Chapter 273: A Desperate Gamble

……

The white fog area deep within the gap was the same as when they last came; there were no changes whatsoever.

Even the few wild grasses they had picked and discarded last time were still lying on the ground, though they had already dehydrated and withered.

Calculating the time, nearly a month had passed since their first exploration.

And the total time Xu Chen had spent falling into the Minghuang Di Jie had already exceeded half a year.

A group of people stood at the edge of the white fog, their faces filled with excitement.

Although it was just a routine exploration, everyone felt an inexplicable sense of excitement, nervousness, and agitation.

It was as if they felt that this time, they would surely succeed.

Of course, for Guiling Shenjun and the others, they had indeed prepared themselves not to leave unless they succeeded, because they had already packed up everything worth taking from their encampment, brought it all to the edge of the white fog, and were ready to settle down and search for a way out with all their might.

Because everyone knew that with Xu Chen's help this time, bringing Spirit Stones, Spirit Wine, as well as heaven-defying items like Blood God Grass and Divine Blood Paste to help them recover their bodies and cultivation, if they still could not succeed, then they would truly have no choice but to die here.

Therefore, everyone held a desperate determination to succeed or perish, intending to search the entire white fog area from the outside in.

This was their only chance to leave this hellish place alive.

"Everyone, follow the previous arrangements. After entering the Fog Zone, observe and search carefully. No matter what you discover, report it immediately. Additionally, always be mindful of safety. Today's search range is a hundred miles in radius. I will provide support and observation from the central area to guard against the unexpected!"

Guiling True Monarch gave a serious reminder, then accompanied Xu Chen as they were the first to walk into the churning, misty white fog.

"Everyone, let's move out. I hope we all have good luck!"

Lu An bowed with hands folded to Chen Yang and the other two, then also stepped into the Fog Zone.

"Let's go!"

Wang Daolin, Chen Yang, and Zhong Hui also nodded slightly to each other, then, like warriors stepping onto a battlefield, walked into the white fog together with solemn and resolute expressions.

Xu Chen followed beside Guiling True Monarch, releasing his Divine Sense to carefully probe within the white fog.

Last time, it was merely to familiarize himself with the environment, so the search had been rather careless and casual.

But this time, the group had long since agreed to mark their path starting from the entrance and search every inch of space, area by area, within a hundred-mile radius, never letting any nook, cranny, or suspicious spot escape them.

Although the Fog Zone was safer than the Dark Forest outside the gap, it was not absolute, because powerful Demon Beasts actually existed within the white fog. They were usually deep in the fog, but according to Guiling True Monarch, he had actually encountered super Demon Beasts with strength no less than the Fifth-Rank even at the edge of the white fog or within the valley.

According to his strength before recovery, it was actually very difficult to kill Demon Beasts above the Fourth-Rank, not to mention that he had to conserve Spirit Qi and cherish his physical strength; he would absolutely not fight these powerful Demon Beasts to the death.

Because the price of fighting for one's life might be death and the dissipation of one's Dao.

Although his body had recovered well, because the Spirit Stones were insufficient to replenish his need for Spirit Qi, his Primordial Spirit was still deliberately suppressed at the early stage of the Shenling Realm. In reality, the range of his Divine Sense observation had not increased much compared to before; it could probe a diameter of over ten miles, but about five miles was the range where he could see most clearly and provide the most timely rescue.

Xu Chen's current Divine Sense strength was the strongest among the group, excluding Guiling True Monarch, with a probing radius of about five miles, which could basically cover a hundred-mile area. This was also the most suitable collaborative search range set after the group discussed their respective Divine Sense strengths.

In reality, everyone this time had pinned almost all their hopes of finding an exit on Xu Chen.

Because even Guiling True Monarch had already searched the white fog area hundreds of times; although he had not gone too deep, he had repeatedly searched almost every place within a hundred miles of the gap and had never discovered any place with unstable space or fluctuations in energy.

In reality, the circumstances of the group falling here were roughly the same, but the places where they fell were not exactly the same.

Guiling True Monarch had fallen in relatively deep, about twenty miles into the Fog Zone, while Chen Yang and Wang Daolin were at about five miles, Lu An at about ten miles, and Zhong Hui had the best luck, falling directly within a hundred-zhang area at the edge of the white fog, where her Divine Sense could even penetrate out of the Fog Zone.

Because everyone except Guiling True Monarch had been quite panicked when they fell, they had been trapped in the Fog Zone and lost for a long time before finally finding the correct direction to leave the Fog Zone.

But in everyone's view, there were far more than just the five of them who had fallen from the Yelang Ancient Kingdom over the years; there were certainly many who had taken the wrong direction and walked deep into the white fog, becoming completely lost within.

However, it was precisely because the area was dispersed, coupled with the white fog's powerful isolation effect on Divine Sense, that searching for an exit had become exceptionally difficult.

A True Monarch at the Transformation God stage could have a Divine Sense probing range of ten thousand miles in the Mortal World; if it were just a vague sensing, it could cover several mortal kingdoms.

But this strange white fog, while seemingly devoid of any danger, isolated Divine Sense severely, to the point where it could barely reach one percent of its distance.

Therefore, the white fog had instead become the most dangerous thing.

With Guiling True Monarch's powerful cultivation overseeing the overall situation, the group had much less worry and concern. Following the range of their respective Divine Senses, they lined up in a straight line and slowly searched from the edge of the white fog toward the depths, leaving eye-catching marks on boulders or the ground in areas they had already searched as they went.

Xu Chen expanded his Divine Sense range to the maximum, projecting everyone's movements into his Sea of Consciousness. If he encountered a suspicious place or some energy fluctuations, he would manifest the giant skull of the Bull-headed Underworld Beast and activate the Space Rule Ripple on the black horn to investigate carefully.

Soon, an hour passed, and the group had penetrated about one mile into the Fog Zone.

For a group of cultivators whose Divine Sense was at least at the early stage of the Danyuan Realm, this speed meant the search process was truly being combed through inch by inch, from the sky to the ground, leaving no suspicious spot behind.

Unfortunately, there were no special discoveries.

Of course, no one was discouraged, and their focus remained unchanged.

For a group of Daoist experts, they never lacked patience, and furthermore, this search was closely tied to their survival; no one dared to have the slightest slack or carelessness.

This included Wang Daolin, who had always harbored malicious intentions.

In fact, he wanted to escape alive more than anyone else.

The more cowardly a person is, the more they cherish their life.

Two hours... three hours... four hours...

A day passed in the blink of an eye, and above the gap, the pitch-black Cangming was once again filled with stars.

After the group exited the Fog Zone, they found a relatively sheltered and hidden place nearby, built a few simple shacks using animal skins and stones, and then sat down to meditate and rest.

Over the next few days, the group continued to enter the Fog Zone every day to search carefully, and soon they had thoroughly searched the thirty-mile range of the Fog Zone.

However, the result remained the same; apart from occasionally encountering some Demon Beasts living in the Fog Zone, they still found nothing.

Several consecutive days of high-intensity Divine Sense usage caused everyone's vitality to be significantly depleted, especially Chen Yang and Zhong Hui, who could no longer persist; if they continued to go deeper, the search might have omissions or even lead to danger.

Because at this depth, some relatively powerful Demon Beasts often appeared, which their Danyuan Realm cultivation could no longer handle.

Therefore, after the group discussed it, Xu Chen, Wang Daolin, and Guiling True Monarch joined forces to go deeper, limiting the depth of their search to one hundred miles.

Because a distance of one hundred miles was already nearly ten times Guiling True Monarch's Divine Sense probing range, and if they continued further, even he could not guarantee he would still be able to find the direction back out.

No one knew how deep this white fog area really was.

Of course, no one knew how long this gap was either.

And as they continued to go deeper, Xu Chen gradually discovered that the white fog's obstruction to Divine Sense was becoming greater and greater, and the range of Divine Sense probing was becoming smaller and smaller; this was the most unsettling part.

In the blink of an eye, it was the ninth day.

On this day, the three of them had searched to about seventy miles when a powerful and giant Demon Beast suddenly appeared; it was several zhang long, shaped like a large bird, with a sharp beak and a long crest, and apart from its tail, it had very few feathers, but was covered in long, thin, grayish-white down like a wild beast.

The speed of this Demon Beast within the white mist was incredibly fast; it rushed out, snatched up Wang Daolin, whose Divine Sense range was the smallest, and prepared to swallow him in one gulp.

Wang Daolin's defenses were broken instantly, his Protective Origin Qi had no power to resist, and his Soul was suppressed so tightly that he was completely unable to fight back; fortunately, Xu Chen and True Monarch Guiling rescued him in time, and in their haste, they each released a Magic Spell that struck the giant bird, causing the bird to cry out in pain and injury as it carried Wang Daolin away at full speed.

"Ah~~ Senior, save me~"

Listening to Wang Daolin's miserable cries for help, Xu Chen and True Monarch Guiling could only follow behind the giant bird and give chase with all their might.

However, that giant bird ran back and forth like lightning within the vast white mist, its direction shifting east and west, and with the large amount of scattered boulders forming a maze-like terrain, even with True Monarch Guiling's powerful Primordial Spirit, his Divine Sense still could not keep up with the speed of this giant bird, so after this round of chasing and fighting, once the two could no longer find the shadow of the giant bird, they discovered that they had actually gotten lost.

(End of this chapter)