Chapter 450 Rumors about Black Stone Forest
On the same day, in Yiyun Yard.
Su Yuanhai’s face was pale, but his expression was incomparably respectful. He was standing in front of the desk in the room and asked with a hint of surprise in his tone, “Master, why are you here? If you told me before, I would prepare some refreshments.”
Su Li did not answer, flipping through the intelligence reports received recently, with her eyebrows furrowing.
Seeing this, Su Yuanhai immediately added aside, “We have sent a lot of people to the spirit stone mine, so has the sixth branch. Therefore, conflicts are inevitable …”
“How did you get hurt?”
Su Li raised her head and a bright light flashed in her eyes.
Su Yuanhai covered his chest and hastily replied, “To tell you the truth, Master, besides Su Jinnan, the sixth branch has invited another senior, whose cultivation should not be lower than the late stage of Yuanying Realm. I didn’t pay enough attention in the fight with him and was seriously injured…”
As Su Yuanhai was saying, he peeked at Su Li and found she was expressionless, so he sighed with relief.
“Let’s go.”
Su Li suddenly spoke out at this moment. She stood up, and slid to Su Yuanhai, saying faintly, “To the Black Stone Forest.”
“Now?”
Su Yuanhai asked in surprise, “Master, your identity …”
Before he finished his words, he saw Su Li had changed her appearance and height. In the blink of an eye, she became a skinny woman with a completely unfamiliar appearance and pneuma.
Su Yuanhai was shocked, “There is such a secret method in the cultivation circle, which can even alter the pneuma.”
Without further ado, he immediately took Su Li to the Black Stone Forest.
They both left Yiyun Yard, then came another man after they were on the spiritual boat.
Su Yuanhai was controlling the spiritual boat while he secretly checked the young man Su Li summoned from nowhere. The longer he sensed, the more confused he got.
This man looked familiar and he must have seen him somewhere before. But his bone age was definitely under one year as an infant.
“Everyone under the command of the master is unique and I am too common by comparison.”
Thinking of Yan Ziye and others he had seen before, he sighed in his heart and went on driving the spiritual boat quietly.
It was Dongfang Wuxue whom Su Li had released from Cang Lei’s Cave. His mental age was not much younger than Su Li’s, but this old fox revealed a smile like a fool.
He greedily breathed the air in Qingshui Circle and made a few steps with his uncoordinated limbs. He was adapted for the new body, and his eyes filled up with joy and deep appreciation as well.
If it weren’t for Su Li, he would never know how long it would take him to rebuild his physical body. Besides, he would never have a chance to see the sky if Su Li didn’t kill the evil spirit in Cang Lei’s cave.
“Seize the time to get familiar with your new body, and you have to lead the way in the Black Stone Forest this time.”
Su Li made a voice transmission, Dongfang Wuxue paused his smile with his eyes open wide slightly.
To that hellhole again?
“Madam, no one has been able to unlock the secrets of the Black Stone Forest so far. It’s too risky for you to go there rashly!”
Dongfang Wuxue subconsciously dissuaded in horror.
Su Li’s eyes were flooded with sternness and she snapped, “What did you call me?!”
Dongfang Wuxue immediately realized that he said wrong in haste and tried to make up, “Master, forgive me, please. My soul is still fusing with this physical body, so, the memories in the Reincarnation Mirror keep popping up. This is the reason…”
Su Li stood at the board of the spiritual boat and let the fierce wind blow over her skinny body. Dongfang Wuxue barely heard her words mixed in the wind but he understood.
“What is Ling Li’s status in Qingshui Circle?”
Suddenly, countless images flashed through Dongfang Wuxue’s mind, including the terrible rumors coming from the laughter of passersby.
“I… I have no idea.”
Dongfang Wuxue suppressed those images in his mind and said with a bitter smile.
Su Li gave him a meaningful glance, did not expose his lie and continued to ask, “In that case, talk about the Black Stone Forest. You have spent a lot of time in the Black Stone Forest at that time, so you should have some information about it, right?”
“Of course.”
Dongfang Wuxue breathed a sigh of relief and spoke out after formulating his words.
“I heard the legend of the Black Stone Forest from Heaven Rover. He said, according to the record of ancient texts, the Black Stone Forest became black after being hit by a thunderbolt. Life was not exterminated there, and flowers and trees could go on growing but all became black, even the stones.”
“That thunderbolt was extraordinary, so he speculated that there was a cave of inheritance in the Black Stone Forest. As a result, he found the cave but did not walk out of it alive.”
Dongfang Wuxue looked complex while Su Li remained expressionless. She tapped her fingertips and asked, frowning, “That’s all?”
“There’s more.”
Dongfang Wuxue had felt her discontent and replied quickly, “There are so many rumors about the Black Stone Forest which I cannot tell you all of them in three days. Is there anything that you are especially interested in?”
“You seem to know a lot.”
Su Li watched the darkness appeared on the horizon, saying, “Talk about the rumors related to demons.”
“Demons?”
Dongfang Wuxue found it odd and didn’t know the reason why Su Li took an interest in a long-gone clan, but he stilled organized what he knew and said with his eyebrows frowned,
“There are not so many rumors about demons in the Black Stone Forest, and every one of them sounds unreal. Some say that the whole Black Stone Forest is a giant black stone demon, which is sleeping. The black trees are the furs of the demon; some others say a demon dragon, which can spit thunderbolts, is hiding in the Black Stone Forest, and the thunderbolt back then was from this dragon; some others say there is an icy-cold pond deep in the Black Stone Forest and terrible demons are hiding at the bottom of the pond…”
Dongfang Wuxue said a lot and Su Yuanhai listened with interest at first, but became numb gradually, for demon crystals could accompany anyone out of so many demons that Dongfang Wuxue mentioned, and he had no clue to confirm this.
Su Li listened with keen pleasure and kept Dongfang Wuxue talking.
Time passed slowly and the spiritual boat soon arrived at the camp of the seventh branch outside of the Black Stone Forest.
During this time, Dongfang Wuxue had perfectly fused with his new physical body. Although there was still no cultivation in his body, his knowledge was still there, and it was only a matter of time before he re-cultivated to the Yuanying Realm.
“The head of the branch is here!”
Su Yuanhai’s arrival caused a stir. Every practitioner came to greet except for those who were seriously injured and lay in the bed. They certainly saw Su Li and Dongfang Wuxue.
Su Yuanhai laughed and introduced as Su Li instructed, “This is the Grand Elder of Ni Sect, and her cultivation is also in the late stage of Yuanying Realm. With her help this time, we will be able to retake the spiritual stone mine!”
As he made this statement, the crowd who were still wondering suddenly realized and saluted her.
At the same time, the nervousness of the crowd was replaced by an unprecedented hope.
A practitioner at the late stage of Yuanying Realm is much stronger than their head of the branch!
“Great! I have tolerated the sixth branch for too long. It’s no big deal that Su Jinnan had invited a helper from outside! Now, we have an outside helper too!”
“Ni Sect is a small affiliated sect that the head of the branch has been protecting. I have been wondering why the head of the branch is so partial to Ni Sect, and now I know the reason.”
“We will never have the far-sighted vision like the head of the branch!”
“…”
Suddenly, the low morale in the whole camp was swept away and replaced by the fighting spirit. They could not wait for Su Yuanhai to lead them to the spiritual stone mine and fight.
Su Yuanhai kept calm and was clear that everything was no longer up to him after Su Li arrived.
He first came to the main tent, summoned the scout, and debrief him to understand the recent situation.
“Head of the Branch! The sixth branch’s gone too far!”
The scout was a smart young practitioner with an ordinary look. As soon as he entered, he spoke, indignant, “Su Jinnan has sent people not only to encroach on our territory but also to guard the exits of every mine caves. Whenever any of our miners came out, they will be robbed. In the last half-month, we had countless fights with the sixth branch, and many miners have died. The conflict is getting worse!”
Su Yuanhai’s face turned blue as he listened, “It has been only half a month. How could the situation have deteriorated to this extent? If we have casualties, the sixth branch will not be better. Is Su Jinnan mad?”
“Head, in my opinion, the sixth branch is in a hurry! It seems that something horrible is about to happen and they just want to finish and leave. That’s why they have been mining that weird stone regardless of losses.”
Su Yuanhai was stunned to hear the thoughtful analysis from the young practitioner and asked, “Why haven’t I seen anything that you are saying in the intelligence report?”
The young practitioner obviously hesitated for a moment, and then said as if he didn’t care about anything at all, “Head, these are all my speculation! The chief of scouts said that these were a bunch of nonsense and would mislead you, so he didn’t allow me to write it in the report.”
“I see. The chief has a good reason to say so…”
Su Yuanhai was mumbling, while Su Li, who had been silent, spoke suddenly, “So what’s the evidence of your speculation? A good scout doesn’t judge by his feeling.”
The young practitioner was stunned and looked at Su Yuanhai.
Su Yuanhai nodded at once, but he felt inappropriate at the next moment and added, “If you meet this person in the future, you must be more respectful to her than to me, understand?”
The young practitioner was horrified and vaguely understood that he might have known a big secret. He did not dare to think further, lowered his head immediately, and said, “To your questions, Master, I have sneaked into a mining cave of the sixth branch, and found many small pieces of ore were just left. The mining method was also extremely crude and wasteful. I am sure that you would also come to this conclusion if you saw it with your eyes. The sixth branch just wants to make a quick profit and leave us the mess!”
The young practitioner stopped, raised his head, and saw the woman’s smile, which made him feel the light in the room were brightened up.
“What’s your name?”
Being asked for his name, the young practitioner froze for an instant and said subconsciously, “My name is Su Mian.”
Su Li nodded, “You have excellent potential, but your cultivation is unfortunately too low.”
As she said, she threw over a universe bag, “Practice hard.”
Su Mian was completely stunned and looked at Su Yuanhai nonplussed. Su Yuanhai said with a smile, “Won’t you express your thanks for the kindness?”
Su Mian felt sensitively a trace of envy from Su Yuanhai’s eyes, didn’t dare think anymore in a state of shock, and hurriedly kneel to kowtow.