Sword Qi filled the air.

The spacious square was filled with craters. Thick bricks, each several feet in size, were easily shattered by the fleshy tentacles, sending countless stone fragments and dust into the air.

In mid-air, Qing Muling controlled his flying sword, attacking the ugly and ferocious creature below with a continuous assault.

It looked like a small mountain covered in hundreds of snake-like tentacles, each as thick as a water bucket and hundreds of feet long. The surface of the tentacles was covered in countless sharp bone spurs, which could be detached and shot out like hidden weapons, with a killing power comparable to a spiritual weapon.

This was a brain-eating demon vine from the depths of the underground world, a strange species between beast demons and plant demons. The tentacles were incredibly strong, the creatures were extremely tenacious, greedy, and cruel. Moreover, the adult individuals had already awakened their intelligence, possessing wisdom no less than that of humans. They particularly enjoyed hunting and devouring cultivators, sucking their blood and marrow. They were extremely dangerous.

A forty-foot-long, chillingly bright sword light swept across, cutting off a thick tentacle that failed to dodge in time. The severed tentacle oozed out a large amount of flesh and blood, writhing and bouncing on the ground, trying to reconnect with its body.

The most terrifying ability of the brain-eating demon vine was its power to control the minds of living beings, creating various dream illusions that made it difficult for the prey to escape, thus easily killing them.

Therefore, Qing Muling was not at ease at the moment. Fortunately, the mysterious seed in his sea of consciousness made the mental manipulation and control have little effect on him. He only needed to focus on dealing with the bone spurs and tentacle attacks.

Later, he became more cautious, no longer approaching too closely, only attacking from a distance. Of course, he couldn’t be too far away either, otherwise, this cunning creature would hide in the underground cave, making it difficult to lure it out again.

Qi Yalan stood by, watching Junior Brother’s performance with a smile. She would only lend a hand when he couldn’t handle it.

After half an hour of fierce battle, Qing Muling finally severed all the tentacles of the creature, which was at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm and had even more exaggerated combat power. He left enough fatal wounds on its ugly giant head.

The price was that Qing Muling’s mana was on the verge of exhaustion. Even the mysterious seed couldn’t replenish it completely, and the exquisite spiritual weapon flying sword also dimmed, showing obvious signs of wear and tear.

Although Qi Yalan didn’t say anything, she was quite impressed by Junior Brother’s strength. Being able to exhaust a fierce creature that surpassed him by two realms to the point of near death was not something an ordinary core disciple could attempt. If one was not careful, they would be overwhelmed and die.

Seeing the brain-eating demon vine struggling to dive into the underground cave, obviously planning to escape, Qi Yalan raised her slender wrist. The space within a radius of several thousand feet suddenly froze, and a destructive sword qi, sharper and more powerful, poured down, cutting it into countless pieces in an instant!

The poor creature didn’t even have time to scream before its last trace of vitality was extinguished.

A sword light lightly spun among the pieces of flesh, carrying a human-sized, clear and lustrous Nascent Soul, flying into Qi Yalan’s hand.

Without even looking at it, she threw the Nascent Soul to Qing Muling. The value of these things might be considered high, but for her, it was just pocket money.

“Junior Brother did well. Are you coming again?”

Qi Yalan handed him a recovery pill, smiling and asking.

“Of course, let’s take a break for fifteen minutes and then continue.”

Qing Muling took the pill and sat down to adjust his breath. This kind of extreme training had a significant effect on his actual combat ability. If his energy and spirit could always be in such a highly tense state, his cultivation progress would not be too far from breaking through to the next realm.

In the blink of an eye, Qing Muling, who opened his eyes again, regained his vitality. Both his physical body and Divine Soul had returned to their peak state, surprising Qi Yalan a little.

Even with the assistance of the pill, it would still take some time for cultivators who fought until they were exhausted to recover, and it wouldn’t be too short. It was impossible for them to recover like Qing Muling did in just a few hours of meditation.

“It seems that there are still a few brain-eating demon vines here. Shall I lure them out for you to deal with?”

Qi Yalan looked at the pitch-black hole below, suggesting. With her cultivation level, she could sense the space hundreds of miles underground.

“No problem, but…”

Qing Muling hesitated and said, “I want to try my ability. It should work against these big creatures, right?”

Qi Yalan pondered for a moment and said, “Your talent ability seems to only work on plants. This thing… can be considered, but it’s worth a try.”

A large sword light split from her hand, slightly circling around, and then generated a torrent of sword qi, flowing into the depths of the underground hole, illuminating the dark space.

After a series of screams from the deep hole, the sword light returned, dragging the bodies of sixteen brain-eating demon vines of different sizes out of the ground.

Qi Yalan waved her hand again, and the ice-blue cold air poured down like mercury, causing the temperature around to drop sharply, freezing all the struggling bodies that were still fighting on instinct.

Their Divine Souls had been annihilated by the sword qi, but their bodies were intact, preserving the vitality inside to the greatest extent, making it convenient for Junior Brother to take action.Qing Muling’s heart stirred slightly, and a rolling green aura spread out, transforming into specks of spiritual light that enveloped all the big guys. After a short while, strands of green-purple essence were stripped away, turning into a cloud tinged with faint rosy light, slowly flowing into his body.

Suddenly, Qing Muling felt an intense heat throughout his body, his internal spiritual power surged, almost overturning the seas and rivers. His boiling blood became even more pure and condensed, and his physical body also underwent a transformation and sublimation from the inside out.

Qi Yalan, who had been watching with a smile, suddenly felt a warning in her heart. She turned her head abruptly, her divine sense sweeping over an area of several hundred miles, her eyes instantly cooling down.

Thousands of sword lights were swung out, enveloping the area like a sudden storm.

Muffled groans could be heard faintly, and a space several miles away was torn open like a curtain, revealing seven or eight almost invisible figures.

“Fellow Daoists, have you seen enough? Why not come out and talk?”

Qi Yalan said in a deep voice, her beautiful eyes filled with killing intent.

Previously, her attention had been mostly on Junior Brother, and she had not noticed that several ill-intentioned guys had sneaked nearby.

“Lady Qi has good skills, to think you could see through us!”

The grey-robed old man at the front looked at the bead in his hand that had turned into fragments with some pain. This treasure, which could hide his presence, was hard to come by and had accompanied him for many years. It had helped him escape several deadly crises, but he didn’t expect it to be destroyed here today.

“Who is it? So it’s the old thing from Lu Ming Island!”

Qi Yalan’s tone was icy cold, and a chilling sword intent swirled around her. This sect had no relationship with the Cloud Dream Heavenly Palace, and there were some grudges between them. Now they had discovered Junior Brother’s biggest secret, what else was there to say?

The existence of Qing Muling, what it meant to the Cloud Dream Heavenly Palace was self-evident. Ordinary cultivators might not understand, but as long as today’s events reached the ears of those old immortals in the super Dao Lineages, it wouldn’t be long before powerful enemies would come knocking!

For the future plans of the Cloud Dream Heavenly Palace, none of these guys could be left alive!

Before the grey-robed old man could say anything, a young scholar with deep eyes next to him spoke, “Lady Qi, we and the Cloud Dream Heavenly Palace have always kept to our own sides, why be so aggressive?”

“That’s right, although your cultivation is strong, if we all join hands, you may not be able to keep us! Your fellow sect brother seems a bit weak, he just entered the Understanding Mystery Realm not long ago, right? If we decide to take him with us, can you stop us?”

Another skinny black-robed youth said with a smirk, staring intently at Qi Yalan’s beautiful face, unable to hide the greed in his eyes.

It seemed that they had stumbled upon some incredible secret today? This was indeed a stroke of great luck. They could use this as a reason to blackmail, and should be able to extort quite a bit from the number one beauty of the Cloud Dream Heavenly Palace. Afterward, they could sell this information to interested big shots, making a profit from both ends, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

The grey-robed old man glared at the youth, then said in a more relaxed tone, “Lady Qi, we have no grudge with you. Let’s just let today’s matter slide. We didn’t see anything, and we’ll each go our own way in the future, how about it?”

Qi Yalan sighed softly, “If that’s the case, we…”

Before she could finish her sentence, she saw her shielding Qing Muling behind her. The sword light around her suddenly soared, and countless sword shadows swept down, sealing everything…