Xia Dong, Zhao Ting, and the others made their preparations. After assembling, they led the elite of their Thousand-Household Office toward the Sword Cultivator Secret Realm in Southern Yue Province to provide support.
They entered Southern Yue Province, deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains.
Along the route to the Sword Cultivator Secret Realm, miasma filled the air on all sides like ink too thick to dissolve. It made the towering ancient trees, already blotting out the sky and sun, resemble ghostly shadows waiting to devour people.
Xia Dong, Zhao Ting, Pei Hongling, and the Eagle-Wolf Guard reinforcements were trudging with great difficulty through this suffocatingly perilous land.
Restrained by the harsh environment and the omnipresent poisonous miasma, the group's marching speed had been forced to slow drastically.
The damp, stifling air mingled with the foul stench of humus, oppressing even the battle-hardened Eagle-Wolf Guard Ti Cavalry until they could scarcely breathe.
Zhao Ting was extremely cautious along the way. He kept a close watch on his men, forbidding them from drinking unfamiliar water, eating food of unknown origin, or leaving the formation. His divine sense had not relaxed within the ranks for a moment.
Pei Hongling stayed close beside Xia Dong, secretly circulating her spiritual power to ward off the miasma's corrosion while constantly observing their surroundings.
On the surface, Xia Dong displayed the blood vitality cultivation of a Mortal Transformation Realm martial artist. In secret, however, his divine sense—which far surpassed those of the same realm and had reached Foundation Establishment Early Stage—had already spread soundlessly like rippling water.
Just as the group stepped into an even darker region, Xia Dong's heart stirred.
Relying on the acute perception of his divine sense, he precisely caught a thread of unnaturally cold fluctuation mixed deep within the murky, churning miasma.
That