The exploration team faced off against the enormous, qilin-like monster, the atmosphere inside the cave tense to the extreme. The powerful spiritual energy emanating from the monster, like tangible waves, assaulted everyone's senses. Its beacon-like eyes revealed coldness and vigilance, as if warning them not to approach lightly.

The elder of the Spirit Sword Sect broke the silence first, speaking in a low voice to the crowd: "This demonic beast is exceptionally powerful; we cannot attack rashly. Everyone should observe its movements and find its weaknesses." The crowd nodded slightly, gripping their weapons and magical artifacts tightly, their eyes fixed intently on the demonic beast.

Suddenly, the demonic beast let out a deafening roar that echoed throughout the cave, making everyone's eardrums ache. Then, with a powerful leap, it charged towards the exploration team like a black lightning bolt. The sword cultivators of the Spirit Sword Sect quickly formed a sword formation, its light blazing brightly, and sword energy shot towards the demonic beast like dragons emerging from the sea.

However, the demonic beast was incredibly fast. It nimbly twisted its body, dodging most of the sword energy. Only a few sword energies grazed its body, leaving shallow marks on its hard scales. The demonic beast rushed to the sword formation, raised its massive claws, and slammed them down fiercely.

"Defend!" shouted the elder of the Spirit Sword Sect. The sword cultivators channeled their spiritual power to strengthen the sword formation's defense. With a deafening boom, the sword formation trembled violently under the attack of the demonic beast. Several sword cultivators were shaken by the powerful force, their blood surging, but they gritted their teeth and held their ground.

Seeing this, the disciples of Wanbaoge immediately used their magical artifacts to attack the demonic beast. The "Flaming Dragon Cauldron" spewed out raging flames, engulfing the demonic beast. The flames raged across the demonic beast's body, but the beast was unfazed. It roared amidst the flames, its scales shimmering with black light, gradually neutralizing the power of the fire.

"This monster has a strong resistance to fire, switch to other magic weapons!" shouted Zhao Wanbao, the head of the Wanbao Pavilion. The disciples quickly adjusted their magic weapons, and the lightning released by the "Nine Heavens Thunder Pearl" shot towards the monster like silver snakes. The lightning struck the monster, causing its body to tremble slightly, but it quickly recovered and continued to attack the exploration team.

The experts from the Linghe Merchant Guild were also busy, casting various spells in an attempt to disrupt the monsters' movements. Some used "Slowing Spells" to slow their actions; others used "Confusion Spells" to try and disturb their minds. However, the monsters seemed to have a certain resistance to these spells; although affected to some extent, they remained incredibly ferocious.

During the fierce battle, Lin Yang noticed that each time the demonic beast launched an attack, the scales on its head would slightly open, revealing a small patch of soft skin. A thought struck him: this might be the demonic beast's weakness. He quickly informed the elders of the Spirit Sword Sect of this discovery.

Upon hearing this, the elder immediately instructed the sword cultivators to change their attack strategy. The sword cultivators no longer attacked blindly, but instead waited for the monster to launch its attack. When the monster pounced again, the sword cultivators seized the opportunity and unleashed their fierce sword techniques, aiming directly at the exposed soft parts of the monster's head.

A sword aura struck the monster's head precisely at its weakest point, causing it to roar in pain and tremble violently. Enraged, it turned and lunged at the swordsman who had attacked it. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the experts from the Linghe Merchant Guild cast spells to disrupt the monster's movements, buying time for the swordsmen.

The disciples of Wanbaoge intensified their attacks, raining down various magical weapons upon the demonic beast. Under the combined assault, the demonic beast's movements gradually slowed, and its wounds multiplied.

However, the monster was not about to give up easily. It suddenly opened its maw, and a powerful vortex of spiritual energy surged out, sweeping towards the exploration team. Wherever the vortex passed, the walls on both sides of the passage collapsed, and debris flew everywhere.

"Everyone be careful, hold on with all your might!" Lin Yang shouted. The group quickly erected spiritual energy shields to withstand the impact of the spiritual energy vortex. The shields trembled violently under the vortex's force, their light flickering erratically, as if they might shatter at any moment.

Just as the shield was about to shatter, the elder of the Spirit Sword Sect unleashed the sect's ultimate technique—"Sword Control of Heaven and Earth." A massive sword aura shot into the sky, colliding with the vortex of spiritual energy. With a deafening roar, the vortex of spiritual energy was forcefully blocked by the sword aura and swept towards the demonic beast.

The demonic beast, unable to dodge in time, was struck by the vortex of spiritual energy it had unleashed, its body flying backward and crashing heavily into the cave wall. The cave shook violently, as if it were about to collapse.

Seizing the opportunity, everyone launched their final attack. The sword cultivators of the Spirit Sword Sect unleashed their strongest sword techniques, the disciples of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion manipulated their magical artifacts to unleash their most powerful strikes, and the experts of the Spirit Harmony Chamber of Commerce also gathered all their magical power together and blasted it towards the demonic beast.

Under the combined attack of everyone, the monster finally couldn't hold on any longer. After letting out a roar of resentment, it collapsed to the ground, showing no signs of life.

The exploration team successfully defeated the monster, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But they knew this was only the first step in exploring the ruins; many more secrets awaited them. After a short rest, they continued deeper into the cave, hoping to find the key to restraining the dark power of the "Shadow Society."