267: Chapter 267 He is Lu Ya

"One month." The Spirit Talisman Sect leader raised a finger. "In another month, the Formation will be finalized, the Golden Core True Person will be in place, and we will enter the valley to retrieve the Wood Spirit. Until then, nothing must go wrong in the Soul-Severing Ravine."

The four looked at each other and nodded in unison.

Outside the tent, the night wind swept through the dense forest, carrying the peculiar pungent and bitter scent of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.

In the distance, the mountain ridge was outlined with a cold, hard silhouette by the moonlight. On the outer edge of that ridge, four young teams from Qinghe Prefecture were resting peacefully in Heming City, completely unaware of the murderous intent surging like an undercurrent in the heart of the mountains four hundred miles away.

The next day, at the first light of dawn.

When Su Yunling pushed open the door, Wenren Zimo was already standing in the courtyard.

Behind him stood twenty-three people in neat rows. Due to their numbers, they were divided into seven small teams: five groups of three and two groups of four.

Su Yunling scanned the line with an expressionless face.

“Let's go.”

Su Yunling used her tool to lead the group into the air, flying out of the south gate of Heming City and heading deep into the dense forests of the Monster Beast Mountain Range.

The morning light crept up from behind the ridge, dyeing the entire mountain range in varying shades of dark green.

In the depths where she could not see, the toxic miasma of the Soul-Severing Ravine was slowly rising from the valley floor. Two Nether-molt Pythons that had been entrenched for nearly a thousand years shed a new layer of scales on the valley's stone walls, their grey-green bodies growing a circle thicker.

In the deepest part of the valley, within that patch of Dead Lands, two Wood Spirits grew quietly enveloped in the toxic miasma. Their tiny roots dug into the rock crevices, absorbing the last wisp of vitality from beneath the Dead Lands.

No one would have expected that the two Nether-molt Pythons at the bottom of the Soul-Severing Ravine would complete their shedding at this critical juncture.

The shedding of python-type Yao Beasts is not a simple molting, but a long period of dormancy. Under the dual nourishment of the old scales and the toxic miasma, the new shell growing beneath the scales finally cracked and pushed off the previous layer of keratin after decades of accumulation.

The new scales were thicker and harder, and the toxicity contained within their bodies was even more intense.

The moment the shedding was complete, the aura of the two thousand-year-old pythons stepped steadily from the Late Golden Core Stage into the Peak Golden Core stage.

This change was extremely well-hidden. The Nether-molt Pythons already lived deep at the bottom of the valley, practicing by breathing the toxic miasma daily. Their spiritual power fluctuations were shielded layer by layer by the valley walls and the toxic gas.

Even the Crow Eye Sub-devices deployed by the four Sects of Pingling Prefecture around the Soul-Severing Ravine could not detect the anomalies deep in the valley. The upper limit of those devices' sensing range was Foundation Establishment-level Spiritual Pressure; the changes in Golden Core Yao Beasts were simply not within their preset parameters.

The people of Pingling Prefecture were completely unaware of this.

And they could hardly be blamed. Since setting up camp outside the valley, the four leaders had never sent anyone inside the Soul-Severing Ravine to investigate.

A high concentration of toxic miasma filled the interior year-round, which even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could not withstand for more than an hour. Combined with the two Late Golden Core Stage pythons entrenched within, anyone who went in would die. Even approaching within ten yards of the valley entrance carried immense risk.

Their plan was to wait until the Golden Core True Person arrived before taking action. Until then, everything prioritized concealment and layout.

Thus, the four leaders knew nothing about when the two pythons had shed their scales or how much their strength had increased afterward.

Another change at the bottom of the valley was also overlooked: the two Wood Spirits.

The Wood Spirits used the Dead Lands as soil and the toxic miasma as fertilizer, drawing that last wisp of remaining worldly vitality from the rock crevices at the deepest part of the valley.

During the Nether-molt Pythons' shedding period, a large amount of discarded old scales and keratin fragments covered in venom accumulated around the Wood Spirits' roots. These things were highly toxic to other spiritual objects, but for the Wood Spirits, they were excellent nutrients.

Extreme life born from the depths of death; the Wood Spirits' roots were nearly twice as thick as they had been a month ago, and the buds at the tips had begun to emit a faint emerald green fluorescence.

In another half a month, these two Wood Spirits would enter their maturation period.

At that time, the vitality emitted by the mature Wood Spirits would penetrate the toxic miasma layer and spread outside the valley, affecting spiritual plants and Spirit Beasts within a hundred-mile radius.

That overwhelming burst of vitality would be impossible to hide, even more conspicuous than the spiritual power fluctuations of a Golden Core Cultivator.

The two pythons were also eyeing them greedily. Thousand-year-old pythons were not mindless creatures; having guarded the bottom of the valley for so many years, they had long since regarded those two Wood Spirits as treasures in their own backyard.

Once the Wood Spirits matured, the Bloodline within the pythons would undergo a violent mutation after consumption. On top of their original single poison-attribute Foundation, an additional Wood-attribute talent would be derived.

Not only would their Physical Body strength and toxic miasma concentration reach a new level, but they could also produce brand-new Divine Abilities.

For a Yao Beast, the improvement brought by mutation is far more ferocious than simple cultivation accumulation; it is equivalent to gaining a whole new evolutionary path out of thin air.

The four Sects were waiting, and the Nether-molt Pythons were also waiting.

Meanwhile, within a three-hundred-mile radius of the outer Monster Beast Mountain Range, nearly a hundred Qi Refining Disciples from the four major Sects of Qinghe Prefecture were completely oblivious to all this.

They were busy with more immediate matters: hunting first-rank Yao Beasts day after day, accumulating contribution points, and honing their Spells.

For the first ten days, everything went smoothly for the team led by Su Yunling.

The seven squads set out on time, returned to camp on time, and submitted Yao cores to record their contribution points on time.

The cooperation between the Disciples became more and more seamless, and their Formation drills went from awkward to proficient. The average number of kills per group rose from ten to fifteen.

first-rank Yao Beasts were not very difficult for Cultivators at the seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth layers of Qi Refining, as long as they didn't encounter pack-dwelling types.

By the twelfth day, the Tiangang Sect Disciples had already cleared out most of the first-rank Yao Beasts within a hundred-mile radius.

Those Yao Beasts weren't stupid; after being hunted so much, they learned to avoid the area. The Disciples had to travel further and further, and their catches became fewer and fewer.

Overall, however, things remained peaceful.

Starting from the fifteenth day, communication between the Disciples of the four Sects increased.

Heming City was only so large, and the outposts of each Sect were not far apart. When the Disciples changed clothes to go shopping in the streets, it was inevitable they would run into people from other Sects.

On the eighteenth day, two Qi Refining Ninth Layer Disciples from the Wanfa Pavilion chatted with some Tiangang Sect people in the market, mentioning that some Disciples from the Qingxuan Sect were clamoring to try their luck deeper in the mountains.

"Have you heard of Lu Ya from the Qingxuan Sect? He is at the Peak Tenth Layer Qi Refining, and his Revered Master is even the Sect Master."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ce, a Disciple of the Tiangang Sect, said, "I have naturally heard of Senior Brother Lu Ya's name. Among the Qi Refining Disciples of the four Sects, his strength can be ranked in the top five."

The Wanfa Pavilion Disciple lowered his voice: "I heard he isn't satisfied with these few first-rank Yao Beasts on the outskirts and plans to lead people outside the designated trial area to the depths of the mountains to encounter Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts. Their leading Elder didn't stop them either; it's likely the Sect has tacitly approved it."

Liu Ce didn't respond, but the expression on his face clearly showed a bit more resentment.

If the people from the Qingxuan Sect dared to go after Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts, how could their Tiangang Sect, as the number one Sect in Qinghe Prefecture, let them steal the spotlight?

And so it reached the twentieth day, and the Qingxuan Sect side was no longer just clamoring.

Lu Ya formally proposed in the courtyard of his Sect's outpost to enter the area beyond three hundred miles into the mountains to hunt Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts.

If these words had come from anyone else, they would be considered madness, but coming from Lu Ya, the Disciples only felt their blood boiling with excitement.

He was Lu Ya.

He was at the Peak Tenth Layer Qi Refining, the Sect Master's Personal Disciple, and the leading figure of the Qingxuan Sect's younger generation.

He believed he had the strength and the trump cards to handle it, and the matter was not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Lu Ya remembered the night before leaving the Sect, when his Revered Master had sought him out for a private conversation.