271: Chapter 271 The Battle Begins

She stood up, took her leave of the two Elders, left the back hall, and walked straight into the courtyard, calling out the Disciples who were currently cultivating.

"Tomorrow, you may enter the interior of the mountain range to gain experience by hunting Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts."

The Disciples were stunned for a breath before they began to cheer.

"Don't get excited too soon," Su Yunling interrupted coldly. "Let me be clear: this trip is limited to Disciples at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining and above. Those at the sixth or seventh layers should not go."

"Also, you only have one chance to ask for help." She scanned the Disciples' faces. "Once you ask for help, it’s equivalent to giving up. I will bring you all back, and after that, you will stay honestly in Heming City until the end of the trial. There won't be a second time."

"During this time, whether you use Formations, Magical Artifacts, or Talismans is up to you."

The courtyard fell silent for two breaths.

Liu Ce was the first to respond: "Understood!"

The rest of the Disciples followed suit in unison.

Having said her piece, Su Yunling turned and returned to her room.

Since the Elders had spoken, she did not continue to push back. Since it was an opportunity the Disciples had fought for themselves, she would let them handle it.

She wanted to see just how much skill this group—who were howling after being provoked by the Qingxuan Sect and the Hundred Beasts Gate—truly possessed when faced with a life-or-death crisis.

On the morning of the twenty-seventh day, the twelve-person team traveled south along the beast paths on the inner side of the mountain range, continuing deeper after crossing the three-hundred-li boundary line.

Su Yunling did not follow within the team.

Before setting out, she had attached a Positioning Talisman to the inside of each Disciple's Daoist robe. Once activated with spiritual power, it could sense the wearer's location at any time within an effective range of thirty li.

The Disciples were unaware of its existence, and Su Yunling had no intention of telling them.

She and Wenren Zimo followed from several hundred meters above the team. The forest within the mountain range was dense with continuous canopies, making it impossible to see anything from the ground looking up.

The two of them suppressed their auras, each treading on a Flying Sword and keeping their speed low, maintaining a consistent distance from the Disciples.

The range of Divine Sense for a Cultivator at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage is around several hundred meters; both Su Yunling and Wenren Zimo were at this level.

Probing downward from high altitude, a coverage of several hundred meters happened to envelop the Disciples' team, but judging more distant situations relied solely on vision and experience.

As the Disciples ventured deeper, they encountered two groups of first-rank Yao Beasts. Liu Ce led the group to bypass one and fight through the other, handling things quite appropriately.

From the side, Wenren Zimo glanced at Su Yunling's expression but asked nothing.

Su Yunling also said nothing. Regardless of whether the Disciples fought well or not, as long as no one asked for help or was about to die, she would not appear.

After traveling deep for most of the day, the Disciples set up camp to rest by evening.

Su Yunling and Wenren Zimo landed on the back of a ridge half a li away from the camp, taking turns to keep watch without lighting a fire or showing themselves.

On the twenty-eighth day, they did not encounter any Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts all day.

Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts have extremely strong territorial awareness, each occupying its own area. Their density is far sparser than that of first-rank Yao Beasts, so it was normal not to run into any.

However, by the evening of the twenty-eighth day, things changed.

The Tiangang Sect was not the only Qi Refining team active in the heart of the mountain range.

Loose Cultivators—a large number of Loose Cultivators were also traversing this area.

They were much bolder than Sect Disciples, venturing deep into the mountains in groups of three to five, making a living by gathering Spirit Medicines and hunting first-rank Yao Beasts.

Occasionally, if they ran into a Foundation Establishment Yao Beast, they would run; if they couldn't run, they would die. Day after day, year after year.

From high above, Su Yunling saw the Disciples stop. Liu Ce approached a dried-up riverbed to talk with three people who looked like Loose Cultivators.

She focused her Divine Sense to probe downward. She couldn't hear the conversation clearly, but judging by Liu Ce handing over Spirit Stones and the Loose Cultivators pointing in a direction, he was likely asking for information about Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts.

A moment later, the Disciples set off again, their direction shifting toward the southeast.

Su Yunling adjusted her flight direction to follow, while also checking the feedback from the Positioning Talismans. All twelve Talismans were normal; no one had fallen behind.

The Disciples rested for the night and continued their journey on the morning of the twenty-ninth day.

After traveling more than seventy li along the riverbed, the terrain changed. The slopes on both sides narrowed, the shrubs became sparse, and the soil on the ground turned dark, with a scorched, cracked appearance.

The concentration of Spiritual Qi dropped sharply, more than twenty to thirty percent lower than the outer regions.

Looking down from high altitude, Su Yunling saw the terrain becoming increasingly desolate.

In her mind, she pulled up the map of the Monster Beast Mountain Range she had seen before. If they continued another two hundred li deeper in this direction, they would be close to the Soul-Severing Ravine area.

However, a distance of two hundred li within the mountain range was not close; it shouldn't be related to that toxic miasma area.

The Disciples came to a halt.

Looking from above, Liu Ce sent two people forward to scout. They returned in less than fifteen minutes. The twelve of them gathered to discuss for a while and then began to spread out into positions.

Su Yunling extended her Divine Sense a bit further down and caught spiritual power fluctuations ahead. A dark green long snake was coiled on a large flat rock among a pile of rubble. The snake's body was over four zhang long, as thick as a bowl, and its scales shimmered with purple light.

Early Foundation Establishment Stage, and it didn't look like it had just achieved a Breakthrough; its spiritual power fluctuations were very steady.

"A snake demon, Early Foundation Establishment Stage," Su Yunling said softly to Wenren Zimo.

Wenren Zimo looked down at the figures of the Disciples setting up a Formation, his hand resting on his Magical Artifact.

Su Yunling shook her head. The two of them crouched among the canopies on the ridge, watching from their high vantage point.

By this time, the Disciples had already made their move.

Four Disciples at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining were the first to attack from the north. Two Sword Qi, one hammer glow, and one spear shadow—four spiritual lights struck simultaneously toward the large rock where the snake demon resided.

The snake demon's pupils snapped open. Its four-zhang-long body lunged from the rock, spitting out a spray of dark purple venom.

The venom splashed toward the four people. The four Disciples had already retreated; the venom landed where they had been standing, and the cracked soil hissed as it was corroded into four fist-sized pits.

Perhaps seeing that there were many Cultivators, the snake demon did not linger for a fight, turning to dash toward the east.

"Formation, rise!"

Liu Ce's shout drifted up from below.

Eight people deployed the Tiangang Combined Strike Formation on the snake demon's escape route. Eight Medium Grade Magical Artifacts hummed simultaneously, their spiritual power converging and layering through the Formation. Eight streaks of Sword Qi wove into a dense net, blocking the snake demon's path.

The snake demon crashed straight into it.

The dense net vibrated violently. The scales on the snake's head were marked with several white lines by the Sword Qi, but the skin was not broken.

It recoiled in pain, its body suddenly coiling as its tail swept across.

The Formation barely withstood the sweep, but two Disciples at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer slipped and stumbled back two steps. Their positions shifted, and a gap appeared in the dense net of Sword Qi.

The snake demon possessed no small amount of intelligence. Its eyes shifted, locking onto the gap, and its body lunged toward it.

Liu Ce grabbed the Junior Brother whose position had shifted and pulled him back, while simultaneously slapping a first-rank High Grade Thunder Strike Talisman out of his Storage Pouch. The Talisman's light flared, transforming into a bowl-thick white lightning arc that struck half a foot above the snake demon's head.

The lightning didn't hit directly, but the spiritual power aftershock forced the snake demon back two zhang, allowing the dense net to close again.

The snake demon was blocked back. Its head reared high, its tongue flickering incessantly, and the dark purple toxic gas around it began to thicken.

"It's going to release toxic mist! Scatter!" Liu Ce shouted.