Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

"Pfft."

With each step, the sticky black mud splashed up more than half a foot high.

The young disciple at the back of the group hurriedly pulled his right leg out of the mud.

He rubbed the soles of his feet hard against the tree trunk next to him.

Those white-soled boots, originally embroidered with the outer cloud patterns of the Azure Sky Sword Sect, were no longer recognizable as their original color, completely covered in a layer of black, foul-smelling mud.

The surrounding area was filled with large clumps of dark gray miasma.

There wasn't a breath of wind in the woods, the air was stifling, and a stench of rotting leaves mixed with the acrid smell of unknown animal carcasses, which hadn't dissipated for centuries, was emanating directly into the nostrils of these cultivators.

Visibility is extremely low.

At most, you can only see a distance of three or four steps forward.

This search team, consisting of five Qi Refining stage disciples from the Azure Sky Sword Sect, was currently trudging through waist-deep bushes.

The captain, who was walking at the front, was carrying a copper plate the size of a palm.

Normally, whenever this spirit-finding compass is taken out in the inner city, the fluctuations of spiritual energy within a ten-mile radius will be clearly displayed on the compass surface.

The faint light on the surface of the plate is now flickering.

The long red needle used to indicate direction was spinning wildly in the center of the plate.

It spins twice and gets stuck, then spins violently in the opposite direction several times, and can't stop at all.

The spiritual energy around Broken Immortal Mountain is extremely chaotic.

Not only was it thin, but it was also mixed with a large amount of violent demonic energy, rendering the Spirit-Seeking Disc a completely useless piece of scrap metal, unable to pinpoint the exact location of any target.

The captain slapped the bottom of the plate twice in frustration, then simply stuffed it back into the storage bag at his waist.

The young disciple shook the mud off his feet and brushed the prickly weeds off his clothes.

"This lousy forest is no place for a human to stay."

The young disciple grumbled with a look of disgust, not even pulling the longsword out of its sheath, using it as a walking stick to clear away weeds.

"In the middle of the night, just to search for a mortal without spiritual roots in this desolate wilderness."

"If this gets back to the sect, the senior brothers and sisters in the inner sect will probably laugh their heads off."

He rubbed the last bit of mud off his boots, feeling utterly frustrated.

"The city lord is making a mountain out of a molehill."

"He's just some bumpkin from the outer city, at best he's a bit stronger. Is it really worth sending us all out here to eat this stinking mud?"

The tall disciple in the middle of the group sneered twice.

He pulled a yellow talisman paper covered with runes drawn in cinnabar from his sleeve and dangled it between two fingers.

"What do you know? This is called the Blood Demon's rampage. We've been given a death order from above."

The tall man tilted his chin up, completely unconcerned about the pitch-black surroundings.

"But don't find it annoying."

"If we really run into that mortal named Lu Chen later, none of you should try to take him from me."

The tall man held the talisman in his hand, his tone full of contempt for mortal life.

"My high-level fiery talisman is eager to be used."

"No matter how strong he is, he's still just a mortal."

"The talisman was thrown over, and his mortal body was instantly blasted into a pile of ashes."

"We'll put the ashes in a cloth bag, take it back, and throw it in the city lord's hall. That'll complete our mission."

The captain suddenly stopped.

He turned his head sharply and reprimanded his reckless subordinates in a low voice.

"Shut up, all of you!"

The captain's gaze swept across the faces of the four people behind him.

"Do you really think this is a stroll through the sect's back mountain herb garden?"

"The night is the most dangerous time on Duanxian Mountain. It is most taboo to expose the presence or sound of living people in the darkness."

"If you keep shouting and attract those things from deep within, you won't even have a chance to swallow your life-saving pills!"

The tall man sheepishly tucked the talisman into his sleeve and stopped talking.

The team started moving forward again.

They hadn't even taken more than ten steps.

"thump!"

The short, stout disciple at the back of the group suddenly lost his footing.

Before he could even utter a sound, he plummeted downwards.

The ground that looked no different from an ordinary pile of dead leaves turned out to be a bottomless swamp.

The dead branches and leaves covering the surface of the swamp were instantly swallowed up by the black mud.

The short, stout disciple's body sank rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, the mud had submerged up to his thighs.

"save--"

He stared in horror, his mouth agape.

Several thick, dark green vines suddenly sprouted from under the mud.

The vines silently wrapped around his ankles along the black mud.

The surface of the vine is covered with sharp barbs.

The barbs pierced through the disciple's weak protective aura on his leg in an instant, embedding themselves deep into his flesh.

A sharp pain, accompanied by the weakness from being frantically drained of blood, shot straight to the short, stout disciple's head.

Blood-sucking vine.

A low-level demonic plant in Broken Immortal Mountain that hides in the mud and swamps to feed on the flesh and blood of living creatures.

The short, stout disciple was completely panicked.

He frantically formed hand seals, trying to mobilize the true energy in his dantian to cast a spell to save himself.

"Fireball!"

He chanted the incantation rapidly.

Normally, he could easily conjure fire spells the size of a water vat in the city, enough to burn down an entire brick house.

At this moment, in this miasma forest where spiritual energy was extremely scarce, he actually messed up.

Only a small red light shone in his palm.

After holding it in for a long time, the fireball was only about the size of an adult's fist.

The flames on the outer edge flickered in the damp, cold air, threatening to go out at any moment.

The short, stout disciple could only grit his teeth and slam the pitiful fireball hard against the vines tightly wrapped around his calves.

"Sizzle—"

The fireball struck the dark green vines.

A small plume of extremely foul-smelling white smoke rose up.

There was no raging fire.

It lacks the overwhelming power of immortal magic.

The pitiful sparks couldn't even burn through the outermost layer of the vine's old bark, leaving only a black mark the size of a thumb.

This insignificant burning sensation failed to repel the monster.

Instead, it completely enraged the vines below.

The thick, dark green branches suddenly tightened, their barbs churning wildly inside the flesh.

A tremendous dragging force came from underground.

"ah!!!"

The short, stout disciple let out an extremely shrill scream.

He was pulled down half a foot, and the black mud instantly submerged his waist, threatening to swallow him whole.

The captain had already returned by this time.

He gripped the hilt of the flying sword behind his back with his other hand.

"Clang!"

The flying sword was drawn from its sheath.

The captain's face turned red as he forcefully forced the little true energy he had left into the sword.

A faint blue light shone on the blade.

He lunged to the edge of the swamp and swung his longsword down hard at the taut, dark green vines below the water's surface.

The sword blade severed the vines.

Dark green, foul-smelling liquid splattered all over the ground.

The captain grabbed the short, stout disciple by the collar, and with a powerful tug, pulled him out of the mud.

The remaining three disciples quickly surrounded them to help.

Several people hurriedly dragged the person to a slightly dry and hardened open space nearby.

The short, stout disciple collapsed to the ground.

He was breathing heavily.

His calves were covered in horrific bloody gashes from the barbs, the flesh rolled outwards, and blood flowing straight down his trouser legs.

With trembling hands, he pulled a Rejuvenation Pill from his storage bag and swallowed it whole.

After taking the medicine, the bleeding in his leg finally stopped.

But his face was deathly pale, and he lay there paralyzed for a long time, unable to get up.

The arrogant air of the immortal sect that they had just displayed was utterly crushed in this sudden mud trap.

The surrounding air dropped completely to freezing point.

The breathing of the young disciples became heavy.

No one complained about the boots being dirty anymore.

No one mentioned that nonsense about using talismans to blast mortals into ashes anymore.

They originally thought it was just a high-level slaughtering task.

But now they suddenly realize it.

Without the blessing of abundant spiritual energy from heaven and earth, in this deep, unforgiving mountain forest, these so-called cultivators were in no better situation than the mortals in the outer city.

This has turned into a perilous struggle for survival.

The captain ignored the subordinate on the ground who was bandaging his wound.

He took out the spirit-finding disc from his waist again.

The pointer is still spinning erratically.

He simply put away the plate, squatted down, and his attention was drawn to an unusual feature on the ground in front of him.

It was an extremely wide and deep mark.

The trail stretched forward, disappearing into the denser miasma ahead.

The captain crawled forward two steps following the trail.

These are not the tracks of ordinary wild animals.

This is a huge ravine that is half a foot deep and more than two zhang wide.

All the withered branches and leaves in the gully were crushed to dust, and the hard, weathered rock on the surface was completely compacted, forming an incredibly flat earthen groove.

The captain extended his hand.

His fingers pressed against the thoroughly crushed soil at the bottom of the ditch.

There was no trace of spiritual energy remaining.

Suddenly, the item mentioned in the sect's secret order flashed through my mind.

A town road stele weighing 30,000 jin.

The captain's fingers trembled suddenly on the soil.

He raised his head and stared blankly at the impenetrable darkness in front of him.

A bead of cold sweat rolled down his chin and landed on the back of his hand.

"Found it...found it."

The captain's voice trembled uncontrollably, his upper and lower teeth chattering in his mouth.

"That blood demon."

"It's just ahead."