Lu Qingyun said quietly, "There are no desolate monsters that will be this vicious. They were all in great pain before they had died."
Leng Qiuyue nodded weakly, "Even though they are low level cultivators but some should be able to escape but it seems that none ever did."
Lu Qingyun turned to said to Zhao Xingye, "Maiden Xingye, I think the information that we got may be a little off."
Zhao Xingye nodded palely. According to their information, it was mostly only the high level cultivators that were being attacked.
She replied weakly, "If you want to turn back now, I won't blame you."
Lu Qingyun shook his head, "That is not what I've mean. We ought to exercise more caution from this point onward."
Zhao Xingye solemnly nodded.
Leng Qiuyue said weakly, "It seems that a massacre had taken place here and these cultivators are all from many different celestial clans. Every one of them had a horrified look on their faces…"
Lu Qingyun heaved a soft sigh as he thought, "What is going on here? It is impossible that there is none that have escaped and that they will all be in the same place. It is as though something had lured them here before massacring all of them."
Zhao Xingye turned to Leng Qiuyue to say solemnly, "Maiden Qiuyue, this is time for me to tell you the truth. Actually we have actually sent more than ten parties inside and more than half of our sisters have perished. It may be the work of a powerful cultivator and not a desolate monster. We are here to investigate further. If you want to leave now, I won't blame you."
Leng Qiuyue smiled weakly, "I won't leave. Thanks for telling me this. I have thought this mission is a little fishy actually."
Zhao Xingye nodded as she muttered through her transmission to Zhao Riyue, "Sister, we have encountered something weird inside. We are alright. But we have found over a hundred dismembered bodies from various celestial clans. There is no sight of any dangers yet and we are fine. It is exactly what had been reported by the earlier parties."
Zhao Riyue transmitted back, "Sister, got it. Please stay safe."
Zhao Xingye turned off the transmission. This profound transmission was extremely expensive to use and would require a high grade spirit stone to use for a mere one minute of transmission. She could only use it for another four minutes or four more times.
After her transmission with her sister, she threw away the expended high grade spirit stone. An expended spirit stone was no longer of any use anymore.
She said to Lu Qingyun and Leng Qiuyue, "I didn't want to use this transmission at such an early stage but we should use it while we still have the opportunity."
Lu Qingyun was smiling weakly. It was as though she was hinting to them that when dangers did come, they may not even have the time to use the transmission to summon any aid!
Even Leng Qiuyue was looking a little doubtful that aid may come in a timely fashion if they went too deep. It was because these cultivators were so close to the entrance and yet none of them could even escape to it.
With a solemn look, the three of them continued on their way down the desolate mists.
Hours passed and soon they had come to a crossroad that split into three paths.
Leng Qiuyue said, "The one on the left will lead us deeper into the Red Death Valley while the other two paths will be reasonable safe for us…"
Zhao Xingye said quietly, "We shall take the path to the left."
Leng Qiuyue smiled weakly while Lu Qingyun merely nodded.
Zhao Xingye said quietly as she flashing a killing intent, "If we chance upon this man or monster, please allow me to do the last killing blow. So many of my protégé sisters have perished under this monster's hands."
Lu Qingyun muttered, "Maiden Xingye, we will do as you've just said."
This beautiful maiden had a firm conviction and it was this conviction that had lent her courage.
Lu Qingyun could tell that she was not a bloodthirsty person or else she would not have vomited at the scene earlier.
Again, hours passed and they had soon come to a ridge and they were startled to see a fine looking man that seemed to be injured.
When the fine looking man saw them, he muttered weakly. "Save me…"
Immediately Lu Qingyun, Leng Qiuyue and Zhao Xingye had dashed across the ridge to take a closer look!
But as Lu Qingyun was neared the man, he sensed something was not right and even Yan'Er was saying to him from within his inner spiritual sea. "Master, that man isn't injured at all. He is putting on an act."
He replied to Yan'Er with his mind, "No wonder. I sense that this man has a startling strong life-force that is within him. He can't be really injured."
As he said that to Yan'Er, he had also caught hold of the wrists of both maidens and said, "Hold!"
Zhao Xingye was a little startled. It was not because Lu Qingyun had suddenly caught hold of her wrist. She had an innate defense and it was quite impossible for anyone to grab her without her knowing. But Lu Qingyun had simply caught hold of her wrist in a blink of an eye and in the next instant, he had stepped forward to ask the fine looking man. "Who are you? Why are you pretending to be injured?"
But the 'injured man' did not reply to his question and instead he had suddenly smirked coldly as he showed them his bloodied abdomen and hand. "This is all real blood. In what way am I not injured?"
Indeed it was all real blood but from his expression, it did not seem that it affected him at all…
"Who are you?" Zhao Xingye asked. "And why are you here? Why are you pretending to be injured?"
The fine looking man laughed coldly, "Who am I? I am number 4. That's who I am. As for the reason why, you can ask the reason why you are dead…" Without any warning, he had suddenly swung his sword with a tremendous outburst of strength toward Zhao Xingye.
But as Zhao Xingye parried the sword attack, the fine looking man had flashed to their back with an evil smirk.
Lu Qingyun had unsheathed a clone of his divine sword and he was pointing his sword at this weird man while Leng Qiuyue did the same as well.
"Surely you are not thinking of fighting against three fourth realm cultivators…" Zhao Xingye said halfway before she was gasped with shock.
It was because this fine looking man had suddenly grown into a desolate monster that was three times larger than his original size and his entire body was now covered with a layer of thick cluster of metal plates.
Everyone was shocked for they had never seen anything like this before!
How could a man turned into a monster?
The desolate monster that called himself number four laughed wickedly, "In a short while time, I will tear all of you apart…"
"Fat chance!" Zhao Xingye shouted as she lifted her sword to attack him but all her attacks seemed to be futile and weak."
She was quickly followed by Lu Qingyun and Leng Qiuyue but the same thing happened, all their sword attacks were bouncing off the thick armor of this desolate monster and were doing no damage!
Lu Qingyun was startled, "What are you?! You are a desolate monster?"
Number 4 did not reply to his question and instead he had raised his fists together and slammed it hard onto the ground, creating a line of shockwave that sent all three of them to fly backward!
Immediately the shockwave had broken through their thin protective auras, causing all three of them to spurt blood.
"What am I? My master calls me a Metamorph Monster, Hahaha."
Zhao Xingye was shocked. She was a middle tier fourth realm expert and she was stronger than most fourth realm experts. But this mere shockwave was so penetrating that it broke through her profound aura and had sapped her strength with just a single hit! What kind of a monster is this?
Even Leng Qiuyue was greatly shocked by the profound power of this shockwave. It was as though they were being attacked by a sixth realm and higher expert. If she was not a fourth realm expert already, this attack would have killed her instantly on the spot!
Lu Qingyun was the first to recover from the shockwave attack and he had stepped forward almost immediately. Although he had coughed out blood and this was a clear sign of his internal organs sustaining damage but he had also quickly recovered from the attack by displaying his profound aura; his profound aura was warm and it quickly dissipated all the bad blood in his internal organs.
He turned to ask Number 4 solemnly, "Did you kill all those cultivators at the entrance? There are a hundred of them."
Number 4 laughed wickedly, "Only a hundred? I've killed several times more in recent months! I am surprise that you can even stand. Do you know that even a golden celestial may not be able to withstand my profound attack. I can still remember how that golden celestial is begging me to end her life while I dismember her slowly…"
Zhao Xingye gasped as she struggled to stand, "You! My senior sisters are killed by you!…"
Lu Qingyun was furious that this 'man' was such a monster. Immediately he had gathered his profound power to his sword…
But Number 4 was not blind and he could sense that Lu Qingyun was about to attack him. He was of course not too bothered because he knew that these were all lowly cultivators and there was not a chance that they would be able to injure him. But still, he hated the guts of this handsome man and therefore he raised his fists again so that he could crush this sore eye…
There was a thunderous outburst as his fists slammed on the ground and the same furious shockwave flew furiously toward Lu Qingyun.
Lu Qingyun knew that he had to overcome this profound power first in order to reach the monster. Therefore without hesitating, he had immediately displayed his new sword art, the Flaming Phoenix Sword that he had created from the Flaming Crimson Sword.
One must know that the Flaming Crimson Sword was a sword art that could contest with the profound strength of a sixth realm expert. More so if the sword practitioner was a sixth realm expert or higher.
And the Flaming Phoenix Sword was a sword art that he had evolved from the Flaming Crimson Sword.
Immediately, his Flaming Phoenix Sword had cause the incoming shockwave to burst apart and it had exploded upon Number 4 with a startling loud impact!
Number 4 bemoaned loudly in pain and he could not believe that a mere sword art from a mere low level cultivator could shatter his profound shockwaves.
Just as he was about to rush forward to crush this gutsy man with his fists, Lu Qingyun had flashed forward with his sword raised high.
Number 4 laughed, "You are only delivering yourself to me…"
Just as he was about to raise his fists to punch Lu Qingyun, he found out that he was not able to move because there were ten swords that had pierced through his hands, body and legs!
Twelve half-step divine swords had suddenly appeared in a flash and had pieced through his body!
And the sword that was in Lu Qingyun's hand now was the true Godly Divine Sword Fairy Light. With a piercing light through the monster's forehead, Number 4 bemoaned aloud before he had crumbled into a pile of dust.
Lu Qingyun was stunned. This monster had turned into a pile of dust when he was dead?
Leng Qiuyue was gasping as she covered her mouth with her hand. Senior Brother Lu Qingyun was too startling. The martial feat that he had just displayed was equaled to a sixth realm expert!
Even Zhao Xingye was stunned by Lu Qingyun's martial display as she stared blankly at him…
When Lu Qingyun had turned around and saw their startled look, he thought that they were equally surprised as him when they had witnessed the monster turning into a pile of rubbles.
He began to sigh heavily, "I don't know if he is a cultivator or a monster but I'm sure that he isn't a real monster because monsters don't talk. He should be the evil cultivator that we are looking for?"