Within each small squad, the cultivators would form several cliques. Cultivators from the same sect would almost never separate from their martial brothers.
Firstly, they were most familiar with each other's cultivation methods and personalities, allowing for the most effective coordination and maximizing their combined power.
Secondly, when it came to life-and-death situations, they only trusted their own martial brothers.
Ding Yushan, due to his worldly experience and respectable cultivation, was selected as a team captain. Although he had just reached the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, his foundation was extremely solid. Furthermore, with so many cultivators gathered, there were not many Pseudo-Core cultivators at Lingtian Gate to begin with. After some competition, he was actually chosen to be among the captains.
Besides commanding on the spot, the captain also held a Ten-Thousand-Li Voice Transmission Talisman, which served as the entire team's final life-saving tool.
When Ding Yushan received the talisman, his subordinates looked on with envy, especially the leading disciples from the other two sects. But knowing they were no match for Ding Yushan, they could only give up resentfully.
The other two sects in Ding Yushan's squad were the Hualing Sect with three members and Nine Palaces Mountain with four. Combined with the three from Ding Yushan's sect, they formed a perfect ten-person team.
The Hualing Sect specialized in the way of Talismans, while Nine Palaces Mountain was proficient in formations.
Next, Ding Yushan and the others learned the content of their missions: either to monitor a certain sect or to trail a certain person. Of course, these missions were assigned according to their cultivation levels. Sending them to trail a Pseudo-Core or Golden Core cultivator would be tantamount to suicide, resulting in nothing but exposure.
Subsequently, the five Golden Core elders of Lingtian Gate informed them of the cultivators they would be facing: the legendary Demonic Creatures, or cultivators who had been placed under restrictions by them.
Except for Ding Yushan and a few others who had already guessed some of this, most of the cultivators were greatly shocked, even skeptical. Weren't these things only found in ancient records? An uproar immediately ensued.
At the same time, the Golden Core elders promised that any squad that completed their assigned mission would receive generous rewards each time, but if they failed, they would also be severely punished.
In response, most of the cultivators from the subordinate sects sneered inwardly. The part about being punished for failure was probably true.
The so-called rewards were nothing but empty promises. What was the hardest thing to obtain in the cultivation world? Cultivation resources, of course. Perhaps a few Spirit Stones would be the reward, treating them like inexperienced cultivators to be fooled.
Only after a stern warning from a Golden Core elder did the crowd finally quiet down.
The Golden Core elder of Lingtian Gate then strictly forbade them from spreading the word, otherwise their entire sect would be considered an evil faction spreading rumors and confusing the populace, and would be directly eradicated.
Only then did all the cultivators realize the seriousness of the matter, but their hearts were still filled with doubt.
Among the crowd, only a very few, including Ding Yushan, understood the Jingtu Sect's intentions. It was not yet time to publicize this matter, as it would only cause panic throughout the cultivation world and serve no other purpose.
At the same time, any effort to exterminate the Demonic Creatures would have to be done in the open, which would certainly be detrimental to the current situation.
In the missions that followed, cultivator casualties soon began to appear. The cultivators who were lucky enough to escape described the terror of the demonized Demonic Soldiers.
A single Demonic Soldier could often hold off two or three human cultivators of the same rank, their cultivation methods being unusually fierce and domineering.
Only then did Ding Yushan and the others truly recognize the reality of the situation, but they still felt as if they were in a waking dream, most of them still lost in illusion.
'Weren't these Demonic Creatures almost completely wiped out ten thousand years ago? Has the situation now become so severe that they dare to show themselves and directly confront human cultivators?'
Ding Yushan's squad had also carried out two missions. One was to monitor a third-rate sect and periodically report their findings to their assigned Golden Core elder at Lingtian Gate.
The other was to directly ambush and capture a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and bring him back to Lingtian Gate.
Overall, neither of these two missions was very difficult. This was because the Demonic Creatures had been hunted so fiercely for tens of thousands of years that it was questionable whether any high-level Demonic Generals even existed.
The remaining forces were mostly Demonic Soldiers led by Demon Lords, hiding away. This was because the higher the rank of a Demonic Creature, the denser the demonic qi around its body.
Wherever a Demonic General appeared, demonic qi would roil for a hundred li around, like a beacon that would only attract a siege by human Nascent Soul cultivators, or even the merciless annihilation by a Spirit Transformation great cultivator.
Demon Lords had not yet formed a Demonic Infant, their cultivation being equivalent to a human's Golden Core stage. The demonic qi on their bodies could only be sensed within a dozen or so li.
Moreover, as long as a Demon Lord did not reveal its true form, the demonic qi could be further controlled within a certain range, but its own magical power would also be suppressed and weakened.
As for Demonic Soldiers, the demonic qi on their bodies was even scarcer. The two opponents Ding Yushan's team faced were both Demonic Soldiers, their realm corresponding to the human Foundation Establishment realm.
It was precisely because they had so little demonic qi that they were easy to hide. Thus, they were usually sent out by Demon Lords to gather information or capture human Foundation Establishment cultivators. Those who fell into the hands of Demonic Creatures were either used by them or directly devoured.
When Demonic Creatures devoured human cultivators, they could directly absorb the essence of their bones and blood, which was highly beneficial for their cultivation growth, and it caused them no backlash. This was one of the reasons the Demonic Creatures wanted to invade the Desolate Moon Continent.
Of course, occasionally a Demonic General would act personally to hunt human Golden Core cultivators. However, while it was possible to defeat or injure a Golden Core cultivator, capturing one silently was very difficult unless the Demonic General revealed its true form. The resulting battle would often cause too much commotion, so Demonic Generals were reluctant to act rashly and expose themselves.
After successfully completing their first two missions, Ding Yushan's squad actually received a good number of medicinal pills and Spirit Stones, and both the quantity and quality were quite high.
This was the promised reward from Lingtian Gate for completing missions. As a result, the cultivators who originally had complaints gradually let go of their dissatisfaction upon seeing that they could really obtain good cultivation resources.
Instead, many cultivators became enthusiastic about the missions, hoping to get more rewards. For cultivators from second and third-rate sects, these rewards were equivalent to several years of their savings in their own sects, or even things they could never hope to obtain.
Ten days ago, Ding Yushan's squad was once again assigned a mission. This mission was originally very simple: they were required to investigate a sect named "Dazzling Yellow Valley," located five thousand li north of Lingtian Gate.
This was a second-rate sect. A Foundation Establishment cultivator from their sect should have reported to Lingtian Gate half a month ago, but to this day, no one had arrived.
The cultivation world had become increasingly turbulent recently. The upper echelons of Lingtian Gate did not believe the master of Dazzling Yellow Valley would dare to defy their conscription order. They felt something might have gone wrong, which was why they sent a small team to investigate secretly.
Ding Yushan's team only needed to get a clear picture of the situation and immediately return to report, after which Lingtian Gate would take further, definitive action.
After all, it was a second-rate sect with a Golden Core cultivator in residence. Ding Yushan and his team could only gather information.
In fact, the safest way to handle this matter was for a Golden Core master from Lingtian Gate to go, but recently, the Golden Core cultivators were short-staffed, and no one could be spared.
Initially, when Ding Yushan's squad received this mission, they were of course very nervous. Having spent some time at Lingtian Gate, they knew that the Demonic Creatures were now daring to secretly attack second and third-rate sects directly.
Furthermore, some other sects might have been taken over by Demonic Creatures after Body Seizure. Thinking about the Golden Core cultivator there, if it was truly a Demon Lord, their entire squad would be wiped out in an instant.
Ding Yushan decided to investigate secretly first. If they found nothing unusual, he would then step forward with the Lingtian Gate token to make inquiries.
He had the other team members wait at an agreed-upon location. If he didn't return by the appointed time, they were to return to Lingtian Gate as quickly as possible to report.
Ding Yushan's approach was opposed by the other two cultivators from the Wind and Snow Sect, but it made the cultivators from the other two sects look at Ding Yushan in a new light.
However, in the end, it was all a false alarm. It turned out that the great elder of Dazzling Yellow Valley was in a life-and-death seclusion, and the other Golden Core cultivator, the Sect Master, had to act as his protector.
The seclusion spot was tightly sealed. The disciples of the sect, respecting the taboo of interrupting a life-and-death seclusion, did not dare to disturb them. And their Sect Master had always held absolute power in the sect, his authority immense.
After the sect's disciples received the conscription order, no one could make a decision, which led to the aforementioned situation. It was a false alarm for Ding Yushan and his team.
Thus, after getting the information, Ding Yushan's team started their journey back. But on the way, an accident occurred.
On their return journey, they discovered a green-robed Foundation Establishment cultivator. They spotted him, but his cultivation was only at the initial stage of Foundation Establishment, and he did not notice their group.
At the time, the green-robed cultivator's actions were very suspicious. Dazzling Yellow Valley was already in a very remote location, with no other sects for several thousand li around. Yet this green-robed cultivator was acting furtively, as if deliberately trying to avoid being noticed.
If not for the fact that Ding Yushan and his team's cultivation far surpassed his, he might have slipped away.
At the same time, a cultivator from Nine Palaces Mountain named Ying Kai felt that this green-robed cultivator looked somewhat familiar. After thinking carefully, he finally remembered the man's identity, and anger appeared on his face.
His expression naturally fell into the eyes of the others. Before anyone could ask, Ying Kai himself transmitted his voice to the group, explaining.
This green-robed cultivator was an evil cultivator, without a sect or faction, who enjoyed preying on women, and was especially skilled in the art of absorbing Yin to supplement Yang.
He had once abducted a female disciple from their Nine Palaces Mountain. The higher-ups of Nine Palaces Mountain were furious upon learning of this. A mere rogue cultivator dared to pluck the tiger's whiskers—it was a clear provocation to Nine Palaces Mountain.
This person had to be captured and lit into a sky lantern to deter other petty villains. The dignity of Nine Palaces Mountain could not be sullied.
Thus, several Golden Core elders led teams of disciples to search for this person everywhere.
Later, a Golden Core elder from the sect finally found his lair. At that time, this Ying Kai was one of the disciples in that team.
The information they received was that although this evil cultivator had just reached Foundation Establishment, he was extremely cunning and ruthless.
Sure enough, the moment the Golden Core elder from Nine Palaces Mountain broke through the formation and entered, thinking he could capture the man with ease, he had miscalculated the timing.
The powerful pressure of a Golden Core cultivator made the evil cultivator sense the aura of death. With a single palm strike, he ended the life of the female disciple beneath him, who was already dying from being used as a cultivation cauldron.
With a wild laugh, he glanced at the crowd, then suddenly exerted force. The entire bed, made of a giant stone slab, instantly shattered, revealing a thousand-zhang cliff below. He had already leaped down.