392: Chapter 392 Rock and Soil Behemoth

"Junior Brother Ye... that sword strike just now..."

Dongfang Xinghe caught his breath, his eyes filled with shock as he looked at Ye Tian.

The power of that sword and its Concept that repelled all evil had completely exceeded his understanding.

Shui Qingdie's beautiful eyes also shimmered with brilliance as she watched Ye Tian's back, her heart surging with emotions.

"Damn it... we finally killed it..." Pei Tieshan slumped on the ground, cursing as he looked at his blackened arm, though his tone was full of admiration.

"Junior Brother Ye, that move of yours just now was truly impressive! Hearing that ghost scream was so satisfying!"

Ye Tian walked to Pei Tieshan's side, crouched down, and pressed his hand onto his arm.

Chaos True Essence was slowly channeled into him, carrying life-giving properties to force out the icy Death Qi that had invaded his arm, bit by bit.

Pei Tieshan only felt a warm surge of numbing lightning power enter him; the blackness on his arm gradually faded, and the numbness and stinging pain began to subside.

"Thank you, Junior Brother Ye!" Pei Tieshan grinned. Although his face was still a bit pale, his spirits were much better.

"You're too kind, Senior Brother Pei." Ye Tian then checked on Dongfang Xinghe and Shui Qingdie; the two were mainly suffering from excessive consumption of True Essence and mental shock, but they were not in serious danger. They just needed to take Medicinal Pills and regulate their breathing.

"I don't want to stay in this ghostly place for another moment." Dongfang Xinghe looked at the dim little tree and the grey soil with lingering fear.

"That Senior's remains..." Shui Qingdie looked at the jade-colored skeleton leaning against the tree roots.

As the underground evil was completely purified, the skeleton seemed to lose its last bit of spirituality. The warm luster on its surface quickly dimmed, turning into an ordinary grayish-white.

"Let him rest in peace," Ye Tian said softly.

If not for the warning from this nameless Senior, they would have been in grave danger.

He walked over, dug a pit with his sword far from the tree's roots, and carefully moved the remains inside to bury them.

There was no monument or name; it was simply a gesture of respect.

After completing this, the four did not dare to linger any longer.

Ye Tian took one last look at the dull emerald tree and the remaining bi ning fruits before quickly leading the three out of the valley, which had suddenly become somewhat eerie.

Not long after they left, several figures cautiously crept into the valley from different tunnel entrances.

"That strong energy fluctuation and that scream just now... it came from here!"

"Look! There are battle marks! Such a strong lightning aura... and a lingering coldness, though it's dissipating now."

"Is that... a spiritual tree? It's a pity it seems to have lost most of its spirituality... Hmm? There's freshly buried soil on the ground?"

"It's bi ning fruits! Although most of their spirituality has drained away, they are still rare spiritual items! Quick, pick them!"

The newcomers discovered the remaining bi ning fruits and were overjoyed, scrambling to snatch them up. None of them knew of the danger that had occurred here moments ago, nor the story behind the hastily buried remains.

In a certain fork of the maze, Ye Tian and the other three were taking the time to regulate their breathing.

"Senior Brother Pei, how is the sensing of your token?" Ye Tian looked at Pei Tieshan.

Pei Tieshan concentrated on sensing for a moment and pointed in one direction: "That way! It's clearer than before, it should be close! And..."

A look of joy appeared on his face. "It seems to be not far from the direction Junior Brother Dongfang was heading earlier!"

Ye Tian also sensed the direction of Shui Qingdie's water element token and his own chaos token, finding that the direction Pei Tieshan sensed was indeed not far off from Dongfang Xinghe's Wood Element Token.

Meanwhile, the sensing for the water element token leaned more toward another direction.

"We'll help Senior Brother Pei get his token first, then look for Senior Sister Shui's, and finally find mine," Ye Tian decided.

The sensing for the chaos token was the most blurred and seemed to be the furthest, so it was left for last.

After resting for a while until Pei Tieshan's arm was mostly recovered, the four set off again.

This time, the journey was much calmer. They encountered no significant obstacles or ambushes, only taking out two second-rank Yao Beasts along the way.

About half an hour later, they arrived at the location Pei Tieshan had sensed.

This was a cave located at the edge of the maze. One side of the cave was a hard rock wall, while the other was a bottomless abyss.

In the center of the cave, near the rock wall, sat a brownish-grey boulder.

The boulder emitted thick fluctuations of earth element Spiritual Qi. Above it floated a mass of earthy-yellow light, in the center of which a mountain-shaped Talisman Seal slowly rotated—it was the earth element token.

"Haha! Found it! It's my Earth Seal!" Pei Tieshan was overjoyed and was about to step forward.

"Wait." Ye Tian stopped him again, his sharp eyes scanning the cave, lingering for a moment on the bottomless abyss and the boulder. "Something's not right."

"Not right?" Pei Tieshan froze, stopped in his tracks, and looked around vigilantly.

The cave was very quiet, with only the sound of the wind. The boulder and the earth element token appeared perfectly normal.

Shui Qingdie and Dongfang Xinghe also concentrated their senses but found no dangerous aura.

Ye Tian frowned slightly. His spiritual sense was more powerful and acute than the other three present, and the chaos bead also gave him a vague sense of danger.

He felt that this cave was too 'clean'.

Pei Tieshan's earth element token was right here, and with such obvious earth element Spiritual Qi fluctuations, it hadn't attracted any Yao Beasts or other coveters? That was abnormal.

"Junior Brother Ye, under that rock... there seems to be something."

Shui Qingdie said in a low voice. She cultivated a water-attribute technique, so her sensing of the earth and rocks wasn't as acute as an earth-attribute user, but she was born with extraordinary intuition and vaguely felt the ground beneath the boulder was somewhat 'hollow,' not solid.

Hearing this, Ye Tian became even more alert.

He nonchalantly picked up a stone from the ground, weighed it, and then used some force to hurl it at the millstone-sized boulder!

Sure enough!

The moment the stone was about to hit the boulder, a violent roar erupted from deep beneath their feet, and the entire cave shook violently!

The seemingly ordinary millstone-sized boulder suddenly bulged upward!

No, it wasn't bulging; rather, beneath it, a massive, hideous head made of rock and earth pushed the boulder aside and burst out from the ground!

The boulder rolled to the side, and that earthy-yellow light mass and mountain Talisman Seal were floating exactly at the center of that hideous head's forehead!

Amidst the flying dust, a behemoth nearly thirty feet tall, composed entirely of hard rock and earth, slowly stood up from underground!

It was shaped like a giant ape, but its head more closely resembled a brown bear. Its eyes were two hollows burning with earthy-yellow flames, and its entire body emitted a violent, terrifying aura!

The strength of its aura had reached the early Fourth Stage, equivalent to a human Cultivator at the Fourth Stage of Sea Transformation!

And that 'earth element token' was embedded in its forehead like a third eye!

"This... this token is growing on that monster's head?!" Pei Tieshan was dumbfounded.

The Rock-Earth Behemoth lowered its head, its eye sockets burning with earthy-yellow flames locking onto the four 'little bugs' that had disturbed its slumber, especially Ye Tian, who had hit its 'head' with a stone. It let out a deafening roar:

"Roar! Trespassing into my domain, disturbing my slumber... die!"