bayedsolid Chapter 244: Forest of Lights, Lights of Thousands of Houses (Part )
Chapter 244: Forest of Lights, Lights of Thousands of Houses (Part )
The Thousand Lantern Forest is a huge circular mountain range that stretches for more than 20,000 miles. However, not the entire mountain range is rich in Thousand Lantern Flowers. Only the sunny side of the inner ring of the forest has whole fields of naturally formed Thousand Lantern Flower Fields. However, the Thousand Lantern Forest was not called this name before - before the discovery of the Thousand Lantern Flower Sea in the inner ring, it had a more ancient name, called Fierce Python Mountain. As the name suggests, there is a highly poisonous cockscomb python here - generally pythons are non-toxic, and their powerful bodies alone are enough to strangle most prey. But this cockscomb python is not only physically strong, but can also spray a highly corrosive poison. This poison can not only corrode the bodies of ordinary people, but even the spiritual shields of monks! Every year, countless humans and even spiritual beasts die in the poison and are buried in the python's belly. Fortunately, most of the cockscomb pythons gather in the depths of the forest and rarely come to the periphery to forage, so ordinary hunters or low-level monks can basically return safely as long as they do not approach the inner ring forest.
Later one day, a group of bounty hunters broke into the inner ring of the forest to hunt high-level cockscomb pythons, and accidentally discovered a large area of lantern flowers. It happened that two spiritual plant masters followed the bounty hunters into the forest. When they found that there were dozens of mutated fantasy colorful lanterns here, they were immediately ecstatic. Such a fantasy colorful lantern was worth their desperate efforts to hunt ten high-level cockscomb pythons, and there were at least more than 30 plants here!
Although they were not weak, they knew that they could not preserve such a large fortune by their own strength, so they quickly returned and sold the news to a large family, the Xue family, at a high price. The Xue family immediately sent experts to investigate, and after confirming the situation, they secretly built a teleportation array there and sent high-level martial artists to guard it. But after all, the truth cannot be hidden, and the Xue family's small actions were soon discovered by several other major forces in the surrounding area. After an investigation, the specific reasons were found out. Those families united to put pressure on the Xue family, and the meaning was very clear, that is, they could not let the Xue family eat alone. Therefore, according to the principle that whoever develops the ownerless forest can use it, they jointly obtained the mining rights of the inner ring flower sea of Qiandeng Forest.
In order to facilitate management and supervision, several families jointly established a small town outside the Qiandeng Forest, named Qiandeng Town. With the presence of several large families or forces, this small town quickly prospered and became the most popular gathering place for hunters and spiritual plant masters who came to the mountains to collect goods. As time went on, the reputation of the Qiandeng Flower and the Huancai Jinlan Lantern became more and more famous, and this Qiandeng Town became more and more famous and prosperous. Qiandeng Town also became the only entrance to the inner ring of the Qiandeng Forest safely. People only need to pay a part of the spirit coins to enter through the teleportation array. If you want to be protected during the collection of mountain goods, you can even hire a special escort agency in the town to protect you.
The effect of the Fantasy Lanterns was too strong, so even these major local forces could not own all of them. Under pressure, they simply transferred the mining rights to the World Alliance, and they were responsible for the management on their behalf. They could receive high dividends from the Alliance every year, and also enjoy the privilege of buying the Fantasy Lanterns first at a price lower than the market price.
On the morning of the ninth day after setting out from Jiulongling, Yun Bai and his five companions finally set foot on the land of Qiandeng Town. Qiandeng Town has now developed into a prosperous town, and its scale is no less than that of an ordinary county, with a permanent population of more than 50 million. As Lu Juan said, in addition to being bustling and prosperous, the biggest feature here is that there are no lanterns, but instead lantern flowers planted everywhere.
The lantern flowers are very interesting. They are naturally sensitive to light. When the light is dim, they will automatically bloom, revealing the glowing stamens wrapped in layers of petals. When the sky is brighter, their flowers will close again and return to the shape of buds.
"This lantern flower is so beautiful, like a work of art!" As soon as they entered the town, the five people saw two rows of lantern flowers neatly arranged on the road. Yun Bai stood in front of one of the lantern flowers that was taller than her, stroking its smooth branches with her hands. If she looked closely, she could find many complex and beautiful dark green patterns on the branches. Starting from the middle of the branches, there were more than a dozen pale yellow buds that looked like big purses, and these buds grew all the way to the top of the branches. There were also beautiful patterns composed of orange-yellow veins on the petals. Although they were not spiritual plants of the highest quality, Yun Bai could feel that they were constantly absorbing the energy of sunlight to fill themselves up. This reminded her of solar cells, and she suddenly felt very magical.
Yun Bai placed her face close to the thick stem of the lantern flower, and immediately felt a warm current coming over her. She subconsciously activated her magical power, and instantly received countless warm welcomes and joyful emotions. Although these emotions could not be clearly expressed, Yun Bai could already clearly understand them. This large area of lantern flowers was infected by Yun Bai's joyful emotions, and they all bloomed immediately. Countless bright, white lanterns lit up at the same time, and they still sparkled even under the sun!
The lantern flower actually bloomed in the daytime! This is a great wonder! Everyone who saw this scene stopped to watch in surprise, and they exclaimed in admiration.
Yun Bai noticed that more and more people were gathering around, and secretly thought that it was not good. He quickly sent a message to the flowers, asking them to keep a low profile. The flowers then closed their petals and returned to the state of buds.
Seeing that the lantern flower had turned into a bud again, people gradually dispersed, but they still talked about this wonder for a long time. Fortunately, these people did not have spiritual plant masters, so they did not associate this phenomenon with Yun Bai who was holding a lantern flower intimately.
The five of them stayed at a medium-sized inn in the town, and then went to the alliance office in the town to register. Knowing that they were Tianlan's students who came to complete the alliance's mission, Jiang Bo, the manager of the office, personally received them.
Jiang Bo is a middle-aged man of medium height, with a round face and a slightly fat face. He always has a friendly smile on his face, which makes people feel friendly to him easily. He does not have the airs of a so-called official, but rather looks like a shopkeeper. So the few people became familiar with each other soon after they met. Jiang Bo has three sons and two daughters. Coincidentally, his second son Jiang Shaocheng, third son Jiang Shaogong and second daughter Jiang Yunhua are currently studying in Cangyu, and they are considered to be the junior brothers and sisters of Yun Bai and others. With this relationship, Jiang Bo is more friendly to Yun Bai and the other five. After a warm chat, Jiang Bo called his eldest son Jiang Shaowei and eldest daughter Jiang Yunli to meet the five people. At present, the two of them are working with their father. After two or three years of experience, they will have the opportunity to find a better job in the alliance.
Jiang Shaowei and Jiang Yunli were only a few years older than Yun Bai and the others, and both were as friendly and easy-going as their father, so the young people quickly became familiar with each other. It happened that one of his men came to Jiang Bo to handle something, so he ordered the two children to entertain Yun Bai and the other five, and said that he would hold a banquet to welcome them in the evening.
Jiang Shaowei and Jiang Yunli were both very talkative, so for the next period of time, they took Yun Bai and the other two to walk around the town and gave them a brief introduction. Because they knew that the five people were here to complete the mission, they also went to the teleportation array taken over by the alliance, from which they could directly enter the inner ring flower sea of Thousand Lights Forest. Then they took the temporary teleportation array from the inner ring flower sea to the restored evil alienation area.
When she saw the countless lantern flowers and colorful brocade lanterns, Yun Bai was extremely shocked. She really wanted to see with her own eyes the magnificent scene of hundreds of thousands of lantern flowers lighting up millions of lanterns at night, so she immediately turned around and wanted to discuss with everyone to see the wonder tonight. However, several people had already understood Yun Bai's thoughts, and they all nodded in agreement without her saying anything.
What they don't know is that because of this trip tonight to the sea of lanterns and flowers, they discovered a terrible secret hidden deep inside...