Yun Shuangleng extended her hand, offering the pills to Chu Li and Mu Yunjin.

“There are many venomous insects in Ghost Valley Cave. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to fall victim to their witchcraft. These pills, when carried on your person, can keep these insects away and provide protection.”

Mu Yunjin looked at the two pills, then at Yun Shuangleng. Seeing her sincere expression, she felt somewhat moved and reached out to take the pills, passing one to Chu Li.

“Then I’ll go distribute them to the others.” Yun Shuangleng smiled at them, turned around, and began giving out the insect-repelling pills to the others.

After Yun Shuangleng left, Mu Yunjin gently sniffed the pill. A faint medicinal fragrance came from it, and there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

She glanced sideways at Hua Ying nearby, who had also received a pill. Hua Ying also sniffed it lightly and, detecting nothing unusual, put it away.

Seeing that Hua Ying, who was skilled with poisons, had accepted the pill, Mu Yunjin’s heart calmed, and she carefully stored the pill.

“Are we being too sensitive?” Mu Yunjin spoke softly. This Yun Shuangleng didn’t seem to have any problems. Perhaps they were thinking too poorly of her.

Chu Li lazily made a sound of agreement, then noticed the red blood vessels in her eyes. “Are you tired?”

She had traveled by land with Feng Xuan and the others, probably rushing all night without rest.

“A little.” Mu Yunjin nodded, then leaned her head against Chu Li’s shoulder.

“Then rest for a while.” Chu Li whispered close to her ear, then glanced at Ding Xian nearby and gestured toward the cloak he had wrapped around himself on the boat last night.

Ding Xian understood and handed the cloak to Chu Li.

Chu Li covered Mu Yunjin with the cloak, held her in his arms, and coaxed her to sleep.

…

At midnight, the hour of Zi, the winter solstice arrived.

Mu Yunjin had already awakened, and everyone was waiting for the arrival of the midnight hour.

By now, the night was thick, and in the vast deep valley, the temperature had dropped sharply. Gradually, a large amount of mist rose, swirling and making the surroundings seem eerie and gloomy.

Daoist Feng Xuan led the way, guiding everyone towards Ghost Valley Cave.

…

Before coming, Mu Yunjin had imagined Ghost Valley Cave to be like the Ice Cave in North Ming Country, a mountain cave.

But now, standing outside Ghost Valley Cave, she realized her imagination had been completely overturned. Ghost Valley Cave was not actually in a cave but was a magnificent and imposing mountain manor.

The plaque above the main gate of the manor had three characters that read “Ghost Valley Cave.”

At this time, the main gate of the manor was tightly closed, and there wasn’t even a lantern at the entrance to light the way. Apart from the moonlight in the sky, everything around was pitch black.

Mu Yunjin glanced at Chu Li beside her, reached out to hold his hand tightly, and lowered her voice, “Follow me, alright?”

“Mm.” Chu Li replied with a smile, squeezing her small hand.

Daoist Feng Xuan’s face was tense as he addressed the group behind him, “All of you, follow me. Don’t act independently without reason. Understood?”

Everyone acknowledged with a sound.

“Good, now let’s go in!” After speaking, Daoist Feng Xuan stepped toward the main gate of the manor. As he approached, he released a stream of true energy from his palm, swept his sleeve, and opened the tightly closed main gate, then stepped inside.

Mu Yunjin followed closely behind, walking over. As she stepped onto the stairs of the manor, she whispered, “There are stairs ahead, be careful.”

After successfully entering through the main gate, Mu Yunjin looked at the scene inside and felt somewhat strange. Outside, it was completely dark, almost impossible to see one’s hand, but inside, it was brightly lit.

It wasn’t exactly brightly lit; rather, after passing through the main gate, there was an endless small path ahead, and on both sides of the path were planted some strange flowers and plants. The light was emanating from the center of these flowers.

Plant lanterns lined both sides of the path. The flowers were lemon yellow, and when their light fell on the green branches and leaves, the entire path seemed to shimmer with colorful brilliance.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin’s heart was on edge, but she couldn’t help exclaiming, How beautiful!

Daoist Feng Xuan walked along the path lit by the flower lanterns. Just as his foot stepped onto the entrance of the path, a buzzing sound was heard from all around.

Suddenly, everyone stopped in their tracks. The next second, swarms of venomous bees poured out from the lemon yellow flower lanterns and flew toward Mu Yunjin and the others.

“Watch out for the venomous bees!” Daoist Feng Xuan quickly warned, and as he spoke, he had already raised his palm to strike at the approaching swarm of bees.

Mu Yunjin hadn’t expected the flower lanterns to hide swarms of venomous bees. Having just stepped through the door and encountered something so formidable, every step inside was truly unimaginable.

The venomous bees were not afraid of Mu Yunjin’s black jade hairpin. Additionally, the bees were small in size but densely swarming, making it easy to get bitten.

These carefully raised venomous bees all contained deadly poison. If one were bitten carelessly, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Although they had been avoiding using true energy and internal force, in this situation, it was almost impossible to avoid these venomous bees without using true energy.

Mu Yunjin also separated from Chu Li, concentrated her true energy to keep the bee swarm from approaching her, and gathered a red light in her palm, gradually forming a red fireball.

Enveloped in red light, she swept it toward the surrounding bee swarm.

The bees that came close to Mu Yunjin, after being hit by the red light, all fell to the ground dead. The others nearby also easily dealt with most of the venomous bees. However, despite this, not only did more bees continuously fly out from the flower lanterns, but massive wolf spiders also crawled out from the branches, leaves, and stems below.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin secretly sighed. This black-robed one was truly vicious.

Just inside the door, poisonous creatures from the sky and ground were all gathered, leaving nowhere to hide. It seemed that Ghost Valley Cave was indeed difficult to storm.

As the wolf spiders crawled closer one by one, Mu Yunjin drew out her phoenix-tail whip and swung it at the spiders on the ground, then pulled out a row of silver needles from her waist and shot them precisely at the spiders.

The row of wolf spiders in front of her was hit and stopped dead in their tracks.

“Move forward!” Chu Li came to Mu Yunjin’s side, fighting off the approaching venomous bees while holding her hand, running toward the inside of the path.

Seeing this, the others followed, not lingering in place.

…

The further they ran inside, the dimmer the light became. When they reached the end of the path, Mu Yunjin stopped abruptly, her gaze fixed on the water-gleaming path ahead.

“Damn, there’s even a swamp!” Mu Yunjin cursed, completely surprised that after passing through the small path, they were faced with a vast swamp.

At this moment, with the faint light from the flower lanterns behind them, she could see the wet marsh on the ground, along with a large amount of moss and weeds.

Now, with the swamp ahead, plus the venomous bee swarm and wolf spiders behind, they were truly in a predicament.

“Elder, what do we do now?” Huang Yan looked toward Daoist Feng Xuan. The fierce attack of the bee swarm had already cost them considerable energy and stamina.

“Everyone, don’t panic. I remember Feng Che telling me that there are over a dozen stone pillars buried underground in this swamp. We just need to use our lightness skills to step on these pillars to cross the swamp!” Yun Shuangleng spoke up timely, then stepped forward to look at the swamp.

“There are the most weeds over there. Feng Che said the stone pillars are hidden where the weeds are densest, using the weeds as cover to avoid detection.”

“Let me go ahead and scout.” After speaking, Yun Shuangleng flew toward the nearest patch of weeds.

A moment later, her body sank slightly, then she tiptoed and flew up, flew forward a step, and sank again.

“That’s right, there are indeed stone pillars!” Yun Shuangleng waved to everyone, then continued forward to find more stone pillars.

With Yun Shuangleng exploring ahead, the people behind flew one by one toward the weed patches, and indeed found one stone pillar after another buried in the swamp.

Interestingly, when crossing the swamp, the venomous bee swarm didn’t follow.

“There’s miasma in the swamp, which probably conflicts with the venomous bees. Let’s move quickly and leave this place!” Daoist Feng Xuan glanced at the remaining Mu Yunjin and Chu Li beside him, then flew forward.

Mu Yunjin looked at the dark swamp ahead. “Chu Li, quickly give me the jade pendant.”

Chu Li handed it to her.

Mu Yunjin held the jade pendant in her right hand, placing her right hand behind her back. With a light tap of her toes, she flew toward the swamp. Behind her, Chu Li followed, guided by the light of the jade pendant.

Each time Mu Yunjin passed a stone pillar and flew up, the light perfectly illuminated Chu Li’s path to land on the pillar. The two worked in perfect coordination, crossing the swamp with ease.

Upon reaching the other side of the swamp, Mu Yunjin put away the jade pendant and twisted her lips at the others, “It was too dark. I was afraid my lightness skill wasn’t good enough, and I might fall!”

She wasn’t wrong. Among this group, she was the last to learn mystical arts. Though her lightness skill wasn’t bad, there were certainly many who were better than her.

After crossing the swamp, Qiqi let out a long sigh of relief, “That was truly dangerous. Fortunately, Holy Maiden Yun knew how to cross the swamp, otherwise, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to pass.”

“I just happened to have heard about it. I’m glad I didn’t slow you down when I actively asked to join you,” Yun Shuangleng replied modestly. She had been afraid they would reject her when she came.

Now, after experiencing the venomous bees and the swamp, their group had gradually become more familiar with each other, establishing a unique camaraderie.

…

After passing the venomous bee swarm and the swamp, everyone continued following Daoist Feng Xuan forward. Mu Yunjin walked to his side, pursed her lips, and said, “Master, didn’t you say you had been to Ghost Valley Cave several times? How come you didn’t know how to deal with the swamp, which was only the second obstacle?”

“Your master visited Ghost Valley Cave many years ago, and it was specifically to see Feng Lan. He showed me around, but with him present, these venomous creatures wouldn’t appear,” Daoist Feng Xuan explained.

“I see.” Mu Yunjin nodded in understanding.

Without realizing it, after crossing the swamp, they faced a dense forest. The path underfoot was muddy, and whether due to the excessive humidity here, Mu Yunjin felt a stickiness with every step she took.

“Chu Li, be careful, there are many trees here.” Mu Yunjin cautioned Chu Li, then remained extremely vigilant, checking the surroundings for any movement.

Hearing this, Chu Li lowered his gaze to look at Mu Yunjin, his eyes fixed on her cheek, then raised his eyes to look at the night sky, his brow gradually furrowing.

“This place is very strange. Even though it’s night, this prince can see everything here clearly.”