Deep within the earth, a beam of earth light is rapidly advancing forward.
At this moment, Chen Yun is immersed in a wonderful sensory experience. Although he has turned into an earth light and is moving through the underworld, his "eyes" are still clear enough to see the environment and know where he is passing through.
Perhaps it's because he has just mastered the art of walking through the earth and is not yet skilled in its application.
He has directly collided with large boulders blocking his path in the earth several times, which is because the art of earth walking can only move through soil.
If he used the complete method of earth concealing, he could pass directly through the boulders in the earth's core without collision. It would not only prevent the boulders from exploding, but also leave no trace of anyone passing through, unless someone inspects with their power.
Furthermore, after reading the entire "Earth Concealing Technique" manual, Chen Yun roughly understood that the true method of earth concealing would not be blocked by his own true qi as Kang Yuan had been.
Unless someone knows the powerful method of turning earth into steel, it is possible that the earth concealing technique may be able to escape.
"Luckily, my physical body is robust. If a common cultivator did this, their qi might be exhausted to some extent, and some may not be able to manipulate the qi of the earth and can't draw in qi, so they may destroy their physical bodies while traveling at high speed and colliding with stones."
Chen Yun reflected on how Kang Yuan had turned into an earth light and escaped into the earth, unable to summon his qi for defense, and was therefore captured by him.
Of course, this is because Kang Yuan's cultivation was not deep enough. If he had practiced it for a long time and mastered it completely, he could have used the earth walking technique while casting spells.
Moreover, the speed of the earth walking technique is very fast. Although it is not as fast as the flying gold light, it is only slightly slower than riding clouds and driving whirlwinds.
Being able to achieve such speed underground is quite remarkable indeed.
As Chen Yun has now become an elite cultivator, with the ability to ride the clouds and travel ten thousand eight hundred miles a day, it is no problem to him.
This is still a conservative estimate, as he could already achieve a speed of over five hundred thousand miles per day when he was a medium-level cultivator.
So, the speed of the earth walking technique is only slightly slower than riding the clouds and fog, with a speed of three to four times the speed of sound per second.
With such a high speed, if one truly cannot control it and collides with a stone, they will die instantly on the spot.
Therefore, normal initial practice of the earth walking technique cannot be this fast.
Chen Yun has the unique condition, so naturally he does not need to follow the conventional path like ordinary people. He can try to practice the earth walking technique endlessly, even if he collides with any rocks or metal, his body will not be injured.
Because of this, he spent very little time before gaining a fairly good understanding of the manipulation of the earth walking technique.
On the way back, he encountered many rocks.
Chen Yun avoided them effortlessly as he became more and more familiar with the control.
......
Campsite.
When Chen Yun returned, the sky had already begun to brighten, indicating that the day would soon begin.
He carefully recalled the sensory experiences during the use of the earth walking technique, "Although this stealth technique has quite a few limitations, it is truly a divine skill for escaping. Moreover, it can catch enemies off guard. Most importantly, it consumes a slightly greater amount of true qi than riding the clouds and fog, but not as dramatically as flying with the golden light on the earth, making it suitable for long-distance escape."
Satisfied!
Chen Yun is too satisfied with the earth walking technique!
He can imagine having both the earth walking technique and the golden light on the earth as his stealth techniques. With those, his ability to escape from powerful opponents in the future would be incredibly strong.
Just imagine, first use the golden light on the earth to instantaneously soar ten or more miles away, and then change into an earth light and fall into the earth at a rapid speed, who would be able to catch you?
With these two stealth techniques, coupled with a robust physical body, as long as I'm not deliberately courting death, it will be difficult for anyone to kill me.
Although he hadn't slept all night, Chen Yun was extremely elated.
He was about to take advantage of the momentum and see what else good things there were in Kang Yuan's money charm.
Suddenly, Qin Ming woke up while he was sleeping.
He grunted and then muttered to himself in confusion, "I feel like I'm not quite right."
Although Qin Ming's voice was very small, Chen Yun's refined body returned to its original state from the post-Qian stage to the pre-Qian stage, and his hearing was incredibly strong. He immediately caught it.
He couldn't help but glance at Qin Ming, finding that his eye sockets were a bit swollen, just like Zhuang Ling before.
Qin Ming was an elite cultivator and had studied the Qigong Technique from Chen Yun, so he had some understanding of the Taoist cultivation methods. As soon as he began to circulate his qi, his face changed dramatically and he looked at Chen Yun, "Teacher, I don't know what's going on, but it feels like I've been poisoned."
Chen Yun squinted his eyes, looking at the other people still asleep and releasing his mental consciousness to scan them at once. He found that Sun Yan and Xu Yang and others had all been slightly poisoned.
"You should not say anything to anyone yet."
Using his mental awareness, he transmitted to Qin Ming, "I just checked everyone's condition with my spiritual awareness, and it seems that everyone who is asleep has been poisoned."
Qin Ming was startled, and replied with his own spiritual power, "Could it be that there is another 'Kang Yuan' who has been secretly poisoning us?"
Although this possibility is very small, it cannot be excluded for now.
Why is it said that the probability is small?
Because if someone really has ill intentions and is poisoning, they would certainly not use such a small dose of poison that it can only make people feel uncomfortable.
Generally speaking, if someone truly intends to poison others, wouldn't it be expected that they would aim to kill everyone with a single dose?
So Chen Yun thinks that the probability of someone in his group secretly poisoning others is very small.
But who knows if the person who poisoned them is using this method to test whether everyone can detect it?
Therefore, Chen Yun cannot rule out the possibility that someone among his companions might be poisoned.
The only thing he can be sure of is that if someone among his companions is poisoned, it must have happened during the two gaps between when he patrolled last night and when he used earth walking to leave here.
Since Chen Yun had just checked his own body and found no signs of poisoning, he was certain that he hadn't been affected.
Of course, it's also possible that due to his refined body returning to its original state from the post-Qian stage, his physical body is particularly strong and can resist ordinary poisons.
If that's the case, then the time of poisoning may not be limited to the two time periods I just guessed.
These thoughts flashed through Chen Yun's mind.
He remained calm and said, "Call everyone up, and also summon Master Wu back."
Qin Ming was very obedient, "Okay, teacher."
After speaking, he quickly got up and slapped everyone awake one by one.
"Eh!"
"Why is my back and waist so painful after I woke up today?"
"Yes, I also feel a bit dry in the mouth and throat."
A group of people were called awake and they kept complaining, as if they hadn't yet understood what was happening.
Chen Yun had been silent the whole time, observing the expressions of these people, trying to see if anyone had revealed any hints.
To his relief, none of these people showed any signs of discomfort or suspicion.
Not long after, Qin Ming called back the people who had been on patrol during the latter half of the night, such as Wu Kejiu and Zhang Ling.
When these people returned, they were also sighing and complaining.
"I'm not sure if it's because I didn't sleep well during the latter half of the night, but I actually feel quite tired and drowsy."
"Hiccup, me too. It's strange today; usually, I feel like I could knock a bull down with one punch after waking up."
"Uh, why does everyone seem so tired?"
The people who had just returned from their patrol seemed to be in a worse condition than those who had been sleeping.
While the group was chatting, Wu Kejiu seemed to have noticed something amiss.
Chen Yun carefully observed everyone's expressions, but he couldn't find anyone with an abnormal appearance.
At that moment, Longnv Sanjiu suddenly widened his eyes and said, "I just checked myself and found that I seem to have been poisoned slightly!"
Wu Kejiu realized this only then, his gaze becoming sharp as he looked at everyone present and asked, "Are all of you poisoned?"
Qin Ming nodded and said, "I have fatigue symptoms, so I should have been poisoned."
Ding Xu looked very tired, "My eyes are too tired to open, so I might have been poisoned as well."
"I am too."
"It's too tiring."
"How come we all got poisoned without realizing it?"
The remaining Gaichen, Xu Yang, and others looked very puzzled.
At this moment, Chen Yun slowly opened his mouth and said, "I didn't get poisoned."
Zhang Ling also quickly followed up, "I did seem to have been poisoned last night, but after Mr. Chen reminded me, I took a pill of Niu Huang Dujie, so I don't seem to have been poisoned again temporarily."
As soon as she finished speaking, everyone turned their heads sharply towards the two of them.
Everyone else was poisoned, but Chen Yun and Zhang Ling didn't get poisoned. Anybody could suspect them.
Chen Yun looked calmly at everyone, he knew that everyone might suspect himself and Zhang Ling of poisoning, but he was straightforward in his character and had not poisoned anyone, why should he be afraid?
Zhang Ling, though feeling a bit uncomfortable under the collective gaze, did not avoid their eyes either. After all, she had indeed been poisoned last night.
Qin Ming noticed that everyone was staring at Chen Yun and immediately furrowed his brow, "What are you all staring at the teacher for? He has repeatedly used magic to save us, would he need to poison us?"
Wu Kejiu agreed with his opinion, "That's right. If it were not for Mr. Chen, we might have met our doom several times by now and would still be alive?"
The group agreed with their reasoning and everyone turned their attention away from Chen Yun, apologizing to him one by one.
Chen Yun understood everyone's thoughts. Among the people in Yueyuan Sword Mountain, the most dangerous thing was not an enemy, but a close friend. In addition, he had just experienced the incident of Kang Yuan a short time ago. Now that he had clearly stated that he had not been poisoned, anyone would naturally have doubts.
Everyone was still puzzled about what happened, but the cohesion of the team that Chen Yun had just brought together seemed to be subtly weakening.
Everyone believes that Chen Yun is almost impossible to be the one who poisoned them, but their thinking is similar to Chen Yun's in that they have not ruled out anyone else.
Although everyone else at the scene was poisoned except for Chen Yun, it is reasonable not to suspect others. However, who knows if the person who poisoned them intentionally also poisoned themselves, mixed in among the crowd so as to pass themselves off as an innocent bystander?
For a moment, the atmosphere became somewhat tense.
Everyone simply took out the detox pills they had prepared earlier and consumed them to remove the toxins in their bodies.
Chen Yun has not spoken much and is still observing everyone's reaction.
Unfortunately, no one showed any cracks.
The group ate their dry food in silence, and under Wu Kejiu's initiative, they prepared to continue their journey to the next place.
If things had ended here, even if everyone no longer trusted each other, at least their bodies were fine.
However, what happened next took on a rather terrifying turn.
Just as a group of people began to fly using qi, they only rose halfway into the air when one after another, cries of agony were heard.
"Eh!"
"What's going on?"
"Why can't I maintain the 'qi' inside my body?"
Except for Chen Yun, Wu Kejiu, and Qin Ming, the three upper-class magicians, everyone else who had just taken the detox pills and supposedly had their poisons removed could not maintain their internal qi. They fell from the sky one after another!
Chen Yun had been watching everyone, and he naturally detected it immediately. He quickly used his true qi to stabilize everyone and gently landed them on the ground.
Wu Kejiu and Qin Ming did not experience the same as everyone else, who couldn't maintain their qi. However, when they landed, their faces showed signs of distress, looking pale and suffering greatly.
"Sigh, I feel like the poison in my body is rising again."
"At this point, it's not just fatigue. My internal organs are all in pain."
"In particular, my liver feels a kind of piercing pain."
Several individuals with lower cultivation levels were now sweating profusely from the pain.
Even the short man who practiced necromancy was rolling around on the ground in great pain, showing just how severe it was.
Chen Yun's eyebrows suddenly furrowed.
Everyone had just taken detox pills, which should have neutralized the poison, right?
How can the symptoms of poisoning seem even more severe now?
Does that mean...one cannot use qi, otherwise, it will deepen the symptoms of poisoning?
Then why am I unaffected?
Chen Yun faintly felt that things had become abnormal.
(End of this chapter)
