Chapter 188 Gathering
"Eh!"
Yuan Ming suddenly discovered an abnormal situation. These purple-black demon vines not only grew lush vines and purple-black flowers, but also changed greatly in length.
The demon vines were originally only seven or eight feet long, but the demon vines in front of him were far more than that, at least more than twenty feet. Could it be related to the strange black air absorbed?
Yuan Ming pondered for a moment and communicated with the black toad through his mind.
The black toad's belly shook and woke up.
Sensing Yuan Ming's presence, the black toad hurriedly turned over, and a purple-black light emerged from behind. The demon vines that climbed all over the hall quickly shrank and sank into its back.
After a few breaths, all the demon vines in the hall disappeared, and the black toad also jumped to Yuan Ming's side.
Yuan Ming communicated with the black toad with his mind and asked it why it came here.
The black toad's thoughts came, and it tried to tell its experience in the Snake King Valley during this period.
The black toad was not very intelligent, and the story was not very clear. Yuan Ming had to guess and roughly understand the process of the black toad's coming here.
After Yuan Ming left it in the Snake King Valley that day, the black toad immediately returned to the Snake King Cave and continued to absorb the fierce black air in the black stone pillar.
At first, everything was fine. A few days later, the black stone pillar suddenly rose from the ground, and the ground below shook like an earthquake, and the straight hole appeared.
The black stone pillar then drilled into the hole, as if someone was controlling it.
The black toad was lying on the stone pillar at the time. Seeing this drastic change, he hurriedly used the demon vine to wrap his body tightly around the stone pillar, so that he was not thrown off.
The black stone pillar followed the bluestone passage underground and came to the gray underground palace.
The strange black air here was more concentrated, and the black toad was overjoyed, so he simply stayed here and released the demon vine to absorb.
The purple black demon vine was very happy with the strange black air. The more it absorbed, the more luxuriant it grew.
As a symbiotic body of the demon vine, although the black toad did not get any benefits, it also felt very comfortable and soon fell asleep until it was awakened by Yuan Ming just now.
Yuan Ming pondered all this secretly, feeling incredible, and looked at the black toad's back. The bulge had grown a lot at this moment, and it looked like it was wrapped by several purple-black leaves.
"Where is the black stone pillar now?" Yuan Ming asked.
The black toad raised his head and looked at the deepest part of the underground palace.
There was a tightly closed black stone door on the wall there, and a black stone pillar was standing on the right side of the stone door. The pattern on it was glowing with black light, and the black gas gushing out was ten times thicker.
"Don't worry about me, continue to absorb the black gas." Yuan Ming ordered.
Hearing this, the black toad cried happily and released the demon vine again to absorb the black gas here.
Yuan Ming came to the vicinity of the stone pillar and used his spiritual sense to explore again. Unfortunately, just like before, he was bounced away by an invisible force as soon as he touched the stone pillar.
He sighed, looked at the black stone door, and used his spiritual sense to explore inside.
However, the stone door, like the wall, was also covered with some kind of restrictions, and the spiritual sense could not penetrate it at all.
Yuan Ming searched carefully around the stone door again, but did not find anything like a door-opening mechanism.
The black stone pillar would not come here from the Snake King Cave for no reason. There must be something behind the stone door.
Yuan Ming was silent for a moment, and suddenly pointed out.
A brilliant golden knife light shot out, which was the nine-ring golden knife obtained from Gu Tu, and it slashed the stone door fiercely.
With a loud "clang", the nine-ring golden knife rebounded, and the black stone door was intact.
Yuan Ming frowned, and then grabbed with his right hand, brewing the burning explosion technique, and continuously injecting mana into it.
His cultivation has now reached the twelfth level of Qi Refining. Not only is his mana much stronger, but his control over the spell has also greatly improved. He quickly expanded the fireball to the size of a millstone, and the burst of mana fluctuations is far more powerful than when he fought with Gu Tu.
"Go!" Yuan Ming pushed his hand, and the giant fireball hit the black stone door, and his figure retreated at the same time.
The rolling red flames spread out, submerging the entire stone gate. The huge explosion made the underground palace tremble, and the prohibition on the stone gate was rippling with disorder.
The red flames quickly dissipated, and a large charred pit was blown out of the ground in front of the stone gate, but the black stone gate was intact.
A few feet away, Yuan Ming's face was completely gloomy.
He pondered for a moment, reached into his arms, and took out a small black bag, which was the corpse bag of the bone diagram, which contained the body of the Heavenly Snake Master.
He waved his hand to summon the body of the Heavenly Snake Master, and was about to take off the black iron nails and use the soul crow to control the body.
The body of the Heavenly Snake Master suddenly opened his eyes, emitting an extremely excited fierce light, and the black iron nails on his forehead vibrated, as if they were about to be pushed out by an invisible force.
The "clang clang" sound came from the front, but it came from behind the black stone door, as if someone was knocking frantically inside.
Yuan Ming's expression changed drastically, and his heartbeat also throbbed violently with the knocking behind the door. An indescribable fear surged into his heart, as if a prehistoric beast was standing in front of him.
He immediately activated the corpse bag, collected the Heavenly Snake Master again, and used his magic power to suppress his body.
The body of the Heavenly Snake Master gradually calmed down, and the knocking sound behind the black stone door also disappeared.
Yuan Ming immediately moved away from the black stone door, and his pounding heart finally calmed down. His eyes flickered as he looked at the black stone door.
The body of the Heavenly Snake Master seemed to be the key to open this stone door, but what was behind the stone door that gave him such a terrifying feeling?
With his current strength, it seems that he is not qualified to open this door. If he rashly goes in, he is afraid that there will be something he cannot deal with waiting for him.
Yuan Ming turned around and walked to the black toad, ignoring the black stone door, sitting cross-legged to recover the mana that was almost depleted due to the use of the burning and explosion technique.
As soon as his mana was slightly restored, he was afraid that the body of the Heavenly Snake Master would cause any more abnormal movements, so he immediately took the black toad away.
Yuan Ming was completely relieved until he stepped on the ground of the Snake King Cave. Without the strength above the foundation-building stage, Yuan Ming would never come here to explore again.
He cast a spell to cover the entrance of the underground cave, then turned and left the Snake King Valley and returned to the Biluo Cave.
Three days later, Yuan Ming rushed back to the sect.
The Bailuqiu Alliance was not far away, and the atmosphere in the Biluo Cave was much more lively than before. Even the disciples who did not sign up to participate were looking forward to the alliance event, guessing which of the Biluo Cave disciples who participated in the alliance this time would be expected to achieve good results.
Yuan Ming naturally ignored these trivial matters. After returning to the sect, he stayed in his own residence and stayed indoors.
Time passed quickly for another three days.
One day, Yuan Ming was practicing in the house when a series of "bang bang" knocks on the door came, which seemed a bit urgent.
He got up and opened the door, and found that the person outside the door was a servant who was cleaning the area.
"Shangxian, just received news that the sect summoned all disciples to gather at Qingluo Square." The servant said respectfully.
Yuan Ming was startled and asked: "Summon all disciples? Did you say what it was about?"
"No." The servant shook his head.
"Okay, I know, I'll go there right away." Yuan Ming said after a brief silence.
The servant bowed, said goodbye and left, knocking on another disciple's room nearby.
Yuan Ming tidied up his clothes, walked out of the door, and walked down the mountain.
The Qingluo Square the servant mentioned was the large bluestone square at the foot of the mountain. When major events happened in Biluo Cave on weekdays, disciples would be gathered there.
When Yuan Ming arrived at Qingluo Square, many people had already come. Disciples from various halls gathered together automatically. He came to the disciples of Huolian Hall. Fang Ge and Amuhe had already arrived here.
"Brother Yuan Ming, I haven't seen you for a while. Hey, how's your cultivation?" Fang Ge greeted him with a smile, and suddenly a look of surprise appeared on his face.
"I have been in seclusion for some time, and finally I have made some achievements." Yuan Ming said vaguely.
"When you were refining the sword before, your cultivation was only the ninth level of Qi Refining. How long has it been, and you have reached the tenth level of Qi Refining? It seems that Brother Yuan Ming has another opportunity." Fang Ge exclaimed.
"There is no opportunity. It's just that I got a bottle of elixir for strengthening the foundation and nourishing the essence some time ago, so I was lucky enough to advance." Yuan Ming said modestly.
"Oh, so that's the case." Fang Ge nodded, still with a trace of doubt in his eyes. The speed of Yuan Ming's cultivation was really incredible.
Yuan Ming naturally saw Fang Ge's doubts, but the speed of his cultivation was too fast. No matter how he found a reason, it would give people the feeling of trying to cover up the truth. He simply didn't explain it. Brother Fang Ge was not a person who would ask questions.
After all, although Biluo Cave is a sect, in fact, except for the inner disciples, the sect leaders and even the elders are basically not very concerned about the situation of the ordinary registered disciples.
Amuhe was holding a rune book in his hand and flipping through it carefully, and did not participate in the conversation between the two.
More and more people came to the square. Soon, except for some people who were performing sect tasks, all the Biluo Cave disciples gathered in Qingluo Square, with a total of seven or eight hundred people.
The foundation-building elders of each hall also came and stood in front of the crowd.
This was the first time that Yuan Ming saw the foundation-building monks of Biluo Cave gather since he entered the sect, and the number of people reached as many as seventy or eighty.
In the distance of Qingluo Square, a silver cat crouched on a big tree, resting its head on its forelimbs, looking at the people in the square with interest, watching the excitement.
The crowd suddenly made a commotion, and everyone looked forward.
Two figures came over, but they were a middle-aged man with copper rings hanging from his ears and an old man with yellow skin and a strong body with a black beard, and they climbed onto the temporary wooden platform built in front of the crowd.
"Why are only the Great Cave Master and the Second Cave Master here, but the Third Cave Master and the Great Elder are not here?" The crowd was talking.
Yuan Ming also looked at the two Jindan-stage cultivators with some curiosity, but unfortunately he was too far away from the wooden platform and could not sense the breath of the two cave masters.
"Elders and disciples of Biluo Cave, I summoned you here this time because of the Bailuqiu Alliance. I believe you all know the significance of this alliance held every ten years for the five major sects in the entire southern border and northern region, so I will not elaborate on it." The Great Cave Master spoke, his voice shook the whole audience, and everyone fell silent.
"The day of the alliance will be in two days. Since Bailuqiu is quite far from the sect, the Second Cave Master, Elder Mosa of the Law and Regulations Hall, and Elder Chuxiong of the Xingzhi Hall will lead the participating disciples to set off tomorrow." The Great Cave Master paused and continued.
Everyone in the audience expected that this gathering was related to the Bailuqiu Alliance and was not surprised.
Yuan Ming had already made sufficient preparations and brought all the key things with him, so there was no problem setting off now.
"Before we set off, there are two things I want to make clear to everyone. The first is to announce the rewards prepared by the sect for this meeting." The Great Cave Master said, glancing at the black-bearded old man beside him.
The crowd below the stage was buzzing with discussion, and the disciples who signed up to attend the meeting were even more eager, and Yuan Ming was no exception.