Maze Forest

Wen Maimai still harbored a sliver of hope. Perhaps, besides medicine or alchemy, they had also learned offensive spells?

Luo River Sect disciple A: "I only study medicine."

Luo River Sect disciples B, C, and D: "So do we."

The two women from the Pill Sect: "Good luck, Fellow Daoist Wen, Fellow Daoist Luo! When the fighting starts, we can provide an unlimited supply of pills."

Wen Maimai replied listlessly, "Gee, thanks."

The earth began to tremble. The formation beneath their feet flickered several times, and then the cultivators vanished one after another.

When Ning Xiang opened her eyes again, she surveyed her surroundings.

Great. She had been teleported onto a towering tree.

Half a meter away was an enormous nest. A row of fluffy heads poked out of it, their round eyes curiously studying Ning Xiang, the uninvited guest.

Weren't these much cuter than the two ugly birds the system had given me?

Where were the other members of our group? Weren't they supposed to appear nearby?

Then a blue-green figure dropped down.

Ning Xiang silently shuffled aside.

Su Lang landed safely beside Ning Xiang.

"Senior Brother," Ning Xiang said after examining the surrounding terrain, "let's go down and wait for them. The mother bird might be back any moment."

Su Lang nodded.

Just as Ning Xiang prepared to swing herself down from the tree, a piercing cry cut through the air. Wind roared in her ears. She looked up to see an enormous bird with golden wings and a kun-like head flying toward them. Its outstretched wings were like small hills, blotting out the sun overhead.

She turned to look at the row of plump little chirpers in the nest, each about the size of a shuttlecock. How exactly had such a huge creature given birth to these tiny fluffballs?

The thought that these adorable little chirpers would grow into something like that filled Ning Xiang with regret.

The giant bird had already reached them, its sharp talons slashing toward Ning Xiang's eyes. She summoned an umbrella just in time and held it before her. Spiritual energy rippled across its canopy, sending the giant bird bouncing several meters away.

Ning Xiang and Su Lang used the Wind-Riding Art to fly down from the tree. The giant bird plunged after them, wrapped in a fierce gale that made even the towering trees around them shake violently.

Ning Xiang tossed the umbrella into the air and sent a stream of spiritual power into it. Stars surged across its canopy, brilliant as a sky full of galaxies, enveloping them both.

The giant bird repeatedly attacked the canopy with its sharp talons and beak, but to no avail.

Enraged, it soared upward and beat its wings. Countless black feather arrows blotted out the clouds and sun, shooting down like meteors, only to be blocked by the Starcloud Umbrella.

"This is a second-rank Golden-Winged Cloud Eagle," Su Lang said. "It hasn't awakened its intelligence yet."

A second-rank Demon Beast was only equivalent to a cultivator at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. For Ning Xiang and Su Lang, dealing with it was as easy as chopping vegetables. Demon Beasts only awakened their intelligence at the third rank, at which point they could speak human language.

Realizing it was no match for the female cultivator before it, the Golden-Winged Cloud Eagle's sense of danger intensified. It flew back to its nest and watched the two human cultivators on the ground with a predatory glare.

Ning Xiang had no intention of attacking it, so as long as the Golden-Winged Cloud Eagle stayed put, she would too.

Thud-

Several impacts followed in quick succession as the female cultivators landed one after another. One even landed face-first.

Ning Xiang's heart jolted. That was hardly a dignified way to land.

Good thing I didn't land like that just now. I'd have made such a fool of myself in front of Senior Brother!

Su Lang thought the same.

She counted them. All nine were there. Excellent-the little squad of green leaves framing red blossoms was assembled. Time to move out.

"Senior Brother Su!" A female cultivator surnamed Zhou, dressed in the Luo River Sect's uniform, was clearly not on the same wavelength as Ning Xiang. All she wanted was to flirt.

Her little face was flushed. "It's been three years, and your cultivation has improved so much, Senior Brother Su. The movement technique you used against that Demon Beast just now was truly graceful and unrestrained. Treading through the void as though walking on air—I couldn't help but admire you."

Ning Xiang seethed inside.

Are you blind? Did Senior Brother even lift a finger? If you're going to praise anyone, it should be me!

Of course, Ning Xiang showed none of this on her face.

She even smiled magnanimously.

She even wanted to record the scene with a Recording Pearl and show Jiang Miaomiao once they returned to the Profound Heaven Sect.

"You were mistaken, Fellow Daoist," Su Lang said gently. "It was my junior sister who fought the Golden-Winged Cloud Eagle just now. I did nothing."

Though his voice was gentle, it carried a distant coldness that kept others a thousand miles away.

Without so much as glancing at Ning Xiang, the woman surnamed Zhou said softly, "If even your junior sister's techniques are so exquisite, Senior Brother Su, you must be all the more formidable."

Wen Maimai raised her hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't we be looking for Demon Beasts to kill now?"

"Fellow Daoist, it's very rude to interrupt someone," the woman surnamed Zhou said with a displeased frown.

Wen Maimai fell silent for a moment, then adopted an exceedingly courteous tone. "May I ask whether we can go look for Demon Beasts to kill now?"

Zhou Ruoxue still wanted to deepen her connection with Su Lang and cast him a tender, affectionate look. He clearly wanted nothing to do with her and never once looked her way.

Wen Maimai turned to Ning Xiang. "Senior Sister, where are we?"

"We're in the Maze Forest, in the southeastern corner of Thousand Calamities Valley. When I came to Thousand Calamities Valley to train ten years ago, I visited the Maze Forest too. Miasma hangs thick among the trees, and the terrain is complex, but there are plenty of first- and second-rank Demon Beasts. Be careful."

Ning Xiang had barely finished speaking when a yellow-robed female cultivator from the Pill Sect said, "Look! There's a second-rank Demon Beast over there. Let's kill it and cut out its Demon Core!"

"That's a mother bird still raising her chicks," Ning Xiang said.

"So what?" the yellow-robed woman replied. "We'll just take its Demon Core without killing it. Doesn't that solve the problem?" She swept her gaze over the group. "There are so many of us. Surely we can handle one second-rank Demon Beast?"

"Without its Demon Core, it won't be able to fight other Demon Beasts. Its chicks will all die." The speaker was Feng Xiaohan, a cultivator from the Ten Thousand Swords Sect. She was slender and unusually pale, with delicate, dignified features, but her bearing was so cold that others dared not approach.

Ning Xiang recognized her. In the original novel, Feng Xiaohan would become Jiang Miaomiao's friend. She hadn't expected to meet her here.

This Miss Feng, however, did not meet a good end. While she and Jiang Miaomiao were adventuring at sea, Jiang Miaomiao was swept into an underwater whirlpool. Feng Xiaohan caught her in time, only to be sucked into the whirlpool herself, leaving not even her bones behind.

The yellow-robed woman scoffed. "I never knew disciples of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect had such compassion for the weak."

Ning Xiang watched the spectacle from the sidelines.

Sure enough, put too many women together, and it turns into an Asura battlefield.

She glanced at Su Lang. He was a man of few words to begin with, and now, surrounded entirely by women, he simply said nothing at all.

Tsk, I wonder what Senior Brother is thinking right now. Does he find them noisy? Haha, probably not. With so many beauties around him, if I were a man, I'd be so happy I'd soar into the heavens.

Hm? Why is Senior Brother looking at me?

Puzzled, Ning Xiang addressed the group. "Golden-Winged Cloud Eagles live in flocks. If we don't leave now and disturb the others, you might not be able to leave even if you want to."

Everyone looked up and around. Sure enough, they spotted countless nests in the enormous trees overhead.

The yellow-robed woman felt a flicker of belated fear, but remained stubborn. "So what? They're just a few feathered brutes."

Ning Xiang felt something was wrong. Birds were among the Demon Beasts that found cultivation more difficult, yet this Golden-Winged Cloud Eagle looked very young and had already reached the second rank. Why did she have a feeling this trip to Thousand Calamities Valley would be anything but smooth?