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Chapter 33: The Out

Upon hearing this, Murong Yun couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Miss Vilyric, I’m just an ordinary person and lack your ability to traverse the skies and part the seas. How can I dare to dive into the water to explore the unknown? You should know that when a person is in the water, even demonstrating thirty percent of their skill is already quite difficult. If I were adept at swimming, I wouldn’t need to wait for low tide every time before I could enter the valley to explore.”

“That’s true ~”

Patting her backside as she stood up, Vilyric returned to the side of Miss Ling Feng and whispered in a volume only they could hear.

“So, have you figured out the situation?”

Putting away the glowing talisman in her hand, Miss Ling Feng nodded, her expression becoming a bit solemn.

“This is a base point for the Demon-Suppressing Seal, but… signs of instability have already appeared.”

“Demon-Suppressing Seal?”

“Yes, the Demon-Suppressing Seal.”

The gray-haired girl rolled up her sleeves and explained softly.

“The so-called Demon-Suppressing Seal is a large-scale sealing technique constructed by powerful beings using their own abilities, supplemented by spiritual tools or formations. Even the most ordinary Demon-Suppressing Seal requires several beings of the same realm to work together to establish it. Once demons below the Demon King level enter, there’s absolutely no chance of escape.”

“Originally, the Demon-Suppressing Seal was mainly used to suppress those wicked big demons, but since the emergence of evil demons in the Ancient Spirit Realm, the use of such techniques has changed to some extent.”

“Throughout history, wherever there are Demon-Suppressing Seals, they are always heavily guarded places, whether sealed deep within the walls of the capital or hidden in the forbidden areas of renowned sects, making it nearly impossible for ordinary people to even reach an inch inside.”

Listening to Miss Ling Feng’s detailed explanation without delay, Vilyric glanced at her with no surprise.

“It seems you already knew there was a Demon-Suppressing Seal down here?”

“…Yeah, but I didn’t expect the situation to have deteriorated this much. No wonder the Spirit Lady forced Wen Fu’s people to intervene. But how did she know about this…?”

Although the conversation had only gone this far, neither Vilyric nor Ling Feng chose to delve deeper.

Some things, if meant to be said, would have already been said. Since they intended to avoid them, there was no need to force the mention and make both sides awkward.

Half a stick of incense later, everyone continued on their journey.

The cave housing the underground lake was winding and interconnected. Although it was clearly separated from the water flow in the tidal valley, for some reason, it connected about a dozen passages leading in various directions. If an ordinary person came here for the first time, they would surely be bewildered by such a complicated maze of paths.

Fortunately, Murong Yun had explored this area multiple times. Using the map in his hand, he easily led everyone back to the path heading towards the holy beast Qilin observation area.

After the earlier attack by the skeletal demon and the departure of Yuan Zhi and Yuan Hong, this temporary team had grown more united than it had been at the beginning. At the very least, even the troublesome Du Zhe no longer questioned Murong Yun’s directives.

And thus, while evading the powerful evil demons lurking around, they advanced through the rugged, maze-like, and undulating valley. Soon, several hours had passed.

It was quite incredible; as they continued downward, the internal space of the tidal valley seemed to be expanding. The scale had far surpassed that of the basin area at the entrance, spreading towards various directions further out into Yangyuan County.

However, under Murong Yun’s guidance as the seasoned pioneer, although the path had grown increasingly intricate, no large-scale ambushes or casualties occurred.

They were getting closer and closer.

Suddenly.

“Wait!”

The white-clad middle-aged man raised his hand sharply, and the group immediately halted, with Du Zhe leading three disciples of the Return to Origin Sect drawing out their copper swords, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

“What’s wrong? Is there another evil demon approaching?”

“…No, there’s the aura of the deceased.”

“Huh? What do you mean by the aura of the deceased? Are you a soul ferry?”

Just as Murong Yun was about to explain, a certain black-haired girl had already sensed something and gracefully leaped up to a platform at least ten meters above their current position.

Before long, her voice rang out from above.

“Oh dear… this is quite tragic indeed.”

“Come on, what exactly is it? Are you a rabbit spirit or something?!”

Unable to fly as freely as some priestess, the others slowly circled around to climb the platform.

“Hey, you… what is…”

Watching the black-haired girl standing still, Du Zhe was about to say something when he was immediately struck into silence by the sight before him.

Clearly, this place had recently been a battlefield.

Seven or eight figures in various outfits lay scattered on the ground, their bodies still and devoid of blood, yet it was apparent that they had all fallen silent.

Murong Yun and the others each took a moment to check around and soon arrived at a clear conclusion.

“They’re all dead. These people must be members of the exploration team.”

He gently closed the unblinking eyes of a strong man nearby and spoke in a hushed tone.

“This man is named Xu Lian, a skilled fighter appointed by the Prefect to lead the exploration team, adept with a wolf fang club and possessing innate strength. Even I would struggle to take his full-force attack. Among all the team leaders, Xu Lian ranked in the top three in terms of strength. I never expected he would die here…”

Putting away a blackened silver needle that had just been stuck into a corpse, Ling Feng made her judgment.

“Bloody fluids from the seven orifices, purple lips, pupils constricted, foamy drool at the mouth, no visible fatal wounds—typical symptoms of severe poisoning. These people were all poisoned to death.”

“Master, could it be they encountered something similar to those skeletal demons before but with a poisonous evil object?”

In response to Bai’er’s curiosity, Ling Feng merely shook her head.

“Evil demons rarely use poison. Even if they do, it usually isn’t fatal quickly. Poison is more commonly used among us humans or between demons. I think…”

“Don’t need to guess; it’s black python venom. Tsk, there are some disgusting beings involved here.”

Du Zhe clicked his tongue in annoyance, and seeing the questioning glances from others, he could only explain casually.

“Don’t get me wrong; I just happen to be familiar with this situation.”

“In my hometown, there’s a relatively rare type of black snake that is gentle in temperament but highly venomous, known as the black python. This snake possesses spiritual characteristics and is a remarkable medicinal material. I’ve seen some ignorant fools try to catch black pythons only to be poisoned to death by them, and their deaths looked almost identical to these people.”

“This snake is not a water snake; it preys on birds and fruits, living high up in densely shaded areas. There’s no way it could exist in the dark, damp environment of the tidal valley.”

At this, Murong Yun crouched down, attempting to lift the pant leg of the strong man Xu Lian, and indeed found a bite mark leaking black blood, his expression immediately turning surprised.

“Are you suggesting that someone brought this snake down here and used it to secretly attack the exploration team?”

“Hmph, otherwise what other possibilities can you think of?”

“Certainly makes sense, but since everyone here died from the same potent poison, they must have been attacked simultaneously. How could a normal snake manage to pull that off?”

Murong Yun seemed a bit perplexed by this, but Ling Feng pondered and offered a conjecture.

“The demon… is a snake demon.”

She exchanged a glance with Vilyric, and without needing to speak, the two girls immediately reached a tacit understanding.

Black pythons are gentle-natured, let alone morphing into a spirit; there’s no way they would voluntarily sneak in to attack exploration team members here. The officials of Yangyuan City wouldn’t be clueless enough to let demons blend into the team.

Therefore, there was only one explanation.

The Demon-Suppressing Sect.

These notorious beings who appeared due to the little mole’s accidental excavation of that fragment of spirit meat, truly have made their move.

This group likely encountered an evil demon that wasn’t too strong and were attacked from both sides during the battle with it, leading to their deaths from poisoning.

Perhaps there were similarly infiltrated members in other teams as well. In this light, Miss Vilyric’s team, although mixed, seemed relatively clean.

This chaotic battle for the interests represented by the holy beast Qilin had fully unfolded.