Chapter 697: Hidden Path
"Thank you so much for your help! I will make sure to uphold my part of the deal!"
"That is fine with me, some people will transport the different resources you need to increase the power of your faction to the Flame Sky Kingdom... If you need anything more, you can contact me through this communication talisman."
"Thank you! I will make sure to contact you in the future if something comes up!"
Swish-!
Seeing Sheng Mei leaving with a happy expression on her face after their discussion had ended and she signed the soul contract, Elder Song could not hep shaking his head as he made his way back up the Ninth Star Peak on the path leading back to the Seventh Star Peak where the main part of the sect was located.
From beginning to end, he had no clue why Sheng Mei had been so overly adamant on helping her kingdom join his sect.
"In the end, it does not matter now that she signed a soul contract. Not to mention, the resources she needs to strength her faction are not too outrages. At most I will take a little more from the beast tamers..."
Not bothering to think too much about what had caused Sheng Mei to come and get the support of his sect, Elder Song threw the thought to the back of his mind as he instead focused his attention towards other more pressing matters.
The most important of which was how he was going to convince the beast tamers to "willingly" give up a few more of their resources for the future of the sect.
...
Rustle~
Zing-!
Ptsh!
"Hah... To think there were so many demon beasts around here-"
Bang!
Letting out an exhausted breath as she pierced through the head of a demon beasts, Hui Ying barely managed to react in time as she blocked the claw of another demon beast that had taken the opportunity to attack her when she had pierced through the head of the demon beast.
If not for the fact that she had already been aware of the other demon beast's presence, she might not have been fast enough to block the claw attack...
"Bai Ning, we need to leave before we end up getting overrun by these demon beasts!"
Holding back the demon beast that had attacked her, Hui Ying called out to Bai Ning who was dealing with two demon beasts in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm on his own at the moment.
"I understand that much-"
BANG!
"-But we will first have to find a way to kill them before we can think about leaving!"
Having a difficult time fending off against two powerful Foundation Establishment demon beasts on his own, Bai Ning barely managed to say this before he was forced to put his full attention on dealing with the two demon beasts teaming up on him.
Swish~!
Ptsh!
Understanding that there was not much Bai Ning could do in his current situation, Hui Ying used all her strength to quickly kill off the demon beast that had ambushed her before dashing towards Bai Ning to help him out.
Even if she could not help too much when it came to the demonic cultivator that had reached the High Demon Realm back then, the same could not be said for the two demon beasts that were still in the Foundation Establishment Realm!
Roar!
Following Hui Ying joining forces with Bai Ning, the two demon beasts were quickly pushed back-
Crack~!
And soon enough, the first of the two demon beasts got crushed under one of Bai Ning's artifacts.
ROOOOAR!
Swish-!
Knowing that it would not be able to fight against Bai Ning and Hui Ying alone, the last demon beast gave up fighting and decided to run away before it ended up dead.
"Finally..."
Sitting down on the ground exhausted after the fight while Bai Ning was cleaned up the artifact he had used to crush the head of one of the two demon beasts.
The group of demon beasts that had attacked them had come out of the blue and had caught both her and Bai Ning off guard when they were trying to think of ways to leave the jungle without encountering any powerful demon beasts.
This attack allowed both of them to understand just how dangerous the jungle was with their current strength!
Roar!
Roar!
Roar!
Just at this moment when she had barely sat down to recover her strength, Hui Ying could not help frowning as several loud roars echoed out in the distance getting closer and closer to their current location.
"Let's get going before more demon beasts show up..."
"Yes!"
Hearing Bai Ning call out to her as he looked towards the direction of the roars with a frown on his face, Hui Ying got up and soon enough, both of them silently decided to head in a direction moving away from the sound of demon beast roars behind them.
Deep down, both of them were hoping that the direction they were moving in would lead them closer to the exit of the jungle and not somewhere even more dangerous!
...
Whoosh~!
Making their way through the jungle, Bai Ning suddenly came to a stop after noticing something on the ground.
"Hm? What is it- Ah! Is it a-another demon beast?!"
Not knowing why Bai Ning had suddenly stopped all of a sudden, Hui Ying could not help fearing that they had ended up running into a powerful demon beast.
Only after looking in the same direction as Bai Ning and not seeing a demon beast did she let out a sigh of relief and calm down... But just at this moment, she noticed what Bai Ning was looking at.
"A stone...?"
Indeed, what Bai Ning was focused on was a small stone lying beside a large tree towering more than a hundred meters into the sky.
"Not just a stone! Look more closely!"
"A stone with a weird face?"
Listening to what Bai Ning said, Hui Ying looked more closely at the stone and discovered that a small face was carved into it. However, even then, she did not get why Bai Ning looked so closely at the small stone with a face.
Was it perhaps because it's a sign other people have been here before us?
Realizing this, Hui Ying could not help inspecting her surroundings more closely than before. Trying her best to see if there were any buildings or ruins nearby that might be able to help them find a way to leave the jungle.
"..."
Not knowing what to say after seeing Hui Ying only looking at the stone once before beginning to carefully look around herself seemingly looking for something, Bai Ning walked up to the small stone with a face carved into it and pushed both his fingers into the empty eye sockets at the same time before injecting a small amount of qi into them.
Creak~!
Following the small amount of qi being injected through his fingers into the eye socket of the small stone, a loud creaking noise echoed out from below before a door sized hole opened up in the large tree that the small stone was lying beside.
"The small stone is an artifact that, as you can see, opens a secret path!"
Given how much time he spent around artifacts on a normal day before being forced to go to the Azure Sky Kingdom, it was only a given that he would be able to see through a hidden artifact like the small stone.
If not for the fact that he was around, Bai Ning did not doubt that any other cultivator passing by would have acted like Hui Ying and just ignored the small stone after glancing over it for a few seconds!
"..."
Seeing Hui Ying's speechless face after seeing a door sized entrance appearing in the side of the tree all of a sudden, Bai Ning could not help feeling a bit smug at his ability to easily recognize the fact that the small stone with a face was an artifact and at the same time figure out how to operate it.
"Ahm-! Now... Should we check out where this secret path leads? Maybe it will lead us to a way out of this jungle!"
"Hm? Sure, but we should be careful, as the people who set up this place could have set up traps inside. Not to mention, there might even be demon beasts hiding inside!"
Ignoring the fake chough from Hui Ying, Bai Ning nodded his head as he reminded her of the dangers that might be lurking on the other side of where the secret door led them.
Even if the secret path that the door that had appeared on the side of the tree might have a path leading out of the jungle, there was no way that there was no dangers lurking around in there!
Inside the jungle, there was no safe place for them to stay for more than a minutes at a time... The underground network that the secret path connected to would likely be the same!