Chapter 4

The group instantly gripped their weapons tightly, assumed a defensive posture, and slowly moved forward.

The further you go in, the stronger the stench of blood becomes. The ground is covered with the corpses of monsters and thick, blood-red liquid, which makes a sizzling sound when you step on them.

This floor was a bit smaller than the one they had been on before. Shi Anxu guessed that they were probably heading to the top of the tower, and the floor they had been on before was the bottom floor.

After walking for a short while, Gu Yu, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped.

Shi Anxu was still lost in thought when, if Mu Qingzhou hadn't reacted quickly from behind, he would have almost bumped into Qin An's back.

He turned to Mu Qingzhou and thanked him, then asked loudly, "Why did you suddenly stop?"

Gu Yu, who was ahead, replied, "Those ahead are the corpses of the disciples who came to participate in the competition..."

Shi Anxu was startled and quickly walked forward, with Mu Qingzhou following behind him.

When I saw the corpse that Gu Yu had mentioned, even though I was mentally prepared, I couldn't help but feel shocked.

Jiang Linyu, who arrived later, was also shocked by the scene.

Shi Anxu asked uncertainly, "So all the disciples on this floor were wiped out?"

Gu Yu frowned and replied, "It seems so. There are more people teleported from this floor than from ours."

Qin An unconsciously moved closer to Gu Yu, "Did they run into something?"

"Nonsense, do you even need to tell me that?" Gu Yu pushed Qin An away with a dark face, then turned to look at Shi Anxu and the others. "It seems we've encountered a tricky situation. Our alliance can't be broken up for the time being."

Shi Anxu and the others remained silent, clearly agreeing with Gu Yu's statement; they couldn't think of a better solution.

Mu Qingzhou, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "There is the aura of demonic cultivators here."

Jiang Linyu asked in surprise, "Hmm? Why can't I detect even a trace of demonic cultivator's aura?"

Gu Yu continued, "I also didn't sense any demonic cultivator's aura."

Shi Anxu secretly complained to himself, how could their trashy cultivation techniques compare to the top-tier cultivation techniques collected by their master? Although Mu Qingzhou's realm was below theirs, he was still more powerful than them. He would not allow them to question Mu Qingzhou.

He was about to speak up for Mu Qingzhou when Mu Qingzhou gestured for him to stop, indicating that his junior brother wanted to handle the situation himself, so he remained silent.

Seeing the two exchanging glances without offering any explanation, Qin An became even more excited. "Mu Qingzhou, could this be an excuse you're using to create panic?"

Mu Qingzhou didn't even glance at Qin An, and walked straight into the middle of the corpses. As he walked, he kept forming hand seals, and a continuous stream of ice spiritual power was released from his hands. Wherever the ice touched, wisps of demonic energy rose from the corpses.

Upon seeing this scene, Qin An felt a burning pain in his face. He never expected that Mu Qingzhou could see what even his senior brother Gu Yu had failed to notice.

He awkwardly apologized to Mu Qingzhou, "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you."

Gu Yu and Jiang Linyu looked surprised. They hadn't expected that Mu Qingzhou, who was weaker than them, could see things they couldn't, giving them a new understanding of Mu Qingzhou's strength. Mu Qingzhou would be a formidable opponent, but right now, the most important thing to deal with was the problem of the demonic cultivators.

Jiang Linyu humbly asked, "It seems our skills are lacking. Since Junior Brother Mu can easily neutralize the demonic cultivator's spells, does Junior Brother Mu have any good methods to deal with him?"

Mu Qingzhou answered succinctly, "Yes."

Gu Yu, Qin An: "What method?"

Shi Anxu: "The credit for this matter of demonic cultivation must all go to my junior brother. You are not allowed to take a single point."

The three said, "Okay, we agree."

Shi Anxu then gestured for Mu Qingzhou to reveal his method.

Mu Qingzhou: "Based on my judgment, this demonic cultivator is at the early stage of the Golden Core realm. He was able to kill so many disciples because he possesses a celestial-grade magic artifact. As for the solution, we just need to seize that artifact."

Qin An retorted, "What kind of method is that? It's clearly just a simple and brutal direct attack."

Mu Qingzhou said calmly, "Even if you try to snatch it directly, you won't succeed. Only I know the method."

Qin An said angrily, "You didn't tell us what kind of magic artifact it was, how do you know we don't know?"

Shi Anxu: ...

How could he be so confident in himself? Doesn't he know his own strength? Why did he have to ask? He's just waiting to be proven wrong. I really feel sorry for Gu Yu.

Mu Qingzhou didn't want to argue with Qin An any further, so he simply said, "Zhaoyu."

Upon hearing the name, Qin An exclaimed in shock: "What? Zhaoyu! This is a top-tier immortal-grade magic weapon, capable of killing people invisibly without leaving a trace of the user."

Gu Yu hadn't expected it to be a top-tier immortal-grade magic weapon. He really wanted to shut Qin An's noisy mouth; he was just asking for trouble.

His face instantly darkened, and he glared fiercely at Qin An.

Qin An realized he had embarrassed his senior brother Gu, so he covered his mouth tightly and remained silent.

Shi Anxu was shocked when he heard it was Zhaoyu. He thought it was just an ordinary immortal-grade magic weapon, but he didn't expect it to be a top-tier immortal-grade magic weapon. Now he was a little worried about Mu Qingzhou's safety. He could guarantee the safety of an ordinary one, but he was afraid that Mu Qingzhou wouldn't be able to handle a top-tier one.

He asked worriedly, "Junior brother, what are your chances of winning this? If it doesn't work out, we'll just have to give up."

Mu Qingzhou replied, "I'm 90% sure, Senior Brother, you don't need to worry. I never say anything I'm not sure about."

Hearing that there was a 90% certainty, Shi Anxu felt relieved. He could just watch Mu Qingzhou's performance from now on; after all, there were two other people with higher cultivation levels than him, and it wasn't his turn to contribute as a useless person.

Sure enough, just as he finished thinking about it, Jiang Linyu asked, "Is there anything we can help you with?"

Mu Qingzhou thought for a moment and replied, "Just help me hold off the demonic cultivators."

Jiang Linyu nodded. "Alright, now we need to know the demonic cultivator's location."

Based on their previous conclusions, Shi Anxu thought for a moment and said, "Since this tower can only be ascended, after the demonic cultivator has dealt with the disciples on this floor, he is either still on this floor looking for a way to go to the upper floor, or he is already on the upper floor. If he hasn't found a way to go to the upper floor yet, we can deal with him here. If he has already gone to the upper floor, then it will be difficult. We won't be able to determine which floor he has reached, and we will be in a very passive position."

Gu Yu and the others obviously couldn't think of any other possibilities either, and said dryly, "Then let's continue to investigate further and see what the situation is."

Given Qin An's previous thoughtless remarks, Gu Yu instructed him to move the body and clear a path for them.

Qin An was in a sorry state as he moved; his disciple robes were so worn that their original color was unrecognizable, and the blood in his hair had clotted, creating a stark contrast with the spotless white disciple robes of Shi Anxu and Mu Qingzhou.

Shi Anxu couldn't help but chuckle softly. Qin An glared at him and quickly walked forward.

The place where they stopped was very close to the exit of this floor. After walking for a short while, the group saw the stairs leading up.

The group's expressions were not good. The demonic cultivator had already gone to the upper level, and they could only hope that the demonic cultivator would not be able to figure out how to get to the next level.

Just now, because of the awkward situation, Qin An was walking in front. Now, facing the unknown situation, his feet felt like they were nailed to the ground, and he couldn't move forward even one step.

Since Mu Qingzhou had already made a name for himself, Gu Yu decided to continue making a name for himself and didn't make any moves.

Mu Qingzhou stood behind him the whole time, as if he would follow wherever Mu Qingzhou went.

Jiang Linyu didn't know what was going on, but no one seemed to want to go up the stairs.

Shi Anxu couldn't bear to watch any longer and was the first to step onto the stairs, followed by Mu Qingzhou.

These people are timid and cowardly, even more useless than him (except for his junior brother). They still need a useless person to lead the charge. Bah!

As Shi Anxu walked, he mentally complained, but he couldn't keep complaining for long.

He asked Mu Qingzhou, who was following behind him, "Don't you feel it getting colder and colder?"

Mu Qingzhou shook her head. "No, is it very cold? Can you still bear it?"

Shi An then remembered that Mu Qingzhou had a top-grade ice spiritual root, so this little bit of freezing was nothing to him. He should put a spiritual energy shield on himself.

Seeing that Shi Anxu ignored him, Mu Qingzhou felt anxious for the first time. "Senior brother, how are you? Do you need me to transfer spiritual energy to you?"

Hearing Mu Qingzhou's voice, Shi Anxu came back to his senses and replied, "It's alright, Senior Brother, just put on a spiritual energy shield and it won't be too cold."

Mu Qingzhou felt relieved and softly hummed in agreement.

After putting on the spiritual energy shield, Shi Anxu finally felt much better and his steps became faster as he walked upwards.

After walking uphill for a long time, the steps ahead still seemed endless, and Shi Anxu's feet began to ache slightly.

Jiang Linyu's voice, transmitted through the spiritual energy barrier, reached Shi Anxu's ears: "Senior Brother Shi, we've been walking for a long time. Are we almost there?"

Shi Anxu replied, "No, the road above still stretches as far as the eye can see."

Jiang Linyu: "That shouldn't be the case. We've been walking for at least half an hour. There shouldn't be such a long staircase inside the tower."

Shi Anxu also felt something was wrong. Even if the stairs were long, they shouldn't still seem endless.

“Something’s not right. Let’s stop and think of something.” With that, Shi Anxu stopped walking.

They walked for quite a while, and the distance between them was relatively long. It took quite a while for the people behind to catch up.

Jiang Linyu didn't rest as soon as she arrived. She just stared at the endless staircase in front of her, lost in thought.

Once he came to his senses, Shi Anxu immediately asked, "Junior Brother Jiang, did you discover something?"

Jiang Linyu nodded. "I encountered a similar situation when I was training before. We probably walked into the formation without realizing it. This kind of formation will generate an illusion based on your environment, causing you to spin in circles and trap you."

Shi Anxu's face lit up with joy. "Is there any way to break this formation?"