Yuan and the others stepped into the inner area of the tomb after mentally preparing themselves.
The second their feet touched the ground in the inner area, they felt the atmosphere instantly change, and it suddenly felt as though they'd entered another world— a world that is filled with death and a place that humans don't belong.
"This is worse than I thought…" Tian Suyin muttered as she subconsciously pinched her nose to avoid the smell.
"What the… Where did this stench come from? It wasn't there just a second ago!" Tian Yanyu was baffled.
"You cannot see it, but the inner area and the outer area are separated by an invisible boundary. In fact, they can be considered as their own world." Jin Xi said.
"No wonder…" Tian Yanyu mumbled.
"You guys should block the smell with your spiritual energy." Yuan said to them.
"No need to state the obvious. I was just surprised by how sudden it was." Tian Suyin said with a slightly rosy face as she stopped pinching her nose.
They followed Jin Xi deeper into the area shortly after, entering a heavily forested area.
Everything seemed normal for the first several minutes, but Yuan suddenly stopped walking and said, "Careful, there's a demon coming our way."
"Huh? What nonsense are you talking about? I don't sense any—" Jin Xi said, halting her sentence halfway through.
"No way… There's really a demon approaching us. How did you sense it before me?" Jin Xi was pretty proud of her own sharp senses. Unfortunately for her, no matter how sharp her senses are, they would never defeat Yuan when it comes to sensing demons.
In fact, Yuan could sense multiple demons in their area with some of them being hundreds of miles away.
"What are you waiting for?! Do you really plan on fighting a demon?! I'm telling you, they are far more terrifying than whatever you're imaging right now! We need to leave right now!" Tian Suyin exclaimed in a nervous manner when she noticed that Yuan didn't seem to have any intention of running.
"We'll be fine." Yuan reassured her, but his words didn't sound convincing at all.
"Forget it! Yanyu, we're leaving him behind! If he wants to die that badly, we'll grant his wish!" She quickly gave up on trying to convince Yuan and went to grab Tian Yanyu's hand.
However, Tian Yanyu didn't budge despite her pulling.
"Yanyu…? What do you think you are doing…?" Tian Suyin looked at her with wide eyes filled with disbelief.
"I'm going to stay here with Xiao Yang." Tian Yanyu responded in a low voice with a subtle smile.
"Have you really gone mad…?" It was at this moment that Tian Suyin realized that Tian Yanyu was no longer the daughter she knew, as she has drastically changed since meeting Yuan.
"You should calm down a bit, little girl." Jin Xi suddenly spoke, causing Tian Suyin to freeze.
"Little girl…?" Tian Suyin almost couldn't believe her ears. This was her first time being called a little girl by someone who looked to be in her early twenties.
"Although it may not seem like it, I am actually over 100,000 years old— at least before I died." Jin Xi smiled.
"Really?" Even Yuan reacted with surprise when he learned of this information.
Tian Suyin was only 300 years old herself. If one compared their age, they would understand why Tian Suyin would only be a little girl in Jin Xi's eyes.
"Anyways, if you want to leave, you can leave. Though, I think your worries are unnecessary." Jin Xi then said.
However, before Tian Suyin could say anything else, a terrorizing pressure appeared in their area, causing her body to freeze from fear.
And from the edge of her eyes, Tian Suyin could see a red figure walking towards their direction.
'It's over…' She cried inwardly.
'That's a demon…? Mother was right… It's reckless to even attempt fighting them…' Tian Yanyu fell on her buttocks after sensing the astronomical amount of killing intent being emitted by the demon.
Just its gaze alone snapped Tian Yanyu back to being clear headed.
"You think you can kill it? It's too late to run now." Jin Xi looked at Yuan with a cheeky smile on her face.
"If you beg me to help you, I just might disturb the demon for a moment," she continued.
Yuan chuckled, "Thanks, but no thanks."
He summoned his Empyrean Overlord and began walking towards the demon in a slow and relaxed manner.
This made Yuan recall his first encounter with a demon, but he was not as naive and weak as he was back then.
"Foolish human…" The demon uttered in a mocking tone after seeing that Yuan was approaching it instead of running away.
"A lowly demon, I don't even have to use my demon sealing aura to deal with you."
Like the lowly demon it was, it immediately lost control of its temper and forcefully rushed at Yuan.
Seeing this, Yuan pointed his sword at the incoming demon.
The demon suddenly vanished into thin air the very next second. This befuddled Tian Suyin and Tian Yanyu, who had no idea what had just happened.
"W-What just happened?" Tian Suyin asked in a dazed voice.
"He killed it." Jin Xi answered after a brief moment of silence.
"What?!" Both Tian Suyin and Tian Yanyu exclaimed.
Jin Xi then explained, "He surrounded the demon with Enhanced Sword Aura just now, shredding its body into pieces so small that it can't be seen with just one's bare eyes. But he didn't stop there and continued to cut the demon until its last cell was destroyed. After all, a demon can fully regenerate from even a single blood cell."
Tian Suyin swallowed nervously after hearing Jin Xi's explanation, but she doubted if something like that was even possible.
"Is something like that really possible?" Tian Yanyu asked what was on her mother's mind.
"Can it be done? Of course, since it just happened right before your eyes. However, it requires one to have perfect control over their own Sword Aura and a tremendous amount of Sword Aura, and missing either one will make it impossible, something 99.99% of Sword Masters cannot replicate." Jin Xi said.