Wait a minute, where is my master?

Grandpa Che saw the minor Taoist return after leaving and thought something must have happened.

He didn't expect that the issue was merely not knowing the way...

"With such cultivation, Jin Taoist, don't you know how to use Space Skills?"

This thought popped into the mind of Grandpa Che, who was dressed in a brown robe.

Normally, he could have opened a crack in the void like he did when he brought the four Taoists here and transported them directly.

But now, the Spiritual Power within Grandpa Che had been almost depleted due to the minor Taoist's treatment.

So, weakly, he lifted his arm and pointed to the ground, panting as he said, "The fourth layer of the Qingmu Secret Realm is arranged like a pagoda, Taoist friend, if you can't find the way, just go straight down and that will be the quickest way to reach the second..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Grandpa Che saw Jin Xu raise his right arm high, and a golden pillar of light pierced through the thatched cottage's floor, heading who knows where.

"Thank you, Grandpa Che, for the directions, I'll be right back."

Having said that, the minor Taoist leapt into the bottomless pit he had made.

"Little White, Little Yu, wait for me here, don't wander off~~"

Having already jumped into the hole, Jin Xu then remembered to instruct his two demon pets.

As for Zhao Dabao, the minor Taoist believed he was a person with a sense of propriety and certainly wouldn't stray.

"Alright, temple master, don't worry."

Hearing the voice with the slightly elongated tone coming from the hole, Shiqi immediately ran to the edge of the hole and lay there shouting.

"Young Master~~~ rest assured, I will take good care of Little White!"

Yu Yaoer also followed suit, responding loudly while tightly gripping Shiqi's jacket, afraid that he might jump down after.

During the descent.

Jin Xu, with the whistling wind passing by his ears, involuntarily thought of a phrase said by a sage surnamed Zhou.

"There was originally no path in the world, but where many people walk, there becomes a path."

About the time it took to brew half a pot of tea passed.

The darkness surrounding the minor Taoist finally dissipated, and light surged back into his eyes.

In other words, he had finally emerged from the cavern.

"Boom!"

Even though he had exited the hole he created, Jin Xu's descent was not curtailed, and so he ultimately crashed onto the ground.

"Cough... cough..."

A cloud of dust rose, choking the minor Taoist, who coughed a few times. He jumped out of the indentation, landed on the ground, looked around, and then looked up at the sky.

The sky was rather gloomy at this moment, and a pitch-black hole brazenly hung there, with the surrounding space spontaneously repairing this hole that should not have been there.

But the remaining golden lightning had not yet fully dissipated, so for the time being, the hole might not vanish.

The minor Taoist felt that the Qingmu Secret Realm was strange at the moment, so he closed his eyes, and his Spiritual Sense spread out with full force in all directions.

After some investigation, Jin Xu made two discoveries.

First, among the living creatures active in this layer of the Secret Realm, a portion of them had densely packed tiny insects inside their bodies, and this substance was also present in the air.

Second, he discovered that this was the third layer of the Qingmu Secret Realm.

He had just held back, for fear of accidentally breaching the Qingmu Secret Realm, so he had used less than half his Spiritual Power.

This led to the fact that the little Taoist still had to shoot at the ground once more to reach his destination.

It was the familiar half-strength of Spiritual Power, the familiar golden thunder light. Jin Xu raised his right hand high, the golden thunder light condensed, and he pressed down with a "Hand Palm Thunder" towards the deep pit he had just smashed.

Land and rocks were silently annihilated, space was violently breached.

The little Taoist had once again opened up a new path.

...

The second layer of the Qingmu Secret Realm.

Half a cup of tea's time before.

Because the true body of the Insect Queen was in the second layer, as soon as it gave up continuing to parasitize the root system and turned to parasitize and control other creatures in the Secret Realm, this layer was the first to suffer.

The Gathering Spirit Grass, irrigated by the blood of two different spirit beasts, was the first to detect this change.

The air suddenly filled with countless tiny insects invisible to the naked eye, which surged toward any living being.

The amber-colored calf initially thought this was some new plant pest and intended to crush these little pests with Spiritual Power. But once it made a move, it found that these numerous insects in the air were extremely troublesome.

Firstly, these little insects were very tenacious in life energy. Its attack didn't kill many, which, considering their vast number, was like trying to extinguish a raging fire with a cup of water.

Secondly, these things could actually devour the attacks it sent out, multiplying into even more insects.

Moreover, the insects seemed to possess spiritual intelligence. The amber-colored calf killed a few on its first attempt but, when it wanted to unleash a second strike, the insects in the air spontaneously gathered together.

The amber-colored calf, swishing its tail, lashed out another whip of Spiritual Power. This time it used its full force, but the result of the attack was even less effective than before. Instead, it helped breed more of the tiny insects!

"What on earth is this? Why is it so tricky?"

Although the amber-colored calf was somewhat panicked at this moment, it was not yet desperate. It set up a thick shield of Spiritual Power around itself and then began to contact its friends on the fourth layer.

Outside the temporarily built pavilion, those Cultivators who had yet to enter the chessboard to face their trials also noticed something odd in the air and began to use various methods in an attempt to eradicate these insects.

Inside the pavilion.

The amber-colored calf brought up a light screen, ready to tell its friends about the change in the second layer and also to seek help.

In its view, although it couldn't solve the problem with the insects, the Qingmu Secret Realm was full of miraculously effective Ten-thousand-year-old Treasure Medicines, and besides, there was Grandpa Che Liang Wood, the stabilizer. Surely there would be a way.

"Little Soul, Ba Wang Tree, I... hey, why are you all huddled together? And why does it look so dark over there?"

Before it could mention the main issue, it saw that all its friends had squeezed into one place, and the lighting didn't seem quite right either.

"Shush!"

On the screen, Ba Wang Tree, standing at the forefront, gestured for silence and then whispered.

"Juju, you don't know, Grandpa Che Liang Wood said there might be danger soon and commanded me to protect them. So, I brought everyone to hide inside Longlong's body."

The Longlong mentioned by Ba Wang Tree was none other than a ten-thousand-year-old Spiritual Plant, gigantic in size, with hard, cage-like vines, displaying a purple-black color.

Hearing these words from the other side, the amber-colored calf was stunned for a moment, then explained its own situation to them.

"Baba, you have no idea how troublesome these sudden insects are; they can even devour my attacks. Quickly check if the danger Grandpa Che Liang Wood mentioned is over. If it is, hurry up and tell Grandpa Che about my situation here."

"Juju, don't panic. I just heard from Longlong that it saw Grandpa Che's thatched cottage shake a bit, which probably means he has already dealt with the danger. Hang in there, I'll sneak over to the cottage and have a look," replied Ba Wang Tree.

Without waiting for a response from the amber-colored calf, Ba Wang Tree actively cut off the light screen.