Free Web NovelChapter 247: Chapter 247: Detour
The rope on Ning Xuan’s end was pulled taut, which meant Di Youlin was now three thousand meters away.
She gave the rope two hard tugs. Seeing it was still taut, she called Yun Han, Lan Xin, and Qinghe over. "Come help me pull this. If the rope doesn’t slacken soon, you’ll have to go in and find him."
Ning Xuan instructed them.
"Yes," Yun Han replied.
"YIP YIP YIP." The Little Fox pawed at Ning Xuan’s pant leg, looking like it wanted to go in and investigate, too.
"Behave yourself. Get back," Ning Xuan chided with a frown.
Just as Ning Xuan was growing anxious, the taut rope gradually went slack. It looked like Di Youlin was on his way back.
Di Youlin returned quickly. A little over ten minutes later, he emerged.
Ning Xuan took a deep breath as she looked at Di Youlin’s face, which had clearly turned a purplish-blue.
Di Youlin seemed to feel nothing at all. He grinned foolishly and said with a dopey laugh, "Master, I know why the automatons lost contact! Guess what I saw?"
"I was going to explore a little further to see where the fault space ended, but you kept pulling the rope so hard. I was afraid you’d worry, so I came back," Di Youlin added with the same goofy grin.
His words not only made Ning Xuan realize something was wrong, but also caused Yun Han and the others to grow serious. Di Youlin wasn’t normally like this.
Ning Xuan shot Qinghe and Lan Xin a look, signaling them to be ready to move.
In that short time, Di Youlin had reached Ning Xuan. Fixing him with a grave stare, she commanded, "Kneel."
Di Youlin froze, an aggrieved expression creeping onto his face. "Master."
Though he felt aggrieved, Di Youlin still obeyed and knelt. Seeing his compliance, the others relaxed slightly.
Ning Xuan swiftly pierced the Golden Needle she held into Di Youlin’s Baihui Acupoint on the crown of his head, as well as his Shendao acupoint and several others.
Once the Golden Needle was in place, Ning Xuan pried open his mouth and fed him several vials of medicine to detoxify him and clear his Mutated Value. Then, she sent her Spiritual Power Threads into his Sea of Consciousness to inspect the condition of his Spiritual Sea.
After some treatment, the purplish-blue hue on Di Youlin’s face gradually faded.
"Mr. Di is incredible. He inhaled so much of that toxic gas and still stayed conscious," Min Wu said with lingering fear, glancing at Zhang Nan, whose body was still shrouded in a purplish-blue mist. freewebnoveℓ.com
A moment ago, the purplish-blue mist around Di Youlin had been even thicker than the one around Zhang Nan. Zhang Nan had been unconscious for some time, yet Di Youlin could still move about freely.
Although the toxic fog hadn’t been completely purged from his system, Zhang Nan was now conscious. The memory of the fog invading his body was still terrifying, and he shuddered at the thought.
If Min Wu hadn’t pulled him out so quickly, and if Ning Xuan hadn’t immediately begun detoxification, his Spiritual Sea would have likely been completely overrun by the toxic gas.
This poison not only dissolved into the bloodstream but could also infect the Spiritual Sea. Once inside the body, it was incredibly persistent.
Still, there seemed to be one silver lining: after fighting it off, he seemed to have developed a certain resistance to the poison.
Zhang Nan had reached this conclusion based on his own experience, but Ning Xuan had arrived at the same one by observing the physical reactions and toxin concentrations in Zhang Nan, Min Wu, and Di Youlin.
Furthermore, Ning Xuan discovered that the stronger a person’s physical constitution and spiritual power, the better their resistance to the toxic fog.
Of course, better resistance also meant it was harder to notice when something was wrong, making it less likely to draw attention. freewebnøvel.com
Di Youlin had managed to stay lucid the whole time, but after Ning Xuan’s treatment, he also realized his recent behavior hadn’t been entirely normal.
He scratched his head and looked up at Ning Xuan, trying to curry favor. "Master, are you angry?"
"I recall saying that if you notice anything unusual, you return together. Zhang Nan and Min Wu both came back. Why didn’t you?" Ning Xuan demanded.
"I didn’t think it was dangerous," Di Youlin answered innocently.
"So just because *you* thought it wasn’t dangerous, you didn’t have to come back? Min Wu only returned because he saw something was seriously wrong with Zhang Nan; he wasn’t obligated to stick with you. If he had insisted on waiting, you would have put both of them in danger." In truth, the power gap between the three of them was simply too vast.
In reality, the strength of Di Youlin, Qinghe, and Yun Han far surpassed that of the others.
Di Youlin glanced at the other two men, then lowered his head and fell silent.
"Tell me. What did you see out there?" Ning Xuan asked.
"A black fault space," Di Youlin answered obediently.
"A black fault space?" Yun Han and Qinghe’s expressions changed simultaneously.
Apparently, both of them knew what a black fault space was.
"What is a black fault space?" Ning Xuan asked.
Ning Xuan didn’t know what a black fault space was, and judging by the expressions on Chen Nan, Zhang Nan, and the others, they were also in the dark.
Lin Mo’s expression was grave, but he wasn’t as shaken as Yun Han and Qinghe. He had likely heard of it but never seen one himself.
"Contractor, a black fault space is a special kind of spatial rift. Normally, spatial rifts are extremely unstable. No one knows when or where they might appear, and they disappear just as quickly. But a black fault space is typically stable. It appears suddenly but doesn’t disappear. However, black fault spaces usually only appear in the Star Domain Space. According to the records, one has never appeared on a planet before." As he spoke, Yun Han looked at Di Youlin with a hint of doubt.
"Mr. Di, you inhaled a large amount of the toxic fog just now. It might have affected your judgment," Yun Han said thoughtfully, recalling Di Youlin’s earlier state.
"Impossible. That toxic fog has no effect on me. There is definitely a black fault space there. It spans a great distance and cuts off the path deeper into the forest," Di Youlin said with absolute certainty, shooting Yun Han a glare.
"Di Youlin, draw a map of your route. Yun Han, you and Qinghe will go scout again. Just go and confirm if it’s a black fault space. Be as quick as possible and come straight back." Ning Xuan wasted no time in dispatching Yun Han and Qinghe to investigate.
"Yes, ma’am." After sorting out their gear, Qinghe and Yun Han accepted their orders and departed.
About twenty minutes later, they returned at roughly the same time.
From the grave expressions on their faces, Ning Xuan knew there was indeed a black fault space out there.
"Since it’s really there, we need to figure out a way to get past it," Ning Xuan said.
"Contractor, a black fault space is extremely stable; it won’t just disappear. Our only option is to find another way into the forest."
