"Miss!" Song Shushan called out.

The other party did not pay him any attention.

"In this desolate mountain, how could there be a woman? Could it be a demon beast in disguise?" Chen Yuanzhi said suspiciously.

"Perhaps it's a fellow cultivator who has lost their way and ended up here. Let's ask and find out," Lu Yanping said, then called out loudly to the woman: "Fellow cultivator, we are disciples of the Mirror Sea Sword Sect. May I ask how you are addressed?"

Hearing their voices, the woman turned her head a bit more.

She was indeed a very beautiful woman, not inferior even to Chen Yuanzhi.

She smiled slightly, but did not speak. A hint of sorrow shrouded her brows, as if she had some unspeakable sorrow.

Any man who saw such an expression would feel tenderness and pity, and Song Shushan was no exception.

Without waiting for the others to speak, he took a few steps forward.

"May I ask if the fellow cultivator is a rogue cultivator, or a disciple from which sect who has come to train? Fellow cultivator? Fell..."

His voice abruptly stopped, replaced by a horrified expression.

That face slowly extended out from behind the tree trunk. Only then did everyone clearly see that the beautiful face was actually only half a face.

Half was a peerless beauty, but the other half was a snake head that had not yet fully transformed into human form. The fleshy protrusion on the top of the head was raised high, the cheeks slightly sunken, covered in scales.

The large, protruding eyes stared fixedly at them, exuding a resentful light. Blended together with the other half of the beautiful face, it gave a nauseating feeling.

Below the neck, naturally, was not a slender figure, but a python as thick as three or four people's bodies combined.

Chen Yuanzhi let out a scream and retreated several steps.

The snake's body was dark, its scales gleaming with a blue-black luster, clearly highly venomous. A python alone would have been tolerable, but this snake actually had a beautiful woman's head attached to it, making the impact even more intense.

The beautiful snake woman circled out from behind the tree trunk and gave them a strange smile.

A gust of wind blew past, carrying a fishy stench from the direction of the snake woman.

Chen Yuanzhi gasped, "What kind of demon beast is this? I've never seen it before!"

Not only her, even Lu Yanping had never seen such a demon beast before.

The demon beasts they had encountered before, without exception, were low-level demon beasts like dream wolves and two-headed birds. A giant python with a human head and snake body like the one before their eyes was something they were seeing for the first time.

"A Nüyue," the one who answered her was Zhou Yin. He also stared at the snake woman, frowning slightly.

How could such a thing appear here?

In this critical moment, no one asked him what exactly a Nüyue was. Women had an innate aversion to such disgusting things, let alone Chen Yuanzhi and Liu Xiaowan who had not truly experienced hardships. The two of them forgot to even draw their swords, their hands and feet going weak.

"Hiss..." Seeing them all retreating, the snake woman tilted her head, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. She opened her mouth, but what came out was not a fragrant little tongue.

A thick snake tongue shot out from her mouth, sweeping towards them with lightning speed.

Lu Yanping gritted his teeth and summoned his Feihong Sword. He chanted a Raging Fire Spell and drew a talisman in the air.

The invisible talisman instantly turned into flames and pounced towards the snake demon.

The Nüyue spat out a mouthful of blue-black foul qi. The flames immediately vanished without a trace, but the foul qi did not dissipate. Instead, it charged forward, enveloping the closest person, Song Shushan.

"Junior Brother Song, retreat!" Lu Yanping shouted.

Song Shushan's reaction could not be said to be slow, but that mass of foul qi seemed to be able to sense his position. It followed him like a shadow, looking like it would engulf his entire person at any moment.

The snake demon suddenly let out a hiss and rapidly retreated. That mass of foul qi also shrank back with it. Lu Yanping and the others looked closely and saw that the snake demon's abdomen had been shallowly cut with a white mark. Although the white mark quickly disappeared, it still made it retreat in fright.

Zhou Yin's move had hit. He immediately withdrew, glancing out of the corner of his eye. Those few people were actually still standing there in a daze.

"Hurry and run, or do you want to wait to be eaten?"

His words made everyone come back to their senses. Lu Yanping had the fastest reaction. He immediately made another Withering Life Technique and threw it over. This fire-attribute cultivation technique, which was higher-level than the Raging Fire Spell, did not achieve any effect.

The flames pounced on the snake demon's body like a stone sinking into the sea, not injuring its scales in the slightest. Instead, it provoked its anger. Its tail, carrying a fierce gale, swept over.

Lu Yanping grabbed Chen Yuanzhi and rapidly retreated. Liu Xiaowan, however, was a bit slow to react and was still standing there in a daze. Zhou Yin grabbed the collar of her clothes and dragged her back. The snake tail struck empty air, then nimbly turned and coiled around Song Shushan on the other side, rolling him up into the air.

The others, even though they had not been hit, were still forced to spit blood from the shock wave stirred up by the fierce gale.

Lu Yanping finally realized that the strength of this demon beast far exceeded his imagination. The few of them, no, perhaps even the elders of their sect personally making a move might not necessarily be able to deal with it.

"Junior Brother Song!"

"Save me! Senior Brother, save me!" Song Shushan had gone deathly pale. He desperately used all the techniques he had learned in his life on the snake demon's body, but not only were they ineffective, the snake tail around his waist coiled tighter and tighter.

The Nüyue lowered her head and licked his cheek. Song Shushan immediately let out a miserable scream.

Lu Yanping and the others clearly saw that the half of Song Shushan's face that the snake demon had licked instantly turned into a bloody pulp. One ear was already gone, revealing the white bones underneath.

"He can't be saved," Zhou Yin said indifferently as he retreated.

"Zhou Yin, how can you...!" Lu Yanping had wanted to reprimand him, but before he could finish speaking, he saw half of Song Shushan's shoulder being torn off by the snake demon. He had also already fainted, his life or death unknown.

Liu Xiaowan also wanted to faint, but as soon as she showed signs of it, Zhou Yin slapped her awake.

"If you don't want to die, open your eyes wide and hurry and run. Going to save someone will only drag everyone else down too!" Zhou Yin said coldly.

Hearing this, Chen Yuanzhi's face turned deathly pale. She did not dare to make a sound and gritted her teeth, summoning her flying magic weapon to follow them and run.

Song Shushan had indeed bought them quite a bit of time, but when the sound of crunching came from behind them, apart from Zhou Yin, everyone else could not help but feel a chill rising from their hearts.

But they understood that although Zhou Yin's words were cruel, it was the only correct choice at the moment.

Turning back now would not only fail to save anyone, but would also bury them all here.

The only thing to do now was to first escape to a safe place, then notify their sect.

The sound of wind rushed past their ears. At this critical juncture between life and death, everyone used everything they had learned in their lives to the fullest, wishing they could travel ten thousand miles in an instant and escape from that terrifying demon beast behind them.

No one spoke a word along the way. Lu Yanping, as the eldest senior brother, despite his own anxiousness, still controlled his flying magic weapon to stay roughly parallel with the slowest Liu Xiaowan, and would promptly lend her a hand when she swayed.

He was well aware that in this trial, they had already lost Song Shushan due to unexpected circumstances. If another fellow disciple were to perish here, even though he was the most favored by the sect leader, it would be difficult for him to maintain his position upon returning.

After flying for who knows how long, until everyone's spiritual power was nearly exhausted and they could no longer see any trace of the Nüyue when looking back, only then did Lu Yanping signal for everyone to stop. He caught his breath and turned to ask Zhou Yin, "What exactly was that demon beast? Do you know?"

Liu Xiaowan and Chen Yuanzhi also stared at Zhou Yin.

After the earlier battle and the psychological shock and terror, everyone was covered in blood stains and in a wretched state.

Zhou Yin did not answer, only saying, "First notify the sect to send us back. The Nüyue is cunning and will not hunt prey in a conventional manner. If it catches our scent, it will quickly catch up to us."

They had not killed a single demon beast, so returning now meant automatically failing this trial.

But if they did not return, Song Shushan's fate would befall them.

Lu Yanping hesitated for a moment before nodding. He summoned the sound transmission mirror and briefly explained the situation to the sect. Since their current location was not a designated spot for the Mirror Sea Sect to teleport them back, the other side needed to confirm their position before retrieving them.

While the other side was setting up the formation to bring them back, he repeated his earlier question to Zhou Yin.

Zhou Yin replied, "The Nüyue is only a mid-tier demon beast, not the strongest in combat, but it is cunning and devious, fond of eating humans, and adept at deceiving enemies to achieve its goals."

Everyone thought of the beautiful face they had seen earlier and couldn't help but feel lingering fear.

As they spoke, the formation on the other side was complete. A light circle engraved with talismans appeared before the four of them. Chen Yuanzhi did not wait for the others to react and stepped in first. Seeing this, Lu Yanping shook his head and turned to Liu Xiaowan, "Junior Sister, you go in too."

Liu Xiaowan blushed, stammering, about to say something to decline, when she heard Zhou Yin coldly say behind her, "Hurry up and go in, or do you want us to be eaten?"

Her face paled slightly. No longer caring about putting on airs, she quickly entered the teleportation formation.

When Zhou Yin and Lu Yanping returned to the other end of the teleportation formation, they found the Mirror Sea Sect Leader, along with three elders, already standing there, looking like they had been waiting for a long time.

Elder Chen, carrying the unconscious Chen Yuanzhi who had fainted, nodded to the others and hurriedly left with her first.

Mirror Sea Sect Leader Zou Jingyuan glanced at the remaining three and sighed, "Go clean up first, then come to the Sanqing Hall."

Half an hour later, after listening to Lu Yanping recount everything, Zou Jingyuan's brows furrowed tightly, his expression grave.

He asked Zhou Yin, "How did you know that was a Nüyue?"

Zhou Yin said, "Read it in a book."

"Which book?"

"I forgot."

"..." Zou Jingyuan looked at Zhou Yin, who looked back at him, his expression cold but frank, finding no telltale signs of anything unspeakable on his face.

Zou Jingyuan lightly coughed, "If your descriptions are true, then that demon is indeed undoubtedly the Nüyue."

Lu Yanping impatiently asked, "Master, why is that demon beast so powerful that it made Junior Brother Song..."

"That traces back to ancient times." Zou Jingyuan took a deep breath and slowly began to recount the tale.