Yun Ruoyan’s trio entered the Beast Spirit Valley under Qin Feng’s guidance. Qin Feng visibly tensed up as they crossed a threshold, and he told everyone to try to move quickly and restrain their aura as much as possible.

Yun Ruoyan glanced around the beautiful valley, at the trees and grass in bright and deep shades of green, at the colorful birds chirping as they darted among the leaves, flowers speckling the landscape in all sorts of shapes and colors, and even at the herbivorous beasts casually roaming the land. If not for Qin Feng’s tension, she really would have found this place a paradise.

“Where’s the entrance from which the beast hordes and those outworlders emerge? I’d like to have a look,” Yun Ruoyan asked Qin Feng.

Qin Feng frowned. “I think we should find where the spiritual energy density is highest first.”

In order to do so, they would need to release some of their aura to determine from which direction there was the strongest resonance. Li Mo infused spiritual energy into his eyes and immediately noticed a spot by the far side of the valley that glowed brightly.

“It’s right over there.” Li Mo pointed at the spot flashing white in his vision. “That’s the best spot for constructing the teleportation array.”

Qin Feng frowned deeper and sighed. “That’s exactly where the entrance is.”

Although they knew that it could be exceedingly dangerous, the four of them carefully headed in that direction. After about a fifteen minutes’ walk, a giant, ancient tree emerged before them, one so large that their entire group wouldn’t be able to encircle the tree while holding hands. The mysterious portal was a hole on the surface of the tree, its edges bordered by a thick, engorged vine that obscured whatever lay behind it.

“Here’s the portal. Three years ago, when we discovered this tree, three of my instructors entered the portal to investigate. In the end, they were all caught and tied up by three outworlders, who killed the two men in front of us and abducted the lone woman.”

The four of them were hiding behind a tree not too far from the portal.

“Based on what you’ve said, this portal will lead us to that alternate dimension,” Zhuo Yifeng summarized. “If we were to enter it from here, we might be able to rescue that female instructor.”

“No, don’t!” Qin Feng interrupted him before he could speak any further. He glanced at the fearless youth warily. “You haven’t seen their true capabilities, so you might not be afraid of them, but I promise you there’s nothing waiting for you but death.”

Zhuo Yifeng didn’t deny Qin Feng’s words, but he continued staring obstinately at the portal.

Yun Ruoyan turned toward Qin Feng and Li Mo. “But surely we can’t stay here and hide? If we want to set up communications with the first elder, we must construct a teleportation array, and it would surely cause a commotion.”

“Stay here. I’ll head over and have a look,” Li Mo suggested, then walked out from behind the tree.

“I’ll follow you there.” Yun Ruoyan stood up. Li Mo glanced back at her before extending a hand, and the two of them walked out together.

As they left, Zhuo Yifeng also stood up.

“The three of you… bah!” Qin Feng could only follow suit.

As Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo walked toward the portal, they could feel the steadily increasing spiritual energy density in the air. When they infused spiritual energy into their eyes, they saw a haze of white spiritual energy continuously spraying into the dimension from the portal.

“As expected, this is the source of the spiritual energy in this realm,” Li Mo murmured.

Awoooo!

Just as he and Yun Ruoyan continued walking toward the portal, a high-pitched beast howl came from deep within the portal.

Awoooo! Awoooo!

The howls were quickly followed by a succession of other howls in varying pitches and intensity, but they all combined to cause a monumental vibration that could even cause the earth to tremble.

“Not good!” Qin Feng shouted. “A beast horde’s coming!”

Three leopard-like beasts leaped out of the portal, moving so quickly and with such an imposing aura that all four of them froze momentarily—this wasn’t a beast they had ever encountered on the Chenyuan continent.

Disregarding Qin Feng’s warning against swordflight, they immediately rose up into the air, Li Mo with Yun Ruoyan, and Zhuo Yifeng with Qin Feng. In a matter of moments, over a hundred leopard-like beasts had emerged from the portal, followed by another group of sharp-horned antelopes. The portal inlaid in the tree seemed to have grown even larger.

The seemingly endless hordes of beasts rushed out of the portal and devastated the surroundings, causing as much damage as a mid-scale earthquake. The original beasts grazing in the valley were dead or wounded or fleeing, and the howls and cries of beasts echoed throughout the entire valley.

However, this realm was really quite large, so much so that even the influx of so many beasts only caused damage in a rather localized area around the portal.

When the flow of beasts finally diminished, Li Mo asked Qin Feng, “Where’s your spiritual sword?”

Qin Feng was an earth-type cultivator, and his spiritual sword was imbued with a yellow aura. Strangely, he didn’t use it despite the urgency of the situation.

“An otherworlder called Pi Hun stole it,” Qin Feng replied.

Zhuo Yifeng and Yun Ruoyan both looked at him in shock. A spiritual sword was vital to a blademaster, and its use and effects would only magnify as one’s cultivation improved. Because many advanced arts and abilities had to be used in conjunction with one’s blade, it was vital that a spiritual sword be replaced quickly if it was destroyed or stolen.

“I suggest we leave immediately.” Despite Qin Feng’s tall, muscular form, his incessant cowering left Yun Ruoyan and Zhuo Yifeng both somewhat annoyed, and even Li Mo began to frown.

But when a black hound and a long-armed monkey emerged from the portal, Qin Feng’s face turned even paler. “It’s too late to leave now…”

“Someone’s coming!” Yun Ruoyan called out, seeing two humanoid figures following the black hound out.

“They’re the outworlders!” Qin Feng cried.

The two figures who walked out from the portal, one male and one female, were both youths slightly younger than Yun Ruoyan. The young girl was dressed in red, her hair slightly tinged with red and tied up behind her in a ponytail. Her face was youthful and eye-catching.

The young boy’s hair was short-cropped and as red as fire, tufted and pointing every which way. He was dressed in black, exposing his muscular arms, and had a huge broadsword strapped to his back.

Despite their apparent youth, neither outworlder had the levity of a child.

“Ah?” The young girl raised her head to see the four cultivators in the sky, then grinned. “Pi Yang, it looks like we’ve found three new faces!”

“Three new pleasures, you say? Hunting humans is far more interesting than hunting these beasts, and I love the scent of human blood.”

“And two of them can fly on their swords, so they must be at least eighth-rank blademasters,” the girl continued.

“Oh? That’s rare. I heard those groundhogs needed to get to twenty or thirty before they even had a chance to become eighth-rank blademasters, but they look pretty young, don’t they?”

The youth felt a gaze staring directly at him as he talked, and he glanced in that direction to see Zhuo Yifeng’s bright eyes. Both their gazes were sharp and intense, so much so that it seemed sparks would fly at any moment.

He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting, to be so arrogant with such pitiful cultivation.” Turning to his black hound, he commanded, “Pi Li, grab me that youth with the bow!”

“No, Pi Li, bring me that girl in red!” the girl commanded.

The black hound Pi Li, having received two conflicting orders at the same time, gave up on carrying either of them out and ended up running around in circles, chasing its wagging tail.

Pi Yang glanced at Yun Ruoyan and found a girl of such beauty that it would be hard to find her like even in their world. He turned to the girl beside him, then back again to Yun Ruoyan. With a crooked smile, he said, “That girl isn’t too bad. If we bring her to Peak Darkness, we should be able to sell her for quite a few spiritual crystals. To Pi Li, he commanded, “Bring that girl over, and I’ll give you a blood mushroom as a treat.”

The black hound woofed twice, and stood up. It glanced at Yun Ruoyan, kicked off with its back feet, and dashed toward her like a bolt of lightning.

At the same time, Zhuo Yifeng shot an arrow at the black hound. He possessed incredible skill at archery, one that even Li Mo could find no fault with. When he became an eighth-rank blademaster, the power of his arrows had more than doubled. Even if he couldn’t kill the hound directly, he should at least have been able to give it a significant wound.

However, the black hound suddenly seemed to freeze in mid-air for a few moments before dashing forward again. This strange delay caused the arrow to whizz by, leaving the hound unscathed. It opened its jaws filled with sharp teeth and pounced at Yun Ruoyan.

“Ah, Pi Li! Don’t break her skin, or she’ll be worthless!” the youth hurriedly called out, but he suddenly stopped speaking.

Li Mo had grabbed the hound by its neck. His hand was slowly frosting over with ice, and on that ice were the imprints of a bite mark...