Chapter 23: The Slime Village

"The Abyss?"

Qin Yuan felt as if he had heard that term somewhere before.

The Tome of Whispers opened up and explained, "The full name of the Abyss is the 'Abyss of the Old Days.' It is a desolate and ravaged realm inhabited by many powerful and terrifying entities."

"In fact, the very existence of these fragmented regions within the Void Turbulence is inseparable from the Abyss."

"It is said that the original Land of Souls was a region far more vast than it is today, until the Abyssal Plane collided with this world, triggering a great war known as the 'War of the Abyss'."

"Beyond the widespread warfare on the surface, the most critical aspect was the divine battle between the Spirit Lord and the God of the Abyss."

"The mere shockwaves of their clash shattered the entire continent into countless fragments. The Land of Souls where we currently reside is the largest of those pieces, and this island, too, was originally a fragment of the complete Land of Souls."

"The final outcome... should have been the victory of the Spirit Lord. However, they were unable to completely destroy the Abyssal Plane, instead sealing it in the deepest depths beneath the earth."

"Despite this, they remain eager to infiltrate with their power, growing rampantly in hidden corners."

"The Abyss possesses a special ability to randomly open small passages in certain areas. It seems this island happened to have a small passage opened by the Abyss, which is likely why the Saint-Pattern Tree entered a state of dormancy to buy time."

"Of course, there is no need to be too pessimistic," the Tome of Whispers thought for a moment before continuing, "High-level Abyssal creatures cannot leave the Abyssal environment without the aid of 'Abyssal Mist.' Therefore, under normal circumstances, only low-level creatures like the Abyssal Spiders descend. Only when they have gradually eroded and polluted the area to a certain degree, transforming this island into a deep Abyssal environment, can high-ranking Abyssal entities descend."

"Clearly, it has not reached that point yet..."

During their conversation, the slimes skillfully navigated through a forest and arrived in front of a waterfall.

With a few leaps, they entered a very concealed underground cave.

This subterranean area was also home to a large number of Star-Bright Bugs, so there was no need for artificial lighting to see the path ahead.

Following the underground passage and crossing a subterranean river, the group finally reached their destination.

This was a village built deep underground.

The slimes came to a halt.

After jumping down, Qin Yuan surveyed the strangely shaped houses before him.

From a distance, the houses looked like giant mushrooms of various colors, and one could faintly see slimes moving about inside them.

Seemingly alerted by the movement, many slimes gathered around.

However, they showed no interest in the strange human beside them, instead staring imploringly at the azure-blue slime.

It was then that Qin Yuan noticed that these slimes living in the village all looked like deflated balloons, their spirits withered and weak.

...

[Slime (LV1): A low-level creature similar to jelly. It possesses intelligence and is relatively friendly toward humans.]

[Status: Starving (Weakened due to lack of sufficient food for a long time; all attributes are decreased)]

...

The Eye of Revelation provided the prompt.

This was not an isolated case; in fact, most of the slimes here were in a state of starvation.

The azure-blue slime took many wild fruits from its storage pouch and distributed them to the villagers.

Upon seeing the food, the slimes immediately began to devour it.

However, they were generally restrained and orderly, with no signs of scrambling or fighting over the food.

At the same time, an elderly man with a white beard, leaning on a cane, walked out from the shadows with a hunched back.

"This is?"

He spoke in the language of the slimes, looking at the human before him, hesitant to continue.

The azure-blue slime approached and chattered something to him.

The Tome of Whispers translated: "He first recounted what had happened, then said that this human could cure the monsters' toxin, and expressed that as a reward, he could give him the remaining shiny crystals."

Qin Yuan was observing the old man.

The Eye of Revelation told him that this old man was a warrior in his youth, reaching level seven or eight, but his combat effectiveness had declined significantly due to his advanced age.

After listening, the old man hesitated for a moment before slowly walking toward Qin Yuan, speaking in a respectful tone:

"Noble guest, thank you for everything you have done just now. I would like to ask for your help in treating several warriors in our tribe. They were poisoned by monsters while searching for food outside, and their condition is very dire. Of course, as a reward, we have about five or six magic crystals left that we can give you; these are the only materials we have."

This time, he switched back to the common language of the Land of Souls.

"No problem," Qin Yuan said in a steady voice. "Where are the wounded? Take me to them."

"Please, follow me."

Following the old man, he arrived at one of the white mushroom houses.

Inside, a dozen or so slimes were lying densely packed together.

The symptoms they exhibited were extremely similar to the one he had rescued from the spider silk earlier.

All of them had a purplish complexion from the toxin.

In addition, a medicinal herb emitting a strange fragrance was plastered on their foreheads, which seemed to alleviate the spread of the toxin to some extent.

Qin Yuan scanned them and found that the levels of these slimes were not low.

They were at least level two, with a few at level three, and among them was the largest slime warrior, who had reached level four.

If they attacked together, these slimes should have been able to barely hunt the Abyssal Spiders, but there would have been casualties... Qin Yuan speculated inwardly.

Rummaging through his backpack, he found that he only had two bottles of antidote in total.

One of them had been about one-third used to treat that slime earlier.

But another problem had to be considered: these large slimes might require a larger dosage than the small one.

Meeting the old man's expectant gaze, Qin Yuan took the partially used bottle and went to a slime in the corner, slowly crouching down.

He chose this one because its condition seemed the most critical; its entire body was a deep purple, and it had completely lost consciousness, remaining in a coma.

To avoid waste, Qin Yuan prepared to take it slow.

He first poured two mouthfuls of the potion into the slime's mouth.

The effect of the medicine took effect significantly slower this time. About a minute later, the slime's mouth seemed to twitch, and the purple color on its face eased slightly.

Its status was now similar to most of the other poisoned slimes.

After waiting a while longer, seeing it was not fully cured, Qin Yuan poured two more mouthfuls.

Finally, the toxin on the slime's face gradually dissipated, and its body twitched, looking as if it could wake up at any moment.

He looked at the potion in his hand again and found only a little bit left.

At this rate, a full bottle of antidote would only be enough for two slimes if they were as deeply poisoned as this one.

Of course, for those not as severely poisoned, it should be possible to use it more sparingly.

The amount he had on him was not enough... Qin Yuan frowned.

However, he was not overly panicked. Once the teleportation crystal's energy was restored to support teleportation, according to the Tome of Whispers, the current energy was enough for him to travel back and forth two or three times.

Furthermore, he had obtained magic crystals, which could also be used as a driving energy source.

There was no need to worry about the teleportation crystal lacking energy.

In other words, he could simply go to the alchemy shop in the village and buy some more antidote.

Qin Yuan did not hide anything; he took out the other full bottle of antidote and followed the same method, saving two of the most severely injured slimes.

Then, he used the remaining liquid to alleviate the condition of several other slimes who were not in such critical danger.

"I only have this much antidote on me, but I have the materials and tools for refining. Please find me a clean and quiet room... and I will refine some more myself."

Qin Yuan told a small lie.

"Of course, no problem." Seeing the immediate results, the old man readily agreed and quickly led him to a clean mushroom room.

Thus, after confirming the room was fine, Qin Yuan activated the crystal and returned to Ironstone Village.

He immediately hurried to the shopkeeper and spent fifty silver coins to purchase five bottles directly, also taking the opportunity to buy some fruit at the market.

However, Ironstone Village did not have a large permanent population, nor was the market large, so he could not buy too much at once.

Qin Yuan then returned to the floating island and went back to the room filled with the wounded.

The hunched old man with the white beard was waiting there.

He did not disappoint, taking two bottles of potion from his bag and clearing the toxins from all the slime warriors at once.

"It is done." Qin Yuan stood up and said slowly.

"Thank you for your help." The old man fulfilled his promise, taking out five magic crystals he had prepared in advance as a reward.

Qin Yuan handed the remaining three bottles to him as well: "You can keep these as spares."

"I happen to have some food in my storage pouch..." He added, taking out the fruits he had just bought.

Seeing the food, the old man's face turned somewhat embarrassed.

"What's wrong?"

"Speaking of which... did you also enter the Void Turbulence by mistake and end up here?"

The old man hesitated for a while before suddenly asking.

"Huh?" Qin Yuan was stunned.

In fact, when he had returned to Ironstone Village earlier, he had already discussed it with the Tome of Whispers. Since there were other humans here, he naturally needed a suitable excuse for his appearance on this island.

The final decision was to lie and say he had accidentally entered the Void Turbulence and ended up here by mistake, so as not to expose the existence of the teleportation crystal.

"That's right, are you as well..." Qin Yuan was silent for a moment and nodded.

"Of course." The old man looked as if he had expected this, then fell into a nostalgic trance, speaking with a face full of remembrance:

"It was about fifty years ago that I entered the Void Turbulence by mistake and arrived here. You might not know, but at the time, this was a quiet and peaceful paradise. The entire island was covered with slimes, and everyone often played under the Saint-Tree in the center of the island. Life was carefree."

"My wife died in an accident many years ago, and having no other attachments, I settled down here and formed a deep friendship with the slime chieftain at the time."

"I thought these peaceful days would last forever."

"The turn of events happened a few years ago. Suddenly, these monsters appeared from nowhere and launched an attack on us."

"Slimes are not a race suited for combat, and since I was old..."

"In the end, I retreated with the remaining clansmen into this underground area, where we have lived and multiplied ever since."

"This area, of course, was discovered by the first slime chieftain, and some food was stored here."

"The first few years, we could survive on the stored food, but as time passed and the food gradually dwindled, we had to send warriors to the surface to collect fruits."

"Many warriors also never returned due to accidents..."

The old man's face was filled with sorrow. After a long silence, he sighed:

"Speaking of which, I might owe you an apology. While these magic crystals are very valuable outside, once you have arrived here, it is impossible to return unless you are a mage proficient in Void Power."

"So that's how it is..."

Qin Yuan finally understood why the old man's expression had been so strange earlier; he was worried that he hadn't made it clear beforehand and feared that Qin Yuan would be angered upon learning he couldn't leave and that the crystals were useless to him.

But you probably never imagined that I actually came here through a teleportation crystal...

Although his mind was churning with thoughts, there was no sign of it on Qin Yuan's face.

He was silent for a moment, not answering directly, but instead asking another question:

"Were these magic crystals something you brought in with you at the time?"

The old man shook his head with a bitter smile: "Of course not..."

"Speaking of which, the mineral resources on this island are actually very rich. This was discovered by the slimes in a cave, where there is an entire vein."

"If this were in the Land of Souls, I fear many people would go crazy for it, but here, it is worthless..."

As he spoke, he sighed with melancholy.

A vein?! Qin Yuan was both shocked and delighted when he heard this.

If he could mine this entire vein, wouldn't he be rich?

Of course, he remained calm on the surface.

After listening to the old man's narrative, Qin Yuan had gained some understanding of the current situation.

The two chatted for a while longer, and he indicated that he was going to look around outside.

They then parted ways.