"Good grief! Why does trouble always come when you fear it? Am I really that unlucky?" Haoyun, prompted by Dao Lao's reminder, immediately flipped over and knelt in the divine energy tunnel in a half-crouched position, ready to fight, while feeling resentful.

"Have you cursed us with your mouth or something? Every time you speak, misfortune seems to follow!" Dream Jia, preparing for battle, also scolded Haoyun with annoyance, tapping his waist with the butt of her gun.

"Everyone, remember to activate the maximum power of the Shadow Spirit Realm battle armor's protective shield. Once the divine energy tunnel is breached, we'll rely on this shield to get us out of here! Haoyun, come to the center between us! As soon as the divine energy tunnel breaks, we'll seize the opportunity to fly out. Remember, stick close to us and don't fall behind!" Dao Lao commanded calmly.

"Darn it! There was nothing just a moment ago, how did this massive black mist suddenly appear? That old codger Master Gu! He dared to deceive me! This darn divine energy tunnel isn't as sturdy as he claimed! When I get back, I'll kick his butt!" Dream Jia cursed angrily.

"Forget about that for now! What we need to do is find a way to leave this place as soon as possible!" Dao Lao continued to command calmly, transforming his demon-slaying staff into a long whip and using it to bind Haoyun and the others tightly together, to prevent them from being scattered by the fierce winds hidden within the black mist after the divine energy tunnel shattered.

With a series of shattering glass sounds, the divine energy tunnel finally collapsed under the pressure of the dense black mist, turning into a sky full of golden starlight. Haoyun and his companions were enveloped by the black mist and blown out in an instant as their divine power was drained.

"Ahh! Ahh!" With cries of despair, Haoyun and his companions, like kites with broken strings, helplessly spun in the black mist, unable to control their bodies. Realizing the gravity of the situation, they all tried to activate the system's return function to escape the black hole immediately. However, they found that their systems were not only unable to communicate with the outside world but also malfunctioning due to a fault.

The Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System was specially designed by the Spirit God Realm to assist priests in tracking mold spirit energy in special environments. Under known circumstances, this system had never malfunctioned. In fact, not even priests who used the universally compatible auxiliary systems of the Spirit God Realm experienced system malfunctions when entering black holes. Realizing this, Haoyun and his companions immediately understood that the danger they were facing had likely far exceeded all of the Spirit God Realm's expectations.

However, they didn't have time to think too much about it now. Because, as they were tossed around by the black mist, their consciousness became increasingly unclear, and they fell into a state of delirium. They felt their eyelids getting heavier and their bodies becoming extremely exhausted, as if they hadn't slept for days. Now, while they were desperately persuading themselves to close their eyes and sleep soundly, their subconscious minds were constantly reminding them to stay awake and find a way out of this dangerous situation.

"Ah! Hoo! Hold on! Everyone, you mustn't... sleep—" This was the last cry Haoyun heard from Dao Lao before he finally succumbed to his exhaustion and prepared to close his eyes for a peaceful sleep. Then, everything in Haoyun's mind was dominated by a strong desire to sleep. Meanwhile, the black mist that continued to ravage around them finally quieted down.

After an unknown period, as a wave of coldness swept over him, Haoyun finally woke up in a shiver. Shivering uncontrollably, he slowly opened his eyes and immediately realized that he was curled up lying inside a cold iron cage. The space inside the cage was very spacious, enough for Haoyun, who was 183 centimeters tall, to stand straight. As Haoyun's consciousness gradually returned, he quickly walked to the edge of the iron cage to survey the surroundings.

In front of Haoyun, there was a white beam of light shining down from nowhere. Although the beam was dim, Haoyun could still see the place where he was being held captive. It turned out to be a very rudimentary and dilapidated red canvas tent. Moreover, Haoyun could see that on both sides of the iron cage, there were two other cages of the same size.

"Where is this place? Weren't we just attacked in the black hole? How did we suddenly end up here?" Haoyun pondered, unable to make sense of the previous events. However, since he had lost consciousness suddenly amidst the raging black mist, he had no idea how he had been captured and thrown into this iron cage from the black hole.

"Huh? What's with my hands, my clothes? What's going on!?" Just as Haoyun unconsciously tried to grab the bars of the iron cage, attempting to shake them to see if he could use brute force to bend the bars and escape, he discovered that his hands were wearing gloves shaped like horse hooves.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Then, he noticed that the outfit he had set out in was nowhere to be found. Instead, he was wearing a full-body animal costume. From the style, it seemed like Haoyun was wearing a set of horse-like props, complete with a rainbow tail and a pink pony costume. Even more bizarrely, the costume seemed to be stuck to Haoyun's body, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take it off.

"Who the heck is playing this prank!?" Haoyun, frustrated after failing to remove the horse headpiece from his head, thought to himself.

Huh? Why am I thinking this in my head? This isn't a silent film, why am I not speaking out loud? Haoyun suddenly felt his behavior was strange. So, he opened his mouth to call out Dao Lao and Dream Jia's names. However, to his surprise, Haoyun found that he had lost the ability to speak! Every time he tried to speak, all that came out of his mouth was a series of "neigh, neigh" sounds.

"What the heck is going on!? What did I just call out? Why can't I speak anymore!?" Haoyun, realizing he had lost his ability to speak, became nervous. He began to try speaking continuously, while also rubbing his throat with his hands, as if checking if his vocal cords were malfunctioning. However, no matter how hard he tried, all that came out of Haoyun's mouth was the sound of neighing.

"System, system! Quickly activate the life support function and check my body!" Haoyun, seeing the situation, hurriedly called out to his system in his mind.

However, no matter how much Haoyun called out, his Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System did not respond. Haoyun then discovered an even more serious problem. Although he could still see the interface of his Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System in his consciousness, many of the data and functions on the interface had disappeared. Haoyun immediately realized that his Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System had malfunctioned.

This was a system created by the Spirit God Realm! How could it suddenly malfunction? Haoyun widened his eyes, unable to believe it, and checked his system again. At the same time, Haoyun was also desperately trying to recover his mental strength so that he could quickly confirm whether the environment he was in now was real or created by someone as an illusion.

Haoyun took a deep breath and stabilized his emotions, then began to check each function of the system one by one. Eventually, when Haoyun tried to activate the system's functions, he found that each function of the system was showing an error message and was unable to be used. Finally, when Haoyun opened the Mold Spirit Energy Detection function, he finally felt a chill. Because, although the Mold Spirit Energy Detection function was also showing as unavailable, it had completed the last Mold Spirit Energy detection work before malfunctioning, and the detection result was fixed at—Haoyun's Mold Luck Level was three-star, and the unknown area's Mold Luck Level was six-star.

Mold Spirit Energy! It's Mold Spirit Energy again! It seems that Elina has indeed hidden in the black hole VOID-5173. Moreover, not only that, but Elina also used the black mist to ambush them just now. This was Haoyun's first reaction after seeing the detection result of the Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System in his mind.

Then, Haoyun immediately realized that things might not be as simple as imagined. Why, why would there be Mold Luck Levels appearing on my body? I am already an assistant priest of the Spirit God Realm. Logically speaking, Mold Spirit Energy should not be able to invade my body and cause interference, let alone appear as Mold Luck Levels on my body?

No! Could it be that the sealed Mold Spirit Energy inside me is causing trouble? Could it be that they took advantage of the chaos to occupy my body and immerse me in this illusion? Haoyun couldn't help but shudder at the thought. He quickly took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, while also delving into his body with his consciousness, and using his mental strength to try to sense the extent of the Mold Spirit Energy's invasion of his body.

"Haoyun! Dream Jia! If you hear me, please respond! This is Dao Lao! If you hear me, please respond!" Just as Haoyun was contemplating, Dao Lao's voice suddenly entered his mind.

Haoyun was delighted, while also cursing himself for making such a basic mistake in dealing with emergencies. Because as soon as he woke up and found strange things happening one after another, Haoyun was so focused on checking his own condition that he forgot to contact Dao Lao and Dream Jia as soon as possible. It was only because of this that he did not realize that some communication functions in his system were still usable.

Haoyun quickly replied to Dao Lao: "Dao Lao! Can you hear me speaking? I'm Haoyun! Can you hear me speaking!?"

"I can hear you, I can hear you! Phew! I just woke up and found myself trapped in an iron cage. Haoyun, where are you now?" Although Dao Lao also noticed something strange on his end, he still calmly replied.

"I'm also trapped in a cage! Which cage are you in? I'm here!" Haoyun immediately stretched his hand out of the iron cage, waving it at the other two cages. At the same time, Haoyun, who had not yet adapted to his loss of speech, was still banging on the bars of the iron cage and shouting loudly, but all that came out of his mouth were a few loud neighs.

However, although unable to speak, the noises made by Haoyun's hand movements quickly attracted Dao Lao's attention. Soon, Haoyun saw Dao Lao's figure in another iron cage.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you?" Haoyun, after seeing Dao Lao's appearance, couldn't help but ask in surprise through the system channel.

"Damn it! Who are you? How the hell did you end up like this? Are you participating in a role-playing event? Why the hell didn't I know you had this hobby?" Dao Lao exclaimed in bewilderment as he approached the iron cage and, aided by the dim light, saw Haoyun clearly.

Of course, both Haoyun and Dao Lao's inquiries were conveyed to each other through the system. In reality, both of them only emitted a series of "neigh, neigh" sounds and "moo, moo" sounds respectively, without anyone actually uttering a complete sentence.