The old man withered wood, having repeatedly failed, grew even angrier and no longer cared about leaving any survivors. He took a deep breath and unleashed two consecutive palm strikes.
Qin Mu's expression changed, and he suddenly activated his Qi Sea and Tanzhong acupoint, causing his spiritual energy and righteous energy to circulate wildly. He wielded his sword in his right hand and flicked his fingers in his left hand repeatedly.
"Puff puff puff!" The spiritual energy kept colliding and dissipating.
"Bang!" A burst of spiritual energy struck Qin Mu, sending him flying backward.
"Damn it!" Qin Mu rolled over and stood up, looking at the withered old man in the distance. He understood that the difference in strength between the two was too great. They were both spiritual energy cultivators, but if his spiritual energy was a pond, the other's was at least a lake.
"Brother Qin!" Baili Bing exclaimed, rushing to Qin Mu's side. With a wave of his hand, a bamboo scroll appeared in his hand, which he then activated towards the withered old man.
The bamboo slips flashed with light, and a vast and righteous aura appeared, transforming into a phantom that rushed straight towards the withered old man.
"Secret Manual!" the withered old man shouted, his spiritual energy surging forth as he rushed forward.
Another loud "Bang!" echoed, like a car accident scene, as a wave of energy exploded, causing Qin Mu and Baili Bing to stagger back two steps.
"If you want to live, don't hold back!" Baili Bing shouted angrily as he plopped down on the ground.
Understanding the feeling of being emptied out by that burst of righteous energy, Qin Mu reached out and pulled Baili Bing up, protecting him behind him.
"Damn it!" Ouyang Jing cursed angrily, throwing a chess piece at the withered old man.
The chess piece seemed to move slowly, but in an instant it reached the old man withered wood, and then, like a shooting star, it crashed into him.
Ouyang Qian flicked her hand, and a small bell appeared. Then, with a flick of her slender fingers, she sent the bell flying.
The two siblings attacked one after the other, landing on the old man withered wood. Even though the old man withered wood was very strong, he was still slightly injured when he was hit by the life-saving items left to him by two masters of the same level.
"You brat, prepare to die!" The old man withered wood bristled with anger, his hair and beard bristling as he roared, his body radiating spiritual energy. Clearly, he was enraged and determined to kill with all his might.
"Boom boom boom!" The ground shook violently, startling everyone.
Qin Mu thought it was an attack from the withered old man and looked up in shock, only to find that the withered old man was also swaying and unable to stand steadily.
The old man withered wood was equally alarmed. He thought that reinforcements from Tianshui had arrived. He steadied himself while watching the dissipating mist warily. The encirclement formation he had initially set up had been broken.
The earthquake was getting stronger and stronger; it was a real, earth-shaking event. Everyone was staggering and unable to stand steadily.
"Boom!" A large section of the hillside suddenly collapsed, which terrified everyone even more. Even though they all had cultivation, they seemed weak in the face of such a powerful force of heaven and earth.
Everyone ran and jumped, each searching for a place they thought was safe.
The old man with the highest cultivation level, the withered tree, didn't understand what had happened, but he reacted quickly, leaping into the air and flying away into the distance. In any case, getting away from the collapsed hillside was always the right thing to do. As for his subordinates, he had no time to care about their lives.
The old man withered tree exerted all his strength to fly away into the distance. Only when he left the hillside did he land on the ground. He felt the ground tremble and was worried that the ground would crack. His spiritual energy was also greatly depleted. He glared at the hillside and quickly ran away into the distance.
"Boom!" Another huge tremor shook the hillside completely, the earth cracked open, and from a distance, the hillside that once stood there was now covered in dust.
"Cough cough!" Qin Mu coughed twice, circulating his spiritual energy to force away the dust.
"Where is this?" Qin Mu looked around and was immediately taken aback. The towering trees were much taller than any he had ever seen before.
"Have I time-traveled again?" Qin Mu muttered to himself.
Looking around, Qin Mu saw someone standing up on the ground in the distance and rushed over, because the figure was very familiar.
"Brother Bu, Second Brother Bu! Are you alright?"
"We're alright! Where is this?" Bu Mang replied, then looked around in surprise.
"Second brother! What happened?" Bu Fang, who was blind, asked.
"Brother! I don't know either, but this place doesn't look like the place we just left," Bu Mang replied, puzzled.
"You mean we fell down the mountain and ended up in a strange place? Is it underground?" Bu Fang asked.
“No…not here…” Bu Mang was unsure how to explain to his elder brother.
“Brother Bu! This place is like another world. The trees are ten or twenty feet tall, like a huge forest. We are now in an open space surrounded by tall trees,” Qin Mu explained.
"Could it be a secret realm?" Bu Mang's mind cleared up, and he looked around and guessed.
Qin Mu had also learned about the secret realms. Currently, the secret realms that were under control were basically built by people. There were also some that were said to have been naturally formed, but these naturally formed ones were very rare, and their appearance and disappearance were unpredictable.
There are many legends about secret realms, but no one can say for sure what the specifics are. However, one thing is certain: there are many resources in secret realms.
"No matter what, let's find other people first," Qin Mu suggested. In an unfamiliar environment, people naturally want to be with others like themselves, especially in a place that doesn't seem very safe.
The Bu brothers naturally had no objection to Qin Mu's suggestion. The light in the forest was good, and the sun was shining in the sky. Following the sun, they chose to proceed eastward.
"Who goes there!" A loud shout rang out from ahead. Then Qin Mu saw the Baili siblings emerge warily from behind a large tree.
"Brother Qin!"
"Brother Baili, Miss Baili!" Upon seeing familiar faces, the group felt a sense of relief.
"It's so good to see you all!" Baili Bing said with a smile.
"Where is this? Do you know?" Qin Mu asked the two of them.
Since the Baili siblings were locals, Qin Mu naturally had to ask them.
"I don't know, we've never heard of a secret realm here either," Baili Bing said, shaking his head.
"Let's find the others first, and then look for a way out," Qin Mu suggested. He believed Baili Bing's words; after all, if the powerful families really knew about such a big matter, how could they not have kept it a secret and deliberately brought him here?
"Roar!" A tremendous roar resounded, sending chills down one's spine and clearly conveying a ferocious aura.
The group exchanged a solemn glance, then nodded, tiptoed, and crept toward the direction from which the sound came.
There was no other way; even wild animals had to go and explore a completely unfamiliar place, where they hadn't seen a single person, in order to gather the necessary information.
"Bang! Bang bang!" As they got closer, they heard the sounds of fighting and the bursts of spiritual energy.
Qin Mu peeked out from behind the tree and his pupils immediately contracted. There was indeed a battle going on not far away, with four men in black fighting a huge beast.
No! It should be said that the man in black was being chased. Judging from the blood-stained mouth of the beast, it was clear that prey had entered its mouth.
This is a creature resembling a velociraptor, entirely black, standing seven or eight meters tall and over ten meters long. Its slender body is well-suited for survival in the forest, and its long neck and menacing head indicate that it is no pushover.
Two legs can never outrun four, especially in the forest. The small trees might block a human's path, but for a wild beast, they're no problem at all. So the men in black had no choice but to fight desperately. One of them threw out several objects, and a few wooden puppets rose from the ground.
"Bang! Bang bang!" With a flick of its tail, the beast sent several puppets flying. One of them crashed into a tree and shattered, scattering in all directions. The tree, too large for one person to encircle, swayed twice, its bark falling away, demonstrating the immense force of the beast.
The men in black were nimble in their dodging, but their agility was no match for the speed of the beast's tail. In no time, they were all killed by the beast, which was like playing whack-a-mole with it.
Looking at the mangled corpse on the ground, Qin Mu felt nauseous. It really looked like a car accident scene, the kind where a large vehicle had run over the body, leaving it a bloody mess, with the head looking like a smashed watermelon.
What worried Qin Mu the most was the beast's defense; the weapons in the hands of those men in black could only inflict minor injuries on the beast.
Animals living in the forest like to rub against big trees to add a thick layer of defense to their bodies, which is why Qin Mu saw the beasts as dark and menacing.
Qin Mu gestured behind him, turned around slightly, and wanted to leave.
"Shh!" I hadn't noticed it before, but now I realize how distinct the sound of stepping on leaves is in the quiet forest.
As soon as Qin Mu took two steps back, he felt a sense of crisis rise in his heart. He looked closely and saw that the ferocious beast, which was about to eat, had turned its head and was looking at their hiding place.
"Roar!" The beast opened its blood-red maw and let out a tremendous roar. This was the beast asserting its dominance and threatening those who wanted to steal its food.
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines, stopped in their tracks, and instinctively held their breath.
Perhaps feeling that it had enough prey, the beast roared and then buried its head in its food.
Qin Mu and the others breathed a slight sigh of relief and walked backward more carefully on tiptoe. As for Bu Mang, he simply carried his elder brother on his back.
"Phew!" After walking several hundred meters, the group finally breathed a sigh of relief and then quickly headed in another direction.
"What should we do?" Baili Bing looked at Qin Mu with some confusion. He had no idea what to do and didn't know which way to go.
"Let me take a look first!" Qin Mu scanned the area, then took off and flew towards the top of the tree.
"This is what it means to rise to prominence overnight!" Baili Bing craned her neck, looking enviously at Qin Mu at the treetop.
Standing high, one can see far! Qin Mu, perched on a treetop, couldn't really see anything clearly, since there were even taller trees. He had to keep flying upwards, and only then could he see his surroundings clearly.
After taking a glance, Qin Mu quickly descended. It wasn't because he was too exhausted, but because he noticed a huge beast shadow flying towards him in the distance.
From a distance, you could tell that the guy was quite big; he didn't want to be used as a target in the air.
"Shh!" After landing, Qin Mu quickly pulled the group to hide behind a tree trunk and gestured for them to be quiet.
Just as they had taken their positions, a shadow flashed across the sky.
Baili Rou looked up at the receding shadows in the sky, her small mouth agape. This girl, who hadn't shown fear even when she saw the ferocious beast earlier, now had eyes full of terror.
Of course! This is also related to human knowledge. After all, we can still see huge beasts, like elephants and rhinoceroses, but the impact of birds of prey with a wingspan of more than 20 meters is not ordinary.
Such a huge thing would surely make it very easy to grab someone and lift them into the sky. Humans are always filled with curiosity and longing for the unfamiliar sky, of course! That's because there are no threats in the sky.
"What...what is that?" Baili Rou asked, swallowing hard.
Looking at her frail appearance, Qin Mu felt for the first time that the "Gentle" in her name was indeed fitting—of course, this was without considering her figure.
"I don't know either!" Qin Mu shook his head and said.
"Brother Qin! What's the situation like now?" Baili Bing asked.
Qin Mu recalled the environment he had seen and felt it was somewhat unbelievable. He shook his head sharply to clear his mind and pointed around, saying, "Behind us is a forest of these tall trees. We can leave the forest a few miles ahead. There are mountains in the distance, but the specific situation is unknown."
“There are big mountains! Do you want to go take a look?” Baili Bing asked.
“There’s no other way. If you want to leave, you have to find a way out. The mountains are the right choice. At least you can stand tall and see far,” Qin Mu agreed.
"Alright! Let's hurry! If it gets dark, who knows what dangers might lurk here!" Thinking of the two enormous beasts, Baili Bing felt lingering fear and urged them on.
The group was fairly confident in dealing with the beast on the ground, but who knew if it had any accomplices? At the very least, there had to be a male and a female.
The one who died the most unjustly was the traitor from the Xiangli family. He used up his most powerful iron puppet, but when dealing with wild beasts, he could only use wooden puppets; and he was too bad at close combat, so he was easily killed by the wild beasts.
Bai Libing believed that he and his sister could deal with the beasts together, but he was more afraid of the unknown forest.
The five of them walked quickly, but it still took them two hours to leave the forest. This was mainly because Qin Mu was looking at the distance from the sky, which made his estimation slightly different. He estimated that they had walked at least forty miles before they finally got out.
The situation before them made them hesitate again. Leaving the forest meant that the sky would be unobstructed, and if birds of prey attacked, they would have no choice but to fight.
"Let's go!" Qin Mu glanced back at the big tree behind him and said firmly.
Although the open space offers no obstructions, it also provides a wider field of vision, allowing for earlier detection of any potential threats and making escape easier.
The group quickly moved forward, with Baili Rou leading the way carrying a large sword, Qin Mu and Baili Bing in the middle, and the Bu brothers behind. This formation allowed them to keep an eye on their surroundings, a standard formation for venturing out on adventures.
As the sun slowly began to set in the west, Qin Mu and his group arrived at the foot of the mountain.
70
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