Tragic State

After the house had been cleaned, Su Jie heard crows calling outside.

When he stepped out of the house, he saw a black crow circling in the sky, letting out strange, hoarse cries. The sound carried far and relentlessly tormented people's ears.

Su Jie pulled a black feather fan from his robes and raised it high, waving it vigorously.

Before long, the black crow in the sky landed on Su Jie's shoulder, its beak gaping wide.

After feeling around his person, Su Jie pulled out a Scouting Dragonfly and fed it to the crow.

He then removed a letter from its leg, picked up a pen, wrote down everything about the day's travels, pressed his fingerprint onto it, and tied it back in place.

Only then did he release the crow again, watching as it disappeared into the sky.

These crows were actually carrier pigeons, bred by Ghost Ridge Palace to transmit information.

A thousand-mile voice transmission through divine sense was far too lofty a technique for disciples to learn.

The messenger crows traveled daily between Ghost Ridge Palace's mountain gate and the various disciples' residences. The disciples had to report their daily movements and anything they encountered.

If there were any assignments for the disciples, orders would also be issued through the messenger crows.

Not long after the messenger crow was released, Gu Weinan returned as well, but the news he brought was bad.

"It didn't work?"

Seeing the trace of embarrassment on Gu Weinan's face, Su Jie knew that things had most likely failed.

"I tried reasoning with them every way I could, but they simply wouldn't believe me. And that Chen Koudang was even worse—"

Gu Weinan shook his head and did not continue. He had evidently endured no shortage of sarcastic jabs.

Sun Zhihai offered his own opinion as well. "Let's stop meddling in other people's business. Since they're unwilling, we only need to look after ourselves."

Su Jie consoled him. "Take it easy. Just treat what they said as farting, and don't take it to heart."

"I understand."

"That's good. We'll take turns standing watch tonight. I'll take the second half. Go get some proper rest first."

Late at night, during the chou hour!

The earth beneath the forest was completely shrouded in darkness.

On Niujiao Ridge, the cicadas that had clamored during the day had fallen silent, while dark clouds veiled the full moon.

An ancient tree stood quietly before the wooden house.

It was at least a thousand years old. Its roots coiled like horned dragons, its bark resembled cracked rock, and its scale-like knots were countless, making it look like a gaunt old man.

Whoosh!

A gust of night wind swept past, setting the branches swaying.

The candlelight shining from the wooden house cast mottled shadows among the dead branches and fallen leaves, making the scene appear even more terrifying, as though a clawing, fanged demon were lurking there.

At that moment, Su Jie was seated on the ancient tree's treetop, sharing his vision with several moths and constantly observing every disturbance within a hundred meters.

"Brother Su, I've come to take over."

Inside the wooden house, Gu Weinan emerged with a yawn and waved to Su Jie on the treetop.

"Brother Gu, be careful. If anything happens, call for the others immediately."

"Don't worry. I may be old, but I still have enough vigilance for this. If—"

Before Gu Weinan could finish speaking, Su Jie suddenly called out, "Wait. What was that sound? Did you hear something?"

"What?"

Gu Weinan had not yet reacted when Su Jie's gaze pierced through the darkness and looked outward.

In the silent night, apart from a few whimpers from unknown birds, there was no other movement, as if the sound just now had been an auditory hallucination.

"Brother Su, this is your first night patrol. You may simply be too tense."

Thinking he had made a fuss over nothing, Gu Weinan shook his head and was about to continue when his voice abruptly stopped. He exchanged a glance with Su Jie, and together they heard a faint sound drifting over.

Squeak, squeak!

The fine, continuous cries kept reaching their ears, sounding somewhat like a mouse.

Immediately afterward, Su Jie and Gu Weinan saw a blood-drenched bat tumble from the sky, staggering as it fell like a bird with broken wings.

"That's Chen Yun's natal Gu worm—the Nether Sound Bat."

Su Jie's expression shifted slightly as he recognized the bat.

This kind of bat was an extremely rare type of Poisonous Insect, capable of producing infrasonic waves that humans could hardly detect.

It could not only shake objects apart and blast them to pieces, but, when used against living creatures, it could also make their internal organs resonate, causing their blood vessels to rupture and killing them. It was an extremely vicious and sinister Poisonous Insect.

Now, this Gu worm was falling from the sky, having suffered some kind of injury, with blood seeping from its mouth and nose.

Su Jie took two steps forward, then leaped high and caught the Nether Sound Bat.

The bat that landed in his hands was twice the size of his palm, and it now let out waves of mournful cries.

"Something must have happened on Chen Yun's end. It could be a Strange Ghost. Go wake Brother Sun."

Su Jie took a deep breath. The Nether Sound Bat appearing here was itself a signal from Chen Yun, reporting trouble and begging for help.

Gu Weinan hurriedly called for someone, and Sun Zhihai was soon roused from his sleep.

Gu Weinan's pair of old, aching legs suddenly moved with startling speed. He did not dare delay.

When Sun Zhihai heard that a Strange Ghost might be roaming about, his entire body jolted despite his drowsiness, and all trace of sleep vanished instantly.

"We...we're really going over there? What if it really is a Strange Ghost..."

At the critical moment, Sun Zhihai hesitated, a trace of fear surfacing on his face.

Su Jie's expression was solemn. "Of course we can't rush in blindly. We'll observe from the outskirts first. If we really run into a formidable opponent, then no one can blame us for standing by while someone dies."

Sun Zhihai breathed a sigh of relief. This offered considerably more security. Demonic cultivators did not possess the temperament to sacrifice themselves for others.

Gu Weinan said nothing more. From their time together, he had already discovered that Su Jie was a cautious man, and he believed Su Jie must have some confidence in taking this approach.

The three of them carried no torches or lanterns, afraid of attracting an unknown enemy, and hurried toward Chen Yun and the others' residence through the dim surroundings.

When they were still some distance away, Su Jie's nostrils twitched. He faintly caught the scent of blood drifting through the air, and the outline of Chen Yun and the others' wooden house was already visible in the distance.

"The battle there seems to have ended."

Su Jie's gaze was complicated after secretly observing with the moths. He stood, lit the torch he carried, and walked toward the wooden house.

When they were roughly a hundred meters from the wooden house, a gruesome battlefield appeared before the three of them.

The ground was covered in a layer of Poisonous Insect corpses, with countless venomous snakes and ants crushed into mush beneath their feet.

An ant queen the size of a leather ball was missing half its body.

Another enormous grasshopper the size of a tabletop had been cut in half, its green insect blood splattered everywhere.

These were the natal Gu worms of Chen Koudang and Xu Chaoxian, respectively.

With even their natal Gu worms meeting such a fate, their owners' conditions went without saying.

The face Chen Koudang had worn so arrogantly during the day had been torn apart and hung from a tree branch, while his body had been reduced to scattered pieces.

Xu Chaoxian had been left with only a head; his body had vanished without a trace.

At the edge of the battlefield, a blood-soaked 'corpse' leaned against the base of a large tree.

If not for the chest still rising and falling faintly, almost no one would have believed that the person was alive.

This was Chen Yun, the only survivor still alive at the scene.

Apart from the three who had just arrived, someone else had unexpectedly reached the battlefield first: Meng Dongge, from the mountain on the other side of Niujiao Ridge.

He held a torch and seemed just as surprised that Su Jie and the other two had arrived so quickly.