At this moment, Jiang Yan and his senior sister Furong were looking at the tall city gate, simultaneously sensing an unusual aura washing over them. Just as Furong was about to pull Jiang Yan through the massive gate, a deafening crash suddenly rang out. A tremendous surge of spiritual energy soared into the sky, and the entire ground violently shook. An invisible barrier of spiritual energy materialized out of thin air, and the entire city gate vanished from sight.
At this, Furong cried out, "Junior brother, hurry and dodge! This is an ancient city-protecting grand array!" With a sharp, delicate shout, a curtain of light appeared above her head. From within the light curtain, a giant hand abruptly emerged, holding a crystal-clear black pupil in its palm. Golden runes flickered incessantly within the pupil, capturing the image of the vanished city gate. Her hands continuously pointed toward the void in rapid succession, sending streaks of purple lightning runes crashing down toward the gate ahead.
"Break for me!" she shouted.
With a rapid succession of booming explosions, a cloud of dust instantly billowed up, and the entire city gate collapsed with a deafening roar. This was the Divine Flame Secret Technique, and the pupil that had just appeared was the Innate Spiritual Pupil materialized from it. This spiritual pupil possessed the extraordinary abilities of prescience, omniscience, and insight into the past and future. When cultivated to its peak, it could also unleash purple lightning to instantly kill enemies whose cultivation was inferior to the user's. However, this Innate Spiritual Pupil could only be utilized once the Divine Flame Secret Technique reached the Integration Stage Middle and Late Phase; otherwise, forcing it open would inevitably result in a violent backlash.
Furong then said, "Junior brother, let's go in." With that, she took the lead and stepped into the City of Lost.
Figures flickered within; as it turned out, quite a few cultivators had already entered the City of Lost. Suddenly, four cultivators holding golden wheels appeared ahead. Furong looked closely and exclaimed, "Junior brother, aren't these the four people from the Golden Wheel Demonic Sect we ran into at the entrance of the secret valley a few days ago?"
The four of them also spotted the pair, and two of them called out with bizarre, mocking tones, "Fellow cultivators, we meet again."
Furong let out an expression of displeasure and sneered, "What do you want?!" Knowing they were demonic cultivators, she refused to put on a polite face for them.
At that moment, the woman among them, Black-Sands Rose, called out, "We don't want anything. We just want to travel with you. In this City of Lost, which is fraught with danger at every turn, an extra person means an extra bit of strength."
Jiang Yan and Furong spoke in unison, "Sorry, we are not going the same way." With that, they quickly walked forward.
The four of them did not get angry; instead, they simply followed a good distance behind Jiang Yan and his group.
Furong furrowed her brow and muttered, "Junior brother, I sense those four harbor evil intentions. Let's stay alert and be on our guard all the way."
"Understood, senior sister."
As they continued forward, turning a narrow passageway, a patch of grayish-white light spots suddenly appeared ahead. Drawing closer, they saw piles of human skeletons lying on the ground, mixed with quite a few bones resembling those of the Dragon Clan and various beast clans. The sight was hair-raising and made one's skin crawl. At the same time, an overwhelming aura of death swept over them, causing many low-level cultivators present to tremble at the knees and cry out in terror.
Suddenly, a towering mountain appeared, blocking their path ahead. Gazing at the chilling winds howling from the front, accompanied by the muffled roars of numerous fierce beasts, many cultivators and martial artists felt a creeping chill in their hearts, sparking the urge to turn back. However, numerous cultivators with formidable cultivation and magical power continued onward.
Furong said, "Junior brother, let's head forward too."
They quickly arrived at the foot of the mountain. No sooner had they entered the valley than a dense, white fog suddenly surged from ahead. Instantly, an earth-shattering roar shook the entire mountain violently, and a beam of blinding white golden light soared into the sky.
Following closely, a monster dozens of *zhang* long appeared before the crowd. It was covered in blue fur, and its mouth bristled with two rows of sharp, jagged fangs several meters long. Upon seeing this, everyone turned pale with fright.
Ah! This... this is a prehistoric giant ape, also known as a mountain ghoul! With its long blue fur, protruding fangs, a patch of white eyebrows on its face, and a blood-red, gaping maw, it wore a terrifying ghost-like face, earning it the name "ghost ape." It could also spew out a strange, highly toxic blood-red mist; any living creature that accidentally inhaled even a trace of it would immediately die from the poison, and within a few hours, their entire body would dissolve into foul-smelling black water. It was truly formidable.
Legend had it that this monster lived in the ancient era and had a history dating back tens of thousands of years. Never did they expect it to appear in the City of Lost. Not only did it possess immense strength, but it was also extremely difficult to deal with. As one of the top ten ancient ferocious beasts and evil spirits, its strength was no less than that of a Deity Transformation Stage cultivator. It was one of the rarest rank-8 demonic beasts, possessing unique mystical abilities and an immensely powerful self-healing capability, which made it extraordinarily difficult to slay.
Countless cultivators cried out in panic, "Run! I don't want to perish in the belly of this demonic beast!"
Many cultivators began running madly toward the outside. With a heaven-shaking roar, the demonic beast moved with lightning speed, its figure flashing as it leaped into the air.
*Crack, crack, crack!* Dozens of bone-shattering sounds echoed, followed instantly by a series of shrill screams.
"Ah! Help! Help!"
Dozens of bloody explosions splattered into the air, and a thick stench of blood rapidly permeated the surroundings.
At this extremely critical juncture, several figures descended from the heavens with the force of a thunderbolt. With a resounding shout, they cried, "Fúmó Exterminating God Technique!" and rapidly attacked the giant ape.
With a deafening crash, golden light burst forth. Following a loud *bang*, the giant ape was sent flying dozens of meters away, crashing into a pile of boulders. With another loud crash, the boulders shattered, and dust flew in all directions.
The giant ape let out an angry roar and charged straight into the sky, lunging toward the figures. *Clang, clang, clang*—six resounding echoes rang out as blue-purple radiance flashed. Instantly, six dazzling bolts of electricity shot forth. The six individuals shouted in unison, "Fúmó Sword!"
A massive surge of white light, dazzling and razor-sharp, violently struck the giant ape in mid-air. *Crack!* Amidst a thunderous explosion, the giant ape's massive body was split in two. A glowing golden sphere from its center instantly flew into the hand of one of the figures.
The terrified surviving cultivators finally saw clearly that the figures who had slain the giant ape were none other than the Six Fúmó Envoys. The shaken cultivators dropped to their knees and kowtowed, stammering, "Thank you, seniors, for saving our lives!"
Without even glancing at them, the Six Fúmó Envoys walked straight toward Jiang Yan and Furong.
"Little fellows of the Divine Flame Sect, we meet again. What a coincidence! Take this rank-8 demonic beast inner core as a gift for you!" With that, they turned and left.
Furong and Jiang Yan knelt down and expressed their gratitude, saying, "Thank you, Fúmó seniors, for this gift."
At that moment, a strange phenomenon suddenly appeared in the sky. A mass of dark clouds surged forth, instantly plunging the world into pitch darkness, accompanied by flashing lightning and rolling thunder. A tiny half-face, exuding monstrous murderous intent, materialized in the sky. Immediately afterward, a soul-shaking voice echoed: "I am the Youming Demon Emperor, and this is the Heavenly Demon God Sect!"