Li Ban took a step back, dodging the blood. "It's obviously a monster molded from mud. Where did this red liquid come from?"
Then he noticed that once the red liquid hit the ground, it reverted to the color of mud.
It was as if the red he had just seen was merely a hallucination.
But with Li Ban's current mental strength, making him hallucinate would be incredibly difficult.
Li Ban slashed open the mud on the ground with his saber. A hint of red appeared inside once more, but it quickly faded back to its original brownish-gray.
"Could it be some kind of oxidation reaction?"
Li Ban collected some of the mud, planning to have Priest Qian Que investigate it when he returned.
Since it was still early, Li Ban continued deeper into the fog.
The further he went, the more mud covered the ground.
Li Ban reached the deepest part of the mud, where he finally saw something else.
To his surprise, there was a tree.
More accurately, it was a massive treant.
The treants Li Ban had seen before were only two or three meters tall.
But the treant before him was over ten meters tall.
It was sitting on the ground, leaning its back against a ruined building. Its short, one-meter legs sprawled across the earth, while its seven- or eight-meter-long arms hung loosely alongside its trunk.
The treant's head was hidden behind dense foliage, obscuring its expression.
Li Ban approached the treant and spotted a hollow over a meter long in the middle of its trunk.
Curled up inside the hollow was a bleached skeleton dressed in a woman's clothes.
This was the first normal human skeleton Li Ban had seen since entering the Nihility State.
Li Ban jumped up to the hollow to examine the items on the skeleton.
Soon, he found an identity tag hanging at its waist.
The front read: "Vice Pavilion Master of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion".
The back read: "Lady Kui".
"This is actually Lady Kui's corpse?"
Li Ban hadn't expected to find her corpse here after inexplicably seeing her raw soul earlier in the Nihility State.
However, judging by the direction her raw soul had been moving, she didn't seem to be heading this way.
A treant that would place Lady Kui's corpse inside its own hollow...
Could this be Miaomiao?
Li Ban jumped up to the canopy to check the treant's facial features.
Unfortunately, even though he had become a Priest, he couldn't tell if the treant in front of him was actually Miaomiao.
He hadn't had much contact with Miaomiao back when he was at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
'It seems I'll only find out what really happened to her by asking Lady Kui's raw soul,' he thought.
While Li Ban was "neglecting his duties" and wandering deep into the fog, Qiao Zhen'er led her eldest disciple, Lu Jiu, into the depths of the storehouse. However, they weren't in a hurry to search for supplies.
She looked around warily before pulling Lu Jiu aside. "Have you noticed anything wrong with the team today?" she asked in a low voice.
Lu Jiu froze. An unnatural look flashed across his face for a split second. "Master, what's wrong?"
Qiao Zhen'er's expression was grave. "I didn't think much of it on the way here. But since we arrived, the further we go, the more off things feel."
Lu Jiu gripped his Tiger-Head Hammers tightly and asked in a muffled voice, "Master, what feels off?"
Qiao Zhen'er pursed her lips. "I can't put my finger on exactly what it is. It's just that Jia Tao and those two outsiders might be scheming something. I have a bad feeling, so we need to be on our guard."
"Huh?" Lu Jiu still looked bewildered. "Then... then I'll go get Ah De, and we can all discuss what to do."
"No," Qiao Zhen'er said, her expression darkening. "When I suggested going somewhere else earlier, Ah De wouldn't have questioned my decision in the past. But just now, he flat-out shot down my idea and insisted on coming here. I suspect they've set something up in this area. That's why I didn't bring him along when we came in to search."
"Oh, so... so that's why." Lu Jiu's mouth twitched. "I... I should still go get Ah De. Let's hear what he has to say. What if he didn't mean anything by it?"
"Calling him over would only alert them. If Ah De has already betrayed me, he would have tried to lead me somewhere else if he had come in with me."
Qiao Zhen'er let out a sigh and lowered her head, her gaze inadvertently sweeping across Lu Jiu's hands.
His fingers were clenched tight, veins bulging on the backs of his hands.
Tense. On guard.
Hearing that his companions were hiding a secret scheme really should elicit such a reaction.
Yet, when Lu Jiu spoke a moment ago, his primary emotion had been bewilderment and helplessness.
The emotions conveyed by his body and his face were far too contradictory.
The corner of Qiao Zhen'er's eye twitched. She suddenly looked up, staring straight into Lu Jiu's eyes. "Old Jiu, have you betrayed me?"
Lu Jiu was still pondering what to do now that Qiao Zhen'er was on her guard, trying to figure out how to notify the others to spring the trap early. At her sudden question, his pupils violently shrank.
'Crap!' Just as he realized his reaction had given him away, he saw a streak of silver light flying toward him.
A Flying Dart?!
Lu Jiu was shocked. He hadn't expected his master to attack him directly just because he'd revealed a tiny flaw!
With no time to think, Lu Jiu hastily raised his Tiger-Head Hammers—swinging one at Qiao Zhen'er and trying to block the Flying Dart with the other.
But he knew how lethal her Flying Darts were, so he didn't hold out much hope of actually blocking it.
However, the streak of silver light merely brushed past his ear, doing him no harm.
Lu Jiu's movements froze completely.
He finally realized that the attack had merely been Qiao Zhen'er testing him.
Even though his master had noticed his unusual behavior, she hadn't wanted to kill him over it.
But by fighting back, he had thoroughly exposed his betrayal.
Looking up again, he saw that Qiao Zhen'er had already retreated into the distance.
Between the two of them, one was agile and the other was a brute. Fighting from a distance was naturally far more advantageous for Qiao Zhen'er.
Yet, Qiao Zhen'er still didn't strike right away. Instead, she looked at Lu Jiu with utter heartbreak.
"Old Jiu, I could imagine Ah De betraying me, but I never thought you would. Why?"
Tears welled up in Qiao Zhen'er's eyes.
Lu Jiu fell silent for a moment before finally raising his weapons. "Master, as long as Ah De is around, I will only ever be your servant."
Qiao Zhen'er raised her eyebrows. "A servant? You think I treat you like a servant? Then why would I go to such great lengths to help you find the element for those Tiger-Head Hammers?"
"Because you need my brute strength to do the heavy lifting for you and Ah De."
Qiao Zhen'er swayed unsteadily. "And what about them? What did they promise you?"
"After you die, they will groom me to become the second Vice Hall Master," Lu Jiu said slowly.
Qiao Zhen'er let out a breathless, incredulous laugh. "It seems you've all made up your minds that I'm going to die here today. Otherwise, you wouldn't have told me everything."
Her gaze grew sharp once more as she stood up straight. "Old Jiu, your master is going to teach you one last lesson. If you want to know how someone truly treats you, don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do."
With a sharp ring of steel, Qiao Zhen'er drew the longsword at her waist. "It looks like my blind luck in dragging you in here threw a wrench into your plans. Then let's see if your schemes are enough to put me down, or if it just isn't my time to die!"