With the bald, burly man's sinister laughter, the tense atmosphere between the two sides eased a little. They began to gather the many fish-like beasts trapped by the large blue net.
Many people walked directly on the surface of the pool, but miraculously, they didn't sink. Each one walked as if on flat ground, holding stone spears, stone knives, and other weapons, and began to deal with the fish-like beasts.
They didn't sink because of their own strength, but because the blue rope net was a magical treasure, flashing with a faint blue light, sealing the entire pool.
Although these people couldn't unleash the full power of this magical treasure, it was, after all, a treasure, and it wasn't too surprising that it had such accompanying power.
They were experienced and understood these fish-like beasts very well, decisively killing the larger ones that had reached the first rank first, and then killing the ordinary ones.
In an instant, the small pool was filled with blood, and the dark black water was dyed blood red.
Zhang Ling, hidden nearby, looked thoughtful. It seemed that survival here was difficult and food was scarce.
However, these many fish-like beasts were not fish and shrimp from rivers and lakes, but some sea beasts, apparently washed down by the waterfall in front of him.
These were clearly not native creatures, and must have come from outside the space.
If these fish-like beasts could enter, it meant that this space was not completely sealed, and there might be hidden entrances and exits.
Just then, with a loud crash, a huge monster rushed down from the waterfall above.
"Not good, get out of the way!"
Seeing the huge monster, the black-faced strong man, the bald man, and the others screamed, no longer gathering the blue net. They hurriedly scurried out of the pool one by one.
With a loud bang, the huge monster landed directly in the pool, splashing a high spray of water. Some who were slow to dodge were directly pressed into the pool, and disappeared from sight for a moment.
Only half of these people were washed ashore by the water. All were drenched, and the black-faced strong man, Wu Laoqi, wiped the water from his face, looking in astonishment at the huge monster that occupied half of the pool, his face instantly turning pale. "Ah, this, it's actually a high-level sea beast, how could it be."
The huge monster thrashed in the pool for a moment, then revealed a huge black fish head. The fish head was grayish-white, with many black, shiny bone spurs on it, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth, making it extremely ferocious.
The head alone was the size of a thatched hut, and its body was more than twenty feet long.
Zhang Ling glanced at it and recognized it. It was actually a fifth-rank Ghost-Faced Fish. He had hunted two of them in the Blackwater River outside before.
The Ghost-Faced Fish gurgled a few times, then suddenly fell silent. Its pair of grayish-white dead fish eyes turned a few times, and then looked at the black-faced strong man and the others.
The fish eyes instantly turned blood red, and it opened its mouth to spit out a black water column that was several feet wide.
Wu Laoqi, the bald Ghost Snake, and the others didn't have time to react; they had just gotten up from the ground. If they were hit by this water column, they wouldn't be able to withstand it with their strength.
Just as these people were about to die on the spot, a ball of yellow light flashed before their eyes, forming a yellow light curtain. The water column hit it, and a loud noise was heard.
The yellow light curtain remained motionless, easily blocking the attack.
Immediately afterward, a cyan-golden sword light appeared above the Ghost-Faced Fish's head, silently splitting the Ghost-Faced Fish's head in two.
This was a fifth-rank demon beast, killed instantly. A figure appeared next to the fish head, and with a wave of his hand, a black demon core flew out of the fish head.
The yellow light curtain that had blocked the water column also flickered and scattered into starlight.
"Greetings, everyone."
Zhang Ling put away the demon core, and seeing that these people were still stunned, he couldn't help but chuckle.
At the sound of his voice, these people were awakened and turned to look at him and the demon beast corpse beside him.
"You are..."
The bald man named Ghost Snake was the first to react, opening his mouth to shout, "Outsider!"
"Hehe, that's right. I was just about to ask you some questions. I wonder if you have the time."
Zhang Ling flashed and landed on the ground, standing next to the others.
Zhang Ling didn't hide his cultivation. From the information he had obtained in that dilapidated cave dwelling, there were no high-level cultivators here at all.
Furthermore, he wasn't the only one who had been swept into this place. Presumably, the other old monsters were now scattered throughout this space, so there was no need to go to the trouble of hiding his cultivation.
To learn more information, the easiest and most direct way was to directly ask these natives.
The following events were simple. These people sensed the spiritual energy fluctuations on his body, their expressions changed drastically, and naturally, they told him everything they knew.
He communicated with these people and obtained some more information.
There weren't actually many natives here; they all lived in the form of small villages and tribes.
The bald man and the others were villagers from Ghost People Village, and the black-faced strong man and the others were members of the Black Stone Tribe.
These two villages were in the surrounding hundred-mile area. And there were thirty or forty such small villages in the entire space.
The fish-like beasts they hunted were indeed scarce resources here. They were all the so-called Snake Ancestor's gift.
As for the Snake Ancestor, they had never seen it, only knowing that every once in a while, this space would be filled with a howling wind, raging everywhere, and the environment would be extremely harsh.
After the wind, a large number of foreign fish-like beasts would rush into some areas with water, which was their main source of food.
At the same time, occasionally some foreign cultivators would be swept into here.
However, from these people's mouths, Zhang Ling still didn't get a way to leave.
"Senior Zhang, our Ghost People Village is only a dozen miles away. This junior's grandfather is also a high-level cultivator who was swept into this place a hundred years ago. Senior, do you want to know about the Great Snake Mountain? My grandfather has been there, and he knows something about that place. Why don't you come back with me, and my grandfather will definitely tell you about the situation there."
Ghost Snake suddenly said, his eyes flashing.
"Oh, your elder has been to the Great Snake Mountain? Then Zhang will have to pay a visit."
Zhang Ling glanced at this person. Swept by Zhang Ling's gaze, Ghost Snake's face stiffened for a moment, feeling as if his thoughts had been seen through. He quickly said, "Senior, wait a moment, we'll divide up this food and then take Senior back to the village."
Zhang Ling nodded and smiled, "You can divide up this Ghost-Faced Fish too."
"Ah, thank you for your grace, Senior."
Ghost Snake, Wu Laoqi, and the others were overjoyed to hear this, and quickly thanked him.
They quickly busied themselves. Wu Laoqi held the flying sword magic treasure in his hand. Although he couldn't unleash the power of this magic treasure, he could still chop the Ghost-Faced Fish into pieces with the flying sword's sharpness.
Ghost Snake also sacrificed the treasure pearl again, directly releasing two black snakes that spewed out a large amount of cold air. After a moment, most of the fish-like beasts in the pool were frozen into ice.
Afterward, Zhang Ling also saw that they took out storage bags and put all these fish-like beasts into them. There was one thing in the middle that interested him.
The way these two used the storage bags was very different from the outside world. They actually used blood essence to activate the storage bags.
Zhang Ling slightly released a bit of his divine sense power and glanced at the storage bags they took out. It turned out that there were special restrictions on them.
After wasting a little time, they finished dividing up the fish-like beasts, and Ghost Snake led Zhang Ling towards Ghost People Village, leaving this small canyon.
However, compared to the seven or eight people they had when they came in, there were three fewer people, leaving only two bald men and two other middle-aged men.
Because when the Ghost-Faced Fish crashed down just now, unfortunately, a few people were directly crushed to death in the pool.
These people seemed to be accustomed to this situation and weren't too sad. According to Ghost Snake, survival here was harsh, and many people died like this.
After leaving the canyon, Zhang Ling flicked his hand and released a cloud of yellow sand, wrapping around the four of them. They were shocked to see this. "Senior, this is..."
"Walking is too slow. Just point the way, and I'll take you for a ride."
Zhang Ling didn't explain much. With a thought, the yellow sand wrapped around the others and flew into the air.
"Ah, Senior, slow down!"
Flying into the air, the others' faces were pale, looking panicked and uneasy.
This made Zhang Ling frown and ask, "What's wrong? Have you never flown before?"
"Um..."
Ghost Snake chuckled, "Don't laugh at me, Senior. My brother and I are alright; we've flown with our grandfather a few times. But not many times. As for these two brothers, this is indeed their first time flying."
"With Senior's cultivation, you must have sensed the strangeness of this space, right? The spiritual energy here is thin, and it's often accompanied by yin winds. Even if we natives born here get some cultivation methods, our cultivation will at most stay at the peak of the Qi Refining stage, and we can't break through to the Foundation Establishment stage at all."
Hearing this, Zhang Ling's eyes flickered a few times. This person's words weren't false. The spiritual energy here was extremely thin. Even if a spirit-gathering array was set up, it wouldn't be of much use.
Because the spiritual energy simply couldn't supply ordinary cultivators' cultivation.
After a few simple exchanges, Zhang Ling's divine sense sensed a small village occupying dozens of acres in a mountain depression below. That was Ghost People Village.
With a thought, the yellow sand dragged the others down and landed directly outside the village entrance.
The four of them hadn't reacted yet. One of them couldn't help but shout, "We're back so quickly? I feel like I'm dreaming."
With Zhang Ling's escape technique, although he hadn't flown at full speed just now, the journey of more than ten miles had only taken a moment.
Ghost Snake's face also showed a look of surprise. From his feeling, this Senior Zhang's cultivation was probably much higher than his grandfather's.
"Senior, please come in."
Following Ghost Snake, Zhang Ling walked into this small village. The village was surrounded by a thick stone wall, three or four zhang high, like a section of city wall, with many sharp stone cones inserted on it, as well as some huge stone spears, etc., as if it was specifically built as a defensive structure.
Zhang Ling also noticed that there were many potholes on the stone wall, as well as some traces like claw marks, as if it had been attacked by some kind of beast. There were also a few men in armor patrolling the stone wall.
Two of them noticed them, but only glanced at Zhang Ling before ignoring him. They didn't seem to care about him, an outsider, at all.
Passing through a two-zhang-high stone gate, they entered the village.
Zhang Ling swept his divine sense, and instantly understood the situation inside the small village. There were many simple stone houses connected together. It seemed that accommodating hundreds of people wouldn't be a problem.
In his perception, there were only more than two hundred people in the village, most of whom were mortals, and only a dozen or so had faint spiritual energy fluctuations on their bodies.
In the center of the village, there was a huge black stone pillar, twenty or thirty zhang high, with a faint green glow flashing on it. It looked very unusual. He could sense some yin and evil energy on it.
Looking closely, he found a few black spirit stones at the top of the stone pillar, mainly a few middle-grade yin spirit stones.
This stone pillar looked like some kind of array formation device.
Just as Zhang Ling was about to take a closer look, Ghost Snake, who was leading the way in front of him, called out in surprise, "Grandfather!"
Seven or eight people walked quickly from the front, led by a grizzled old man in sackcloth with a beard. He was also holding a long white bone staff in his hand. But it didn't look like human bone, but the bone of some kind of demon beast.
"This old one greets Senior."
The old man in sackcloth ignored Ghost Snake, and instead led the others behind him to respectfully salute Zhang Ling.
Zhang Ling glanced at these people and took in all of their cultivation levels. Although these people were all cultivators, except for this old man who was at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, the others were all at the Qi Refining stage.
However, he could tell at a glance that some of these people's strength wasn't just that. Although this old man looked like he was at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, the divine sense fluctuations he emitted weren't weaker than the divine sense intensity of the late stage of Core Formation.
Two or three other people also had divine sense intensity that reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Thinking about this situation, Zhang Ling guessed that these people might have been here for a long time, leading to a decline in their cultivation.
"You're the one who went to that Great Snake Mountain."
He didn't stand on ceremony at all and directly looked at the old man in sackcloth and asked.
The old man in sackcloth smiled and nodded. "If Senior wants to ask about that place, this old one will definitely tell you the truth."
Zhang Ling responded and followed the old man in sackcloth and the others into a large stone house not far away. After sitting down, an old man looked at Ghost Snake, who had also followed in, and snorted. "What are you standing there for? Quickly go get my jar of spirit wine to entertain Senior."
"Yes, Grandfather."
Ghost Snake came back to his senses, glanced at Zhang Ling again, and then left the house to get the wine.
Walking on the road, his heart was pounding, muttering to himself. "Could Senior Zhang be a Nascent Soul cultivator?"
Grandfather was previously a Core Formation stage cultivator. Seeing this Senior being so respectful, it can only be a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Ignoring this person's thoughts, in the stone house, Zhang Ling asked again, "Looking at the intensity of your divine sense, you were previously at the late stage of Core Formation."
"No."
The old man in sackcloth shook his head. "I was only at the early stage of Core Formation before."
"Oh, could it be that you have a naturally strong divine sense?"
This made Zhang Ling somewhat surprised.
The old man in sackcloth shook his head again. "I don't have a strong divine sense, but I've been trapped here for three hundred years. Although my own spiritual power has declined, and the golden core in my body is dim and broken, now I can only retain the strength of the Foundation Establishment stage. But experiencing the soul-scorching ghost energy baptism here every day, my divine soul has instead been tempered, so the intensity of my divine sense has increased a lot."
"You're talking about the mist outside that scorches the divine sense."
"That's right. The mist that scorches the divine sense is called soul-scorching ghost energy by those of us trapped here. This name was named by a Nascent Soul cultivator who was once trapped here."
The old man explained calmly.
"You're talking about the mist outside that scorches the divine sense."
"That's right. The mist that scorches the divine sense is called soul-scorching ghost energy by those of us trapped here. This name was named by a Nascent Soul cultivator who was once trapped here."
The old man explained calmly.
