The Mantis catches the Cicada, the Yellow Sparrow follows.

The perception of demonic beasts has always been much stronger than that of cultivators. In fact, when the white willow catkins disaster of the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow grew more and more serious, the high-level demonic beasts deep in the Hengduan Mountains had already sensed the danger.

Many high-level demonic beasts had already evacuated from the Hengduan Mountains at that time. One of the representative demonic beasts was Chasing the Wind's mother.

So on that stormy night, it was unclear whether the Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger was hunting the Thunder Unicorn Ox, or if the Thunder Unicorn Ox was tasked with hunting the Profound Underworld Spirit Tiger.

Of course, their ultimate outcome was that they fled to the Dao Sword Sect, catching the attention of human high-level cultivators, and finally both were injured and killed.

Chasing the Wind's mother was a failed escape attempt, but there were more high-level demonic beasts that successfully escaped.

A representative successful escapee was the five-tailed demon fox that met Qin Ran twice.

Fox tribes have always been known for their cunning nature. Naturally, they knew the danger well in advance and fled early.

The first time the five-tailed demon fox saw Qin Ran and Li Shiyin stranded in the Hengduan Mountains was during her escape. The second time she met Qin Ran crossing the heavenly tribulation was when she had already fled to the edge of the Hengduan Mountains, to the Snow Mountains.

She was planning to use the terrain of the snow mountains to observe the changes in the situation of the Hengduan Mountains, to help her respond appropriately.

This is why there are so many high-level demonic beasts appearing here now.

So it can be said, any intelligent creature has greed. Greed is not unique to the human race.

High-level demonic beasts have very high IQs. They may not be able to speak or have systematic languages, but they certainly have very high intelligence.

These high-level demonic beasts knew of the danger that the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow would devour the entire Hengduan Mountains to merge with the Dao. At the same time, they also knew of the opportunity - that there would be Dao fruits after merging with the Dao, and it would become weak after crossing the tribulation.

In short, it was not only human cultivators looking to take advantage of the situation; these high-level demonic beasts that escaped the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow's control were also looking to pick up the spoils.

In fact, they were in the position of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind - after the human cultivators dealt with the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow, they would come out last to snatch the fruits of victory.

Facing the interrogation of the five-tailed demon fox, the black-robed youth surnamed Zhang felt somewhat familiar. It seemed that just a few seconds ago, he had asked a Golden Core cultivator the same question.

The wheels of fortune turn so quickly, it’s come back around already?

He felt a little urge to laugh. He retorted to the five-tailed demon fox: “You guys want the Dao fruits too?”

High IQ doesn’t necessarily mean the ability to speak human language. Like the five-tailed demon fox here who had mastered various communication methods, she was clearly the spokesperson for this group of demonic beasts.

"Don't answer a question with a question...” She smiled, even in fox form there was considerable charm and beauty, “I'm asking you, where are the Dao fruits?!”

However, the youth surnamed Zhang did not give her any face. He sneered: “Demonic mountain beasts, what qualifications do you have to meddle with heaven-sent treasures?”

When humans classify species, it’s always humans and other creatures, naturally carrying an aura of civilized beings.

This aura is ingrained in the human bloodline. When cultivators speak up, they also say monster beasts, sprites, monsters, instead of specifically fox demons, monkey demons, wolf demons - naturally carrying a somewhat arrogant attitude.

Among humans interacting with other creatures, this arrogance is justified by those two words civilization. But when cultivators face demonic beasts, things like cultivation and civilization don’t quite cut it.

To put it bluntly, it’s fine for cultivators to put on some airs in front of ordinary demonic beasts, but when facing legendary divine beasts and immortal birds, they ought to keep a low profile.

Because human cultivators may not necessarily be smarter or stronger in fights than others.

Especially when ordinary cultivators encounter divine beasts and immortal birds, extra care and a low profile is needed.

At least, these four cultivators from the Boundless Sword Sect had no right to be arrogant when facing the five-tailed demon fox, who had the bloodline of the divine beast nine-tailed fox and cultivated to YuanYing stage in human form.

So seeing this arrogant attitude from the youth surnamed Zhang, the five-tailed demon fox was very unhappy. She said, "Bite them to death first, then do the inspection later."

Over ten high-level demonic beasts behind her then pounced up to quickly surround the four from the Boundless Sword Sect.

Worried that something might happen to the three silly children outside the fog, Qin Ran wasted no time after getting rid of the youth surnamed Zhang and went straight out of the fog to find them.

After Qin Ran entered the fog, Li Shiyin stopped pretending. She revived with full health and started playing happily with Chasing the Wind.

Now seeing Qin Ran come out, she felt somewhat embarrassed, recalling the things she said and did when severely injured. Her face turned red to the tip of her ears.

Luckily Qin Ran did not deliberately mention it. Seeing that Li Shiyin was awake, he didn't say much, only asking: "Nothing happened, right?"

So Li Shiyin felt somewhat disappointed again, turning her head away without speaking.

It was Long Qiqi who answered Qin Ran: "No."

She also asked him, "What's the situation inside?"

"The high-level demonic beasts are fighting with Boundless Sword Sect’s people." Qin Ran said.

"Why?"

"For the Dao fruits."

"What are Dao fruits?"

Qin Ran explained: “It’s the fruits of cultivation after dividing spirits merge with the Dao. Ordinary cultivation fruits dissipate quickly between heaven and earth after a cultivator's death, like Golden Cores. But the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow was a tree that gained intelligence. Its fruits won't dissipate easily, and will remain like fruits, an extremely rare variety of heaven-sent treasures."

"Why don't you want the Dao fruits?"

"Only high-level cultivators and high-level demonic beasts, at least at YuanYing stage, are snatching the Dao fruits. I don't qualify."

"For someone as calculating as you, how could you not qualify?" Long Qiqi didn't believe him, "Haven't you thought about fishing in troubled waters?"

Qin Ran fell silent. In fact, he still had some other options, such as a tribulation thunder pill refined by his master in that valley, and also quite a few earth core pills. Inside the fog, he had already used an array runestone once before.

But these backup plans were still not enough, at least not enough to ensure the safety of the four of them.

What is an array runestone? Array runestones are special stones engraved with basic magical arrays. Putting a certain number of array runestones together with the basic arrays randomly arranged can form various arrays.

Qin Ran had thrown a total of nine array runestones into this fog, enough to set up some array formations of decent size, for example, using the small Array of No Form to activate a tribulation thunder pill.

"The situation now is too complicated. Judging by the reckless actions of Boundless Sword Sect, Elder Ning is probably struggling a lot killing the Extinguishing Pole Weeping Willow and is severely injured. And with Boundless Sword Sect doing this, the other two sects will definitely do the same."

Qin Ran analyzed with Long Qiqi: "So including the remaining Lingnan Immortal Sect cultivators, combined with the united high-level demonic beasts, there are at least five forces inside this small fog."

"The more forces, the better to fish in troubled waters." Long Qiqi replied. “You’re worried about us, right?"

There were indeed such considerations as well. Qin Ran nodded and said, "It's too dangerous here, your cultivation bases are too low. Let's go back to Dao Sword Sect first."

Long Qiqi really didn't want to admit she was dragging the team back. She said, "We can go back ourselves..."

She paused for a bit, then said again: "We’ll stay, perhaps we can still help."

"Let's go back first." Qin Ran shook his head.

Long Qiqi really wanted to stay, but didn't know what else to say.

Qin Ran called Li Shiyin and Chasing the Wind over, used qi bubbles to envelop the four of them as a flying magic tool to carry them towards Dao Sword Sect.

However, not long after they flew out, in the distance high up in the air, a blazing flame greeted them and flew towards them.

Huang Feiyu brought Tian Wenjin over to meet them. He said to Qin Ran: "Uncle-Master, fortune comes with danger accompanying it. The game’s just begun, why leave so early?"