Flaming Man took out a Jade-Cleansing Bottle, a bottle that loved devouring flames and could collect fire from outside sources.
Holding the Jade-Cleansing Bottle, Flaming Man chanted solemnly, "Wake up, my treasure!"
Pinpricks of light emerged from the Jade-Cleansing Bottle, and its mouth began sucking in the flames.
Every flame that rushed toward them was drawn into the Jade-Cleansing Bottle.
Flaming Man walked several more steps, drawing all the flames in the swamp into the bottle.
With the flames collected, the area finally returned to normal. The gray fog overhead still hovered five meters above the ground, as though the black smoke from the fire had not affected it at all.
The swamp liquid that had not burned dry slowly flowed back into the pit, and Flaming Man had a new idea.
"We could burn this whole swamp dry. Then our people wouldn't all have to drink Antidote when they came in."
"There's something wrong with these woods. Burning them dry could cause a disaster." Ke Meng shook his head, rejecting the reckless approach in favor of caution.
"All right."
Flaming Man's intuition was not as sharp as Ke Meng's, so he trusted Ke Meng's judgment.
Ke Meng and the others continued onward, crossing the pit and heading deeper in.
Over a hundred meters farther along, they happened to spot a large earthen jar.
Ke Meng did not approach the jar, but his spirituality could sense that it held the spiritual essence of someone who had already died.
"A victim. A Rotten Mud Fish turned them into a Rotten Mud Jar," Bandaged Man said quietly.
There was another large jar ahead.
Ke Meng lifted the earthen jar's lid. It was pitch-black inside, and something unspeakable seemed to be churning within, utterly disgusting.
"This thing reminds me of the Dark Cuisine