors had noticed it first. After some observation, they had concluded that it definitely was not an ordinary place. There was very likely a treasure within.
However, this marsh seemed to be its own world, and it was impossible to fly inside. Once they fell into the marsh, they would be sucked inside.
They had captured a twelfth rank beast to try crossing the marsh, only for that beast to die without any struggle. It was then swallowed by the marsh as if being devoured.
Water element and earth element cultivators had tried to control the marsh, only to get zero reaction from the water and earth.
They had tried countless things but were unable to figure out how to cross. Anything they tried to send through the marsh sank. It was as if the water did not allow anything to float on top of it.
Feeling that this place was too sinister, they had been wondering whether or not to send out a request for reinforcements, when suddenly, the mist reappeared, and this time it was far greater than any other eruption. Within it, it was possible to see an immortal abode.
They could see figures moving within the immortal abode, but it wasn’t possible to see who they were. The mist began to spread, even reaching them outside of the marsh.
When the mist approached them, they felt their pores fully open. Some of them cried out in amazement. This was immortal mist capable of extending a person’s lifespan.
There were many things capable of providing a person with life energy, but things that could extend a person’s longevity were heaven-defying existences.
A person’s lifespan was related to their cultivation base. But all people, regardless of cultivation base, had a limit to their lifespan. Once they reached that limit, if they failed to break through to the next realm, the only thing left to them was death.
Most people were unable to sense their own remaining lifespan. They would only sense their limit once they were already deteriorating.
However, amongst them were some people with special cultivation arts who were capable of confirming that the mist could increase a person’s longevity, so everyone began to absorb it.
The immortal mist continued to spread, unleas.h.i.+ng radiant light that ended up attracting a new group of people. Those people were the sea demons.
The Dragonblood warriors had hastily hidden themselves. They only had fifty thousand people, while the other side outnumbered them. The sea demons also had that young king of the Six Horn Sea Serpent race, so the Dragonblood warriors could only temporarily retreat.
Now that they had confirmed that there was a priceless treasure present, they sent out the request for reinforcements, hoping for enough people to come to fight off the sea demons.
However, later, when the mist started to fade, the sea demons that were searching for a way to enter the marsh noticed signs that others had been there recently. Their large-scale search resulted in them finding the Dragonblood warriors.
At first, the Six Horn Sea Serpent had only been planning on making them scram, but with the urging of his left and right arms, he had given the order to kill them. That was when Long Chen had arrived.
It could be said that the reason the sea demons had taken such immense losses was due to fighting over this marsh.
When they arrived at the marsh, Long Chen reached out and touched the water.
“Boss, be careful. It’s toxic.”
Long Chen’s fingertip touched the black water. His finger instantly turned black, and it rapidly spread up his arm.
Everyone’s hearts clenched. They had tested the water, but of course, when they tested it, they didn’t use themselves to do it.
They had used a Magical Beast to touch the water, only for its claw to instantly corrode. They had cut off its claw before it could spread, but despite that, the rest of the Magical Beast also turned black. It then transformed into a glop of black water that dissolved into the marsh.
The corrosion of the black water rapidly spread, but it came to a stop before it could extend further than Long Chen’s hand. It then began to be forced back until his finger returned to its normal color.
“This black water has a law to it. It’s not poison but a power similar to aging. It invades a person’s physical body and also their soul. Cutting off the flesh is useless because the soul will quickly age and die,” said Long Chen.
The Star Field Divine World was filled with extremely bizarre phenomena. It was difficult to explain them using the knowledge of the Martial Heaven Continent, so Long Chen had personally tested it.
“Then doesn’t that mean that we can’t get through it?” Everyone was disappointed.
Long Chen took out a divine item and stuck it into the marsh. The runes on the divine item quickly faded until they vanished. After that, the divine item became covered in cracks and exploded.
Everyone was stunned. Not even a divine item could block this law, let alone the physical body.
“Big brother Long Chen, let me try it. I’m not afraid of this law,” said Ling-er.
Long Chen shook his head. “Perhaps you can resist it, but the conflicting natures of water and fire will result in you burning up too much energy. You might not be able to last until the center of the marsh, but even if you can, we might encounter something bad there, only for you to be out of energy to retreat.” Long Chen could sense something powerful at the center of the marsh. However, he had no idea whether it was friendly or not.
Long Chen took out a bronze bar. He carefully placed it on the water and was delighted to see it remain unaffected by the water. This treasure he had taken from the Gates of h.e.l.l was immune to the black water.
He made it larger and let it float on the water. He then jumped on and found it to be very steady. Everyone was delighted.
“Guard this place. I’ll go in to take a look,” ordered Long Chen.
He slowly started floating over to the center of the marsh. There was sludge and silt everywhere emitting a corrosive aura. Just smelling it could make a person dizzy. It seemed that countless corpses had been rotting inside this marsh for numerous years.
Even if you didn’t breathe, even if you closed off all your pores, this corrosive aura would still try to invade your body.
“It’s actually exhausting my spiritual yuan quite quickly.” Sending the bronze bar floating through the marsh should have been a simple task, but it was surprisingly taxing. He estimated that he wouldn’t be able to last for an hour.
Within this mysterious marsh, his speed was very slow. He began to take breaks, making sure to keep his spiritual yuan above seventy percent.
Eventually, he reached the center of the marsh. Looking back, he was unable to see the other side.
Long Chen grew ever more wary and continued going deeper. He eventually reached the mist area and found that it really did possess some strange ability. With just a breath, he felt invigorated.
With his vision and divine sense limited within the mist, he did his best to continue going straight. However, it was all too easy to end up going in the wrong direction. All of a sudden, he came to a stop.
He squatted down, sensing some almost imperceptible fluctuations coming from the bottom of the marsh. When he went silent and suppressed all of his aura, those fluctuations faded. Only then did Long Chen continue onward carefully.
Even after another two hours, he didn’t sense that strange phenomenon again. But as he went deeper, the mist grew denser.
Suddenly, the bronze bar shook. Long Chen almost jumped off, but then he laughed. He had reached an island within the marsh.
Long Chen jumped onto the land. The mist on the island began to clear up, revealing a world of greenery and flowers.
There was an ancient forest on the island. Giant vines were hanging from the trees, and the leaves covered the sky. Despite that, the forest didn’t seem all that sinister because there was a strange kind of gra.s.s that emitted its own light and illuminated the forest.
Some small beasts were running around within the forest. They didn’t seem to be afraid of Long Chen upon seeing him, looking at him curiously.
“This evil marsh is hiding such a wonderland. How surprising.” Long Chen couldn’t help smiling. With just a glance, he had seen several precious medicinal ingredients.
Those were ingredients that had reached the level of priceless treasures on the Martial Heaven Continent. He wondered what treasures could be found even deeper into the forest.
Suddenly, a gust of wind made Long Chen raise his hand. A splinter appeared in his finger.
The splinter was three inches long and black other than some white lines on it. There was some dew on it as well.
Long Chen raised his head, only to see a figure vanish within the forest.
“There are people here?” Startled, Long Chen followed. Just at that moment, the peaceful air became sinister and dark.
The giant vines hanging on the trees suddenly shot toward him. At the same time, tiny needles rained down from the leaves.
Startled, Long Chen retreated. However, he found that the scenery behind him had been replaced by wooden stakes that were shooting out from the darkness.
“So it’s tree demons.” Long Chen snorted. Evilmoon appeared in his hand, and with a single slash, wooden fragments filled the air.
The earth exploded, and giant tentacles soared into the air, preparing to attack him.
“Stop!” Suddenly, those tentacles froze in midair.