The youthful Senior Zhu and the beautiful woman appeared satisfied by this result, not to mention the surrounding cultivators.

Dealing with a trifling swarm of Black Blood Ants with their cultivation like slaying a chicken with a butcher’s knife. However, the smooth success of the first step of their plan was a good omen.

Senior Zhu waved his hand at the incense burner, extinguis.h.i.+ng the incense stick and having it return to him in yellow light. Then, it vanished with a flip of his hand. And in another flash of light, he summoned a set of flickering silver flags.

Each of the flags was only several inches large. Purple talisman characters and a few lightning patterns appeared on the flags’ surface, giving them an air of mystery.

“Without any threat from the Black Blood Ants, we will head into the True Toad Nest. Here is the set of Profound Heavenly Lightning Flags. Those a.s.signed to the formation will come up and take a flag.” Senior Zhu glanced at the designated cultivators.

The cultivators promptly exchanged a glance and immediately flew forward. The first to take a flag was Old Man Liu.

“Alright, apart from Fellow Daoist Zhao and Fellow Daoist Xun who will stand on guard outside, the others will follow us inside.” The youth pointed out an old man and a middle-aged man, and he then flew into the mountain in streaks of light.

The others didn’t hesitate and began to follow them in streaks of light.

As for the old man and the middle-aged man that was told to stand guard outside, they exchanged a wry laugh. They then concealed themselves.

The rest of the cultivators were following Senior Zhu and the beautiful woman into a natural cave inside the huge mountain.

After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, Han Li and the others appeared in a moist underground pa.s.sage.

The pa.s.sage was filled with stalact.i.tes dripping with water, leaving the ground exceptionally slippery. There was also an inch-tall moss that grew off the ground. It spread throughout the uneven rock in the pa.s.sage.

Fortunately, the pa.s.sage was quite wide, allowing cultivators to slowly fly through it. It wasn’t so short that they would have to walk.

Han Li occasionally looked around and saw a few unusual venomous insects flying through cracks in the cave. With a flick of his finger, he released a red thread into the cracks and turned them into ash.

Beside him was Fairy Xiao.

She appeared cautious. A layer of faint white light appeared all over her. Regardless of whatever venomous insect pounced on her, they dropped to the ground covered in crystal.

It wasn’t only Han Li and Fairy Xiao that used small measures to deal with the insects, all the other cultivators were keeping the insects at bay as well.

These insects were unremarkable, but none of them dared to get bitten.

After all, countless strange things appeared in the wilderness. Even ordinary insects could possibly kill a high-grade cultivator with its poison.

Such things had happened before.

The cultivators still focused on moving quickly and rarely spoke. Eventually, they remained completely silent. Apart from occasionally exterminating a few insects, there were no other sounds.

The pa.s.sage wasn’t too dark. There would be an occasional light that lit off the wall. They resembled the moonlight stones that humans often used.

With that, the party continued forward smoothly.

A moment later, Han Li’s expression stirred and he took a deep glance at his squad ahead of him.

Meanwhile, the Senior Zhu frowned at the very front of the group and the two Spatial Tempering cultivators came to a sudden stop.

Senior Zhu informed the rest of the cultivators to halt.

“Everyone, be careful. I sense two beasts in front of us. They have an aura close to Deity Transformation-stage and are blocking our way. It is possible there will be other insects nearby. It is inconvenient for me to use more of my spiritual sense to look for them. We will have to send people over to identify the insects with their own eyes. Be careful and don’t attack first.”

Everyone was startled, but one person immediately stepped forward and said, “Have me take a look. I may not have other techniques, but I am quite confident in my evasion techniques. Will Senior Zhu entrust me with this?”

Senior Zhu recognized the man and grinned. “Hehe, so it was Brother You. Your wind movement techniques are quite wondrous. You’re exactly who I was looking for.”

The person who stepped forward was the old man wearing a bamboo hat.

The old man chuckled and vanished from sight in a gust of wind.

Indeed, his wind movement techniques were impressive.

Silence filled the air. Many people thought of the insects blocking their path and couldn"t help but feel excited.

In the time it took to finish a meal, the old man reappeared with a gust where he originally stood. If no one was paying attention, they wouldn’t have noticed that the old man was there.

The old man bowed to Senior Zhu, saying, “I am done. There are two Profound Whirlpool Beasts ahead of us. I fear it will be troublesome.”

“Profound Whirlpool Beasts!” The cultivators became restless.

Many of the cultivators revealed surprise. Even Senior Zhu couldn"t help but frown.

Han Li immediately recalled information related to the Profound Whirlpool Beasts.

Profound Whirlpool Beasts weren’t particularly fearsome, the exception being in a place like this!

The beast"s abilities only had water and lightning movement techniques. Furthermore, they were cowardly and often made their escape with the wind. What was more helpless was that the beasts were also called Drumcry Beasts. If they discovered any enemy, they would loudly sound out like a huge drum, alerting anything within a hundred kilometers.

Among humans and demons, there were a few large sects and masters that tamed the beast and used them as alarms in vital areas.

If they didn’t kill the beasts in a single strike, it would disturb the other insects on the huge mountain. When that time came, who knew what would happen?

Senior Zhu sank into thought for a moment and said, “This is rather troublesome! Although I am a Spatial Tempering cultivator, I am not proficient in concealment techniques. Profound Whirlpool Beasts have a powerful spiritual sense and sense of smell. However, my wife is quite skilled in movement techniques, but she"ll only be able to catch one of them. We’ll need another Fellow Daoist to dispatch the other one.” His sights turned to Old Man You.

“I won’t be any good. My wind techniques will allow me to approach them unnoticed, but against their rough flesh, I wouldn’t be able to kill them in a single strike.” The old man shook his head.

Senior Zhu wryly smiled and turned to look at the other late-Deity Transformation cultivators.

The others also frowned as they weren’t entirely confident. As it was related to the success of their mission, they didn’t dare to accept the task unless they were entirely confident. It was quite difficult to have the speed and strength necessary.

Senior Zhu’s expression turned sullen.

Having planned this for several years, would their success be hindered by two mere insects?

“Could we not use earth movement techniques through the mountain to go around them?” One cultivator said doubtfully.

“If we could do that, why would we go through all this trouble. The mountain is made of a huge vein of spirit magnets. It would forcefully restrain your spiritual power and absorb it if you were to fly through it. It won"t be a problem if you don"t attempt to phase through the mountain."

“A vein of spirit magnets!” Everyone felt a chill when they heard this.

The person that asked this wore a particularly unsightly expression.

For a time, no one dared to speak.

A voice then lazily sounded from the ground, “Senior Zhu, if I can deal with the other beast, would I receive an additional share of the True Toad Blood?”

The one who spoke was Han Li at the rear of the group. The dainty woman at his side was astonished.

Senior Zhu looked at Han Li with surprise and hesitantly said, “Oh, could it be that Fellow Daoist Han is confident? If that is the case, the share of True Toad Blood is yours. But if it fails...”

It was clear he only viewed Han Li as a mid Deity Transformation cultivator.

“Hehe, Senior, don’t worry. If I fail, I will take responsibility.” Han Li smiled.

Senior Zhu resolved himself and nodded, “You truly are confident. Good, I will let you deal with the other insect beast.”

Whispers began to sound from the other cultivators and they examined Han Li with various expressions. A few of them wore faces of doubt.

Senior Zhu then turned to the old man with a bamboo hat and said, “But for the sake of carefulness, Fellow Daoist You will follow Fellow Daoist Han and a.s.sist him!”

“Yes, leave it to me.” The old man readily agreed.

Following that, Senior Zhu curled his lip and sent a few voice transmissions to his wife. The woman then formed an incantation gesture and glowed with red light before disappearing from sight.

Han Li took out a purple talisman and slapped it on his body. Suddenly, silver talisman characters roiled over him and he vanished.

Old Man You also turned into wind.

With the old man leading the way, Han Li and the beautiful woman flew forward for a time before arriving at their objective.

They arrived at an expansive and wide area. There were two white fat insects lying on the ground. They were eating moss.