These people could move, but they lacked independent consciousness.
Meng Luoluo crept inward, not daring to make a sound for fear of alerting these things and ending up swarmed.
Room after room, several chambers in a row, were filled with such monsters—there had to be four or five hundred of them. Finally, reaching the end, she discovered a room unlike the previous ones where the people inside were normal, and two Foundation Establishment guards stood outside the door.
Meng Luoluo thought for a moment. This was worth a try. Slipping quietly behind one of them, she took him down with a single sword strike, then turned to deal with the other.
The remaining guard saw his comrade fall and opened his mouth to cry for alarm, but seeing the intruder lunging right at him, he had no choice but to block in a panic.
Meng Luoluo wrapped her iron sword in fire-type spiritual power, combined with the swordsmanship taught by her Eldest Senior Sister, and charged forward rapidly. To avoid alerting the monsters meditating with closed eyes nearby, she refrained from using her gun.
Fortunately, this gatekeeper had cultivated for only a short time; had it been longer, she might truly have been outmatched.
Inspecting the scene closely, Meng Luoluo marveled at the speed of their cultivation: reaching Foundation Establishment Level 3 in just one month. If this were a sect disciple, they would undoubtedly be the protagonist.
Did this heaven-defying cultivation method really progress so fast? It almost made her want to give it a try.
Meng Luoluo shook her head, casting away the bad thought, and strode into the room.
Little did she know that before the guard drew his last breath, he had managed to send out a cry for help.
The room was divided into two sections: one held people who had been strung up and beaten unconscious, while the other contained monsters currently being drained of blood and manufactured.
Now Meng Luoluo understood. Once completed, they were transferred outside.
She began racking her brains for a countermeasure. She did not want to leave the monsters outside alone, and she wanted to save the people inside, but she preferred not to entangle herself too deeply. It was a tough dilemma.
Ultimately, Meng Luoluo decided to break the formation's iron locks binding these people, hide in the shadows, use stones to wake them up, and figure out a way to burn the completed monsters herself.
She began executing her plan, dismantling the formation and the iron locks. The formation wasn't overly complex, but there were simply too many of them, which grated on her nerves. Just then, Meng Luoluo felt the ground tremble and thought to herself that something was wrong.
Forget dismantling them; she drew her iron sword directly, sending spiritual power of various attributes flying everywhere, hacking her way through.
After smashing all the formations, she turned and bolted toward the exit, pausing just long enough before leaving to fling the shattered fragments of the iron locks high into the air.
Looking at these monsters, Meng Luoluo found herself in a bind once more. What could she use to burn them?
While she was still pondering, she heard footsteps approaching from outside. Glancing back at the two dead men, she cursed her luck.
Fumbling through her storage bag, Meng Luoluo sighed. There was no help for it; she would have to use white phosphorus. If she had known, she would have made some incendiary bombs. What a waste of her white phosphorus.
Taking out the white phosphorus she had purchased and kept preserved through a special method, she quickly unlocked the room holding the monsters, scattered the white phosphorus inside, and rushed off to the next room.
As she was still scattering it, she noticed a strange-colored light source behind her and turned to look.
Good grief, this stuff caught fire way too fast! Meng Luoluo had no choice but to speed up.
Just as she reached a three-way junction, she collided head-on with a reinforcement team of black-robed men and corpse monsters.
Meng Luoluo raised a hand and shouted, "Repel!" followed by two rapid gunshots.
She immediately turned and ran back the way she came. There was an illusion formation back there that might stall them, but these people included two practitioners in the Source Gathering Realm—she had to run fast!
Meanwhile, on the surface, He Manting had also pinpointed the general perimeter of the underground den. Operating at the peak of the Soul-Gathering Realm, she unleashed her full power.
It turned out the mastermind was a subordinate of the city lord attempting a usurpation.
Thanks to He Manting's assault from the outside, Meng Luoluo had a much easier time down below. Relying on the illusion formation, Meng Luoluo managed to hold off the people trying to capture her, though the monsters' advance could not be stopped.
Since the monsters lacked consciousness and the illusion formation had no effect on them, she had no choice but to shoot while reloading, retaliating with sword techniques in between.
Taking advantage of the illusion's effect on her would-be captors, she picked them off one by one with a bullet to the head or chest, leaving only the last one, whose arms and legs she simply broke.
Fortunately, when she had collided with the enemy earlier, she had managed to pump two bullets straight into the head of one Source Gathering Realm practitioner.
Otherwise, that fight would have been truly difficult.
Feeling a pang of heartache over her expended bullets, Meng Luoluo put the gun away and frantically unleashed her sword techniques.
Her cultivation was too low, her damage output insufficient; trying to hack at the monsters with her sword couldn't even break through their bodies. She swore that the moment she returned, she would definitely practice body refinement.
Any monsters too close for her sword she simply blasted away with the "Repel" technique.
As she fought on, Meng Luoluo discovered that she could actually fuse fire-type spiritual power into the "Repel" wave.
Meanwhile, in the Fan Peak Main Hall.
Shangguan Qingzhu said, "Master, we lost track of him."
Peak Master Shen lowered her teacup and instantly stood up. "Lost track? How did you lose track?"
Shangguan Qingzhu replied, "Meng Luoluo was captured while tailing the man in black. He Manting is already rescuing her. Do we need to go and help?"
"Go, why wouldn't we go? Notify Wang Shiyao, the two of you go together."
Shangguan Qingzhu demurred, "Master, there is no need for Eldest Senior Sister to go, is there? Nothing major should happen."
"He Manting is in the Soul-Gathering Realm. If she can't resolve it, your going won't do any good either. Quickly go call your Eldest Senior Sister."
Shangguan Qingzhu nodded in assent, and together with Eldest Senior Sister, she rapidly flew off on her flying sword.
Just as Meng Luoluo was feeling pleased looking at the dwindling number of monsters, the stone door behind her made a sound and swung open.
Meng Luoluo felt like crying without tears. Would this endless ordeal never finish?
Taking advantage of the illusion formation's lingering effect on them, she unleashed a "Repel" wave imbued with fire-type spiritual power, blasting the newcomers backward. Seizing that gap, she dashed outward.
Twisting and turning through who knows how many corridors, she finally caught sight of the exit. Meng Luoluo let out another "Repel" blast that shattered the barricade blocking the cave mouth, and burst through in a single momentum-driven charge.
Emerging outside, Meng Luoluo looked around in all directions. After spinning in a circle, she realized she had already fled out of the city.
She hurriedly sent a message to He Manting asking her to come to her rescue. With so many people whose cultivation far exceeded her own, she could not win!
Though she might not necessarily die, she had no idea what would happen if her big bell were to be shattered.
Meng Luoluo summoned the Immortal Heart Bell, fighting as she fled. After all, her cultivation was somewhat low, her spiritual power reserves were meager, and her speed was slow.
Even with Rejuvenation Pills to replenish her, she could not withstand the pursuit of three Source Gathering Realm and two Soul-Gathering Realm practitioners.
In exasperation, she simply lay down and gave up. *Let's fight it out; at worst, I'll just restart.*
Even while giving up, Meng Luoluo still picked up her gun, loaded the ammunition, and made one last struggle.
Seeing that Meng Luoluo had stopped running, her pursuers slowed their pace and walked over.
One of the Soul-Gathering Realm practitioners sneered, "Why aren't you running anymore? Oh, just a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Quite capable, aren't you, to stir up such a huge commotion?"
"Come back with us. We'll give you resources; as long as you work for us, we can spare your life. You're quite a promising sapling."
Meng Luoluo did not reply. She raised her hands and went *bang, bang*—two shots straight ahead.
Thinking these were merely a child's toys, the group didn't dodge, which played right into Meng Luoluo's hands.
When the Xumao Gold bullets struck home, the expressions of the group shifted drastically. The Soul-Gathering Realm practitioner who had spoken moments before staggered back two steps, nearly having his heart pierced through.
None of them had expected this object to completely ignore spiritual power defense.