Breaking the Cocoon

Upon hearing this, the cultivator's expression turned grim. "A personal disciple at the sixth level, cultivating a Spirit Communion technique and skilled in the Spirit-Wielding Art-how could something happen to him in this treasure land? Who else but your families could have done this!"

Hearing this, the remaining four Condensed Origin cultivators also shifted uncomfortably, their expressions subtle.

This was indeed unusual. Logically speaking, a Qi Gathering sixth-level cultivator with Spirit-Wielding Arts could walk unopposed through the treasure land. There were truly few things that could kill such a person.

"So what? Dead is dead. If you want to blame someone, blame his inferior skill."

At this point, the Condensed Origin cultivator from the Feng Family spoke up.

"You!"

The Lone Moon Mountain guardian cultivator was about to flare up, but then noticed that the other's cultivation level was actually one level higher than his own, so he suppressed his anger.

The Feng Family cultivator sneered coldly and resumed his meditation with closed eyes.

The situation of the Feng Family was different from that of the Su Family and the He Family.

The Su Family was an externally stationed clan, meaning their main family was not within Zhuhu territory. Their main lineage remained outside the Zhuhu Wangchao, having only placed one or several branches within the borders.

The He Family was rather special. They were originally a great clan within the Eastern Domain, but later encountered a sudden upheaval, abandoning their homeland to take refuge in the Canglan Continent.

In the end, they formed an alliance with the Zhuhu Kingdom before it had even established itself as a Wangchao.

They contributed greatly during the process of Zhuhu establishing itself as a Wangchao, making them founding contributors who held the closest relationship to the royal court.

As for the Feng Family, they were a genuine native clan of Zhuhu.

Their ancestor had attained the Spirit Communion realm right here within the Zhuhu Wangchao, receiving considerable assistance from the dynasty in the process. Naturally, their stance leaned heavily toward the royal court.

Cultivators at the Condensed Origin level were all well aware of the Wangchao's strategic arrangements.

Now seeing Lone Moon Mountain suffer such a silent loss, they roughly guessed that perhaps some chess piece arranged by the Wangchao had taken effect.

"Life and death are impermanent, and each has their own fated chance."

Another Condensed Origin cultivator stepped in to mediate. "How about this-when the juniors come out, we will privately inquire. If there are any clues, we will inform you, Fellow Daoist. What do you think?"

With things having come this far, the Lone Moon Mountain cultivator could not press further. He gave a formal bow to everyone and said no more.

Then he channeled a strand of True Essence and transmitted this message through his thoughts.

Since things had come to this, he could only wait to see what the Sect would do next.

Black Snake Hidden Cache, Third Layer, Black Snake Habitat.

Rip-

After a full two days of relentless struggling and combat, Yang Linghu finally tore the shedding Black Snake into two pieces.

This battle between man and beast had completely dyed the cold pool beneath their feet a deep crimson.

Yang Linghu exhaled a ragged breath, stepped forward, plucked the bright red scale from the Black Snake's lower abdomen, and placed it into his Storage Bag.

This journey had truly not been easy.

In order to reach the depths, his battles with these Black Snakes had been virtually nonstop.

It was only thanks to his innate physical talent that he could endure; any other cultivator would have long since died from exhaustion.

After obtaining the blood scale, Yang Linghu found a clean part of the cold pool to wash the bloodstains from his body.

The Black Snake that had originally occupied this territory, sensing the bloody, murderous aura on Yang Linghu from afar, simply abandoned its lair and fled.

"Today is the tenth day."

Yang Linghu sat in the cold pool, silently counting the days.

In these ten days, not a single cultivator had come down. The cave at the entrance of the Poison Valley was most likely where the inheritance of this place was located.

He figured that the cultivators outside were probably fighting fiercely over this fated chance.

As for missing out on the inheritance, Yang Linghu did not feel regret.

He understood the principle: "An ordinary man is innocent, but treasuring jade makes him guilty."

Three days after the secret realm opened, the entrance and exit had already closed, and they would not reopen until the eighteenth day.

Not to mention whether one could survive until leaving the Hidden Cache after obtaining the inheritance.

Even if one left the Hidden Cache, whether one could return safely with the inheritance was another matter entirely.

Unless one had a powerful guardian, or had quietly pocketed the inheritance from the very beginning, the long journey ahead was fraught with countless hidden dangers.

After washing in the cold pool for a while, cleansing the bloodstains and the heat from his body, Yang Linghu returned the way he came.

Zhao Qi and Liang Yi had been guarding the entrance to the first Black Snake habitat area all these days, not daring to wander.

When they saw Yang Linghu return, the two finally felt their hanging hearts settle.

"Senior Brother, take these healing pills."

Seeing the wounds on Yang Linghu's body that had only just begun to heal, Zhao Qi quickly took out the pills from his Storage Bag.

"Thank you, Junior Brother."

Yang Linghu did not stand on ceremony. He grabbed them, tossed them into his mouth, and sat down on the spot to regulate his breathing.

Half a day later, most of the wounds on his body had scabbed over, and his movements were basically unimpeded.

"Young Master, it's very strange. We've been guarding here all these days, but we haven't seen a single person come down," Liang Yi said in a low voice.

Yang Linghu nodded. "It must be because of that cave. We'll know what happened once we go up."

The three began to head back upward.

After passing through the miasma region and entering the Poison Valley, Yang Linghu caught a faint smell of blood.

"Stand behind me. Be careful."

He summoned his arm guard and took the lead at the front.

The closer they got to that cave, the stronger the smell of blood became.

When they reached the cave entrance, they saw several incomplete corpses of cultivators lying against the rock wall.

The bodies of these cultivators seemed to have been forcibly torn apart by something, with clear signs of crushing on the bones at the broken ends.

Seeing this, Zhao Qi and Liang Yi were both shocked.

"Senior Brother, this..."

"You two stay here. I'll go down and take a look."

Yang Linghu held a Vajra Talisman and a Mountain-Splitting Talisman in his hands as he walked into the cave.

As he advanced, the deeper he went, the more cultivator corpses there were.

Until he reached the deepest part, where he saw a huge blood cocoon that had already been broken open.

Beneath the blood cocoon, layers upon layers of cultivator remains were spread out.

Yang Linghu stepped forward and turned over some of the remains.

In this narrow space alone, at least twelve cultivators had died.

Adding those in the cave, it amounted to around twenty people.

"Having devoured so much flesh and blood, what kind of monster must have walked out of this cocoon?"

Yang Linghu now understood why no one had come down below.

Presumably, outside this Poison Valley, this monster had already thrown everything into chaos, and everyone had lost the desire to explore.

After returning to the cave entrance, he informed Zhao Qi and Liang Yi of the matter.

"I have a suggestion. You two should not go out. Stay down below and wait until I come to get you, or calculate the days and come out on the last day."

Yang Linghu said, "This monster's growth is unknown now. It would be dangerous for you two to go outside."

With that, he took out some of his detoxification pills, Miasma-Breaking Talismans, and Fire Talismans, and divided them between the two.

To prevent accidents, he also gave Zhao Qi one Vajra Talisman and one Mountain-Splitting Talisman each.

The two accepted them and returned to the cold pool area, while Yang Linghu headed straight out of the valley.

"Help!! Someone save me!! I don't want to die!!!"

Yang Linghu had only just left the Poison Valley for a short while when he heard someone calling for help not far away.

He immediately went to investigate and saw a cultivator pinned down by a half-human, half-snake monster.

The monster opened its huge mouth, about to swallow the cultivator.

Yang Linghu leaped forward, threw a punch, and shattered the monster's body.

"Ah!!!"

The cultivator below was startled. After realizing Yang Linghu was human, he crawled over and grabbed his leg.

"Benefactor! Thank you, Benefactor, for saving me! I'm so scared! Benefactor, don't abandon me!!"

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