The glow of the torches twisted the shadows of the group as Zhao Chenghuang led them silently through the maze. After facing the crisis of the hanging ghosts suspended among the tree branches, they encountered a group of terrifying tree spirits—kin to the outer tree spirits, yet more frenzied and bloodthirsty. With two members lost, they managed to defeat the tree spirits along the way and successfully passed through that perilous zone. Now, they had entered the region known as the ["Forest of Stone Giants"], where, as the name suggests, the enemies of this stage should be stone giants. Yet, none had thus far been encountered. In the first stage, they had already lost two members and severely wounded two others; the two severely wounded members were expected to fall in the tree spirits' domain. The group now stood at nineteen. They could afford to lose only one more member—no more deaths were permitted. The Mountain Ghost faction had suffered minimal casualties, with only three members slain by Yuan Shi Tian Zun, and their spiritual practitioners were inherently of higher caliber than ours. Zhao Chenghuang felt a sense of weight in his heart. The members of the Shang Gui faction include evil-specialty practitioners and powerful independent scholars such as Weiwo Duzhen, though their numbers are fewer than those of the Shang Shen faction, their overall combat strength is actually quite strong. As he was pondering this, he heard Yuan Ting's voice from behind, trembling with sheer fear: "What's going on? The Yuan Shi Tian Zun and the others have suddenly returned to the maze forest!" Sun Miao Miao, Guo He Zu, Mao Shan shu-shi, and others felt their spirits sink, quickly opening the map to check. Upon looking at it, everyone lost all composure. The green light marker representing the Wuxing Alliance's team, which had just reached near the summit, had now re-entered the maze forest. Meanwhile, the markers representing the evil-specialty practitioners of the Shang Gui faction had already reached the summit. "How is this possible?" "Just a few minutes ago, I saw them arrive at the summit—this can't be right!" "Trouble! If the Shang Gui faction secures the staff, we're finished!" "This revelation sent a chill through the members of Zhao Chenghuang's team. Brimming with insight from the nearly unscathed performance of the Shangui faction in navigating the maze forest, Sun Miaomiao immediately grasped the situation, her face falling as she said, 'So it seems the insider embedded within the Wuxing Alliance has succeeded.' Zhao Chenghuang nodded gravely, his expression darkened: 'By following Yuan Shishen's team, we not only leverage Yuan Shishen's and the Heavenly Fire faction's strengths in tackling the dungeon with minimal cost, but also, upon catching up with the Wuxing Alliance team, we can launch a surprise attack to eliminate Yuan Shishen. 'A masterstroke—well thought out!' The Moshan sorcerer and Yuan Ting exchanged glances. The latter, instinctively, asked, 'What are you two talking about?' Sun Miaomiao then relayed the information about the Night Rose's appearance at the summit gathering to the two. Yuan Ting was stunned: 'I didn't know about this! What a pity—I've been stuck in the training camp, cut off from updates. And why didn't you tell me earlier? I'm not you, after all!' Sun Miao Miao simply didn't feel like complaining about him; she sighed deeply. The intelligence had been relayed from the Songhai branch to the Taiyuan Gate, and only the senior leadership had shared it with Sun Miao and Zhao Chenghuang. As both were direct descendants of the senior elders and considered future gate officials—indeed, reserve members of the senior council—their review process was stricter than that of ordinary members. Therefore, the senior leadership had only issued a gentle reminder, asking them to closely monitor the activities of the six accompanying Ye You Shen. To prevent the possibility of internal spies. Yet Sun Miao believed that among the eight Ye You Shen who entered the killing realm, the possibility of the Maoshan shaman and Yuan Ting being spies was low. Especially the latter—how could the Night Rose, known for her sharp mind, have imagined Yuan Ting as a traitor? The group, already at the brink of despair, suddenly rallied. They immediately unfolded the map and indeed saw two faint green glimmers appearing at the edge of a large cluster of red markers. Meanwhile, the other green markers were rapidly moving toward the summit. Unexpectedly, Su Miao-miao, Zhao Chenghuang, Guo Hezu, and the others simultaneously thought of the same thing: The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign! One of those two glimmers was clearly the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign—without any reason, by instinct, they knew it. Only those who had faced the Grand Arena matches understood just how tenacious and cunning the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign could be. Such a person would not be easily defeated by simple schemes; even if he stumbled in the final stretch, he would still struggle to rise, splashing his adversaries with foul mud. Zhao Chenghuang felt unusually complex—both exhilarated and tense—and declared with conviction: "Make every sacrifice. Move swiftly to complete the journey. The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign won't last long." As soon as the words fell, a heavy footfall echoed from ahead. From the darkness ahead, a figure approaching nearly three meters tall slowly advanced toward the group. Its body was a pale brown, as if composed of stacked stones. On the rounded stone forming its head, there were no distinct facial features. With every step it took, the ground trembled slightly. Sun Miao-miao shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're racing against time—we must not hold back. We need to give it our all and eliminate it, supporting Yuan-Shi Tian-Zun. Should the Mountain Ghosts secure the staff, we will surely lose." "Understood!" The members of the Five Elements Alliance and the orderly independent practitioners responded with remarkable unity and cohesion, speaking in unison. ... "Yuan-Shi Tian-Zun?" The mute at the temple gate suddenly stiffened, then issued a sharp, slightly piercing question: "How did you come back? How did you come back?" He had never doubted Yuan Shi Tian Zun's abilities, but based on their encounters on the arena, he was certain Yuan Shi Tian Zun hadn't possessed such a technique—indeed, he had never seen anything resembling a teleportation effect before. It had completely reached into his knowledge blind spot. The members of the Shan Gui camp were equally stunned, pausing mid-step and facing off directly with Qian Ya and Yuan Shi Tian Zun by the smooth stone path. At the same time, they carefully scanned the surroundings to confirm whether the members of the Wu Xing Alliance had also returned. Zhang Yuanqing observed the expressions of these opponents without comment, turning instead to the mute, gritting his teeth and saying: "So, you've been the traitor all along. I must admit, I didn't expect that. But that doesn't prevent me from holding back a reserve move." "The one with poor musical talent reached out toward the air beside him, plucking a dark bamboo flute from it, and gritted his teeth, asking, 'Besides Tian Xu Gui Huo and the boy selling matches, do you have any other suspects?' If not, then with both of them under control, Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn wouldn't have reserved a backup plan. Seeing the mountain ghost faction members gazing at him without immediately launching an attack, Zhang Yuanqing was delighted to gain time, and explained, 'When Tian Xu Gui Huo reminded me that after gathering everyone, I noticed no unusual behavior, and his method of solving the spatial movement issue was devised only after we all came together—actually, even after you returned to our group. So, how did the members of the mountain ghost faction manage to pass through without any damage? I thought of a possibility—perhaps someone had already figured out the solution in advance. Maybe even stepped out of the forest of movement before we did. Therefore, when we finally emerged from the forest, no one received the reward.'" If this person is a traitor, then either their refusal to hand over the reward items, or the fact that members of the Shanggui faction are unaffected by spatial movement and swiftly exit the forest—both now make perfect sense. "Then I began to wonder: why doesn't the traitor hand over the rewards? He could simply remain hidden, waiting for the perfect moment to strike me down with a decisive blow—instead of escalating tensions early on and forcing me and everyone else to be open and transparent. "The only explanation is that he believes the decisive blow is already at hand. Combined with the nature of the 'Forest of Movement,' isn't it clear that all the rewards are directly tied to the dangers we've encountered? "I can easily deduce that the traitor has obtained a spatial mobility item—therefore, I can now infer what he intends to do." The person who was a natural-born non-musician, standing at the temple gate, scoffed, "So you're relying on that ability you just demonstrated—like a teleportation—waiting for me to act? Hmph. But haven't you forgotten that once I can teleport you once, I can certainly do it again." "With that, he turned to Bai Wu Ji Bian on the opposite side of the open ground and declared loudly, 'The woman is equipped with a full set—don't waste time. Simply teleport them away.' He was concerned that the evil-class characters might be confused and attempt to kill Yuan Shi Tian Zun at this critical moment. Though his side had the numerical advantage, the woman's full set was no ordinary gear, and Yuan Shi Tian Zun, being a night-wanderer, possessed an exceptional skill for evading combat—making it difficult to eliminate them. At this stage, the priority was to secure the staff. Once they had the staff, the Shan Gui faction would gain a decisive advantage, and there would be no fear of missing the opportunity to defeat Yuan Shi Tian Zun. Meanwhile, Bai Wu Ji Bian spread out his hands and remarked, 'Well done—indeed, a true genius recognized by the official as the master of副本strategy. A formidable opponent!' As he spoke, a shimmer of green light gathered in his palm, forming a miniature forest map, which he activated immediately. The sandscapes dissolved into shimmering fragments, enveloping Guan Ya and Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn ten meters away, yet their forms did not vanish—they instead fragmented like shadows. Witnessing this, the mute man at the temple gate, along with the array of evil professionals, felt a sudden surge of alarm. The very next moment, the mute heard a cold laugh echo behind him: "I'm right here at the temple." Before he could react, his vision spun—sky, ground, stone temple, all whirring past like a wheel—until finally, he saw his own body standing at the temple entrance. His neck was hollow, blood gushing out in a fountain from a wound the size of a bowl. Behind him stood Yuan Shǐ Tian Zūn, holding a bright willow blade, his gaze slanted downward, a mocking curve forming at the corners of his lips. "Save me... save me..." The mute's head rolled down the stone steps, his mouth opening and then closing, his eyes dimming as if the light within them had faded. Attacking a musician was no challenge at all... Zhang Yuanqing kicked the figure in front of him off the steps, holding his blade aimed at Ai Yi and the others, and sneered, "Can you teleport one more time?" The group, led by the plump man, furrowed their brows—both impressed by the opponent's skill and dissatisfied with his arrogant demeanor. From the very beginning, Zhang Yuanqing's destination upon teleportation had been the Temple of the Mountain God. The two figures standing on the open ground were not his true forms, but illusions created by the ghost bride's magic. This magic had proven capable of deceiving even the most skilled illusionists, as demonstrated during the earlier ambush battle. Zhang Yuanqing had deliberately chosen this strategy to lure out the ghost bride's ultimate move. He had anticipated that the opposing team—filled with rational and intelligent members—would rely on teleportation tools. Just as Zhuge Liang's Empty City Strategy relied on the assumption that Sima Yi would fall for it. If the opponent were Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang would certainly have hesitated to display his intelligence. Similarly, if the opponents were a group of fire masters, Zhang Yuanqing would not employ illusion techniques but instead directly deploy the Yin-Yang Array. Once the array is activated, everyone will be enclosed within it for five minutes, rendering the transportation items useless. In fact, he had originally intended to keep one transportation jade token reserved—unless someone truly couldn't endure. However, with so many enemies, he was forced to divide his only two tokens, giving one to Guan Ya. Old Lady Si Ji excels in combat, possesses an unbeatable fighting style, has powerful gear bonuses, and is armed with a devastatingly effective rifle—her overall combat strength is exceptionally formidable. Only by securing her can Zhang Yuanqing feel confident in holding off this group. Advancing a few steps, he declared, "Master Yuan-Shi, you may be clever in many ways, but with you and the woman behind you, it seems insufficient to withstand us." At this moment, among the twenty-two spiritual realm practitioners of the Mountain Ghost faction, only Master Yuan-Shi and the mixed-race woman wearing the suit had confirmed their return. Zhang Yuanqing examined the top-ranked cultivator on the list of independent practitioners and directly asked, "Are you from the Night Rose?" Wei Wu Du Zhusan nodded. As for the nine-leak fish holding two swords, he also smiled and said, "I am too! All of us who have chosen to remain within the Shenggui faction are cultivators trained by the Night Rose. The organization has assigned us to kill you, and I personally enjoy this mission—facing off against a strong opponent like you is truly exciting." He raised his two swords and launched the first attack. A flash of fire split the bullet speeding toward them in two, it plunged into the forest behind the group with two soft thuds, embedding itself perfectly into the tree trunks. Jian Ya landed gracefully, her hands gripping the ground, the creases at her knuckles bursting open, blood dripping steadily down her forearms. Holding her rifle, Guan Ya walked to the temple gate, tying her hair into a neat, spirited ponytail. The shimmer in her eyes, deep and liquid, carried a clear intensity of battle. Though they were enemies facing each other in life and death, the beauty of such a refined woman before them still left everyone in awe. At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing had already reached the back soil boots and donned them. He looked at the enemy forces of the Mountain Spirit faction and said, "By my personal strength, I certainly cannot hold off your advance. That's why I've left these boots here in advance." As he spoke, a thick, golden haze filled his pupils, his presence rising step by step, surpassing the Transcendent Realm and approaching the level of a Saint. Back Soil Boots — the Spirit of the Mountain! This sage-tier item possesses certain skills of a "mountain deity," enabling it to transmute a designated region into a "deity" within that area—particularly potent in deep, remote forests, where the wielder's power grows stronger after such transmutation. The cost to activate this ability is time! Transmutation takes time. Thus, when Zhang Yuanqing reached the summit, he secretly left the item on the open ground, granting it the necessary time. At present, he is no longer a transcendent traveler of the extraordinary realm, but merely a sage of fourth rank.