Soft Feather and Song Shuhang concealed their aura and quietly slid into the strange fog.

Cultivators had several methods to conceal their aura, but Song Shuhang, who had just advanced to the Second Stage Realm, had yet to study such a method. Hence, he could only use the ❮True Self Meditation Scripture❯ to restrain his mental energy as much as possible and conceal all his true qi inside the cyclone in his dantian. After taking these precautions, he was more or less able to obtain a result that was similar to those techniques.

Afterward, Soft Feather took the lead and Song Shuhang closely followed behind. On their way, it felt as though they were playing hide-and-seek. They would often hide behind objects, using them as a cover, and quickly dash forward in the next moment.

After getting past a rockery, Soft Feather suddenly stopped, saying in a soft voice, "Wait a moment. There is a strange aura ahead."

There were traces of monster qi ahead.

Song Shuhang cautiously shot a glance ahead, but he couldn't see anything due to the buildings obstructing his sight.

At this time, Soft Feather took out a pair of contact lenses and handed one of them to Song Shuhang.

"What's this?" Song Shuhang asked in a low voice.

Soft Feather put a contact lens on her right eye and explained, "It's a magical treasure that can allow the user to 'ascend another story, were you to see a thousand miles farther'. After wearing these contact lenses, you can overlook the earth as though you were flying in the sky. Unless there is someone of the Fifth Stage or above, they won't be able to sense our presence."

Song Shuhang nodded and put the other contact lens on his left eye.

As soon as he wore the contact lense, the picture before his eyes completely changed. The field of vision of the left eye changed, and he was now seeing things from above, while the field of vision of the right eye remained the same as before.

Song Shuhang quickly closed his right eye and only used the left one to look.

There are even magical treasures such as this?

Actually, Song Shuhang had already experienced this type of 'God's-eye view' through the ghost spirit before, but he had temporarily forgotten about this matter. Moreover, after he advanced to the Second Stage, the ghost spirit also underwent a change. Right now, it was shrinking in his Heart Aperture and not moving in the slightest.

Through the God's-eye view, Song Shuhang saw that there were five stout and strange men standing in front of a big ancestral temple 200 meters ahead.

The five men were wearing black clothes and masks on their faces; only their eyes were visible. Many black needles were popping out from their headgear and the rest of their bodies, making them look like hedgehogs.

These five men were standing amidst the fog, but weren't affected by it.

From their cautious appearance, it seemed they were all enemies...

"Are they monsters?" Soft Feather muttered. Earlier, she sensed a faint presence of monster qi, but she couldn't tell which type of monster the opposite party was.

"Their strength seems to be in the Third Stage… at most Fourth. Senior Song, I'll quickly take care of them and bring them over here. That way we can examine them and discover which monster race they belong to!" Soft Feather cracked her knuckles and reached out to her size-reducing purse.

In the next moment, she took a sword out of her purse. The handle of the sword was modeled after a graceful multicolored butterfly. The spiritual energy emanating from the treasure sword could be seen by the naked eye, and a glance was enough to tell that its quality was much higher than Shuhang's Broken Tyrant.

Song Shuhang said in a low voice, "Shouldn't we determine if they are friends or foes first?"

It was rather common for cultivators to raise spirit or monster beasts. For example, True Monarch Yellow Mountain was raising Doudou.

Although these guys didn't seem too friendly, perhaps they were monster beasts the Chu Family was raising?

"In that case, I'll knock them out first! If they turn out to be enemies, we'll examine them and find out which race they belong to!" Soft Feather clenched her fists.

Just as the duo was quietly chatting, something happened in front of the ancestral temple.

One of the strange men suddenly dashed forward, and two seconds later, he barged into a nearby multi-storied building.

Around three breaths later, he came out of the building while holding a disciple of the Chu Family in his hands. Afterward, he casually threw him onto the ground; it was unknown whether or not he was still alive.

Perhaps this disciple of the Chu Family had a special constitution and woke soon after fainting. After waking up, he must have realized that there was something fishy going on and decided to sound the alarm to alert the other clansmen.

But that strange man noticed his presence as soon as he took two steps forward...

After noticing him, the man immediately barged into his dwelling and gravely injured him, stopping him from alerting his clansmen.

From the looks of it, these guys were surely enemies.

❄️❄️❄️

"We've confirmed that they are enemies," Soft Feather said. "Senior Song, let's go."

"There are five of them in total. Anyway, those guys seem to be in charge of guarding the entrance. Are sure you can deal with them?" Song Shuhang cautiously asked.

The opposite party was standing still in front of the entrance of the ancestral temple, and it was clear that their objective was to steal something from in there.

If he were to think about something precious the Chu Family possessed, Song Shuhang would immediately recall the mysterious sword technique. Eight out of ten, the companions of these strange men went to the place the technique was located.

Such being the case, they absolutely couldn't let them run away!

"If we're talking about the five men standing at the entrance, I have full confidence of defeating them," Soft Feather said self-confidently.

"Good. You can go ahead then, but try not to cause a commotion if possible. In the meantime, I'll notify the people of the Chu Family and make them secretly surround the ancestral temple. No matter what, we can't let these guys escape," Song Shuhang said.

They had to be swift and stealthy in order not to alert the enemy. If they were to cause a commotion, these guys would get more cautious, and it would become more difficult to deal with them.

"I understand… Eh? Senior Song, be careful!" Soft Feather struck Song Shuhang with her palm halfway through her speech.

She applied a soft force to Song Shuhang and pushed him away, making him bump into the rockery behind.

"Boom!"

The dull sound of two objects colliding echoed… luckily, Song Shuhang was already a cultivator of the Second Stage and his body was strong; he didn't get hurt.

At this time, several fifty centimeters long needles had appeared in the place he was originally standing in.

These sharp needles didn't seem to be made of metal. They were emitting the true qi belonging to cultivators and a faint quantity of monster qi. These were the same needles sticking out of the bodies of those strange stout men!

Were they discovered?

But those five men were still guarding the entrance of the temple and hadn't moved in the slightest...

"Tsk. Does it mean that there aren't only five of them? It seems there are others hiding in the surroundings as well..." Song Shuhang stretched out his hand and removed the contact lens from his left eye. He couldn't fight properly while wearing that gadget.

Soon after, he looked in the direction the needles came from. There, he saw a strange figure that was much slimmer compared to the five stout men. At this time, it was squatting on top of a far-off pavilion in the rockery.

"Tsk, you unexpectedly managed to dodge them," the figure said in a strange voice. It felt as though it was speaking underwater. "But you won't be able to dodge this time!"

After saying this much, the petite and strange figure aimed at Song Shuhang and Soft Feather once more, stretching out its hands. Next, around ten black needles emerged from each of its palms.

When he saw those needles, Song Shuhang felt his scalp go numb.

"Die!" the petite and strange figure said with an evil smile on its face.

In the next moment, twenty or so needles shot out toward both Soft Feather and Song Shuhang.

The speed of the needles was slightly faster than that of bullets.

With his current eyesight as a cultivator of the Second Stage, Song Shuhang was unable to clearly see their trajectory without using the innate skill of his Eye Aperture. He could only see ten shadows quickly coming toward him.

Since he couldn't even see them, it was even more impossible to dodge them.

"Innate skill of the Eye Aperture, activate!" Song Shuhang didn't hesitate to use the innate skill of his Eye Aperture. In the next moment, the world slowed down in his eyes.

After advancing to the Second Stage, the effects of the skill were even stronger. Innate skills would become stronger along with their owner.

"Now, I can clearly see the trajectory of the black needles." Song Shuhang opened his eyes wide and tightly held the treasured saber Broken Tyrant.

The ten needles covered a very wide area. Seven of them were aiming at Song Shuhang's body, while the other three cut off his path of retreat, forcing him to meet the others head-on.

Song Shuhang madly operated his brain, trying to think of a way to cut down all the needles with his saber.

"Found it!" Song Shuhang quickly calculated the actions he had to perform. Soon after, he took a light step toward the right, avoiding the needles that seemed most dangerous.

At the same time, he lifted his treasured saber Broken Tyrant, with the blade of the saber starting to cut toward the trajectory he calculated earlier!

I can do it, I can block these needles.

Moreover, he could use the small golden shield of the ghost spirit if there was a need to. Given the toughness of the golden shield, Song Shuhang was sure that it could block at least one barrage of those black needles.

But just as he was about to slash with his saber, Song Shuhang felt his vision blur.

A silhouette appeared in his front in the blink of an eye!

Even with the innate skill of his Eye Aperture activated, Song Shuhang could only see a series of afterimages.

It was Soft Feather!

At this critical time, she quickly moved in front of Shuhang and opened her arms wide, keeping off the attack with her body.

"..." Song Shuhang.

"Ding, ding, ding, ding!"

A series of noises echoed.

The ten needles crashed against Soft Feather, but none of them was able to touch her body. They were all blocked by a pale layer of golden light.

"Impossible!" The petite and strange figure standing on the pavilion opened its eyes wide. It had a lot of confidence in the attack power of the needles. After adding true yuan and monster energy to the needles, their strength was much higher than other techniques of the same rank. Its current strength was at the peak of the Third Stage, but the attack power of these needles had reached the Fourth Stage!

But now, its all-out attack was easily blocked by this girl?

"Hmph!" Soft Feather's black hair flew upwards. Afterward, she stretched out her hands and gently tapped on her body. The denim suspender skirt she was wearing disappeared and revealed its true form—an elegant metallic armor, beautiful and very pleasing to the eye.

It resembled those cool gear you find in games, and with that butterfly-shaped treasured sword in her hand, she looked like a valkyrie!

"Senior Song, leave it to me!" Soft Feather said. "You should notify the members of the Chu Family and tell them to prepare themselves."