CHAPTER 299: CHAPTER 299: THE SPATIAL EQUIPMENT FROM FIFTEEN YEARS AGO

Although Wang Lan had given his assurances before, the three of them still held their breath when Yue Jifeng entered the Poison Fog Area.

Wang Lan was worried that Yue Jifeng might get disoriented and stay a few seconds too long in the fog, unable to make it out in time. Seeing Wang Lan’s worried expression, Bai Ji’s heart skipped a beat. Even her gaze toward Wang Lan was scrutinizing.

"Bai, looking at me like that makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable."

"Are you feeling guilty? Is Speedy Wind in danger going in?"

"Speedy Wind is out!"

The moment Yu Ruoyun’s words left her lips, a figure rushed out of the dense fog like a shooting star, even dragging a Ghost-eye. But as he approached, the Ghost-eye in Yue Jifeng’s hand dissipated like scattered signal fires, the dense black fog rising and rapidly vanishing.

By the time Yue Jifeng reached the three of them, the Ghost-eye had disappeared. Only a Soul Bead remained in his palm.

Yue Jifeng’s complexion was ashen, his strength completely drained as he collapsed. Wang Lan quickly supported him, his body flashing with white light connecting to Yue Jifeng’s.

As Star Power was rapidly consumed, a strange, faint blue glow surfaced on Yue Jifeng’s face. When the glow gradually turned white, Yue Jifeng regained his strength and slowly sat up.

"Speedy Wind, how are you feeling?" Bai Ji asked with concern.

"I’m fine now, no sign of poisoning, just some muscle pain," he said, pulling out a container from his backpack. "I only managed to get this much. I had planned to catch a whole Ghost-eye."

"I didn’t expect the Ghost-eyes to die once they left The Death Valley. They don’t even have bodies; they just dissipate. These Ghost-eyes are like Ghosts; their bodies are gaseous."

"Physical attacks are useless, but attribute attacks are highly effective. Their weakness is the single eye on their ghostly face, with the Soul Bead located right in the center. If it weren’t for the poison fog, even a Star Shine Stage Star Martial Warrior could easily kill them."

As he spoke, he pinched the newly acquired Soul Bead. "The quality of this Soul Bead is no worse than that of a Golden Winged Fire Scorpion... With such a high-quality Soul Bead, how can their actual strength be so poor?"

"The Ghost-eye’s strength isn’t weak. Without Wang Lan, you’d be dead by now," Yu Ruoyun said coolly. "That’s a characteristic of Poisonous Beasts. They invest all their attributes into their poison, so their defense and attack power aren’t very strong."

"Wang Lan, is this enough? If not, I can go back and look again."

"It’s enough."

Wang Lan spread his hand, and the Universal Decomposition skill activated, shattering the container instantly. The poison fog, however, didn’t spread but roiled and gathered in his palm. In less than a minute, the toxicity code of the Ghost Eye Toxin appeared in Wang Lan’s mind. Instantly, his mind formulated the corresponding counteracting agent for Star Martial Toxins.

"I’m going into the forest to find materials for the antidote. Don’t come in after me. The forest is full of deadly poison; a careless mistake could be fatal," Wang Lan warned, then turned and walked into the forest.

In this Different Dimensional Space, mountain ranges and dense forests were not uncommon. But the nature of a Different Dimensional Space clearly couldn’t be understood with common sense. The plants inside, though slightly different from those in the outside world, were very similar.

The geography and topography here resembled a tropical rainforest. The ground was moist, the temperature was unusually high, trees blotted out the sky, and poisonous plants and flowers were everywhere.

Fortunately, there was no miasma pervading the dense forest. Otherwise, no amount of Wang Lan’s Star Power could have withstood the consumption for more than ten minutes.

After walking for about ten minutes, he arrived at a colorful patch of flowers. Wang Lan immediately placed his palm over them and activated Universal Decomposition. With the decomposition, the patch of flowers vanished as if Ice Snow were Melting away. In the blink of an eye, they turned into raw code in Wang Lan’s palm.

"Only five groups of coded matter? Less than one-thousandth!" Wang Lan sighed, extracting the five groups of coded matter and placing them into a container taken from the Space Backpack on his wrist.

He continued to search deeper, not letting any potentially poisonous thing escape his notice.

This Universal Decomposition is truly incredible. If one had to use scientific instruments to decompose and isolate materials, it would require dozens, or even hundreds, of procedures, and success still wouldn’t be guaranteed. But with Universal Decomposition, it’s as easy and simple as if performed by a creator god.

An hour passed unknowingly. Wang Lan had decomposed at least fifteen poisonous substances. The better ones yielded twenty groups of matter, while the lesser ones only provided three groups of coded matter.

Furthermore, the material assimilation of the poisonous substances was very high. As Wang Lan collected more and more counteracting coded matter, the remaining portions became increasingly difficult to find.

Wang Lan expanded his search area, not only focusing on poisonous things but also targeting plants that seemed harmless and non-toxic.

And, as it happened, Wang Lan inadvertently stumbled upon the truth.

Since they can grow alongside these highly toxic plants, how could they themselves be ordinary?

About three hours later, Wang Lan had successfully collected ninety percent of the coded material.

"Wang Lan—how are things going? How much longer will you be?" Suddenly, Yu Ruoyun’s voice echoed in his ear. This was her wind-attribute communication ability, convenient for long-distance communication in the absence of mobile phones or other devices.

"Just a little bit more, almost there!"

Suddenly, a sense of alarm flared. Before Wang Lan had finished speaking, his body darted away like a phantom.

BOOM—

A loud bang resounded as a gaping maw viciously struck the spot where Wang Lan had just been standing. The gaping maw raised its head. Its pair of tentacle-like appendages quivered slightly in the air, aimed where Wang Lan now stood on a tree branch.

Is this a Man-eating Vine? But why didn’t I notice such a huge vine before? Could it have burrowed up from underground? No, impossible. If it had burrowed up, there would have been sounds of movement from underground. But when it attacked, I didn’t hear a thing. What was originally in the spot where the vine is now?

At this thought, Wang Lan’s expression changed instantly. Without hesitation, his figure transformed into a streak of light, shooting straight into the sky. As Wang Lan used Phantom Tracer to escape, countless trees below suddenly transformed into Man-eating Vines.

The vines were those seemingly harmless trees—they had transformed. How careless of me to have wandered into a forest of Man-eating Vines!

The Man-eating Vines were incredibly large, with an attack range of over a hundred meters. However, their weakness was also quite obvious: they only possessed physical attacks, and their range was limited.

So, even though the Man-eating Vines thrashed about below like a frenzy of tentacles, they couldn’t reach Wang Lan and naturally posed no threat to him.

In the air, Wang Lan formed a sword sign with his fingers. On his wrist, wings of thundering flame instantly unfurled.

SWOOSH—

A bolt of thunderous flame shot down from the sky. Lightning, carrying intense heat, instantly severed a writhing vine. The severed vine was then engulfed by blue flames. In the blink of an eye, it collapsed, rapidly shriveling and Melting away.

SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH—

Seeing his attack was effective, Wang Lan promptly fired several more bolts in quick succession. In the blink of an eye, four or five vines Melted into ash within the flames.

"Meteor Fire Rain!"

Suddenly, a fierce shout erupted. Yu Ruoyun had appeared beside Wang Lan out of nowhere. Flames fell like shooting stars, hundreds of meteor showers plummeting to the earth, smashing a large area of the vine forest below to smithereens.

As the dust settled, the world became tranquil once again.

"How did you get here?"

"I saw you hadn’t come out for a long time, so I got worried and came to check. Are you okay?"

"I’m fine, doing great!" Wang Lan said with a smile, descending slowly from the sky.

The surrounding flames continued to crackle and Scorch, and the thick smoke carried a hint of purple. Seeing Yu Ruoyun about to descend, Wang Lan quickly stopped her.

"Be careful, the smoke is poisonous."

Wang Lan reached into the smoke and activated Universal Decomposition. Soon, a look of delighted surprise appeared on his face.

"Excellent! The last ten percent is found."

"You’ve found all the ingredients for the antidote?"

Avoiding the poisonous smoke, Yu Ruoyun came to Wang Lan’s side.

"Yes! Now we just need to collect more materials. I’m confident about compiling the vaccine, but creating an antidote is impossible without sufficient materials."

Wang Lan went to the source of the smoke and took out a container to collect the ten percent of the components it contained, while Yu Ruoyun kept watch.

"Ruoyun, be careful of those spotted trees. They’re actually the same kind of Man-eating Vines we were just fighting. They transform as soon as someone approaches. Although their attacks aren’t strong, they are definitely highly poisonous."

About an hour later, Wang Lan and Yu Ruoyun had gathered enough ingredients for the antidote and returned to where the vines had been. Just as they finished stowing the container, Yu Ruoyun suddenly discovered something and ran towards the base of a burnt vine.

"Wang Lan, look! What is this?"

Wang Lan hurried over. In a patch of charred earth, the corner of a metal box was exposed. Yu Ruoyun used an Earth Attribute Star Martial Skill to turn over the soil, and a square box was slowly unearthed.

"A Folding Space Box? How can there be a Folding Space Box here?"

The Folding Space Box was undoubtedly a piece of black technology. Although no one yet understood its principles, that hadn’t stopped its creation. It was like electromagnetism: no one could fully explain its existence, but it existed nonetheless, and people utilized it.

"Modern space boxes are all backpack-shaped; this square type has long been obsolete. It’s probably been here longer than we’ve been alive, right?"

Yu Ruoyun carefully opened the space box. Instantly, bright, shining stones spurted out like a fountain, as dazzling and beautiful as diamonds.

"Space Stones!" Yu Ruoyun’s face immediately turned grim.

"Space Stones? There are Space Stones in the Nine-layer Pagoda?"

"Space Stones aren’t rare in Different Dimensional Spaces. Although not all such spaces contain them, large Different Dimensional Spaces generally have Space Stone mines. After all, Space Stones and Different Dimensional Spaces seem to have a symbiotic relationship."

"Although the Nine-layer Pagoda is special, it’s still fundamentally a Different Dimensional Space, so finding Space Stones here isn’t strange. The production date on this space box is... May 2004. That’s fifteen years ago."

"Fifteen years ago, did someone collect Space Stones in the Nine-layer Pagoda, then come here only to be killed by the Man-eating Vines, leaving this space box behind?"

"Was it a student from the academy?" Wang Lan asked.

"Probably. Students from outside the academy shouldn’t be able to enter the Nine-layer Pagoda..." Suddenly, Yu Ruoyun remembered the three who had assassinated White Beard and shook her head. "Not necessarily. Outsiders might also infiltrate the Nine-layer Pagoda. Didn’t we encounter three such outsiders today? But I don’t even know where the Space Stones are located in the Nine-layer Pagoda... I’ve never even heard that the Nine-layer Pagoda *has* Space Stones. How did they find out?"