After entering the dense forest, Jiang Chen deployed his full spiritual sense and began observing carefully.
This stretch of forest was clearly Poison Consort Shi Qinglu's territory. The moment he set foot inside, Jiang Chen noticed a situation that was entirely different from the outer regions.
In those outer areas, the poison formations had been arranged with each stronghold connected to the next, deliberately leaving numerous corridors for people to enter before closing in around them.
But this core area — poison formations were everywhere, arranged with remarkable ingenuity and inspired craftsmanship. Even Jiang Chen couldn't help but offer silent admiration after taking it all in.
"This Poison Consort Shi Qinglu truly has a natural gift for poison work. Her methods of deploying toxins are varied and bewildering in their scope — endlessly innovative. Truly formidable."
Jiang Chen clicked his tongue in admiration.
The most clever aspect of the poison formations in this region was that every blade of grass and every tree could serve as a poison source. Every place you stepped might conceal a poison array within it.
Even the air was saturated with all manner of toxins.
One could say that for anyone with zero knowledge of poison craft, walking into this area would reveal absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
Everything blended together seamlessly, as though this was simply how things naturally were.
And for those with only a rudimentary understanding of poison techniques, they might manage to spot a handful of the more obvious poison sources. But those were merely decoys Shi Qinglu had set up to mislead intruders.
Even many seasoned poison masters, while capable of identifying numerous tricks, would likely fail to detect every last hidden poison source.
Jiang Chen, of course, was clearly operating at a level that no poison master on the Divine Abyss Continent could hope to match. From the moment he entered, with his spiritual sense fully unfurled, every single artificially placed poison source in this forest was laid bare before his eyes — nothing could escape his perception.
Jiang Chen's spiritual sense swept across the forest as he began searching in earnest. It didn't take long before he had locked onto Wu You's position. Wu You was currently suspended from an ancient tree, his expression vacant and glazed. It was obvious that he had been subdued and poisoned — his spiritual sense scattered, his body weakened.
Jiang Chen halted at a distance, studying Wu You hanging from the tree. A breeze rustled through the forest canopy, and Wu You's body swayed gently back and forth.
He looked as wretched as a dead dog.
Jiang Chen's temper flared at once. Although he didn't share a bond of brotherhood with his fellow disciples from the Eternal Sacred Land, Wu You and Gan Ning had both voluntarily joined his squad.
Put simply, they were his people.
Jiang Chen had always been fiercely protective of those under his charge — he simply could not stand to see his own people get bullied. Seeing Wu You subjected to such treatment now, there was no way his fury wouldn't boil over.
At that moment, a faint, low sound reached Jiang Chen's ears — the notes of a vertical flute, drifting in and out. If one didn't listen carefully, one might not even notice it was there.
Then, as though from all directions, countless tiny rustling sounds flooded toward him, like silkworms munching on mulberry leaves — a faint yet unmistakable whispering.
Jiang Chen's brows furrowed slightly. A sweep of his spiritual sense revealed that from every direction within the undergrowth, enormous multicolored serpents were pouring out in vast numbers.
Countless venomous snakes intertwined and overlapped, so densely packed that a single glance would make one's scalp tingle and skin crawl with revulsion. From all sides, the serpents surged forward like a tide.
Within the span of a few breaths, they had blanketed the surrounding space for several li.
Among them were scorpions, centipedes, and all manner of bizarre, highly toxic creatures, instantly surrounding Jiang Chen on all sides.
Jiang Chen's expression remained utterly composed as he regarded the writhing mass of creatures pressing in from every direction. A playful smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Miss Shi — they call you the Poison Consort, and it seems the title is well deserved." His laughter rang out, bright and hearty. "But these things, beyond being disgusting — what can they actually do to me?"
If this was all there was to the venomous creatures running amok, then Jiang Chen truly did not take them seriously at all.