In the next moment, with a loud thump, Mu Guyue slammed into the stone wall behind her.
What she didn't notice was that her body had landed precisely within the huge saber gash she had just created.
While still in mid-air, Mu Guyue had been greatly alarmed. She hastily mobilized the power of her Demonic Core, about to trigger it.
But she suddenly felt her body enveloped by a force, followed by a flash of light before her eyes.
The light made her subconsciously narrow her eyes. Then, her vision suddenly brightened.
She thought she was enveloped by the enemy's power, that they wouldn't give her a chance for a final counterattack. She bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. As a sharp pain shot through her, she cried out.
"Lewd thief, die!"
At the same time, the magic power in her body surged as she tried to break free from the enemy's restraints. Her crescent handguard sabers offered no defense, instead striking out at her surroundings in a suicidal frenzy.
But to her surprise, amidst a series of explosive peng peng peng sounds, she felt no restraint at all.
Moreover, where her blades passed, there was no sign of the irresistible counter-shock from her opponent.
Only then did Mu Guyue's eyes adjust. Through the exploding clusters of light, she saw a scene that felt like a dream.
The surroundings had completely changed. Light shone down from above her head, emanating from three large Moonlight Stones that cast a soft glow.
The force of her strikes had all hit what seemed to be hard walls, kicking up sparks of exploding light. The place shook from her attack.
"This is..."
For a moment, Mu Guyue couldn't react. But in the next breath, her expression changed drastically again.
The Demonic Core in her Dantian had become exceptionally violent. For a moment, she had forgotten that she was still continuously pushing the power within it, and it was now on the verge of self-destruction.
Mu Guyue's will immediately took control, forcefully suppressing the chaotic rampage of the Demonic Origin Power in her Demonic Core.
However, she did not immediately withdraw the technique, instead keeping the magic power in her Demonic Core at a boiling point, so she could unleash it at a moment's notice.
This was a very spacious stone chamber, completely empty of any people or objects.
Though still in a weakened state, Mu Guyue cautiously walked to a nearby stone wall and gently tapped it with a slender finger.
She understood at once. This stone chamber was protected by a defensive formation. That was why her earlier attacks had been blocked by the surrounding restrictions.
"Where is this? How did I suddenly end up here?"
Dozens of breaths later, the exhausted Mu Guyue had figured things out.
This place was likely an uninhabited cave residence, exceptionally spacious and bright.
It had a cultivation chamber, a rest chamber, a beast-rearing chamber, an alchemy and artifact refining chamber, a reception hall, a spirit plant garden, and so on, all fully equipped.
The place she had first appeared in was a demonic beast rearing chamber. She didn't know who had set this place up, but only the defensive restrictions in various areas remained active; there wasn't a single person or beast to be found.
Breaking these formations wasn't very difficult for Mu Guyue.
She could tell that the formations here had once been incredibly powerful, capable of dealing with cultivators of her level, but now their power seemed to have been excessively depleted.
Thus, they posed little threat to her. Only the restriction on the main gate of the cave residence remained potent; breaking it would likely take her a considerable amount of time and effort.
Judging from the spirit plant garden and other areas without formations, based on the accumulated dust, no one had been here for a very long time.
"It must be an abandoned cave residence!"
After a tour of the place, Mu Guyue had come to a conclusion. She hadn't found a single valuable treasure here.
Even the spirit plant garden was devoid of any demonic or spirit plants, filled instead with tall, dense weeds.
It seemed that the cultivator here had taken everything with them when they left.
This was all good news for Mu Guyue. However, what she found strange was that the gold-robed middle-aged man had not followed her and appeared here as well.
Before she had scouted out the area, Mu Guyue had maintained the state of readiness to detonate her Demonic Core for a full quarter of an hour. The torment of the aphrodisiac poison within her nearly made her collapse.
It was fortunate that she had managed to expel about half of the Aphrodisiac Poison.
She had waited right there on the spot, but neither the gold-robed cultivator nor anyone else arrived. Only then did she retract her outwardly projected magic power.
Now that she had a grasp of the situation, Mu Guyue stood in the spirit plant garden, hesitating about whether she should leave immediately.
"Judging by the abandoned state of this place, no cultivators are likely to come here anytime soon. But my biggest fear is that the Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon can also teleport here. How did I trigger the teleportation..."
Mu Guyue was already in a terrible state. After just a moment of simple thought, the heat in her body relentlessly assaulted her mind, making it impossible for her to think any further.
"If that Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon could have followed me, he would have done so already. I can't wait any longer. I have to deal with this poison first."
A lustful, spring-rain haze clouded Mu Guyue's phoenix eyes. Gritting her teeth, she felt waves of a numbing itch crawl through her body, forcing her to twist her lithe frame in shame and frustration.
Moreover, she was also heavily injured; both old and new wounds needed attention.
With a wave of her sleeve, a small Formation Plate appeared in the air. It flashed and disappeared, and Mu Guyue's figure vanished from the spirit plant garden.
Although her strongest defensive formation had been destroyed, how could a Nascent Soul cultivator lack formation tools?
Every step she took now sent waves of heat flowing through her lower abdomen, making it difficult to control herself.
Gritting her silver teeth, she decided not to go to the cultivation chamber and instead directly set up an Illusion Formation in the spirit plant garden to begin her work.
The gold-robed middle-aged man spent nearly thirty breaths of time, and seeing the cave entrance wide open and the restriction destroyed, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The moment the formation at the entrance was destroyed, he sent a palm strike out first. He wanted to sense just how much magic power the female demon cultivator inside had left, so he could react accordingly.
Immediately, the gold-robed middle-aged man felt that as soon as his magic power made contact with the other's body, the female demon cultivator was sent flying. His heart filled with even greater joy.
"Hehe!! She has barely any magic power left!"
Now, he didn't want to wait even a moment longer.
At the thought of that devilish, curvaceous figure, the gold-robed middle-aged man's long-swollen body became even harder to control. He needed to vent immediately.
With a flash, he was inside the cave. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
The moment he entered the cave, he saw a flash of green light. Then, to his astonishment, he found the cave was completely empty. There was no trace of his target.
"Huh? Where is she?"
The gold-robed middle-aged man was stunned. He released his Divine Sense completely, thinking the other party had set up some kind of Illusion Formation to block his perception.
But to his surprise, the cave was very small, only able to accommodate four or five people, and was just over a zhang high.
The surrounding cave walls were rough and dry, their sides the same dark-brown as the mountain peak outside. The stone wall facing the entrance was covered in fine, gray mossy leaves.
In such a narrow space, even after measuring every inch with his own feet, he found nothing out of the ordinary.
But if Mu Guyue were to see this scene again, she would discover that it was no longer the same as before.
The large patches of mossy leaves that had fallen after her earlier strike, and the deep saber gash on the exposed rock, had long since vanished, leaving only a perfect stone wall where the gray mossy leaves had been cleared.
Given that they had both attacked the cave, and that the stone wall was directly facing the entrance, it was not at all strange or attention-grabbing that large patches of gray mossy leaves had fallen off under such an assault.
The veins on the gold-robed middle-aged man's forehead bulged, throbbing violently, making his once dignified and imposing face appear exceptionally sinister and terrifying.
The fire of lust was burning fiercely within him, but the person had vanished without a reason.
"Even if you have a powerful Illusion Formation, so what?"
He ground his teeth with a grating sound. In his heart, he still believed Mu Guyue was hiding here; he just hadn't found her.
He then recklessly attacked the cave. After just a few fierce strikes, the cave collapsed with a deafening roar.
A large part of the external mountain peak also gave way and slid down, with giant boulders continuously rolling into the endless abyss, the sound shaking the heavens and the earth.
But even so, the gold-robed middle-aged man did not detect any sign of a formation being revealed after being forcibly broken.
Finally, the gold-robed middle-aged man had to consider one possibility: the female demon cultivator had a directional teleportation talisman. The light that had flashed before his eyes seemed to carry the aura of spatial fluctuations.
After calming down and thinking carefully, he remembered this detail he had previously overlooked.
"Damn it, you motherfucker! If you had a directional teleportation talisman, why didn't you use it earlier!
"Not only did you fight with me for so long, you even set up a defensive formation for me to break! You bitch, you were toying with me the whole time, you were just... I'm going to tear you apart!!!"
The gold-robed middle-aged man was consumed by a towering rage. With a furious roar, he flew up towards the top of the abyss.
He certainly couldn't leave the abyss, as that would attract even more powerful enemies. But as long as he didn't leave, he was the overlord here.
His body was already burning with a mix of rage and lust. He needed to go on a rampage in the abyss to vent the hatred in his heart. His original form reappeared, and he shot off with a sky-full of killing intent.
As a result, many innocent demonic beasts and cultivators in the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" met with a devastating disaster.
What the gold-robed middle-aged man didn't know was that after he had destroyed the small cave, he hadn't bothered to continue probing with his Divine Sense.
A quarter of an hour after he left, in the collapsed cave, on a stone wall that had been blasted full of deep pits, fine gray mossy leaves slowly began to sprout again.
Then, the large and small pits on that patch of stone wall also began to slowly smooth out and recover...
Rewind to a quarter of an hour earlier. The female cultivator surnamed Yang stared at the three illusory points of light dancing and circling above the grotto gate, sweat dripping from her forehead.
The hand seal she held remained unchanged. The group of small flags floating before her, which had yet to release its nail-like ray, gently flapped their banners but still did not fire.
The three people behind her also watched in silence, no one speaking or urging her on, maintaining absolute quiet.
They all had some knowledge of formations and naturally knew that this was a critical moment. They couldn't disturb her. Perhaps the female cultivator surnamed Yang would stand there for days, or even tens of days.
They just needed to wait quietly and act as her guards.
However, just as everyone was lost in their own thoughts and schemes, the female cultivator surnamed Yang suddenly moved. Along with her, the small flags in front of her also changed. With a crisp plap of their banners, a nail-like ray shot out like lightning.
The ray transformed into an extremely fine streak of light, heading straight for an empty area on the grotto gate. At this moment, the three illusory points of light on the gate flickered in and out of existence, still far from the position the ray was aimed at.
But in the next moment, an illusory point of light flashed and appeared in the area the ray was targeting, precisely where the ray was about to strike.
A smile tugged at the corners of the female cultivator's mouth.
'That's it, that's the point. The Gate of Life's restriction!'
And at the same time, in the cave within the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," Mu Guyue slashed her saber towards the moss-covered stone wall...
(End of Chapter)