Collecting Sha in the Miasma Valley

Bones stretch for a thousand li, miasma running rampant.

Fang Huai looked at the blue-green miasma churning within Miasma Valley, his heart trembling.

His gaze met with a small team not far away; both sides shared the same thought—each waiting for the other to enter the valley and test the path first.

"Go scout the way, hurry up!"

The temporarily allied team finally lost patience, shoving a gaunt woman forward and driving her into Miasma Valley.

"Give me a Miasma-Clearing Pill, I don't want to die!"

"Stop blabbering. Go in, hold out for twenty breaths, and we'll let you out."

The woman struggled desperately at first, but after a slash to her back, she stumbled trembling into the miasma. She hadn't taken more than a few steps before her body turned blue-green and she collapsed.

"Twelve breaths. The other entrance was ten. We go in from here," the leader said.

"Should we grab that cripple to scout again?"

A lackey leaned in and whispered to the leader, pointing at Fang Huai.

Even though they had already taken Miasma-Clearing Pills, they still didn't want to charge in recklessly for safety's sake.

Seeing them point at him, Fang Huai frowned inwardly. They were just ordinary people—if they dared to provoke him, he wouldn't mind sending a few of them to their deaths.

"Quiet. Don't mess with this person."

The leader's face showed clear wariness. Even Pei Long showed this man some respect—he couldn't afford to offend him.

When Fang Huai noticed them, the leader called out amiably, "Brother Fang, there's less miasma here, good for entering the valley. We'll go in first and scout the way for you!"

Fang Huai nodded in acknowledgment. After they entered the valley, he got up and followed.

Sha Qi came in many forms. Most of what existed in Miasma Valley was Death Sha, and the Sha Source that generated Death Sha was the corpses of living beings.

When living beings died, their lingering souls condensed into Sha. The more corpses there were, and the stronger the bodies, the better the quality of the Death Sha that formed.

Miasma Valley was a relic of an ancient immortal-demon battlefield. Originally, the concentration of Death Sha had been extremely high, attracting the Corpse Sha Sect's founder to establish the sect here. But after thousands of years of Sha extraction, the concentration had dropped significantly.

To avoid cutting off the sect's foundation, the sect decreed that whenever a disciple died, their corpse—after being skinned and having their soul extracted—would be thrown into Miasma Valley to condense Sha.

The Corpse Sha Sect had tens of thousands of menial disciples, but the well-known extraction spots were few, making certain areas on the outskirts of Miasma Valley extremely crowded.

Fang Huai deliberately avoided the crowds, thinking that with his ability to check labels, finding a place thick with Sha Qi wouldn't be hard.

But as he looked around, aside from [Extremely Sparse Sha Qi] and [Faint Sha Qi], all he saw were [Beast-Catching Trap] and [Human-Catching Trap].

[Beast-Catching Trap: Waiting for a demon beast to take the bait]

[Human-Catching Trap: Waiting for a menial to take the bait]

After searching for a long time, he finally found a suitable Sha Source.

A half-buried skull with hollow eye sockets, its gender indistinguishable, its twisted and cracked bones the only testament to the torment it had suffered in life.

Fang Huai silently recited the Sha extraction incantation. Trickles of grayish-green Sha Qi, drawn by the Sha-Gathering Bottle, slowly flowed into it.

Suddenly, his shoulder stung. Fang Huai slapped it, and in his hand lay a bloody, mangled spider.

[Black Death Spider]

[Mortal Body]

[Bloody and Torn (Black)][Shattered to Pieces (Black)]

Just his luck—the label for whether it was poisonous hadn't refreshed...

"When did I pick up this bug? Is it poisonous?"

Getting poisoned in Miasma Valley would be the end.

He only had 1 system point left. Fang Huai couldn't afford to use it on a refresh—that single point was his lifeline.

His heart pounded wildly as he carefully sensed whether his body felt off. If there was even the slightest abnormality, he would immediately find some unlucky bastard and swap the poisoned label onto them.

As for what would happen if the label swapped back after that person died of poison—he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

After waiting a quarter of an hour with no signs of poisoning, he finally relaxed and continued extracting Sha.

With his methods, he could fill one bottle of Sha Qi in about three days. As for the other ordinary menials with mortal eyes, how much they gathered was pure luck.

The monthly quota was five bottles. For every extra bottle collected, they could exchange it for ten contribution points.

But just to survive in Miasma Valley, they needed at least an Inferior Miasma-Clearing Pill. One contribution point bought three pills, and using one pill per day meant spending ten contribution points a month on Miasma-Clearing Pills alone.

For ordinary menials, buying Miasma-Clearing Pills was hard enough, let alone completing the monthly task, and even harder to exchange for cultivation time.

In the end, they either died from failing their tasks or from the poisonous miasma.

Though life and death were different paths, they all led to the same end—

They all gathered together in Miasma Valley at last.

Exploited in life, used as waste in death. Pitiful menials, still dreaming of turning their luck around.

But it wasn't entirely hopeless. Deep in Miasma Valley, the Death Sha concentration was high, and rare treasures appeared frequently. Those with heaven-defying luck might even pick up a Spirit Treasure Artifact Fragment.

The only trade-off was that demonic beasts and monsters ran rampant, and the miasma's toxicity had skyrocketed.

"There's no need to take risks now. What I need to do is play it steady—once I become a Qi Refining cultivator, I'll naturally find ways to earn contribution points."

If it really came down to it...

Fang Huai's heart hardened. If anyone provoked him again, he wouldn't mind inheriting their estate.

After switching locations several times to gather Sha, the Sha-Gathering Bottle had accumulated a fair amount of Death Sha, but the potency of the Miasma-Clearing Pill was also beginning to fade.

Just as he was about to leave, an uncomfortable sensation struck his heart.

Not good!

Was it Death Sha infiltration or miasma erosion? Or was it that spider's doing?

Poison struck like an avalanche—his heart ached violently, breathing became difficult, and a crimson haze clouded Fang Huai's vision.

[Spider Venom Outbreak (White)]

Damn it, it really was that Black Death Spider!

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Fang Huai swallowed the remaining two Miasma-Clearing Pills, thinking that since they could clear miasma poison, they might also resist spider venom.

But heaven did not grant his wish. When the medicine didn't match the ailment, even the gods couldn't save him.

A roar filled his ears, and his vision gradually faded to gray.

Was he going to die?

Fang Huai's consciousness blurred as he collapsed to the ground, his fate unknown.

Just then, a black beetle crawled out from the soil. It cautiously looked around, and seeing no one nearby, it sneaked its way toward Fang Huai.

It probed at Fang Huai with a touch. When he didn't react, it boldly climbed onto his body.

Its sharp mouthparts sliced through his skin, and its bloated body squeezed into the flesh, quickly crawling toward Fang Huai's heart.

As the black beetle entered his body, Fang Huai's brows furrowed tightly in his unconscious state, as if enduring immense pain.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Fang Huai coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of black blood. His vision gradually cleared.

[Spider Venom Infiltration (Gray)]

How had he survived? And the spider venom seemed to be suppressed for now.

After resting a bit, seeing that the sky was growing dark and roars echoed from deep within Miasma Valley, he forced himself to return to Servant Valley.

The Sha he had gathered had already leaked away completely, the Miasma-Clearing Pills were all used up, and spider venom still lingered in his body.

Not only had he gained nothing today, but he had nearly thrown his life away.

Back in his room, Fang Huai frowned deeply, replaying the day's events in his mind.

After entering the valley today, he had remained highly alert, constantly observing his surroundings. There was no way the Black Death Spider could have climbed onto his shoulder during that time.

So the venomous spider must have already been on him before he entered the valley.

Was it Jin Xiaoxiao's doing?

He immediately shook his head.

In last night's fight, the other party had been completely suppressed by him, unable to even turn over, let alone pull any tricks on his body.

Then it could only be Pei Long. Before entering the valley, Pei Long had patted his shoulder—that must have been when he made his move.

"What a fine example of a hidden dagger behind a smile."

Fang Huai slammed his fist onto the table. "I'll remember this grudge. Sooner or later, I'll make you pay it back double."