A pale moon hung in the sky, casting clear light through the leaves and leaving mottled silhouettes on the leaf-strewn ground.
At the edge of the rock pile, Mu Chenze circulated his movement technique, stepping onto the branches to reach the top of a tree.
He frowned, his gaze following the continuous stretch of trees across the broad grasslands until it reached the limit of his vision.
In the far north, there seemed to be a region where even the moonlight could not penetrate.
He cast his divine sense toward the rock pile and saw that the black mist surrounding his sect-mates had mostly vanished. Those whose evil qi infection was lighter were already healing their wounds; they would likely wake up soon.
He flipped down from the treetop and approached Gu Ningyun.
Seeing the cold sweat on her forehead, his frown deepened.
Before they had set out, Wen Xuan had stuffed two more bottles of Spirit-Replenishing Pills into his hands.
He took out a bottle and found Xi Caixuan, who was standing guard nearby. "Junior Sister Xi, I must trouble you to feed this pill to Ningyun."
As the only member of Ruiyu Pavilion accompanying Ningyun on this risky rescue mission, he was determined to look after the youngest member of their group.
"I'll do it right away." Xi Caixuan naturally understood the urgency and took the pill without a second thought.
Beside her, Gu Ningyun didn't notice Mu Chenze's actions.
This was her first time performing group healing on so many people, all of whom were infected by evil qi and heavily injured.
Even though «Zongjiao» was profound and the group healing could automatically lock onto the injured—saving her some divine sense—healing so many at once was still a heavy burden on her spirit energy, and she was starting to feel mentally exhausted.
The rock pile was deep within the north. She didn't know what was happening in the far north to cause so many demon beasts to be simultaneously affected by evil qi and fall into a frenzy.
This place was too dangerous.
Even though she felt overwhelmed, she didn't dare slow down her spirit energy output.
She had to heal them as quickly as possible so they could leave and regroup with their companions.
Her entire focus was poured into the treatment. Her divine sense monitored their physical states at all times, leaving only a sliver of awareness to stay alert for nearby dangers.
The Spirit-Replenishing Pill she had previously tucked under her tongue was gone, and her spirit energy was nearing its limit again.
Her eyelashes trembled as she considered how to most quickly retrieve a Spirit-Replenishing Pill from her storage bag and put it in her mouth while maintaining the performance of the healing melody.
Purifying evil qi and healing wounds with music required doing it in one go.
If she were to stop halfway while the wounds were healing, not only might the injuries relapse, but she would have to start the song from the beginning when she resumed.
The healing melody was gradual and progressive; its effect was strongest and its speed fastest in the middle. If she were interrupted and had to restart, she didn't know how much time would be wasted.
Her meridians began to throb with a faint pain.
Just as Gu Ningyun was about to stop playing to take a pill, a Spirit-Replenishing Pill was timely delivered to her lips.
She was truly surprised. Following the fingertips, she turned her head to see a young girl half a head taller than her, her face pinched with worry.
It was Xi Caixuan.
Meeting her startled gaze, Xi Caixuan explained, "Senior Sister Gu, Senior Brother Mu asked me to give you the pill. Are... are you okay? Can you keep going?"
Gu Ningyun understood.
Mu Chenze had always been observant. He must have noticed her spirit energy was flagging and asked Xi Caixuan, a fellow girl, to feed her the pill.
"I'm okay, thank you."
She opened her mouth and swallowed the pill. The familiar, pure scent of the medicine confirmed it was produced by Wen Xuan.
Her heart warmed. With her worries gone, she once again threw herself entirely into the treatment.
...
In the far north they so dreaded, in the place where the moonlight failed, all was silent.
In this silence devoid of even a single insect's chirp, the thick darkness seemed to wrap around something murky and bloody.
It was utterly dark and profoundly evil.
The boundary where the darkness met the moonlight was like a bottomless abyss, devouring the silver light completely.
In the center of the darkness grew a dense thicket of shrubs.
Within the branches of those shrubs, a red-black liquid flowed faintly.
Moving further into the thicket, ripples of thick evil qi gradually appeared.
In the deepest part of the darkness, vast amounts of evil qi surged, pouring into a prone, motionless black figure.
The figure's chest rose and fell slightly, and its ears twitched occasionally, as if they might stand upright at any moment, signaling a complete awakening.
...
After the day's beast riot, it seemed the demon beasts throughout the secret realm had been hunted to exhaustion.
Despite the absence of demon beasts and what should have been a peaceful night, no one felt anything but gravity and oppression.
Si Puyu had already contacted Ling Hanbai.
She learned that Ling Hanbai's side had also encountered over thirty frenzied demon beasts.
Because the thunder spirit root had the advantage of suppressing evil qi, they had managed to kill all the beasts without any casualties, even though Ling Hanbai was the only sword cultivator among them.
As for the injured companions, Ling Hanbai had used her thunder spirit energy to expel the evil qi from their bodies before treating them with Return-to-Spring Pills.
All seventy-odd people there had recovered from their injuries and were currently meditating at the border of the east and north to restore their spirit energy and adjust their states.
At this point, Zhu Zijin's team members finally felt relieved.
The five groups of demon beasts their five-person team had been leading had all been killed, and all their members were safe.
Shao Yuqi, who had been wandering in the north completely unaware of the beast riot, was now rushing toward Fu Mingzhi's gathering point with his team after receiving a warning.
He was moving so fast he was practically sprinting for his life.
Fu Mingzhi had created a massive group chat for all six hundred and ninety-three new disciples, connecting everyone scattered across the secret realm.
According to the constantly updating messages in the group, Fu Mingzhi realized that besides the two hundred-plus demon beasts encountered by Zhu Zijin's group, other teams in various parts of the secret realm had also run into red-eyed demon beasts.
However, most of those teams had only encountered three to five beasts at most, which two or three teams working together could easily kill.
Some had only met one, which wasn't even a threat.
These demon beasts seemed to have scattered and were running wild through the forest and grasslands, but it was clear they generally came from the north.
Based on the information from his sect-mates, Fu Mingzhi could basically confirm that the demon beasts in the secret realm had indeed been nearly wiped out.
The forest at night was no longer dangerous; the only thing they needed to be wary of was the far north, the source of the beast riot.
If the demon beasts could be divided and killed, wouldn't it be just as dangerous for the disciples to remain scattered?
There were still many disciples like Shao Yuqi who hadn't noticed anything unusual and were asking questions in the group with confusion.
Following the previous discussion with Gu Ningyun and the others, Fu Mingzhi immediately gave a clear explanation of the beast riot and their deductions about the far north.
As expected, after learning that a great danger they couldn't match was hidden in the secret realm, the disciples began to panic.
Among the chaotic messages asking what to do, Fu Mingzhi's sharp eyes spotted several messages urging everyone to stay calm.
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