"Mo Yue, I tried condensing demonic power. Each time I attack, my meridians lose a portion of it, and our cultivation techniques can't replenish the depletion."
It was Mo Yi, ever attentive despite his boldness, who first noticed the problem and immediately informed the others.
Jian Dan tested it herself. She was better off, since her Primordial Chaos Art allowed her to convert ice and snow into usable energy. Mo Qi slashed out with a blade arc, killing thirty insects marching in formation before the blade dispersed into the swirling snow.
"Same here," she said.
"My technique is ice-based, so I can recover what I lose," Mo Su added, forming ice needles in his hands and driving them into a cluster of black-armored insect larvae, pinning them to the ground.
"Then Mo Su will take the front. I'll cover the rear. Mo Qi and Mo Yi, stay in the middle."
They immediately changed formation, moving as they killed the frozen, sluggish insects along the way.
The space appeared filled with heavy snowfall, yet the snow barely covered their feet. The insects had nowhere to hide. Black-armored beetles, yellow-bladed mantises, and rust-red flying centipedes stood out starkly against the white ground.
Following the insects' trail, they slowed their pace. Eventually, Jian Dan noticed something was wrong. She halted the others and cast a defensive formation. Once inside, Mó Yuè Zhǎn swept the area within ten li, clearing out the insects to secure their position.
Within the formation, Jian Dan summoned Verdant Flame to purge the bone-deep cold from her body.
The others circulated their energy as well. Once their faces regained some color, they looked to Jian Dan.
"Mo Yue, did you discover something?"
Her expression was serious. "Did you not notice? We haven't been in here long, yet our bone age has already increased by thirty years."
"What?"
Mo Qi immediately checked her bone age. Her face darkened. No woman liked hearing she had aged.
Mo Su and Mo Yi were less affected, but the unexpected aging still unsettled them.
"I suspect this is why the Mahayana Zhēnzūn have not delved deeper. They possess ten-thousand-year lifespans, but none are young. If they enter this space, their lives would be drained away."
"So they sent us, the young elite. In the Ming Valley, our cultivation rises quickly, and with it, our lifespan. We can afford the toll."
Mo Yi's insight struck the core of the issue.
"There's no use complaining. We have to move faster. The less time we spend here, the less lifespan we lose."
"Right. Think of the past twenty years of cultivation we gained. Advancing at higher levels takes centuries, yet we managed it in two decades. Consider this the price for that shortcut. If we finish the task early, the remaining lifespan is ours to keep."
Jian Dan's reasoning calmed Mo Qi, who reluctantly accepted it.
Their pace noticeably quickened. They no longer cleared every insect, instead leaving the tougher ones for the demon cultivators deeper inside to handle.
Still, the path grew increasingly twisted. Their divine sense picked up more swarming insect masses. Occasionally, powerful Ming Beasts charged in to help clear the way. As they adjusted to the environment, Jian Dan noticed a disturbing trend: time seemed to flow faster the deeper they went.
This raised their tension once again. Turning back was not an option, but pressing forward risked losing more lifespan than they could afford.
Jian Dan suspected the space was designed to limit the insects too. She had spotted insect corpses that appeared to have died not from freezing but from old age. One was even the mother insect she and Mo Su had encountered in the Demon's Abyss.
"We've come this far. I doubt any of us will back down. Worst case, we return and trade for lifespan-extending pills."
"Forget that. I'd rather have a Youth-Restoring Pill. I can cultivate the rest back."
Mo Qi rolled her eyes, echoing Jian Dan's usual manner. She cleaved a black-armored insect's head clean off.
Mo Su and Mo Yi shook their heads. Female cultivators truly cared about appearance.
"Both of you are top-tier in your sects. You can afford to spend a bit of lifespan. Let's move."
"Agreed."
Despite the banter, no one slowed down.
"Mo Ran, how did you sneak in before?"
"I followed the lightest gap in the wind and snow. Wherever it blew the softest, I went. Just when I was about to freeze, I saw that scene. When you told me to return, I couldn't even crawl. A force pulled me back, then trapped me until you arrived."
Mo Ran now rested in Jian Dan's beast pouch, coiled around a magic stone, quietly absorbing it.
Jian Dan was certain the Ming Beast guarding the edge had allowed Mo Ran to enter, then pulled him back out once he had seen enough. That meant the human cultivators had received the message. The situation might not be as dire as it looked. Still, that was no excuse to retreat.
They paused to replenish their strength using magic crystals. Fortunately, Jian Dan had been the first to discover the potent demonic energy within them, and all four had gathered some. Now it was proving useful.
Jian Dan pulled out a heavy cloak made from the pelt of a Howling Moon Wolf, which she had obtained in the beast territory.
When she had the head of the Mo Qi Peak forge it into a cloak, the man had practically drooled over the pelt. He even tried to buy one from her, spirit stones no object. But Jian Dan told him the pelt had been a gift from the Howling Moon Wolf Clan Chief, and it was one of a kind. The peak master had mourned that fact for days.
With the cloak on, the biting cold lessened immediately. Mo Qi also donned her red cloak. Once they were fully protected, the four moved forward again.
After reclaiming lost territory, Jian Dan's team continued deeper, while Gong Yi's group arrived at the midsection of the Gourd Mouth half a month later.
The journey had tested them to their limits. Even Gong Yi felt his meridians throbbing. They deployed a defensive formation and began meditating.
Having rushed forward without direct clashes with insects, Gong Yi's team had only advanced to the early stage of Divine Transformation.
While everyone was resting, Hao Meng from the Nine Fiends Hall approached with ill intent. He raised a hand, gathered a ball of demonic qi, and hurled it at the defensive array.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The array did not even tremble.
Instead, the demonic qi backfired, splitting into three streams. Two missed, but the third struck Hao Meng directly.