"Thump..."
"Thump-thump..."
"Thump, thump, thump..."
While standing outside earlier, Shi Lei had felt as though his heart had stopped beating entirely...
It was only now, after returning once again to the Vine House Space, that he finally heard his own heart begin to pound violently.
Upon returning to the Vine House, Shi Lei immediately withdrew his divine sense and stood completely dazed and motionless in the same spot.
After a long while, he finally snapped back to his senses, only to discover that his entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
Fortunately, the moment he had locked eyes with the Demon Python earlier, his intense connection to the Vine House Space had prompted him to swiftly pull his divine sense back into the house.
This house seemed to originate from within his own body, which left Shi Lei utterly bewildered and deeply perplexed.
Puzzled, Shi Lei thought to himself, "How... how did I get outside just now? Was it because of my Divine Sense Power?"
"It must have been!"
"But why? What on earth is this vine house?"
Shi Lei pondered for a long time, but could not make sense of the reason. With no other choice, he shook his head.
However, one thing was certain now: as long as he used his Divine Sense Power, he could make his physical body walk out of this house.
Once he understood this point, Shi Lei stopped dwelling on it.
By now, he had completely calmed down.
Hastily taking a few steps toward the wall of the house, Shi Lei reached out and touched the vine wall once more. The greenish hue on the surface began to recede, gradually becoming transparent.
The scene inside the snake nest revealed itself to Shi Lei's eyes once again.
Only this time, the Demon Python was nowhere to be seen inside the lair.
...
"Where on earth did that Demon Python run off to?"
"Oh well... Never mind that, I need to escape right now."
After a brief moment of thought, Shi Lei made up his mind and once again deployed his Divine Sense Power to probe into the snake nest.
Sure enough, the bizarre phenomenon repeated itself. The moment Shi Lei cast his Divine Sense Power into the spot where the Demon Python had been coiled just moments before, he instantly materialized in the exact same location as before.
Shi Lei scanned the entire snake nest with his divine sense again, but still found no trace of the Demon Python.
"I need to get out of here quickly," Shi Lei thought to himself.
Just at that moment, however, he sensed the presence of the Vine House Space once more.
Shi Lei looked down toward his chest in utter bewilderment...
At that very instant, he clearly felt that the Vine House Space was located right at his chest.
Yet there was nothing at all on his chest, which left Shi Lei extremely perplexed.
"What is going on here? How could something like this happen?"
"How could a space this massive exist right on my body, and yet I can't even see it?!"
Thus, using his Divine Sense Power, Shi Lei attempted to probe into the vine house once more.
In a flash, he found himself inside the house.
"No mistake about it, this really is the Vine House Space!"
"This... this..."
Even though Shi Lei was utterly incapable of understanding everything that was happening, he dared not dwell on it for long now. He was worried that the Demon Python might return to its lair at any moment and trap him inside. That would spell disaster.
Therefore, Shi Lei projected his divine sense outside the vine house once again, his figure flickered, and his entire body reappeared inside the lair.
Without wasting another thought, he instantly identified the direction of the nest's entrance and bolted away toward the outside of the snake nest.
...
Less than a hundred paces after Shi Lei dashed out of the snake nest, his divine sense immediately detected a foul, fishy stench rushing toward him from the distance.
"Oh no, it's the Demon Python!" Shi Lei thought.
This time, however, Shi Lei did not panic. By now, he had already formulated a countermeasure.
He immediately mobilized the Divine Sense Power within his body and projected it into the vine house at his chest.
Sure enough, in the blink of an eye, he had entered the interior space of the house once more.
"Haha, fantastic!" Seeing that he had once again entered the Vine House Space and easily evaded the Demon Python's ambush, Shi Lei burst out laughing inside the vine house.
With such a spatial treasure in his possession, Shi Lei's mind was completely at ease. He hurriedly hid behind the vine wall to observe the situation of the Demon Python outside.
...
At this moment, the Demon Python was furious. It had left its lair and was searching everywhere for the "little bug" that had just broken into its territory.
And since it had clearly sensed the aura of this "little bug" in the vicinity just moments before, it had sprinted over at lightning speed.
Yet in the blink of an eye, the "little bug" had vanished again.
Ferocious Beasts possessed an extremely strong sense of territory. If an external entity violated their domain, they would generally grow violently agitated and intensely enraged—this was simply an instinct of Ferocious Beasts.
This Demon Python had originally evolved from a Ferocious Beast, so this instinct was naturally deeply ingrained in its bloodline and could not be forgotten.
...
The Demon Python patrolled around the vine house for a long time, but still gained nothing.
In the end, with no other options, it had no choice but to slowly return to its lair.
...
Once the Demon Python had moved far away, Shi Lei manifested himself in the Savage Beast Forest again.
He discerned his bearings and walked briskly toward his sect.
Although Shi Lei had already attained the cultivation of the Qi Refinement 7th Layer, he had not yet learned any spell techniques, and his offensive combat power was limited.
If he were to encounter a Ferocious Beast or a Demonic Beast in the Savage Beast Forest right now, other than using brute force, he had very few ways to kill it.
However, right now his only thought was to return to the sect and immediately report the events of this mission to the sect elders. After all, besides himself, not a single member of the entire team had survived—this was no minor matter.
Therefore, Shi Lei had no desire to hunt Ferocious Beasts at the moment, nor did he wish to become entangled with the savage and demonic beasts. With his current level of cultivation, it was not particularly difficult for him to avoid those creatures. Besides, he now carried a spatial treasure.
As he hurried along toward the sect, Shi Lei pondered in his mind how exactly he should report this to the sect, though for the moment he could not quite make up his mind.
After all, he was the member with the lowest combat power in the entire team, yet he had miraculously survived—this point was indeed rather difficult to explain.
Still, after much deliberation, Shi Lei gradually formed an acceptable story in his mind, and his pace quickened.
"Sigh, what a pity I don't have a Green Leaf Boat, otherwise I could have returned to the sect today," Shi Lei sighed.
The Green Leaf Boat was a one-time-use Dharma Artifact that could only be used for a single round trip between the sect and the mission location before becoming completely scrap. It was distributed by the sect to mission-taking disciples.
Normally, the sect would not hand out Green Leaf Boats unless the mission involved a relatively large number of participants or the destination was exceptionally distant. Only then would the sect issue them additionally to the disciples.
Although the Green Leaf Boat was a disposable consumable and relatively simple to manufacture, making it still required an expenditure of time and resources.
...
Time flew by as the sun slowly sank behind the western mountains, and the entire Savage Beast Forest grew gradually dim.
"No, I need to speed up and try to reach the town before dark." Glancing at the sky, Shi Lei quickened his pace even further.
Fortunately, Shi Lei's cultivation had already reached the Qi Refinement 7th Layer. Once a cultivator reached the Qi Refinement Late-stage, the True Qi within their body would flow endlessly. Running at full speed the entire way, Shi Lei did not feel exceptionally fatigued.
Not long after, night fell completely.
Outside a mortal town, the figure of a youth appeared on the grand avenue leading into the city.
It was Shi Lei, having hurried back at top speed.