Two Realms Shuttle Gate: Don t Call Me a Demon!

Chapter 67: Chapter 65: Dangerous Ground

Clip-clop!

The crisp sound of horse hooves echoed through the forest. After more than a day of traveling, Su Jie and his group of several dozen people had moved away from near the mountain gate of Ghost Ridge Palace and had entered the outer area.

“That is Cloud Mist Mountain.”

Mounted on a Horned Scale Horse, Su Jie held a map in his hand and looked towards a mountain over six thousand meters high.

This mountain was lofty, with clouds twisting around its middle and its form imposing and extraordinary, resembling a crouching Pixiu overseeing the mortal realm. Eerie shrieks emitted from the mountain periodically.

Residing on this mountain were a male and a female Golden Winged Luan Bird, whose strength was terrifying. Even when the Sect Master of Ghost Ridge Palace had led a team to encircle and suppress them, he had been unable to subdue these two spiritual beasts.

Fortunately, these two Golden Winged Luan Birds had mild temperaments and usually stayed around Cloud Mist Mountain, coexisting peacefully with Ghost Ridge Palace.

As long as the disciples did not invade their territory, there generally was no danger.

After walking tens of miles, Su Jie and the others arrived at a strange region.

Ahead, the ground was scorched and yellowed. Numerous pitch-black holes were scattered haphazardly, from which a foul-smelling black smoke rose slowly and sinister shadows flickered within the holes.

This place also had an unusual type of flower, blood-red in color, with blooms half a meter in diameter when fully opened, extremely delicate and beautiful.

“Dismount and pass quietly.”

With a serious expression, Pei Haibing dismounted, gripping the reins and muffling the horse’s mouth as he cautiously stepped into this eerie land.

The disciples followed suit, leading their horses carefully by the reins.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Earth Shadow Cave, ranked among the top ten most dangerous places within the domain of Ghost Ridge Palace.”

This was also Su Jie’s first time here. In the continuous mountain range where Ghost Ridge Palace was situated, this Earth Shadow Cave was indeed well-known. It was one of the main transit points to the outer world, and over the years, countless lives had been lost here. Su Jie had seen numerous human skeletons half-buried in the ground.

“Alien Ghost, we have Alien Ghosts behind us.”

As the group was halfway through Earth Shadow Cave, an unexpected event occurred—several Alien Ghosts appeared within sight.

The disciples began to panic at the sight of the Alien Ghosts; fear was evident in many of the disciples’ eyes.

Some, driven by instinct, quickened their steps, only to miss one and step half into a hole. The falling rocks made a noise, and the black smoke in the holes immediately changed.

The black smoke surged out violently, as if alive, coiling around this disciple like a creature.

Within the smoke, strands of black fungal filaments spread out, invading the disciple’s eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and other parts of his body, filling him with spores. Shortly after, he was dragged into the hole, without even having time to cry out.

A minute later, a new hole appeared nearby, and green vines grew out of it, bearing buds of bright red flowers waiting to bloom.

Through the holes in the ground, the disciple who had been devoured was now entwined and covered with white fungal filaments, with vines emerging from his eyes and mouth, serving as nutrients for the flowers.

Seeing this scene, the remaining disciples felt a chill in their limbs and dared not make any noise.

Fortunately, the Alien Ghosts also feared the dangerous land of Earth Shadow Cave and merely lingered outside without entering.

Otherwise, a battle here would have made too much noise, and both sides would have been swallowed up by Earth Shadow Cave entirely.

Because they dared not make any noise, everyone moved slowly and took a half-hour to finally get through Earth Shadow Cave.

After leaving Earth Shadow Cave, they walked for another two hours, and the sky was almost dark.

Su Jie and his group of several dozen people found a flat area, tied the Horned Scale Horses to trees, and began setting up tents to camp.

…..

Under the night sky!

The disciples who had been traveling for a whole day were mostly exhausted and asleep under the cover of night.

Only a few disciples on night duty were sitting around a campfire to keep warm.

At this time, winter had already set in. Although it had not yet started snowing, the temperature was very low, making the cold night wind especially hard to endure.

“This damn weather; if it weren’t for the mission, I’d still be sleeping in a warm bed right now,” one grumbled.

“Tell me about it; we’ve only been out for a little more than a day, and we’ve already lost a brother. Once we’re out of Ghost Ridge Palace territory, if the Righteous Sect discovers us, who knows how many of us will die,” another added.

As the disciples heated themselves by the fire, they complained, but they remained vigilant, having set up numerous noise traps around, continuously scanning the surroundings to monitor any movement around the campsite.

Being in the dangerous wilderness, having a sense of alertness could save lives.

Yet, despite their vigilance, an accident still happened.

While the disciples were talking, several vague, towering dark shadows were approaching stealthily from the darkness not illuminated by the fire.

Crack!

A disciple heard a noise and was about to turn to check when he saw several Alien Ghosts lunging out of the darkness.

“Enemy attack!”

The disciples on guard screamed in shock; they hadn’t expected that with so many of them, Alien Ghosts would still venture to launch a night attack.

The screams disturbed the entire camp; as the fire flickered, disciples sleeping in their armor rushed out of their tents, only to see the shapes of Alien Ghosts.

“A bunch of useless fools, you can’t even keep watch properly,” Pei Haibing said, his face frosty. Instead of dealing with the Alien Ghosts, he confronted the disciples responsible for standing guard first.

Of the five disciples who were originally on duty, only two had survived.

“Were you on guard tonight?” Pei Haibing’s gaze settled on them.

The two disciples, with expressions of having narrowly escaped death, nodded repeatedly, “Brother Pei, we didn’t know how the Alien Ghosts got so close. We had the perimeter secured, but then…”

Before they could explain further, Pei Haibing had already made his move.

His slender, pale hands shot out like lightning, instantly crushing the necks of the two disciples, cutting off any further explanations.

“The useless only look for excuses,” Pei Haibing coldly stated as he flung away the corpses of the two disciples who died with their eyes wide open. “Finish off these Alien Ghosts, what are you standing around for?”

The disciples hurriedly turned away, not daring to look anymore, and focused on dealing with the Alien Ghosts. One by one, poisonous insects were summoned, swarming towards the Alien Ghosts.

There were four Alien Ghosts that had appeared this time, while there were more than fifty disciples, more than ten times the number of the Alien Ghosts.

Despite the powerful combat abilities of the Alien Ghosts, the difference in numbers was too great. The disciples gained the upper hand in the fight, and two of the Alien Ghosts were quickly torn apart by the poisonous insects, the toxins overwhelming their bodies and ending their lives right there.

The remaining two Alien Ghosts, seeing that things were going badly and being not low in intelligence, immediately turned and fled. They jumped into a hole outside the forest and disappeared from sight in a blink.

The disciples surrounding the Alien Ghosts looked at each other and at the hole before them, none daring to jump down to pursue.

Su Jie stepped out from the crowd, waved a torch inside the hole, and pinched some fresh soil near the hole, saying, “These are the Alien Ghosts that appeared in the Earth Shadow Cave during the day. They are quite clever, following our trail here and having learned to dig tunnels there, approaching us undetected in this manner.”

At this statement, the disciples exchanged strange looks, astonished at Su Jie’s audacity. His words were tantamount to slapping Pei Haibing in the face on the spot.

Just before, Pei Haibing had killed two guard disciples indiscriminately, but it turned out that those killed weren’t negligent in their duties, they just hadn’t expected the Alien Ghosts would launch an attack from underground—a scenario no one had anticipated, making their deaths truly unjust.