In a clearing within the forest.
About a dozen figures sat there, panting heavily, their faces smeared with dirt and their hair disheveled, looking extremely bedraggled.
Originally, there were over twenty of them, but now more than half were gone, leaving only ten.
Even the five Foundation Establishment Stage true disciples were more or less injured.
The most severely injured was Hua Yuntian. Originally, the Terror Crocodile King hadn't managed to harm him, but on his way back after receiving the news, he encountered the Wild Giant Elephant.
Enemies meeting face to face, their eyes blazed with hatred. The giant elephant immediately recognized him as the person it had trampled to death last time.
If it weren't for Wu Mochou's timely rescue, he would have definitely been a goner.
"That demon is truly cunning, killing fifteen of our people. We can't let this go!"
"Exactly! This enmity is irreconcilable!"
"I must extract his bones and refine his marrow!"Wu Mochou and the others were filled with grief and indignation.
Everyone's anger towards Xu Hei was beyond words. As snake catchers, being toyed with by a snake spirit was an utter humiliation.
"So... should we continue the chase?" Wang Ping asked.
Everyone looked at each other, falling into a long, deathly silence.
"Chase! Of course, we must chase, but not blindly. Next time, we should bring Zhao Wenzhuo along and have him use his divination skills. I refuse to believe we can go wrong!" Liu Fei gritted her teeth.
Despite her words, everyone knew that divination wasn't something that could be performed at will.
After a fruitless discussion, the group finally retreated in disarray.
…………
Xu Hei's destination this time was located in the mid-western region of Yanluo River.
This place was called the Wu Mountain Range, with steep and treacherous terrain, a desolate area rarely visited by humans, teeming with great demons. It was said that deep within the mountains, there were rare ancient beasts comparable to Core Formation Stage cultivators, extremely dangerous.
On some of the perilous cliffs, there were also thousand-year-old cliff coffins, containing ancient corpses that had absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, cultivating into spirits.
Of course, these were all tales told by Hei Huang, their truth unknown.
Xu Hei didn't dare venture too deep, stopping at the outermost part of Wu Mountain, in front of a valley.
This place was one he had scouted earlier, originally the territory of a demon python, which Xu Hei had driven away with constant puppet harassment.
"Finally here." Xu Hei let out a long breath.
Upon entering the valley, Xu Hei was surprised to find it occupied by a group of monkeys.
A sentry monkey at the valley entrance saw the stone man approaching and immediately sounded a sharp alarm.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
The monkey troop, hearing the alarm, gathered around, perching on the trees on both sides, baring their teeth and making threatening gestures at Xu Hei and his group.
Xu Hei ignored them and walked straight into the valley. The monkeys quickly retreated, not daring to obstruct him.
Xu Hei arrived at the demon python's former cave dwelling and threw Xiao Chou inside.
Then, he used an Earth Element Spell to create a new cave dwelling next door for Xu Bai.
He took out formation flags and planted them at the entrances of both caves, raising a protective light shield for basic defense.
Seeing their lair occupied by a snake, the monkeys were furious but didn't dare to fight, only glaring from a distance and screaming. Some monkeys threw stones at Xu Hei.
Xu Hei sneered inwardly at the sight.
He patted his storage bag and took out a sealed Awakening Pill, opening a small gap.
Instantly, an extremely pungent odor spread out, quickly permeating the area within a few hundred meters!
This was a stench that penetrated the soul!
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!!"
The monkeys screamed, vomiting on the spot and fleeing in all directions, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
The valley, which was teeming with monkeys just moments ago, was cleared within two breaths.
"This is killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of our own!"
Xu Hei suppressed his nausea, resealed the pill, and put it back into his storage bag.
If he weren't new here and unwilling to cause a massacre to avoid attracting great demons, he wouldn't have used such a biochemical weapon.
…………
That night, at Xu Hei's previous seclusion spot.
A big black dog emerged from the ground, looked around, and muttered to itself, "Little Xu actually ran off without telling me. That's so inconsiderate."
It sniffed around, intending to track the scent.
However, it unexpectedly found that the scent had split into multiple trails.
"Damn it! This beast is up to no good, learning all these sneaky tricks."
Hei Huang was speechless. The scent trails were like a maze, winding around, and he had no idea who taught him this.
"Forget it, there's nothing in this world that can stump me, the Heavenly Demon Scattered Person. I'll just try every path."
Hei Huang sneered and burrowed into the ground.
…………
The next day, the monkey troop returned, bringing along an old white-haired ape, seemingly their ancestor, to seek revenge.
The ape was hunched, with dry skin and white hair and beard, its age unknown. Its intelligence was on par with humans, and its cultivation had reached the Great Perfection of the Spirit Communion Stage.
However, it only glanced at Xu Hei and the stone man standing guard beside him from a distance before leading the monkeys away, never to appear again.
In the following days, everything was peaceful.
Xu Hei practiced his breathing exercises daily, fully focusing on improving his cultivation.
He aimed to achieve Foundation Establishment by the spring of next year.
This was purely a feeling, a mysterious guidance, that he must establish his foundation by then.
In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
Xu Hei's cultivation had reached the Great Perfection of the eighth layer of the Spirit Communion Stage. His foundation was extremely solid, and as long as he had enough resources, he faced almost no bottlenecks.
Next, he would aim for the ninth layer of the Spirit Communion Stage.
Like the Qi Refining Stage, the Spirit Communion Stage had nine layers. This was the final layer, and Xu Hei needed to be fully prepared to succeed in one go.
Over the past half month, through constant testing, Xu Hei confirmed that Xiao Chou had no intention of escaping.
Even if he was let out, he would return within half a day, often bringing back some prey.
This saved Xu Hei the trouble of hunting.
However, Xu Hei wasn't completely at ease. He placed a Beast Control Ring around Xiao Chou's neck.
With this ring, even if Xiao Chou tried to escape, Xu Hei would sense it and bring him back.
"Breaking through to the ninth layer of the Spirit Communion Stage will require at least three to five days of seclusion. If he tries to escape during this time, I won't be able to stop him."
Xu Hei fell into deep thought.
After careful consideration, Xu Hei decided to beat Xiao Chou half to death, making him unconscious for about a week.
Just as Xu Hei was planning this, Xiao Chou returned from hunting, shouting excitedly from a distance, "Haha, senior, today I caught a big black dog."
Hearing this, Xu Hei's heart skipped a beat.
From afar, he saw Xiao Chou carrying a big black dog, running towards him with excitement, waving his arms.
"Haha! This old dog has some years on it, its fur almost bald. This is a great tonic! Tonight, we'll feast on black dog meat!"
Xiao Chou said excitedly, taking out a pot as he spoke.
Xu Hei glanced at the black dog and felt a twitch in his heart.
The big black dog was looking at Xu Hei with a half-smile, then glanced at Xiao Chou, a smirk forming at the corner of its mouth.
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