"What's going on?"

Xu Hei was slightly taken aback, not understanding the situation.

Could the Demon Blood Vine be afraid of demonic energy? But there was no such record in the ancient texts!

After a moment of contemplation, Xu Hei stopped the spread of demonic energy, and the Demon Blood Vine once again surrounded the Demon God Cauldron, trapping it.

When he released the demonic energy again, the Demon Blood Vine retreated once more.

Through repeated experiments, Xu Hei confirmed that the Demon Blood Vine was indeed somewhat afraid of demonic energy.

"This doesn't make sense. If demonic energy could restrain the Demon Blood Vine, there wouldn't have been so many tragedies back then," Xu Hei thought to himself.

The Demon Blood Vine, being one of the ten ancient fiends, couldn't possibly be easily restrained by something.

According to ancient records, the only thing this fiend feared was exotic flames. But these exotic flames only existed in the legendary Spirit Realm and were almost impossible to find in the human realm.

"Could it be that it's not the demonic energy that restrains it, but... the Heavenly Demon Technique?" Xu Hei pondered.

Since the Heavenly Demon Technique was effective, he decided to fully cultivate this technique, planning to advance to the fifth level before considering an escape plan.

……

At the same time, in a corner of the Land of the Moon, close to the exit.

On an ancient, decaying tree, a pair of deep, dark eyes suddenly appeared, spinning around for a long time before a voice of surprise and doubt was heard.

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Did I just sense the Heavenly Demon Technique?"

"Impossible, could it be an illusion?"

This ancient tree had existed for countless millennia, with not a single leaf, only a bare trunk and two branches resembling arms.

If a great cultivator were present, they would recognize it as the extremely rare Soul Nourishing Wood from the outside world.

"Hmm? I also smell the presence of living people. After 350,000 years, has someone finally come again?"

"Hehehe, after sleeping for so long, now there's some fun to be had."

The trunk of the ancient tree split open into an exaggerated smile, and its roots pulled out from the ground, moving like two legs as it rushed forward.

……

Wei Wudao and Ji Qing, after leaving the thicket, found a secluded place and set up a ghost-repelling formation to begin nurturing their primordial spirits.

For other cultivators, damage from burning the primordial spirit could be a major problem, requiring years or even decades of seclusion to recover.

But for the Ancient Tomb Sect, which specialized in this, they had long collected countless spirits for devouring, and it wouldn't take long to recover.

Even so, it was still a significant loss for them.

"Husband, do you think that kid can make it out alive?" Ji Qing asked.

Wei Wudao gestured, and some green dots floated over from a distance, along with a small piece of ghost vine, landing in his hand.

"According to the wandering souls, that kid was dragged away by the Demon Blood Vine, with no chance of survival!" Wei Wudao sneered.

"Haha, in that case, we can demand benefits from those Blood Refining Sect guys," Ji Qing laughed. "But I wonder if the Flame Demon Ancestor will go back on his word."

"As long as the Blood Refining Sect doesn't dominate alone, he won't dare to break his promise! Once we obtain the billion souls from Heavenly Sand Star, our cultivation technique will advance further. Perhaps we can step into the late Divine Transformation stage, and by then, the entire Divine Puppet Sect won't be worth our attention!" A gleam flashed in Wei Wudao's eyes.

Their deal with the Blood Refining Sect was to secretly eliminate Xu Hei in exchange for the billion souls from Heavenly Sand Star.

He had been hesitant, not agreeing immediately, but since such an opportunity presented itself, Xu Hei could only blame his bad luck.

……

In the center of the Land of the Moon, in a muddy swamp.

A figure, covered in mud and dirt, crawled out of the swamp. He was filthy, his clothes tattered, his face bruised, and most of the protective Sword Qi around him had dissipated, leaving him in a pitiful state.

It was Li Changge, the foremost sword cultivator of the Seven Stars.

As a late-stage Divine Transformation cultivator, to end up in such a sorry state, if seen by others, would surely shock them.

"I've roamed the mortal realm for so many years and never suffered such a loss!"

Li Changge's face was gloomy, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "The setup here isn't natural; it's man-made!"

Two days ago, he discovered a rare Sword Soul Grass in a pond, a treasure rarely seen by sword cultivators, and he didn't hesitate to capture it.

The Sword Soul Grass was intelligent and fled upon seeing people. Li Changge, confident in his divine abilities, used his flying sword to intercept it instantly.

But unexpectedly, this teleportation landed him directly in a cluster of restrictions, triggering a chain of restrictions that exploded one after another.

Magic power seals, ghostly poison gas, space storms... more than a dozen restrictions activated simultaneously, not only destroying his flying sword instantly but also severely injuring him. He barely escaped after expending five Taiyi Sword Qi, his vitality greatly damaged.

"If it had been a mid-stage Divine Transformation cultivator, they would have perished long ago!"

"I thought the Land of the Moon posed no threat to me, but it turns out someone deliberately set a trap. From now on, I mustn't act rashly when I see treasures."

Li Changge, still with lingering fear, sat cross-legged to meditate.

……

Meanwhile, similar incidents of being trapped while seeking treasures occurred throughout the Land of the Moon.

Anyone who dared to approach and pick treasures usually met a bad end.

Two days later, a Divine Transformation Ancestor from the Ancient Tomb Sect was lured by a Nether Flower into a desperate situation, ultimately self-destructing his physical body, leaving only his primordial spirit to escape with a soul banner.

Five days later, Zhang Yu, a Divine Transformation demonic beast from Sea Star, was besieged by ghosts while trying to obtain a bit of Taiyi True Water, ending up with his primordial spirit devoured.

Zhang Yu became the first fallen Divine Transformation cultivator, dying in an unknown corner, without even leaving a corpse.

……

At the edge of the Land of the Moon.

Two shadows moved closely, one behind the other. They moved slowly, stopping to observe with every step, only continuing once they confirmed it was safe.

These two were Night Owl and Han Te.

As fate would have it, Night Owl's teleportation point was at the edge of the passage, so he thought of moving along the edge and happened to encounter Han Te, who was also sticking to the edge, and they bumped into each other.

Both were skilled in concealment, and as they traveled, they encountered no danger.

"Hmm? What's that?"

Suddenly, Night Owl stopped, his dark eyes fixed on the distance.

Ahead was a pool, and in the water grew a strange plant resembling a shrub, bearing two pitch-black fruits covered in dragon scales, clearly extraordinary.

"This... is actually a black Dragon Scale Fruit!" Night Owl was stunned.

Dragon Scale Fruits, though rare in the outside world, were not unheard of, and Night Owl had obtained some before.

The older they were, the darker their color, with the highest recorded age being 100,000 years, appearing deep purple, beyond which they would wither on their own.

But a black Dragon Scale Fruit, he had never heard of!

Just as Night Owl was about to approach, Han Te's voice came from behind: "Friend Night, it's best not to approach the treasures here recklessly."