As noon approached, the series of intense battles had left them all somewhat fatigued. Li Fei once again cast a concealment technique, completely hiding the Yuan Power fluctuations of all four of them. They found an open space to sit down and rest. Su Wan took out her water flask and dried food, selecting a large piece of dried meat and offering it to Li Fei with a smile. “You’re too thin. Eat more meat.”
Li Fei waved her hand. “I’ve been vegetarian since childhood.”
Vegetarian? Su Wan ate meat and drank water in big gulps, quite heroically. While eating, she said, “No wonder I always felt you had an otherworldly air about you. Life is short, if you don’t even eat meat, what pleasures are left?”
This made the other three laugh. Deng Xiguang chuckled, “Junior Sister Su, is eating meat one of life’s pleasures?”
Su Wan grinned. “Of course. I’ve never eaten demon meat before. This is a rare opportunity. Later, we should hunt one and slow-roast it to see how it tastes. Demons can eat humans, so why can’t we eat them in return?”
This girl was truly… unique in her tastes. Deng Xiguang suddenly felt a sense of fear and awe, losing all interest in trying to flirt with her.
Su Wan suddenly said, “Senior Brother Deng, why are you so quiet now that we have free time? Didn’t you say earlier that you had investigated all the disciples coming to Lilie Valley? Tell us about it.”
Li Fei immediately became interested, and even Lei Xiuyuan showed some curiosity, turning his head to stare at him.
Seeing that he had an audience, Deng Xiguang couldn’t help but become animated. “Let’s continue where we left off earlier. That extremely beautiful female disciple is from Elder Qingle’s sect. Her name is Le Cailing. I heard she was personally brought into Wuyue Court by Elder Qingle and has exceptional talent. Elder Qingle has a unique and powerful technique that uses music to carry celestial magic. She was chosen by Elder Qingle to inherit this exclusive celestial technique. In the future, if she becomes immortal, she’s destined to inherit Elder Qingle’s position as the elder of Zixi Peak.”
Li Fei asked curiously, “Celestial magic carried by music? Is it similar to the Heavenly Sound Spirit Language from Xingzheng Hall?”
Deng Xiguang’s old habit resurfaced as he praised, “Junior Sister Jiang is so knowledgeable, even knowing about the Heavenly Sound Spirit Language from Xingzheng Hall! However, Elder Qingle’s unique skill is still somewhat inferior to the Spirit Language. The Spirit Language can restrain one’s will, while the music technique can only kill. Think about it, you’re just listening to a melody, and as you listen, you die. Isn’t that impressive?”
You die as you listen?! Li Fei and Su Wan immediately developed a sense of awe for this music celestial technique.
Lei Xiuyuan suddenly spoke, “Practicing such a celestial technique must come with a huge price to pay. Besides, killing invisibly can’t be that easy, can it?”
Deng Xiguang shook his head. “I’m not sure about that. I couldn’t find out the secrets of its cultivation. However, this Junior Sister Le is very aloof. Most of Elder Qingle’s disciples are female, so naturally, many male disciples go there to hang around when they’re free. I heard that Junior Sister Le has rebuffed countless people and hasn’t spoken a single word to any male disciple to this day.”
Not saying a single word was indeed impressive. Li Fei secretly admired her. Should she learn from her? If she didn’t say a single word, perhaps there wouldn’t be any annoying rumors about her.
“Who else? Tell us more!” Su Wan was treating this like a story, full of enthusiasm.
Deng Xiguang was delighted to ramble on. “There are many more! There’s also that female disciple with the high nose, called…”
He rattled off a string of information, all about female disciples. Su Wan couldn’t help but laugh. “Senior Brother Deng, did you investigate all the female disciples who came?”
Deng Xiguang rubbed his nose, not blushing at all. “Of course. Why would I bother investigating men?”
To show that all men were the same, he even winked at Lei Xiuyuan: Brother, don’t you agree?
Lei Xiuyuan remained noncommittal. Deng Xiguang continued to talk animatedly. “Oh right, there are also a few newly joined junior sisters who are quite good. But if we’re talking about who has the most female disciples, it’s still Elder Qingle. She has several senior sisters who are truly heavenly beauties…”
The entire noon was spent listening to Deng Xiguang’s beauty chronicles. Finally, he boldly and enthusiastically looked at Li Fei and praised, “But in my opinion, among all these beautiful junior and senior sisters, none can truly compare to Junior Sister Jiang. Sister, you…”
Lei Xiuyuan stood up, dusted himself off, and mercilessly interrupted his enthusiasm. “Save the idle talk for later. Let’s continue hunting demons. Today, let’s try to hunt a few more.”
Everyone quickly packed away their dried food and water flasks. As Deng Xiguang approached Li Fei, still wanting to say more, Lei Xiuyuan put a hand on her head and pushed her to the front. He glanced back at Deng Xiguang. “Senior Brother Deng, you have food crumbs on your chin.”
Crumbs?! Deng Xiguang covered his face, heartbroken. He had thoroughly embarrassed himself!
Su Wan couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
As they were joking around, they gradually noticed white mist beginning to spread around them. The four immediately stopped their banter. Li Fei, quick-eyed and swift-handed, first cast the Bronze Wall technique and looked around, softly asking, “Is there anything unusual?”
Lei Xiuyuan concentrated and sent out his water-based celestial technique to probe. After a moment, he shook his head. “No demonic energy, but this isn’t ordinary mist either.”
He looked up at the sky. The sun was directly overhead, blazing brightly. It wasn’t weather conducive to fog formation. This mist had appeared very suddenly and was becoming increasingly dense. Soon, they couldn’t see anything beyond five steps away. The four immediately huddled close together. The concealment technique was still in effect, so they shouldn’t be detected by demon beasts. However, the bird songs and flowing water sounds that had been present earlier were now gone. After this mist enveloped them, the surroundings suddenly fell into dead silence, making their breathing sound particularly heavy.
The mist grew thicker and thicker, gradually obscuring even the sunlight. Everywhere became as dark as night. Suddenly, not far away, two strings of lights appeared, flickering and dancing, extending in a winding path with no end in sight.
Deng Xiguang squinted for a while, then said in a low voice, “Was there a slope there before?”
Everyone looked and indeed saw the two strings of lights extending diagonally upward. Where there had been an open space in the forest, a slope had suddenly appeared.
Su Wan stepped forward. This bold girl, far from being afraid of the sudden strange occurrence, was excited, her eyes gleaming. She lowered her voice and said, “Let’s go take a look!”
Deng Xiguang waved his hands repeatedly. As the saying goes, when things are out of the ordinary, there must be something demonic at play. Lilie Valley was full of demon beasts, with no human inhabitants. How could there be lights? Moreover, this slope and these lights had all been brought by the mist. Who knew what terrifying things might be hiding there? If it turned out to be some thousand-year-old demon, they would all perish here.
Su Wan urged, “What’s the use of just waiting here? We’ll have to go look sooner or later!”
Lei Xiuyuan looked around. This mist seemed endless, having swallowed up the forest. He pondered, “Let’s go take a look. We’ll all go together, don’t stray too far. Li Fei, make sure to maintain the concealment technique at all times.”
As he spoke, he suddenly grasped Li Fei’s hand and said softly, “Stay close, don’t get lost.”
Seeing this, Deng Xiguang couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy, momentarily forgetting his fear. He smiled at Su Wan and cleared his throat. “Junior Sister Su, if you hold my hand, you won’t get lost…”
Before he could finish, Su Wan had already taken the lead, walking at the very front, leaving him far behind.
The four silently approached the slope. Indeed, they saw two rows of slender stone candlesticks extending up the slope. At the top of the slope, there were shadowy outlines of what seemed to be buildings. There wasn’t a trace of demonic energy to be felt anywhere around, nor was there any sound. It was completely quiet.
At this point, no one dared to fly on clouds, fearing that the Yuan Power fluctuations might break the concealment technique. They slowly made their way up the slope. At the top, there was indeed a building that looked like a temple hall, but without any plaque. The interior was empty. In front of the hall stood two huge bronze oxen, lifelike in appearance, but with only a single horn on their heads. Blue flames danced in their eyes, presumably from oil poured inside the ox bodies.
“There are words here,” Su Wan pointed to a stone tablet beside the bronze oxen. It was densely covered with characters, but no one could recognize what was written there. None of them had ever seen such writing before.
Walking to the back of the stone tablet, they found a few scattered characters that they could recognize. Su Wan read them out one by one: “Sea… Beyond… Thousand… Isles… Ten Thousand… Islands… Strange… People… Tomb… What does this mean?”
No one could answer this question. They went inside the great hall to look. It was empty, but there were numerous marks on the floor as if boxes of various sizes had once been placed there.
Lei Xiuyuan looked for a while and said in a low voice, “This place must have been filled with coffins before, right? The Tomb of Strange People… was the hall previously filled with corpses of strange people from the thousand isles and ten thousand islands beyond the sea?”
Deng Xiguang asked in confusion, “What are the strange people from the thousand isles and ten thousand islands beyond the sea?”
Lei Xiuyuan thought for a long time. “Are they the legendary people from beyond the sea? I don’t sense any demonic energy here, but rather a pure spiritual force. This must have been a place where the immortals of Wuyue Court once sealed a burial ground. Now, the strange people’s tombs have probably been moved away, but the seal remains. Perhaps due to the passage of time, the seal has loosened, accidentally allowing us to enter.”
Hearing his analysis, which seemed quite logical, everyone suddenly felt less tense than before. Deng Xiguang, seeing how lifelike the two huge bronze oxen in front of the hall were, couldn’t resist reaching out to pat one, laughing, “These two oxen are well-made. Are they divine beasts guarding the tomb?”
As soon as he spoke, two overwhelming surges of demonic energy suddenly erupted. He was greatly shocked, and before he could react, he heard earth-shattering roars from the bronze oxen above. Looking down, he saw the sharp single horn rushing towards him fiercely.
Li Fei, quick-eyed and swift-handed, instantly added several layers of the Bronze Wall technique in front of him. There were several loud crashes as the Bronze Wall technique shattered completely under this impact. Deng Xiguang was hit by the ox’s head and flew backward like a kite with a broken string, disappearing into the distance.
The three were greatly alarmed. The bronze oxen, which had been motionless before, now seemed to have come to life. The blue flames in their eyes had turned blood-red, and black mist swirled around their bodies, making them look extremely fierce.
Li Fei shot out countless leaf blades, and giant vines burst from the ground, binding the two single-horned oxen. Lei Xiuyuan urgently said, “Su Wan, go rescue Deng Xiguang!”
She agreed and disappeared into the mist on her cloud.
Another earth-shattering roar rang out as the two bronze oxen easily broke free from the tough vines. Four blood-red eyes fixed firmly on Li Fei.
Cold sweat immediately poured down her back. She hurriedly mounted her cloud and flew away, her small white cloud carrying her away like lightning. However, the roars behind her didn’t cease. She looked back to see the two bronze oxen chasing relentlessly, treading on black mist—seriously, they could chase this fast?!
Suddenly, Lei Xiuyuan flew to her side, grabbed her waist, and said softly, “Hold on tight.”
His body suddenly turned into a golden light, and in the blink of an eye, they were dozens of miles away. After a few ups and downs, they had shaken off the two strange bronze oxen, which could no longer be seen. The mist around them suddenly disappeared, as if they had left the sealed area.