Having made up his mind, Tian Jihong immediately stood up and carefully stepped onto a short section of rocky road on the left. Even during this short section of the road, he was scratched several times by the sharp stone walls beside him, but fortunately the injuries were not serious. , Tianjihong's current physical fitness will not affect his condition, but this also strengthens his belief that the choice he just made at the fork in the road was the right choice. About ten minutes later, a patch of green appeared in Tianjihong's eyes again, and what he didn't expect this time was that what he was looking at was a vast grassland spread out among the rolling ridges, without a single tree in sight; because There was no trace of human activity around, and these wild grasses that had never been stepped on actually grew to the height of Tianjihong's chest. As he walked among the tall grass, only his head could be seen from a distance. I had not been able to observe the existence of such a large grassland in the distance before, firstly because the sight was blocked by rocks, and secondly because the altitude here was very low. At the end of the horizon in the distance, the terrain of the grassland dropped again. It looks like it leads straight into the valley where the two peaks meet in the distance.
Secretly sighing in his heart at the ever-changing landforms in the Dongyun Mountains, Tianjihong seemed to hear the sound of spring water flowing while listening carefully. Sure enough, a hundred meters away, a sparkling stream reflected in the sunlight meandered toward the valley in the distance. It was surrounded by tall reeds on both sides and could be clearly identified in the flat grassland. At this moment, he suddenly remembered that the master just mentioned that the snake grass often grows in such an environment with lush vegetation and close to water, and his head suddenly became energetic. It just so happened that I didn't know much about this unfamiliar territory. In order to avoid getting lost and unable to find a way back, I might as well follow the stream as a reference and look for the whereabouts of the elixir along the way.
Of course, Tianjihong at this time naturally did not forget what his master said about danger. The dense grassland in front of him would definitely be a favorite habitat for wild beasts. The waist-deep weeds could perfectly help cover the tracks of many wild beasts lurking on the ground. If I am not careful and get targeted by these guys at this time, it might cause me a lot of trouble. But fortunately, although this place is sparsely populated and has beautiful scenery, it is far from being called a spiritual practice place. I am afraid it is only enough to nourish yellow-level elixirs such as Spirit Snake Grass. It is unlikely that spiritual beasts will appear. exist.
With caution, Tianjihong slowly walked through the surrounding reeds and advanced along the stream for about half a mile. During this period, apart from occasionally stopping to look for the Spirit Snake Grass, Tian Jihong was also highly focused along the way, always paying attention to even the slightest movement around him, and not daring to show any signs of neglect. It's just that it's not as expected. Under the scorching sun at noon, the grassland is completely silent. The only ones that disturb Tianjihong along the way are two timid hares; let alone wild animals, even the clear No living creatures were seen in the stream. Of course, this is not an excuse for Tianjihong to relax his vigilance. At this time, a small snake suddenly jumped out of the mud hole next to the stream, which startled the former; fortunately, upon closer inspection, this non-venomous water snake was obviously harmless. What is threatening is that its appearance makes Tianjihong a little excited. Master once mentioned that this spirit snake grass has a natural attraction to snakes. Since snakes begin to appear at this time, it means that spirit snakes are growing in the nearby area. The probability of grass has increased a lot.
About half an hour later, Tianjihong came to a wide swamp. At this time, he could vaguely see the green valley not far ahead. Not far ahead, several small streams flowing down the mountain converged into a curved river, flowing toward the valley at the end of the sight. But what really caught Tianjihong's attention at this time was that a natural medicinal field appeared on the left front edge of the quagmire in front of him. The fluctuations of spiritual power flowing out of it made Tianjihong, who was far away, immediately determine that this was Where the spiritual grass grows. At this time, the excitement in his heart was self-evident, and he did not care to take a closer look at the situation of the quagmire in front of him. He hurriedly took steps toward the edge of the quagmire on his left, one step deeper and one shallower.
However, at this moment, Tianjihong's heart tightened due to his keen senses honed over years of training, and he immediately noticed something was wrong around him. A small whirlpool suddenly appeared in the quagmire not far from him. As time went by, its size gradually expanded. It seemed that there was a mysterious force under the ground vigorously stirring the sticky quagmire. Tianjihong had not yet developed soul consciousness to detect what was hiding in the quagmire, but he saw that the vortex was gradually expanding to his feet, forming a radius of one and a half meters in the center of the quagmire. Huge funnel. You don't dare to take it lightly when facing unknown things. No matter what is causing trouble, the safest way is to stay away and hide your body, and then slowly observe and understand the situation from the side.
When his life was threatened, Tian Jihong's skills obviously improved to another level. With great force, he pulled out his legs that were slowly sinking into the mud and jumped sideways. It was only a few steps away from the reed marsh outside the quagmire. The soil here was already quite solid, and Tianjihong no longer had the risk of falling into the mud, so he immediately retreated and hid in the tall grass outside. In order to prevent being discovered, he also deliberately leaned down to suppress the sound of violent breathing as much as possible. At this time, he was quite far away from the center of the whirlpool. As long as a powerful spiritual beast that had cultivated soul consciousness was not present, it would be impossible for other creatures to smell his breath from such a distance.
The whirlpool in the quagmire finally came to a standstill when it expanded to a diameter of about two feet. Tianjihong originally thought that at the end, a shocking movement would erupt from the inside. Unexpectedly, as the vortex slowly dissipated, a strange creature about eight feet long crawled out from the center. . This guy looks like a lizard, moving very slowly on all fours. The dark scales on its back are dotted with dark yellow spots. When he crawls, a long tail drags on the ground, swaying from side to side and rolling. Mud all around.
Looking at this rather weird creature, Tianjihong couldn't help but search for this guy's name in his mind. In his opinion, this lizard-like monster should be similar to the [Earth Salamander] that the folks usually mentioned; this creature is a very common amphibian on the continent and can be found on the fields or near water sources. Found it. In addition to the general salamander's preference for moisture and coolness, it also prefers hiding in the soil. It usually makes a living by preying on earthworms in the moist soil.
It's just that the monster in front of him is obviously quite different from the soil salamander. In terms of body size, Tianjihong has never heard of a salamander with a head that can grow as long as an adult. In addition, ordinary salamanders often need to absorb the surrounding water through their own skin. This big guy in front of him The thin scales on its body are obviously not possessed by soil salamanders. For such a weird creature, Tianjihong could only temporarily identify it as a variant of the soil salamander. It probably mutated after absorbing some elixir of heaven and earth. It seems that it is only one step away from transforming into a spiritual beast.
The mutated soil salamander didn't seem to pay attention to Tianjihong's location, and was just crawling back and forth in circles around the quagmire. Tianjihong analyzed that this guy must have just been disturbed by his footsteps and took a rest, so he got up and walked around the quagmire. It's just a matter of declaring sovereignty, not trying to hide in the mud and sneak attack on yourself. Thinking of this, Tianjihong breathed a sigh of relief. At least if he didn't take the initiative to provoke the other party, his life would not be in danger. At first glance, this soil salamander has already gained some spiritual power. I am afraid that it will transform into a spiritual beast in a short time. In terms of strength, it will never be weaker than the Fourth Master who fought with him yesterday. The only thing missing is human wisdom; if he rashly follows In a fight with such a big guy whose strength and speed are not inferior to his own, Tianjihong really has no confidence that he can win.
But what gives Tianjihong a headache now is that although this soil salamander moves slowly, its range of activities obviously includes the large area of elixir next to the quagmire in its territory. If he wanted to get close to the medicinal field area, he would definitely alert this guy, and a big battle would be inevitable. At this time, it was hard to say whether he could defeat this newt. Even if he could win by chance, Tianjihong was not willing to waste too much energy on this clumsy guy. Faced with these unintelligent beasts, head-on confrontation is never the best way; at this moment, he recalled his master's advice to remind him to try to be smart, and he began to plan in his mind.
After pondering for a moment, Tianjihong slowly focused on the movement of this big guy. He found that in addition to the slow crawling of this newt, its moving trajectory seemed to be relatively regular, with a long period of movement. Time will be far away from the medicinal field area that you need to explore; in addition, its perception of the surrounding space is mostly through the skin, smell or touch, and it is not very proficient in vision. Therefore, if you grasp the gaps in its travel cycle, it will be downwind. Hide your own aura, seize the opportunity to search for traces of the snake grass in the medicine field while the soil salamander is far away, and you should have a high chance of successfully escaping before the opponent discovers you.
To ensure nothing went wrong, Tianjihong first made a large circle to the farthest point on the other side of the medicine field. With his usual cautious style, he finally decided to set up some other means on the other side of the quagmire to attract the attention of the salamander and buy more time for his actions. In fact, if it weren't for the thick vegetation in this area, If there was no stone, Tianjihong originally planned to set up a trap to trap the soil salamander.
However, the materials and time certainly did not allow him to do so at this time, so while the soil salamander was slowly wandering in the medicinal field, Tianjihong took the time to make a lot of very obvious things in the grass near the other end of the quagmire. He used his right leg that had just been scratched on the rocks to wipe a little blood on the leaves among the reeds. In this way, when the soil salamander moves to the other side of the quagmire, he will definitely notice signs of outsiders intruding; such a guy with a strong sense of territory will probably waste a lot of time searching near those traces. , you will have more time to do business.
