While it made no difference to the carnivorous plant that was once here, the inferno blaze did eventually subside after such a whole night of burning.
âSqueak~â Tearful in his big blue eyes, Little Squeak felt very sad at the outcome.
It wasnât easy for him to come across a familiar figure like Lady Qiu Tian, especially in a world where ancient primal creatures are almost nonexistent. Now not even this last source of information was around anymore.
âDonât be so sad Little Squeak, you still have me and Little Crow.â Pained at her precious friendâs weeping, Ling Yue went ahead to comfort the fella by picking him up.
Doing the same, Little Crow tenderly used her beak to rub against the foxâs fur to show her support.
Thatâs right, I still have Mistress and Little Crow. Iâm not alone! With that thought in mind, the little fellaâs condition became much better. Though still sad, itâs better than nothing.
After the comforting session, Ling Yue then went ahead to stroll around the meteorite for clues. It doesnât make sense like this. There must be something else sheâs missing, otherwise why make her return today?
Can it be, for this meteorite?
The final size of the meteorite pales in comparison to when it first broke through the atmosphere, but that doesnât mean the final size wasnât big either. Itâs still huge and the fact that it could devastate a giant plant the size of a small mountain speaks for itself.
Placing her palm onto the rugged rock ridden with holes, Ling Yue injects her spirit smoke inside to investigate. Sure enough, the answer she got was a good one.
Oh my, this thing really is a treasure trove of goodies. To think most of its makeup is comprised of the super rare Meteorite Metal used in my dagger.
Ranked among the top three alloys on this continent, this wasnât the first time someone had come across the material in this way. In fact, the very first record of it being extracted was exactly like this where a rock came down from space.
Regarding this huge thing, Ling Yue can confidently say thereâs at least a thousand pounds worth of alloy that she can use. Though itâs an unexpected find, sheâs not complaining. In fact, she be a fool to not take advantage of this opportunity.
Without further ado, she began cutting up the rock for better maneuverability. Though she say rock, itâs more proper to call this a small hill because of how high it was.
âI must hurry, otherwise the soldiers from Flag City will arrive here soon.â Ling Yue have already heard from Nie Feng Hang that her biological father Hong Fang would be arriving with the main army soon. Though thereâs been some delay in the dispatching, but they are definitely coming.
Not hesitating, she invokes her power and summoned the Twinkling Star Dagger to divide it into thirteen blades, the limit of her powers at the moment. Then with clear precision and swiftness, she cuts the chunky alloy into nine pieces weighing in at hundreds of pounds each.
As much as she would love to begin work at the newfound material, itâs not the time for this. Therefore, the best option was to dump it all into her pocket dimension Red Mist Sky for later processing.
With everything done and completed, she was pretty much ready to leave when her eyes picked up the presence of a tiny green thing under those fertile soil. Itâs a sapling! A very, very young sapling that had leaves resembling a pair of lips! If this wasnât a case of déjà vu then Ling Yue didnât know what was.
âSqueak~â Squirming over to take a sniff, the little white furball immediately issued out a surprised cry. The reasoning, itâs the same scent belonging to the carnivorous plant!
âCan it be, this is the surviving essence of Lady Qiu Tian after she failed to overcome the trial?â The girl shows an incredulous look at the sapling while the fox nodded repeatedly at the notion.
Qiu Tianâs an ancient primal plant, meaning she wonât be so easily destroyed be normal means in this world, even if the calamity was at the level of a natural disaster.
Now things are starting to make sense for Ling Yue over why she was told to return. Itâs likely the plant knew it was going to fail and needed a caretaker afterwards during its weakened form. It also helped that the girl had a wood sprite in her possession, making her the ideal host to cling onto.
âOh why me, Iâm practically a nurse nanny now,â she groaned, âYou owe big time for this. After you recover, weâre going to have a very long talk about this in the future.â As if understanding the girlâs meaning, the tiny sapling even went ahead to snuggle around Ling Yueâs fingers to show off her cuteness.
She really did feel helpless right now. Ever since she accidentally came across the Red Mist Sky back at the Ye familyâs ancestral hall, thereâs been no shortages of weak, old, and sickly individuals coming to take shelter under her care.
With nothing else left to do here, Ling Yue quickly sent the plant into her pocket dimension before heading back outside. Luckily she did so too, otherwise she wouldâve come face to face with an entity far beyond her capabilities.
It was only minutes after the girl left when the ground here began to shake with intense vibration. The noise canât be called an earthquake, more like the grinding motion of two hard objects mowing against each other. And before long, the deep earthy stalagmites had pierced out of the surface and left a gaping chasm in its wake.
This was very freaky indeed because the entire Black Valley was comprised of nutrient based rich soils, meaning such dry and husky material shouldnât be here so close to the surface. Even stranger was the color of the deep earth, it was gray and lifeless like itâs been sucked dry by something.
Then it happened. First it was the oozing of a menacing miasma of death and darkness out of the hole in the ground, followed by a crackling series of hair raising laughter.
This was a man, a man wearing a washed out robe had crawled out of the chasm.
Well, itâs actually an overstatement to say that garb was still a robe. More like an unrecognizable display of tattering rags clinging onto that tempting display of a body. This was no human, thatâs for sure. Grey haired, pointed ears, and a pair of fangs protruding out of his mouth, definitely not human.
But more than his physical features, it was that aura and temperament that rang all the bells. This was an entity that was born to kill and raise destruction in its wake with his tyrannical powers.
If Ling Yue were to be here at this moment, she wouldâve ignored everything mentioned thus far because something else wouldâve caught her eye. While it may not stand out immediately to others, it wouldâve to her. It was the tattoo on that arm. It looked very similar to the freaky looking one on Feng Shenâs chest with the thorny vines and the ghost avatar head.