Among the five paranoid male protagonists, who do you want me to choose?

When they arrived at the clothing store, Yu Zhao bought himself two sets of thick winter clothes, while Shen Yuzhuo picked out three pieces, two sets of women's clothes and one set of men's clothes.

Two days later, ten people gathered at the door of the mercenary association. Many of them glanced around Yu Zhao and Shen Yuzhuo. The two were dressed warmly, and they looked really unsightly in the eyes of other monks in robes.

A few people with bad tempers in the team looked at them with contempt, still thinking that they were a burden.

The spiritual power in Dragon King Valley is unstable, sometimes thin, sometimes thick, and there may be strange changes. At that time, the robes that are warm in winter and cool in summer may not be useful.

Therefore, Yu Zhao only bought ordinary winter clothes and did not prepare any robes. While it was still early, he chose a few more self-defense magic weapons from the mercenary association's roadside stall.

However, due to the heavy casualties among those who went to Dragon King Valley, those who came out alive kept silent about what happened inside. Over time, no cultivators were willing to go there, so they could only find a guide at a high price, who would only take people to the outskirts of Dragon King Valley.

Yu Zhao stuffed all the defensive magic weapons in his hand into Shen Yuzhuo's arms and said concisely, "Keep them. The terrain in Dragon King Valley is complicated and the situation is changing. I may not be able to protect you when the time comes."

These words, which showed some concern, warmed Shen Yuzhuo's heart. He reached out and took her into his arms, "Thank you."

Little did they know that Yu Zhao had already pasted a stack of defensive talismans on his body, one set on his inner clothes, one set on his winter clothes, and one set on his black robe.

"You two really have a deep bond." Ouyang Ming's lazy voice suddenly sounded from behind. Yu Zhao didn't even raise his eyelids, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a beautiful girl being protected behind him, with just half of her head sticking out.

She looked at the two people who were dressed warmly with curiosity.

The mercenary association gathered ten people, including Ouyang Ming and four others, making a total of fourteen people in the team.

Soon, monks came out leading fourteen snow-white horses. They had huge wings on their sides, and the white feathers emitted a halo that fell from time to time, making it look like a dream.

This is a common spiritual horse. It has a good speed both on the ground and in the air. It is hard-working and is the preferred means of transportation for most casual cultivators.

Seeing Yu Zhao and Shen Yuzhuo preparing to ride their respective Cangyu horses, Ouyang Ming reminded them, "I advise you two to ride the same horse. Miss Shen has no cultivation, and the horse might think you are easy to bully and throw you off halfway."

Hearing this, Yu Zhao on the horse hummed, then stretched out his hand to Shen Yuzhuo. The young man's mouth twitched slightly, and he reluctantly took the hand and climbed onto the horse.

Fortunately, the two of them were not too heavy, and their combined weight was not even as heavy as the casual cultivator next to them. The horse kicked back and breathed out hot air, rolling its eyes at Shen Yuzhuo.

Shen Yuzhuo: "..."

Even a horse dared to turn its back on him.

There was a misty drizzle last night, and the air was still filled with the smell of damp earth. After leaving Tianyun City, the Cangyu horse's iron hooves stepped on the ground, galloping forward, roaring, and flapping its wings to fly high into the sky.

A team of more than a dozen people shuttled through the mountains and forests, and soon they saw another monk who was as thin as a bamboo pole waiting for them under a tree.

Ouyang Ming stepped forward to negotiate, "Is this Fellow Daoist Wang Qi?"

The horses rustled in the grass, and the middle-aged man saluted respectfully, "It's me. It's still early, let's hurry on. If everything goes well, we can reach Dragon King Valley within three days."

Now the team has become a team of fifteen people.

Yu Zhao was puzzled by Wang Qi's words just now. According to the map she bought, the journey from Dragon King Valley to Tianyun City would only take about a day. Why did it take three days now?

Of course, she couldn't trust everything about the map.

She tightened her grip on the reins slightly, and without having time to think about anything else, she frowned.

The Cangyu horse quickly folded its wings, landed on the muddy puddle, and moved forward with the clatter of its hooves.

In the gust of wind, three thousand strands of black hair flew out from the black robe. Yu Zhao tilted his head and said to the young man, "Can you hold on tighter?"

Shen Yuzhuo, who was about to fly, tugged at her black robe and said sincerely, "I'm holding on very tightly."

Looking at the black robe that was almost torn out of shape, Yu Zhao said helplessly, "Can you hold my waist? My robe is about to be torn to pieces."

Holding her waist...

Shen Yuzhuo felt a little awkward, his fingers tightly grasping the black robe, and his whole body was about to be blown away by the gust of wind. He closed his eyes tightly and said, "This is not good."

In order to protect his black robe, Yu Zhao turned his head and stared at him, "Just hold me, I don't mind."

As a mortal, Shen Yuzhuo would probably be blown away by the strong wind if she walked any further, or her black robe would be torn into tassels. The distance was quite long.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Yuzhuo slowly reached out his hand and wrapped it around her waist. The girl's waist wasn't as soft as an ordinary girl's, but rather rather stiff. The horse, straddling the fallen tree, stood up with most of its body, and the boy's body slid back violently.

To prevent himself from falling, he tucked his arms closer.

After crossing the obstacle, the two squeezed closer. He seemed to be able to smell a faint fragrance on her body. He didn't know what it was, but it smelled very pleasant.

Noticing the hard feel under his fingertips, he tightened his fingers and asked in surprise, "You... have abdominal muscles?"

He reasonably doubted Yu Zhao's true gender. Although he had never touched a woman's waist, the feeling was too weird.

Yu Zhao was stunned and asked him coldly, "Are you free?"

That was the defensive talisman she put on.

The young man pursed his lips and said nothing. He could only squint his eyes in the strong wind and could not see the road ahead at all. One could imagine how hard it was for Yu Zhao who was ahead.

Listening to the steady and vigorous heartbeat, Shen Yuzhuo's heart also began to beat wildly. It was the first time he was so close to a female cultivator, and she was his enemy in his previous life.

Things are unpredictable.

At worst, I can just give her a quick death later.

Yu Zhao's eyes swept over the tall trees around him. Vines grew on the trunks, and their strange shapes caught everyone's attention.

The sparse leaves gradually became dense, and the broad leaves blocked the sunlight, and the faint light shone through the gaps between the leaves onto the jungle floor.

Yu Zhao narrowed her eyes slightly. They were going around in circles and she had no say in the team. After thinking about it, she decided to wait for them to discover it themselves.

You can't teach it by others, but you can teach it once and for all.

After walking for about another hour, even Ouyang Ming, who didn't know the way, noticed something was wrong. He stopped in a hurry and looked at the monk beside him in surprise.

"Fellow Daoist Wang Qi, the route you're taking is wrong, isn't it?"

Even Wang Qi felt strange when he heard this and scratched his head. "That's exactly how I remember going. The map I drew last year was correct."

Last year's map...

Ouyang Ming was furious. The mountains around Dragon King Valley would change every once in a while. It was hard to say how long it would take, maybe a year, a month, or even a day.

He arrived late and had recently been to Dragon King Valley. The surviving monks had already been hired away at a high price. It was already very difficult to find a monk who had been to Dragon King Valley last year.

"Let's go back the same way and find someone else to lead the way." Ouyang Ming's face changed. He had decided to go back home. It would be bad if he wasted any more time and delayed entering Dragon King Valley.

When the atmosphere was somewhat tense, Shen Yuzhuo suddenly spoke, pointing his slender finger at the sky, and said mysteriously: "There is no going back."

His words were like a bolt from the blue, striking everyone on the back of their heads. Everyone's pupils suddenly shuddered and they looked at him anxiously.

Just as I was about to accuse him of talking nonsense, I heard Shen Yuzhuo continue.

"Didn't you notice? In just an hour, the position of the sunlight changed, and the trees along the way slowly shifted. Plus, we were moving so fast, almost no one noticed we had entered the Thousand Mountains and Valleys Formation."

Hearing this, Yu Zhao looked at him with a scrutinizing look. She only realized that they seemed to have entered some kind of maze. She didn't expect that he would observe so carefully. She had underestimated him before.

Ouyang Ming's eyelids jumped. He didn't expect that an accident would happen before he even reached Dragon King Valley.

Some monks were dissatisfied and shouted, "Why didn't you say so earlier? You made us go around in circles."

It must be intentional, just to see them make a fool of themselves, like headless flies.

Shen Yuzhuo spread his hands and said innocently, "I'm just a mortal, I don't have any spiritual power, you might not listen to me."

Why waste your breath?

Moreover, the formation of mountains and valleys is also the only way to enter the Dragon King Valley. In other words, they were lucky enough and were not directly swept out by the formation.

Some cultivators don’t even have the qualifications to enter the mountains and valleys formation, and have been circling around the periphery.

The monk was speechless and waved his sleeves without saying anything.

Ouyang Ming looked at the girl Ouyang Ning standing beside him, "Can Ning break the formation?"

Her sister is a direct disciple of Penglai, which is known as the capital of formation cultivation. Although she is only at the foundation-building stage, she has a strong ability to break formations. She is quite confident in her.

The girl raised the wooden sign in her hand, which read "Do your best". Ouyang Ming breathed a sigh of relief and dismounted.

Ouyang Ning took out the formation plate from her waist and took a deep breath. A golden light burst out from her body. The people around her immediately retreated. The girl's mouth moved slightly, but a sound came out, which was a strange ventriloquism.

"The cool and refreshing moon, the sun and the moon shining together, summon the earth veins to serve me."

brush--

The girl's skirt fluttered, her eyes were tightly closed, the array plate was suspended in front of her, and she was making hand gestures with her hands.

A strong wind blew up from the depths of the dense forest, ruffling the emerald green leaves and blurring people's vision. Gradually, the leaves above their heads began to wither, and the road ahead became clear.

Yu Zhao leaned against the tree trunk, saying nothing, holding a dagger in his hand and tossing it up and down, his spiritual sense constantly observing the changes around him.

Just as everyone was cheering and the formation was finally broken, a strange red light suddenly flashed from the sky.

"Everyone step back!" Yu Zhao, sensing something was wrong, stepped forward, picked up the girl who was casting a spell, and then hid behind a tree. The red light passed by him as he moved forward at high speed.

Not far away, two casual cultivators fell to the ground instantly before they could react.

Bright red blood dripped from their bodies, the broken body parts were torn into pieces, and the sticky blood mixed with the leaves disappeared.

Everything is calm.

"What... is this?" Wang Qi trembled all over, amazed at the changes in the mountains. There were clearly no such things the last time he came here.

None of them had ever been to Dragon King Valley. Even Wang Qi said so. The changes here were no longer expected. The monks felt a chill on their spines and froze on the spot looking at the warm and bloody corpses.

Even if they were independent cultivators, two Jindan-stage cultivators were killed on the spot...

Even Ouyang Ming felt it was difficult, his fingers gripping the folding fan so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Now that we are here, there is no turning back.

And now they may not be able to retreat.

The frightened girl blushed slightly, and pulled Yu Zhao's black robe to write two words on the wooden board: Thank you.

"You're welcome." Yu Zhao nodded calmly. They came here to protect her. If she died, they would not get the money.

Ouyang Ming asked worriedly, "A Ning, what happened just now?"

Looking at the words Ouyang Ning had written on the wooden board, his heart instantly sank to the bottom of the valley. "Are you saying that someone deliberately tampered with the formation after entering the mountains?"

"As long as someone breaks the formation, it will trigger the formation and be attacked."

He looked at the thin and silent figure in the corner, "Miss Shen, since you know the formation, do you have any other way to break it?"

Shen Yuzhuo, who was suddenly pulled, slowly raised his head, and his eyes fell on Yu Zhao, so Ouyang Ming also looked over.

Yu Zhao: “???”

No, why are you looking at her? She is not a formation cultivator.