"Puff--" The egg spits out a mouthful of fire, without wasting any of it. The owner says one mouthful is one mouthful.

Mu Yanhuan quickly conjured up one or two torches and lit them. These were conjured using his wood magic, and combined with the egg's spiritual fire, they wouldn't easily go out while walking in the snowy plains.

It can keep everyone warm in a small area. It is enough for their group of nine people.

After Lu Zeyu left, Su Ming walked in front. Sang Jin continued to walk at the back, so they each carried a torch.

Sang Jin and his companions walked for an unknown amount of time. The ground began to shake. Suddenly, they arrived at a barren expanse. The originally white landscape had turned to darkness.

Fortunately, their torches were spiritual fires and had not gone out. There was only stone and earth around, and it was difficult to see trees or bushes.

"Help, someone come and save us." A cry for help came from the front.

"I'll go check it out. You guys stay here and don't wander around," Su Ming said. He was walking in front and was the fastest. Crucially, his skills allowed him to become invisible. He was the perfect person to gather intelligence.

"Okay, we'll wait for you here." Sang Jin responded.

They meditated and practiced on the spot, waiting for Su Ming. Mu Yanhuan swallowed a Qi-recovering pill, but instead of sitting down to meditate, he stood with his fists clasped, inspecting the situation.

Sang Jin spread out his spiritual sense over a hundred meters and kept an eye on the movements around him.

Su Ming concealed his figure and quickly moved towards the source of the cry for help. At his speed, he would arrive in about five breaths.

He saw the ghost-faced men biting people, and a team of fifteen people were struggling to resist a group of about twenty or thirty ghost-faced men.

Behind them was a village. A ghost-faced man had broken through their defenses and was biting a villager. Next to the villager sat a young woman holding a child.

She cried and shouted for someone to save them.

"Captain Wan, kill one of the ghost-faced men here and get a pair. There are too many of them. If they continue like this, our brothers won't be able to hold on any longer." A bearded man said as he chopped off the neck and limbs of the ghost-faced man who was gnawing on the villagers.

Su Ming carefully sensed that the five men were all at the middle stage of the Golden Core stage. The one called Captain Wan was at the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage. And the ghost-faced men were all at the fourth level.

With so many ghost-faced men from the four realms, not to mention them, even the people from the Tianxuan Sect can’t help much.

Suddenly, the monk named Wan Dui was surrounded by half of the ghost-faced men. The other team members were isolated and they were all seriously injured.

As a secret guard, Su Ming had seen all kinds of scenes before. Even seeing so many ghost-faced men surrounding him made his scalp tingle.

Soon, the Wan team was defeated, and no one came to rescue them despite their distress signals.

"Boom—" Su Ming blasted a gap open, slipped into it, and led Team Wan out of the Ghost-Faced Man's encirclement. He couldn't defeat him head-on, but with his invisibility, he could still escape with one person.

"Who... are you?" Captain Wan knew that the man in front of him was definitely not their reinforcements, but he was also wearing the blue uniform of their Tianxuan Sect.

After all, he knew almost everyone stationed here. There were only about a hundred of them. The village behind him, called Desolate Village, was the only pure land here. It was also where the Southern Desolate Continent began.

It is said that the Four Sects Tournament held once every ten years has begun, and the other people stationed in the wilderness have gone to help guard the competition venue.

Therefore, the village sent out a patrol team every day. Today, it happened to be the Tianxuan Sect's team's turn. No one expected there would be so many ghost-faced men attacking the village today. The five of them were no match for them.

"Someone passing by here." Su Ming had used up his chance once, and he couldn't make a blind move a second time.

"Retreat, form a formation to protect the village." Captain Wan shouted.

He pushed Su Ming away and flew towards the sky above the village on his shaky sword. Then the other four people saw that Captain Wan was fine and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

They all flew towards the sky above the village and used the remaining spiritual power in their bodies to form a formation.

"Little brother, you'd better leave quickly. You will die if you stay here." Captain Wan shouted at Su Ming.

"But you'll die if you do this."

"We... this is our mission. Even if we can't save the village, it's better to be able to rest with it. We can't abandon them." Captain Wan said this, taking one last look at the village below. He stopped talking. He needed to conserve his spiritual energy and let the formation hold out a little longer.

Just wait until reinforcements arrive. Hopefully, we can hold out until then.

They were already powerful Jindan-stage warriors at such a young age. As long as they gave up those ordinary villagers, it would be no problem for the five of them to escape the encirclement of the ghost-faced men. They also tried their best.

The enemy was simply too strong, not their fault at all. Why did they insist on defending even though they knew they were no match for them?

"Why?"

“…”

The answer he got was the low growl of the ghost-faced man not far away.

Su Ming thought of Sang Jin and the others who were still behind him. He had to get the message out quickly. He couldn't let his companions fall into such danger.

Sang Jin checked the time. Su Ming had been out for about two incense sticks of time and hadn't returned yet. She was about to go check on him herself.

"Auntie, where are you going?" Su Ming shouted.

"I saw you go out for such a long time and you haven't come back." Sang Jin saw Su Ming coming back covered in dust.

"Su Ming, did you go digging a hole with your hands? Why are you covered in mud?" Hua Li teased.

"The situation is very urgent, so I'll be brief. There are about thirty fourth-level ghost-faced men ahead. I've fought with them before. They're equivalent to cultivators in the early stages of the Golden Core stage. There's also a village ahead, and five Golden Core stage cultivators are protecting that village."

"They are all seriously injured now. I came back to tell you not to go in that direction anymore. Get away from here quickly." Su Ming said, and prepared to go back to help Captain Wan and the others.

"Then what are you going to do?" Sang Jin stopped him.

"I'll go help."

"Good, you are aware of it this time. Let's do it together." In fact, helping that group of people is also helping them.

They were not far from where the ghost-faced men were. If they ate them, they would be the next target.

There was nowhere for them to escape in this place. Even if she, Su Ming, An Nanfeng, and the other four could outrun the Ghost-Faced Man, what about Sang Yu, Hua Li, and the others?

Sang Jin would feel unwilling if she just crushed the jade token and took it back.

Besides, Kedan could intimidate the Ghost-Faced Men. Whether they could win was still unknown. The reason Kedan wasn't allowed out in the first place was, of course, because she wanted the Black Crystal.

"But there are almost thirty fourth-level ghost-faced men there." Su Ming didn't understand why Sang Jin was still planning to take everyone to die even though he had said it was dangerous there?

"Thirty ghost-faced men are all black crystals. What are you afraid of?" In Sang Jin's eyes, it would be a pity if he didn't try to fight.

"We are willing to go together." Mu Xuan and Hua Li spoke at the same time.