After the battle, the ground was littered with wreckage.
The cultivators' joy lasted only a moment.
Although they had driven back the Three-Eyed Stone Ape once more, this victory could not conceal the grievous casualties suffered by the mountain-crossing party.
Everyone soon fell silent.
More than a hundred Purple Mansion cultivators, along with an even greater number of high-level Qi Refining cultivators, led by ten experienced ferrymen of profound cultivation. When they had first entered the Jade Dragon Mountain Range, quite a few cultivators had been brimming with confidence.
With such a powerful party, and with the Jade Dragon Oath in place, what was there to fear from this natural barrier?
The journey of the first few days had indeed gone as smoothly as they had expected.
Ordinary Demonic Beasts did not even dare provoke them.
Yet all their confidence had been utterly shattered today.
A single strike from that unknown Great Demon had cost the mountain-crossing party thirty-nine dead and over a hundred injured!
More than half had become casualties!
Among the dead were three ferrymen at the Purple Mansion level, while another three had suffered injuries of varying severity.
No matter how many Three-Eyed Stone Apes they killed, it could never make up for such losses!
The party's morale had sunk to rock bottom.
Some injured cultivators stared hatefully at the ferrymen leading them, making the atmosphere tense once again.
"I'm very sorry. We didn't want an accident like this either."
The lead ferryman was surnamed Xu, a high-level Purple Mansion cultivator. Expressionless, he said, "As for the rest of the journey, you will decide whether to continue onward or return by the original route."
In truth, the cultivator surnamed Xu was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.
His heart was bleeding as well.
He had led