It was through similar experiences that they made predictions in dangerous environments.
It was like suddenly putting a person in a secret room. This person, without knowing, would first think about where this secret room was built and how they could escape.
If he knew the secret room was built against a mountain, he would think about identifying the direction of the mountain so as not to make useless efforts and waste a chance to escape.
Such speculations and decisions all stemmed from the cognition of the surrounding environment. The situation of the few of them now was the same.
"Then let's not be misled by what we see. Let's try it first."
"If they are all protected by restrictions, then let's open one cave first and see what's inside."
Song Rongdao thought for a moment and, after speaking, took the lead in walking towards the other side of the plaza.
The three caves were built in order, so there was nothing to choose from. Song Rongdao quickly walked to the gate of "Flowing Wave Grotto." He raised his palm and gently pressed it on the cave gate, and spirit power surged out from his hand.
At the same time, in front of the other two cave gates, the youth surnamed Bai and the cultivator surnamed Yan also pressed their palms, wrapped in spirit power, against them.
When the three's palms were still an inch away from the cave gates, which had been motionless, there was a sudden change. A snake's head suddenly shot out from each gate, biting towards the three's palms like lightning.
But the three of them were already on full alert when they pressed their palms down. Seeing that the situation was not good, they did not clash with the snake heads. Instead, they pushed off the ground with their feet and slid backward like startled geese.
After the three snake heads, which were the size of a cultivator's head, missed their attack, they did not pursue. They just stared at the three with cold, merciless eyes for a moment before gradually dissipating.
"As expected, there's a restriction attack!" the youth surnamed Bai said with a blank expression.
"From the pressure emitted by the attack, I can feel that the attack just now was not inferior to our own!"
The cultivator surnamed Yan's heart was still pounding. Among the three, he was the weakest. When he attacked just now, he had only intended to press lightly and see what the situation was on both sides.
So, his attack speed was a little slower. As soon as he noticed the change in the expression of the youth surnamed Bai on his side, he didn't even think and retreated rapidly.
And just as he retreated, the snake head from the cave gate he was facing struck like lightning, its tongue almost touching his palm.
If he had pressed his palm firmly just now, he would not have been able to dodge it no matter what, and the consequences would have been unknown.
'Just the activation of the restriction at the cave entrance, based on strength alone, I wouldn't have been able to react. The attack just now must have been at least as strong as a late-stage Golden Core cultivator's!'
The cultivator surnamed Yan's heart was beating violently. He was not as relaxed as he appeared on the surface. A lecherous person like him was most unwilling to let a woman see his incompetence.
On the other side, Song Rongdao and the youth surnamed Bai just nodded at this and then looked at the female cultivator surnamed Yang.
"Fellow Daoist Yang, we'll have to trouble you again. Now that we don't know the situation here, forcibly breaking the restriction is not the best choice, hahaha..."
It was Song Rongdao who spoke. They certainly hoped to use a clever force to break the restriction and minimize the risk.
...
Mu Guyue was moving rapidly through the dense demonic qi. The surrounding scenery was sometimes dark, sometimes bright, outlining her slender figure in an uncertain light.
A pair of crescent moon handguard sabers were held close to her elbows, which were covered in half-armor, emitting a water-like brilliance.
At this moment, her phoenix eyes were slightly narrowed, and fine beads of sweat had formed on her smooth forehead.
The mountain peaks on both sides of the abyss were steep. Various long demonic plant stems and branches occasionally stretched out from the cliff walls, their leaves thick and large.
She didn't dare to fly in a straight line. Instead, she frequently used her legs to push off the cliff walls, flitting about as fast as a meteor, disappearing in a flash. The strong and perfect physical body of the Demon Clan was on full display at this moment.
Her pair of long, slender, and rounded legs constantly tapped on the cliff walls or slanted branches, making her rise rapidly in the abyss like a light arrow.
The streamlined muscles in her legs expanded and contracted, easily lifting her body into the air, constantly catapulting her in various directions.
In her Divine Sense, the fourth-rank Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon, in the form of a golden-robed middle-aged man, was following her like a shadow, his face sinister.
This time, entering the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," it was hard to say whether Mu Guyue's luck was extremely good or if she was plagued by misfortune.
In the early stages, even when she went ten thousand fathoms deep into the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," she only encountered a dozen or so second and third-rank demonic beasts.
These demonic beasts posed no threat to Mu Guyue at all.
For the demonic beasts she encountered, she carefully made the most appropriate choice, either killing them quickly or bypassing them before they discovered her.
She usually chose the latter. Fighting with low-to-mid-rank demonic beasts at the bottom of the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" was not scary.
It was just that the demonic qi here was so dense to a terrifying degree that any abnormal movement of demonic qi in any place would attract the attention of other demonic beasts or demonic cultivators nearby.
Even though the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" was within the territory of the Black Demon Clan, ninety percent of the cultivators here were from their own clan. They usually didn't want to meet in dangerous places.
They were united against outsiders, but that didn't mean there was harmony within the clan.
On the contrary, because the Black Demon Clan cultivated demonic qi, most of the cultivators' personalities were more violent. Clan members would often attack each other over a single disagreement, and it was often a fight to the death.
Only as their cultivation deepened could they control the various negative emotions in the demonic qi more freely.
Although Mu Guyue was a Nascent Soul-level Demonic General, she also had opponents and enemies within the clan.
So, in a dangerous place like the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," where it was easier to be ambushed, she had to prioritize achieving her goal for this trip. She avoided what she could, not wanting to expose her presence.
Just like that, Mu Guyue traveled all the way down, constantly moving through the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss." Along the way, she did collect some relatively valuable demonic plants.
But she was unable to find the "Black Jade Profound Dragon Grass" she needed most.
On the third day, when Mu Guyue was meditating under a cliff to recover her strength, a sudden feeling of palpitation came over her.
Out of her long years of walking on the edge of life and death, she immediately woke up from her meditation.
Under a careful probe of her Divine Sense, she was first startled.
In her Divine Sense, a dark golden shadow flashed past in the rolling demonic qi, less than seven hundred li away from her. And what she saw looked like the long tail of a flood dragon or snake.
'It seems to have scales. It might not be a flood dragon or snake, but more like a dragon's tail!'
Mu Guyue's heart immediately filled with joy. Her figure flashed, and she flew towards that direction.
Fortunately, she had been prepared. Even during cultivation, she was always careful to conceal herself and had set up an illusion formation to cover her aura. Otherwise, she might have been discovered by that dark golden shadow just now.
Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, she could feel that the pressure from the other party was not inferior to her own.
'If it's a Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon, then it's at least fourth-rank. There's a fifty percent chance that it doesn't have a mate and is alone.'
'If I can follow it to its lair, I might find the 'Black Jade Profound Dragon Grass.''
Mu Guyue quickly thought as she flew. But there was also a worse situation. The other party already had a mate, or even children. Then she could only flee as far as she could.
She completely concealed her aura and carefully trailed behind the other party, not daring to get too close.
Fortunately, this was the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss." If Divine Sense was released beyond a certain range, it would be affected. This drawback was mutual.
And here, there were only living creatures walking around. Without deliberately retracting one's aura, the surrounding demonic qi would be driven to flow in one direction.
Obviously, the figure Mu Guyue saw did not care about exposing its aura and was flying around ostentatiously.
Therefore, by sensing the movement of the demonic qi from hundreds of li away, Mu Guyue could roughly know the direction without having to get close with her Divine Sense.
An hour later, she had descended another five thousand feet, passing over mountain peaks and ridges.
And along the way, apart from a few powerful auras that flashed past at the beginning when she was around ten thousand feet, as she continued to descend, she did not encounter any other living creature's aura.
This, on the contrary, confirmed one thing in Mu Guyue's heart: she might have already entered the territory of a powerful demonic beast.
Finally, at a certain moment, she stopped. Some of the originally fast-flowing demonic qi in her Divine Sense also returned to normal.
After locking onto a direction, Mu Guyue memorized it but did not continue forward. She also stopped there.
'It's not moving forward anymore. It should have reached its lair. This place is even deeper than I imagined.'
'I can only stay here for three hours at most. After three hours, I must leave this place no matter what and refine this demonic qi!'
Mu Guyue was constantly thinking. The current situation was not very good.
With her initial-stage Demonic General strength, the deepest part of the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" she could enter was only about ten thousand feet.
If she continued to go deeper, for every hundred feet she descended, the density of the demonic qi would increase exponentially.
The reason why demonic qi was so tyrannical was that it contained too many various negative situations: bloodlust, slaughter, grief, anger, terror, and so on.
It would greatly affect a living creature's consciousness and soul, causing a certain weakness deep in a living creature's heart to be highlighted.
At Mu Guyue's current location, every breath would bring a large amount of demonic qi into her body.
Mu Guyue clearly felt her heart gradually becoming restless, and her consciousness was no longer as calm and rational as before.
Even if she had already held her breath, this demonic qi was everywhere, heavily wrapping everything here.
Whether you were willing or not, it was like some poisonous gas or mist that would directly adhere to your body surface and slowly seep in like poison.
If Mu Guyue were to breathe normally, it would probably take less than an hour for her to fall into a state of confusion. And after holding her breath, she absolutely could not stay here for more than three hours.
This was the main reason why cultivators dared not go deep into the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss."
Mu Guyue forcefully suppressed the restlessness and churning of qi and blood in her heart. After another half a quarter of an hour, she slowly approached the location she had memorized while concealing her aura.
A journey of less than a thousand li took Mu Guyue nearly an hour. Only then did she arrive at the place her Divine Sense had last sensed.
And at this time, the time she could stay here was less than two hours, and she still didn't know if she should continue to lie in wait.
Although she could leave now, and after refining the impurities in the demonic qi in her body, she could sneak down again, and the time used would definitely be much shorter than now.
However, until now, she had not yet determined what kind of demonic beast the dark golden tail she had seen in a flash was. Was it a flood dragon or snake with some parts of its body covered in scales, or some other kind of dragon?
So far in the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," there were four or five known types of dragons, and most of them were flood dragons that had transformed into dragons. In the true sense, they could not be considered true dragons.
"First, let's find out what kind of demonic beast's lair this is!"
Mu Guyue stayed halfway up a giant peak. The mountains here were all pitch black, with large patches of black rocks of varying lengths standing like swords and spears.
Only in a few places would some demonic plants take root, their gnarled roots forming tangled clumps, giving a feeling of bared fangs and brandished claws, a ferocious appearance.
Mu Guyue hid in the void, her beautiful eyes scanning the surroundings.