The legend begins with becoming a white deer.

"The Mysterious Stone Spirit..."

Qi Ji silently repeated these four words in his heart, and a clear premonition inexplicably rose in his heart.

He felt that he would inevitably run into this spirit beast named Xuanji Stone Spirit sooner or later.

"Yo~"

Qi Ji cried out to Shu Si like a deer.

The question is asking about the strength of this spirit beast called Xuanji Stone Spirit.

"Very strong."

Shu Si's tone was not joking at all: "The core ability of the Xuanji Stone Spirit is to devour life force. It doesn't need to lift a finger. As long as a living being enters its vicinity within a certain range, the life force in its body will be drawn out through its pores. Ordinary mortals will be hardened and turned into stone statues in an instant. Rather than calling it a spirit beast, it is more like a walking natural disaster demon beast."

Shu Si paused, then added, "Even beings that can withstand its life force being devoured must constantly lock in their vital energy and dare not let any of it leak out. Simply put, when my true form faced it, my strength was suppressed by one to two-tenths, and I was unable to go all out. In short, it is a very troublesome opponent."

"It can automatically devour the life force of living beings just by getting close, without you having to lift a finger? That sounds pretty amazing."

Upon hearing this, Qi Ji nodded.

He can release life force, and this Xuanji Stone spirit can devour life force.

One governs life, the other death; they really do sound like sworn enemies.

However, Qi Ji showed no fear.

He is far from reaching his limit. With the Spirit Pearl system, he will only get stronger over time. It is unknown whether Qi Ji can defeat this Xuanji Stone Spirit now, but his strength will only be stronger in the future.

When we run into each other, we'll just have a fight.

If he really can't win, Qi Ji can simply use his ultimate skill and risk his life.

However, Qi Ji still carefully kept the name "Xuanji Stone Spirit" firmly in his heart.

Just as Qi Ji was about to ask for more details...

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!"

Three extremely sharp whooshing sounds came from not far away!

"Um?"

Qi Jilu's ears twitched, and almost instinctively, its tail lashed out horizontally.

With two crisp "snap" sounds, the two arrows were sent flying horizontally by the whip, sparks flying everywhere.

On the other side, Shu Si waved her long sleeves, and her dark blue true energy condensed into a fox tail, which precisely caught the last arrow and casually tossed it to the ground.

"This doesn't look like an ordinary arrow."

Shu Si glanced down at the arrow on the ground.

This arrow was almost a full circle thicker than ordinary arrows, with a triangular cone-shaped arrowhead and a dark red sheen on the blade. The shaft was also engraved with fine, strange patterns, giving it an indescribably eerie appearance.

Qi Ji was about to look at the arrows on the ground as Shu Si had said when he suddenly looked up.

A giant net, several meters in diameter, descended from above!

The net rope was made of some kind of metal, and each knot was cast with a sharp spike about an inch long, gleaming coldly. If someone were covered by it, they would probably be riddled with holes in an instant.

"snort."

Without much thought, Qi Ji's antlers shone brightly with white light, and the power of [Thousand Peaks] erupted.

"Sizzle! Bang!"

The antler-shaped energy cannon crashed into the giant net instantly. With a piercing metallic tearing sound, the seemingly indestructible net was ripped into several pieces, with fragments flying everywhere.

Shu Si ignored the fragmented net above her head, her eyes scanning the surrounding darkness with a ghostly blue light.

"A lot of people have come, not the ones who were here before, but some other people," Shu Si said calmly.

Qi Ji's eyes gleamed with golden light, like fiery eyes, allowing him to clearly see the situation in the surrounding darkness.

Suddenly, figures appeared silently in the woods, on the walls, and on the rooftops.

A quick glance revealed that there were nearly two hundred people, who had subtly surrounded the buildings where they were resting.

All eyes of these people fell on Qi Ji.

"Not a human trafficker."

The human traffickers' headquarters was located on the Qingliao Embankment section of the Wanzhen Cangdi. Although Qi Ji didn't know where the Qingliao Embankment section was or how far it was from Heishi Wubao, it certainly wasn't close, otherwise there would be no need to divide it into headquarters and branches.

It hadn't even been an hour since he destroyed Blackstone Castle, so it was impossible for the human traffickers' headquarters to send people so quickly.

"So it's not aimed at the children, it's aimed at me."

A cold smile crept across Qi Ji's face; he basically knew who this group of people were.

Just like the people he had met in the Kingdom of Bilin before, they were a group of fools blinded by greed, thinking that his spirit beast was a rare commodity that could be obtained easily, and rushing to their deaths.

The commotion had already alerted the people resting inside the fortress.

"What's going on? What a loud noise!" a merchant exclaimed as he came out of the house.

"What's going on? I wanted to sleep, this is so noisy!"

"Huh, am I seeing things? Why do I feel like there are some figures around me?"

"Everyone be careful, there are people outside! And quite a few of them!"

One of the bodyguards' expressions changed, and he immediately lit a torch to illuminate the surroundings.

In the flickering firelight, everyone could see clearly.

Outside Blackstone Fortress, a large group of people stood, numbering at least one or two hundred.

The ones who attacked Qi Ji just now were only the first twenty or so people among them.

These people were all dressed in tight-fitting black outfits, their faces covered with black cloths, only their eyes were visible, clearly belonging to the same faction.

The remaining people were scattered around the perimeter, dressed in various styles, simply standing at a distance and watching.

Some people gripped their weapons warily, watching these people with suspicion and uncertainty.

"Who are these people? Could they be reinforcements for the human traffickers?"

"No, reinforcements can't arrive that quickly."

Su Yanji took a step forward, her cold gaze sweeping over the twenty-odd masked figures in black, and shouted, "Who are you? State your names!"

Faced with Su Yanji's questioning, the twenty-odd masked men seemed not to hear and remained silent.

"Let's do it!"

One of them gave a cold snort and gave the order. The others immediately drew their specially made spears from their backs. The spear tips gleamed with the same dark red light as arrows. The others nocked their arrows again and aimed at Qi Ji in the arena.

Their movements were synchronized, well-trained, and their target was clear: the spirit beast, the white deer.

But just as they were about to move, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shifted.

"boom!"

Countless tree roots and branches rushed in from all around!

Previously, Qi Ji used the "All Trees Pay Homage" technique to sweep through Black Stone Fortress. The surrounding area was mostly filled with trees that he had forced to grow. Now, with a thought, they could easily become his weapons.

The seven leaders were the first to be hit, their chests slammed hard by a tree root more than half a meter thick. They were sent flying backward like kites with broken strings, spitting out blood in mid-air.

Four of them hadn't even landed when they were entangled by layers of intertwined branches.

"Pfft p ...

The soft leaves on the branches suddenly became as hard as knives, cutting into the flesh along the seams of their clothes, and the four of them let out a piercing scream.

The remaining people also fell ill.

Or trip over tree roots.

Or be struck by a tree branch.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty masked men lay on the ground, completely unable to fight back.

Qi Ji stood still, without moving an inch.

He looked at the group of people with a somewhat speechless expression.

"Are these people brainless? I lost tens of thousands of troops in the Kingdom of Bilin before. How dare they attack me with just twenty-odd people? Aren't they just throwing their lives away?"

Qi Ji really couldn't understand what these people were thinking.

Is it underestimating him?

Or are they overestimating themselves?

Or perhaps he truly couldn't control his inner greed?

Looking at the masked men wailing all over the ground, Su Yanji instantly understood the cause and effect.

She turned to the crowd behind her and announced loudly, "Everyone, these people are not human traffickers; they've come for the White Deer spirit beast!"

"What?!"

Everyone was taken aback at first, and then many of them frowned.

"They're here to capture spirit beasts? The white deer just rescued so many children from human traffickers, it's done a great deed, and these people actually want to capture spirit beasts! Do they have no conscience at all!" A martial arts man cursed, filled with righteous indignation.

The hundred or so people on the periphery each had their own agendas.

They all followed the news of the white deer's appearance and tracked it all the way to Black Stone Fortress.

Indeed, there are some petty scoundrels in the martial arts world who covet the blood of spirit beasts and want to possess it for themselves.

There are also idle people who are just there for the fun of it and want to see something unusual.

There were also a few elderly martial artists who, having heard that the blood of spirit beasts could prolong life, had some ideas and wanted to come and see for themselves.

They were hoping to take advantage of the chaos to buy something cheap, or to see if there was an opportunity to make a move.

When they heard the words "rescued the child from human traffickers," many people were stunned for a moment.

Among the crowd, three elderly men with gray hair and beards squinted and looked into the field. They saw a group of children of all ages huddled together at the door of a house not far away, looking timidly in their direction with fear on their little faces.

The three old men exchanged glances, and each saw surprise in the other's eyes.

"How can there be so many children?"

One of them murmured softly, his brows slowly furrowing.