The secret of secrets is secrecy; the normal of the abnormal is normal.

Gao Fang walked with brisk steps, keeping his spiritual sense restrained as he carefully probed forward.

Although this body was not his true form, and losing it would not be fatal to him, it was his first choice for his future true body. If possible, it would be best to keep it intact.

Just as Gao Fang sent out his spiritual sense, before he could ascertain the situation, a much more tyrannical spiritual sense locked directly onto him.

Without a doubt, this was definitely a Nascent Soul mighty figure.

Gao Fang hurriedly suppressed the look of jealousy on his face and went to greet them with a respectful expression.

At the previously agreed meeting place, a group of cultivators wearing black cloaks was already waiting. Li Xingtian was among them.

Gao Fang quickly went up to them, bowed first, and said in a respectful tone, Fellow Daoists, apologies for keeping you waiting.

Li Xingtian did not reply; instead, the woman standing beside him spoke up.

With this appearance, at the Golden Core realm? Isn't it a pity to become an evil cultivator?

Gao Fang kept his head down and did not dare to look. After all, he did not know who among this group was the Nascent Soul cultivator with the tyrannical spiritual sense, or if there was more than one Nascent Soul cultivator among them.

However, for someone to see through his cultivation realm at a glance, they were undoubtedly at least at the great perfection of the Golden Core realm.

With his head still bowed, Gao Fang raised his gaze slightly and noticed the woman was wearing a light blue martial outfit. He understood that her words were very likely a test, so he replied slowly, It was by chance, and besides, we have our own opportunities.

The woman's tone was cold and clear. Is that so? Never mind, time is tight, let's not waste it.

Yes. Hearing this, Gao Fang finally dared to raise his head, and his gaze subconsciously drifted toward the woman who had spoken. The next moment, he stood completely dumbfounded.

The chaotic thoughts and feelings constantly churning in his mind instantly settled.

Gao Fang had lived for hundreds of years, yet he had never seen a woman with such an appearance and temperament.

Her peach-blossom eyes carried a hint of coldness, and her flawless, perfect side profile was gazing at the distant pillar of light.

The next moment, the woman sensed Gao Fang's stare. She shifted her gaze toward him and frowned slightly.

Before Gao Fang could react, or even understand what method was used, he felt a heavy blow to his chest.

Several of his ribs shattered completely. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Then, an extremely terrifying oppressive aura swept over him.

Gao Fang was instantly crushed by this pressure to the point where he could barely breathe. Every inch of his body screamed in fear, and his spiritual sense throbbed violently, as if his head would be severed from his body in the very next second.

His mind was directly filled with absolute terror.

Li Yingling looked down at the prostrate Gao Fang with extreme disgust. Just from that one glance, the look of greed in this evil cultivator's eyes was enough to make one instinctively nauseous.

Moreover, the aura and body of this evil cultivator were clearly mismatched; the one before her was likely not his true body.

An elderly aura paired with an innocent young body.

This was clearly some wicked method the evil cultivator had learned from somewhere, refining a young cultivator who should have had a bright future.

The mission was certainly important, but what demon race secrets could this Golden Core evil cultivator possibly know? At most, he only knew some superficial information.

No wonder her Second Junior Brother was also reluctant to deal with this group of evil cultivators.

Li Xingtian glanced at his Eldest Senior Sister's expression, and then killing intent overflowed from him. He slightly raised his hand.

In that split second, without any hesitation, Gao Fang directly plunged his fingers into his own two eyes.

A moment later, when Gao Fang raised his head again, only empty sockets remained where his eyes used to be, and a bloody mist coated his hands.

The disgust in Li Yingling's heart grew even stronger. She rarely interacted with evil cultivators; usually, she just killed them instantly with a single sword strike.

But whatever, there was no point in getting angry at a dying man.

Li Yingling said in a chilling tone, Let's leave it at that. Take us to see the specific situation first.

Yes. Feeling the oppressive aura on his body dissipate, Gao Fang hurriedly nodded in agreement.

Gao Fang could not sense Li Yingling's exact cultivation realm, but it was obvious that she was at least in the middle or late stages of the Nascent Soul realm.

After all, only a mighty figure in the middle or late Nascent Soul realm could suffocate him with just their aura.

Middle to late Nascent Soul realm...

In his heart, Gao Fang only felt frustrated that his cultivation was not high enough. If his cultivation were sufficient, then Li Yingling would definitely become his ultimate collectible.

Although he had lost his eyes, relying on his spiritual sense was more than enough for a Golden Core cultivator.

Gao Fang cupped his hands in a salute and then led Li Yingling toward the direction of the light pillar ritual array.

Li Yingling did not follow immediately. Instead, she looked at the Tribulation Crossing cultivator of the Tianyan Sect standing nearby, and sent a voice transmission, I must trouble Senior to find his true hiding place and leave some countermeasures behind.

The Tianyan Sect Tribulation Crossing cultivator nodded slightly, and in the next moment, his figure vanished into thin air.

Gao Fang did not look back, but he also sensed a figure leaving. However, at this very moment, he dared not ask too many questions, nor did he dare to investigate where this disappearing figure was going.

Li Yingling reached out and patted Li Xingtian on the head, before finally following behind Gao Fang.

The fundamental reason for choosing to contact these evil cultivators was that these ritual arrays were not directly exposed, just sitting out in the open for anyone to observe.

Both the formations and the rituals were connected to a portion of the spirit veins.

If there was any anomaly, the entire spirit vein would directly explode and erupt, due to some unknown method set up by the demons.

The explosive power was enough to level everything within a radius of hundreds of feet.

The damage was negligible to high-level cultivators, but the ritual formations would be blown sky-high, leaving no usable information behind.

Even after five of them had blown up, Li Yingling still had not figured out the exact trigger conditions.

Currently, the only condition under which Li Yingling could observe them was if the evil cultivators or demonic beasts arranged by the demons to guard the arrays led the way; this prevented the ritual arrays from detonating immediately.

Of course, this was not a foolproof measure.

There had been cases where they were still blown into the sky even with a guide.

The demons also had some unknown method of remote surveillance, and as soon as they noticed an anomaly, they would decisively detonate it.

Her master was already researching how to isolate the flow of the spirit veins to prevent the explosion from happening, so they could properly observe these ritual arrays.

But until then, they could only use this somewhat crude method.

Li Yingling observed Gao Fang leading the way ahead.

The Heavenly Demons should know that counting on evil cultivators to be reliable was like counting on her master to commit suicide.

Yet, most of these arrays and rituals were guarded by evil cultivators and the demon race. It wasn't just that they were unhelpful; hiring them was worse than not hiring anyone at all.

The unfathomably low bottom line of evil cultivators was enough to turn a guarding job into an inside heist.

While it was true that evil cultivators were cheap and their deaths wouldn't matter, there had to be a deeper reason.

For example, perhaps maintaining these rituals required these evil cultivators.

Perhaps these evil cultivators had something unique that the ritual arrays needed.

Otherwise, if it was just to detect who approached the arrays, there was no need to hire this bunch of unreliable evil cultivators. The logic simply didn't add up.

If she started thinking from the perspective of this group of evil cultivators...

Li Yingling felt that these evil cultivators probably all shared one similarity, there was something somewhat wrong with their brains.

However, Li Yingling had also asked her Second Junior Brother about this issue, as he had interacted with many evil cultivators.

Li Xingtian's answer had also been impeccable, No one who becomes an evil cultivator has a normal brain.

While Li Yingling felt that Li Xingtian's words strongly resembled their master's style...

She also felt that she was close to finding the answer.

If Second Junior Brother felt there was no problem with something, then there was absolutely a problem.

Let this rather repulsive evil cultivator be the one to unravel the mystery this time around.