After only a brief moment of hesitation, Wang Teng made his decision and stepped firmly toward the narrow passage.
However, his movements became far more cautious than before. The reckless freedom he had shown upon entering the cave was gone.
If he were to encounter a Monarch-level demon, he could not be certain that the other party would fail to notice him—after all, he had never tested such a situation.
This was not a game. There was no chance to retry.
The moment he entered the passage, Wang Teng immediately understood.
This was without a doubt the leader of the Bloodsucking Bat demon tribe.
There wasn't a single Bloodsucking Bat inside.
There was a fundamental difference between demons and humans.
Among demons, the leader's status was absolute. The area it occupied was a forbidden zone—its subordinates would never dare trespass.
Humans were completely different. They always moved in crowds, surrounded by followers wherever they went.
This only strengthened Wang Teng's judgment.
There was almost certainly something valuable inside—but the danger level would be extremely high.
As he continued forward, the passage remained tall, narrow, and pitch-black. Deep within it, there existed a distinct aura—powerful and bloodthirsty.
Wang Teng could already vaguely sense it.
However, as he went deeper, he did not dare release even a trace of mental strength. He fully restrained his aura.
Another several hundred meters in.
"What is this…?"
Wang Teng's eyes widened.
At the end of the passage stood a towering figure, its back facing him, its body seemingly blocking the entire tunnel entrance.
The only possible path forward lay beneath its feet—two massive ankles, each as thick as two people embracing, leaving only a narrow gap.
His body began to tremble involuntarily.
This was instinct—the primal reaction that occurred when facing a higher-tier lifeform.
Wang Teng was well aware of this phenomenon. His long-developed habits saved him here.
He did not advance rashly. Instead, he stood still, calming his breathing and steadying his mind.
A full thirty minutes passed before he finally suppressed his instincts and regained control of his body.
Immediately afterward came a wave of muscle soreness.
During that involuntary trembling, his muscles had been locked in extreme tension. Remaining completely motionless for so long had drained a tremendous amount of stamina.
"This kind of presence is hard to judge…"
"Even if it isn't a Monarch, it's very likely at Commander-stage peak, possibly even Sub-Monarch."
Wang Teng silently evaluated the situation.
He himself was only at the Commander Level. Against demons of the same tier, he usually felt nothing.
But Commander-tier demons were different.
He had never encountered one directly. If it were weaker, it shouldn't have caused such a reaction.
After all, he was currently in Void Stealth. A being with insufficient rank should not have been able to influence his instincts.
This wasn't because the opponent's aura pressure penetrated deep space.
Rather, it was a natural lifeform presence—an overwhelming sense of existence that transcended spatial barriers and directly affected consciousness.
For example, if an ordinary person suddenly saw a massive bird with a wingspan of dozens of meters flying overhead, the shock alone would make their body tremble uncontrollably.
The bird wouldn't affect them, wouldn't notice them, and wouldn't care about them at all.
Yet the sheer scale surpassed normal cognition.
That kind of cognitive suppression was powerful enough to override bodily instincts.
Of course, as one's experience broadened, this effect would gradually weaken. Only true pressure could then produce such an outcome.
"Bloodsucking Bats specialize in soundwave attacks, mental attacks, and shadow-type attacks."
"Even if this one has reached Sub-Monarch level, it's highly unlikely to detect my existence."
"I can gamble on this."
Drawing on his accumulated knowledge, Wang Teng reached a conclusion with a high probability of success.
It was also this demon's unusual behavior that fueled his desire to investigate further.
Resources around Bo City were scarce—only a handful of rare materials existed.
For a demon to grow to this extent, it would require a massive quantity of high-grade resources.
The reason it occupied this location was most likely because it needed something here.
After half an hour of recovery, Wang Teng returned to peak condition.
Now, he became even more cautious.
Like a drifting ghost, he slowly advanced along the passage, slipping through the gap formed by those two massive legs.
As he passed through, dense magical energy surged outward from within.
Wang Teng's expression did not change. Without hesitation, he passed through the "gate" and entered.
What appeared before him was a cavern far larger than the one before.
Even in total darkness, he could estimate its size—a stalactite cavern nearly two hundred meters high.
After advancing several dozen meters, he finally turned his head and saw the demon's full form.
Its body was nearly forty meters tall.
Its wings were folded, head lowered, eyes closed, steadily devouring the ambient magical energy.
"So it's entered deep-sleep cultivation…"
"That works in my favor."
A thought flashed through Wang Teng's mind.
He then shifted his attention to the cavern itself.
The magical energy density here was astonishingly high.
"It seems an earth vein of magical energy passes through this place…"
He carefully moved around the cavern.
At the center, within a small pool of water, he discovered a jet-black stone roughly the size of a human head.
It was called a strange stone for a reason.
Pitch-black, glossy, flawless—utterly unlike anything he had encountered before.
Which meant only one thing.
It was valuable.
"Hm?"
Wang Teng's attention was suddenly drawn to a faint glimmer beneath the black stone.
He carefully adjusted his position and lowered his angle of view.
What he saw made his heart jump.
"Magic Diamond!"
After calming his emotions, he began planning his actions.
If he moved fast enough, he could complete the extraction before the Bloodsucking Bat awoke.
The demon was deeply immersed in sleep cultivation—it wouldn't be highly alert.
This was a major weakness of demons, and the reason humans often succeeded in ambushes.
Wang Teng began calculating his retreat route.
Eyes closed, he replayed the underground tunnels in reverse, deducing the optimal escape path.
Once outside, even a Monarch-level demon wouldn't be able to easily locate him.
"This will work."
With the route clear in his mind, he began calculating extraction time.
Not only did he want the black stone and the Magic Diamond—
He wanted the pool water as well.
If it could nurture such materials, it couldn't possibly be ordinary.
He did not exit Void Stealth. Although he couldn't yet analyze the pool's composition, that didn't stop him from taking it.
Retreating to a suitable position, the range of Void Treasury perfectly enveloped the pool.
Wang Teng's body tensed.
The critical moment had arrived.
As the demon art activated, a palm-sized spatial vortex silently appeared on the surface of the pool.
A powerful suction force erupted.
The water level rapidly dropped.
Wang Teng deliberately avoided looking directly at the demon. Fixating on it could stimulate awareness—if it woke up, extraction difficulty would spike instantly.
One second.
Two seconds.
…
Ten seconds.
Everything was collected.
Wang Teng immediately rushed toward the gap between the legs.
Once inside the familiar tunnel, he bolted at full speed.
His heart began pounding wildly.
The exhilaration of sudden fortune, after escaping danger, was impossible to suppress.
Yet his rationality remained intact.
In a few rapid spatial flickers, he exited the deep passage and mechanically followed his pre-calculated route.
The hundreds-of-meters-long tunnel vanished behind him almost in the span of a breath.
When he emerged, it was already noon.
The sun blazed overhead. The light was intense.
He narrowed his eyes, enduring the discomfort, and continued running into the distance.
This place—
He could not afford to linger for even one more second.