The forest was vast and unsettling under the heavy night sky.

Five figures, employing several types of Magic, darted swiftly through the woods. In their hands, a Compass pulsed with a hazy Dharma Light, guiding their way.

"He’s not far ahead."

Seeing the arrow on the Tracking Compass grow more distinct, a smirk touched the corner of Chu Tiankuang’s mouth.

’So this is the Champion Scholar.’

’Just some country bumpkin who got lucky after learning an Illusionary Body Concealment Technique.’

’Once I break this little hide-and-seek trick, where else can you run?’

However, just as they stepped into a relatively open clearing, the situation changed abruptly!

WHOOSH—!

A thick, suffocating, gray-black mist surged out of thin air from all directions, spreading rapidly as if it were alive.

In an instant, it had swallowed the entire clearing and the surrounding trees!

The mist was bone-chillingly cold, mixed with unsettling, subtle scraping sounds and the faint, eerie sound of laughter, all of which assaulted their senses.

"Careful! It’s Yin Sha Corpse Qi! He’s practiced the Skull Curse!"

One of them shouted a warning, trying to circulate his True Qi to dispel the thick mist, only to find it was incredibly viscous. His True Qi could barely push it away.

"What’s going on? The Yin Sha Corpse Qi from a Skull Curse shouldn’t be this heavy! Is this some other Magic?!"

Deep within the mist, Qi Yun’s gaze was focused as his hands continuously formed a series of Spells.

Three ghastly white skulls circled around him, cackling strangely as they endlessly spewed a deadly corpse-fiend mist, obscuring the battlefield.

"Be careful, don’t let him ambush us."

Despite being trapped in the dense fog, Chu Tiankuang and his four companions did not panic.

Among the five of them, four had a Qi Refining Third Layer Cultivation.

Their leader, Chu Tiankuang, like Qi Yun, had even successfully drawn upon the dual energies of Heaven and Earth to reach the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

This was the source of his confidence in being the first to hunt down and kill Qi Yun!

However, before the words had even left his mouth—

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The sound of heavy, rapid stomping suddenly came from the dense mist directly ahead.

Each step made the ground tremble slightly, carrying a ferocious momentum that seemed unstoppable!

The next moment.

A sturdy figure the size of a small calf suddenly burst through the mist, lunging forward ferociously.

It was a savage Bronze Wolf Dog cast entirely from bronze. With its great maw open to reveal menacing fangs, it charged.

"What is that thing?!" one of the Outer Mansion Disciples hastily summoned a Turtle Shell Shield, which began to shimmer with Dharma Light.

BOOM!

The Bronze Wolf Dog didn’t dodge or evade, simply slamming its hard head straight into the shield.

VMMMM—

The Turtle Shell Shield instantly erupted with a blinding light. While it blocked the Bronze Wolf Dog’s charge, its surface rippled continuously. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

’Such immense strength!’

The Outer Mansion Disciple wielding the Turtle Shell Shield turned pale; blocking that one blow had consumed a great deal of his True Qi.

"It’s a puppet! He knows the Puppetry Technique, too?"

Mistaking the Bronze Wolf Dog for a product of the Mechanical Puppet Technique, Chu Tiankuang’s mouth twitched.

’Illusory Concealment, the Skull Curse, and now this Mechanical Puppet Technique... Just how many unorthodox types of Magic has this Qi Yun learned?’

’He’s a distinguished Holy Sect Disciple, couldn’t he have learned something respectable?!’

But before he could recover from his surprise, the same heart-pounding, heavy running sounds rang out from the other three directions simultaneously.

Growing from faint to loud, they were rapidly approaching!

’There are more?!’

The thick mist parted, and three more Bronze Wolf Dogs ferociously appeared.

In an instant, four Bronze Wolf Dogs had surrounded them, one in each cardinal direction. Their crimson eyes, filled with pure killing intent, stared fixedly at Chu Tiankuang’s group of five, making their scalps tingle with fear.

"How..."

The surrounded men had barely uttered a word before the four Bronze Wolf Dogs launched their attack!

One wolf dog lunged at Chu Tiankuang from the front, its massive bronze claws swiping down with a shriek that tore through the air.

Another charged low, aiming straight for the legs of a disciple to their left, attempting to tear at them with its teeth.

A third leaped into the air, pouncing from above on the right side to cut off any escape route.

The last one circled around behind them like a ghost, silently opening its jaws to bite at the nape of the final disciple’s neck.

The assault was like a tidal wave, relentless and unending!

The Bronze Wolf Dogs’ fierce attacks didn’t even leave Chu Tiankuang’s group a moment’s breathing room to strategize.

"A few beasts think you can overturn the heavens?!" Chu Tiankuang roared, drawing his long saber and slashing fiercely at the claws of the wolf dog pouncing on him.

CLANG!

Sparks flew!

A piercing screech of metal on metal exploded through the air!

Chu Tiankuang’s powerful, heavy blow failed to completely sever the wolf’s claw, only managing to leave a deep gash.

Meanwhile, the disciple on the left, in a panic, pushed his Turtle Shell Shield Magical Artifact to its limit, barely managing to block the bite aimed at his legs.

But the Turtle Shell’s Dharma Light flickered violently, clearly struggling to hold on.

The disciple on the upper right hastily chanted a Spell, releasing several streams of Sword Qi that struck the pouncing wolf dog’s chest, sending sparks flying and just barely knocking it back.

The disciple at the rear was in the most danger. He only reacted when a vicious gust of wind hit the back of his head, managing to twist his body just in time to evade the bite.

The battle instantly reached a fever pitch!

The four Bronze Wolf Dogs knew no pain or fear. Their attacks were a torrential storm; every pounce, bite, and swipe was heavy and powerful, forcing the four men into a desperate, chaotic struggle, with close calls at every turn.

Sweat was already beading on Chu Tiankuang’s forehead as he clenched his jaw.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t defeat these Bronze Wolf Dogs.

It was that the creatures fought with a reckless abandon, trading injury for injury, life for life, forcing the disciples to constantly defend.

’We can’t just fight to the death with these puppets, can we?’

However, the more they hesitated with such thoughts, the more passive their situation became. The four Bronze Wolf Dogs’ relentless attacks began to gradually wound them.

Their blood, stamina, and True Qi were all being steadily drained.

"This Qi Yun... his methods are bizarre. We haven’t even seen his face yet. If this drags on, we’ll be worn down and killed.

Maybe... we should retreat for now."

Panting slightly, one of the men moved closer to Chu Tiankuang and advised him in a low voice.

"But..."

Chu Tiankuang’s face filled with unwillingness at the suggestion. As a top talent of the Second Outer Mansion, he had reached the Qi Refining Fourth Layer in just over a year after joining.

At that speed, he was considered among the very best in the entire Outer Mansion.

He had been absolutely confident when he set out to ambush Qi Yun.

He never imagined that after such a bitter fight... he wouldn’t even have caught a glimpse of his actual target.

"Go!"

Squeezing the word from between his teeth, Chu Tiankuang and his four companions joined forces to break the Bronze Wolf Dogs’ encirclement, fleeing rapidly in the direction they came from.

As they sprinted away, Chu Tiankuang glanced back, surprised to find that the puppets weren’t giving chase.

’They’re not chasing us?’

Suppressing his doubts, Chu Tiankuang’s group ran for dozens of li without stopping. But the dense fog before them remained so thick they couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces, as if it stretched on forever.

"How have we not gotten out of this mist yet? The size of it is ridiculous," Chu Tiankuang’s group sensed something was wrong as they looked around at the Yin Sha mist, which, instead of thinning, had only grown thicker.

"I don’t think it’s that the mist covers a large area."

As if he had realized something, the same Outer Mansion Disciple who had advised Chu Tiankuang to retreat earlier swallowed hard, his expression turning ugly.

"It’s that the mist has been following us!

That Qi Yun...

He wants to trap us in here until we die!"

Before his voice had even faded, as if to prove his guess correct...

...the familiar sound of heavy stomping returned.

Within the mist, four pairs of sinister, crimson eyes stared at them eerily from several hundred meters away.

Stirring restlessly!

...