During his time in Heaven Dou City, Ming Zhao holed up in his hotel every day, controlling the ghosts he had sent to Sunset Forest from afar as they searched for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Qiu'er might have entered the Mandarin Duck Hotpot with ease, but he had a map that let him pinpoint its location.
Someone like Ming Zhao, who had no map and knew only that the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was somewhere in the forest, without a scrap of other useful information, could only search his way through bit by bit.
Sunset Forest had merely fallen into decline; it had not been developed. In fact, the thick miasma found everywhere in the forest meant hardly anyone was willing to come here. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but untouched virgin forest.
And the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was merely an inconspicuous little valley in that vast virgin forest, whose size was anyone's guess.
Only after trying it for himself did Ming Zhao realize how hard it was to find the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well's exact location without a map.
Ming Zhao could only send his hundred ghosts to search places thick with miasma. That made it easier to find the source of the miasma: the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation, which had almost completely destroyed Sunset Forest's ecosystem.
But even that method wasn't guaranteed to work.
At least, Ming Zhao had come up empty-handed several times.
The miasma in Sunset Forest was caused by the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation. Until the formation was removed, the forest's miasma could replenish itself indefinitely.
In a place as large as a virgin forest, there were bound to be a few unusual landforms where miasma could settle. The weather couldn't carry the miasma away from these places, so it simply kept accumulating, making them look much like the outskirts of the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation.
After spending ages searching for the source of the miasma, only for his ghosts to find some godforsaken place like that, Ming Zhao was thoroughly pissed off.
He shifted his view over full of anticipation, only to be shown this when he'd already taken his pants off. A few times was one thing, but after it happened too often, Ming Zhao couldn't even be bothered to pay attention anymore.
The ghosts would act on their own anyway.
With the King of Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul Skill supplying Ghost Qi from afar, they wouldn't dissipate from running out of it either.
All Ming Zhao needed to do was keep cultivating to restore the Soul Power he consumed. He left the task of finding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to the hundred ghosts.
And so the search went on for more than half a month.
On Ming Zhao's eighteenth day in Heaven Dou City, the ghosts he had sent out finally saw the vast cloud of Jade Phosphor Poison, blotting out the sky and sun, in a valley surrounded by mountains deep in Sunset Forest.
If they had flown in a straight line, the ghosts could have reached the valley from the outskirts in less than half a day at Soul Saint speed.
But to avoid flying too fast and overlooking anything important, the ghosts could only advance bit by bit, taking care not to miss a single detail.
Ming Zhao didn't mind spending a little more time, as long as they found it.
Through a ghost's eyes, Ming Zhao saw the Jade Phosphor Poison cloud reflecting an eerie seven-colored sheen in the sunlight. Beneath it, he also saw the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation, planted in neat rows.
Tens of thousands of Jade Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers and Jade Phosphor Nine Absolutes Flowers grew luxuriantly, like vegetables in a garden.
But the source of their nourishment was the countless Soul Beast skeletons outside the valley. Most of these skeletons had been corroded through to their cores by the poisonous mist and the passage of time, becoming extremely fragile. Many had even collapsed into bone dust scattered across the ground.
Even as Ming Zhao watched the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation, an enormous Soul Beast skeleton, its original species no longer recognizable, collapsed with a crash.
Fragments of bone flew everywhere, and bone dust and dirt billowed wildly. The Jade Phosphor Poison powder that had coated the skeleton's surface reflected an eerie seven-colored sheen in the air, looking beautiful and dreamlike, yet deadly and dangerous.
Any normal person would have found the sight bone-chilling.
But Ming Zhao felt thoroughly delighted.
Not only that, he thoroughly approved of such behavior.
Not just the Jade Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers using all of Sunset Forest as their hunting ground.
He also greatly admired Tang San for planting the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation to conceal the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, even at the cost of destroying a Soul Beast habitat and killing countless living beings.
Impressive~
The weak deserved to be mercilessly humiliated. They deserved to become nourishment for the strong.
Treasure lands deserved to be occupied. They deserved to become the private preserves of the strong!
That was why Ming Zhao had never thought there was anything wrong with Tang San hiding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
If Tang San hadn't hidden it, how could Ming Zhao have slipped in through the gap? If he hadn't hidden it, and the Tang Sect had occupied the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as it had in Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King, how could Ming Zhao have entered and feasted to his heart's content right under the noses of the Tang Sect's many Titled Douluo, Super Douluo, and even Limit Douluo?
Whatever price others had paid or torment they had suffered because of Tang San's actions, Ming Zhao was at least one of the major beneficiaries of what he had done.
Anyone could look down on Tang San and point fingers at him from the moral high ground.
But Ming Zhao wouldn't. He would only give Tang San a thumbs-up. Thank goodness for him, or Ming Zhao wouldn't have had any chance to enjoy all of this!
Likewise, if a day came when Ming Zhao was outmatched, became a pawn and nourishment for someone stronger, and died in some stinking ditch, he would never curse heaven or blame others.
Those who killed would themselves be killed. Ming Zhao couldn't even remember how many people he had killed in this life.
People died when they were killed, and it would be the same for him. He would feel no resentment or anger, because that was just how this fucking world was supposed to be.
Even being allowed to live was a gift from the strong to the weak!
"So... so that I can become strong enough to control the lives of others, please offer up your lives!" Ming Zhao's gaze was calm to the point of coldness. Without hesitation, he ordered the ghost he was observing from afar to charge into the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation without regard for its own safety.
As spirit bodies, ghosts normally existed in an intangible state that physical attacks couldn't hit, unless they chose to manifest.
He didn't know whether the Jade Phosphor Poison cloud could harm spirit bodies, but he didn't mind trying. It was only a Soul Saint-level ghost, after all. If it died, it died.
Ming Zhao had nurtured them for this very day.
The meaning of their existence was to one day scout the path for Ming Zhao without hesitation, using themselves to secure victory or opportunities for him.
At the Soul Saint ghost's speed, it quickly descended from the mountaintop into the valley, facing the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation that had propagated for ten thousand years with its own body.
Ordinary miasma had no effect on ghosts. These ghosts had searched Sunset Forest for seventeen or eighteen days, soaking in thick miasma every day, yet they were still as lively as ever. Ming Zhao hadn't detected any injuries on them.
But after this controlled ghost charged into the Jade Phosphor Poison Formation, its spirit body began to dissipate.
Once the poison reached a certain level of potency, even spirit bodies could be corroded by the poisonous mist in the air.
"The Jade Phosphor Poison Formation is worthy of its name."