"Let's go and talk as we move!" Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the team members, stepped forward first, and said, "Who's in charge of timing? Before the next five minutes pass, we'll have to go back to being statues. The one responsible for tracking the route—please report it right away..." After issuing these instructions clearly and concisely, he added, "The spiritual realm quest mentions that the powers of the evil cultivators have seeped into the quest area. As long as we understand what kind of profession the evil cultivators are, we can deduce the origin of the crisis and respond accordingly." Tian Xia Gui nodded in realization, exclaiming, "Master Yun!" "Master Yun..." Bai Hu Wan Shui seemed to have something come to him suddenly, and brightened up: "When I was on the outer layers, I collected those colorful fungi and fruits. I always felt their patterns were familiar. Now I understand—they're the patterns of the eyes that enchant." This remark made Zhang Yuanqing pause, and he realized why he had always found the patterns on the mushrooms so familiar. In terms of observation, scouts truly stand out... Zhang Yuanqing said, "Exactly. The evil cultivators mentioned in the side quests are actually the spirits that bewitch—those mushrooms forming the outer layer are actually a hint. If we had figured this out earlier, we wouldn't have needed to lose so many lives. The best way to counter the Mist Sovereign is simply to remain still, making it impossible for her to detect us." Hearing this, the official travelers fully grasped the point. "You truly are no ordinary one, Yuan-Shi Tian-Zun—you're a genius when it comes to tackling quest dungeons. From now on, whenever you tell me to go east, I'll never go west!" A fire cultivator, chest puffed out, spoke with genuine enthusiasm. "What an extraordinary insight! How did you manage to grasp all these complex details so quickly? This is truly divine wisdom," admired Jiang Jingwei, his eyes filled with admiration. Not bad at all—though it's not exactly something he's been striving for, the feeling of being praised by others is genuinely pleasant. Zhang Yuanqing gently stroked Jiang Jingwei's head and suddenly understood why Fu Qingyang had come to appreciate him. In fact, once you understand the root of the mist, this challenge becomes manageable—though under normal circumstances, it's difficult to connect the seemingly ordinary mist with the mist leader's abilities. He's especially perceptive due to his psychological reservations, which is why he's able to act faster than everyone else. Is it really that extraordinary a level of wisdom? The team members smile warmly, and the atmosphere feels unexpectedly relaxed. They once again feel the ease that comes from knowing there's a true expert among them. Gathering such a diverse pool of intelligence, skills, and experience, they might well unravel the mist's origin and figure out a response within five minutes—assuming they don't lose several members. But that would require many casualties. Now, however, they've barely thought much, and Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn has already solved the problem—this is the advantage of following a true leader through a dungeon run. They're simply winning by staying put! "It's been four minutes," Reminded Guan Ya. She's always been so reliable. The murmurs instantly ceased. The group halted in place, stiffening like lifeless statues, motionless. Zhang Yuanqing stopped and summoned his spiritual awareness, his body transcending into a state of ethereal presence. He lifted a leaf from the ground and held it suspended in the air. Time passed—one second, then another—five minutes swiftly arrived. In his inner consciousness, counting each passing moment, Zhang Yuanqing (in his spiritual form) gently released the leaf, sending it spiraling outward, stirring the delicate, gauze-like mist. "Crack!" The yellow, thin, brittle leaf suddenly fractured into four or five pieces. At that precise instant, Zhang Yuanqing clearly observed a fine, barely visible thread extending from the tree's crown, tightly wrapping around and crushing the leaf. The assailant's method of attack was a thread? That explained how they could strike silently and sever a head without a sound. Zhang Yuanqing's spiritual form surged upward, drifting toward the tree's crown. This time, he clearly saw the attacker: a spider, about the size of a large bowl, with a rounded abdomen, eight legs, red eyes, formed entirely of dense mist. The patterns on its back were It wasn't clinging to the tree canopy but climbing through the thick mist—thin as a gauze veil, the mist itself resembled the fine web it wove, allowing it to move freely within the fog. Zhang Yuanqing expanded his spiritual force and reached out toward the mesmerizing spider, attempting to grasp it with the technique of manipulating objects through his spiritual body. Yet, at the very moment his fingers touched the spider, the body the size of a large basin suddenly shattered, dissolving into a turbulent, scattered mist. No solid form? Zhang Yuanqing furrowed his brow, glanced around, then sank his spiritual body back into his physical form. For the following period, the group proceeded steadily, maintaining a rhythm of walking for four minutes and pausing for one minute, moving without incident. About half an hour later, the dense fog gradually thinned, revealing the silhouettes of surrounding trees and the outlines of their companions—seeming to have emerged beyond the realm of thick mist. After walking a few more minutes, the group completely emerged from the thick mist. Looking back, they saw a still, immobile veil of mist drifting gently among the tree trunks, occasionally lazily shifting. 】 【Note 1: By dispersing its body, a dense fog covering a radius of 100 meters can be created, lasting for five minutes; every minute, the fog spider kills one person.】 【Note 2: As a consumable, it comes with no cost.】 Zhang Yuanqing was both astonished and delighted—delighted by the strength of the consumable rewards, and astonished that the summit battle would likely be exceptionally intense and perilous. They could earn these rewards even if they were evil-aligned. Fortunately, the lawful-aligned side had three full teams, while the evil-aligned side had only one. However, this would create an imbalance in combat strength between the two sides. While pondering this, Zhang Yuanqing turned to his teammates and asked, “Have any of you received consumable rewards?” “No, only 10 points,” they all shook their heads. It seemed the rewards were granted exclusively to the explorers. Zhang Yuanqing nodded slightly. At that moment, he heard Reina Asano, who was all muddy and dirty, exclaim, "Sssoo? The scores of the Evil faction are so high..." and everyone hurried to check the scoreboard. [1: A Yi, Wugu Master, Level 3, 170 points] [2: Only I Am Supreme, Water Spirit, Level 3, 165 points] [3: Boundless Opportunities, Enchanted Spirit, Level 3, 155 points] [4: Original Heavenly Sovereign, Night-Wandering Spirit, Level 3, 150 points] [5: Nine-Leak Fish, Scout, Level 3, 130 points] [6: Shatter the Celestial Roofs, Wugu Master, Level 3, 120 points] [7: Zhao City Spirit, Night-Wandering Spirit, Level 3, 100 points] [8: Sun Miao Miao, Night-Wandering Spirit, Level 3, 93 points] [9: Jiang Jingwei, Fire Master, Level 3, 80 points] [10: My Fate Lies in My Own Hands, Illusionist, Level 3, 78 points] Worse still, the list of the top twenty has undergone significant changes, with the evil faction now occupying two-thirds of the spots, while the remaining one-third is shared equally between the official and lawful independent practitioners. Some of the official practitioners who previously ranked among the top twenty have now slipped out of the Saint-level slots. Tianxie Guichen remarked, "The evil faction has dropped out the Tree King and Monkey King." It's clear that the evil faction's surge in points must stem from eliminating the two outermost bosses—risk and reward are directly proportional. The cowherd mountain fairy with her bun hairstyle furrowed her brows, saying, "We must catch up on points at the second stage, and ideally surpass them; otherwise, once they begin hunting a certain number of lawful independent practitioners, it will become difficult to turn the tide." Figures like Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn, even if not among the very best, can still secure a spot in the top ten. Yet these practitioners may well find themselves without hope. Guan Ya also frowned, noting, "Have you noticed that several lawful practitioners have fallen in the second stage?" Currently, the leaderboard shows 75 participants, while at the start of the second stage, the total number is 83. The eight members who have been lost are all from the Lawful faction. This indicates that the other two teams have also suffered significant casualties—many more will likely fall as they navigate through the maze. Consequently, the ratio between Lawful and Chaotic factions will shrink considerably. The Chaotic faction's combat strength and quality are actually superior to the Lawful ones. Zhang Yuan glanced at his teammates and frowned, saying, "At the beginning, my points barely made it into the top ten. Now? Don't let the temporary leaderboard rankings affect your mindset—until the very end, the leaderboard holds no real significance. 'The Chaotic faction are all paper tigers. By the time we reach the summit, I'll have every one of you in the top twenty.' As a leader, the ability to paint an optimistic picture is essential—it effectively boosts morale. Indeed, the team members' expressions relaxed, and their spirits were renewed. … Zhao Chenghuang knocked out the last teammate, left the fallen allies scattered around, and walked straight to the base of the tree where the body hung. With a swift stroke of his sharp claws, he gently parted the body. The corpse "plink" fell to the ground, shattering into pieces, its bones and sinews broken. The body had already been decayed and was unusually fragile. Standing beside it, Zhao Chenghuang examined it carefully, then knelt down and used his sharp claws to extract the two bright red eyeballs still embedded in the body's sockets. 【叮！You have dispelled the "corpse shrouded in resentment," receiving a consumable item: The Eyes of the Enchanted Spirit.】 After reviewing the item details, Zhao Chenghuang calmly placed it in his inventory and turned to Yuan Ting. "Report the casualty situation." "Two have died, four are severely injured, and the rest have minor injuries—overall, it's manageable." Yuan Ting reported the findings. Zhao Chenghuang paused slightly, then asked, "Among the severely injured, are there any from the Five Elements Alliance?" "Two!" Zhao Chenghuang pulled out a tube of diluted life essence, "Each of you receive half a tube." As for the two severely injured independent cultivators, he simply decided to forgo their aid—he had no obligation to them in the killing quest. After Yuan Ting had received the life essence, Zhao Chenghuang glanced over Sun Miao Miao and the others, saying, "The evil faction will soon enter the second stage. We need to move faster. Even if we have to sacrifice more people, we must not let the evil faction reach the summit ahead of us." Otherwise, it would be game over. Having been closely monitoring the leaderboard, he had already noticed the shifts in rankings. As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Miao Miao and the others received a spiritual realm notification: 【Ping! The mountain ghost faction has successfully reached the maze forest. Location tracking is now active. Please keep an eye on the progress of the opposing factions and make your way to the mountain deity temple as soon as possible.】 …… "So quickly?" Zhang Yuanqing was momentarily stunned. Following the notification, he mentally summoned it, as if opening the leaderboard, and revealed a map visible only to himself. The map is a bird’s-eye view of a vast forest, dotted with intricate routes. At this moment, three green cursors are spread across the "left, center, and right" sections of the maze-like forest, representing three distinct orderly squads. In the central mountain pass, however, a red cursor has appeared—without any additional note, Zhang Yuanqing can immediately deduce it signifies the evil faction. Worse still, the central mountain road is the very path they have just taken. That means the evil faction is now behind them. "They've chosen the same route as ours." "Are they trying to overtake us? Hmph—those attackers in the mist will teach us what it means to be human." "We'd better move quickly and not get caught by them." The team members, after studying the map, begin to discuss. Guan Ya raises an eyebrow, asking, "Is there a chance of ambush?" She means that since both sides have selected the same path, they might wait for the enemy, set up a trap, and eliminate the entire evil faction in one go. "We have positioning!" Zhang Yuanqing said with irritation, "How come they're setting up ambushes?"