Less than ten hours remained until the end of the test, and at that exact moment, inside a small hidden cave, Zanou seemed incredulous at the red liquid accumulated in a small jar.

The whale then spoke mentally, sounding like an instinctive sigh. 'Good job. If you put in a little effort, you can always achieve it.'

At that moment, Gael realized his little slip too late, as Zanou's gaze in his direction turned cold and bloodthirsty.

"These words... again this," Zanou muttered, forgetting even to speak mentally. He became quite agitated. In the past, Zane always praised his younger brother with similar or almost identical words. This time, he just spoke without thinking much, and Zanou remembered some painful things.

'What are you murmuring there, idiot? We don't have time to waste. If you managed to do it, then finish the rest faster!' Gael said to him in a rough tone, trying to disguise the situation. Soon, Zanou returned to reality and focused again.

Now, he seemed to understand the process well, and after obtaining a fire core in the desert and going through all that brutal practice, Zanou could manipulate the flame with relative skill. In a few minutes, a good amount of that liquid was made.

Soon, he carefully distributed it to everyone, a little nervous. The whale carefully analyzed that liquid and then nodded to everyone. They then rubbed that liquid on their bodies. This caused their auras to merge with the aura of this place.

As long as they didn't reveal any killing intent and kept a certain distance, it would be much more difficult for the beasts to sense them, saving Mira's mental energy for an opportune moment. They were like plants growing on the ground to these beasts. They all sealed their pores and felt that camouflage before continuing.

'Let's go.'

Spoke the leader, Goku, leading the way, and a line of people cautiously exited the cave. As their bodies were very small and could hide their auras, they were more scared than actually in danger.

At first, they walked slowly, then a light jog started, and soon after confirming that everything was fine, they ran at full speed to the south.

They watched closely the divine beasts present. Most of these beasts had a primitive and undefined form, like dinosaurs with ongoing physical mutations. Some had giant claws, others colossal wings, but they were always disproportionate to the rest of the body, giving them a strange appearance.

This kind of form was quite rare in the outside world. They would be considered the lowest level of divine beast races, and the few living ones did not possess high intelligence. However, they saw thousands of these beasts present. If they disturbed one of them, it would be difficult for any of them to survive.

Sometimes, a beast flew through the air, and they hurriedly got out of the way. Once safe, they continued forward.

These flying types would only fly for a while. Then, they would find a suitable place to rest. After that, their auras would disappear, and they would enter a state of hibernation.

After observing this several times, everyone came to the same conclusion as Zane, without any conversation. They must be absorbing some kind of strange energy from the ground to cultivate.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After stopping in one place for a long time, perhaps they absorbed most of the energy and then moved to another location. Only the very powerful divine beasts settled in a very large and law-filled place, so they stayed there for hundreds of years.

'There are countless giant beasts here; some are very close to breaking through the realm. But they seemed to be coexisting very peacefully. No fights? That's very strange.' Gael commented mentally. This behavior, combined with the overall strangeness of this prison, only fueled his desire to go to its end.

'Master!' Mira, sitting on their shoulders as they all ran, called out.

She then pointed to an area covered with vegetation. Everyone was focused on the beasts and the path, but she seemed to be strolling and having fun seeing all the strange diversity of the place. Soon, she was the only one who noticed something different there.

'Hm?' The whale looked and stopped. Soon, everyone stopped and followed his gaze.

They first checked if there was no danger too close and took steps in that direction, feeling something strange.

As they passed through a dense forest, a small mound appeared ahead. Langrum directly felt an energy that seemed familiar to her. Everyone hurried towards the mound, and Mira used her mental power to cover them. Then, the whale opened a large hole, creating an entrance.

Everyone sighed in relief. Inside the mound, there was a huge cave that extended underground.

Goku felt the entire environment and communicated without much emotion: 'There is nothing alive in here. This seems to be the final hiding place of some ancient cultivator from our sect.'

Everyone's hearts beat fervently. That Qi they felt came from inside... so the remains and perhaps treasures of that cultivator should be intact to some extent.

Zanou mentally murmured to everyone. 'From the records I studied... the last person who dared to enter the fourth level was two thousand years ago. He was... the grandfather of the current patriarch of the Vital Yin Sect.' Zanou became even more excited. 'He used to be the sect patriarch but stepped down because he was in his last years of life. So, he decided to take a chance.'

The whale nodded emotionlessly and quickly entered the cave. Everyone followed closely with shining eyes. In no time, they saw a figure made of bones, in a meditative position, standing on the ground.

'He managed to stay alive, tried to break through, but in the end, he failed and died in here,' Zanou commented.

The whale didn't even look at the skeleton. He just picked up a spatial ring and checked it. Fortunately, it was a high-level ring and could last for a few thousand years without maintenance, which left everything inside intact.

Too bad the old man died using everything valuable, like abyss crystals, pills, etc. However, there was a shiny gray crystal, and they took a quick look. It contained a technique inside that used infernal laws.

'Well, we now have a technique that is much better than the ones the elders we faced had. It might be useful,' Gael commented lightly.

'Look there!' Zane pointed inside the ring.

Their minds then withdrew from the ring with excited eyes. Everyone in the group saw a gigantic hammer appear in the hands of the whale, and a great pressure was felt in their chests. The whale closed its eyes, and two seconds later, all the pressure was gone. They mastered that hammer and became its new owners.

'Made of raw and dense Celestial Steel, excellent,' Zane commented excitedly. 'Hammer isn't our specialty, but we can melt and forge another type of weapon later; for now, we have a decent weapon on our hands.'

The whale stored all the items from the ring in its inventory and said casually, "Langrum, take the bones. This ancient cultivator had a strange connection with the ogre bloodline in his bones. He must have used many women of that race, and it got impregnated in him. You'll benefit a bit from it later."

Langrum gathered the bones and then turned to follow the group outside; there was nothing else noteworthy in the cave.

'What a strange fellow... a skinny elf using a giant and muscular female ogre for dual cultivation. In this evil sect, everyone seems to have quite peculiar tastes,' Gael commented with some disgust as he walked.

Then, they continued their journey. Mira, excited, was encouraged to look around for something that caught her attention. Zane took the opportunity to train her perception, and she used her QI and focused mental power in her eyes to discern anything that stood out in the environment.

Almost two hours passed, with a few stops along the way. Everyone was excited about the newly found treasures. Zanou, in particular, discovered some rare and different herbs, harvesting them with a smile on his face.

Langrum was pleased with some scales emitting a ferocious aura. It must have belonged to a divine beast of the serpent type, very compatible with her other bloodline.

Mira, on the other hand, became excited after the whale collected some very different plants. Goku said they were divine flax, used to create much more powerful clothes than those sold in the sect. They promised to reward her and do some things for her.

After another hour, they reached a more internal area of the fourth level. There was no more vegetation in that place, and the beasts seemed much larger and more powerful, making everyone more fearful. They wanted to live to enjoy their gains.

Then, the whale said seriously, 'We can't continue like this. It's too slow, and we won't be able to explore everything in time.'

Even with the stops, they had only covered a third of the way. The whale looked to the horizon, and everyone saw a winged beast flying away quickly. Then they looked in another direction, where another divine beast with wings was sleeping soundly.

'Mira, let's capture a winged beast. We need to fly.'

Langrum and Zanou heard mentally and seemed to petrify, their hearts stopping.