Chapter 88: Qiaoling Mountain

Several days passed.

Aside from occasionally stopping to recover his mana, Jiuyou spent all his time concealing his presence and fleeing at full speed.

Yet what secretly troubled him was that he had taken what was supposedly the safest route this entire time, and still, he kept running into groups of demon beasts, many of which were high-tier existences. Fortunately, his Face-Altering Technique concealed his aura so well that those beasts couldn't detect his presence, saving him from a great deal of trouble.

At first, Jiuyou didn't dwell on it, merely assuming that as the years had passed, the situation within the Blood Demon Valley had changed, making the map somewhat inaccurate.

One day.

As he was mid-flight, an extremely powerful Divine Sense suddenly swept over him. Completely unashamed, utterly overbearing. Just for a brief instant, then it retracted, as if someone had found it strange that he was here but couldn't be bothered to meddle, taking a single glance before moving on.

But in that single instant, every hair on Jiuyou's body stood on end.

He felt as though he had been stripped naked, every inch of him seen through inside and out.

His body came to an abrupt halt, hovering mid-air, nervously scanning his surroundings. He unleashed his Divine Sense to the fullest, sending it sweeping in all directions like a tidal wave, yet he couldn't detect a single trace of anyone.

Nothing.

That wisp of Divine Sense had arrived so strangely and vanished without a trace, as if it had merely been an illusion.

Jiuyou's expression darkened. He immediately dove into the valley below, found a hidden cave, and hid there for over a month. Only after confirming that no trouble ever came looking for him did he cautiously emerge and continue on his way.

Just what kind of existence was the master of that Divine Sense, to be so terrifying? And why was it here in the Blood Demon Valley? Where was it heading?

Jiuyou dared not speculate recklessly.

But in the following days, as he proceeded along the so-called "safe route" marked on the map, he repeatedly ran into several more high-tier demon beasts. On the last occasion, he was directly discovered by a Ninth-Tier Demon Beast, which latched onto him relentlessly, leaving him no chance to break free.

Jiuyou was forced to unleash the Blood Soul Evasion, fleeing in utter disarray. Just as the blood light flared and he swept his Divine Sense over the map, he suddenly discovered that the map had completely changed.

In that split second, he committed the transformed map entirely to memory.

Then, comparing it to the original, he finally realized with shock that while the terrain on the two maps was similar, the marked locations of the blood demons were completely different. It was clearly a "Yin-Yang Map."

Only now did Jiuyou finally understand.

That Elder Guhao had prepared another contingency long before his death. The moment he obtained this Yin-Yang Map, he had already fallen into the scheme.

Thankfully, he had learned the Blood Soul Evasion of the Blood Abyss Sect. Only after the Yin-Yang Map sensed the secret art's familiar aura did it reveal its true form.

This meant that only a member of the Blood Abyss Sect who obtained Elder Guhao's legacy would be able to detect the map's transformation while performing a sect technique and safely leave the Blood Demon Valley following the truly safe route.

If it fell into an outsider's hands, not even their bones would remain, devoured alive by those high-tier demon beasts long ago.

Who would have thought that the old bastard would still scheme to entrap outsiders even after death, refusing to let his legacy fall into anyone else's hands. Such ruthless cunning surpassed even Jiuyou himself by a wide margin.

Jiuyou cursed inwardly, then immediately replanned his route according to the true map of the Blood Demon Valley.

After switching routes, the journey indeed became much smoother. Aside from a few scattered packs of low-tier demon beasts, he encountered no more high-tier ones.

And so, nearly two more months passed.

A gray streak of light finally burst through the blood mist, seeing the sky and earth once more.

Within the gray glow, Jiuyou had changed into a clean, crisp blue long robe. Though slightly disheveled, looking at the blue sky and white clouds around him, he couldn't help but let a joyful expression spread across his face.

He took a deep breath of fresh air, his gaze coldly sweeping his surroundings.

Finally out.

...

Amidst a mountain range stretching for thousands of miles, there lay a stretch of flat land.

At the center of the flat land stood a peculiar stone pool. Surrounding the stone pool were dozens of human figures standing erect.

"Fellow Daoist Long, our Crystal Spirit Sect has found quite a few promising seedlings this time. This Qiaoling Mountain secret realm competition, first place is within our grasp."

A middle-aged man with thick, rugged eyebrows and sharply defined features, whose cultivation was at Mid-Golden Core, stroked his beard and called out to another cultivator surnamed Long, his tone brimming with absolute confidence.

"Hmph, that remains to be seen."

The cultivator surnamed Long let out a dissatisfied cold snort and turned his head away.

"When has my Heavenly Seal Mountain ever ranked lower than your Crystal Spirit Sect? Besides, isn't that the same spiel you give every time before the secret realm competition? Next time, are you going to say you've recruited a few more good seedlings again?"

His cultivation was roughly on par with the thick-browed man, and he spoke with full confidence.

"Enough, enough. You two have been bickering for a hundred years and still haven't grown up."

A beautiful female cultivator with enchanting eyes and skin as smooth as congealed cream interjected to mediate.

This female cultivator had the lowest cultivation among the three, only at Early Golden Core, and her gaze was languid, as if she didn't take this competition seriously at all.

"We'll wait for the disciples to come out of the secret realm, then decide the victor based on the age and quantity of the spiritual herbs they've gathered."

Around them, a number of Foundation-Establishing cultivators stood guard, clearly tasked with protecting this area.

The three were just discussing which sect would claim first place in this mountain secret realm competition when a burst of eerie blue light suddenly exploded in the sky above their heads.

A figure flashed past in an instant.

The three's expressions changed drastically, all of their Divine Sense shooting outward.

They saw a young man in a blue robe appear abruptly above their heads, looking down at them from a commanding height with a blank expression.

The young man appeared to be just over twenty, with a gloomy countenance and a cold, sinister aura radiating from his body. One could tell at a glance that he was no good sort. At this moment, he was silently gazing down at them.

"Who is this person? Do any of you recognize him?"

"I don't know. Judging by the aura radiating from him, he seems to be from the demonic path... I can't discern his cultivation depth."

The three exchanged glances, secretly communicating through voice transmission. Seeing that none of them recognized this person, they immediately assumed combat stances, clearly intending to surround and attack.

The dozens of Foundation-Establishing cultivators nearby also hastily produced their magic tools, aiming them at the young man in the air. Some looked nervous, others utterly terrified.

They had no idea who this suddenly appearing young man was, or what his cultivation level was. They could only act according to the attitudes of the three elders and their subsequent commands.

This suddenly appearing young man was, naturally, none other than Jiuyou, who had just escaped the Blood Demon Valley.

At this moment, the three's little movements were nothing but child's play in his eyes. Their supposedly concealed voice transmissions were clearly visible to him.

Jiuyou couldn't be bothered with idle chatter.

He flicked his finger, and the Nether Capital Ghostfire was compressed at his fingertip into a light sphere the size of a marble. He aimed at the thick-browed middle-aged man and flicked it lightly.

The ghostfire marble shot through the air at incredible speed, piercing through the man's head in the blink of an eye.

Freezing cold spread madly from the wound where the man had been pierced, and in an instant, it froze him, along with his soul, into an ice statue.

"N-Nascent Soul... cultivator!"

"This young man is actually a Nascent Soul old monster!"

"Run!"

The remaining two, only after witnessing the young man instantly kill the middle-aged man they had been conversing with moments ago, finally judged the young man's true cultivation level. They were so terrified on the spot that their souls nearly scattered, and not a shred of fighting spirit remained.

These two were quite clever, and after shouting "Run!" they abandoned the Foundation-Establishing cultivators who were still frozen in place, each choosing a direction and transforming into two streaks of light, fleeing in separate ways.

The surrounding Foundation-Establishing cultivators, upon hearing the words "Nascent Soul cultivator," were scared out of their wits. This was a legendary existence equivalent to the founding ancestors of their respective sects. How could one appear at the entrance of this tiny Qiaoling Mountain secret realm?

Seeing that even their own elders had fled, they hastily activated their flying artifacts, trying to scatter in all directions.

"Flee?"

Jiuyou let out a cold snort.

A wave of bone-chilling cold rapidly spread outward from his center. The Foundation-Establishing cultivators, before they could even make their next move, were frozen solid one after another, unable to move.

His gaze lightly flicked toward the directions in which the two Golden Core cultivators had fled separately, still maintaining his blank expression.

The next second, his figure vanished from the spot like an afterimage in the air.

Chasing after those two.