"Found it!"

Seeing the village appearing in sight, Su Jingyao couldn’t help but cheer.

The pressure she endured during this journey of searching was actually immense.

Locating the deserted village using divination and a compass requires strong Daoist cultivation, and although Su Jingyao’s strength wasn’t weak, she had little experience in this aspect.

This was her first time in the Cyan Profound Secret Realm, and she didn’t know the situation here much more than Zhang Yuan did.

However, Su Jingyao was very aware that if they couldn’t find a place to stay before dark, the two of them would face tremendous trouble.

Failing the mission would be the least of their worries, they might even lose their lives.

The Nine Peaks Grand Competition was never child’s play!

Now that they had finally found the deserted village, Su Jingyao felt a huge weight lifted, and her tense nerves finally relaxed.

"Wait!"

At that moment, Zhang Yuan suddenly pulled her back.

Staring at the deserted village ahead, Zhang Yuan reached back to retrieve the Eagle-Shooting Bow hanging from his back.

His gaze crossed a distance of over a hundred steps, landing in a dark corner of the village.

A sharp glint flickered in his eyes!

Su Jingyao immediately sensed something was wrong, so she retreated behind Zhang Yuan, quietly pinching a talisman in her hand.

The next moment, Zhang Yuan nocked a feathered arrow.

Suddenly he drew the Eagle-Shooting Bow!

This profound artifact-level longbow was exchanged in the Upper Scenic Celestial Martial Pavilion after Su Jingyao gave him three thousand Daoist Merit points.

The Iron-Clad Bow Zhang Yuan originally possessed, although of decent quality, was unable to handle increasingly powerful foes.

With the infusion of the Power of True Essence, the body of this profound soldiers bow emitted a faint glow.

The runes engraved on the bow’s surface lit up one after another.

A trace of mystical power silently gathered within the arrow.

Whiz!

Zhang Yuan suddenly released the bowstring, and the feathered arrow shot forward like lightning.

The metallic arrowhead, flashing with silvery-grey light, spun rapidly, covering over a hundred steps in an instant, and shot into the dark corner of the deserted village where Zhang Yuan had locked his focus.

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, a grotesque deceitful monster suddenly burst from the ruins.

Its entire body was covered in various-sized blood swellings, resembling a leopard, with a lizard-like head, a pointed mouth, a long tail, and sturdy limbs, looking like some highly mutated creature.

A large wound burst open on the monster’s back, with black-red body fluid gushing out continuously, the drops raising wisps of grey smoke upon hitting the ground.

Its triangular eyes locked ferociously onto Zhang Yuan, filled with endless violence and venomous resentment!

Yet before this monster could launch a counterattack, Zhang Yuan fired a second and third feathered arrow.

Thud! Thud!

Although the monster attempted evasive maneuvers, the speed of Zhang Yuan’s arrows was simply too fast, and with the short distance between them, it was unavoidable.

It was struck by two more arrows in quick succession!

And when the arrowheads entered the deceitful monster’s body, the power contained within them erupted, causing even greater damage.

The monster, hit by three arrows, howled while rolling on the ground, spilling a large amount of highly corrosive body fluid along the way.

One of its front limbs was blown apart by the feathered arrow, greatly reducing its mobility.

Realizing Zhang Yuan’s strength after being severely injured, the deceitful monster used all its strength to escape toward the nearby dense forest.

It didn’t dare face Zhang Yuan’s incredibly sharp arrows again!

Thud!

This deceitful monster was pinned to the ground by the fourth arrow, unable to struggle free for the moment.

Despite its actual strength not being weak and having hidden well initially, Zhang Yuan’s special vision enhanced by the Red-eyed Crow instantly detected its presence.

Arrows imbued with Primordial Celestial Gang True Power and the Eagle Shooter Bow’s Profound Force made this ferocious monster suffer greatly.

The damage from the first three arrows weakened its combat strength by at least seventy percent. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Let me!"

At this moment, Su Jingyao came to her senses and rushed towards the deceitful monster.

Although a mage, she had also learned basic martial arts, her movements were light and agile, swiftly approaching the deceitful monster.

A talisman suddenly slapped down.

A large amount of black qi gushed crazily from the monster’s wound, quickly gathering into a large sphere under the mana radiance of the talisman.

Lying on the ground, the monster clearly knew its doom was impending, twisting its body in an attempt to struggle and resist.

However, as a large amount of evil qi was drawn out, its movements became increasingly stiff and slow.

In just a few moments, the blood swellings on the deceitful monster shrank rapidly, and its body was covered with countless cracks.

Immediately, a gleaming black Evil Infant gradually took shape!

Su Jingyao couldn’t suppress her inner joy, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

She hadn’t expected such good fortune for herself and Zhang Yuan, finding the hiding deceitful monster just after discovering the deserted village, and even capturing an Evil Infant.

It is known that the probability of deceitful monsters condensing an Evil Infant is very low; it’s possible to kill dozens or hundreds of them and still gain nothing.

Therefore, this auspicious start was extremely rare!

Soon, the hefty Evil Infant fell into Su Jingyao’s hands.

The deceitful monster, drained of its evil qi, disintegrated into dust.

Su Jingyao placed the Evil Infant into a pouch, joyfully telling Zhang Yuan, "This one is at least of the fourth grade, we’ve struck it rich!"

This time, the content of the Nine Peaks Grand Competition assessment was to hunt deceitful monsters and obtain Evil Infants, and as competition mission items, besides quantity, quality was crucial as well.

The value of a fourth-grade Evil Infant is much higher than that of the third or second grades!

Moreover, upon submitting the Evil Infant to the sect as a mission item, a reward of Daoist Merit can be received.

The higher the quality, the more Daoist Merit!

Zhang Yuan smiled and said, "No rush, this is just the beginning!"

Since he participated in this sect competition, he naturally aimed to secure the highest rank for Su Jingyao.

In a sense, the two of them were already bonded together by this point.

Sharing in glory or suffering loss together!

Su Jingyao nodded vigorously, "Hmm!"

She felt that choosing Zhang Yuan as her guardian was indeed a wise decision.

Zhang Yuan possessed not only great strength but also exceptional luck.

This True Disciple of Mingxiu Peak believed that even better fortunes awaited them.

Before it was completely dark, Su Jingyao began setting up the array.

She opened her travel bag, taking out an array plate and array talisman, and arranged them at the center of the deserted village.

The deserted village wasn’t large in size, with hardly any complete structures, and most were covered by wild grass and vines, barely recognizable from its former appearance.

This posed some difficulties for the array setup work.

Zhang Yuan stood guard and observed the process of Su Jingyao setting up the array with great interest.

This was a field he could not venture into, filling him with much curiosity.

Su Jingyao spent half an incense stick’s time to complete the array setup. Finally, she formed a magic formula with her hands, solemnly chanting, "Exert!"

As the true words were spoken, the four corners resonated.

The many array talismans just buried underground suddenly glowed brightly!