In the natural wilderness of the Southern Region, a group of people was running at high speed, each utilizing their own unique methods. They had been running nonstop for more than two days, their bodies concealed by a unique set of clothes and their own martial skills. They chose a route void of people to ensure their secrecy.
No one was talking as they solely focused on their goal. The team consisted of three people, one of whom was holding a small lantern in their hand. Inside the lantern, dark red fire calmly lit up without being affected by their rapid movement. Instead, it pointed to a certain direction like a compass.
When the night fell, they finally arrived at a corner with hardly any major organization influence, flat land with hardly any high terrains and a verdant forest.
One of them asked, "Is this the place?" It was a man's voice, directed at the person holding the small lantern.
The person didn’t say anything and once again checked the condition of the dark red fire inside the small lantern. It was bigger than before and showing great attraction towards something nearby.
“This should be the place," said the person who held the small lantern. Unexpectedly, it was a woman’s voice, her tone cold and flat.
The woman turned her head and asked the last person who hadn't spoken, “Do you know where this is?”
Since they looked the same from the outside, the last person looked around them for a moment and started to calculate in his mind.
Then he answered, “This place should be near a city called Heichen City. This city is under the jurisdiction of the Shen family. As you know, the Shen family was one of the six major families in the Southern Region. But this place should be on their outermost area since no collateral family members were tasked around this place."
"But even so, we should be careful; around two or one year ago, there was a rumor that one of the direct descendants of the Shen family went missing, and they spent a lot of manpower to look for that direct descendant."
“Oh, that little girl?” the first man asked.
“Yes, she was born with an innate constitution that is very suitable to cultivate the main cultivation method of the Shen family. But alas, she went missing."
“The family head already gave his direct order that the investigation will not stop until they find her corpse, so we should be careful even though we are at the outermost area of the Shen family.”
The woman who held the small lantern nodded. Then she led the other two men following the direction the dark red fire pointed to.
Not long after, they arrived in an inhospitable place where wild bushes grew uncontrollably. The dark red fire was at its peak, almost filling the entire space, but it didn’t show any specific direction.
“Is this the place?" the first man asked. He scanned around but found nothing noteworthy.
“Yes," the woman suddenly said, "we are in the right place. It is below us."
Without asking further, the other two activated their martial skills and scanned the ground underneath them.
The first man utilized blue fiery qi that effortlessly entered the ground, while the other man used qi that mimicked the appearance of gray smoke.
“There is space beneath us!” said the first man.
Without further ado, he stomped his right foot and broke the ground. Thanks to his high cultivation level and mastery over his skills, no big noise was made, and it purely showed destructive ability targeted at the ground.
They didn’t communicate with words, but each of them had already done their own jobs.
The second man enveloped the area with his gray smoke qi to prevent any escape, while the woman directly jumped into the hole.
With the second man waiting above the ground, the other two already arrived inside the underground space.
It was dark with little to no ventilation, but they were able to sense a person waiting for them within that darkness.
In the gap between the mask she used, the woman’s eyes flashed with cyan light.
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“Ah, don’t flash me with your eyes," a floppy voice of a yet matured child called out to her. He waved his hand to cover his face.
But the woman didn’t make any rash decisions and scanned the entire underground cave.
There were no secret tunnels or any escape route; the only way was the hole they opened to come in. What was more, there were no others in this place, only them and that small boy.
But soon, she realized something. Hanging on the small boy’s waist were two human heads. One of them had fiery red hair, and the other had black hair. Without checking the small lantern on her waist, she knew the identity of one of the heads that was hanging.
With his enhanced sense, Niu Chang was finally able to get his answer. “So you guys were looking for this one?” he whipped his waist to the right where Xiayue’s head was.
The first man didn’t show many changes, but the woman with him showed intense response, although it was concealed very well.
[Established karma with Mo Qi]
Thankfully, Niu Chang was not a person who used his five senses only. Getting his second verification, he grinned. “Go on, tell me your threat," he said expectantly.
As his voice arrived in their ears, a fleeting sound of falling petals also arrived.
Demonic Embrace of Lady in White and Red!
Niu Chang activated his crowd control skill without any delay. Without holding back, red affectionate qi bloomed from his body and turned into a shrine maiden coiling her hands around his neck.
Due to the height difference, the shrine maiden's lower half was laid on the ground. More vision appeared on his body, showcasing the five senses enchantments.
But his surprise attack didn’t go through as his enemies were golden core experts. As they already stabilized their cultivation and explored more into the profundity of the golden core stage.
They already improved the basic qi protection given by their golden core cultivation and integrated it with their own unique martial skills.
[Established karma with Earth Demon No.2]
[Established karma with Earth Demon No.3]
Niu Chang was at least able to get what he wanted from testing the water. Naturally, he didn’t target the man on Mo Qi’s side from the beginning.
“Heh, what a powerful group," he praised them while feeling the changes inside his body. ‘This much qi should be on the golden core stage as well, but their quantity should be more than Huang Zhi and Feng Ning.’
Since he already got permission from the system, naturally he needed to end this fight as soon as possible.
The third skill - Dream Visit!
Different from the previous two skills from the Shrine Maiden Under the Sacred Tree, the third skill, Dream Visit, didn’t have any effect upon activation. Within their mind, a shrine maiden came to visit. She was accompanied by the atmosphere of spring and the fleeting cherry blossom petals around her.
“Soul attack!" Earth Demon No.2 exclaimed in shock.
Realizing the type of attack, he immediately activated his soul-based martial skill to protect his soul. While Niu Chang frowned upon seeing how his soul attack didn’t go as well as planned.
‘Why do they have soul-related martial skills? Shouldn’t this be my privilege?’ he was unable to contain his curiosity, ‘maybe this is another perk that comes up after you reach the golden core level?’
Expelling the shrine maiden from their mind, Earth Demon No.2 charged directly at Niu Chang.
His fist enveloped with a cold blue flame and struck Niu Chang. But he found the closer he got to the small boy, the more he felt something was holding his body in place.
Since Earth Demon No.2 was already tangled with the shrine maiden, Niu Chang naturally activated the Eternal Vow instantly.
The invisible restrictions caused by the Demonic Embrace of Lady in White and Red were stimulated and gave birth to a shrine maiden phantom with a very lifelike appearance on Earth Demon No.2’s back.
Mo Qi, who was watching for a while, was gathering information as much as she could to determine Niu Chang’s ability and background.
‘He used a beguiling technique based on cherry blossoms. The red qi contains the trace of corruption from powerful lustful emotion. And that weird phantom of a woman wearing clothes that I have never seen before.’
Matching every clue she got from the first confrontation, Mo Qi listed various possible answers.
But she was unable to match any of them with Niu Chang’s Shrine Maiden Under the Sacred Tree technique. Seeing how Earth Demon No.2 was completely suppressed by Niu Chang, she chose to help him first.
Cyan-colored qi flowed from her fingers and turned into many icicles targeting the shrine maiden phantom and Niu Chang.
The icicles stabbed the shrine maiden phantom on the back before corrupting them into her own red qi. While Niu Chang didn’t do anything and just stood there being protected by his Closed Loop Protection.
Earth Demon No.2 was not a golden core for nothing; even under the constant erosion from the Eternal Vow, he was able to hold his own ground without being damaged, he was only held in place solely focusing on resisting the erosion.
“Don’t hold back," Niu Chang suddenly said as he walked forward. Mo Qi tried to use her QI Gazing skill to perceive the coverage area of Niu Chang’s weird skill.
While she was intensely calculating how powerful Niu Chang was, she suddenly realized a very fatal mistake.
“Oh no," she wanted to do something about it, but it was already too late.
“Hehe," Niu Chang chuckled and added. "That’s more like it."