Chronicles of the Green Vine: A Mortal’s Path to Immortality

Having gained something from the cave, Zhang Ling continued towards the central area of Burning Flame Valley.

One Flame Yang Flower couldn't guarantee he would obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill, so he still needed to go to the central area of Burning Flame Valley. Collecting more spiritual herbs was the right thing to do.

Two days later, a red scene appeared before Zhang Ling's eyes. It turned out to be an endless field of Mars grass vines. After comparing it with the crude map inside the jade tablet, he would reach the central area after passing through this area.

However, due to the Mars grass vines, a layer of light red mist floated around here. Here, his divine sense was greatly suppressed, and he could only explore a range of eleven or twelve *zhang* (丈: zhang, a unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters), which was suppressed by more than half.

Putting on two layers of spiritual light shields, white and yellow, he also took out a fist-sized yellow spiritual stone. Holding the spiritual stone, Zhang Ling used his spiritual power to cast the Wind Riding Technique and entered it, wanting to cross this area as quickly as possible.

At this moment, the spiritual stone in his hand was not a low-grade spiritual stone, but a middle-grade earth spiritual stone obtained from the dwarf.

With this middle-grade spiritual stone, the speed of restoring spiritual power could be much faster, which could just keep up with the consumption of his Wind Riding Technique.

He advanced cautiously, and after walking for a while, Zhang Ling noticed some protrusions on the ground, which looked a little strange. After exploring with his divine sense, they seemed to be just ordinary mounds of earth.

Out of safety considerations, he bypassed the ground protrusions from a distance. There were no dangers along the way.

After walking for about seven or eight *li* (里: li, a unit of distance, approximately 0.5 kilometers), suddenly Zhang Ling's expression changed and he instinctively felt a sway under his feet, as if something was underground. Almost without thinking, he flashed to a spot several *zhang* (丈: zhang, a unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters) away.

In the place where he had just run, the ground suddenly bulged up a dirt bag, and a huge snake-shaped monster sprang out. It wasn't a snake, its whole body was smooth with circles of wrinkles, and the whole body was red, as if wrapped in a layer of red hard skin.

The head of this monster was not obvious, as thick as its body. The only way to distinguish the head of this beast was its bloody mouth, which revealed sharp, saw-like teeth, and a white mucus spurted out of the monster's mouth.

The monster missed its pounce, twisted its body, and flashed back into the ground.

Zhang Ling was startled by this beast. This monster looked like a giant earthworm, and he didn't know what kind of monster it was. But from the aura emanating from it, he could still judge that it was a first-order intermediate-level monster.

After the earthworm monster burrowed into the ground, Zhang Ling didn't hesitate and quickly left the spot. He wanted to leave the area covered by the Mars grass vines first, and he didn't want to fight with the monster here.

However, the next journey was no longer peaceful. Not long after walking, a bulge appeared on the ground again, and another giant earthworm-like monster sprang up.

Zhang Ling's face turned cold, and the black sword in his hand turned, and a sword light slashed out, cutting the monster in half. But to his surprise, the monster that had been cut into two pieces did not die immediately, but twisted frantically on the ground, and the severed body also spewed out a large amount of white mucus.

The ground was corroded by the mucus, and wisps of green smoke emerged. He shook the flying sword in his hand, and slashed the beast into several pieces with a few swipes. This killed the earthworm monster.

Suddenly, he felt a strange smell emanating and spreading around, and his nose smelled a strange fragrance.

Then, he saw a mass of transparent liquid flowing out of a section of the earthworm monster's corpse. What was this? Zhang Ling beckoned and took the transparent liquid in front of him.

Under his induction, there were many small bubbles on the transparent liquid, which were breaking one by one. The fragrance was emitted from it.

Suddenly, there was a burst of *pu pu* (噗噗: onomatopoeia for a soft, muffled sound) sounds from all around. Zhang Ling swept his divine sense and secretly said it was not good. He quickly threw away the transparent liquid and fled with his magic weapon.

The *pu pu* (噗噗: onomatopoeia for a soft, muffled sound) sound was loud, and dozens of thick earthworm monsters suddenly sprang out of the ground within a range of more than twenty *zhang* (丈: zhang, a unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters).

These monsters seemed to be stimulated, and quickly wriggled and launched a fierce attack on him, constantly spraying corrosive liquid. Fortunately, the speed was not fast, otherwise he would have been surrounded.

Zhang Ling did not dare to relax and quickly accelerated his escape.

After fleeing in embarrassment all the way and killing more than a dozen earthworm monsters, he finally saw the edge of the Mars grass vines.

The ground ahead was dark, and a large mountain blocked the way. At the same time, the surrounding temperature increased a lot. Fortunately, the cold air emitted by the Ice Pearl did not have much impact, but the consumed spiritual power was a little more.

Zhang Ling went straight to the mountain. Soon after, he arrived at the mountainside and saw a strange forest of trees. These trees grew very short, but they were unusually thick, and there were tumors of various sizes on the trunks, like twisted eyeballs that made people dizzy.

Carefully bypassing these strange trees, Zhang Ling quickly went up the mountain.

......

*Ao~ Ao* (嗷~ 嗷: animal roaring sound)

Half an hour later, an unknown strange sound rang out in front. Obviously, something was wrong in front. Zhang Ling flipped his hand and added a few more spiritual talismans in his hand for emergencies.

As soon as he was ready, he felt a shaking on the ground, as if an earthquake had occurred. But in an instant, Zhang Ling realized that this was not an earthquake. It seemed that some behemoth was making noise nearby.

He spread all his divine sense around to observe the surrounding situation. After a few breaths, his face suddenly sank, and he quickly dodged to the side.

Just after dodging a few *zhang* (丈: zhang, a unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters) to the side, a huge black shadow pounced in front of him, and with a bang, the black shadow directly hit the position where he was just now, smashing a big pit in the ground.

For a time, smoke and dust rose everywhere, and a wailing sound came from it. Then, the black shadow flickered, and a huge ape with black hair and two *zhang* (丈: zhang, a unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters) high rushed out of the pit and attacked him directly.

Zhang Ling glanced and noticed that this was a first-order late-stage monster. He did not dare to neglect it, and quickly lifted his spiritual power, and the flying sword in his hand shook, and instantly displayed several sword lights. At the same time, he retreated a distance to prevent the monster from getting close and being injured.

I saw the giant ape wailing strangely, waving its big claws to block the attacking sword light, and its speed did not slow down at all. It only knew how to charge.

Zhang Ling cursed inwardly, and before he had time to consider other things, he shook his left arm, and the vines on his arm instantly stretched out. He waved it quickly.

I saw the vines turned into a black shadow and slammed directly on the giant ape with a loud bang. This stopped the monster's attack.

Then the vines wrapped around the giant ape in an instant, trapping him in place. At the same time, the flying sword in his hand shook, and it turned into a black light and slashed over.

Zhang Ling slapped his hands and sacrificed the Flying Sand Gourd, and a large amount of Cold Star Sand emerged from it and swept towards the giant ape.

But his Cold Star Sand had not attacked yet, but the flying sword had only slashed the giant ape a dozen times, and the beast wailed and fell to the ground with a bang, twitching a few times and then stopped moving.