White bones stretched for a thousand miles, and miasma ran rampant.
Fang Huai looked at the blue-green miasma filling Miasma Valley and felt a surge of unease.
Their gazes met those of a small group not far away. Both sides had the same idea: they were waiting for the other to enter the valley first and scout the way.
"Go scout ahead. Hurry!"
The group that had formed a temporary alliance finally lost patience. They shoved forward a skinny woman and drove her into Miasma Valley.
"Give me a Miasma-Clearing Pill! I don't want to die!"
"Cut the crap. Stay inside for twenty breaths, and we'll let you out."
At first, the woman struggled with all her might. Then a knife struck her back, and she finally stumbled trembling into the miasma. She had only taken a few steps before her whole body turned blue-green and she collapsed.
"Twelve breaths. The other entrance took ten. We'll go in here," the leader said.
"Should we grab that cripple and have him scout the way too?"
One of the lackeys leaned in to whisper in the leader's ear, pointing at Fang Huai.
Though they had already taken Miasma-Clearing Pills, they still didn't want to enter recklessly. Better safe than sorry.
Fang Huai saw them pointing at him and frowned inwardly. They were just ordinary people. If they really dared to provoke him, he wouldn't mind sending a few of them on their way.
"Keep your mouths shut. Don't provoke that man."
The leader's face showed his wariness. A man even Pei Long treated with deference was someone he couldn't afford to offend.
Seeing that Fang Huai had noticed them, the leader called out amiably, "Brother Fang, the miasma is thinner here, so it's a good place to enter the valley. We'll scout the way for you first!"
Fang Huai nodded. Once they entered the valley, he got up and followed.
Killing intent came in many forms. Most of what could be found in Miasma Valley was death sha, and the Sha Source that produced it was the corpses of living beings.
When a living being died, its lingering soul condensed into sha. The more corpses there were and the stronger they were in life, the higher the quality of the death sha they formed.
Miasma Valley was the site of an ancient battlefield between immortals and demons. The concentration of death sha had once been extremely high, attracting the Corpse Sha Sect's founder to establish the sect there. But after several thousand years of gathering sha, the concentration had dropped considerably.
To ensure the sect's foundation never ran dry, the sect had decreed that whenever a disciple died, their corpse would be skinned and their soul collected before the body was thrown into Miasma Valley to condense into sha.
The Corpse Sha Sect had tens of thousands of servant disciples, but there were only a handful of gathering spots passed down by word of mouth. As a result, some areas on the outskirts of Miasma Valley were extremely crowded.
Fang Huai deliberately kept away from the crowds. With his ability to check labels, he figured it wouldn't be hard to find a place with a dense concentration of sha.
But wherever he looked, all he saw were [Very Little Sha] and [Faint Sha], along with [Beast-Catching Trap] and [Human-Catching Trap].
[Beast-Catching Trap: Patiently waiting for a demonic beast to take the bait]
[Human-Catching Trap: Patiently waiting for a servant to take the bait]
After searching for a long time, he finally found a suitable Sha Source.
Half-buried in the earth, the skull's eye sockets were empty. It was impossible to tell if it had belonged to a man or woman. Only its twisted, fractured bones spoke of the torment it had endured in life.
Fang Huai silently recited the sha-gathering formula. Under the pull of the Sha-Gathering Bottle, thin streams of greenish-gray sha flowed slowly into it.
Suddenly, pain stabbed through his shoulder. Fang Huai slapped at it, and a bloodied spider landed in his hand.
[Black Death Spider]
[Mortal Body]
[Bloodied and Mutilated (Black)][Torn to Shreds (Black)]
Of course, the label showing whether it was poisonous hadn't appeared...
"When did I pick up a bug? Could it be poisonous?"
If he got poisoned in Miasma Valley, he'd be done for.
Fang Huai had only one system point left. He couldn't possibly spend it on refreshing the labels. That single point was for saving his life.
His heart pounded as he carefully checked for any sign of discomfort. If he felt even the slightest abnormality, he'd immediately find some unlucky soul and swap the poison label onto them.
As for what would happen if the person died and the label swapped back, he'd just have to cross that bridge when he came to it.
After waiting a quarter of an hour without showing any signs of poisoning, he finally relaxed and continued gathering sha.
At his pace, he could probably gather one bottle of sha every three days. As for ordinary servants, blind to the unseen, how much they gathered was entirely up to luck.
The monthly quota was five bottles. For every extra bottle they collected, they could exchange it for ten Contribution Points.
But to survive in Miasma Valley, they needed at least Inferior Miasma-Clearing Pills. One Contribution Point bought three pills, and taking one each day meant spending ten Contribution Points a month just on pills.
Ordinary servants couldn't even afford to buy Miasma-Clearing Pills, let alone complete their monthly quota. Forget about exchanging anything for cultivation time.
In the end, they either died because they failed to complete their quota or died from the poisonous miasma.
There were many roads in life, but they all led to the same destination----
In the end, they all gathered in Miasma Valley.
Exploited in life, put to use as scraps in death. The poor servants still dreamed of turning their fortunes around one day.
But it wasn't entirely hopeless. Deep in Miasma Valley, death sha grew dense, and natural treasures appeared frequently. Those with heaven-defying luck might even stumble upon a Spirit Treasure Artifact Fragment.
But the demonic beasts and Demonic Beasts prowled there, and the miasma's poison grew more potent.
"There's no need to take risks now. I need to proceed steadily. Once I become a Qi Refining cultivator, I'll naturally find ways to earn Contribution Points."
If all else failed...
Fang Huai's heart hardened. If anyone provoked him again, he wouldn't mind taking over their estate.
After gathering sha in several different places, he had accumulated quite a bit of death sha in the Sha-Gathering Bottle. At the same time, the medicinal effects of the Miasma-Clearing Pill had begun to fade.
He was just about to leave when he felt something wrong in his chest.
No good!
Was it death sha entering his body, poisonous miasma corroding him, or that spider?
The poison hit like a mountain collapsing. His heart throbbed with agony, he struggled to breathe, and a crimson haze filled his vision.
[Spider Venom Outbreak (White)]
Damn it! It really was that Black Death Spider!
With nothing left to lose, Fang Huai swallowed his remaining two Miasma-Clearing Pills, thinking that if they could clear poisonous miasma, perhaps they could also fight the spider venom.
But fate was against him. Even a god couldn't save him when the medicine was wrong for the illness.
His ears roared, and his vision gradually faded to gray.
Am I going to die?
Fang Huai's consciousness blurred, and he fell to the ground, neither alive nor dead.
Just then, a black beetle burrowed out of the soil. It warily surveyed its surroundings, and, seeing no one nearby, it crept furtively toward Fang Huai.
It cautiously touched him. When he didn't react, it simply crawled onto his body.
Its sharp mouthparts cut through his skin. Its swollen body squeezed into his flesh, then quickly crawled toward Fang Huai's heart.
As the black beetle entered his body, Fang Huai's brows furrowed in his unconsciousness, as if he were enduring immense pain.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Fang Huai coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of black blood. His vision gradually cleared.
[Spider Venom Infiltration (Gray)]
How had he survived? The spider venom also seemed to have been suppressed.
After resting for a while, he saw that dusk was falling. Roars echoed from deep within Miasma Valley, so he forced himself to return to Servant Valley.
The sha he had collected had all leaked away. He had also used up his Miasma-Clearing Pills, and spider venom still lingered in his body.
He'd gained nothing today and had nearly lost his life.
Back in his room, Fang Huai furrowed his brows and went over the day's events again.
After entering the valley, he'd remained on high alert, watching his surroundings at all times. There was no way the Black Death Spider could have crawled onto his shoulder during that time.
So the venomous spider must have already been on him before he entered the valley.
Had Jin Xiaoxiao done it?
He immediately shook his head.
In last night's fight, the other man had been completely suppressed, unable even to turn the tables. There was no way he could have fiddled with anything on Fang Huai's body.
That left Pei Long. Before Fang Huai entered the valley, Pei Long had patted his shoulder. He must have made his move then.
"What a snake, hiding a dagger behind a smile."
Fang Huai slammed a fist onto the table. "I'll remember this grudge. Sooner or later, I'll make you pay back double."
Before you continue