"Young Master Ye, look! Over there, there's a patch of peculiar, brilliant flowers. They all look like rare, potent medicines!"
Suddenly, one of the True Immortals cried out, pointing towards the dense forest in the distance.
Ye Yunfei looked over and indeed saw a vibrant patch of peculiar flowers in that location, blooming splendidly. At the same time, a rich medicinal fragrance continuously drifted over, refreshing to the heart and soothing to the spirit.
"These flowers are indeed a rare type of potent medicine," Ye Yunfei said with a frown. "They seem to have significant benefits for the Soul Body. It's strange; why would a patch of such potent medicine suddenly appear within this forest of Blackroad Mystical Ironwood trees?"
The next moment...
Buzzzzzzzzz…
From behind the patch of flowers, a massive swarm of black giant bees rushed out. Each giant bee was the size of a hound, emitting a nauseating stench.
"Those giant bees are highly poisonous! Quick, flee!" the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm shouted.
"Aren't you the King of All Insectoids? Why are you afraid of mere bees?" Hu Miao spoke up at this moment.
Hu Miao had been injured previously and had still not fully recovered, so she rarely paid attention to external affairs. However, after entering this dense forest, she began constantly helping Ye Yunfei monitor the surroundings.
"Their numbers are simply too great. Besides, I don't even know how powerful they really are," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm replied. "In any case, it's best if we avoid tangling with the denizens of this forest altogether. Let's just avoid them directly."
Rumble…
At this moment, Ye Yunfei swiftly erected several dozen Formations directly blocking the direction from which the giant bees were charging. Then, he led the seven True Immortals and turned to leave.
Although Ye Yunfei did not know the strength of these giant bees, he had no intention of getting into a pointless fight with them and wasting energy.
Next, Ye Yunfei, accompanied by the seven True Immortals, continued tracking Lu Feng's aura, pushing deeper into the dense forest. They continuously encountered various dangers, primarily in the form of rare creatures — most of them highly poisonous insects. At the same time, they also came across many rare and precious medicinal herbs.
"So there's actually a place like this within the Colorless Abyss," one True Immortal sighed. "This place grows so many precious, potent medicines; it's incredibly alluring. It's a shame it's so dangerous here."
"I have a doubt," another True Immortal said. "I honestly can't understand how someone with Lu Feng's level of strength managed to come here, much less travel constantly through this forest."
"Now that you mention it, I also feel it's a bit strange," a different True Immortal chimed in. "Lu Feng's strength seems about the same as mine, yet I wouldn't dare venture into such a dangerous place. How did he get here?"
"But I definitely perceive Lu Feng's aura; he must have come here!" another one insisted.
The other True Immortals also felt it was strange and voiced their thoughts.
...
"Regardless of the hows, let's find Lu Feng first," Ye Yunfei stated.
Soon after, five towering Black Great Mountains suddenly appeared ahead. They pierced the clouds, arranged according to the Five Elements. Each of these five mountains was shrouded in a large amount of light-red blood mist, with murderous aura billowing to the heavens. The stench of blood assaulted their noses.
"Careful! That blood mist is poisonous!" the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm warned immediately.
Ye Yunfei's Soul Power immediately swept towards the five Black Great Mountains.
"The interiors of these five mountains are all hollow!" Ye Yunfei exclaimed, somewhat startled.
The interior of each mountain had been hollowed out, from which a constant stream of red blood mist seeped, accompanied by billowing, pungent winds. From time to time, strange, eerie wails and laughter echoed from within these mountains, sending spine-chilling shivers down one's spine.
"Young Master Ye, Lu Feng's aura is inside that particular mountain," one of the seven True Immortals whispered to Ye Yunfei. All seven of them were staring warily at the five strange Black Great Mountains ahead, staying tightly behind him.
"We are being watched by something," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm suddenly sent a voice transmission to Ye Yunfei.
"Yes, I also feel ill at ease," Ye Yunfei nodded.
"Eh? Young Master Ye, look! Behind those five mountains… why are there so many skeletons? It looks like they belong to various kinds of creatures!" a creature suddenly cried out in shock, pointing behind the five mountains.
Indeed, behind the five Black Great Mountains lay a vast expanse of whiteness, like a white sea. The ground was completely covered in heaps upon heaps of stark white bones. Countless snow-white skulls of various creatures were being rolled about by the gusts of bloody wind. Viewed from afar, it was like a snow-white ocean churning with waves, appearing deeply sinister.
The terrifying murderous aura produced by the multitude of corpses transformed into gusts of gale-force winds that swept over.
"Young Master Ye, these skeletons most likely belonged to True Immortals and Earth Immortals when they were alive! So many True Immortals and Earth Immortals perished here… it's truly terrifying!" one True Immortal said with a trembling voice.
The other True Immortals also turned pale with fright. Cold chills ran down their spines, and their legs grew weak, nearly causing them to stumble and fall.
"You're right. The owners of those skeletons were quite formidable in life," Ye Yunfei said, his expression grave as his gaze fell on the five mountains. "This place is indeed very dangerous. However, the person we're looking for is right here."
Ye Yunfei naturally perceived that this place was extremely perilous. However, since he wished to find Di Ming, he would not abandon the search easily.
At that moment, Ye Yunfei clearly perceived Lu Feng's aura inside one of the five mountains. However, the aura of life seemed extremely feeble, even intermittently fading.
"If you are afraid, you may enter my Space Treasure," Ye Yunfei said to the seven True Immortals. "Alternatively, you may wait here. I intend to go inside and find Lu Feng."
"Young Master Ye, we shall enter your Space Treasure," the seven True Immortals replied after a brief discussion.
How could they possibly muster the courage to remain alone in this place? It was filled with pungent winds and soaring murderous aura.
"Fine," Ye Yunfei said. With a sweep of his sleeve, he sent the seven True Immortals into the Huan Ying Pagoda. Then, he activated his secret stealth art, concealing his aura as he silently moved towards one of the Black Great Mountains.
The closer he got to the mountain, the more Ye Yunfei felt the thick, overwhelming Yin Qi, bone-chillingly cold. The sinister atmosphere here was too heavy, as if one were walking through hell.
"These should be Death energies, right?" Ye Yunfei said to Huang Shang.
Huang Shang practiced ghostly cultivation; he was quite familiar with ghastly energies, Yin Qi, Death energies, and other sinister, cold-type energy auras.
"Aside from Death energies, there is also cold-type energy. And more importantly, that is the predominant energy," Huang Shang said after perceiving for a moment. "I suspect there's some kind of extremely powerful cold, Yin-type creature here, making the sinister cold atmosphere so heavy."
At the same time, deep within one of the Black Great Mountains ahead, an emaciated old man with disheveled hair, skeletal and gaunt, sat cross-legged.
Suspended upside down in dense clumps above this black-robed elder's head were many living creatures. Each was tightly bound head-to-toe by black spider silk, dangling helplessly with their heads down and feet up.
Above these suspended creatures swarmed a terrifying number of black spiders, shifting and squirming like a black sea.
These black spiders bizarrely had snow-white human faces adorned with grotesquely chilling smiles, creating a stark black-and-white image.
Each black spider exuded a dense coldness, causing the interior of the mountain to roll with icy currents. The ground and the surrounding stone walls were covered in a thick layer of black Xuan ice.
"Another creature has come knocking," the seated elder suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a cold, eerie smile.
Rustle rustle…
With the elder's words, the massive, shadowy swarm of human-faced spiders above his head began scurrying quickly outwards, crawling densely towards the exterior of the mountain.
"Ah… another unlucky fellow has actually managed to barge in here. What a case of walking right into the trap," a green-robed elder, one of those hanging upside-down above, let out a sigh and remarked.
This green-robed elder was stained all over with filthy blood, his face deathly pale. His flowing blood was an odd shade of black, emanating a foul, putrid odor.
"Elder Di Ming, my apologies. It's all because of me that you've been implicated," another gray-robed elder also hanging upside-down beside him shook his head bitterly. "It seems we're all going to perish here together."
This gray-robed elder also looked deathly pale, his aura listless and weak. His voice, as he spoke, was faint and frail.