At the mention of Liu Yanran, everyone froze and turned to look at her. She was just as bewildered as they were.
Liu Yanran was utterly confused too.
She couldn't remember ever catching the eye of any Venerable senior.
She'd never even met a Foundation Establishment Venerable in her life.
When she'd heard they were going to meet a Venerable, her heart had pounded with nerves.
Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, Zhang Feng pointed at Liu Yanran and said frankly, "I don't know the specifics either. The Venerable only said this young lady carried a familiar aura. That's why he asked me to stay and help."
A familiar scent?
The Beast Taming Mountain disciples had no idea what he meant.
At his words, though, Liu Yanran's heart gave a jolt. She hurriedly took out a small mirror.
It was a low-grade spiritual artifact.
It had been given to her by Meng Tangtang, a junior sister from Jingyun Sect, as a token.
Lin Cheng had casually given the little trinket to his disciple once, and she had worn it for years. His aura had rubbed off on it.
It was something she always kept close to her.
"Could this be what Junior Sister Meng was planning?" Liu Yanran's body trembled as a bold thought surfaced in her mind.
Could it be that the senior expert Junior Sister Meng had sent her to seek help from was that mysterious Venerable?
Had he discovered that one of his juniors was trapped and come here in person?
At the thought, Liu Yanran's eyes widened. She asked, stammering, "May I ask if Senior is from Jingyun Sect?"
Her question startled the others too.
Their ultimate goal had been to reach Jingyun Sect and ask for help.
Unfortunately, they'd nearly been wiped out along the way.
They hadn't expected the senior who'd come to their aid to be from Jingyun Sect.
At the thought, everyone's pupils abruptly contracted.
This senior seemed to have come in the company of a mysterious Foundation Establishment Venerable.
Then what kind of person was that Venerable?
They glanced at one another, all trembling from head to toe.
An unbelievable thought surged wildly through their minds, impossible to suppress.
"Could Jingyun Sect have a Foundation Establishment Venerable guarding it?!"
"They've hidden this far too well!"
Zhang Feng naturally had no way of knowing what the Beast Taming Mountain disciples were thinking.
Liu Yanran's question brought a trace of surprise to his eyes. He looked as if he hadn't expected her to guess his identity, then simply nodded and admitted it without reservation.
"Indeed. I am Zhang Feng, Logistics Elder of Jingyun Sect."
At his words, everyone thought, just as we expected!
That mysterious Foundation Establishment Venerable really was Jingyun Sect's hidden patriarch!
By that reckoning, Liu Yanran realized that Junior Sister Meng's identity must be extraordinary too.
For an existence of this stature to rush here in such a hurry—
Even if she wasn't a direct descendant, she had to be a disciple the Venerable valued greatly.
It seemed she'd heard those Yinyang Sect bastards mention that Meng Tangtang had an ice-and-fire constitution, an exceptionally rare talent.
That was why they'd taken her prisoner.
Yinyang Sect's cultivation methods were rather sinister: they gathered yin to replenish yang and gathered yang to replenish yin.
Their methods were vile.
Those bastards seemed extremely interested in Meng Tangtang.
"No wonder they were waiting for the Yinyang Sect Master to come out of seclusion before deciding what to do with Meng Tangtang and the others. It must be because of this. They even joined forces with foreign races to wipe out Beast Taming Mountain and go to war with Jingyun Sect!" Liu Yanran realized just how serious things were.
"Come on. The Venerable should be waiting for us at Beast Taming Mountain."
Zhang Feng turned and led the way.
The Beast Taming Mountain disciples followed quickly, despite the many questions in their hearts.
Whatever the case, Beast Taming Mountain was in trouble. They couldn't go wrong by clinging to Jingyun Sect.
Some even eagerly offered to guide him.
They stopped calling him Senior; it felt too distant and wouldn't help them get closer to him.
"Elder Zhang Feng, it'd be better to take the right-hand path to Beast Taming Mountain. It's a bit of a detour, but the left-hand path is much more dangerous..."
Zhang Feng only waved a hand. "That's old news. Listen to me and take the left. We'll get there much faster."
"But, Senior..." The man tried to continue.
"Enough buts. The Venerable is waiting, and time is short. I wouldn't joke about something like this." Zhang Feng strode off as soon as he finished speaking.
The others looked at one another in confusion.
Liu Yanran stepped forward and quickly caught up with Zhang Feng. Her voice carried back to them.
"Stop fussing. With Senior here, we'll be fine!"
"Hurry up!"
Since their senior sister had spoken, the others had nothing more to say. Still, they hesitated. "This route passes through the territories of several innate demonic beasts. It's much shorter, but it's more dangerous too."
"It's fine. As long as we're careful and don't make a big disturbance, those innate demonic beasts probably won't bother with us."
Liu Yanran waved a hand like Zhang Feng had.
The group gritted their teeth and continued onward, moving cautiously.
But it wasn't long before everyone saw what lay ahead. They froze, eyes nearly popping out of their heads, and began to question reality.
"This... This place?"
"Did we take a wrong turn? No, wait—damn!"
They were so stunned they couldn't form a complete sentence.
Stretching before them was a broad avenue hundreds of meters wide, running deep into the forest until it vanished from sight.
The earth on either side had been torn open, exposing its jagged underlayers.
Towering trees had been uprooted and snapped in neat rows, all falling in the same direction. It looked as if a gale had swept through and plowed the land clean, leaving nothing but devastation behind.
Look closely, and every few steps along the road, there were heaps of blood and flesh—the remains of some demonic beasts.
"Gulp!"
Someone swallowed first. A moment later, swallowing sounds rose one after another, echoing back and forth through the crowd.
Staring at the avenue, as if some terrifying force had plowed it into existence, they could hardly put their shock into words.
They felt as though they were dreaming.
But even in a dream, they'd never seen anything so terrifying.
"Why are you all just standing there?"
Zhang Feng turned around when he noticed everyone had stopped. He then realized what they were looking at and explained, "Oh, the road. I looked just like you when I first saw it! Haha, you guessed right. My Venerable carved this hundred-meter-wide avenue out all by himself."
"Don't be fooled by how short this stretch looks. In reality, it must run for hundreds of li!"
"Hundreds of li?!"
"Wouldn't that cut straight through the entire Mist Forest? That's a forbidden region of the Southern Region!"
The group was struck speechless once more. Zhang Feng's words had sent their hearts nearly bursting with shock.
"The Mist Forest?"
Zhang Feng laughed and shook his head. "You guessed right. I watched with my own eyes as the Venerable began at the edge of the Mist Forest and forced a bloody path through it with his immense power. The flesh and blood of countless demonic beasts below the innate level paved the way, and more than ten innate Great Demons died along the route."
"Even Foundation Establishment Great Demons didn't dare block my Venerable. They sensed his aura from afar and fled at once."
"If my Venerable hadn't had important business to attend to, with no time to deal with them, some Foundation Establishment Great Demons would have bled to death on the spot. His strength... is far beyond anything we can imagine."
By the time he finished speaking, the entire place had fallen silent.
Everyone drew in a sharp breath. Then someone suddenly pointed at a patch of flesh glinting faintly with gold, trembling as he spoke.
"Th-that... looks a bit like it came from the innate bear demon in the forest, doesn't it?"
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