Why did you provoke her? Even Heaven itself is afraid of her.

Ling Yun was deep in thought when Long Xiu suddenly spoke, breaking the brief silence:

"Senior, judging from what you're saying, the old man behind this is acting very strangely. His purpose is probably not just to have you protect the village, is it?"

After all, what is there to protect about a village?

Thinking of this, Long Xiu couldn't help but look around. No matter how you looked at it, this village seemed no different from anything else.

But he absolutely refused to believe that the old man had gone to such great lengths to present Senior Xuantian with a spirit box containing the remnant soul of his friend.

According to Senior Xuantian, this spirit box is no ordinary object.

Tianxuan nodded slightly, his expression solemn:

“What you say is absolutely right, young friend. I have been worried about this matter for years. I have searched this village over and over again, no less than a thousand times, but I have found nothing. It seems to be just an ordinary village.”

But the more this was the case, the more uneasy he felt.

Moreover, for the past thousand years, everything in this village has been peaceful and uneventful, without a single suspicious detail.

Upon hearing this, Long Xiu and the others frowned, their eyes sharpening. Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, they continued:

"Since the village itself is perfectly normal, could the key be not the village itself, but its location?"

Upon hearing this, Tianxuan shook his head and sighed:

"At first I also made the same guess and conducted a thorough investigation around the village, but I did not find anything unusual."

"So what exactly is it about this place that made that old man go to such lengths to have you guard it?"

Even Mo Yu couldn't help but raise doubts this time.

Xuan Tian shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

Ling Yun snapped out of his reverie, scanned the crowd, and said calmly:

"Has anything unusual happened before the old man appeared?"

Xuan Tian was taken aback by Ling Yun's words, then frowned and fell into deep reminiscence.

After a long while, he suddenly looked up, a glint of light flashing in his eyes:

"A few days before the old man appeared, I vaguely sensed a strange fluctuation while I was cultivating."

The fluctuation was extremely faint; if I hadn't been in a deep meditative state at the time, I would have hardly noticed it.

At the time, I thought it was just a hallucination caused by my cultivation, so I didn't pay any attention to it.

Looking back now, however, the fluctuations seemed unusual, as if they were deliberately orchestrated.

It seemed like it was intentionally designed to make him aware of it, but without letting him discover it.

Another point.

The old man seemed to know him all too well.

Even his master was unaware of his relationship with the Demon Lord.

So how did the old man find out?

Despite his own superior cultivation level, he was instead entrusted with guarding the village.

"Is the place where you cultivate not far from this village?"

Ling Yun suddenly asked.

Xuan Tian once again recalled the place where he had cultivated in the past.

"Indeed, it's not far from this village."

He had never thought about that.

Now, with Ling Yun's explanation, the coincidences seem increasingly strange.

Long Xiu then realized the problem and asked urgently:

"Senior, where do you cultivate? Why don't we go and find out now?"

----------

In order not to waste time, Meiniang and her daughter, along with Long Xiu's mother, stayed in the village, while Xiao Peng was left behind to protect them.

Led by Xuan Tian, ​​Ling Yun and the others headed northwest of the village.

Along the way, everyone vigilantly observed their surroundings, not letting any suspicious place slip by.

When they reached the edge of a dense forest, Mo Yu suddenly stopped, his expression grave:

"Everyone be careful, I sense something's off about the atmosphere here."

Not only Mo Yu, but others also noticed that something was wrong.

Just then, a gigantic monster burst out of the forest. Its body radiated an eerie green light, its eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty light, and it opened its blood-red maw, lunging at the group.

Long Xiu made the first move, brandishing his longsword and unleashing a sharp sword aura towards the demon beast.

The monster nimbly dodged the sword energy, swung its claws, and created a gust of wind.

Long Xiu shouted and rushed forward, gathering his spiritual power in his fists and smashing them fiercely at the demon beast.

Watching Long Xiu fight, Xuan Tian wanted to step forward to help, but Ling Yun grabbed him.

Xuan Tian was somewhat puzzled.

"He can handle it."

In an instant, Xuan Tian understood that Ling Yun was training the dragon cultivator.

Along the way, he also learned that Long Xiu was Ling Yun's disciple.

He was somewhat jealous of this.

He wanted to become Lingyun's apprentice back then, but she made it clear that she didn't like taking on disciples.

But his feelings towards Long Xiu were merely jealousy.

Sure enough, a moment later, Long Xiu dealt with the demon beast.

"Master, is there a problem?"

After defeating the monster, Long Xiu returned to Ling Yun's side.

Ling Yun's gaze remained fixed on the demonic beast that Long Xiu had killed, which puzzled Long Xiu.

Mo Yu and Xuan Tian couldn't help but follow Ling Yun's gaze.

"Sister, what's wrong?"

Mo Yu didn't notice anything.

Ling Yun did not answer Mo Yu immediately, but instead looked at Xuan Tian and asked:

"The formation inside the village shouldn't have been set up by you."

“Ancestor, you know I don’t know any formations.”

He had considered learning formation techniques back then, thinking that formation masters were very impressive.

As it turned out, my mental strength wasn't strong enough, and I wasn't cut out for learning formations at all.

So even now, despite having received guidance from Ling Yun back then, he is still just an apprentice in formations.

"We were attacked by monsters outside the village, didn't you notice?"

"A monster attack?"

Xuan Tian was stunned. He only realized someone had arrived when he sensed the aura of the spirit box.

As for the monsters outside the village, he had no idea.

Even Long Xiu and Mo Yu were taken aback.

"Let's continue."

Ling Yun had no intention of continuing.

The other three exchanged glances and followed.

The group continued deeper into the forest, where the surrounding trees grew taller and denser, and sunlight filtered through the layers of branches and leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

As they walked, Tianxuan suddenly stopped and pointed to a slightly sunken patch of ground ahead, saying:

"I cultivated here back then."

Ling Yun carefully observed his surroundings and saw that although the area seemed ordinary, there were some irregular marks on the ground, as if it had been impacted by some kind of force.

She crouched down and touched the marks.

Then a faint yet familiar aura emanated from his fingertips, echoing the strange fluctuations Tianxuan had described earlier.

Mo Yu paced around the area, searching, and suddenly discovered an inconspicuous small hole under a large tree.

He crouched down and poured his spiritual energy into it, trying to sense the situation inside.

In an instant, a beam of light shot out from the small hole, outlining a blurry pattern in mid-air, like a corner of some ancient array.

"Come and take a look!"

At this moment, Mo Yu shouted.

The crowd gathered around, gazing at the faintly glowing array patterns. Tianxuan said solemnly:

"This pattern is somewhat similar to a demonic forbidden array I saw in an ancient book, but it is too incomplete to determine the whole picture."

Ling Yun pondered for a moment and said:

"Whatever it is, it's inextricably linked to that old man and the spirit box. Let's keep searching; there might be other clues."