Li Muyang's time stop lasted only 7 seconds, but he had the chance to reload his memory.
So upon seeing the monster's head, Li Muyang didn't rush to attack; instead, he leapt up, coming alongside the monster's head to collect information about it.
In a game about breaking through levels, information is more important than merely killing monsters.
From the side, he finally saw the full appearance of the monster.
—It really did emerge from thin air.
To be precise, it emerged from the layer of fog that shrouded Loushan City, just a single head, as if the body behind the head was still hidden within the mist.
Behind this strange fog seemed to be a connection to another bizarre world, and now the monster's head was poking out from it, attacking the carriage Li Muyang and the others were in.
After seeing the full appearance of the monster, Li Muyang once again drew his sword from its sheath and chopped at the monster.
This time he managed to break its defense, but that was all, leaving only an inches-deep wound. For a monster of that size, such a wound was equivalent to a minor scrape.
The imperial waist sword that came with the game character really left much to be desired in terms of lethality.
Li Muyang tried to return to the carriage to fetch the Glass Immortal Maiden's Immortal Sword, but just as he got back to the carriage, the time stop ended.
A great tremor swept through the carriage, and Li Muyang's vision went dark in an instant.
"...the output of this game character is a bit weak."
Sitting on the hard straw hut, Li Muyang felt depressed about the weakness of the game character.
He closed his eyes again and restarted the tutorial for beginners.
Memory reload!
When Li Muyang opened his eyes once more, he found himself sitting in a moving carriage, with the Glass Immortal Maiden in front of him conversing with the guide.
Without hesitation, Li Muyang stood up and said, "Immortal Maiden, may I borrow your Immortal Sword? There's something wrong."
Li Muyang spoke concisely, while unapologetically reaching out to the Glass Immortal Maiden for her sword.
Such a sudden and impolite action stunned the guide mid-conversation.
Clearly, he didn't understand why Li Muyang, who had been silent the whole way, acting like a follower, would suddenly make such an outrageous request.
That was the Spirit Sword that Cultivators of the Mysterious Sword Sect bonded with for life, how could it be lent to you casually?
However, before the guide could speak, the Glass Immortal Maiden had already stood up solemnly.
"Is there danger again?"
The Immortal Maiden hesitated for a moment, but eventually she decisively pinched the sword technique, and the Immortal Sword on her back resonated, instantly flying into Li Muyang's hand.
"Please, Nameless Sir..."
Just as the Glass Immortal Maiden began to speak, a tremendous vibration suddenly struck the carriage.
At that moment, Li Muyang activated time stop.
This time, with the Immortal Sword in his hand, he immediately pushed open the door and rushed out.
In the pale world of black and white, the keen Immortal Sword swung in his grip. Li Muyang easily split the monster's huge head in two.
The monster's head, which had been difficult to cut through with the imperial waist sword, felt as vulnerable as tofu under the blade of the Immortal Sword, easily cleaved in two.
Li Muyang watched as the monster's head was split in half, and then he lifted the time stop.
Instantly, a cloud of blood mist exploded in front of the carriage.
The monster's split head vanished into the blood mist, and the carriage on the street passed through the mist without impediment.
The guide on the carriage's eyes widened instantly.
"Just now... just now..."
He stared dumbfounded at the Glass Immortal Maiden, and then looked incredulously towards Li Muyang by the carriage door, as if doubting life itself.
The blood mist appeared and disappeared abruptly, accompanied by a terrifying monster... Such a scene was simply like a nightmare.
The Glass Immortal Maiden looked seriously at the dissipating blood mist behind her and said, "This seems to be a Blood Demon Beast... the legendary creature believed to dwell in the Nether Hell, roaming within the River of Blood."
"It descended from the void, attempting to assassinate us. Fortunately, Nameless was able to resolve it in time."
Having explained the situation, the Glass Immortal Maiden turned her gaze to Li Muyang, her eyes sparkling with amazement.
"Nameless, how did you detect the impending appearance of the Blood Demon Beast?"
The moment the Blood Demon Beast appeared, Li Muyang had easily slain it... Such terrifying movement techniques and insight had once again shocked the Glass Immortal Maiden.
Just as Li Muyang was about to answer, the moment he opened his mouth, a massive force suddenly struck him from behind.
He watched, wide-eyed, as a pitch-black claw pierced through his chest...
"Damn it! When will this end!"
Li Muyang, who had just opened his eyes inside the dark straw hut, took a breath and immediately closed his eyes.
Reset!
Reset!
Reset!!!
Right after slicing off the monster's head and as the Glass Immortal Maiden began to speak, Li Muyang instantly turned around and swung his sword.
The sharp blade of the Immortal Sword fell, bisecting a mantis-like monster that had just popped into the air diagonally.
The creature had barely appeared, its pitch-black, lethal claws not yet deployed, when Li Muyang had already smashed it to pieces.
The guide stared dumbfounded: "Do you have eyes on the back of your head?"
Li Muyang's turnaround sword strike had come so unexpectedly that it shocked everyone present.
Even up to the moment he drew his sword, the air behind him was empty. Yet precisely when the blade fell, a Blood Demon Beast conveniently appeared right there.
The scene looked as if the monster had deliberately hurled itself onto his sword blade, eerily unsettling.
Facing the guide's incredulous gaze, Li Muyang said indifferently, "Nothing special, just familiarity."
I have died dozens of times to these creatures' ambushes; I can predict their every move even with my eyes closed!
As he spoke, Li Muyang casually swung another sword.
The sharp Immortal Sword flew past the guide's ear in an instant, slaying a newly appeared Blood Demon Beast behind him.
These weird Blood Demon Beasts that popped out of the air would disappear just as abruptly after death, leaving behind no corpses.
In just a few short exchanges, several eerie Blood Demon Beasts had emerged around the carriage.
Their sudden and ghostly appearances were causing the Glass Immortal Maiden to furrow her brows.
"It seems the Demon Cultivators of the Blood Demon Path in this city do not want us to meet with General Wu."
The Glass Immortal Maiden said, then looked at Li Muyang, "Summoning the Nether Hell Blood Beasts with such a method is a kind of Taboo Secret Arts within the Blood Demon Path, requiring a great sacrificial price."
"If there were other methods, the enemy would definitely not summon Blood Demon Beasts."
"Now that the Demon Cultivators of the Blood Demon Path only summon Blood Demon Beasts to attack and are unwilling to show themselves, it seems that the Demon Cultivators here are not strong, or it may be inconvenient for them to take action."
At this point, the Glass Immortal Maiden's gaze turned discernibly colder, "The seven Demon Cultivators who lay in ambush outside the city were probably the only forces that the mastermind could muster."
"Having lost his underlings, he can only resort to using the Taboo Secret Arts to summon Blood Demon Beasts to obstruct us... Could it be that the mastermind is hiding near General Wu? Does he not want us to meet General Wu?"
From the changes in the situation, the Glass Immortal Maiden swiftly deduced key information.