The Azure Flame Vermilion Bird
Bi Fan stood frozen for a few seconds, then asked instinctively, "We're going straight in like this?"
"What else?"
Xiao Lian glanced at him. A faint golden light surfaced around him, enveloping both Bi Fan and the Purple Crystal Phoenix, and he led the way.
Bi Fan looked at the golden light curiously, then secretly asked Dragon Sable in his Sea of Consciousness, "What's that?"
"Xiao Lian's golden light shield," Dragon Sable explained. "It should be to keep those black mists from affecting you."
"Then do you know what these mists are?" Bi Fan pressed.
Dragon Sable shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen them either."
"All right." He nodded quietly. Following Xiao Lian, the two of them and the Purple Crystal Phoenix entered the forest.
Though most of the mist had dissipated by now, years of exposure had turned all the land and trees black. Even the sunlight could not dispel the oppressive, stifling feeling that hung over the place.
As he walked, Bi Fan kept looking around. He noticed that the biggest difference between this place and the outside was that there wasn't a single living ferocious beast in sight.
Perhaps, just as Xiao Lian had said, this really was a forbidden zone for life.
But why had the place where the Chaos Divine Venerable fell become like this? What exactly were these black mists? Why were they seeping endlessly from the ground, wisp after wisp? It all looked rather strange.
Bi Fan was full of curiosity, but he knew that even if he pressed Xiao Lian about where the black mists came from, it probably wouldn't do him any good.
Since the golden light shield remained beneath his feet the whole time, the black mists had no effect on him.