147. Humanoid Monster (Fourth update, subscriptions requested)

Fighting their way forward, the terrain within the valley grew increasingly broader. Gradually, the ruins of buildings began to appear on both sides—stretches of architectural complexes, half-collapsed pavilions, and what must have once been exquisite gardens, all now reduced to ruins and shrouded in a bleak, ash-gray hue.

After successively destroying over a dozen elite skeletons and two to three hundred ordinary elites, no further obstructions remained before the two of them. It was impossible to tell whether dangers were still lurking in the shadows or if the malevolent entity had exhausted all its tricks.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

Suddenly, a series of Hissing sounds echoed around them. Following the noise, swimming black figures began to emerge among the architectural ruins. Like wisps of dark mist, they rapidly slithered in from all directions.

"Watch out, it is a swarm of snakes. These are snakes mutated and corrupted by that malevolent entity, similar to the swarm of rats we encountered earlier, but with a much stronger aura." Chen Fengyun swept his divine sense outward and detected the shadowy black figures.

"Just like those rats from before? That's wonderful!" To his surprise, Ma Dangdang sounded quite excited upon hearing this. If they were the same as the previous rat swarm, wouldn't that mean the Divine Dragon could devour these snakes as well?

Understanding her train of thought, Chen Fengyun couldn't help but shake his head. Fearless and undaunted—this was truly Ma Dangdang of the Exorcist Dragon Clan. True to form, as soon as the snakes drew closer, she shouted, "Let me try first!" and summoned the Divine Dragon to attack.

However, the snake swarm was extremely fast and approached from all directions. Ma Dangdang's Divine Dragon could only tackle the targets directly in front of them. With a flick of his Dark Yin Mirror, Chen Fengyun channeled spiritual energy into it, instantly freezing the ground behind them into a sheet of ice and snow. This drastically slowed down the snakes coming from the rear, rendering some of them entirely immobile.

"Brilliant! This way, none of them will go to waste." Initially, Ma Dangdang had worried that Chen Fengyun might kill too many of the snakes outright, but seeing that he had merely frozen them into immobility, she cried out in joy.

Working in seamless cooperation, Chen Fengyun took charge of freezing the snakes while Ma Dangdang commanded the Divine Dragon to devour the swarm. Before long, several thousand black snakes had been completely swallowed up, making the phantom form of the Divine Dragon noticeably more solid.

Ma Dangdang's cultivation base increased once again. Delighted, she said to Chen Fengyun, "This trip has been so worthwhile! I am now fully capable of practicing the Ma family's ancestral Nine-Character Mantra."

"The Nine-Character Mantra? I know the Buddhist Six-Character True Word. I wonder how your Ma family's Nine-Character Mantra differs?" Chen Fengyun asked, deeply intrigued.

"I am familiar with the Buddhist Six-Character True Word, but it is completely different from our Ma family's Nine-Character Mantra. Our nine characters are: *Rin, Pyo, Toh, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen*—they form an offensive technique that enhances the might of the Divine Dragon," Ma Dangdang explained with a smile.

"So that's how it is. But since your Exorcist Dragon Clan primarily deals with evil entities, and Buddhist divine arts also specialize in subjugating evil, would you be interested in learning Buddhist arts?" A thought suddenly crossed Chen Fengyun's mind as he realized that Ma Dangdang's offensive repertoire relied almost exclusively on the Divine Dragon, making it somewhat singular.

"Are you willing to teach me? The sound attacks and hand seals you used earlier were exceptionally effective at subduing those skeletons; those must be Buddhist divine arts, right?" Ma Dangdang asked pleasantly, surprised and eager.

"Indeed. They are the Salvation Scripture and the Six-Character True Word respectively, the latter of which requires coordination with hand seals. I am not a Buddhist disciple myself; I acquired these Buddhist arts by chance, so I can certainly teach you," Chen Fengyun replied with a smile.

"Very well. Once we get out of here, you must teach me then," Ma Dangdang nodded and said.

Afterward, the two of them began inspecting and searching among the ruins, only to discover that nearly everything had completely decayed, thoroughly eroded by that dark, misty, malevolent energy.

Gradually, they reached the end of the valley. Beneath a towering cliff stood a massive cavern entrance more than ten meters high. Pitch-black inside, its depth was entirely unknown, and no one could tell what lay hidden within.

However, Chen Fengyun sensed that the core of the array enclosing the entire Hundred Flowers Valley was located right inside here. Moreover, this was also where the array's power was most concentrated, clearly indicating that the wicked entity was trapped within this cavern.

"Most dark and evil entities dwell in subterranean caves, and the monster in this valley is no exception. I only wonder whether it is comfortable being trapped in there, or if it is truly imprisoned the way you said," Ma Dangdang teased with a sly smile.

"Regardless, now that we've reached this place, turning back is certainly out of the question. We've been in the valley for almost half a day now; how about we take some time to eat and rest? Once our physical strength and stamina are fully recovered, we can venture inside to investigate," Chen Fengyun suggested.

"That sounds reasonable." Ma Dangdang nodded, readily agreeing with his proposal. The two of them then produced the food they had prepared and began to eat. Each maintained a protective aura shield, so they had no fear of the food being contaminated by the dark mist.

After eating and drinking, they rested for about another half-hour. Feeling that their spirits and physical vigor had fully recovered, they walked together toward the cave entrance while maintaining strict vigilance. Chen Fengyun's divine sense continuously scanned the path ahead.

However, both the dark mist in the valley and the formation inside the cave exerted a suppressive effect on divine sense. Had Chen Fengyun's divine sense not reached the late Yellow Tier, his perception range would probably have been restricted to a mere dozen square meters around him; even now, he could only detect things within a range of about a hundred meters ahead.

The cave entrance was over ten meters high, and the rock walls inside were carved with various figures and murals. Yet at this moment, they looked rather gloomy and terrifying. Fortunately, the two kept close to each other, and both emitted a golden radiance that illuminated a portion of the dark mist ahead.

"There are actually so many tunnels in here! Which one should we take?" Upon reaching a depth of several dozen meters inside the cavern, they discovered over a dozen identically sized openings carved into the cave wall. Ma Dangdang asked hesitantly.

Chen Fengyun swept his divine sense across these openings one by one, discovering that some tunnels were piled high with numerous skeletons, while others were merely a few meters deep. Only the central tunnel emitted a bone-chillingly cold aura.

"The other tunnels are dead ends; only the centermost tunnel leads to the depths of the earth," Chen Fengyun said with certainty, leading Ma Dangdang toward the middle opening.

"Aroo..."

Just as the two reached the middle tunnel, Chen Fengyun abruptly pulled Ma Dangdang back with him in a swift retreat. At the same instant, a loud, piercing howl echoed from the opening, and a monstrous figure rushed out from the dark.

To call it a monster was slightly inaccurate; it was actually a human—specifically, an ancient human. However, this person was already dead, their corpse in a state of semi-decomposition while still dripping with some sort of black liquid. Yet, the aura emanating from its body was even more formidable than that of the elite skeletons they had encountered earlier.

Moreover, while the humanoid monster roared at the two intruders, it also opened its wide mouth as if panting, spewing out gales of deep black mist that surged toward them like a pack of small, serpentine air currents.

"Divine Dragon, slay the evil!" Seeing how repulsive the monster was, Ma Dangdang immediately unleashed a strike from the Divine Dragon, and to her satisfaction, the dragon swallowed up those mist-formed serpentine currents in one gulp.