After a dizzying whirl, Tang Xin and Zhou Yu found themselves in a somewhat dim, mysterious space.
Looking around, it resembled an underground labyrinth with passages crisscrossing in all directions, leading everywhere. At the entrances and exits, there were a few signs, but they gave no indication of what lay at the other end of the passages.
The size of this cave was far beyond everyone’s expectations.
At the entrance, Zhou Yu found another piece of a torn handkerchief, confirming their guess that Shangguan Qing’er and Liu Mei had indeed entered the cave.
“The demonic cultivators have followed us in…”
Tang Xin pointed to several pools of blood on the ground and said.
It seemed that Shangguan Qing’er’s situation was more dire than theirs; she hadn’t been able to completely shake off the demonic cultivators and had been forced to enter this place.
However, on the other hand, this was indeed a good place to shake off enemies and hide.
Facing enemies in greater numbers, they might even use the maze-like terrain to defeat the opponents one by one.
But the problem was, how could they meet up with Shangguan Qing’er and the others?
Zhou Yu walked around the exit, taking deep breaths.
“I can smell my senior sister… I’m very familiar with her scent.”
“?”
Girl, do you usually sniff your senior sister to death?
Seeing Tang Xin giving her a “are you also a pervert?” look, Zhou Yu blushed and explained.
“Well, I often help senior sister tidy up her room and wash her clothes, so I’m quite familiar with her scent, it’s not what you’re thinking…”
Rolling around in senior sister’s bed? Putting senior sister’s underwear over your head?
Following the lingering scent, this time led by Zhou Yu, the two navigated through the passages.
After a dark and slippery journey, a beam of light shone in from ahead, suddenly brightening the entire space.
“There’s another formation,” Zhou Yu pointed at the exit of the passage, “but it seems to pose no threat.”
Testing the array formation, a dangerous task, was naturally left to the higher realm Tang Xin.
She circulated her true qi and carefully stepped forward.
Nothing happened.
“No problem, come on over.”
After confirming, Zhou Yu confidently crossed through the array.
Then—
“Beep beep beep, intruder detected!”
The “wooden stake people” at the exit, which had been motionless, suddenly emitted a shrill noise, rotated a few times, and then pounced towards them.
Tang Xin reacted swiftly, immediately assuming a combat stance, ready to engage in a fierce battle with them.
However… these wooden stake people all bypassed her from both sides, as if ignoring her presence, and headed straight for Zhou Yu.
“What are these…!”
Zhou Yu clumsily fought back, entangling with the wooden stake people.
What’s going on here?
【Option generation in progress…】
【Option one: Shout “Disarm the guard.”】
【Success rate 100%, reward: a bottle of jasmine tea.】
【Option two: Roll up your sleeves and fight hard.】
【Success rate 100%, reward: a bottle of rock sugar pear syrup.】
【Option three: Stand by and shout “Go for it!”】
【Success rate 100%, reward: a bottle of chilled cola.】
Are there any differences between the rewards for these three options?
After pondering for a few seconds and adhering to the peace-loving principle of talking over fighting, Tang Xin called out, “Disarm the guards?”
Creak—
The wooden stake figures instantly froze, collapsing one after another to the ground.
This situation left both onlookers dumbfounded.
“How did you do that?”
“How did I do it?” Tang Xin scratched his head. “Never mind, that’s not important. Can you still smell Shangguan Qing’er?”
“It’s become much more chaotic,” Zhou Yu frowned. “It seems like other people have been here…”
“Whoo-whoo—”
The little fox hidden in Tang Xin’s collar gave a couple of whines.
“Are you saying there’s a strong foul smell here?”
Due to the bond between a spiritual pet and its master, Tang Xin could understand its meaning.
“Hahaha,” suddenly, a somewhat shrill laughter echoed around them. “I knew someone would walk right into our trap, meow!”
Swoosh!
From behind several stone statues, four cultivators with a formidable aura emerged, led by a woman with a long tail and pointed ears.
“This time we can make a big score, meow!”
…
The cave was eerily quiet.
After a while, Tang Xin finally spoke to Zhou Yu.
“Are these the same people who were chasing us before?”
“No.”
Zhou Yu nodded.
She clearly remembered the appearances of those demonic cultivators; none of them had a tail like the half-demon behind them.
Half-demons, the offspring produced from the union of humans and transformed spiritual beasts.
These beings are neither accepted by humans nor truly welcomed by the demon clans, existing in limbo between the two groups.
Typically, when a spiritual beast cultivates to a high level and can transform into a human, it has shed its original restraints and becomes a “demon.”
If it can pass down its evolved bloodline and establish a clan, it can be called a “demon clan.”
For spiritual beasts to transform into demons is difficult, and to pass down their bloodline is even rarer. Therefore, the purity of the bloodline is highly valued by the demon clans, and naturally, they would not accept a “half-demon.”
Also, due to their distinctly “non-human” appearance, they are hardly accepted by most humans.
Of course, this excludes some with special preferences, since human desires are free…
“Surrender now, meow!” the cat demon woman sneered, “We of the Meow Meow Gang only rob, we don’t kill!”
She spread her palm, and sharp claws extended out, looking very intimidating.
In terms of cultivation level, she was even higher than Tang Xin, at the peak of the Foundation Building ninth rank.
Her subordinates, all high-level Foundation Building cultivators, held an overwhelming advantage over their side.
“The first question,” Tang Xin said calmly, “are you demonic cultivators?”
“Pretending to be calm, huh? Watch me…”
Before the cat demon could finish, she was caught by those “chilling” eyes, a coldness rushing to her forehead.
“Answer the question.”
She said indifferently.
“No… not at all.”
Damn it, how could I be frightened by a human cultivator of a lower realm?
“The second question,” Tang Xin held up two fingers, “how did you get in here?”
“We were wandering around the swamp, stumbled upon a stone gate, and barged in…”
“So there’s more than one entrance,” Tang Xin paused, then added another finger, “Third question, you must love yourself very much, right?”
“Huh?”
The cat demon showed a puzzled expression on her face, patting her own face somewhat angrily.
“Stop playing tricks! You won’t hand it over, will you? Then don’t blame me for taking it by force!”
“Don’t panic.”
Tang Xin handed the little fox over to Zhou Yu, asking her to retreat to a safe place, then started hopping from side to side, warming up.
“Come on, try out my newly learned Meow Fist!”
