The sky collapsed and the earth cracked, the wind and clouds changed color. Not only below the cliff, but everything here crumbled bit by bit with the self-destruction of the White Tiger's body.

After killing Yu Nuo, the golden bird spread its wings and flew upward, as if protecting everyone. When the huge rocks fell from above, before they could smash down, they were already incinerated to ashes by the flames surrounding the bird.

Under the protection of the great bird, everyone rode their flying magic weapons and followed it upward.

Zhou Chen actually only wanted to protect Zhou Yin, the others just happened to benefit as well.

This Lianyin Immortal Residence was built with the flesh, blood and spiritual power of the White Tiger. Now that the White Tiger exchanged its shattered soul for their escape, this place naturally also quickly vanished along with it.

Behind those shattered rocks, what they saw was not darkness, but a ray of sunlight shining in.

Everyone's spirits couldn't help but greatly lift as they exerted their spiritual power to escape with their lives.

The exit was too small, only about three feet square. The huge Vermilion Bird, at the very instant it was about to rush out into the sky, suddenly transformed into human form and steadily landed behind Zhou Yin, stepping onto the Lingyin Sword.

They had originally entered from the surface of the South Sea, but when they exited, the seawater was completely gone. All around there were only dense forests and rolling mountain ranges.

Yun Zong turned his head back, only to see the crevice they had just exited was in midair. After everyone escaped, it quickly sealed tightly again, as if it had never appeared.

Everyone rested under the trees, their expressions not relaxed at all.

If a footnote was to be made for this journey, there were only four words: the losses outweighed the gains.

It would be fine if they hadn't obtained anything, but Mu Jie was also lost inside.

Moreover, they heard what the White Tiger said about the plot of the Upper Realm.

The White Tiger chose to self-destruct to help them escape in order to prevent the Upper Realm from noticing Zhou Chen and the others and making an early deadly move. With their current cultivation levels, let alone Zhou Yin, even Nascent Soul cultivators like Zhou Chen might be few and far between on the Taichu Continent, but for the Upper Realm, eliminating them would be as easy as blowing dust.

Apart from Zhou Chen's trio who were mortal enemies with the immortal race, the others including Zhou Yin, Yun Zong, and Mu Jie from before, to a certain extent, they had always regarded the immortal race of the Upper Realm as orthodox.

Even if Yun Zong was unruly and Zhou Yin did as he pleased, they worked hard in cultivation merely in order to ascend to the Upper Realm one day. To them, being able to enter the Upper Realm meant their cultivation would open up a whole new vast sky, and they would no longer have to limit their sights to just the Taichu Continent.

But now it seemed the Upper Realm indeed harbored ill intentions toward human cultivators. Not only did they set up this thousand-year trap of Lianyin Immortal Residence, they might have other unknown schemes as well.

Using the White Tiger's flesh and blood to construct Lianyin Immortal Residence was equivalent to using the demon beast race to deal with the human race, simply to provoke conflict between the two races. But now the humans on the continent didn't have much goodwill toward the demon beast race to begin with. Moreover, after tens of thousands of years, the demon beast race's ruling position had long since vanished.

The Upper Realm acting this way, could it merely be to drive the demon beast race to extinction and eliminate them once and for all?

No, that's not right.

Zhou Yin felt he had entered a misunderstanding and had been thinking in the wrong direction all along.

The demon beast race could no longer stir up any storms. Even if the Vermilion Bird emerged now, with Zhou Chen's personality, he also couldn't possibly challenge the Upper Realm by himself and once again bring calamity to the demon beast race.

So the Upper Realm didn't put the demon beast race in their eyes at all.

What they really wanted to deal with was the human race!

Yun Zong suddenly said, "I won't speak of what happened earlier, lest my cultivation be destroyed."

He was referring to the matter of Zhou Chen being of the demon beast race, and moreover the Vermilion Bird.

After speaking, he made a hand seal, bit the tip of his tongue, and smeared the blood on his fingers. He drew a symbol in the air, and that blood-red symbol instantly entered his forehead and disappeared.

This was the most powerful blood oath, and also the most solid alliance between cultivators.

Zhou Chen narrowed his eyes, very satisfied with his initiative and tact. Even the previous feeling of dislike toward him lessened a bit.

Turning his head, he saw Zhou Yin's expression was solemn, as if pondering some difficult problem, not paying any attention to their movements at all.

"Ah Yin, what's wrong with you?" Zhou Chen felt very regretful. If not for being in front of others, he would have long since transformed into a furball and pounced over to take advantage.

This person Zhou Chen had some split personality traits. At present, in front of outsiders, he appeared cultured, refined and unfathomable, his aura quite impressive. Others definitely could not imagine what he was like when alone with Zhou Yin - simply no different from a three-year-old child throwing tantrums for candy.

"It's nothing." Right now everything was still just his speculation. He wouldn't speak of matters he had no certainty about.

Yun Zong asked, "What was the deal with Mu Jie earlier?"

Zhou Yin said, "Among demonic cultivators, there is a strange technique that can allow one person to temporarily attach to another's body. The one being possessed has their spirit suppressed, lacking their own will, while the possessor can manipulate that body to do what they want. Moreover, concealed by the possessed one's aura, others cannot detect it. This technique is called Puppet Technique."

He had always been knowledgeable. Although he didn't say much, once he spoke, every sentence hit the mark. So even if his cultivation was low, people who had interacted with him for a long time like Yun Zong never looked down on him.

Many things even Yun Zong had never heard of could be asked of Zhou Yin and he would give an accurate answer every time.

Yun Zong frowned, "Is this Puppet Technique easy to learn?"

In other words, if every demonic cultivator knew the Puppet Technique, wouldn't that be impossible to guard against?

Zhou Yin calmly said, "To practice the Puppet Technique, one must collect the essence blood of 999 young maidens to temper. Then shatter all the bones and joints in the body and soak in a specially made medicinal liquid, repeating three times, before it can be mastered."

Generally speaking, demonic cultivators to begin with took a path faster than ordinary cultivators. A technique as complex and painful as the Puppet Technique was not something people would practice. But Yu Nuo happened to be an exception.

No one knew what he experienced during this time, but someone with the perseverance to cultivate the Puppet Technique would not perish so easily in Lianyin Immortal Residence.

Yun Zong heard his underlying meaning and was about to speak, when he heard a faint sound ten miles away.

In the blink of an eye, there was a boom in front of their eyes. A thick python even taller than a small hill shot out from the towering dense forest and lunged toward the group.

That python had purple-green patterns coiled around its whole body, meandering from the tail all the way to the head. The snake's head was not an ordinary snake head either, but had half a beautiful woman's face embedded in it.

That half of the beautiful woman's face had icy skin as white as snow, eyebrows like distant ink, and eyes like black pearls. Without any makeup, she was already devastatingly beautiful, which only served to highlight the horror of the other half of her face.

The other half of her face had uneven scales and a small eye emitting a resentful gaze, which stared intently at Zhou Yin and the others. Even the snake tongue she stuck out was half human and half snake, and the two halves of the face were connected with pink tender flesh in the middle, a sight that was absolutely unforgettable.

It was a Nüyue.

But it was a bit different from the Nüyue that Zhou Yin had seen on the back mountain of the Mirror Sea Sect before.

The current one was more than two or three times larger, and its head also looked smarter than last time.

That Nüyue bent down and took a bite, getting a mouthful of leaves, becoming even more enraged. Its snake tail swept towards the people in the air.

In theory, Nüyue is a demon beast, while Zhou Chen is the Demon Beast Emperor. In front of the latter, Nüyue should naturally submit. But on the contrary, when this Nüyue saw them, not only did it not stop its attack, it became even more frenzied, as if it would not rest until it swallowed them all today.

Zhou Chen said in a deep voice, "It has lost its mind and no longer recognizes people."

With that said, a golden light flew out from his sleeve like a blade, chopping towards the Nüyue. The Nüyue slightly bent its body and actually avoided it. Who knew that the golden light seemed to have grown eyes, turned around again, and ruthlessly cut the Nüyue's body in half, with green blood splattering everywhere.

That snake head was relentless, still biting towards them with a fierce wind. It instinctively picked Zhou Yin, who had the lowest cultivation among the group, and bit down.

Zhou Yin threw out several talismans from his hand. The snake head was instantly frozen solid. Then the sound of ice shattering could be heard, and the snake head, along with the outer layer of ice, shattered into seven or eight pieces and fell down.