After cleaning the house, Su Jie heard crows cawing outside.
Stepping out of the house, he saw a black crow circling in the sky, making strange, hoarse cries that echoed far and wide, continually tormenting people's ears.
Su Jie took out a black feathered folding fan from his chest and vigorously waved it high.
Soon, the black crow landed on Su Jie's shoulder, its beak gaping wide.
Feeling around his body, Su Jie grabbed a Reconnaissance Dragonfly and fed it to the crow.
Then he removed a piece of paper from its leg, picked up a pen, wrote down the day's itinerary, stamped it with his handprint, and tied it back onto the leg.
Only then did he release the crow again, watching it disappear into the sky.
This kind of crow was actually a Messenger Crow, cultivated by Ghost Ridge Palace to deliver messages.
Divine Sense Thousand-Mile Transmission, a lofty magic skill, was not something disciples could learn.
Messenger Crows traveled daily between Ghost Ridge Palace Mountain Gate and the various disciples' locations, with disciples required to report their daily activities and any situations encountered.
If any actions were needed from the disciples, orders were also conveyed via Messenger Crow.
Shortly after the crow flew off, Gu Weonian returned, but unfortunately, he brought back bad news.
"Not successful?"
Seeing a trace of embarrassment on Gu Weonian's face, Su Jie knew that things had probably not gone well.
"Good talk or bad talk, they just wouldn't believe it, and that Chen Koudang was even…"
Gu Weonian shook his head without continuing, evidently having faced no shortage of ridicule.
Sun Zhihai also expressed his opinion, saying, "Let's not meddle in others' affairs. Since they don't want to, we just need to look after ourselves."
Su Jie consoled, "Let it go, just consider their words as idle talk and don't take them to heart."
"I understand."
"That's good. We'll take turns on watch tonight, you go and rest well first."
..........
Late at night, the third watch!
The forest floor was completely engulfed in darkness.
Atop Niu Jiao Ridge, the noisy cicadas of the day fell silent, clouds obscured the full moon.
In front of the cabin, an ancient tree stood quietly.
Its age was at least a thousand years, its roots like coiled dragons, its bark like cracked rocks, laden with scaly scars like a gaunt old man.
Whoosh!
A gust of night wind blew by, the branches swayed.
The candlelight shining from the cabin cast patchy shadows amongst the withered branches and leaves, making it appear even more terrifying, like a fanged and clawed demon.
At this moment, Su Jie was sitting atop this ancient tree, sharing a view with several moths, constantly watching for any movements within a hundred meters.
"Brother Su, it's my turn to take over."
From the cabin, yawning Gu Weonian walked out and waved toward Su Jie in the treetop.
"Brother Gu, be careful. If anything happens, call out immediately."
"Don't worry, despite my age, I still have my vigilance. If…"
Gu Weonian hadn't finished speaking when Su Jie suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, what was that noise? Did you hear something?"
"What?"
Before Gu Weonian could react, Su Jie's gaze pierced through the darkness outside.
In the silent night, apart from a few indistinct bird cries, there was no other sound, as if he had just imagined it.
"Brother Su, this is your first night patrol. You might be too tense."
Having thought there was a misunderstanding, Gu Weonian shook his head, about to continue speaking when his voice suddenly halted. He and Su Jie exchanged glances, together hearing a faint sound.
Squeak squeak!
The continuous, fragmented cries entered their ears, sounding somewhat like rats squeaking.
Right after, Su Jie and Gu Weonian saw a blood-soaked bat tumbling from the sky like a bird with broken wings.
"It's Chen Yun's lifebound poisonous insect, that Ming Sheng Bat."
Su Jie's expression shifted slightly as he recognized the origin of the bat.
This type of bat was a very rare Poison Insect that could produce infrasound waves undetectable to humans.
Not only could it shatter and explode objects, but when used on living beings, it could also cause resonance in human organs, leading to fatal ruptures of internal blood vessels, making it a particularly vicious and sneaky Poison Insect.
The insect was now falling from the sky, suffering some kind of injury, bleeding from its mouth and nose.
Su Jie stepped forward and leaped high to catch the Ming Sheng Bat.
The bat was two sizes larger than a palm and was now emitting bursts of mournful cries.
"Something must have happened to Chen Yun, it might be an Alien Ghost, go wake up Brother Sun."
Su Jie took a deep breath; the Ming Sheng Bat's appearance here was a signal from Chen Yun, a plea for help.
Gu Weonian quickly summoned someone, and soon Sun Zhihai was awakened from his sleep.
Gu Weonian's shivering legs immediately ran fast, not daring to delay.
Hearing that an Alien Ghost might be lurking, Sun Zhihai, still somewhat sleepy, suddenly felt a chill and instantly no trace of sleep remained.
"Should we... should we really go? If it's really an Alien Ghost..."
At the critical moment, Sun Zhihai hesitated, a trace of fear appearing on his face.
Su Jie, with a grave expression, said, "Of course we can't be reckless; we'll first observe from the outskirts. If we indeed encounter a tough opponent, we can't be blamed for not rescuing them."
Sun Zhihai breathed a sigh of relief; this was much safer. Demon Cultivators didn't have the heart to sacrifice themselves for others.
Gu Weonian said nothing more; through his interactions, he had realized that Su Jie was very cautious and felt confident in Su Jie's approach.
The three of them headed toward Chen Yun's residence without any torches or lanterns, fearing they might attract unknown enemies in the dim environment.
Still some distance away, Su Jie's nose twitched, faintly smelling blood in the air. The silhouette of Chen Yun and his colleagues' cabin was now visible nearby.
"The battle seems to have already ended there."
Having observed secretly with a moth, Su Jie's gaze grew complex as he stood up, lit the torch he carried, and walked toward the cabin.
About a hundred meters from the cabin, a gruesome battlefield appeared before them.
The ground was covered with a layer of dead poisonous insects, numerous poison snakes and ants crushed to pulp.
An ant queen, the size of a soccer ball, was missing half of its body.
Another, a desk-sized giant grasshopper, was bisected, green insect blood splattered everywhere.
These were the lifebound poisonous insects of Chen Koudang and Xu Chaoxian.
Since even the lifebound poisonous insects had met such a fate, needless to say about the owners themselves.
During the day, the brash Chen Koudang's face was torn and hung on a branch, his body dismembered.
Xu Chaoxian was left with only a head, his body nowhere to be found.
At the edge of the battlefield, a blood-drenched 'corpse' leaned against the base of a large tree.
If not for the chest that was still faintly heaving, almost no one would believe the person was still alive.
It was Chen Yun, the only survivor still breathing at the scene.
Unexpectedly, besides Su Jie's group who had just arrived, someone had reached the scene earlier—it was Meng Dongge from the other side of Niu Jiao Ridge.
He, holding a torch, seemed also surprised that Su Jie's group had arrived so quickly.