"Strange..." A young disciple suddenly broke the silence, his voice as soft as a whisper, "Why is this Netherworld Valley so quiet today?" He nervously stroked the jade pendant at his waist, his fingertips tracing the jade surface back and forth.

These words seemed to open a floodgate, and the crowd echoed in hushed tones, "Yes, those bloodthirsty demonic bats and bone-corroding winds of the past are nowhere to be seen today..." The speakers' voices carried a sense of relief at surviving a calamity, yet also a hint of unease. Some even secretly loosened their grip on their magical artifacts and wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads.

"I think we were just lucky. We happened to come across an opportunity when there were no monsters here."

"That's great! I was really scared just now."

Everyone present breathed a huge sigh of relief.

However, in that moment of relaxation, Bai Ying, who had been standing quietly at the bow of the boat, suddenly turned around.

The girl's snow-white robes fluttered in the cold wind, and her clear, cold voice, like shards of ice falling to the ground, said: "She's here. Stand still."

"Huh?" The crowd exchanged bewildered glances. Someone forced a smile and said, "Isn't Fairy Bai being a bit too nervous? She can't even spot a shadow of a demon beast..."

"boom!"

A deafening roar, like the earth splitting open, erupted suddenly, and the left side of the mountainside burst open. Countless fragments of rock, accompanied by a bloody storm, rained down on the airship, and the defensive barrier instantly glowed with a blinding blue light. Amidst the billowing dust, a pair of scarlet vertical pupils suddenly ignited like hellfire, followed by a second pair, a third pair... a total of twelve blood-red eyes opened menacingly in the darkness...