Canyun Mountain.
While Wu Dao and the others were trapped in the Deceitful Mist's forest sea...
WHOOSH~
On the mountainside, a thin mist churned.
Amid a flicker of firefly-yellow light, a party of two strolled out.
They looked up. Ahead, the mountain forest was dappled with moonlight and filled with the songs of nightingales and insects. It was a completely different world from the deathly silent sea of mist behind them.
The two were none other than Mao Ba and Cloud Heaven Flow.
"Whew. Thank you for the warning, Daoist Master. Otherwise, I fear I would have been trapped in that sea of mist as well."
Cloud Heaven Flow glanced back at the misty sea with lingering fear, then cupped his hands in a salute to Mao Ba.
"Fellow Daoist Yun, you're too kind."
Mao Ba smiled faintly and waved it off. "We both hail from renowned and righteous sects; it's only natural that we stick together.
That Zhao Wei and Mengqingshan are the poisonous remnants of the old Giant Whale Sect, which once brought disaster to the land. A leopard can't change its spots. In the end, they're just a nest of vipers.
And that's not even mentioning the ruthless, bloodthirsty brute they've sided with!"
Mao Ba still seemed to be brooding over Wu Dao slaughtering people right before his eyes, his tone thick with resentment. "If we actually let them get their hands on that Flesh and Blood Tai Sui, it would be no different from aiding a tyrant.
That's why I played a little trick. They won't be getting out of this Illusionary Mist Realm any time soon."
"The Daoist Master speaks the truth. If only I were strong enough..."
Cloud Heaven Flow nodded, a hint of killing intent in his eyes. Mengqingshan, Zhao Wei, Wu Dao—in his opinion, not a single one of them was any good.
"Heh heh, we have plenty of time. For now, we should—"
THUD!
A heavy, powerful impact, like a meteor striking the earth, cut Mao Ba off.
Startled, they both whipped around to look.
Amidst a spray of dirt and shattered rock...
A nine-foot-tall, brawny frame that looked cast from bronze and forged from iron stood with its head held high, baring a mouthful of unsettling, black, shark-like teeth at them.
"You've got some impressive Leg Strength, Daoist Master."
Wu Dao stretched his stiff neck, producing a series of loud cracks. The smile that wasn't a smile on his face made Mao Ba and Cloud Heaven Flow feel as though they were being stared down by a vicious shark.
THUD! THUD! THUD—
Before the two could even react, three more figures crashed down from the sky in quick succession.
"Haha, as expected of Immortal Descendants. Your methods are truly remarkable."
A laugh rumbled like thunder.
Mengqingshan's bald head was blindingly bright as it reflected the moonlight. Behind him stood the morose Eagle Shark.
"Damned luck..."
The last to arrive, muttering curses, was Zhao Wei.
Compared to the others, he was in a sorry state, covered in blood with bits of flesh clinging to him, looking as though he had just survived a brutal fight.
'As expected...'
'No one in the Divine Power Realm is a simple character.'
Wu Dao wasn't surprised to see the three of them.
The Divine Power Realm involved a spiritual transformation, and Zhao Wei was a Fist Dao Grandmaster with at least forty years of Power under his belt. His mental fortitude was considerable.
Mengqingshan and his companion were even more formidable.
It would have been strange if they had been so easily trapped within the misty sea's illusions.
However, Wu Dao was curious about one thing: where had all the bits of flesh on Zhao Wei come from?
"I ran into those three unlucky fools..."
Seeing the question in Wu Dao's eyes, Zhao Wei explained with a sigh, "They had completely fallen under the mist's spell. The moment they saw me, they came at me, screaming for blood..."
Wu Dao nodded in understanding.
Overlord Whale Fist was a rigid and aggressive External Skill, violent and ferocious, capable of taking a life at the slightest provocation.
Although Zhao Wei appeared amicable on the surface, like a kind old man, he was by no means a soft-hearted or merciful person.
They were, after all, just three insignificant pawns.
If he killed them, he killed them.
No one cared.
Right now, there was a more pressing matter to attend to...
"Ahem. I never expected this mist to be so strange. I fell under its influence before I even realized it. A miscalculation..."
Facing everyone's menacing glares, Mao Ba forced himself to explain, inwardly cursing his previous arrogance. 'I underestimated this group.'
"Heh heh, don't blame yourself, Daoist Master. No one in this world is omniscient," Mengqingshan chimed in with a mirthless smile.
Wu Dao and Zhao Wei, however, remained silent.
Ultimately, they still needed Mao Ba to find the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui, so this wasn't the time to drop all pretenses.
But after what had just happened, no one would be so quick to trust Mao Ba again.
As for being tricked... that was a score to be settled when they finally turned on one another.
Thus, for the sake of profit, the group—each harboring their own schemes—chose to hold back, temporarily maintaining a fragile peace.
The Cyan Crane led the way.
After a brief silence, Mao Ba took the lead, and the group of six plunged once more into the vast mountain forest.
This time, however, everyone was on high alert. Their eyes were fixed on Mao Ba, boring into his back so intensely that a cold sweat began to form.
Canyun Mountain was immense.
Even here on the mountainside, the terrain wasn't steep.
They were surrounded by a sea of towering ancient trees, many so thick it would take four or five people with linked arms to encircle them. It was a primordial scene, and the people moving through it seemed exceptionally small.
After they had traveled for several more miles,
Wu Dao, whose five senses were on high alert, twitched his nose. He caught the thick stench of blood.
He wasn't the only one.
Everyone present smelled it and instinctively quickened their pace, rushing toward its source.
Pushing past the dense branches and leaves of the forest, an open, marshy valley spread out before them.
Under the bright moonlight, a small river gurgled, its banks lush with water plants.
Groves of fruit trees stood in clusters, heavy with an abundance of red and green fruit.
On some of the sturdier trunks, they could even see simple dwellings built from branches and leaves, connected by vine ladders.
It was a settlement of considerable size.
There must have been forty or fifty treehouses, giving it the appearance of a primitive human settlement, hidden from the outside world.
But...
At this moment, this place, which looked like a hidden paradise, was shrouded in the suffocating stench of blood and an overwhelming aura of death!
Wu Dao's gaze swept across the scene.
In the treehouses, on the water's surface, on the rocks, in the fruit trees...
Lay the twisted corpses of no fewer than a hundred white-furred apes, each one a boneless "puddle." Streams of blood dyed the valley's grass and plants red.
Why call them puddles?
Because the bodies truly were like flattened dough or modeling clay, nothing more than limp piles of flesh. Some had even been stretched out to seven or eight meters long, a horrifying sight.
Clearly, the "bones" of these white-furred apes had all disappeared.
Or rather...
They had been eaten!
'Are apes and humans the same?'
As Wu Dao stared at the hellish landscape of flesh and blood under the moon, his heart remained completely untroubled, but this question suddenly popped into his head.
'Then again, the intelligence of apes is genuinely higher than most other animals.'
'And...'
Wu Dao's eyes fell on the crude grass and leaf "clothing" on the white-furred apes, as well as the various "weapons" scattered about.
'They knew to cover their bodies, skillfully use tools, and construct dwellings.'
'The intelligence of this troop of white-furred apes had clearly reached a primitive human level.'
'So, is this a case of making up for a lack of quality with quantity?'
A theory began to form in Wu Dao's mind.
"Damn it, we're a step too late..."
The moment Mao Ba saw the scene, he leaped to one of the ape corpses. After dipping a hand into the still-uncongealed blood, his expression darkened.
"This fiend is extremely cautious. It knew it was exposed the moment the Chong Ghost in Pan Shui Town was dealt with. A peaceful transformation was no longer possible.
So it chose a lesser path, forcefully taking human form using the bones of these white apes, whose intelligence is close to human.
By now, it might have already..."
"Who's there!?"
A sharp shout suddenly cut Mao Ba off.
Mengqingshan, who was closest to the valley exit, let out a roar. Eagle Shark, beside him, had already shot forward.
Wu Dao's head snapped up instantly.
There, atop a fruit tree at the mouth of the valley...
Clearly visible in the moonlight...
...stood an old man. He was less than a meter tall, plump and round, with long ears and a wide mouth. He was scantily clad and resembled a clay statue of an earth deity from a temple. He was looking down at them all, chuckling merrily.
Almost human, but not quite!
And blood-red from head to toe!
Strips of crimson flesh writhed over his body like worms, and his face twisted and morphed continuously. It was utterly nauseating!
'The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui?'
'It's already transformed?'
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
In that instant, greed erupted in the eyes of everyone present, like long-suppressed volcanoes. They stomped on the ground, shattering rock and wood, and launched themselves toward the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui like cannonballs.
"Hee hee... How fun... How fun..."
The old man formed from the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui, however, just gave a "foolish" laugh. With a flicker, his figure vanished silently from the branches.
"A bunch of reckless brutes!"
Mao Ba, who was a step slower, saw Cloud Heaven Flow eagerly give chase and cursed in frustration. He spurred his Cyan Crane to follow close behind.
Different perspectives led to different methods.
In Mao Ba's view, the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui had already taken form. Even if it was only a half-finished product, its power had already surpassed the Foundation Establishment level.
This was a monster that had completed five hundred years of cultivation.
It had already mastered what the world called "Demon Techniques," possessing an incredible power that transcended the mundane.
Even if such Demon Techniques were still weak, they were far beyond mere brute force.
Human Cultivators, on the other hand, only truly became Extraordinary and shed the simple constraints of physical power upon reaching the Innate Realm.
'Their strength isn't enough.'
'To charge in so recklessly without understanding the danger... '
'They are bound to suffer a huge loss!'