The group divided into three teams according to the plan.
The first team was led by Bai Yumo, while the second and third teams were led by Ye Xinghua and Chun Wumian respectively.
After flying into the air, Shucao followed behind Bai Yumo.
As the three of them ranked among the top in strength among the Qi Refining cultivators, they were naturally assigned to three different groups.
Under Bai Yumo’s lead, the group arrived above a mountain forest.
Seeing that they had already drawn near the location Yu Qing had found, Bai Yumo, who was riding her own flying boat, turned around and signaled for everyone to stop.
“The Blood Fiend Sect’s stronghold is nearby. From the looks of it, the other side should have set the stronghold underground.”
Shucao beside her asked.
“Do we need to split up and search for the entrance? We have a lot of people, so finding it should be simple.”
“There’s no need for that.”
Bai Yumo said in a relaxed tone.
“I am a Foundation Establishment cultivator after all. There’s no way I would need to search for things like that.”
As soon as her words fell, Bai Yumo immediately released her spiritual sense.
With the support of her Dao foundation, a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual sense easily covered the entire mountain forest in front of them, as well as a portion of the underground area.
Under Bai Yumo’s spiritual sense probe, she quickly discovered a suspicious spot within the mountain forest.
Thus she immediately led everyone down into the forest below, retracted her spiritual sense, and had everyone stealthily approach that suspicious location.
A moment later, the group arrived above a canyon. On the rock wall below the canyon, a stone gate of bizarre appearance stood upright.
“One look and you can tell this is a demonic sect stronghold.”
Among the cultivators behind, someone suddenly tossed out this sentence, drawing unanimous agreement from everyone.
“They clearly found a deserted place to hide the stronghold, yet still built the main gate like this. What’s the point? These demonic sect people really have big hearts.”
An Qianhua also complained like this, while Shucao asked Bai Yumo.
“Senior Bai, what should we do next? Should we charge in directly from here?”
“No. Just now I used my spiritual sense to take a simple look. After entering from this entrance, one still needs to go quite a distance deeper underground to reach the core of their stronghold. But the passageway leading in is far too narrow, and the internal structure is also somewhat complex. If we enter and encounter some mishap, retreating would be very difficult.”
“Most importantly, when my spiritual sense went deeper, it ran into a spiritual sense of nearly equal strength to mine, and that spiritual sense also reacted. Therefore, the other side’s Foundation Establishment cultivator has most likely already detected my presence. Although he is unclear whether I harbor hostility, he will probably have the others inside the stronghold make preparations. So the difficulty of a frontal assault will be much higher than imagined.”
“Then what should we do?”
Bai Yumo stood up, looking at the gate below the canyon, the corners of her mouth curving into an arc.
“It’s very simple. Since the other side already knows I’ve come, then let him also know my attitude. Watch me use a little force to knock on their door!”
Then, she flashed onto the top of the canyon. Spiritual energy surged around her body, causing the pitch-black long robe covering her to flutter continuously.
“Holy Admonition!”
With her call, a luxurious yet simple golden longsword with a slightly broad blade that constantly flowed with golden light suddenly appeared in her hand.
At the same time, with the appearance of that longsword, the intensity of the spiritual energy on her body instantly rose to a new height.
The hood covering her face was lifted by the surging spiritual energy, revealing her beautiful face with a cold expression, twin eyes inlaid with a pair of dazzling yellow gemstones, and long golden hair that drifted continuously under the fluctuations of spiritual energy.
“Oh my god, golden hair and golden eyes again. Isn’t this an Eastern cultivation world? Why would colors like these appear!”
An Qianhua suddenly said upon seeing Bai Yumo’s appearance. Shucao also couldn’t help sighing.
“Golden hair and golden eyes… I’ve truly never seen hair and eyes of such colors before.”
Bai Yumo naturally did not know about the little theater in Shucao’s Heart Realm. She merely spoke again.
“Everyone, fall back and prepare to defend against the impact.”
At Bai Yumo’s order, Shucao immediately led everyone back several li.
Seeing that the loose cultivators had already retreated a considerable distance, Bai Yumo said in a deep voice.
“Anything blocking the way can just be blasted open!”
The spiritual energy on her body surged violently, and the golden spiritual light on the longsword in her hand grew even more dazzling.
She tightly gripped the hilt with both hands, raised the longsword high, then swung it downward.
A massive golden sword qi shot out from the longsword. The majestic spiritual energy stirred the surrounding space, generating fierce gales that spread in all directions.
At the same moment the sword qi was launched, as if sensing Bai Yumo’s extremely eye-catching spiritual energy fluctuation, a massive blood-red light barrier flowing with many inscriptions immediately appeared, enveloping the entire canyon to defend against that astonishing sword qi.
Boom! The dazzling golden sword qi smashed into that blood-red light barrier.
The intense impact directly caused the earth within a radius of several li to shake violently.
After blocking the sword qi for a moment, that blood-red light barrier was like a sheet of white paper, forcibly torn open with a crack by the sharp sword qi, and the crack continuously expanded.
In the next moment, the blood-red light barrier was stirred by the sword qi and shattered completely.
The sword qi smashed into the ground, directly carving an even deeper massive fissure into the original canyon.
Within that fissure, parts of the Blood Fiend Sect stronghold that had been exposed could be seen directly.
“I have already cut open the entrance portion of their stronghold. Next, their Foundation Establishment cultivator will be handled by me. You lead the remaining people to go deeper and cleanse that stronghold.”
Bai Yumo’s voice transmission rang in Shucao’s ear.
After understanding the other party’s request, Shucao immediately gave the others the order to prepare to raid the stronghold, and in the next moment transformed into a streak of pink light, flying toward the stronghold.
While Shucao was flying toward the stronghold below the canyon, another intense spiritual energy fluctuation like a fountain came from below the canyon.
In the next moment, a figure wrapped in dark red light flew out from below the canyon.
“Fellow Daoist, my sect has no grudges with you. Why did you destroy my sect’s protective grand array! Could it be that you want to make an enemy of my sect!”
A thick male voice wrapped in spiritual energy blasted toward Bai Yumo.
Bai Yumo raised her hand and released a strand of spiritual energy, neutralizing the spiritual energy impact contained within that sound wave. Then she said toward that dark red figure.
“We’ve already started fighting, so what’s the point of so much nonsense!”
With that, her figure suddenly shot toward that silhouette.
Golden sword light coiled around the sword body, and the sharp sword edge drew a dazzling arc as it chopped straight toward the figure.