"Alright," Lin Shiqi agreed, "Dream Butterfly and I will wait nearby for you. Don't go too far, come back quickly."

"Then I'll leave Dream Butterfly to you for protection," Qin Yan said, then immediately flew towards the nearest large mountain to carefully search for traces of the ancient tomb in various corners of the nearby mountain.

Several hours later, Qin Yan flew back and reunited with Lin Shiqi and Dream Butterfly.

"I've checked this area, but didn't see anything resembling an ancient tomb," Qin Yan said.

"Let's go look elsewhere then," Lin Shiqi suggested.

And so, they began searching for the ancient tomb in the towering mountains. Days later, they arrived at a tall, steep, dark red mountain. Most of the mountains in the area were dark black rocky mountains, making this entirely dark red mountain stand out among the surrounding peaks.

"This mountain is so unique. Could the ancient tomb be inside this mountain?" Lin Shiqi gazed at the dark red rocky mountain at the foot of the hill.

Qin Yan said, "There's a possibility. Let's do as usual. You two stay down here in a safe and hidden place, and I'll go up to take a look."

Curiosity piqued by the dark red mountain, Lin Shiqi said, "This mountain is so special, why don't Dream Butterfly and I go up to take a look too? We're just waiting here doing nothing anyway."

"If you don't mind climbing, then let's go up together."

So the three of them climbed up the rugged mountain path towards the dark red mountain. As the mountain was extremely high and the path steep and rugged, Lin Shiqi and Dream Butterfly couldn't freely fly like Qin Yan, so their progress was slow, and it took them half a day to reach halfway up the mountain.

"What's that?!" Suddenly, Lin Shiqi pointed to a spacious area on the mountainside.

Qin Yan looked towards the spot she indicated and saw several ancient stone buildings that looked like houses standing on the mountainside. Qin Yan's spirits lifted, "Could the entrance to the ancient tomb be here?"

They hurried towards the open area on the mountainside. After a while, they reached the vicinity of the stone buildings. Qin Yan surveyed the surroundings and realized that the buildings were made of stone, but he didn't see the entrance to the tomb.

"It seems the tomb is not here. But since there are human-made structures here, it's possible that people live on this mountain. Let me see if I can call out to anyone living here." Qin Yan shouted towards the buildings, "Is anyone here?"

The surroundings fell silent, with no response or anyone coming out of the buildings. Only Qin Yan's loud voice echoed through the mountains. He shouted several times, but the situation remained the same.

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"Are these empty houses? Is there no one living here?" Lin Shiqi wondered, when suddenly faint sounds of wild beasts howling came from a distance.

"Did you hear that? It sounded like wild beasts howling just now." Lin Shiqi quickly looked around, but the nearby area was empty, with no sign of any wild animals.

"I heard it too. The sound is coming from somewhere I can't pinpoint." Qin Yan said, looking around in confusion.

"Awooo—", "Roar—", "Hiss—"

At that moment, howls of wild beasts came from all directions, growing in number. What started as one or two howls soon turned into six or seven, then ten to twenty howls of wild beasts.

Hearing these howls, Lin Shiqi's face slightly changed, "What's going on? Why are there more and more howls? I feel like there are already dozens of wild beasts howling now. Where are they all coming from?"

Qin Yan sensed that something was out of the ordinary and said, "Shiqi, Dream Butterfly, stay here. I'll go take a look."

With that, he flew out from the mountainside, hovering in the high sky and looking down. It was then that he froze. A large group of various types of monsters were gathering at the foot of the dark red mountain, swiftly heading towards the mountain. These monsters came in various shapes, including horse-like, deer-like, tiger-cow-wild boar-like creatures, totaling around thirty to forty in number. They were not engaging in any conflicts, but rather, they were all climbing up the rugged mountain path towards the location of the buildings on the mountainside.

Although uncertain why these monsters were heading towards the mountain, Qin Yan felt something was amiss. He quickly flew back to the open area on the mountainside and urgently told Lin Shiqi and Dream Butterfly, "It's not good. A large group of monsters, around thirty to forty in number, are heading towards us, and their numbers are increasing."

"So many monsters? What do we do?" Lin Shiqi was starting to panic. Dealing with a few monsters would be manageable, but facing so many presented a challenge.

Qin Yan pondered and realized that with the area below swarming with monsters, a direct descent would lead to a conflict with them, which was too risky. The only option was to find a way to avoid this group of monsters.

Looking up towards the peak of the dark red mountain, Qin Yan said, "There's no other choice. Since the area below is filled with monsters, we can only go up."

"We have no other option," Lin Shiqi agreed.

Qin Yan handed the three-pointed spear weapon to Lin Shiqi and then stood by Dream Butterfly's side, lifting her around the waist. "Hold on tight, be careful not to fall," he said.

Dream Butterfly nodded, her hands tightly wrapped around Qin Yan's neck. With a strong step on the ground and using his ability to change gravity, Qin Yan lifted off the ground with Dream Butterfly in his arms, swiftly leaping up the high mountain. Lin Shiqi also used her magic ability to fly on the mountain, closely following Qin Yan and Dream Butterfly, heading straight towards the peak.

After a while, they reached the summit and landed on a flat area. Qin Yan stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down. The group of monsters had reached the halfway point and continued to approach the peak. The fastest ones were already close to the top, and it seemed they would soon reach it.

"These monsters are crazy. We didn't provoke them, why are they chasing us?" Lin Shiqi looked down at the swarm of monsters rushing towards the mountain, feeling panicked and angry.

"It's alright. When they get closer, we'll jump off the cliff. By the time they reach the top, they won't be able to catch up," Qin Yan reassured.

"This is strange," Dream Butterfly seemed to have sensed something and murmured, looking at the distant group of monsters below. "Normally, the monsters in this world live alone and rarely move in groups. Now, with so many monsters gathered and acting together, there's only one possible explanation..."