The situation was growing dire. An abrupt cold wave had stirred an unparalleled chaos. As the cold wave swept over the dim territory, it was not only the Demons that were disturbed. The Birds of Prey beasts in the valley seemed to harbor an even greater fear of the cold wave, and thousands of living beings began to climb upwards... or rather, a great migration had begun.
Yu Ci, a male, was inevitably engulfed in the tumultuous wave of this migration. Even his possession of the Divine Map couldn't help him avoid this. The multitude of living beings distributed throughout the forty-mile depth of the Sky Rift Valley had no choice but to pile up layer upon layer, from forty miles to thirty miles, then to twenty miles...
In less than half an hour, the density of living beings in the area above twenty miles deep in the Sky Rift Valley had exceeded twice the normal amount. Among them, hundreds of ferocious Demons were mixed in.
Conflict was inevitable.
The Birds of Prey beasts of the Sky Rift Valley were not hospitable hosts. Moreover, in their instincts, Demons were their common natural enemies! It was unknown when the conflicts and battles began, initially between the Demons and the local living beings. The newly escaped Demons had yet to adapt to the climate of this region, and their numbers were relatively small, making them appear rather disoriented at first.
However, as the Golden Elixir Stage Demons who had surged up began to exert their power one after another, and with the large-scale spread of the bloody smell, the conflict between "hosts" and "guests" quickly turned into a disorderly battle. The Birds of Prey beasts and Demons, Birds of Prey beasts amongst themselves, and Demons amongst themselves, due to natural enemy instincts, the upward path, and purely bloodthirsty impulses, were crazily attacking each other under the stimulation of the bloody smell. One after another, swathes of dead or dying living beings fell downwards, and the splashing blood dyed the cliff wall a dark red color.
Yu Ci was struggling in the midst of this chaos. In such a state, he couldn't use the technique of "Three Calls in One Breath" because he had to retain his best condition to deal with any potential dangers that could arrive at any moment—danger was inevitable, it was just a matter of degree.
After slaying a lone Demon with a swing of his sword, Yu Ci stopped to catch his breath. At this moment, there was something that he was particularly concerned about.
The "Divine Soul of Zheng De" he had encountered earlier had first possessed the body of a Demon, then transformed into a black, poisonous snake, leaving a mark in front of the Monster Nest. However, it was attacked by the Fish-Dragon and Yu Ci in succession, causing its soul to scatter and interrupting whatever it was trying to do.
Next, Yu Ci captured the Fish-Dragon in the Monster Nest and discovered a peculiar Hook Rope. Now, that Hook Rope was in his Storage Ring. He had even wrapped the two hooks in cloth to prevent them from colliding and causing any more trouble.
Recognizing the extraordinary nature of Hook Rope, coupled with various preceding factors, Yu Ci paid significant attention to the situation. Before being forced to relocate due to the cold wave, he meticulously erased all traces of his presence in the cave and destroyed the remnants of the Demons he had slain under the "eaves," preventing anyone from discovering clues.
Only the Yin Realm Tree was left untouched, as its extensive root system made cleaning extremely time-consuming and potentially ineffective, so he simply gave up.
With these preparations, Yu Ci felt confident in his ability to protect himself. However, the notion of "self-protection" seemed laughable in the face of the grand scheme—viewing the series of events that had occurred in Sky Rift Valley over time, it was clear that this was an astonishingly vast conspiracy, a grand plan. It was like a rapidly advancing cold wave underfoot, grinding everything in its path to dust.
In the face of this cold wave, to stick one's head in the sand was not only laughable, but also absurd. The correct course of action would be to ascend the highest mountain, wait for the cold wave to recede, and then return at leisure.
Therefore, Yu Ci had never felt such an urgent desire to return to the Still Heart Temple and inform Old Daoist Yu Zhou of the events here. In his knowledge, the highest "mountain range" around Sky Rift Valley was undoubtedly the Lichen Sect.
At this moment, Yu Ci spotted a person in the Divine Map, a person who should not be here.
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Leaning his upper body against the cliff wall, Zheng Yan could barely hold himself upright to resist the five or six Demons surrounding him.
He was already at the end of his rope, every slight movement causing hundreds of tiny cracks on his body to reopen, like thousands of tiny knives slowly flaying him. Not to mention the over a dozen broken bones and the Yin Fire gnawing incessantly within his internal organs, swinging him back and forth on the brink of life and death.
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The pain drove him to the brink of madness, making him wish he could crash into the cliff wall behind him and die instantly. He thought about closing his eyes and letting the surrounding Demons devour him.
However, deep in his heart, there was a thought that remained, a thought that roared and spurred him on in his most desperate moments, forcing him to struggle for his life under the sharp claws and fangs of the Demons.
Gradually, he became numb to the pain. Even when a Demon tore off his flesh, he did not react. Only when he felt that a Demon's attack would directly threaten his life would he fight back frantically, summoning the last bit—yet never truly depleted—strength to pull himself back from the brink of death.
His swollen eyes could no longer open, and his ears were filled with a buzzing sound, as if separated by a layer of membrane. Only the occasional howl of a Demon would penetrate, sounding distant and indistinct.
Another Demon pounced, and Zheng Yan strained to open his eyes, trying to fend it off, but it was already too late. He could only try to dodge by moving his shoulder, but at that moment, the Demon let out a shriek and was thrown back.
Zheng Yan was caught off guard, and in that moment, the blow struck.
It was a well-aimed impact at the nape of his neck. The already exhausted Monk Zheng Yan had no consciousness left to resist. His swollen eyes strained to open wide, but they could not withstand the dizzying Black Tide, and in a blink, he was overwhelmed.
Yu Ci slid down from the cliff wall, swiftly dispatching the immature Demons around him. His gaze then fell on the unconscious Monk Zheng Yan, a grin spreading across his face. However, his expression quickly turned serious again.
When he discovered on the Divine Map that this man was in dire straits, Yu Ci had hesitated whether to come over. In the end, he was standing here, saving the Monk from the Demons.
His gaze swept over the Monk, and Yu Ci could confirm that more than half of the Monk's injuries were not inflicted by Birds of Prey or Demons.
He squatted down for a closer inspection. He soon found that the Monk had bruises from burst blood vessels and wounds from internal tears, not to mention fractures from high falls. Particularly severe was a malicious fire energy tangled in his internal organs.
This fire energy was originally in harmony with Zheng Yan's Primordial Qi and his cultivation method, but for some reason, it was now out of control and slowly damaging his organs.
Yu Ci, who had no medical skills, faced this situation with no better solution than to give him a few cooling and fire-defeating pills. These pills, obtained from Steward Liu of the White Sun Mansion, were quite effective and barely suppressed the spread of the fire energy.
At this point, he couldn't help but wonder: What kind of situation could have tortured Monk Zheng Yan, a cultivator of the Nature-Connecting upper stage, into such a state?
In fact, Monk Zheng Yan's appearance was very abrupt. He was not originally in the Divine Map, but after a highly distorted light streaked across the upper region of the Divine Map, he fell from the sky, plummeting all the way down to finally stop on a narrow stone platform, struggling to survive.
His manner of appearance, like him, was very strange.
The fleeting distorted light was astonishingly fast, carrying a powerful impact with its distorted and changing light. It cut through the air with an awe-inspiring momentum. Yu Ci made a comparison and found that only the speed demonstrated by the Ghost Beasts and the Two-headed demon in their chase, observed through the "Three Calls in One Breath" technique, was somewhat similar. The Fish-Dragon was also fast, but compared to the former, it seemed somewhat lightweight.
At that moment, Yu Ci could only think of one possibility: A Vacuum Walking Cultivator!
In the tumultuous Sky Rift Valley, where did all these formidable figures emerge from? Moreover, Monk Zheng Yan was somehow involved.
Ever since witnessing the peculiar conversation between Zheng Yan and Ming Lan, Yu Ci no longer viewed the Monk as an isolated entity but as an unignorable link in the chaos of the Sky Rift Valley. Particularly after observing Zheng Yan's attitude, Yu Ci believed that he might uncover crucial clues to the disorder in the Sky Rift Valley from him, even if the timing was not yet ripe, there would be opportunities in the future.
However, he had to be careful not to let this clue become a "snare", trapping him within.
Yu Ci had yet to ascertain why Monk Zheng Yan appeared so abruptly and ended up in such a tragic state. Given the current mysterious happenings around Sky Rift Valley and Zheng Yan's unpredictable behavior, Yu Ci decided to knock him out before rescuing him, avoiding any direct contact and minimizing the risk.
Of course, if he wanted to avoid risk altogether, he could simply pretend not to see and walk away – after all, it was over ten miles from where he found Zheng Yan to here, why go through the trouble?
The reason was simple: Yu Ci found it hard to imagine turning a blind eye and leaving this "acquaintance", with whom he had conversed for over an hour, to be devoured by demons.
He had to admit, a significant part of his successful ambush on the old demon Tu Du the other day was thanks to Monk Zheng Yan. It was the Monk's detailed description of Tu Du's behavior and the intricacies of Tu Du's magical instrument curse technique that provided support for his subsequent strategy.
Regardless of Monk Zheng Yan's intentions at the time, Yu Ci felt obliged to express his gratitude.
This was his way of showing appreciation.
However, with the added burden of the Monk, he would need to devise a new strategy for the next twenty miles.
After a brief contemplation and a glance at the Divine Map to ensure there were no immediate dangers, Yu Ci took out an item from his Storage Ring.
It was an object that seemed to be made of several layers of light gauze stacked together. It was no more than half a foot in diameter, pure white, finely woven, and appeared round and smooth at the edges. Held in the palm of his hand, it looked like a piece of cloud plucked from the sky.
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I have also posted the following more chapters [All free] on: https://www.readgates.com/article/74a39e