Chapter 78: Is the Nightmare Beast?

"I don't want to die!" Qiu Xingwen's complexion shifted.

"With your strength, leaving this cage only has one word: death." The orange-clad youth spoke in a light tone.

Upon hearing this, Qiu Xingwen felt even more afraid; he did not want to leave. Staying here one more day increased the chance of rescue.

If they left this room, not only would they have no chance of rescue, but they would die even faster.

"What do you want to do?" The orange-clad youth looked at Yuan Yao and her two companions.

"Naturally..."

"I want to stay here!" Qiu Xingwen said through gritted teeth.

Yuan Yao tilted her head to look at Qiu Xingwen and asked doubtfully, "Why do you want to stay?"

Qiu Xingwen lowered his head, "I'm just an ordinary cultivator, without strong strength, and I don't have any powerful trump card to protect myself. So, once I leave this place, it's definitely a dead end. You might think I'm passive, think I'm weak, but I really want to live on, even if only for one more day."

Having said that, he raised his head to look at them, his eyes filled with determination.

Yuan Yao froze for a moment, then couldn't help asking, "For the sake of living one more day, do you have to completely give up hope of escape?"

"I'm not giving up all hope; I can stay here and wait for those powerful ones to come rescue us—maybe… maybe they'll arrive in time." Qiu Xingwen said, and then lost his confidence.

"I want to go out!" Gu Zhaozhao raised her face, speaking with a determined expression.

Yuan Yao said, "I also want to go out."

"Aren't you afraid?" Qiu Xingwen frowned.

Yuan Yao said, "Fear is fear, but since I've come here, I can't just stay cooped up because of fear."

Qiu Xingwen choked slightly.

"You go out, I'll stay here!" Qiu Xingwen turned his face away, not looking at them.

"Your opinions are not unanimous." Suddenly, the orange-clad youth spoke slowly, "Either we all leave together, or we all stay together. Once the door of this cage is broken, the entire cage will cease to exist. At that time, all of us will be targeted by the nightmare monster."

Yuan Yao keenly caught the term 'Nightmare Beast', her heart stirred, and she asked, "Is the Nightmare Beast the monster that trapped us?"

The orange-clad youth stared at her for a moment, then nodded.

"Hmm."

Immediately after, he continued, "This is a nightmare beast that has lived for over a thousand years; a thousand years ago it was sealed beneath Darkcloud City, and recently it broke the seal, causing everyone in Darkcloud City to fall into the nightmare space."

"At first, for a few days, it was too weak to prey on people; later, over those days, it gradually regained strength and began to feed on humans—devouring souls and eyes."

After a pause, the orange-clad youth slowly lifted his eyes and calmly added, "It is a sixth-rank demon beast."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Xingwen's complexion changed dramatically.

A sixth-rank demon beast?!

A sixth-rank demon beast is equivalent to the Void Refinement Realm of human cultivators!

The cultivation realms of human cultivators, from low to high, are: Qi Refining Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, Nascent Soul Realm, Spirit Transformation Realm, Void Refinement Realm, Body Integration Realm, Great Perfection Realm, and so on.

While the ranking of spirit beasts, demon beasts, and magic beasts is from first to eighth rank, then saint rank, and finally divine rank.

Qiu Xingwen fell into utter despair.

In the Ninth Province, there are hardly any experts at the Void Refinement Realm!

Moreover, even if a Void Refinement Realm expert came to rescue them, it wouldn't save them!

This nightmare beast eats one person every other day.

There's still a little over two hours until the nightmare beast's feeding time.

If the nightmare beast selects him, he's as good as dead.

"A sixth-rank demon beast..." Yuan Yao also felt a chill down her spine. She suddenly realized that the nightmare beast must have constructed many prisons with its mental power, so the few strands of mental power she had previously fought were actually just a tiny fraction of the beast's mental power.

Just how strong is the true nightmare beast?

At that moment, Yuan Yao and the orange-clad youth seemed to sense something simultaneously, and they looked toward the outside.

There was movement outside.

Yuan Yao could feel the spiritual fluctuations inside the house.

"They're fighting outside." The orange-clad youth stood up; he was extremely tall, half a head taller than Qiu Xingwen.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Yao immediately thought of her senior brothers and sisters, as well as the elders of various sects.

"Who? Is it the rescue?" Qiu Xingwen exclaimed joyfully.

Gu Zhaozhao nervously reached out and tugged at Yuan Yao's hand.

Yuan Yao came to her senses and softly said to her, "Everything will be fine."

At that moment, the orange-clad youth approached the door, reaching out to open it.

The instant his fingertip touched the door, the spiritual power within the entire house began to twist and fluctuate.

At that moment, Gu Zhaozhao let out a scream.

She clutched her head, her face twisted in pain.

It was the nightmare beast's mental power invading Gu Zhaozhao's sea of consciousness.

"Zhaozhao..." Yuan Yao's complexion changed drastically; she immediately crouched, cupped her head with both hands, then pressed forehead to forehead to let her own mental power enter Gu Zhaozhao's sea of consciousness.

She quickly located a strand of the nightmare beast's mental power and expelled it from Gu Zhaozhao's sea of consciousness.

At the same time, intense pain shot through Qiu Xingwen's sea of consciousness; he agonizedly fell to his knees, repeatedly slamming his head into the ground in unbearable pain.

"It hurts—ahhh—"

The orange-clad youth glanced back at them once, his expression still cold, and continued using his mental power to break the prison of this house!

Yuan Yao opened her eyes, immediately checked Gu Zhaozhao's condition, and found she had already fallen into a coma.

Yuan Yao checked her pulse.

Finding that Gu Zhaozhao had merely fainted with no serious harm, she immediately let out a sigh of relief.

She didn't have time to attend to Qiu Xingwen's condition at the moment, suddenly lifted her head to look at the orange-clad youth, and asked, "Do you know how to deal with the nightmare beast?"

"Spiritual power." The orange-clothed youth said without turning his head.

As soon as the words fell, a voice from Yuan Yao's sea of consciousness came: 【Target person Zhai Qingye, Awakening Value reaches 2.】

Yuan Yao froze.

The orange-clothed youth is Zhai Qingye; this name sounds somewhat familiar.

Before she could recall it, suddenly there was a blast, and the whole room shattered like a mirror in an instant.

After a moment of distortion, everything before her eyes changed abruptly.

Under the hazy gray light, rows of square houses stretched in all directions; a glance was overwhelming.

Because they were now mid-air.

Just as Qiu Xingwen and Gu Zhaozhao were about to fall, Yuan Yao swiftly summoned the Phantom Spirit Sword, making it huge.

Yuan Yao grabbed one with one hand.

There were house-shaped cages above, and also below.

If one looked up from the ground, one could see countless houses floating in mid-air.

At that moment, not far away, several people were grappling with a huge black mist.

Yuan Yao made out their figures, and her expression changed slightly.

It was the Second Senior Sister and the Youngest Senior Brother!

There was also Yan Lao of the Holy Gate, and four sect elders she didn't recognize.

Seeing this, Zhai Qingye raised his bare hand, and a great sword, entirely blood-red and flashing with icy cold light, appeared out of thin air in mid-air.