Xu Mu Enters First

An Linghui's face was full of resentment. Earlier, she had felt somewhat touched, thinking Xu Mu was a proper gentleman—who would have guessed he was this shameless.

One woman wasn't enough for him; he actually wanted to call every woman over.

Didn't he worry about wearing himself out?

"Your tone is a bit too big for your britches," the distant stone statue spoke.

"It's you who underestimates me. Do you really think I've never seen a woman before? A woman is not going to stop me from getting the treasure."

Xu Mu walked toward the stone statue. "If the treasure here can make me a top-level powerhouse, what kind of woman couldn't I have?"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

As Xu Mu approached the statue, vines appeared around it again.

This time, three vine-formed figures lunged at Xu Mu.

Seeing this, Xu Mu's figure flickered rapidly as he weaved through the vines.

Whoosh!

A single sword aura sliced all three vine-people apart.

"The formation here mainly targets those with high cultivation levels. For someone like me, who has low cultivation but real strength far exceeding those at the same level, it's basically useless."

Xu Mu, longsword in hand, had already arrived before the statue and placed his palm on its surface.

"I advise you not to move. Turn around and look at your companion," the statue opened its mouth and said.

Xu Mu didn't turn around. His perception saw everything clearly.

An Linghui had already raised her hand, clawing at her own neck. Her face was already turning purple.

"She's not my companion, so she can't threaten me. However, I do like this old woman—I want to play the game of the old hen and the young chick. If you let her go, we can still talk. If she dies, then I can go all out without restraint."

"Brat! Don't think I don't understand what you mean. Careful, I'll cripple you!"

Xu Mu acted as if he hadn't heard, not lowering his hand. He was carefully examining the formation on the stone statue.

So far, he had never seen such a human-like formation—there had to be something wrong with it.

Sure enough, Xu Mu discovered that the statue was carved with an incredibly intricate formation.

Xu Mu frowned. Why were there spatial-type formations similar to those on space rings?

Any spatial formation was bound to be at least level nine or above.

Xu Mu crouched down, touching the throne beneath the statue, and found that it, too, was covered in many formations.

Just then, An Linghui came up behind Xu Mu.

Xu Mu immediately turned around, only to see An Linghui holding crackling lightning in her hands, slamming it right onto Xu Mu's mouth.

"Damn!"

Xu Mu was pinned to the ground by An Linghui, staying in that awkward position.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" Xu Mu quickly said, but his speech was muffled since something was in his mouth.

"Xu Mu! Stop playing dumb! I can't control myself—can't you just push me off!"

An Linghui was already frantic with anxiety, tears streaming down her face.

Her mouth had been sealed shut, preventing her from speaking earlier; otherwise, she would have warned Xu Mu to dodge.

"Oh! I forgot. I thought I was trapped too."

Xu Mu pushed An Linghui off and immediately stood up, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "Disgusting! I hate that thing!"

"But the look on your face—seems more like you're enjoying a smoke?" the stone statue said emotionlessly.

"Nonsense!"

The moment Xu Mu said that, An Linghui lunged at him again.

"Damn it! Xu Mu, get the hell away from me!" An Linghui shouted curses, yet her hands were tightly wrapped around Xu Mu, completely beyond her control.

Xu Mu raised his hand, gathering the water element from all around, freezing An Linghui's hands and feet.

"This move should only control limbs—she can't use chi. Just wait. If I'm not wrong, this stone statue must be the key to obtaining the treasure."

Xu Mu continued studying the statue.

Finally, he spotted the statue's mouth.

"What are you looking at?" the statue spoke again.

"I find it strange. Every part of your stone body is covered in dense formations, but your mouth here—there's no formation at all."

Xu Mu pointed at the statue's mouth. "So I'm guessing something's off about your mouth."

"You are indeed terrifying! But so what? Under this Heavenly Dao-level formation, even masters above the ninth rank would be forcibly suppressed to below the Boundary-Breaking stage."

The statue continued, "To break the formation on my body, you'd need at least a ninth-rank expert. So, as long as I'm within this Heavenly Dao-level formation, I can never be destroyed."

"You have a point. Many of these intricate formations are ones I've never seen before, but that doesn't mean I can't get in."

Xu Mu said with a smile.

"Absolutely impossible! Unless you can undo the formations on my body—otherwise—"

Whoosh!

A black shadow shot out from Xu Mu, like a wisp of gas, and dove straight into the statue's mouth.

"No wonder there are so many spatial formations. So your belly is a hidden world after all."

Xu Mu shook his head slightly. "Good thing I didn't fall for that earlier."

The statue had deliberately tried to mislead him, telling Xu Mu to leave and warning that going deeper would be dangerous.

In truth, neither path led anywhere.

If Xu Mu had left, who knows where he might have been teleported to.

Going deeper would also lead to certain death.

The statue's purpose was to create the illusion that this formation only had these two paths.

The real treasure wasn't behind it at all—it was hidden inside the statue's mouth.

"Impossible! How could you know that?"

The statue asked with its mouth open.

Xu Mu didn't answer her. He turned around, dispelling the ice that bound An Linghui. "I'll go in and take a look first."

With that, Xu Mu's figure vanished on the spot.

An Linghui raised her hand, about to say something, only to find that Xu Mu had already disappeared.

Suddenly, she spun around and noticed more people arriving.

Two figures in black robes came first, followed closely by Chen Xuan and Yang Lielan.

An Linghui suddenly realized she could move her hands again. She quickly pulled a black robe from her spatial ring and slipped it on.

"Hey! Auntie, it's you!"

Chen Xuan spotted An Linghui from a distance and walked over. "Elder Ji told me and Brother Mu to come find you. I didn't expect you'd actually be here."

"Is it Xu Mu?"

An Linghui asked.

"That's right. So you two already met? Where's Brother Mu?"

As Chen Xuan spoke, he turned his head again and saw more black-robed figures approaching in the distance.

"Xu Mu he—"

An Linghui, seeing so many people around, didn't answer right away. "Let's talk about that later."

Even though something had happened between her and Xu Mu earlier, she still regarded him as one of her own.

Xu Mu had just discovered where the treasure was hidden. If she revealed it in front of all these people, wouldn't she just be creating more competition for him?

Chen Xuan nodded, standing still where he was, and looked toward the two black-robed figures ahead.

The people behind them likewise didn't advance any further.

An Linghui asked in a low voice, "What's going on? Why aren't these people moving forward?"

"The previous stages were all solved by those two leading the way for us," Chen Xuan explained.

"What?"

An Linghui frowned, staring at the two black-robed figures over there.

They walked toward the distant statue, and one of them pulled out a round, black jade pendant.

After pressing the pendant against the statue, a formation glow flickered around its body.

"Someone already went inside earlier," the statue said, opening its mouth wide. A swirling, vortex-like light appeared at its mouth.

The two black-robed figures vanished into that light.