Chapter 567: Corrupted Bone Crocodile

As soon as the seven purple venomous scorpions appeared, each spewed a stream of purple flames towards Wang Qingjun and the others. With a gentle flap of their wings, a volley of wind blades shot out, also targeting Wang Qingjun and his companions.

Wang Qiuming cast a spell on his green gourd, which then emitted a green light. This light transformed into a green wind wall, over ten feet high, blocking their path.

Wang Qingjun and Wang Qingling each summoned a golden sphere. With a mechanical whirring sound, these spheres transformed into two colossal golden-armored guards, standing before them. They were high-grade, second-tier puppet beasts.

"Boom!" A tremendous roar erupted. The green wind wall was shattered. The purple flames and wind blades struck the two golden-armored guards, but failed to inflict significant damage.

The seven purple venomous scorpions flapped their wings lightly and lunged at Wang Qingjun and his companions from various directions.

The two golden-armored guards lifted their right feet and stomped hard on the ground. A powerful gravitational force instantly appeared within a thirty-foot radius, causing the seven purple venomous scorpions to uncontrollably drop to the ground.

"Giant Strength Technique!" With a soft exclamation, seven enormous yellow hands, each about ten feet in size, burst from the earth. They lightning-fast pinned down the tail stingers of the seven purple venomous scorpions.

Simultaneously, Wang Qingjun and the others deployed dozens of yellow banners, which transformed into more than a dozen yellow lights and sank into the nearby ground. He took out a palm-sized yellow formation plate and channeled a spell into it.

"Rumble!" The ground shook violently. Hundreds of yellow ropes burst from the earth, tightly binding the seven purple venomous scorpions. They let out strange roars, attempting to break free from the yellow ropes, but it was futile.

A vast expanse of yellow mist materialized high in the air, quickly forming a massive yellow boulder, over five feet long and wide. It rapidly plummeted towards the seven purple venomous scorpions on the ground. The ground trembled, and mountains shook. The seven purple venomous scorpions were crushed into a bloody pulp by the yellow boulder, utterly annihilated.

From the moment the purple scorpions appeared until Wang Qingjun and his group jointly annihilated them, less than ten breaths of time passed. Their coordination was extremely skilled. Carrying multiple sets of formations, they had significantly upgraded their capabilities. This "Earth Defense Demon Slaying Formation" was given to them by Wang Changyue, specifically designed to counter nimble demonic insects and beasts.

Wang Qingjun retracted the formation banners, then summoned a magical artifact to shatter the yellow boulder. The inner cores of the seven venomous scorpions were also crushed, covered in copious amounts of flesh and blood, making them unusable for alchemy. He cast several fireballs, incinerating all the purple *nie* flowers in the valley.

Wang Qiuming controlled the green gourd, which spewed forth powerful hurricanes, completely clearing the miasma from the valley. Numerous venomous insects crawled on both sides of the valley, and many more were hidden underground. However, they were all first-tier venomous insects, posing no threat to the group. Nevertheless, they still eliminated these insects.

After walking over a hundred paces, a cave, about fifty to sixty feet wide, appeared before them. Purple miasma occasionally wafted out from its entrance. Wang Qiuming controlled the green gourd, emitting bursts of hurricane-force winds, dispersing the miasma inside the cave.

The cave walls were rugged and uneven, and the ground was covered in grayish-white stones. These stones bore signs of corrosion. As they delved deeper into the cave, the purple glow emitted by the Barrier-Dispelling Pearl flickered continuously. Clearly, the cave contained highly corrosive miasma.

Before long, a natural grotto, hundreds of feet in size, appeared before them. In the lower-left corner of the grotto stood a purple fruit tree, over twenty feet tall, bearing three egg-sized purple fruits. In the lower-right corner, there was a large patch of black grass, about a foot tall.

"Go gather the spirit fruits and herbs, and dig up the fruit tree as well. Be careful; there might still be venomous insects," Wang Qingjun instructed, naturally assigning the task of gathering spirit fruits and herbs to the Qi Condensation cultivators. Six Qi Condensation cultivators cast protective barriers on themselves and walked towards the spirit fruit tree and the herbs.

Wang Qingjun and the other two controlled their magical artifacts to strike the rock walls, checking for mineral veins, a customary practice. Unfortunately, the rock walls were just ordinary rock, with no mineral veins.

Suddenly, a man's scream echoed. A clansman abruptly collapsed to the ground, his face covered in blackness. He had been digging for spirit herbs when two purple venomous scorpions, about a foot long, emerged from the soil. Their stingers pierced his finger.

Wang Qingjun's expression changed. He quickly rushed to the fallen clansman, intending to administer an antidote pill. However, he found that the man had already died from the poison, bleeding from all seven orifices.

"Such potent venom! I told you all to be careful," Wang Qingjun frowned and chastised them.

"Uncle Twelve," a clansman explained, "if we used puppet beasts to dig for spirit herbs, we might damage their roots, which would reduce their value."

Wang Qingjun glared at him and said coldly, "That's still better than someone dying. How many spirit stones does it take to train a clansman? From now on, when you find spirit herbs or spirit fruits, use puppet beasts to collect them all. I don't want any more deaths."

"Yes, Uncle Twelve," the Qi Condensation cultivators responded in unison. They released their puppet beasts to gather the spirit fruits and herbs, not even sparing the spirit fruit tree.

Fifteen minutes later, they exited the cave, their numbers reduced from fifteen to fourteen.

Upon leaving the valley, a vast marshland appeared before them. A thick black miasma hung over the swamp, and the ground was dotted with numerous puddles. Bubbles occasionally rose from beneath the surface. Several hundred feet away, more than a dozen purple flowers, about a foot tall, grew. Their petals were crescent-shaped, and their stems were covered in sharp thorns.

"This marshland is quite extensive. It won't be easy to clear it completely," Wang Qingjun said with a frown. The marsh stretched for several miles, undoubtedly harboring a large number of demonic beasts beneath its surface, making it impossible to clear quickly. They were responsible for clearing a thirty-mile area. Spending too much time here would affect their overall progress.

"Brother Twelve, leave it to me! I have a way to clear out those demonic beasts," Wang Qingling said confidently.

"Sister Ten, what method do you have?" he asked. "This marshland is quite large. Even if we can't clear it completely, we at least need to eliminate the second-tier demonic beasts."

Wang Qingling smiled faintly. She patted her spirit beast bag, and two streaks of gray light flew out. They were, surprisingly, two gray crocodiles, each about twenty feet long. Their heads were narrow and elongated, their backs covered in black nodules, and their skin was extremely rough. Their massive jaws, about ten feet wide, revealed a row of sharp teeth as they opened and closed.

"These two Bone-Corroding Crocodiles are earth-element spirit beasts. They are most suited for living in swamps; the marsh is their home. They have both been cultivated to the second tier. Let them eliminate the high-grade, second-tier demonic beasts, and they can handle the rest! 'Raise soldiers for a thousand days to use them for an hour' – I've raised them for so long; it's time they exerted themselves." Wang Qingling said with a laugh. She managed the Spirit Beast Hall, with the Golden-Eyed Rock Horses and Azure Cloud Sparrows under her care. The sales of horse milk and Azure Cloud Sparrows were excellent, and Wang Qingling's annual stipend was substantial. She used most of her stipend to cultivate spirit beasts; otherwise, her cultivation level would be higher. After all, she was the only daughter and managed the Spirit Beast Hall; Wang Qingjun was not as wealthy as she was.

"Sister Ten, you have too many spirit beasts on you!" Wang Qingjun said with a wry smile. "If you used the spirit stones for cultivating spirit beasts to buy cultivation resources, you'd probably be beyond Foundation Establishment Layer Four by now." Wang Qingling was famously fond of taming spirit beasts. He hadn't expected her to actually have two Bone-Corroding Crocodiles.

"I know what I'm doing. I'll have them eliminate the second-tier demonic beasts. Once those second-tier beasts are gone, the remaining first-tier ones won't be a threat." Wang Qingling pointed her jade-like finger towards the marsh. A yellow light glowed around the two Bone-Corroding Crocodiles' bodies as they burrowed into the marsh and disappeared from sight.

Soon after, the ground beneath shook violently. A black toad, about ten feet in size, emerged from underground, its body bleeding profusely. The two Bone-Corroding Crocodiles burst out from underground, their massive jaws wide open as they lunged at the black toad.

"Bite it! Bite it hard! Bite its leg! Yes, bite its neck! Quick, bite its neck!" Wang Qingling cheered on the Bone-Corroding Crocodiles, while directing them to kill the black toad, her face filled with excitement.

Wang Qingjun and the others were dumbfounded. It was their first time seeing Wang Qingling so excited. The black toad was no match for the Bone-Corroding Crocodiles. After a few rounds, it was torn in half by the two crocodiles and swallowed.

"Keep going, eat your fill! You won't have this many demonic beasts to eat next time." The two Bone-Corroding Crocodiles burrowed back underground to hunt other demonic beasts.