"You can't fully call them humans; the one who fought me earlier was a Gray Immortal, but these... at best, they can only be considered creatures from the Gray Realm. Fellow Daoist Rehuo, now that Gray Realm creatures have appeared here, should we continue our search?" Han Li asked slowly.

"Now that we've come this far, would you be content not to explore further?" Venerable Rehuo sighed, saying this.

"Haha, that's exactly what I was thinking." Han Li chuckled, nodding.

After a brief rest, the two continued towards the valley. After only a few hundred steps, they saw a circular formation, about ten zhang in diameter, standing on the ground ahead.

It was entirely constructed from irregularly shaped white stones, with wisps of grayish-white mist rising from it. Around the formation, there were faint spatial fluctuations.

"Fellow Daoist Rehuo, this formation shouldn't be something your Mantra Gate originally possessed, right?" Han Li asked, frowning.

"I've never seen this formation before. My Mantra Gate would never have set up anything like this." Venerable Rehuo shook his head.

"It must have been set up by those Gray Realm fellows." Han Li nodded thoughtfully.

"Legend has it that there's an inter-realm barrier between the Gray Realm and the Immortal Realm, and the power of that barrier is far greater than anywhere else. How did these Gray Realm people manage to get here? Could it be through this formation?" Venerable Rehuo pondered.

"Unlikely. Although this formation has spatial fluctuations, its power isn't that strong. It's far from having the power to break through realms. Moreover, this formation doesn't seem complete; it looks more like part of a larger spatial formation. In my opinion, these Gray Realm creatures must have come from somewhere else." Han Li said, his eyes flickering slightly.

"Are you saying that only a small part of this formation has been set up?" Venerable Rehuo asked, looking puzzled.

"This formation here should be a formation node of a larger formation, and these Gray Realm creatures we encountered are likely just a small team maintaining this node. Once they complete the entire formation, they'll likely open a passage between the Gray Realm and the Immortal Domain." Han Li explained.

"If that's the case, then the Immortal Realm will face a great disaster..." Venerable Rehuo said slowly.

"Not necessarily... The reason the Gray Realm people chose the Mantra Gate ruins as a breakthrough point is likely because they accidentally discovered that the space here is chaotic, and the power of the inter-realm barrier is much weaker than in other parts of the Immortal Realm. But what they don't know is that the spatial balance here is extremely fragile and probably can't support them building a large-scale spatial passage." Han Li shook his head, then added.

"Are you saying that... if they forcibly establish a spatial passage, this space will lose its balance and collapse?" Venerable Rehuo asked, startled.

"I encountered a spatial tremor earlier and witnessed the erosion of a lot of space, which shows that it's already precarious here. Once the balance is broken, the entire collapse will probably be instantaneous." Han Li said with a serious expression.

"In that case, we need to speed up. After finding the Grand Five Elements Illusionary World Divine Art, let's leave this place immediately." Venerable Rehuo said.

"Now that even Gray Realm creatures have entered the ruins, we really need to hurry. If we encounter higher-level Gray Immortals, it won't be so easy to deal with." Han Li said after a moment of thought.

After saying that, the two dismantled the formation made of white stones, dividing the white stones used for the formation.

Then, they searched the valley again, only to discover another regrettable fact: the cave where Mi Luo had secluded himself back then had long been reduced to dust in that earth-shattering battle and no longer existed.

Helpless, the two had to leave this place and head towards the "Mantra Palace" based on Venerable Rehuo's memory.

...

Just as Han Li and the others were encountering attacks from Gray Realm creatures, the valley where Shi Chuan Kong and the others were fighting Zhao Zhen and Lu Wuliang was a scene of devastation. The two peaks at the entrance of the valley had completely collapsed, and the plaza inside the valley was riddled with huge pits, with black smoke billowing.

On a relatively flat ground in the valley stood two figures, Shi Chuan Kong and Feng Lin.

Both of them looked a little pale, their clothes were torn, and they had suffered not insignificant injuries. Feng Lin, in particular, was as pale as paper, and the veil on her face couldn't hide it.

Beside the two of them lay three tattered corpses, two of which were Zhao Zhen and Lu Wuliang.

Both of them were decapitated, their wounds were extremely smooth, severed by some kind of divine power.

The last corpse was that of Zi Qing, her entire body was an eerie dark purple, her skin bursting open from time to time, making slight popping sounds, and purplish-black blood splattering everywhere.

Drops of black blood fell on the ground, easily corroding small holes in the nearby ground with a "hissing" sound.

Above the corpse hovered a small purple figure, which was Zi Qing's nascent soul. Seeing her body become like this, a look of resentment appeared on the small face of the nascent soul.

"I didn't expect Zhao Zhen to even know this ancient poison art, Jiu Luo Heavenly Poison. Zi Qing, your physical body seems to be ruined." Feng Lin said, with a hint of schadenfreude in her words.

Hearing this, Zi Qing's nascent soul was furious, a ferocious look suddenly flashed across her small face, and she glared fiercely at Feng Lin.

"It doesn't matter if your physical body is destroyed. This time, you've done a great service by killing them both. After returning to the Devil Domain, I'll find a suitable physical body for you to seize and personally ask my father to allow you to enter the Devil Origin Holy Pool to cultivate. In less than ten thousand years, you'll be able to recover to your peak strength, and even take it a step further." Shi Chuan Kong stepped forward without any expression, blocking between the two of them, and said.

"Thank you, Young Master." Zi Qing turned her anger into joy, and hurriedly clasped her small hands in a fist salute.

A flicker passed through Feng Lin's eyes upon hearing these words.

"You only have your nascent soul now, so don't participate in what follows. Rest well in the Demon Transformation Gourd." Shi Chuan Kong turned his hand over and took out a black gourd, gesturing with one hand.

A black light shot out from the gourd, enveloping Zi Qing's nascent soul.

With a "swoosh" sound, the black light flew back, disappearing into the gourd.

"Feng Lin, you also contributed a lot this time. There will be rewards after returning to the Devil Domain." Shi Chuan Kong put away the gourd, then said to Feng Lin.

"Thank you, Young Master." A hint of joy also appeared on Feng Lin's face as she nodded.

"We've been entangled with these two for a long time, which has wasted a lot of time. Let's quickly clean up the battlefield and continue on." Shi Chuan Kong said, letting out a long breath.

Feng Lin agreed and flew towards the surroundings of the valley.

Shi Chuan Kong then walked to the corpses of Zhao Zhen and the other, his eyes flickering as he looked at the two corpses, wondering what he was thinking.

At this moment, a strange scene occurred.

Outside the valley, the void trembled, and strange gray light suddenly appeared and flickered. Then, a thin gray crack suddenly appeared, and countless gray mists poured out from it, instantly dyeing half of the nearby sky a hazy gray color, and continuing to spread rapidly, engulfing the valley.

Shi Chuan Kong's expression changed slightly upon seeing this scene, and he waved his hand, forming a hand seal.

A round ring emitting myriad rays of purple light flew out, hovering above his head, and rays of purple light fell from the purple ring, protecting Shi Chuan Kong's entire body.

Feng Lin had also obviously noticed something was wrong, and her figure immediately flew back, landing beside Shi Chuan Kong, surrounded by purple light, revealing a large purple flag that protected her entire body.

The nearby gray mist rolled, quickly becoming denser, and there were bursts of strange wailing sounds from within, like the cries of ghosts and wolves. In addition, faint gray lightning bolts flickered in the depths of the gray mist, jumping around constantly, looking extremely strange.

"Young Master, this is the gray mist that swallowed Elder Jing that day. This place is not suitable to stay for long." Feng Lin said to Shi Chuan Kong with an extremely solemn expression.

"Go!"

Upon hearing this, Shi Chuan Kong waved his hand without the slightest hesitation, and a purple light enveloped the bodies of the two, flying away into the distance.

Almost at the same time, those gray mists rolled and surged, and a gray lightning bolt as thick as a water tank shot out from the gray mist, instantly crossing thousands of zhang, hitting the purple light at an incredible speed.

With a "bang" sound, the purple light exploded, and the bodies of Shi Chuan Kong and Feng Lin were knocked down from mid-air, crashing towards the ground.

Feng Lin seemed to have been struck by the gray lightning, "Wow" she spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the veil on her face red, then her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

"Feng Lin!"

Shi Chuan Kong swayed his body and stabilized himself. Seeing Feng Lin faint, he hurriedly raised his hand and emitted a purple light, lifting Feng Lin's body, and was about to cast a spell to heal her.

At this moment, four gray figures shot out from the gray mist, rushing towards Shi Chuan Kong and Feng Lin.

These people were wearing gray robes, the one in the lead was thin, wearing a hood, and under the hood was not flesh, but a grayish-white skeleton, with two clusters of pale flames jumping in its eye sockets.

The other three had normal bodies, one was a young man wearing gray armor, holding a purple cross-shaped war spear, with flowing bright silver hair, and extremely handsome appearance. His eyebrows were filled with vigorous heroism, but his hazy eyes slightly diminished his radiance.

Another was a young woman, quite beautiful, tall, and the loose robe could not hide her exquisite figure. Although she was flying, this woman's eyes still occasionally glanced at the gray-armored youth beside her.

The last one was an old man in a gray robe, with gray hair and an ugly face, looking very old, and a cold light flashed in his hazy gray pupils.

Behind the four, the gray mist rolled, and gray demonic beasts leaped out, lions, tigers, wolves, and apes, all of them were huge, closely following the four people, rushing towards Shi Chuan Kong and the other two.

"Gray Immortals!" Seeing the four people, Shi Chuan Kong, who was well-informed, recognized the origins of the four people at a glance, and exclaimed in shock.

Immediately afterwards, his pupils shrank, but although he was shocked, he was not flustered. With a wave of his hand, four palm-sized black talismans flew out from his sleeves, flashing with black lightning bolts, exuding terrifying thunder and lightning laws and demonic energy fluctuations.

"Boom!"

The four black talismans shattered at the same time, turning into four black lightning bolts as thick as buckets, and slashed down towards the four people.

(Wang Yu went out to do something during the day, and updated two chapters together in the evening ^^)