"That should be it. These Wind Beasts should have been generated within the last ten-odd years. That's why Father sensed something was wrong at that time, and then he and the Sixth Elder came here to investigate."
"But they were then inexplicably trapped here, so this news was never brought back!"
"In addition, the appearance of Wind Beasts here is not necessarily a bad thing. Those three Wind Beast clans definitely don't want a fourth clan to appear."
"So, it's possible that before the Wind Beasts here can go out to fight the Tianli Clan, those three Wind Beast clans will have a great battle with the Wind Beasts here to seize territory."
"Especially since this is the border where the territories of the 'Wind Goose Beasts' and 'Wind Iron Beasts' meet. These two clans will be the first to act, to eliminate the dissidents..."
Gong Chenying thought to herself as she organized the answers she had obtained.
"A fourth clan of Wind Beasts has appeared here. Do the 'Wind Goose Beasts' and 'Wind Iron Beasts' know about it? ... More than ten years ago, Father and the others could discover that there was something unusual here. Could it be that they have been unaware all this time?"
"They should know. But since they know, why didn't they take the opportunity to exterminate them before the Wind Beasts here came out, or set up a sky-piercing grand formation above the swamp to seal this place?"
"We previously speculated that Father might have fallen into a trap set by the three Wind Beast clans. If the three Wind Beast clans didn't know about this place, they couldn't have set up a trap. But if they knew about the situation here, why did they let the Wind Beasts here grow stronger..."
One by one, new questions kept popping up. For a moment, Gong Chenying felt like her head was going to explode. These questions seemed to be related, but they were also contradictory...
After several hundred breaths, Gong Chenying gently shook her head. She couldn't sort out these questions for the time being.
At this time, she thought of another piece of information she had obtained from the soul-searching. That was that the ghost creatures here, or rather, the unknown Wind Beasts, all had a great fear of the depths of the cave behind.
"This means that in the depths of the cave, there may already be higher-level ghost creatures. This is the reason why they dare not go deep."
Gong Chenying quickly made a judgment in her mind. But after making this judgment, it made her start to hesitate.
If she were to turn back now, she would basically not encounter these ghost creatures again. But Li Yan had not caught up with her all this time. Was she just going to guard that cave entrance?
"...No, I still have to find a way out. I'll carefully investigate first!"
Gong Chenying was not one to sit and wait for death. And she had never been very used to relying on others.
Thinking of this, Gong Chenying shouldered her long spear, moved her two long legs, and continued to walk towards the depths of the cave...
Gong Chenying walked in the cave, her Divine Sense carefully scanning the surroundings. Although she had decided to go into the deep cave, she would not act rashly.
She didn't know how many such caves there were under the swamp. The one she was in was definitely just one of them. Even if she killed so many of the Wind Beasts in this cave, new Wind Beasts would enter here soon after.
So, it was very difficult to completely kill the Wind Beasts. Powerful Wind Beasts could even appear from behind you, unless you could completely destroy the "Heaven's Eye Pit."
But since ancient times, who knows how many strong people on the Wind God Continent have had this idea, wanting to destroy the "Heaven's Eye Pits" near their sects or clans. But in the scriptures Gong Chenying had seen, no one had been able to do it.
The origin of the "Heaven's Eye Pits" on the Wind God Continent has always been an unsolved mystery. No one knows how deep they are, or how wide they extend vertically underground.
Since ancient times, countless great powers have gone deep into the underground "Heaven's Eye Pits," but in the end, they could not reach the deepest part. It was just an endless, deep abyss, as if only by destroying the Wind God Continent could the "Heaven's Eye Pits" be destroyed.
In the cave, Gong Chenying explored as she moved forward. It was just that her speed was much slower than before.
About a tea's time later, she had already gone about six thousand zhang deeper. Suddenly, Gong Chenying turned and swung her elbow back, striking fiercely behind her.
In the darkness, a tall and thin figure had just leaped up from her side and rear, and was pouncing towards her!
Under the ragged clothes on the man's body, his shriveled body was revealed. His skinny body had several large holes, and his blackened internal organs were beating rhythmically inside.
His face was pale, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken, leaving only two pitch-black holes. He had long, blackish-purple fingernails on his hands, and his two arms were reaching out to embrace Gong Chenying.
Between his embracing arms, a circle of yin-cold qi as sharp as a knife was born. He looked at Gong Chenying, who was walking forward in the darkness, a bloodthirsty smile on his face.
Gong Chenying turned and swung her elbow, her momentum like lightning. With a "peng!" sound, first the yin-cold qi as sharp as a knife was instantly shattered into pieces.
In the instant the tall and thin man's smiling face froze, after his protective yin-cold qi was shattered, the force of Gong Chenying's blow did not diminish. She had solidly struck his throat with her elbow.
With another crisp "kacha" sound, the tall and thin figure's head was thrown back high, presenting a strange posture.
Then, his entire body flew back at a speed faster than he had come.
With a "boom," he crashed heavily into the cave wall behind him. In Gong Chenying's cold gaze, the man slid slowly down the cave wall, and there was no more movement.
"A second-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast!"
The moment Gong Chenying attacked the other party, she had judged his strength. An attack equivalent to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, for her, was an instant kill.
At this moment, as her Divine Sense spread out into the distance, some shadowy figures had already appeared. They were hidden in the pitch-black cave, amidst the whistling of the strange wind...
An incense stick's time later, Gong Chenying kicked a green-haired, long-tongued Ghost-Creature Wind Beast in the chest.
"Chi!"
The ferocious Ghost-Creature Wind Beast's entire body was instantly torn to pieces by an invisible force.
"The fourth Ghost-Creature Wind Beast. Compared to the lowest-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts at the beginning, they already have a sense of territory. Usually, there is only one second-rank Wind Beast within a fifty-li radius..."
Gong Chenying thought silently in her heart, while also recalling the second and third Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts she had soul-searched before.
In their memories, they were born deep underground, and were later swept into this cave by a force, or rather, by different wind pillars.
They could not get out of the cave, otherwise they would be torn to pieces by the power of the wind pillars at the entrance.
At the same time, they did not like the outside of the cave, because in the depths of the cave, there was an extreme cold that they liked, which made them feel exceptionally comfortable.
And the further in they went, under the nourishment of the increasingly thick yin-cold qi, they could quickly become stronger.
They would also kill and devour each other. In this process of killing and devouring, they would slowly become stronger.
In the memories of the two Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts that Gong Chenying had soul-searched, they also did not know how deep this cave was, because in the deeper parts, there were powerful beings that they feared.
And for a period of time in the past, there had been some other powerful being that had killed more than half of them here, forcing them to lie dormant in fear for a long time.
"I still can't find out if there's only this one cave here. And these Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts devour each other, and there are beings inside that even the second-rank Wind Beasts fear?"
"That should mean that there are third-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts. I just don't know if there will be fourth-rank ones."
"If I encounter a peak third-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast, I should be careful. I could either try to go a little further to find a way out, but that would be gambling with my life."
"Or I could immediately retreat back, and in the end, also gamble on getting out of the cave and finding a possible escape route..."
Gong Chenying thought in her heart. She was worried that she would encounter a fourth-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast in the depths of the cave.
According to her current judgment, although the distribution of the Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts in the cave had a certain pattern, that didn't necessarily mean that she would only have a chance of encountering a fourth-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast that she couldn't resist after encountering a peak third-rank one.
It was also possible that a fourth-rank being would appear directly soon. However, Gong Chenying still felt that she had to give it a try.
As long as it wasn't a mid-fourth-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast that appeared at once, she still had a fighting chance and should have a chance to withdraw.
However, in that situation, she estimated that her chances of retreating unscathed were probably less than thirty percent.
In the darkness, Gong Chenying adjusted her breathing until it was almost imperceptible, like a nimble lynx stealthily moving through the night!
An hour later, after she had successively killed seven more second-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts, plus the previous journey, Gong Chenying had already gone six to seven hundred li deep into the cave.
The yin qi here was already as thick as a solid. Gong Chenying could only use her power to melt the ice that had attached to her body. And in this section of the journey, many forks had already appeared in the cave.
Gong Chenying had entered and explored each one. This had greatly slowed down her progress. And these forks were either dead ends or they circled back to the main path.
Fortunately, Gong Chenying had left a mark at the front of each fork, so she could quickly reorient herself. These marks were not only for her own use, but also for Li Yan.
In the end, Gong Chenying had not found anything in these forks, but she had discovered some traces of the Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts' habitation.
As beings that already had spiritual intelligence, those mid-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts of course would not wander around aimlessly all day, but would spend more time absorbing the yin-cold ghost qi here.
Although she had made some discoveries, Gong Chenying had not obtained any useful information from these caves.
"Ding!"
Sometime, Gong Chenying had already taken the long spear from her back into her hand. She suddenly pointed the spear at a spot in the darkness.
Instantly, a shower of sparks erupted in the darkness.
"Eh? Tu'a wuyi..."
Then, Gong Chenying heard a light "eh," and a series of strange sounds.
She had also heard the sounds made by those second-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts before. They were no longer as dull as the first-rank ghost creatures, but would say some strange things, but Gong Chenying could not understand them at all.
The Tianli Clan actually knew a lot of the languages of the three clans like the "Wind Goose Beasts." After all, they had been fighting them for generations.
The Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts here were basically in a state of silence. They mostly attacked by stealth. Only when they were angry or felt that death was near would they say some strange things to Gong Chenying.
"A third-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast has finally appeared!"
Gong Chenying repelled the opponent's attack with one spear strike, her figure as steady as a mountain. In her Divine Sense, the man was holding a thick stone pillar and had just smashed it at her head.
That stone pillar was no ordinary object. After colliding with Gong Chenying's magical treasure, even with the sharpness of the red-glowing spearhead, it only chipped off a small piece of stone.
The man's face was one of the more normal ones among the Ghost-Creature Wind Beasts that Gong Chenying had seen. It was a middle-aged man.
But his figure was still extremely thin. The skin on his arms was almost clinging to his bones. A series of sinews were knotted like thin, strange snakes, coiled on the surface of his body. He was bare-chested, wearing a pair of shorts, and barefoot.
The thin man first glanced at the stone pillar in his hand, then stared at the long spear in Gong Chenying's hand, a thick look of disgust in his eyes.
Since the red-glowing spearhead had been refined by Gong Chenying, the power of this magical treasure of hers had greatly increased, allowing her attacks to increase in power by thirty percent.
Gong Chenying was a little surprised to see that her attack had been blocked by the other party, and that the other party's cultivation was only at the mid-third rank, a small realm lower than her own.
From this, it could be seen that once a Ghost-Creature Wind Beast reached a certain rank, its combat strength was also quite formidable.
Gong Chenying became more vigilant of her surroundings. She had not encountered an initial-third-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast, but this level of Ghost-Creature Wind Beast had appeared directly.
Then, a fourth-rank Ghost-Creature Wind Beast might also appear ahead of time. And so far, she had not found any way to get out.
Gong Chenying's long spear in her hand brought out a streak of red light in the darkness and stabbed at the center of the other party's brow.
Since she had basically judged that the other party was a type of Wind Beast, Gong Chenying would not hold back at all. However, she still wanted to see if she could capture the other party alive and then soul-search for more information.
The other party was just a small realm lower than her. In terms of general Divine Sense strength, he was the best target for soul-searching. Otherwise, Gong Chenying was not sure if she would suffer a backlash from the other party.
The red-glowing spearhead quickly streaked through the extremely yin-cold cave!
As Gong Chenying's magical power was infused into it, the spearhead was like a red stream of fire, breaking through layers of thick cold qi, bringing up wisps of green smoke in the air.
As the red light streaked past, it vaguely illuminated the surrounding space, which was somewhat distorted. The thin and strong man also made a circle and a point in front of him with one hand.
As he moved, a shield carved with a huge human face suddenly appeared in front of him. The human face was covered with runes.
As soon as the shield appeared, the cave, which was already like the Nine Serenities Underworld, immediately had gusts of biting yin wind.
"Thump!"
In a flash, Gong Chenying's spear had stabbed the shield.
And just then, the huge human face on the shield suddenly came to life. It opened its mouth wide, and a long tongue with specks of ice shot out.
With a coil and a wrap, it wrapped around the red-glowing spearhead, like a strange snake covered in ice shards.
In an instant, a continuous "chichichi..." sound was heard, and a large cloud of smoke rose in the cave. The red lights that had just lit up flashed and disappeared again.
The entire red-glowing spearhead was covered in smoke and wrapped tightly by the long tongue that had shot out from the huge mouth.