Chapter 268: Du Ling In The Turbid World, Hell Of Mist
The Tiger Demon, utterly clueless about Feng Shui Geomancy, fell for Little Tail’s nonsense, charging recklessly through the misty mountain forest like a black dump truck barreling wildly.
While rampaging forward, it also unleashed the thick accumulation of Shadow Pollution from within its body.
It directly activated Innate Divine Ability: Shadow Manipulation, first enlarging its own shadow dozens of times, then condensing it into numerous thin, long Shadow Tentacles.
With the total Shadow volume that the Tiger Demon could control, it manifested over a hundred kilometers-long Shadow Tentacles, radiating outward from itself as the center.
The Tiger Demon just needed to pick a Direction and charge straight ahead. Everywhere it passed became a circular scanner probing the terrain.
After Snake Snake collected and compiled the data, it immediately used the Data Soul Program to generate a 3D terrain map. Then, it screened and compared it against the Feng Shui formulas recorded in the BOSS Template.
The results were ideally plump, but reality was not as wonderful as Snake Snake had imagined.
The Tiger Demon ran foolishly for over half an hour, even panting slightly, but Snake Snake only gathered a large amount of Misty Mountains terrain data, with no ideal Opening Mansion treasure land found.
It wasn’t that the Bloodline Inheritance of the Mutated Spiritual Root had any issues; in fact, two locations in the vast mountain area the Tiger Demon had run through matched the inheritance records.
But when the Tiger Demon arrived at those two spots, it found them utterly ordinary, even less energetic than some Polluted Accumulation Depressions it had passed by.
Thus, it could be concluded that the Feng Shui Knowledge from another Immortal Path Universe did not apply to Du Ling Star. It might have value, but it didn’t suit the local conditions and needed demonic modification to adapt to the native rules.
The Skeleton Snake Tail drooped its head in disappointment, using its sharp, grating skeletal body (spine) to rub against the Tiger Demon’s back fur, massaging to relieve itchiness and groom the fur, while self-reflecting: “What a pity! This method didn’t work; I’ve failed Your Majesty’s expectations.”
Because Tiger Head Snake Tail were one body, the little head on the tail side naturally knew the Tiger Demon’s itch spots and pleasure points, with massaging skills at max level.
But Yuan Zhu had given the Snake Tail (Head) to Snake Snake to inhabit, usually just monitoring and rarely taking control of the Snake Tail except in combat. So there was no situation of it petting itself (like a cat); the experience was instantly maxed out!
The Tiger Demon was scratched right in its itch spots, served too comfortably. It couldn’t help sighing that this Little Tail’s rainbow service was truly thoughtful, providing immense emotional value.
It hadn’t even felt disappointed or dissatisfied, yet she took the initiative to admit fault first, with service perfectly in place, making it impossible to get angry: “This isn’t your fault. Actually, while just using the Shadow Tentacles to search the mountains, I had a new insight.”
The Tiger Demon explained that while shuttling through the mountain forest earlier, it had released over a hundred kilometers-long Shadow Tentacles. These Shadow Tentacles, being too dispersed, had no substantial combat power, but they helped expand the Tiger Demon’s Perception attribute, like probes capturing nearby conditions.
Under Shadow Perception, it was unprecedentedly sensitive to the Pollution situation in the nearby mountain forest.
In the Misty Mountains, even an ordinary patch of area contained over a hundred kinds of Polluting Energy, some thin, some thick. They had no source, in a half-dormant helpless state, mixed randomly—suspended in the Air, adhered to the Soil, dissolved in Stream pools, or parasitizing Plants and animals…
Just like India’s Ganges River, encompassing everything, fusing the periodic table of elements.
While perceiving Pollution, it could naturally discern and judge types beneficial or attractive to itself (Tiger Demon).
For example: though the Misty Mountains rarely saw sunlight year-round, Shadow Pollution was naturally denser on shaded slopes than sunny ones. Thus, the Tiger Demon instinctively preferred shady mountainsides.
Similarly, during the mountain search, the Tiger Demon found that Pollution mixtures in the mountains were not uniform; some areas had thin Yellow Springs Aura, which made the Tiger Demon especially comfortable and joyful.
After all, Shadow was everywhere, but Yellow Springs was rare. The Yellow Springs Aura it detected was rootless, just a strand or two, likely from animals self-decomposing after Death, wandering the mountains, and finally settling in areas like Yin Fiend Land, all sucked up by the Tiger Demon in one gulp.
The Snake Tail perked up again: “Your Majesty’s meaning is to let loose, follow the most primal instincts, and find a place that feels comfortable and joyful to make the lair?”
Tiger Demon: “Exactly! Shadow Tiger Demon can naturally select the territory most suitable for opening a Shadow Domain by intuition.”
Snake Snake: “That means a huge workload.”
Tiger Demon shook its head: “No, during the patrol just now, I sensed many Polluted Life Forms in this deep forest. By food chain rules, we can reverse-track to one apex predator after another. As long as their Brain aren’t broken, these apex predators must occupy energy-rich territories. I just need to find these territories and test-sleep in them one by one, picking the one that feels most comfortable intuitively!”
Snake Snake: “How do you plan to reverse-track? From the Tiger Demon’s predation talent?”
Tiger Demon: “First catch a batch of Polluted Creatures and force them to guide!”
Snake Snake: “I’m not optimistic; I hear all sorts of ghosts and monsters exist on Du Ling Star, but no Demon Race. Native Polluted Creatures are numerous, but generally low in intelligence, with no concept of transforming into human form. I don’t think the Beasts you catch have enough wits to act as guides.”
“Let’s give it a try.”
The Tiger Demon moved again, this time not rampaging wildly, just releasing several Shadow Tentacles to search for living Polluted Traces.
It soon found something: “This way!”
The Tiger Demon moved lightly and quietly forward, relaxed, tailing that slowly moving (fleeing) polluted individual from behind.
Everywhere it passed, the originally noisy, cacophonous Mountain Forest fell utterly silent. It had quite the aura of Mountain Lord traveling, with Beasts falling silent.
“This vibe feels just like coming home.”
So far, the Tiger Demon hadn’t encountered any creature daring to provoke it.
It clearly sensed that the bushes brushing past, the branches overhead, were crawling with dense bloodsucking Leeches. They bred frantically in the humid environment, sensing heat sources by instinct, then attaching indiscriminately to hosts.
Yet none of the ubiquitous Leeches, bloodsucking mosquitoes, ticks, Fleas… dared land on it.
The Tiger Demon boasted proudly: “What a bunch of trash; even given the chance, you’re useless. Is this the grandmaster realm of ‘not even a feather can add weight, nor a fly land’?”
“Could it be that your Shadow Pollution aura is too thick? Those Bugs don’t dare land on us, or they’d overdose on pollution and only have Death left. Plus, your Fur is so thick, Skin so tough; they couldn’t pierce to suck blood anyway!”
The Snake Tail now wobbled upright its upper body, like a meerkat on sentry duty, rigidly sticking up behind the Tiger Demon’s butt, like a warning cobra.
It swiveled the Skeleton Snake Head back and forth, looking around. This behavior of Body and tail having separate ideas completely ignored feline principles of tail coordination for balance.
The Snake Tail was like a Young Lady out for a ride with her Boss. Admiring the mountain scenery, occasionally adjusting focus with Gem Eyeballs to snap photos or record short videos, then uploading to its Moments to share with the Boss.
Tiger Demon tilted its head: “??? Do you have some serious illness? Am I blind or something?”
Soon, the Tiger Demon caught up to that not-so-fast fleeing Polluted Creature. Shadows underfoot automatically lunged out, wrapping and bundling it in a blink, dragging it back before itself.
“Squeak squeak squeak!”
Amid Panic shrieks, Yuan Zhu saw a frenziedly struggling gray-white Rabbit kicking wildly. Though basketball-sized, it was still too weak for the Tiger Demon, with very thin Polluted Aura on its body.
The Tiger Demon just slightly released deterrence, and Sense of Fear instantly suppressed the frenzy and madness from Pollution Erosion. Even with little reason, this gray-furred Rabbit wisely froze still.
It then released the Shadow Tentacles, switching to bind the Rabbit’s four limbs, suspending it in midair for close inspection.
How to put it: this Rabbit seemed nuclear-irradiated, terribly terrifying and discordant. One Eye pitch-black, the other oddly huge in human-like structure, bloodshot whites. Meeting the Tiger Demon’s gaze, that massive human-like Eyeball showed pseudo-human Panic mixed with irrepressible madness.
Moreover, its Body was not only huge but filled under the Skin with exaggerated Muscle Structure. The Tiger Demon smelled familiar Frog-Type Pollution from inside its body. But the Rabbit’s Power Modification was imperfect, purely natural mutation from pollution, so its Body was especially discordant, Muscles deformed.
Finally, at its belly grew a human pinky-sized human arm, a left hand. This Miniature left hand wasn’t eroded or modified by Power Pollution, instead very flexible, just attached amid the Fur. If not for close observation, even the Tiger Demon might overlook it.
“What kind of monster is this?!”
Even with broad experience, the Tiger Demon was startled by this Muscle Rabbit. Its distortion was high, but Pollution Degree low; in a way, it could pass as an ordinary Beast.
The Tiger Demon tried communicating, but after several attempts, gave up entirely. This thing’s Brain or consciousness was utterly Madness, worse than ordinary Beasts. And its contaminated Pollution Ability was very complex, though dominated by Power Pollution.
Ultimately, the Tiger Demon evaluated: “Garbage!” Not even worth utilizing, recycling, or Refinement. Too unclean even to feed into Universe Within The Belly, with insufficient Pollution Purity.
One slap exploded this Eyes-irking Muscle Rabbit; the Tiger Demon continued hunting other Polluted Creatures.
It soon discovered that in the Misty Mountains, there were no clean animals at all. Even the most common Wild Animals carried varying degrees of Polluted Aura internally, just suppressed by their own Vitality in a latent state, not yet Outbreak.
Those with excessive Deviation unable to suppress became bizarre Pollution States. Far from weakening to Death, they grew stronger, but lost Logic behavior, turning insane and weird: grass-eating wolves, meat-eating Plants…
With a scientific expedition, geographic exploration mindset, it began deeply understanding the Misty Mountains Ecosystem, using past life’s Earth scientific logic to get to know its future Mountain Lord new home and familiarize with the environment.
The results didn’t disappoint: the Tiger Demon successively dug from under Soil, inside towering Big Trees… capturing all sorts of Polluted Life Forms.
All common animal types, from moles, squirrels, to wild boars, Frogs, lizards… all bore evident or subtle Pollution Characteristics.
Among them, the most numerous and obvious fell into categories: like those blatantly showing Frog-Type Pollution with deformed swollen Muscles, many animals’ limbs or Organs had especially developed Muscles, yet without any beneficial Improvement.
The Misty Mountains were humid and warm, constant temperature year-round, so Frogs proliferated. With huge numbers, Frog-Type Pollution individuals randomly emerged easily, then spread internally, eaten by predators, thus Frog-Type Pollution diffused.
Next, Yuan Zhu sensed Sharp aura on many Polluted Life Forms, similar yet not quite to Lu Rang’s Sword Qi.
These Polluted Life Forms couldn’t unleash any Sword Qi, not even classifiable into Sword Immortal System.
From a Sword Immortal perspective, such Polluted Creatures might have value for hunting and Sacrificing Sword. Perhaps a few exceptionally good ones qualified as materials for refining Flying Swords?
The third common pollution was Buddha Face. Many ordinary Frogs without developed Muscles had, under smooth Skin on their backs, a cyst-like bulge of compassionate visage. Stronger pollution meant clearer Buddha Face outline.
Curious, the Tiger Demon dissected a Buddha Face Frog’s back, finding no Buddha Maggot; under this pseudo Buddha Cocoon was just a false empty shell.
Even more interesting: second-category mutated creatures harboring Sword Qi Pollution especially liked preying on small animals with Buddha Faces.
Conversely, large carnivores covered in dense Buddha Tumors actively hunted weak Sword Qi Pollution creatures.
Besides these common three pollution animal types, Yuan Zhu found Polluted Creatures with massive rotting wounds on the surface, wriggling flesh mud inside; ones overgrown with parasitic Plants; those with rusted mechanical structures fused internally with vital Organs like the heart…
When it settled down to seriously observe those far weaker ordinary Beasts, it realized the Misty Mountains’ Polluted Animals were bizarrely diverse.
The Misty Mountains Ecosystem, whether animals or Plants, didn’t actively accept Supernatural Powers Reinforcement for a complete Supernatural System path toward Supernatural Life transformation.
They merely suffered Pollution Curse passively, mutating and demonizing. No system, just side effects. Once infected, dozens of Polluted Auras mixed and Outbroke, randomly assembling creative new forms even the Pollution Root wouldn’t understand or care about.
This Supernatural Pollution didn’t make them stronger but a burden; in unattended deep forests, they Outbroke freely, went mad, mutated randomly. And through mutual feeding, excretion, migration, breeding… spread all sorts of creative new pollutions.
Tiger Demon: “I finally believe Du Ling Star is a massive cesspit. Every non-human settlement area is countless pollutions intertwining, fermenting, diffusing, infecting—a Human Hell.”
