The three demonic cultivators kept glancing nervously behind them. Seeing the four of them show no reaction, the burly demonic cultivator grew anxious. "Fellow Daoists, if you hesitate any longer, it'll be too late!" As he spoke, he tried to move closer to the four of them.
Nie Wushang raised a hand, blocking their path.
Seeing this, the burly demonic cultivator's voice grew urgent. "What do you mean by this?"
Nie Wushang glanced at them, her tone indifferent. "Why should we believe you?"
"You—" Her attitude was far from courteous. The burly demonic cultivator widened his eyes, anger showing on his face.
"Big Brother," the two demonic cultivators behind him whispered a reminder, "now is not the time for a quarrel."
Hearing this, the burly man's face flushed red. In the end, he swallowed his anger and said, "Fellow Daoist, the three of us brothers discovered a monster here. This monster is extremely powerful and ferocious. The three of us were no match for it the moment we encountered it. Although there are four of you, you certainly won't be its match either. It would be best for us to join forces."
"A monster?" Mo Tiange raised an eyebrow. "What kind of monster? Why haven't I sensed it?" Her spiritual sense was not weak; there was no reason she wouldn't have felt anything.
"Fellow Daoists, please believe us," a Core Formation early-stage cultivator following the burly man explained urgently. "Just half an hour ago, we passed the first trial and arrived here. Not long after, we encountered a monster. This monster had almost no detectable aura, which caused us to let our guard down at first. But the moment we faced it, we were completely unable to resist..."
Hearing this, Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang exchanged a glance, seeing surprise in each other's eyes.
"Fellow Daoists, what does this monster you speak of look like?"
Hearing Mo Tiange's gentle tone, their attitudes softened somewhat. The three demonic cultivators were overjoyed. The leading burly man said, "This monster has no physical form. At first glance, it's just a strange mass of aura. When we passed the first trial earlier, our Demonic Qi was depleted and hadn't fully recovered. When we encountered this monster, we tried to repel it, but no secret art or magical treasure could disperse it. It even absorbed our Demonic Qi..."
At this point, the expressions of Mo Tiange and the other three changed slightly.
A thought flashed through Mo Tiange's mind as she noted a piece of information: "So, since entering the secret land, you've been unable to recover the Demonic Qi within your bodies on your own?"
The burly demonic cultivator hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yes." This matter couldn't be hidden; the current state of the three of them was obvious at a glance.
Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang exchanged another look, both showing expressions of confirmation.
"Apart from that, have you noticed anything else unusual?"
The burly man was stunned by the question, confused. "What does Fellow Daoist mean?"
"I mean, do you feel that this secret land is somewhat strange?"
"Strange?" The burly man was somewhat dumbfounded. He wasn't talking about strangeness, but a monster... What was going on?
"Big Brother," a Core Formation early-stage cultivator behind him whispered, "now that you mention it, I do feel something is a bit strange."
"Oh?" Mo Tiange looked at the cultivator who appeared somewhat timid. "What has Fellow Daoist noticed?"
That person glanced at the leading burly man. Seeing he had no intention of stopping him, he finally said, "I feel that the supernatural abilities of this secret land aren't profound enough..."
Hearing this, Mo Tiange's eyes lit up. She hadn't expected this seemingly timid cultivator to have such keen insight.
The burly man, however, frowned and glared at him unhappily. "What kind of strangeness is that? Perhaps the supernatural abilities of this secret land simply aren't that powerful to begin with."
"Exactly. Besides, Big Brother even used his trump card magical treasure to protect us," another early-stage demonic cultivator chimed in agreement.
"But..." This demonic cultivator voiced a small objection, but even he lacked confidence. After just two words, seeing the burly man's expression, he swallowed the rest of his sentence.
Mo Tiange frowned. "This matter is very important. Please tell us truthfully exactly what happened." As she spoke, she shot a glance at the leading burly man.
Hearing her tone so certain, the burly man hesitated before finally asking, "Have you discovered something wrong?"
Before Mo Tiange could speak, Nie Wushang had already stepped forward, her clawed weapon extending as she moved to lift the other party's sleeve.
The burly man was startled, leaping back abruptly and brandishing his magical treasure. "What are you trying to do?"
Nie Wushang said nothing. Her figure shifted, and she had already closed the distance. At such close range, who could match the speed of a martial cultivator? The burly man only felt a tug at his hem before something was hooked off.
The wooden puppet clattered to the ground. Nie Wushang glanced at Mo Tiange, who understood. She summoned Xiaohuo again, patting its head. "Xiaohuo, use fire."
"You..." Seeing their actions, which didn't seem hostile, the burly man was confused. "Is there something wrong with this thing?"
Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang didn't answer. They would soon know the answer.
After burning away the puppet's outer layer, there was indeed a Demonic Crystal inside.
Seeing this object, the three demonic cultivators' expressions changed abruptly.
"It seems you gentlemen know what this is," Nie Wushang said coldly, watching the three demonic cultivators' faces. "Now do you understand how serious the situation is? Tell us everything that happened to you after entering the secret land, in detail."
Once they reacted, the other two demonic cultivators frantically threw away the wooden puppets they were wearing and looked at their leader. "Big Brother, this..."
The burly man's face turned pale, then flushed. He looked at the Demonic Crystal on the ground, then at the expressions of Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang, gritting his teeth. "That Mei Feng is quite something, to have been deceiving us all along! Hmph! Although the three of us brothers are only Core Formation cultivators, our Heishan City is not so easily bullied!"
It seemed these three also had backing. This verified Yong Ruyu's words—these Core Formation cultivators, though their cultivation was inferior, were not people a mere Xingluo City could casually offend.
After saying this, the burly man turned to Mo Tiange and the others, his attitude immediately becoming much friendlier, unlike before when it was merely forced by circumstances.
"Fellow Daoists, I apologize for my earlier offense. If not for your reminder, our brothers would likely have fallen into someone's trap today!" The burly man raised his hand in salute. "I am Jin Shi. These are my two brothers, Mu Xi and Yugui. We are cultivators from Heishan City."
Heishan City was one of the seven small demonic domains of the Beilin Kingdom, something Mo Tiange had heard of before. The four of them returned the salute and each reported their names.
After the formal introductions, Jin Shi couldn't wait to ask, "Fellow Daoists, how did you discover these Demonic Crystals?"
"That was actually an accident," Mo Tiange said briefly, then countered, "Fellow Daoist... Mu Xi, what exactly did you find strange earlier? This matter is of great importance. Please explain in detail."
"Naturally." Now that he had Jin Shi's permission, this demonic cultivator named Mu Xi spoke without restraint. "First, among the three of us, only Big Brother has high cultivation. Yugui and I are only of ordinary strength. We originally thought we wouldn't make it past the first trial, but we passed it with only a scare. After passing, I thought it over carefully and realized that while the first trial's supernatural abilities seemed profound, their power was always slightly lacking. Just when Yugui and I were about to give up, the spells within suddenly weakened, as if deliberately letting us pass."
Mo Tiange nodded. This Mu Xi was quite meticulous. A careless person might have overlooked it. Many people, when encountering something unreasonable, would casually find a reason to convince themselves it must be reasonable.
"Secondly, after we passed the first trial and entered here, we've already encountered several groups of people. Added together, more than half have actually passed the trial. This is truly unusual..."
Hearing this, Nie Wushang immediately interrupted him. "You've encountered others?"
"That's right," Jin Shi answered. "Since arriving here, we've encountered three people in total. Counting the seven of us, that makes ten people, not including those we haven't met."
"..." Nie Wushang looked at Mo Tiange. Neither of them knew what to say. Before this, what had City Lord Mei warned them? He said the trial of this Ancient Secret Land was extremely difficult, and no one from Xingluo City had ever passed. Although they had only passed the first trial so far, the difficulty was vastly different! Of course, there was still one difficulty: whether it was Spiritual Qi or Demonic Qi, neither could be recovered on one's own. If this continued, it was indeed very likely none of them would pass the trials. Yet City Lord Mei hadn't mentioned this at all beforehand.
After a long silence, Yong Ruyu, who hadn't spoken until now, finally spoke up. "Then, what was the monster you mentioned earlier? You discovered you couldn't defeat it and ran away? Did it chase you? Apart from magical treasures being ineffective against it, does it have any other characteristics?"
It was still Mu Xi who answered. He was clearly the most meticulous of the three. "Not long after we arrived here, we discovered that monster. At first, sensing Demonic Qi, we thought it was the trial related to demonic cultivators that City Lord Mei mentioned. But after we approached, within just a few breaths, we realized we couldn't judge this monster's strength by the aura around it. Since we couldn't defeat it, we ran. The monster gave chase, but its flight speed wasn't fast. When we discovered this, we were initially relieved. But not long after, we found that although this thing was slow, its movements were elusive. It actually managed to catch up. After that, no matter how long we ran, it would reappear not long after, like a ghost we couldn't shake off."
A look of astonishment appeared on Yong Ruyu's face. "There's actually something so bizarre in this world?"
"That's right," Jin Shi said. "So we can only call it a monster. Our brothers have seen quite a bit, but this is the first time we've encountered something like this. Oh, right. While we were fleeing, we came across a fellow demonic cultivator. He didn't believe what we said. As a result, in just a few breaths, he was devoured by that monster... Not a single trace remained. He turned into a mass of Demonic Qi and completely vanished."
Yong Ruyu's expression changed. "This..."
Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang also showed shock. A Core Formation cultivator devoured in a few breaths, leaving not even a corpse behind—what exactly was this monster?
"Things are getting more and more complicated," Mo Tiange said slowly after a long while, tapping her head as she thought. "A Nascent Soul cultivator who lies through his teeth to lure us into a trap, Demonic Crystals that absorb vital energy worn by everyone, Spiritual Qi that cannot be recovered, and now such a monster... What exactly does this City Lord Mei want to do?"