"There's no end to killing them like this. We have to find the monster's true body." Tantai Yue spoke softly as her hands rapidly formed seals. "Golden Light Spell—King Ming's Shield!"
"Vmmm—"
A golden light barrier unfolded around the four of them. The tentacles struck it, giving off sizzling sounds as they burned.
At those words,
Wei Qing raised his eyes, golden light flowing through his pupils!
This was an unexpected gain Wei Qing had obtained while cultivating.
By covering his eyes with mental power and matching it with the circulation route of Nanke's Dream, he had instantly gained an ability similar to night vision.
Within a hundred meters, the dense fog became as transparent as water in his eyes. Even the black shadows hidden within the fog had nowhere to hide, their forms laid bare before his gaze.
"Found you."
The moment his voice fell, a resounding clang of blades rang across the wilderness.
A blood-red lotus bloomed, and icy radiance flashed.
Nine streaks of blade light blossomed like lotus petals, carving perfect blood-colored arcs through the void.
"Whoosh—"
Wherever the blood-colored blade radiance passed, the tentacles, the black shadows, and even the dense fog itself were cleaved in two.
The black shadow hidden in the fog did not even have time to scream before its body, like thin snow beneath the blazing sun, sizzled and dissolved into wisps of green smoke.
Within ten zhang, the fog suddenly cleared.
Nine interwoven blood-colored blade marks remained on the ground, forming the pattern of a blooming lotus.
[Ding! Slain peak Seventh Rank demon, Mirage Demon] [Spirit +60, Strength +49, Constitution +44]
There was not the slightest hint of joy on Wei Qing's face.
The system's notification had confirmed his suspicion: this journey for the rare treasure was a trap laid by the demonkind.
The only question was, what was their ultimate goal?
At the same time,
the space before the four of them suddenly twisted. Then came the sound of metal striking metal.
The figures of Qin Shuang and the other sect disciples appeared before them.
"Ah—!"
A shriek rang out. A lone sect disciple was caught around the legs by a tentacle and dragged violently into the depths of the fog.
They heard only the crack of breaking bones before the scream abruptly stopped.
"Brother Wei, please lend us a hand."
Seeing the scene of Wei Qing and the other three suddenly appearing, Qin Shuang understood that they must have a way to restrain or even slay the black shadows.
The moment Qin Shuang shouted,
the other sect disciples also noticed the four of them.
Song Yuanming hurriedly called out, "Lord Wei, please help us!"
"Garrison Commander Tantai, please save us. Afterward, my Blazing Sun Sect will certainly offer you a generous reward."
There was a note of urgency in Liu Yulong's voice, but his gaze never turned toward Wei Qing.
In his eyes, this so-called newly appointed Garrison Commander of the Heaven Heavenly Realm Division had only survived until now under Tantai Yue's protection.
As for the claims that his strength was formidable and that he had frightened away the people of the Ghost Corpse Sect—
those were merely Wei Qing and the others gilding their own faces. Without Tantai Yue, everyone who had taken part in the battle at the City God Temple would have been wiped out by the Ghost Corpse Sect.
For that reason, after arriving in Qingcheng, the Blazing Sun Sect was one of only two sect forces that had not gone to pay their respects to Wei Qing.
The other was the Blood Robe Sect.
Wei Qing did not care about this.
Actually, even if Song Yuanming and the others had not spoken, he would still have taken action.
In his eyes, these demons were all experience points. If he wanted to grow stronger quickly,
he could not do without them.
"Sis Yue, I'll handle things from here."
"Mm."
Tantai Yue nodded and stepped forward, standing in front of Jun Wushang and the other person.
"Boom—"
The dense fog around them suddenly churned violently. Several black shadows darted through the mist, emitting ear-piercing shrieks.
Wei Qing slowly raised his right hand, and the Soul Reaper Blade slid from its sheath.
"Blood Moon—Slash!"
A blood-colored crescent-shaped blade aura shot through the air, instantly tearing through the dense fog and hurtling toward the black shadows.
Wherever the blade aura passed, a black shadow hidden in the fog did not even have time to scream before being cleaved in two and dissolving into black smoke.
"This..."
Liu Yulong's pupils contracted sharply as he stared at the scene before him in disbelief.
Those black shadows that even Qin Shuang had struggled to deal with were actually as fragile as paper beneath Wei Qing's blade!
[Ding! Slain high Seventh Rank demon, Mirage Demon] [Spirit +50, Strength +39, Constitution +36, Marrow Cleansing Fluid x1]
The instant the system's voice fell, an aura of breakthrough rippled from Wei Qing's body.
At that moment, his martial cultivation advanced to the high Sixth Rank.
"This is possible too..."
"A breakthrough in the middle of battle? Lord Wei's talent is far too astonishing."
"At sixteen, he's already at the high Seventh Rank. Even the person ranked first on the Heavenly Pride Rankings hadn't achieved such a feat at sixteen!"
The sect disciples present cried out in shock.
"Impossible!" Liu Yulong was shaken to his core. "He was clearly only at the Eighth Rank... How could he be at the high Seventh Rank?"
Wei Qing's strike was like a resounding slap across his face.
Sixteen years old, high Seventh Rank.
His cultivation was on par with Wei Qing's, but he was already twenty.
Seeing this, Tantai Yue thought to herself: If they knew that Wei Qing had also comprehended an esoteric meaning, I wonder what kind of expressions they would wear then.
Yet she did not know
that because of the Breath Concealing Pill, the cultivation realm Wei Qing displayed outwardly was one rank lower than his true realm.
If she knew Wei Qing's true cultivation realm,
what kind of expression would she have then?
Wei Qing did not care about any of this. His eyes held only experience points.
A flash of blade light passed by.
A tentacle lunging at Dongfang Rongrong was severed at the waist.
"Thank you, Lord Wei."
Dongfang Rongrong's face was slightly pale. She hurriedly clasped her fists and saluted Wei Qing.
Wei Qing gave a slight nod in reply. With a flash of his figure, he had already charged into the depths of the dense fog.
"Don't!"
"Qingzi!"
"Brother Wei!"
"Lord Wei, it's dangerous!"
Tantai Yue and the others tried to stop him, but it was already too late. Wei Qing's figure had vanished into the dense fog.
Jun Wushang had just been about to follow when Zhang Xue grabbed him. "Brother Qing isn't reckless. Since he dares to do this, he must have a way."
"But..."
"Let's wait and see. Perhaps..."
Before Zhang Xue could finish, everyone heard the sounds of a fight coming from within the dense fog.
A moment later,
Wei Qing's figure emerged from the fog. His entire body was pristine, without even a tear in his clothes.
At the same time,
everyone noticed that the terrifying tentacles and black shadows had not appeared again either.
"Is it over?"
Tantai Yue stepped forward and asked.
Wei Qing returned his blade to its sheath. "It's over."
Hearing this, the many sect disciples finally let out the breath they had been holding.
But what followed was fear.
After a rough count, of the more than one hundred people who had entered the Black Mist Wasteland,
fewer than eighty remained. One-third of them had died in an instant.
Thus, some disciples from second- and third-rate sects proposed retreating.
The rare treasure might be wonderful, but they had to be alive to claim it.
"Too late." Nangong Ruyan looked toward the direction from which they had entered. "Look behind you."
At her words, everyone turned around in unison, only to discover that the passage they had come through had vanished without a trace.
The dense fog behind them was slowly devouring the path they had taken.