The Dark Spirit Demon Bat known as "Second Brother" bared its stark white teeth, its voice filled with grief and indignation.
"Alright, let's get to it!"
The short, slender, green-faced man cut off the other's voice transmission. They had completed their exchange in just a single breath.
At the same time, the green-faced man sighed inwardly. He certainly understood the dissatisfaction in Second Brother's words.
It wasn't just him; the other junior brothers and sisters felt the same way, they just hadn't voiced it.
"First Brother, you be careful too. This group of people has a high cultivation base!"
Second Brother said no more, this time speaking directly instead of using a voice transmission.
The short, slender, green-faced man nodded. If it were the past, when his Master and three Martial Uncles were still here, they wouldn't have had to pay these cultivators any mind.
They could have been slain with ease.
Thinking of his Master and three Martial Uncles, the green-faced man's thoughts turned to another person, and an involuntary shiver ran through him.
But he quickly forced the thought down. That matter was too long ago; none of their clan members were willing to think of it again.
Then his body blurred once more, returning to its original form.
Leading the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" he called "Fifth Brother," along with a swarm of two-winged bats, he plunged into the tunnel Song Rongdao's group had entered.
The moment Li Yan entered the tunnel, he felt the "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" behind him start to move.
A sweep of his Divine Sense made him curse his luck inwardly.
The two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" were one thing. Though numerous, they were at best Second-rank Demonic Beasts, equivalent to the Foundation Establishment stage. It would be impossible for them to besiege and kill his group.
But one thing terrified Li Yan. A rough scan with his Divine Sense revealed that there were already five to six hundred Foundation Establishment level demonic beasts in the plaza, almost the number of all the Foundation Establishment cultivators in a super-sect.
And from the cracks above, it seemed more were constantly pouring in.
"Why are there so many? How were they raised? Could there be Fourth-rank Demonic Beasts?"
The faces of Li Yan's group turned grim. They didn't have the slight confidence that Song Rongdao had, who, after all, had escaped last time without any Fourth-rank Demonic Beasts giving chase.
What Li Yan had cursed as "bad luck" was the fact that three four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" had come after their group.
The aura roiling from them marked each one as a vicious, sky-scorching terror. The weakest one looked to be at least at the late-stage Golden Core. These were Ancient Ferocious Beasts; fighting them would not grant much of an advantage.
Meanwhile, only two four-winged bats were chasing Jiang Baibi's group. Comparatively, the pressure on his side was much greater.
However, both Xing Ming's and Song Rongdao's groups had misjudged the terror of the two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats."
Not long after, all the cultivators here would learn they were wrong, that they had fundamentally underestimated the power these Second-rank Demonic Beasts could unleash.
The underwater secret grotto Song Rongdao had come to this time was a restriction within a restriction. The tunnels also had restrictions extending into them.
They suppressed both Spirit Power and Divine Sense, preventing one's senses from reaching too far and making the circulation of magic power somewhat sluggish.
But thankfully, the cultivators who came here were all powerful. Although affected, they were generally still able to fight.
Just as Song Rongdao's group entered the tunnel, they discovered the space inside was at least four or five times larger than it appeared from the outside.
Even their light footsteps echoed within, making it seem very empty and vast.
Before they could investigate their surroundings, a fierce wind assailed them from behind.
"Since you've come, why bother leaving!"
A cold voice drifted in, followed by a figure lunging straight for Song Rongdao.
A four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" flew in at high speed. It was the demonic beast that had been called "Fifth Brother" in the plaza.
Facing four Golden Core cultivators, he showed no fear at all.
As he closed to within a hundred zhang of Song Rongdao, his wings spread wide, stretching a full zhang in length. With a beat of his four wings, his body stood slightly upright, hovering in the air.
He opened his mouth and a formless Sound Wave Attack shot towards Song Rongdao. Then, his body vanished in an instant.
Song Rongdao's ears twitched slightly. He quickly formed a hand seal in front of his chest.
Following this, a small yellow feather appeared behind him. With a light sweep, the space the feather passed through rippled, and the formless sound waves were neutralized.
However, Song Rongdao's body was still shaken, forced to retreat continuously. While retreating, Song Rongdao suddenly opened his mouth wide and let out a sharp, piercing shriek towards an empty space to his side.
Just as his shriek began, the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" that had attacked him from the void and disappeared suddenly reappeared.
He then used his upper two wings as a shield to protect his entire head, while his other two wings flapped violently, sending out a torrent of arrow-like qi in all directions.
The air around them exploded, and the tunnel walls emitted a series of "tong tong tong..." sounds.
It was unknown what material the tunnel was made of, but after flashing with clusters of large and small purple light, it remained completely undamaged.
"So you also specialize in sound wave attacks, and you're an expert at it! I failed to see you possessed such a divine ability last time!"
The four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" called "Fifth Brother" lowered the wings protecting his head and looked at Song Rongdao with a peculiar expression.
Sound wave attacks were a type of formless attack. Although not as formidable as Divine Sense attacks, they were a very rare cultivation path.
Their proficiency in this art was an innate talent. They hadn't expected the cultivator opposite them to be equally proficient, with attacks no less sharp than his own or his four siblings'.
He just didn't know Song Rongdao's true form, hence his surprise.
At the same time, the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" transformed from the short, slender, green-faced man appeared above the youth surnamed Bai, opening its mouth wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth.
Its head suddenly expanded more than tenfold, like a world-ending ferocious beast, and it bit down fiercely.
The youth surnamed Bai swiftly swiped his hand above his head. A ball of bone-chilling white gas shot into the opponent's mouth...
Meanwhile, the cultivator surnamed Yan and the female cultivator surnamed Yang were blocked by a dense swarm of two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats."
Although the highest cultivation of these two-winged bats was only Foundation Establishment, they were skilled in combined attack techniques, much like the Snow Mosquitoes, and the power of their combined attacks was even stronger.
Occasionally, the power of their attacks was no less than that of an ordinary Golden Core strike.
Even with his abundant magic power, the cultivator surnamed Yan, despite killing over a dozen two-winged bats in a short time, was still forced back by their assault.
Feeling the tremendous force from each attack of the bat swarm, his face had changed drastically.
"Dark Spirit Demon Bats" were also creatures of extreme dark poison, forcing the two of them to be extremely careful. They didn't even dare to let the splattering blood touch their bodies, blocking it all with their magic power.
The female cultivator surnamed Yang's face had turned deathly pale. Women naturally had a revulsion for such disgusting species.
Suddenly faced with so many dense, hideous faces, her combat strength was actually reduced, making it even more difficult for her to cope.
These "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" were not as orderly as cultivators in a siege.
When each group of bats coordinated, their bodies might be pressed against each other, or a head might suddenly emerge from under another's belly.
Or perhaps, from under another's wing, it would bare its fine, sharp teeth and unleash a sound wave attack.
These sound wave attacks were naturally not as powerful as those of the two four-winged bats, but when they crisscrossed and collided in the air, they had the effect of devouring each other and growing stronger.
Formless and shadowless, they were like countless invisible sword qi slicing through the air, cutting towards them without any pattern.
Gazing at the dense, black tide of demonic beasts, baring their teeth and revealing large patches of gums, letting out strange "zhi-zhi-zhi..." cries, the female cultivator surnamed Yang's steps became somewhat unsteady.
The formless sound wave attacks also spread to Song Rongdao and the youth surnamed Bai. They had to simultaneously deal with the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats," making them even more beleaguered.
For a time, the enemy's offensive was like a tide, forcing them to constantly dodge with swift movement skills, not daring to get caught in the middle and entangled.
However, the tunnel was thankfully wide enough. Even if it wasn't wide enough horizontally, they could still retreat deeper into its depths.
The offensive and defensive plan they had formulated earlier was dismantled by the opponent in an instant.
Song Rongdao was being pushed back at high speed by that one four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" and its swarm of smaller demons. That four-winged bat clearly held a deep grudge against him, its attacks ferocious and relentless.
Song Rongdao's own strength was a notch above his opponent's, but the coordination of the two-winged bats was so seamless that he had to divert his attention to deal with them.
He roared in anger, trying several times to break through to the youth surnamed Bai and regroup with them, but he was helplessly forced to dodge and retreat continuously.
At this time, even more two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" poured in from the tunnel entrance, a swarm that blotted out the sky, terrifying even Song Rongdao and making his legs tremble.
However, although he couldn't defeat the swarm, with his resources, he still had many trump cards left. Escaping with his life was not a problem for the time being.
Similarly, the youth surnamed Bai and the other two were rogue cultivators who had wandered the world alone for years. Which one of them didn't have a few life-saving trump cards?
For a time, although they couldn't regroup, they fought as they retreated deeper into the tunnel.
Soon, they discovered that as they went deeper, although there were no other demonic beasts or traps, smaller branching tunnels began to appear.
In the other tunnel, Li Yan and his group faced a similar situation. The three four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" had each found an opponent.
Their situation was far more dangerous than that of the youth surnamed Bai's group.
Apart from Li Yan, Xing Ming and the other two were each confronted by a four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat," and at the same time, a swarm of two-winged bats joined the assault.
This put even Xuan Caijun in a perilous situation. Only Li Yan, with the lowest cultivation, had no four-winged bat before him, but he was besieged by an even larger number of two-winged bats in a combined attack.
Under the opponent's deliberate separation, the group was quickly split into four. As more and more two-winged bats poured in from the tunnel entrance, they had no choice but to retreat deeper.
But everyone knew in their hearts that the appearance of this tunnel was strange. Although there seemed to be no other ambushes here, a cultivator's intuition told them that the danger in the tunnel was even greater; they just didn't know what it was.
But by the same token, the tunnel also held a chance of escape.
Li Yan looked around. They had been forced about three or four li into the tunnel. The closest distance between any two of them was half a li.
These gaps were filled with densely packed "Dark Spirit Demon Bats," or their corpses.
Before Li Yan's eyes was a chaotic dance of black shadows, like lingering demonic specters. His spiritual power shield would occasionally burst with points of starlight.
Those were just the sound wave attacks that penetrated everything. Li Yan could certainly maintain an impenetrable defense, but that would consume too much spiritual power. He decided to simply block some of the sound waves with his defenses.
Li Yan's hands and feet became a blur of afterimages, sometimes pointing, sometimes chopping, sometimes grabbing, sometimes sweeping, sometimes kicking, sometimes ramming.
Any two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" he touched would instantly explode into a shower of blood.