Lin Mu directly used blink to put some distance between him and the dark grey mist.
"So this is the baleful energy they were talking about…" Lin Mu muttered.
He could sense the aura emanating from the dark grey mist, finding it to be highly unsettling. Lin Mu could tell that even he would be affected by this if it came in contact with his body.
'Though to what extent… I should know that…' Lin Mu had a reckless thought.
He opened his right palm and waved it in a curling manner.
~WHOOSH~
A breeze rose from his hand and pulled a few wisps of the dark grey mist towards him. The amount was quite small, about the same as an incense stick.
"No better way then to test it directly…" Lin Mu directly touched the dark grey mist with his hand.
~hiss~
And when he did a hissing sound could be heard.
The sleeve directly corroded on contact before the mist touched his skin.
At this moment, Lin Mu's golden body activated automatically, resisting the hostile energy. Along with that, his natural immortal Qi defenses also presented themselves, forming a thin barrier around his skin.
The Dark grey mist tried to corrode his skin too, but was unable to overcome his defenses.
"Hmm… way better than I thought." Lin Mu was a bit pleased, but knew this was just a basic test.
~WHOOSH~
He waved his hand again, pulling more of the mist with the Bending Will Fist. It was clear that Lin Mu's practice with this technique was now coming in handy.
~hiss~
A similar hissing sound was heard as the dark grey mist made contact with his skin again. This time the amount was twice as much but there was still no damage to him.
"Let's try more," Lin Mu pulled more of the mist and repeated the process.
It was on his fourth try that he finally felt something. He had used eight times as much of the dark grey mist before he finally felt irritation on his skin.
"Its like an itch." Lin Mu muttered. "But that's all it is… an itch."
At this point, Lin Mu was a lot more confident. He directly walked towards the mist rising from the hole and stuck his hand in it.
~HISS~
"Now that's more like it." Lin Mu finally felt the pain.
It was as if his hand was being burned. But even if it was so, the level of pain was something Lin Mu could still ignore. He kept his hand in the rising mist for about ten seconds before withdrawing it.
His entire sleeve had been corroded away and his bare hand was visible. Except it seemed to be covered with a viscous grey liquid. His golden skin was also a little dull with thin grey lines spreading across it.
Lin Mu took this time to check just what kind of baleful energy it actually was. After all, baleful energy was just a general term for a lot of negative types of energies.
With his immortal sense, Lin Mu observed the traces of grey mist that had managed to enter his skin. They were currently contained within the grey lines that were on his skin and weren't able to go any deeper.
"It's Corroding Qi." Xukong suddenly answered. "A derivative Qi of the Corrosion Dao."
"Corroding Qi?" Lin Mu remembered reading about it once in the Memoirs of the lost immortal.
It was a common type of baleful energy and was found in several types of areas.
"No wonder I could resist it with ease." Lin Mu muttered.
"With your natural vitality and body cultivation, corroding Qi isn't too dangerous for you. But for normal Qi cultivators, this'll be devastating. It can penetrate their meridians and corrode them, preventing them from using their Qi and effectively crippling them after a certain point." Xukong explained.
"No wonder… at the very least I now know that I can handle this. So getting caught in one accidentally won't be an issue." Lin Mu replied.
"You should still be careful though. There is no saying if there will be other types of baleful energies mixed in it all. Not to mention, if the concentration of the Corroding Qi increases, you will still be affected." Xukong warned.
"I'll keep that in mind." Lin Mu nodded his head.
~rustle~
But just as Lin Mu said that, he felt a little movement in his robes.
~HISS~ HISS~
The twins poked their heads out of the robes, peeking at the dark grey mist. Their eyes seemingly shone with hunger and they quickly jumped out of Lin Mu's robes.
Xiao Yin was the first to act and directly opened her mouth wide, sucking in all the dark grey mist.
~WHOOSH~
In less than twenty seconds, all the baleful energies were consumed by her. Then she seemingly digested the grey mist, before releasing pure yang Qi.
~HISS~ is the owner.
Xiao Yang opened his mouth in excitement and quickly consumed his share of the energy.
Watching this Lin Mu was a bit surprised, but then felt happy.
"Looks like we have another advantage now…" Lin Mu said as a few ideas appeared in his mind. 'If the twins can consume the baleful energies, then doesn't it mean that this place is perfect for them?' he thought.
As long as he had them, he now had an extra precaution against the baleful energies.
~HISS~ HISS~
After consuming the mist, the two returned to Lin Mu.
~SHA~SHA~SHA~
But then they seemingly gestured towards the hole with their tongues.
"Oh? You found something?" Lin Mu asked, to which the twins nodded.
"Well then, let's check it out." While Lin Mu had a hunch as to what it was going to be, he still felt excited.
Peeking into the dark hole, Lin Mu soon spotted a red glint at the bottom.
~THUD~
He directly landed at the bottom of the hole and ignited a flame in his hand, discovering the source of the red glint.
"A Blood Essence Crystal indeed…"