Chapter 268: The Swamps

Chapter 268: The Swamps

(Note, sorry I missed to mention that the cities that Shen Bao will need to cross are actually ten, instead of just seven, three white, three blue, three red, and one black.)
My arrival at White Peaks was pretty uneventful, however, there was something interesting that I've seen here. There were a few dozen pods here, damaged up, and in desperate need of repairs.
The cultivators who knew that they didn't have a shot after their pods were damaged so heavily already gave up, but many tried their best to fix the damage and plug the holes in their pods with whatever tool they could find.
I couldn't waste time here, so I headed out immediately after I got the third white flag, and now my next destination is to the south, where I'll be needing to get the first blue flag. In Blue Shallows.
A city situated at the peripheric of a massive swamp area. The whole second phase of the race will be in the Great Quagmire. It was full of beasts and all manners of nasty creatures.
The pod is supposedly capable of out speeding anything in the testing area, but being ambushed is something the cultivators will need to watch out for.
Yet there was something very good about this area, the final city, Blue Toad City, which is the best possible area where I could make the best comeback in this race.
It's an area full of poisonous fog, traveling through it for any other cultivator will mean consuming an ungodly amount of healing pills and using a lot of Qi to protect themselves. Speed is really useless there since the faster one goes there the more they consume of their Qi, as for me. It's like a heaven specifically made for me.
I moved through the cold mountain areas as fast as I could and sped up as fast as I could, I even had to replace the Top Grade Spirit Stone a couple of times over the passage. But I still had more than enough to get by.
Soon, I crossed over the glacier region and began entering the quagmire region.
It was full of low hanging trees, still froze, since they were this close to the ice area but the atmosphere was starting the warm up the more I went into the quagmire area.
Though I would have been able to move far faster above the trees, it was not possible. The skies above the quagmire were packed full of an incredible swarm of mosquitos. Not the annoying ones that bother you at night, no these ones were at least a few tens of feet large. And they can literally suck a person dry. Not to mention they have an incredible sound attack that could cause distortion.
And a sight I saw was enough to force me against any thought of going above the trees.
As I looked up a few 'brave' cultivators decided to go above tree level only to have several dozen mosquitos shrike at their pods, destabilizing them in the air and at the same time slowing the pods down.
Several mosquitos rushed against the pods and landed against them with enough power, that the slim looking feet of these mosquitos made visible dents on contact. Then came the coup de grace. As the mosquitos pierced through the metallic armor of the pods with their noses like if the metal was nothing more than skin.
The mosquito took one second, not even more, to pierce, suck and then fly away with a full belly of blood.
The pods dropped to the ground and I could see through divine sense that nothing but bones and a dry skin was all that was left of those two cultivators.
Any other cultivator with a peanut for a brain would realize that trying to do the same shit was dumb and they all dove down and continued navigating through the trees that were heavily covering the area.
These low hanging trees were not low per say, they were still massive in size but their leaves were too large and hung like drapes over the entirety of the swamp. Making crossing through them a very dangerous task as not only were the leaves thick, they were hard.
Which I understood the moment an idiot tried to pass through them, only to have his pod crash into the leaves as if they were made of concrete.
I decided against doing anything reckless for now, and continued navigating alongside more and more cultivators who seemed to be stuck in this swamp.
They all moved at relatively slow speeds, while I didn't really care much for them, I had to also slow down. Since I can't pinpoint the exact path I needed to take for now.
However, after using my divine sense to explore the area, one of the pods, unlike all the others, seemed to be moving at a relatively relaxed pace, moving through paths that didn't look like they would lead anywhere only to continue moving after 'conveniently' finding passages where one shouldn't be able to move.
I increased my speed and followed after the pod, which caught a lot of cultivators by surprise since I was a mad man speeding through the thickets of the swamp, unaware of the dangers it held.
My passage through the swamp continued until was close to the pod, and once I got there, the pod began increasing its speed.
It then took a turn which I didn't expect, and was moving right toward a massive low hanging tree branches.
I frowned, since if it were to keep going there, the pod will crash, however against all expectations, the pod made it right through the leaves without a hitch.
'Oh, now I get it,' I grinned and followed after the pod.
Once I went through the leaves I discovered a long path forward that didn't have a single branch or tree blocking it. and the pod I was following had already increased its speed and was going full blast forward.
"So he knows a shortcut, thank you for helping me," I grinned, and followed after making sure not to make it too obvious that I was following.
It didn't take much time following this path before I was already out of the swamp.
And just as I was out, a divine sense message came to me.
"You really are shameless," spoke the voice of a woman.
Turning to the right, I was a bit surprised, "Oh, it's you from last time." I said.
"Humph, I'm surprised you made it this far, didn't have a very delayed start at first?" she asked.
"Yes, a problem happened, I fixed it though. Seems like you have a map, would you mind sharing it?" I asked though I didn't expect her to agree, it was worth taking a shot to confirm the existence of a map.
"Huh? Why should I share it with you?" she said.
'Good, now I know there is a map, a map that enables you to see secret areas, paths and shortcuts.'
"Consider it a favor that I'll repay later," I said.
"Humph, no," she said and then accelerated.
Well, I wasn't expecting much, but its okay. Afterall, the next city is very close.
I didn't try and speed up this time, I needed to see if she would take any other paths first or will go straight towards the next city. And obviously so, she didn't take any other strange paths and continued going forward.
She arrived and left the city after taking her flag, and so did I. However, right after leaving Blue Swamps, more shit is going to start appearing.
Blue Dusk city, which is situated further down the swamp area. Around the middle. It's a city full of strong cultivators and powerful people, due to one fact. Only the strong can navigate through the Great Quagmire and get there. It's a hub for a lot of cultivators, and a good place to find good treasures and stuff like that. It was chosen as a location of the test to make cultivators risk dangers to find treasures.
Or so I believe.
However, there is one little thing that I don't like about that area.
It's that it's covered with thick fog, so thick you can't even see your hand in front of you.
Navigation will rely heavily on a cultivator's divine sense, however, at the same time, this isn't the only issue. Otherwise, it would have been no different than the ice area.
The worst thing about getting to Blue Dusk city were the ghosts.
Yes, fucking, ghosts.
And the best way to invite a ghost over for a chat and some tea inside your sea of consciousness is to release your divine sense.
This part is obviously to test the mental fortitude of cultivators. As weak ones will get possessed, while strong ones will prevail.
So, let's see, with my damaged Nascent Soul, will I be able to navigate through this hellish area