City in the Mountain Forest (Please Follow and Bookmark)

The rain had stopped.

The mountain road leading to the Monster Gathering Place was long. Hidden sentries had been set up at intervals along the way, yet the road was not as filthy or disorderly as imagined. Even after being washed by the downpour, it did not feel muddy at all. This alone surpassed most small county towns in Xia Kingdom.

The rest areas set up along the road showed that, under Normal Times, many Monsters must have traveled this path. Yet now, it was incomparably quiet.

That eerie silence was broken by the Breaking Void Sound of an arrow. Someone had triggered a trap in the Mountain Forest on either side of the road.

The clanging of Metal Collision rang out in succession. More than a dozen Qi practitioners worked together—some provided light on both sides, some cleared the hidden sentries, and some kept watch over their surroundings. They swept through more than ten hidden sentries without hindrance.

Behind the Qi practitioners came a Mountain Search Team of over a hundred people. The torches in their hands formed a long, narrow fire dragon along the mountain road.

The Qi practitioners scouting ahead perhaps had not expected things to go so smoothly, and their pace unconsciously quickened. Whether the Monsters they encountered fled or intended to ambush them, once discovered, none had any chance of surviving.

A Quarter Hour later...

By the faint moonlight, the Qi practitioners ahead spotted a city.

They immediately lit their spiritual energy, forming a simple Illumination Technique in midair. Then they truly saw a city—a small city built of massive stones and Wooden Stakes. The houses within varied in height, the roads were neat, and there was even a water channel leading down from the mountaintop. To the north seemed to be a huge quarry, while patches of Vegetable Patches could vaguely be seen to the west.

Yet the small city was quiet at this moment. The only sounds came from the central square, where more than a dozen Lesser Demons danced around a bonfire. But roasting above that fire was a human thigh!

"You beasts!"

A Qi practitioner was beside himself with fury. His long spear whirled in his hand as he sprang onto the roof of a towering Stone House, ready to charge into the central square and slaughter them.

"They were beasts to begin with..." someone echoed. Then more than a dozen Qi practitioners charged forward in seamless coordination.

"You beasts!"

A wolf Yao on the other side roared in anger, but the words he spoke were strange... They too regarded humans as beasts.

The battle began swiftly, and ended just as swiftly...

All the Monsters were slain in the center of the square. Their blood stained the clean plaza red. When the fighting stopped, the Qi practitioners heard strange sounds coming from the City Depths.

At that moment, the Mountain Search Troop also entered the city. Every one of them was utterly shocked, and some could not resist rushing into nearby houses...

City Depths.

A towering flight of stairs had been built there, leading straight into the Mountain Body behind it. The Qi practitioners exchanged glances, sent out a green signal, then covered one another as they rushed up the stairs.

At the top was a vast platform. A pavilion built against the Mountain Body was the most eye-catching sight. Beneath the flickering firelight, several rat Yaos and the bundles they carried stood out clearly.

When the rat Yaos saw the Qi practitioners climb the stairs, they decisively dropped their packs and fled toward the Mountain Body behind them. The moment they neared it, they cast a spell and burrowed into the earth.

Two Qi practitioners had just wanted to pursue them when their targets vanished in the blink of an eye. Others stepped forward and carefully opened the bundles, only to see heaps of Silver Ingots rolling out, some mixed with one or two Gold Ingots.

"Wow, this haul isn't small!"

"You two, guard the Staircase Entrance. Everyone else, form pairs and continue searching for traces of the Monsters... You, go notify Martial Uncle Guangxuan!"

The leading Qi practitioner tore his gaze away from the Silver Ingots and quickly issued his orders.

When Wang Ping and the others entered the Deep Mountain City, they were even more shocked than the Militia, because they had seen the beginnings of a civilization!

"Good thing we discovered it early. Otherwise, a Great Demon would sooner or later emerge from a place like this, and then every part of Nan Fang would suffer!" Feng Miao cast a provocative glance at the solemn-faced Guangxuan beside her, as if telling him that their earlier argument now had its answer.

Wang Ping could not help thinking of Hushan Kingdom. Over there, Monsters and humans lived well together. The civilization they had built was not dazzling, perhaps, but it was still better than that of most regions in Xia Kingdom.

"The aura here is very stable. The only malice comes from the hatred of those dead Monsters over there!"

Yulian's voice rang out within Wang Ping's Spirit Sea. At the same time, she coiled around Wang Ping's Left Arm and gazed into this city built by Demons.

At that moment, a Qi practitioner ran over from the distance and reported, "We found something up above!"

Inside the Staircase Pavilion.

Upon entering, the first thing they saw was a huge Daoist training ground. It looked no different from the training grounds of other Great Sects. Presumably, people had often come here in the past to explain the Dao and answer the Monsters' doubts.

"I can sense a very familiar Spiritual Power Fluctuation..." Feng Miao said gravely as she stood before the preaching platform.

"What do you mean?"

"Fire Spirit's aura!"

"Someone from the Mystic Sect? Or perhaps your True Sun Sect?" Guangxuan asked. If someone from the Mystic Sect had been involved in what happened here, the aftermath would be no ordinary trouble.

"Neither. It is a False God created by First Day!"

The moment Feng Miao finished speaking, someone shouted from the passageway on the left side of the training ground, "Martial Uncle, quick, save me!"

Everyone turned to look and saw a Qi practitioner whose entire body crackled with sparks, desperately running toward Wang Ping and the others. Feng Miao's expression changed as she roared, "Stop him! He's been afflicted with Fiery Burst!"

Most of the Qi practitioners present, Wang Ping included, instinctively took a step back at those words. Fiery Burst was the signature spell of the First Day cult. Those afflicted would ignite the Qi Sea within their bodies and explode. The force of the explosion was tied to the size of one's Qi Sea.

Wang Ping had read about First Day in the group Daoist Yucheng had gathered. It was an alliance formed by Madmen pursuing extreme fairness and justice. It sounded righteous enough, but what they did was utterly insane. They were most famous for using the Fiery Burst Technique to play at self-destruction amid crowds.

While everyone else instinctively retreated, Guangxuan instead stepped forward. At the same time, his Left Hand formed the hand seal for the Sword Control Art...

Clang

The Precious Sword on his back flew from its sheath on its own. A streak of cold light flashed, and the flying sword directly shredded the dantian Qi Sea of the charging Qi practitioner.

"Aah!"

With a scream, the Qi practitioner collapsed to the ground, his entire body covered in Magma-like Flame.

At the same time, two fox Yaos covered in flames rushed out from the passageway the Qi practitioner had emerged from. Standing at the doorway, they wasted no words and immediately prepared to form magic seals.

But Guangxuan was faster. A phantom figure sprang from his body as he untied the gourd from his waist and flung out a sheet of water. As the water spread, it all turned into icy spikes gleaming with cold light.

The next moment, the ice spikes shot the two fox Yaos into hedgehogs and extinguished the flames covering their bodies.

"That was a divine soul, right?"

Wang Ping looked at the phantom above Guangxuan's body, its hands forming magic seals, and spoke softly.

"Yes. I never expected Fellow Daoist Guangxuan to hide his strength so deeply. I thought he was merely..."

Feng Miao did not finish what she had been about to say. Then, changing the subject, she said, "Against First Day's Madmen, we must end things quickly. If we use spiritual energy to protect our bodies, the Fiery Burst Technique loses its effect!"

With that, she gritted her teeth and rushed into the passageway on the left!

Xia Yao followed close behind. Wang Ping instinctively took out two Copper Coins and flipped them. After exchanging a glance with Guangxuan, he too rushed into the passageway...

"Those three people just now had no malice either. On the contrary, they felt very warm..."

Yulian shrank to a foot in length and wrapped around Wang Ping's wrist like a Silver Bracelet. As Wang Ping passed the corpses of the two slain fox Yaos, she reminded him softly.

Wang Ping steadied his mind and ignored Yulian's voice.

After passing through a corridor several meters long, they first saw a Treasure Vault filled with Silver Ingots. Deep within the vault was a Secret Passage leading to a long, narrow corridor. The corridor was quiet and dark. Around its middle lay the corpse of a Sanhe Temple Qi practitioner, presumably killed when he had entered to investigate earlier.

Feng Miao led the way. She ignited a flame, illuminating the corridor as bright as day.

More than ten breaths later, the four of them suddenly found their view opening up. The light came from flames, and it was glaringly bright. They had entered an even larger Grand Palace!

"It looks like some Ancient Ruin?"

Feng Miao murmured. Her gaze was drawn to the dense forest of Stone Pillars inside the palace. A person was bound to every Stone Pillar, and a strange magic formation was carved into each one, connecting them to the altar at the very front of the palace. The altar was drawing the Essence, Qi, and Spirit from every person on the Stone Pillars!

Yulian spoke again at that moment. "This place is warm too, but I can sense malice..."