Chapter 496

[“Ah? I just tried to sprinkle some powder, and it lit up!” Facing everyone’s surprised eyes, the night watchman could only scratch his head and laugh dryly. ]

[“What powder?” Gargamel asked hurriedly. ]

[“It’s the pollen of the fairies…” the night watchman said. ]

[“How could it be? We have tried to use the dust of fairies as fuel a long time ago, but it never worked…” Gargamel still maintained a surprised expression, and his eyes shifted from the night watchman to the lantern in his hand: “Is your lantern some kind of artifact?” ]

[“Well, for me, it must be an artifact. After all, it is the lamp that has accompanied me from childhood to adulthood, and it has helped me find many treasures before. But in fact, this is just a rare item, and it is far from being an artifact.” The night watchman laughed. 】

【"Only rare ones?" Gargamel was incredulous and even more confused: "The expedition team had even found legendary lamps before, but they didn't work..."】

【"I don't know about that... By the way, did you notice? The light from this lamp is a bit strange. Why does it only illuminate the bottom?"】

【You looked up immediately after hearing this and carefully observed the lantern. You found that, as the night watchman said, the fluorescent light in the lantern only illuminated a range of less than one meter in other directions around it, but only illuminated a distance of more than ten meters along the rope ladder. 】

【Linglong and Gargamel looked up and observed carefully, and soon confirmed this pattern, and were also puzzled. 】

【"Strange, it's obviously a lantern, how come it seems to have become a flashlight, and can only illuminate one direction... and the direction can't be adjusted?" The night watchman fiddled with the pumpkin lantern in amazement, turning the lantern upside down in all directions, but no matter how he adjusted the position of the lantern, the light source always shone in the same direction, like the pointer of Si Nan. 】

Mu You was moved when he saw this, and suddenly remembered what Olmedo had said before.

Fairies cannot enter the dark cave, but the Fairy King resolutely chose to enter here, because only the fairies of the royal family can sense the location of the root system of the mother tree.

The problem at the moment is probably not the pumpkin lantern, but the pollen, because the night watchman just sprinkled the lucky dust he brought.

This dust is produced by the fairy fairy. According to Tina, the fairy fairy should also be a royal fairy.

In this way, perhaps only the dust of the royal fairy can light up here.

And this light seems to show the characteristics of "guidance", so could it be that the direction it guides is the way to the root of the mother tree?

Thinking of this, Muyou explained his guess to the three people in the game.

【Gargamel suddenly realized after listening to your explanation: "So that's the case, it's very likely, then let's follow the direction of the light first! Oh, and in addition, for some reason there is no wind element in the cave, so wind magic such as flying and slow falling cannot be used here. Remember to walk along the mountain wall, it will be bad if you fall down."】

【... You continue to set off along the guidance of the light, all the way down, and soon reach the end of the rope ladder and come to a naturally formed cliff platform. At this time, the light that had been pointing downwards suddenly changed direction and pointed to one side of this narrow passage. 】

【Seeing the change in light, you are more certain of your previous guess. 】

【"It is indeed pointing the way, great, maybe this time we can really find the roots of the mother tree!" Gargamel said excitedly. 】

Confirming that pollen can really point the way, Mu You was originally thinking about whether to use the pocket watch and pumpkin lantern to go back to save dust, after all, the fairy dust is not much.

However, after asking the night watchman, I learned that the dust was not burning, but simply emitting fluorescence in the lamp. It would not produce a lucky effect, but it would greatly extend the luminous time.

Mu You took the remaining fairy pollen from the three people, and even the unused pollen from Fuya, and handed them over to the night watchman. He asked him to count the lighting time, and found that the remaining pollen could illuminate for more than a day and a half!

Since it can be used for so long, Mu You simply did not do such a complicated operation as backtracking. After all, they are in a hurry now, and what they need more is efficiency. With light, they can move much faster.

[You quickly arrived a hundred meters below the surface, and the originally narrow space around you suddenly opened up. The interlaced rocks and strange peaks were hidden in the surrounding darkness. You felt as if you were in an endless mountain range. ]

["How can flowers bloom in such a lightless environment?" The night watchman looked at a small white flower blooming on the cliff by the road in disbelief. 】

【This flower looks holy and pure, with an indescribable beauty under the fluorescent light. There is an immature fruit on the stem and leaves below the flower, and the night watchman subconsciously wants to reach out and touch it. 】

【"Don't touch it!" Gargamel hurriedly stopped him. 】

【"This is the 'Anti-Flower', an extremely dangerous thing! All living things that directly touch the open Anti-Flower will fall into illusions and be unable to extricate themselves. At the same time, all their vitality will be slowly sucked away by the Anti-Flower." 】

【"And the vitality sucked away will turn into the fruit of the Anti-Flower. After absorbing enough vitality, it will produce Anti-Fruit. It is said that eating this fruit has the magical effect of rejuvenating people." 】

【"So good?" Linglong was surprised. 】

【“It just sounds beautiful.” Gargamel shook his head solemnly: “This flower is also called the cursed flower, because the process of rejuvenation cannot be stopped. People who eat the anti-rebirth fruit will continue to grow inversely, and will soon degenerate back to a baby, and then degenerate back to a lump of flesh in the placenta, until it completely perishes into dust, and then it ends. This is the meaning of ‘anti-rebirth’.”】

【“Alas, what a pity…” Linglong looked at the green fruit on the small flower with regret. 】

【“What about this? What is this black mass?” The night watchman asked again. 】

【You followed his gaze and saw a black mass growing on the top of another rock wall, which could not be illuminated even by the fluorescent light emitted by the pumpkin lantern. 】

【"This is a light-eating flower. Its characteristic is that it devours light and forms a dark area around it. Therefore, even in a bright place, you can't see the true appearance of this flower. If its pollen is used as fuel, it will also devour the surrounding light after being ignited, turning the originally bright place into a dark place."】

【"The light-eating flower is the most common creature in the dark cave. When it matures, the flower body will explode and spread pollen into the surrounding space, and continue to grow into more light-eating flowers. Its reproductive capacity is quite amazing. Some people have speculated that there may be tens of billions of light-eating flowers growing in the dark cave, so many people also suspect that the reason why the dark cave is so dark is because there are too many light-eating flowers and the pollen fills the environment here." Gargamel said. 】

【"So scary? If this flower is not accidentally spread, won't it soon devour the outside world into darkness?" The night watchman asked. 】

【"Don't worry about that. The light-eating flower will die soon after leaving the cave. It should be said that all the creatures in the cave will wither in a very short time once they are taken away from the cave, until they turn into ashes and disappear." Gargamel said. 】

Mu You originally saw the strange effect of this plant and wanted to pick some to take back, but after hearing this, he had to give up.

The four of them continued on their way, and encountered various new and strange dark plants along the way. Gargamel took the time to explain them to them one by one.

Many of these plants' effects, Mu You knew they must have medicinal value, but they were not mentioned at all in Vivian's magic potion plant encyclopedia, which showed that even she had never seen them. Mu You could only sigh that there are all kinds of wonders in the world.

Of course, in addition to various dark plants, there are also many living creatures in the cave.

【"Hiss!" While on the road, the little spider on Linglong's shoulder suddenly screamed in one direction with bared teeth. ]

[You turned back to look in the direction of the little spider's bared teeth, but you only saw extreme darkness. ]

["Be careful, it might be the 'Dark Cave Beast'!" Gargamel hurriedly reminded. ]

[As soon as Gargamel finished speaking, you heard a sound of breaking through the air, and a group of pitch-black creatures quickly attacked and invaded your light. Even under the illumination of the pumpkin lantern, it still appeared as a vague darkness, but you could hear its panting and the stench from its open sharp mouth. ]

[After the dark creature appeared, it suddenly rushed towards the nearest night watchman. ]

[You released the 'Arc Sword', and the ringing lightning arc blade passed through. With a shrill scream, it directly cut the black shadow into two pieces. ]

[You killed the 'Dark Cave Beast', experience value +10...]

[You searched the place where the Dark Cave Beast died and found 'Dark Pollen'*1, 'Divine Powder'*1. 】

【Dark pollen: a ball of powder wrapped in black, which will absorb the light of the surrounding small space, and will quickly turn into ash after leaving the dark cave. 】

【Divine powder: a ball of powder containing extremely weak divinity. If you can gather a hundred balls of such powder, you may be able to condense a divine crystal. 】

"Huh?" Mu You was stunned.

He was not surprised by the dark pollen. This should be the pollen from the explosion of the light-eating flower. It was absorbed into the body of the creatures here for a long time and would only explode after death. It was the same principle as the bitter pollen that could be exploded by killing monsters in the bitter forest.

What was surprising was the second kind of loot, the divine powder!

In other words, this space actually contains a certain amount of divinity?

Unfortunately, the content of divinity here is too low. He has to kill a hundred of these things to get a crystal. He doesn't have that much time.

After a small episode, the four continued on their way. As expected, they would encounter attacks from a cave creature from time to time along the way. This thing was actually very weak, only about level 10, and could be killed instantly by any black magic. It was because it could move freely in the dark that it seemed very threatening. With the little spider as their "sensor" and lighting, this thing was not to be feared at all.

["Be careful, there will be a strange area that no exploration team has not explored before." Gargamel looked at the map in his hand, which had reached the end, and turned back to remind. ]

Without the guidance of the map, the road was indeed more difficult to walk, and the speed of the people slowed down significantly.

"Huh?"

Mu You suddenly frowned, looked at the latest prompt in the game, and hurriedly followed the table to go back, and then reminded the people to stop.

["Wait!" You suddenly shouted, trying to stop the people from stepping into danger, but it was still a step too late. ]

[The sticky oily substance suddenly poured down from above, and the mountain wall covered with mucus suddenly became extremely smooth. 】

【Your feet slipped violently, and you were completely unable to control your body balance, and you all fell into the abyss. 】

[Fortunately, you foresaw the danger in advance and grabbed a vine on the edge of the cliff in time to stop the falling trend. ]

[You threw out the retractable chain claws, accurately grabbed the watchman closest to you, and brought the falling watchman back. ]

[On the other side, the Taotie Demon Spider also reacted quickly. While falling, it spit out a spider web to entangle a spiked rock, and at the same time threw out another spider web to wrap Linglong below. ]

[But because it was too fat, the Taotie Demon Spider tried its best to suck milk, but it was difficult to pull Linglong back, and it was so suffocated that its body turned red. ]

[The little phoenix flew out of the watchman and flew to the bottom of Linglong. It carried her from below and flapped its wings desperately. With the combined efforts of the two pets, they finally brought Linglong back to the top of the cliff. ]

["Two little cuties, thanks to you, we are saved!" Linglong hugged the two pets and kissed and sucked them. ]

["By the way...Where is Gargamel?" asked the watchman. ]

[The air suddenly went quiet for a second, Linglong said awkwardly: "It seems that someone in front of me fell down with a sound of 'ah'..."]

["Can we be resurrected here?"]

["I don't know... But this place is a bit like a different space. Even if we can be resurrected, I'm afraid we can only die repeatedly in the same place here..." Linglong guessed. ]

["What a tragedy! If Gargamel died, wouldn't history be changed?" The night watchman said in a collapsed voice. ]

["Be careful, someone is coming!" You suddenly reminded. ]

[The two of them immediately shut up and held their breath. Sure enough, they heard a rustling sound approaching you from somewhere below. ]

[The three of you hurriedly stood up and prepared to attack. ]

[A few seconds later, a black shadow emerged from below and was exposed to the light. ]

[You looked down and saw a fair-skinned boy on the cliff below. He had a layer of pitch-black fur on his hands and feet. He climbed steadily on the smooth cliff with one arm, showing no sign of falling. In his other hand, he held Gargamel, who had just fallen. ]

["Huh? Number Two!" The night watchman saw who was coming and exclaimed in surprise. ]

[Gargamel, who was curled up in fear with his eyes closed in the arms of the herbalist, dared to open his eyes after hearing your voices. Seeing the boy's face so close, and then looking at his own situation, a blush appeared on his face. ]

["It's you, indeed." The herbalist said expressionlessly, then exerted force with his arms, jumped up from the bottom of the cliff, and easily jumped back to the top of the cliff, putting the girl in his arms down. 】

【"Number Two, you're here just in time! How did you get here? What's that tied to your hand? It's a black mass. Oh, why didn't you slip off just now..." The night watchman jumped in front of the herbalist with a smile, holding his hand and asking questions non-stop, as if he had suddenly found a long-lost brother. 】

【The herbalist said nothing and silently withdrew his hand. 】

【"Great, now the Mu family army is gathered again!" Linglong clapped his hands and laughed. 】

【The herbalist frowned and turned his head, looked at Linglong, and asked in confusion: "Who are you?" 】

【"I'm Linglong, you bastard!" Linglong broke down on the spot. 】

【"What happened?" The herbalist looked at you and asked. 】

【"Anyway, let's synchronize the memory first." You said. 】

Next, Mu You controlled the character to synchronize the memory with the herbalist, and suddenly another strange picture flooded into his mind.

After Mu You digested it for a while, he finally understood that the herbalist had found a mysterious underground cave in another location soon after he left two days ago. Out of curiosity, he went in to take a look and found that it was connected to another exit of the cave.

In other words, the herbalist had actually been groping in the cave for two days.

Fortunately, the herbalist grew up in Misty Mountain and went up the mountain to collect herbs all year round. Rock climbing has become his physical instinct. He has played his specialty here and lived like a fish in water. He has adapted to the life in the cave in just two days.

As for the things on his hands and feet, they are a creature called "cave climber". This is also a rule discovered by the herbalist in the past two days. As long as this creature is caught and tied to his hands and feet, he can walk on the cliffs here like a gecko, even in the slimy area in front of him, there will be no hindrance to his movement.