/*unedited*/

The figure of a beautiful woman with but with a ghastly aura surprised the people in the crowd. Though she is moving and seems like a living being, yet her skin tone and complexion is that of a corpse. The appearance of the beautiful corpse has made everyone stunned and at the same time feels an extreme sense of danger.

The aura exuding around her clearly shows that she is a powerful cultivator at the infant soul realm. Upon discovering this n.o.body dares move, but everyone is gripping their weapons tightly. Though they are not a match for the woman nevertheless, they are willing to fight it out if worse comes to worst.

The man behind Jin Fu's group immediately moved backward in fear as his bodyguards move in front of him. From behind he carefully observes the woman.

"What a waste of an exquisite beauty… but she still has the attractiveness of a woman in her… Kekeke." The man thought.

Then his eyes went towards the women who stood behind Jin Fu, especially Ling Ya. Then a burning desire suddenly enters his mind and slowly corrupted his thinking. Unknown to him an invisible strand coming from the miasma is actually entering his body through the ground. This slowly fuels his desire and worldly cravings and twisted it into something ghastly.

Because of the appearance of Mer Li, tiny strands of invisible mist began to spread towards the cultivators in the area making their innermost evil designs come out. Then Mer Li's eyes suddenly turn towards a group of people. Not all of the more than six hundred remaining cultivators in the area are actually affected. Some of them which are in a group are protected by thin layers of barriers. This means that there are many array formation experts in the crowd.

With a satisfied nod, Mer Li showed an indifferent look and threw out many palm-sized circular wooden slabs with some rune engraving on it.

"Follow!" she muttered as she turns around and directly enters the miasma.

Jin Fu and his group with is under the array formation made by Ling Ya also received a wooden slab. When they heard the woman's voice, they didn't hesitate and immediately followed. Along with them is also around 15 more groups of people who also receive a palm-size wooden slab.

As they enter the miasma, they noticed that as long as they are within the range of the slab, they can enter it without any harm. It would actually part and clear their path like a living creature leading them inside its lair.

Meanwhile, when the rest of the people in the outer perimeter saw this, they became enraged. The man with his eyes already red in anger and heart filled with the desire to ravage girls suddenly roared. His eyes immediately caught a group of people composed of four women cultivators with veils over their faces. With his reasoning already clouded by the miasma, he immediately pounces towards the four women.

When the other people saw this scene, they all did the same and acted like animals running towards their prey. Upon seeing this situation the four women's eyes turned into slits as they immediately brought out their weapons. All four of them use whips as their weapon. The whips in their hands are not made of leather, but instead that of metal. They are like dagger blades linked together and in an expert's hand, it can turn into a sword or a whip with just a flick of a finger.

"Sisters don't mind them, let's just hurry and enter." The one who seems to be their leader said as she walks forward.

As she is the one holding the wooden slab she can already ascertain its effect and with it she knows that their safety in entering the miasma is a.s.sured.

When their group enters the dark green mist area, the hand of the young man which is already extended only caught air. But the man wasn't satisfied so without a second thought he immediately rushed inside the miasma along with the rest of the men chasing after the women. The remaining cultivators in the area started to fight against themselves, chase some phantoms from their minds, or immerse in acts of lasciviousness and s.e.xual desire both men and women, as their minds are already clouded with the effect of the miasma.

But not everyone in the area are doing the same thing as there are those who receive the pal sized wooden slab but didn't bother to move or enter. Instead, they decided to retreat out of the forest.

"Sir, should we report this to the mayor?" a man wearing a gray hooded robe suddenly asked the person in front of him.

Their group is composed of twenty people, which acted as the long-range attackers in the fight with the undead dragon. Throughout the journey, they only acted like observers and would casually help out if it needs to be for defense. But even though they stayed pa.s.sive, they still lost ten people in the fight against the Bell Toothed plants.

"Yes, we need to bring back this slab for research." The man holding a slab which seems to be their leader said.

Then their figures flickered and suddenly disappear as they started to run back.

There are many groups just like them who didn't bother to enter the miasma and just decided to escape. Relying on the wooden slabs in their hands, they began to see the mist on their path clearing away as they retreat.

Unknown to them from above many small birds are flying from tree to tree as if watching their every movement. Su Aw which is currently in his small hut with the mayor's son who is still convulsing as if suffering great pain showed an evil sneer in his now crooked face.

"Where do you think you all are going? Kekeke… You think that I'm that easy to bully. After killing my dragon you can just leave… Hihihi…" he chuckled evilly as a flash of sinister light appear from his eyes.

…

A few moments ago… at the edge of the forest, a person wearing a camouflage cloak slowly approaches a young woman on the ground. The young woman has already had both of her hands eaten by an undead beast. And she seems to have already fainted.

"Sigh… may you…" the young man muttered but suddenly stopped.

He suddenly noticed that within the body of the woman is an indistinct aura which made him curious. He squatted down and carefully checked the woman's injury. Then he took out a syringe and injected it on her thigh. Then he took out a first aid kit, carefully cleaned her wound and wrapped it with gauze.

The young woman woke up, not long later and found herself lying on the ground.

"Ugh… What… what happened? Am… am I dead." She muttered as she tried to adjust her eyesight.

She is now looking at the misty sky with the start already high up, which means that it's already night time. Then she remembers what happened and with a horrified expression, her gaze turns to her arms. From her feeling alone she already knows that she has already lost both of her arms. Then she saw that from her elbow down everything is missing. But suddenly she noticed that both her arms are covered and wrapped in a thin white cloth.

"Oh, you're awake! How do you feel?" suddenly a voice interrupted her stupor.

Then she cautiously turns her gaze to her right and saw a handsome young man wearing a multi-colored cloak like that of the forest's leaves and smiling at her amicably, this young man is s.h.i.+n Jiao.

s.h.i.+n Jiao slowly approached the young woman lying on the ground.

"How do you feel?" he asked with a warm tone.

"I… I…" the woman suddenly turned dizzy and is unable to make heads or tails of the situation she is in.

"My name is s.h.i.+n Jiao, I saw you being attacked and helped. And you are?" s.h.i.+n Jiao asked as he squatted near the young woman carefully checking her wound.

"I… I'm Jiyi." She answered with hesitation.

s.h.i.+n Jiao clearly knows that it was not her real name but didn't mind it.

"You just lost both of your arms, so right now you needed to rest… You stay here. I still need to enter the forest and save my friends." s.h.i.+n Jiao said as he stood up and started to walk towards the forest area.

"No… No, wait. It's dangerous in there. Many have already fallen because of the trap." Jiyi said in a panic after hearing that s.h.i.+n Jiao is going to enter the forest.

"Don't worry, I already know. You just remember to stay in that spot. I have already set up an array formation in this area. No undead beast can detect your presence or even enter this place." s.h.i.+n Jiao said.

"But… but… you save my life. I don't want you to lose yours." She muttered under her breath.

"Haha… thank you for that. You're a grateful person, I like that. Don't worry, I'll come back and get you." s.h.i.+n Jiao said.

"Wait… Can… can I come instead." She suddenly said.

She didn't know why but upon seeing the confident look on the young man's face, she suddenly feels that she can fully trust his strength. And so she steeled her heart and decided to follow him into the forest.

Then suddenly, they heard the sound of fighting.

s.h.i.+n Jiao turned his gaze towards the area of the sound and put on his goggles. When he saw the situation his expression turned serious.