But the strange thing is, there was a small path winding its way into the forest, obviously trodden by people, which means that someone has been coming and going here.

Gu Qingheng walked along the path, but after only a few steps, he suddenly felt something flying towards him from the surroundings.

"Watch out!" Ming Guang shouted, but before he could act, a flash of gold light passed by.

The gold darted into the air like lightning, twisted its body, and opened its small mouth to swallow the oncoming venomous insect whole, smacking its lips afterward. Hmm, it tasted pretty good, but unfortunately, the toxicity was a bit lacking.

Ming Guang stared wide-eyed at the gold, then snorted. Stealing his job, this little snake really isn’t cute.

The gold perched on Gu Qingheng’s shoulder and flicked its tongue at Ming Guang. Who told you to be so slow?

Gu Qingheng had no time to deal with the banter between those two and instead looked around cautiously, testing the way forward deeper in. Suddenly, a black fog surged towards him.

Gu Qingheng hurriedly covered his mouth and nose.

"Cough, cough!" Ming Guang suddenly started coughing.

"Master, how are you?" Gu Qingheng quickly grabbed Ming Guang’s arm, the poor visibility making it easy to get lost if not holding on.

"It’s too choking." Ming Guang’s disdainful voice came through, "What a damn place?" He also covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

Gu Qingheng was instantly reassured, which meant that his master was not afraid of these toxic gases either.

Continuing forward for about another quarter of an hour, the black fog thinned, visibility expanded once more, and up ahead was a clearing. As they continued, the ground beneath their feet became softer, and in some places, a faint mist seemed to rise.

This was a swamp laced with toxic gases.

However, before he could think about how to cross the swamp, he suddenly heard hissing sounds from the trees around them. Then he saw many animals appearing on the surrounding trees - some he recognized like venomous snakes and centipedes, and some were strange creatures he didn’t know, but all without exception were highly venomous.

The gold instantly got excited, rubbing against Gu Qingheng persistently.

"Go ahead." Gu Qingheng patted the gold on the head.

The gold shot out like a wolf into a flock of sheep.

Even though Gu Qingheng had good eyesight, he couldn’t clearly see the gold’s figure, only sensed the flickering of golden light.

Suddenly, there was an array of screeching and squeaking sounds, all from the poisonous creatures’ cries, of course, many didn’t even have time to react before they ended up in the gold’s stomach.

Finally, the golden light stopped, and most of the venomous creatures that initially wanted to bite them had disappeared, with the rest half-dead.

Gu Qingheng’s mouth twitched; other venomous creatures had either been eaten or bitten to death, but the snakes were all alive, gathered together, not daring to run around.

The gold belched, thinking he should tell his parents that the venomous creatures here on Miaojiang Mountain were far more numerous and toxic than those on Xiaocang Mountain. If there’s a chance, maybe Xinxin could bring their family of three here for a gourmet trip.

Gu Qingheng may not completely understand the gold’s intentions like Yang Ruxin, but he roughly got the gist of it from its reactions, causing him to pat the little one on the head: "Good job." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The gold flicked its tongue, as if to say, "Piece of cake."

With the venomous insects dealt with, next was crossing the swamp.