Chapter 187 Searching for the Toad
"One hundred spirit stones each." Yuan Ming raised a finger and said.
"No, at least one thousand spirit stones each, I only have four." The man in black shook his head firmly.
"One hundred and one spirit stones." Yuan Ming raised the price.
"Daoyou, you are not sincere in bargaining like this." The man in black frowned.
"This is the price for a disposable item." Yuan Ming raised his eyebrows and questioned.
"It's only eight hundred spirit stones. If you don't agree, then forget it." The man in black didn't say anything and said directly.
"Two hundred spirit stones, don't rush to disagree. If the thing is easy to sell, you won't be unable to sell it for a few days." Yuan Ming said.
"Are you going to buy it or not..." The man in black said angrily.
"Of course I will buy it. I think people who can use this thing don't have spirit stones to buy it. Most people who have spirit stones are strong enough. It's better to make a high-grade magic weapon with spirit stones to buy this. Don't you think it's right? For example, the person over there." Yuan Ming said, waving his hand in the distance, as if to say hello to Gu Qiuming.
The latter also raised his only remaining arm in cooperation and responded.
The black-clothed man saw this scene, and his brows were twisted into knots, and he could not speak anymore.
"Daoyou, the price I give you is already a reasonable price." Yuan Ming patted the black-clothed man on the shoulder, with a serious look.
"Forget it, I haven't met anyone as eloquent as you. One thousand spirit stones, three heart-breaking thunders are yours. Let's make a deal first, no more bargaining!" The black-clothed man hesitated for a while, his shoulders slumped down, and said.
"Okay, then you wait here, I'll get the money right away." Yuan Ming agreed very straightforwardly.
"That won't work, it must be settled immediately." The black-clothed man said immediately.
"Why are you worried? I put the deposit of three hundred spirit stones here, and the heart-breaking thunder is still in your hands, and you are still worried?" Yuan Ming said, giving three hundred spirit stones to the black-clothed man.
"Really? Aren't you afraid that I will swallow your spirit stones and run away?" The black-clothed man immediately took it, half believing and half doubting.
"It's okay. I can afford to lose 300 spirit stones. My senior brother from the sect is also setting up a stall there. If you have any rare animals to sell to him, just tell him my name, Ha Gong." Yuan Ming smiled, left after saying this, and turned away.
The man in black glanced at the one-armed old man, then at another vendor not far away, and his peripheral vision swept over the two people leaning against the tree. He suddenly felt that everyone around him was Yuan Ming's people. In addition, the things he was selling were a bit sensitive, so he dared not have any other thoughts. He could only wait there anxiously.
He didn't know that in the darkness not far from him, there was a black soul crow, staring at him without blinking.
Yuan Ming hurried back and found Gu Yue, who had not yet helped him sell things.
After some discussion, he asked him to help make up a thousand spirit stones. The price was that no matter how much the subsequent magic tools and storage bags were sold for, they would all belong to Gu Yue and had nothing to do with him.
After returning to the ghost market, Yuan Ming successfully bought three heart-splitting thunders and spent almost all his savings at once.
After that, he used the remaining one hundred spirit stones on him to buy some useful talismans, and then rushed back to the Shiwan Mountains overnight to continue his retreat.
About a month later.
After using up the remaining Qingxuanxiang and taking the Jinhua Pill, Yuan Ming finally broke through to the twelfth level of Qi Refining.
At this time, there were less than ten days left before the Bailuqiu Alliance.
Although he had a foundation-building pill, he didn't want to give up the foundation-building opportunity promised by the sect. He made a lot of preparations. In his opinion, this so-called opportunity was probably just a foundation-building pill. If he could get what he wanted, he could have two foundation-building pills, and the chance of success in foundation-building would naturally increase greatly.
However, by then, all the sects would be full of talents, and he must be fully prepared, and it was time to take back the black toad.
…
Yuan Ming rushed all the way to the Snake King Valley.
The environment in the valley remained the same, with towering trees and miasma, as if it had been like this for eternity and would never change.
He sat cross-legged at the entrance where he parted with the black toad, closed his eyes and sensed the position of the black toad, his eyes suddenly sank.
He could not sense the beast-controlling rune in the black toad's body!
According to Yuan Ming's current cognition, there are only two possibilities for this phenomenon. One is that the black toad has been killed and the beast-controlling rune has naturally dissipated. The second is that the black toad has been locked up by some kind of magic array, isolating him from the beast-controlling rune.
The black toad has advanced to the second level and has awakened several powerful abilities. It is his most important helper at present. If it is killed by someone, it will be a heavy loss.
Yuan Ming's thoughts turned thousands of times in his mind, and he felt something was wrong, so he forced himself to calm down.
Now, the first thing to do is to determine whether the black toad is alive or dead.
The black toad liked the black stone pillar very much before, and it is very likely that he went there.
Thinking of this, Yuan Ming quickly rushed to the Snake King Cave.
With the help of the white jade belt, he quickly arrived at the entrance of the Snake King Cave. Just as he was about to enter, he suddenly stopped and waved his hand to release three soul crows.
One flew into the Snake King Cave, one stayed outside the cave entrance, and the third monitored the surrounding situation.
After doing this, Yuan Ming took out the Water Cloud Banner and clasped it in his hand, entered the Snake King Cave, and soon came to the deepest part of the Snake King Cave with familiarity.
The black stone pillar that stood here disappeared, and a large hole with a diameter of three feet appeared on the ground. It was pitch black and bottomless. Many large and small stones and soil were scattered on the ground nearby, as if the black stone pillar was pulled out alive.
Yuan Ming had already discovered this situation through the Soul Crow, and was not surprised. With a thought, he controlled the Soul Crow to fly into the black cave to explore, and he began to search everywhere in the cave.
With the powerful power of his spiritual consciousness, he soon discovered something. He found a piece of purple-black broken vine under a big stone, which was a part of the purple-black demon vine. It seemed that the black toad had indeed been here.
The Soul Crow also arrived at the bottom of the black cave at this moment. This big hole extended straight down, more than 30 feet deep, shaped like a deep well.
The space at the bottom of the cave was much larger than the space above, but there was nothing. A bluestone passage appeared on the side of the bottom of the cave, extending into the distance.
The ground and stone walls of the bluestone passage were very flat, and it looked like it was built by humans, and it was covered with dust.
Yuan Ming controlled the Soul Crow to explore the underground. After finding no danger, he raised the Water Cloud Banner to protect his body and jumped into the big cave.
The Water Cloud Banner shot out two blue water lights like big hands, grabbing the cave wall, which greatly reduced his falling speed and he landed safely soon.
He searched for a while at the bottom of the cave, but found no new broken vines. He looked towards the bluestone passage.
The soul crow had already flown into the passage, and now it had flown forward for at least three hundred feet, but still had not reached the end.
Yuan Ming did not retreat at this point. He raised the Water Cloud Banner to protect his body, stepped into the passage, and his spiritual sense spread out.
Not long after he walked out, he suddenly stopped and looked at the cave wall on the right. There was a thumb-sized black spot in the corner, which seemed to be corroded by something.
This place was inconspicuous, and if he had not expanded his spiritual sense, he would not have found it at all.
Yuan Ming approached the black spot, sniffed it gently, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
The black spot exuded a sour smell, which was the smell of the black toad's venom. It seemed that the black toad had been here and was probably in front.
He quickened his pace, and his figure soon completely disappeared into the darkness.
The length of the blue passage was far beyond his expectations. Yuan Ming rushed forward for a quarter of an hour, but there was still no sign of the end.
Fortunately, there was no fork in the bluestone passage, so there was no need to worry about getting lost.
After walking forward for a while, Yuan Ming's eyebrows suddenly raised.
The soul crow used to explore the way in front finally reached the end of the bluestone passage, and an exit emitting white light appeared there.
Yuan Ming ordered the soul crow to stop, and he quickened his pace and soon arrived at the exit of the passage.
He suddenly showed a stunned expression on his face and looked up at the sky above his head.
After Yuan Ming entered the bluestone passage, he did not forget to control the two soul crows on the ground. The soul crow at the entrance of the Snake King Cave still stopped in place to monitor the situation at the entrance.
And the soul crow sent out to explore was controlled by him to fly directly above his head, so that he could confirm his location.
The soul crow above his head came to an unexpected place at this moment: the ancient castle that Gu Tu and others had visited before.
This passage actually led to the underground of the ancient castle. It seemed that there was some connection between the two.
Yuan Ming raised the water cloud flag to protect his whole body and stepped into the white exit.
His eyes were filled with dazzling white light, and the next moment all the light suddenly disappeared, and he appeared in a gray stone palace.
The stone hall is rectangular, about 15 or 16 feet long, 70 or 80 feet wide, but only 10 or 20 feet high, giving people a very depressing feeling.
On both sides of the hall stand four stone pillars that can be hugged by one person, with reliefs of many human and animal figures engraved on them.
The style of these reliefs is weird, not only does it not make the stone hall colorful, but it makes it more gloomy, looking like the underground palace of a mausoleum.
Yuan Ming didn't pay any attention to the environment here, because the walls of the gray underground palace were covered with lush purple-black vines, and the eight stone pillars were entangled with purple-black vines, which were the purple-black demon vines in the black toad's body.
The black toad was lying next to a stone pillar at this moment, sleeping soundly with its belly turned up, and its round belly expanded and contracted, which was quite funny.
Yuan Ming breathed a sigh of relief and glared at the black toad again.
This black toad was actually sleeping here, causing him to worry in vain.
After confirming that the black toad was safe, Yuan Ming's heart was completely settled, and then he looked carefully at the gray underground palace.
The walls of the gray underground palace were flickering with a faint black fluorescence. He used his spiritual sense to explore, but he could not go deeper after just entering a little. It seemed that the white fluorescence was some kind of restriction that could isolate the power of spiritual sense. No wonder the existence of the black toad could not be sensed from the outside.
Not only were the walls of this underground palace flickering with black light, but there were also strands of black air suspended in the air, like clouds, and each strand exuded a faint fierce breath.
Yuan Ming was not unfamiliar with this breath, which was exactly the black air emitted by the black stone pillar before.
The purple-black demon vine on the back of the black toad was cooperating with the rise and fall of the black toad's chest, and the flowers were also opening and closing, as if breathing through the mouth and nose. The black air in the hall slowly gathered over and was sucked in by the flowers and leaves of the purple-black demon vine.
Yuan Ming was not surprised. The black toad had been absorbing the strange black air before, but judging from the situation in front of him, it was probably the purple-black demon vine that was really absorbing the black air.