Looking at the fallen giant Shadow Beast boar, Aotian did not relax his caution, fearing it was only pretending to be dead.
After some testing—delivering more strikes and even separating the head from the body with sword blows—he finally stopped, confirming the beast was truly dead.
Since beasts do not develop a Nascent Soul, he didn't need to worry about a sneak attack in soul form after the body's death.
With the confirmation, Aotian cut the boar into pieces and stored them in several rings.
Fortunately, for this undertaking, he had shamelessly kept many high-quality rings in the underwear of his avatars, ensuring he would never lack space to carry his treasures.
And why in his underwear instead of a cloth pouch? Simple: Aotian thought it was safer and less susceptible to theft.
'A great expert might steal a cloth pouch, but I doubt he'd steal my underwear!' he thought proudly, while putting the stuffed rings back inside, adjusting it a little since it felt uncomfortable.
'Cold…' The mouth of the avatar doing it twitched.
Soon after, Yang Shi, the group's botanist, stepped forward and retrieved the lotus the boar had been guarding. It was merely a good plant, but had no relation at all to the enhancement of spiritual roots.
With that done, Aotian began reflecting on the fight.
'Shadow Beasts… they really are stronger than normal beasts, but they also have a weakness,' he thought, recalling the battle with narrowed eyes. 'Their intelligence seems very low, almost like that of a beast without cultivation or even worse, and this doesn't change even as their strength rises. On top of that, they are extremely aggressive, and even in the face of death they don't waver or hesitate in their ferocity. They're like berserker creatures.'
While summarizing his conclusions, Aotian's eyes sharpened as he sensed something.
The avatars immediately sank into the earth using simple earth-element spells, while simultaneously activating their qi disguise techniques with everything they had.
A few seconds later, a figure appeared above the area.
It was a middle-aged man in blue robes, floating in the sky with a piercing gaze, scanning the surroundings. Seeing only the battle's wreckage, with no signs of people, beasts, or plants, his face showed slight disappointment.
He turned and shook his head.
As if on cue, another figure appeared: another middle-aged man, this one dressed in purple.
"It seems the people who fought the beast have already left," he said calmly, without looking at the man in blue as he analyzed the scene.
The man in blue nodded, but before he could speak, a third figure appeared beside them, wearing a dissatisfied expression.
"Yes… but how was this possible? We felt the aura of about 10 Golden Core cultivators during the fight, and they actually managed to defeat a fourth-rank Shadow Beast judging by the fluctuations we sensed," he said, perplexed.
A fourth man appeared and spoke with disdain:
"You're overthinking it. We sensed their soul auras vanishing during the battle, didn't we? Golden Core cultivators can't hide the aura of their souls with techniques. It's very likely they had treasures. With such powerful treasures, all it takes is intelligence and good execution to defeat these stupid Shadow Beasts," he said confidently, placing his hand behind his back and raising his chin.
Finally, a fifth man appeared, glancing at the last one with his lips pressed.
"Treasures beyond one's own realm aren't easy to wield. Even so, fourth-rank Shadow Beasts aren't stray dogs you can kick whenever you want. The five of us need to fight with everything we have against one, and even then we might die if we're not careful. These people are not simple, even if they rely on treasures."
He spoke seriously, correcting his companion. Still, he too believed treasures were involved; otherwise, such a feat would be impossible to explain.
Despite the distance, they had clearly felt the energy fluctuations of the battle. From start to finish, no aura above Golden Core appeared, only those of 10 Golden Cores.
And that was exactly why the five had rushed there. If they discovered who they were, they might secure good opportunities—capturing them, if they were cultivators without strong backing, or offering help and gaining friendships, if they were supported by influential powers.
Unfortunately, they had arrived late.
The first man, the one who had acted as bait while the other four hid before, scratched his chin with a thoughtful expression.
"Do you think those ten auras might belong to the friends of that talentless Foundation Establishment boy toy Princess Mu Luyin protected earlier?" he suddenly asked, drawing the others' attention.
The arrogant man of the group immediately snorted, understanding who he was referring to, as if he had just heard complete stupidity.
"Those 10 men who were only at the first level of Golden Core, despite being so old? How could it be that pile of trash? Even with artifacts, it would be impossible!" He shook his head, thinking the other was overthinking. "Besides, those 10 must already be dead by now, with their low cultivation level. Everyone will turn them into targets, trying to exchange their heads so the 12 powers remove the slave seal… if we could find them too…" He started full of confidence, but in the end couldn't help but mutter.
His gaze turned to his nascent soul. Inside it, there was a red, sinister, unstable, pulsing mark. Seeing it weighed down his heart with rage, hatred, and helplessness.
He and his allies had also received the slave seal.
That was why, when they felt the 10 Golden Core auras fighting, they had rushed over, imagining they might be those men, hoping at least to obtain an intact corpse from the beast's jaws. But upon realizing that it was the creature itself that was dying, they almost immediately dismissed the possibility of it being those 10 weaklings and started considering other ways to benefit from the extraordinary people fighting, which led to the current moment.
After discussing and seeing that nothing could be done at the scene of the battle that had taken place just moments before—now only messy land and forest—they decided to leave, abandoning the place completely.
Silence filled the area after the five men departed, and several minutes passed without change, except for a few people who came to investigate before leaving again.
Even so, the avatars never surfaced.
When the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn had passed (half an hour in total), the five men emerged once more from the forest, their expressions dissatisfied.
"They must really have left. We can't waste more time waiting here in vain. The Shadowfallen Burial Mountain will remain open for only 15 days. Let's not squander any more time, we need to secure more treasures and search for what the 12 powers demanded, or we'll be finished."
The man in blue decided, and with everyone's agreement, they left.
A few seconds later, the avatars emerged from the ground with heavy expressions.
'Haah… good thing they left quickly. If they had stayed longer, I would have had to risk fighting them,' he thought, while the mouth of his main body twitched.
[Mission: Stop Hiding Underground
…
Danger Level: Safe]
He only came out when the message showed this, since before the danger level was "Dangerous," a clear sign that enemies were still hidden in ambush. And the danger had been even greater than the Shadow Beast he had just killed.
'It makes sense for the danger to be higher. Even if they are only cultivators in the Early Nascent Soul stage, the five together roughly equal the same strength as the beast I killed. Still, I'd rather fight a solitary and unintelligent beast than deal with five cunning cultivators. The chance of an avatar dying is much higher.'
'Fortunately, I was able to sense them when they were running here. But once they hid with everything they had, I lost sight of them. Luckily, I still have the missions to guide me.'
Aotian thought, relieved.
Despite his supreme core, combined with excellent techniques that granted him strong spiritual perception, his realm was still low. When Nascent Soul cultivators fully concealed themselves, it was easy for them to deceive his senses.
Thankfully, he was cautious, attentive, and above all, had the missions to help him identify the danger level.
'Seems like the problems will be even bigger than I imagined. Any battle I face must be swift, and the escape even swifter. If I'm surrounded, especially by many Nascent Soul cultivators like those five, these avatars are finished,' He reflected bitterly.
'If not for those damned 12 powers, this journey would have been much simpler. But what's done is done. All that's left is to increase my caution a hundredfold while exploring.'
With this decision in mind, the avatars pulled black cloaks from their rings and put them on, while keeping their auras and cultivation completely hidden.
'Perhaps it was advantageous that I revealed my cultivation when we were about to receive the slave seal, since that way, when attention turned to us, they didn't notice my extraordinary cultivation concealment. Now that they believe my avatars just entered the Golden Core stage, with middle-aged bodies, they might underestimate me, like that arrogant cultivator and the others—which could be an excellent advantage for me.'
He thought, before shaking his head and continuing his journey.
On the way, he encountered beasts, herbs, and cultivators.
The first he killed, the second he harvested—even if they weren't ripe—and the last he avoided.
Although killing and robbing cultivators yielded quite a lot, that wasn't Aotian's goal.
His search was for a herb that could improve talent. Everything else was just collateral benefit. And of course, though he could leave cultivators alone to avoid attracting trouble, he would never leave a herb behind if it appeared before his eyes.
Thus, his journey through the mountain continued for several hours.
When night fell outside, a rift silently opened in the empty space above the mountain's entrance.
A figure in golden robes with a white beard calmly stepped out of it as the rift closed behind.
His gaze, usually warm, was now cold. Raising his head, he stared at twelve old men hidden within the clouds of the sky, drinking tea and chatting casually.
The twelve did not realize that, at that moment, a being they should never have offended was watching them grimly.
Bao Wuji had arrived.