He found himself in an unknown town, the sights around him a ruin.
A thick, dark purple mist hung in the air, exuding an aura of profound despair!
The next moment, a small figure darted out from a nearby alley.
It was a boy, no older than seven or eight, his expression one of utter terror.
His small body trembled with every stride.
His eyes were filled with despair!
Behind him, a towering figure pursued.
Judging by its build, it should have been an adult male, but the thing could hardly be called human anymore.
Its clothes were tattered, revealing decaying flesh and blood beneath.
The rotting flesh hung from its body like melted candle wax, an utterly repulsive sight.
From the wounds, a dense dark purple mist emanated!
The mist was so thick it seemed to coalesce, enveloping the entire being.
At first glance, it resembled a zombie, but far more disgusting and terrifying.
Ye Fan instinctively lunged forward, attempting to stop the monster from attacking the boy.
Ye Fan's speed was indeed remarkable, reaching the monster in an instant.
His powerful fist smashed fiercely towards the monster's chest!
The result...
The monster's body seemed to be made of air.
Ye Fan's fist passed right through it...
The monster appeared to be completely oblivious to Ye Fan, continuing its pursuit of the boy.
After a few steps, it successfully grabbed the boy's shoulder.
The moment they touched, the purple mist surged towards the boy, engulfing him.
The boy's skin began to decay and rot, quickly transforming him into a creature like the monster!
Two monsters, one large and one small, continued onward.
As if searching for their next target...
The next moment, more monsters emerged from all around.
Converging together, they headed north of the town.
Driven by curiosity, Ye Fan followed.
Along the way, several more groups of monsters appeared, soon joining the growing horde.
All the monsters acted as if they couldn't see Ye Fan, allowing him to trail behind.
The town was nestled beside a large mountain.
Before long, the monster horde reached the foot of the mountain.
Upon arrival, all the monsters faced the mountain and prostrated themselves.
They uttered incomprehensible syllables and continuously bowed.
Ye Fan looked up.
At the summit of the mountain, a mass of dark purple clouds had gathered.
The dense color looked as if it could drip down at any moment!
His intuition told him that the mountain's peak was the source of all this abnormality!
Ye Fan walked through the monster horde, heading towards the summit.
However, he hadn't taken two steps before his vision blurred again.
When he came to his senses, he found himself back at the outskirts of the Demon Beast Forest.
Mu Yuqing and the others were frozen in the moment he had left.
However, the demon core in their hands had returned to its original color!
Had he seen that vision because he had absorbed that dark purple mist?
Was everything he had just experienced merely an illusion, or had it actually happened?
This was a question no one could answer for him...
Ye Fan cut open another demon beast.
The dark purple mist still permeated his body, and the demon core was as black as ink.
However, this time, touching the demon core did nothing.
The demon core's color remained unchanged, and he saw no illusory images.
He tried several more demon beasts, but the results were the same.
Soon, a new wave of demon beasts emerged.
The lowest-level beasts in this batch were at least in the late Void Return stage, with even a few in the early Nascent Soul stage!
After Mu Yuqing and her companions dealt with the demon beasts, Ye Fan chose a few of the early Nascent Soul stage beasts to dissect.
After several attempts, Ye Fan collected over a dozen early Nascent Soul stage demon cores.
Finding an open space, he set up a formation and began to fuse these demon cores.
The battles were relentless.
As the demon beasts' levels increased, Mu Yuqing and the others found it significantly harder to cope.
Fortunately, Ye Fan provided them with more pills to replenish their true qi and heal their wounds, preventing any casualties.
Compared to the surrounding cultivators, their Qingxin Sect was incredibly fortunate!
With these pills, they tacitly agreed to Ye Fan taking the demon cores.
Besides, Ye Fan only took the demon cores, leaving everything else untouched.
The battle dragged on intermittently until the hour of xu (7-9 PM).
Mu Yuqing and the others, their bodies weary, sat down to rest and recover.
According to custom, no more demon beasts should appear tonight.
However, the beast tide's abnormal early arrival left them feeling uncertain.
For now, they had to focus on regaining their strength!
As for what Ye Fan was tinkering with...
It was too profound.
They couldn't comprehend it.
At midnight, Ye Fan collected the last demon core.
After fusing them, he now possessed five demon cores, roughly equivalent to the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm.
During this period, his sniper rifle had absorbed and converted three bullets.
Each shot was capable of instantly killing a peak Nascent Soul existence!
Ye Fan looked up and glanced at the Demon Beast Forest.
Just moments ago, the summoning feeling in his heart had intensified!
The next morning.
Mu Yuqing and the others slowly opened their eyes.
After a night of recovery, they had regained their full strength.
Her peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of something.
She turned her head.
Several small porcelain bottles had been placed beside her at some point, with a piece of paper tucked beneath them.
"Sect Master Mu, Ye has urgent matters to attend to and must take his leave. These pills are for emergencies."
Mu Yuqing quickly checked and indeed, Ye Fan was nowhere to be seen.
Mu Yuqing opened the small porcelain bottles one by one.
Most of them were for rapid true qi recovery, with a smaller portion for healing.
She had personally experienced the efficacy of Ye Fan's pills yesterday.
Normally, a fifth-tier Qi Replenishing Pill would take about half an hour to fully restore true qi.
However, Ye Fan's Qi Replenishing Pills almost instantly replenished her energy!
It was practically monstrous!
And what Ye Fan had left behind were now sixth and seventh-tier pills!
With this batch of pills, she was confident they could handle this beast tide with zero casualties!
Mu Yuqing instinctively looked towards the Demon Beast Forest.
What could be so urgent that it made you leave in such haste...
"Roar—!"
The roar of a demon beast interrupted Mu Yuqing's thoughts.
Accompanied by a vast swarm of dark shadows, a new wave of attack had arrived!
Deep within the Demon Beast Forest.
Ye Fan moved forward cautiously.
The deeper he ventured, the stronger the feeling of being summoned became.
But the aura emanating from the distant demon beasts also grew more oppressive.
Ultimately...
His strength was still too weak!
Just then, a group of frenzied demon beasts appeared in Ye Fan's line of sight!
Their eyes glowed with an eerie red light, as if they were on some forbidden substance.
Ye Fan inwardly swore, instinctively trying to dodge.
But the demon beasts were too fast!
At best, his current strength was only at the Nascent Soul stage.
Yet, not a single demon beast here was below the third level of Nascent Soul!
In a flash, the demon beasts were upon him!
Ye Fan wore a bitter expression.
While the power of his sniper rifle was sufficient, it could only deal with one demon beast at a time.
With such a large horde, what could he possibly do?!
Damn it, he was surely going to get torn apart!
In truth, Ye Fan had no choice.
Normally, he would never take such a suicidal risk.
After all, with his current strength, venturing into the depths of the forest was akin to providing a meal for the demon beasts.
But the problem was that the summons were simply too compelling!
Even though he knew this journey was fraught with danger, his body moved forward involuntarily.
It was as if he were being controlled...
Just as Ye Fan was about to be ripped to shreds!
A bizarre event occurred!
The demon beasts actually skirted around him!
This meant that the demon beasts could see Ye Fan but had no intention of attacking him!
Since Ye Fan was not employing any concealment techniques, there was only one explanation.
These demon beasts...
Considered him one of their own!
After a brief moment of shock, Ye Fan quickly understood!
It must have been that demon core from yesterday!
He had seen that illusory scene because he had absorbed that dark purple mist!
That dark purple mist was likely still within his body, which was why they mistook him for one of them!
Thinking about it carefully...
It wasn't so bad after all!
With this thought, Ye Fan straightened his back!
With a swagger that dared not be recognized, he continued his advance into the depths!