Dense reddish-brown fog shrouded heaven and earth like a curtain wall, obstructing sight and perception.
Tap, tap, tap...
Within the fog, faint yet hurried footsteps rang out in succession as two ragged, scar-covered rogue cultivators fled out in disarray.
The fog churned. From its depths, impossible to peer into, waves of stifled, eerie roars drifted in and out of hearing, rapidly closing in on the fleeing cultivators.
"Junior Sister, go first! I'll hold them off!"
Having fled this far, a man shouted low. He abruptly halted and charged toward the fog, where countless terrors seemed to lurk.
"Senior Brother!"
"Go!"
"Go, now!"
The man did not pause. Only his roars could be faintly heard from within the fog.
This surging fog seemed to do more than merely block perception; even sound was weakened within it.
Bang! In just a few breaths, a thunderous blast erupted from the fog. Blood spattered, and mangled limbs and chunks of flesh shot out from within.
"Senior Brother!"
The woman nearly collapsed, crying out through choked sobs.
At that moment, a monstrous demon with the savage form of a giant crocodile slowly emerged from the fog.
The demon's claws were still stained with blood. Its scarlet eyes held not the slightest trace of clarity. By the current standards of the Cultivation World, such mindless demons, regardless of their race, were all classified as lower demons.
Those possessed of intelligence were upper demons, also known as Royal Demons.
Yet the terrifying aura of this demon, which was on the verge of the Fourth Order, proved just how dreadful this lower demon was.
By the customs of the Demon Race, all lower demons were transformed by Royal Demons.
However, even Royal Demons could only transform and corrupt beings of the same realm or lower than themselves.
Even