The more the white-robed youth thought, the more convinced he became that his assumptions were correct.
Or rather, he wanted to believe they were.
At that moment, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.
“You little thief, don’t let me find you. If I do, I’ll grind your bones to dust, extract your soul, and use it as a lamp wick, burning it with poison fire for a hundred years. You’ll beg for life and death to no avail!”
His murderous intent was so intense that it caused the surrounding air to freeze into a layer of frost.
In the next moment, the white-robed youth transformed into a streak of light, flying towards the entrance of the Mystic Realm Gate.
He had to locate the thief as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, if that little thief wasted the treasure, it would be a great loss.
On his way to the Mystic Realm Gate, the white-robed youth encountered other Precelestial Realm martial artists still lingering within the realm.
By the time he reached the exit, he had wiped out more than 80% of the martial experts remaining in the Mystic Realm.
Only those few who had remained at the edges, beyond the range of his spiritual sense, managed to escape death by sheer luck.
After exiting the Mystic Realm, the white-robed youth immediately expanded his Spiritual Sense, using the gate as a central point to begin his search outward.
Meanwhile, several figures were hiding in a cave dozens of miles from the Mystic Realm Gate.
A middle-aged man stared grimly at a broken Soul Tablet in his hand.
“Third Brother is dead.”
“Third Brother is dead? Who killed him?!” a nearby woman exclaimed.
“I don’t know, but it’s very likely it was that monster from Zhongzhou,” the man replied gravely.
“I warned Third Brother earlier to leave with us, but he refused, unwilling to part with that still-immature spiritual herb.
Those two monsters are extremely brutal, having already destroyed several sects in Zhongzhou. How could we harbor any hope of mercy?” another man chimed in.
“What’s done is done. We can’t change it now. I say we should continue moving and leave this place altogether!” the middle-aged man said resolutely.
“Leave now? That monster is still in the Mystic Realm; he shouldn’t come out so soon, right? Big Brother, why don’t we rest for a while before moving on?” the woman suggested.
They had been pushing themselves to the limit, burning through their True Qi to escape the Mystic Realm quickly. They hadn’t had a chance to recover yet.
“We cannot afford to take chances! That monster is so erratic and cruel—who knows when he might emerge?
Better to endure some exhaustion now than to lose our lives later!”
The middle-aged man’s tone brooked no argument.
For some reason, he felt an ominous sense of foreboding, as though something extremely dangerous was about to happen.
He had no intention of staying here even a moment longer.
In any case, their exploration of the Mystic Realm had yielded substantial gains; it hadn’t been a wasted trip.
“Fine, we’ll follow your lead!” another man quickly agreed.
The remaining two also voiced no objections.
They all knew that their eldest brother possessed an uncanny ability to sense danger.
In their earlier, weaker days, he had led them to evade deadly threats on more than one occasion.
Now, if he was this insistent, it must mean he had sensed something truly perilous.
Unfortunately, their Third Brother had grown complacent after their group’s rise in strength upon achieving the Precelestial Realm. His lapse in vigilance had cost him his life.
Without taking time to rest, the group left the cave and continued their escape.
This time, they didn’t bother hiding their movements, prioritizing speed above all else.
They knew that against the monster’s abilities, stealth was meaningless.
Under the scrutiny of Spiritual Sense, nothing could remain hidden.
Thus, they pressed on, eventually fleeing the vast Hundred Thousand Mountains.
“Big Brother, where should we go next?”
Looking at the wide-open sky ahead, the group felt a surge of relief.
“We keep moving and find a small town to hide in. The farther we get, the lower the chance of encountering that monster,” the middle-aged man said grimly.
Yet his heart remained heavy.
The oppressive feeling lingering over him hadn’t diminished; instead, it had grown even stronger, weighing down his mind and spirit.
This pressure surpassed any crisis he had encountered before, filling him with a deep sense of dread.
If they didn’t get far enough soon, he feared that he and his siblings would face an unimaginable catastrophe.
“Quickly, pick up the pace!”
Suppressing the suffocating pressure in his chest, the middle-aged man urged them on.
Although the others were already exhausted, their trust in their eldest brother drove them to summon their remaining strength and continue onward.
They pressed on for a while longer when suddenly, a refreshing feeling washed over them.
The surrounding Spiritual Energy grew noticeably denser, invigorating their weary minds.
“What’s going on? Is there some treasure nearby?”
“Big Brother, look! There’s a village ahead!”
From their vantage point on a hill, they saw a village nestled at the foot of the mountain, shrouded in mist.
The surrounding Spiritual Energy seemed to flow toward it, enriching even the hill they stood on.
“A village this mystical on the edge of the Hundred Thousand Mountains?”
“Could some reclusive expert be living here?”
The group marveled at the extraordinary sight.
However, their eldest brother’s expression changed drastically.
Suddenly, he roared, “Run!”
Without waiting, he propelled himself forward at full speed.
Startled but accustomed to his decisiveness, the others quickly followed suit, pushing their movements to the limit.
Yet, it was too late.
Before they had gone even a few dozen meters, an overwhelming sense of danger emanated from behind them.
Simultaneously, an immense suppressive force descended upon them, freezing their bodies as if they were fish trapped in ice.
Despair filled the middle-aged man’s eyes.
The next moment, he felt his body constrict as a crushing pressure from all directions forced blood to spurt uncontrollably from his mouth.
Then, everything went dark.
In the final moments of his consciousness, he heard a chilling voice:
“Hmph, a bunch of ants.”
In Jiuli Village, Lu Qing, who had been secluded in cultivation, refining his Spirit and Body, suddenly awoke with a start.
He had sensed a terrifyingly dangerous aura.