Inside the poisonous fog, Mo Tiange and Murong Zi calmly meditated. Their surroundings were completely quiet.
The quietness here was a rare thing in this mountainous forest. In contrast to the peace here, fights were breaking out in the other areas. Although this mountainous forest was vast, it was inevitable for people to encounter other cultivators. During an encounter, if one of the sides was the Zixia Sect, the encounter would definitely lead into a melee. There were people who killed and there were people who were killed.
When the sky darkened, the disciples from both sides gathered with their respective fellow disciples to boost their safety as well as to vent their resentments. They killed lone opponents they encountered while also protecting themselves from being killed.
As Murong Zi used this time to treat his injuries and recover his spiritual aura, Mo Tiange was secretly on alert. She wasn't like her cultivation-clan-born fellow disciples who harbored grudges against Zixia Sect. She didn't want to be drawn into whatever disputes they had; she just wanted to quietly wait for the exit formation to be opened and obtain a Foundation-Building Pill.
Mo Tiange abruptly opened her eyes. She sensed a spiritual aura fluctuation in the air. Just as she was about to look back at the poisonous spring behind her, she felt a strong gust of wind and promptly pushed Murong Zi back while she herself rolled to the side to dodge.
Her cautiousness saved their lives. In the next second, however, their eyes widened and their stares were fixed on the thing before them in astonishment.
This demonic beast had a flat head, pointed teeth, and a back that was covered with tiny mountain-liked ridges. The lower part of its body was still submerged inside the poisonous spring, but the exposed parts of its body allowed them to recognize what kind of demonic beast it was.
Murong Zi muttered, "Second rank Iron-Teethed Crocodile! So this place really does have second rank demonic beasts!"
Mo Tiange retreated, pulling Murong Zi along with her. She then waved her hand, causing a formation flag to appear in front of them. The position where they were meditating was the Five Elements Life and Death Formation she laid before. As soon as the Iron-Teethed Crocodile charged forward, it entered the formation.
"Senior Martial Brother Murong, what is this?"
Murong Zi recovered his train of thought and answered with a frown on his face, "This is a second rank demonic beast, equivalent to an early-stage Foundation Building cultivator. We're no match for it."
They didn't have time to talk further because the Iron-Teethed Crocodile rushed forward. Its jaws were wide open as it tried to bite them.
The two of them promptly retreated. Mo Tiange waved the formation flag, causing the formation disk and other formation flags she hid underground to stand erect in an instant. Thus, the Five Elements Life and Death Formation began to function.
The Iron-Teethed Crocodile was blinking its small eyes and seemed to be stunned after the formation objects around its body stood up with a "pop." Nevertheless, because its cognitive abilities weren't sufficient for it to understand what was happening, after the momentary confusion, it still rushed forward, trying to swallow the two small mosquitoes in front of it.
However, it failed. In a flash, countless twisting and coiling vines appeared below it, wrapping around its body and rendering it unable to move even an inch.
It furiously swung its tail. One by one, the vines broke apart.
A cold sweat appeared on Mo Tiange's head. "This demonic monster is too strong; my formation won't be able to hold it off for long."
"This…" Murong Zi went pale. "We don't have enough time to run."
Mo Tiange once again waved the formation flag. Water and quicksand suddenly appeared inside the formation and quickly turned the area into a marsh which once again trapped the Iron-Teethed Crocodile. Mo Tiange said through gritted teeth, "Senior Martial Brother Murong, I'll stall it. You can go and attack it. Since we can't run, we can only fight!"
Murong Zi was sluggish in replying, "We…"
"It'll be too late if you don't attack it now!" Mo Tiange shouted, "Hurry up! I'll think of a way to prevent it from attacking you! You have to attack it with all your might!"
Convinced by her shouting, Murong Zi clenched his teeth and said, "Alright, if worst comes to worst, I'll just bet on my life!"
Two Aura Refining disciples definitely couldn't defeat a Foundation Building cultivator. However, matched against a second rank demonic beast that had neither magic weapons nor the ability to analyze the battle, they still had a chance.
Murong Zi straightaway took out his flying sword, employed Light Body Technique, and rushed forward to strike it.
The next moment, however, his expression became ugly. His flying sword was bestowed to him by an elder in the sect. It was even fused with a rare iron essence and was extremely sharp. Normally, he won easily in fights, but against the thick skin of this Iron-Teethed Crocodile, the sword couldn't cause even the slightest damage.
The marsh couldn't hold this Iron-Teethed Crocodile for much longer. Mo Tiange once again waved the flag, causing raging fires to appear inside the formation. At the same time, she also took out a handful of Bewitching Flower seeds then hurled them towards the crocodile.
Although the fires managed to stall the crocodile, the Bewitching Flowers only caused it to swing its tail. With her current spiritual aura, she could only use seeds that could sprout in an instant. Nonetheless, these kinds of things… really weren't something second rank demonic beasts considered worthy opponents.
Left with no other choice, Mo Tiange took out a Restorative Panacea. Using a formation to trap a second rank demonic beast consumed her spiritual aura too quickly, so she had to take medicine to maintain the formation.
On the other side, Murong Zi really lived up to his reputation. Once he realized that his flying sword was useless, he immediately exchanged it with something else - a whip covered in a sparkling golden light. Once he flung this whip, it became a golden ray and issued a resounding "crack!" Yet after this whip was flung, Murong Zi's expression once again changed. This whip still couldn't damage the crocodile's thick skin!
After flinging the whip several times, Murong Zi's face was completely pale. Not only could he not break through the Iron-Teethed Crocodile's defenses, his spirit tool was also broken by its bite. It indeed lived up to its "iron-teethed" name - it had extremely sharp teeth.
Mo Tiange didn't fare any better than him. Although she had an easier time because she was relying on her formation, using this formation to withstand the attacks of a second rank demonic beast drained her spiritual aura at an alarming speed. She could already sense that her spiritual aura was almost completely exhausted. Thus, she could only stuff another Restorative Panacea into her mouth.
Considering how quickly her spiritual aura was drained, she was now no longer afraid of wasting her medicinal pills. After all, if she couldn't survive, having lots of medicinal pills would be useless.
"Use talismans! Use talismans to attack it!" Mo Tiange shouted at the stunned Murong Zi. This Iron-Teethed Crocodile was unbeatable. The layer of hard skin on its body was comparable to armor and basically couldn't be pierced or stabbed. They could only use magic to penetrate its skin and wound it.
Murong Zi regained his composure after hearing Mo Tiange's shouts. He then took out a stack of talismans, threw all caution to the wind, and hurled all of them toward the Iron-Teethed Crocodile.
There were spells of every element in these talismans - sea of fire, ice, quicksand, vines and so on. All of them smashed, one after another, into the Iron-Teethed Crocodile's head.
This time, the Iron-Teethed Crocodile finally showed some reaction. It raised its head, glaring at Murong Zi, who was flying in the air, with its small eyes before it finally opened its mouth. A jet of water was spewed towards Murong Zi. He was shocked and hastily moved sideways to dodge it. Nevertheless, he wasn't careful and got himself sprayed by some of the water. Right afterward, his body unexpectedly became sluggish and fell to the ground.
Taking advantage of this moment, Mo Tiange hastily took out the formation discs and formation flags used to set the Disorienting Formation and the Spirit-Trapping Formation and laid all of them down.
After she waved the formation flag, countless creeping vines once again appeared inside the formation and bound the Iron-Teethed Crocodile up.
The Iron-Teethed Crocodile's attention finally snapped back to her side, yet it suddenly found that the movement of spiritual aura inside its body was now slow. Out of fury, it had no time to deal with the other little fly and just wanted to tear the fly before its eyes to shreds. However, once it crawled forward, it found that the scene in front of it had changed. It was instantly bewildered; it couldn't see the little fly anymore!
Seeing that Murong Zi hadn't gotten up, Mo Tiange anxiously called out, "Senior Martial Brother Murong!"
As if he heard her voice, Murong Zi struggled to put several pills into his mouth and tried to get up. He already had some serious injuries on his body, and using spirit tools and Light Body Technique was pushing his body to its limits. Unfortunately, he was also struck by the jet of water the Iron-Teethed Crocodile spurted out.
This place was a poisonous spring, so everything in the area was poisonous, including the demonic beast that managed to advance to the second rank. The poison the Iron-Teethed Crocodile had was much more poisonous than the poisonous fog. In a flash, it worsened Murong Zi's injuries even more.
Ignoring everything else, he swallowed several antidote pills and pills to treat his injuries then struggled to fly up. He raised his hands, hurling a handful of fine flying needles towards the Iron-Teethed Crocodile's eyes.
The Iron-Teethed Crocodile blinked and swung its head. Some of the flying needles were shaken off while others were stuck on the thick skin on its head but caused not even the slightest damage before they fell off.
Murong Zi didn't give up. He kept hurling needles towards it. Being trapped inside the Spirit-Trapping Formation made the Iron-Teethed Crocodile's spiritual aura movement slow. Eventually, he couldn't avoid the needles. With a "pu" sound, its eyes were pierced.
It raised its head and groaned towards the sky out of fury.
Mo Tiange was delighted. She once again stuffed a handful of Restorative Panaceas into her mouth then waved the formation flag. A sea of fire fell onto the formation, causing the ground to shake. After a barrage of magic attacks, a hint of being burned finally appeared on the thick skin of the Iron-Teethed Crocodile.
Murong Zi didn't let this opportunity slip by. Once again, he took out his flying sword and thrust it towards the burned skin of the crocodile.
This time, this vigorous thrust successfully pierced the Iron-Teethed Crocodile's outer skin and deeply impaled its meat.
Out of pain, the Iron-Teethed Crocodile swung its tail, breaking a huge tree growing beside the spring. Until now, it still couldn't see where those hateful little flies were. From beginning to end, the scene before its eyes was always of the poisonous spring it had dwelled in for several hundred years. Furthermore, no matter how much it crawled, it always crawled to its original position.
It uttered a loud groan because of the pain. Blood was flowing out of its eyes, its whole body was aching from being hit by magic attacks, and something had also pierced its body. It still couldn't see where those two little flies were and it was still being struck by an unceasing barrage of magic attacks. In the end, it couldn't endure anymore. After the last attack smashed into it, it no longer opened its eyes.
Mo Tiange took a deep breath and felt her feet were losing their strength. Unable to keep standing, she finally fell on the ground. There wasn't the slightest bit of spiritual aura left inside her body.
Second rank demonic beast… was indeed far more powerful than first rank demonic beasts. She could use Five Elements Life and Death Formation to kill those dozen demonic monkeys without having to face any danger. As for this second rank demonic beast, even after expending so much strength and taking so many medicinal pills, she only managed to trap it. If it wasn't because she had Murong Zi helping her, today she definitely would've ended up dead.
Murong Zi had fallen and was motionless not too far from her. Back then, he hurled practically all his talismans; once the Iron-Teethed Crocodile died, he collapsed to the ground.
Mo Tiange, feeling a bit worried, once again swallowed a Restorative Panacea. Later, after she recovered a tiny bit of spiritual aura, she laboriously struggled to stand up and dragged her heavy feet towards Murong Zi.
"Senior Martial Brother Murong! Senior Martial Brother Murong!"
Murong Zi was lying motionlessly on the ground. His lips were stained with blood; clearly, he had vomited blood because his injuries were too severe.
Clenching her teeth, Mo Tiange took out a Small Reversion Pill and stuffed it into his mouth. Although she wasn't injured, her spiritual aura was drained. If any other dangerous beasts came towards them, she certainly couldn't handle it. Hence, she'd better save his life first - after all, two people would always be stronger than one.
After being fed the Small Reversion Pill, Murong Zi slowly regained consciousness. When he saw Mo Tiange, his gaze was filled with hesitation and doubt as he said, "Junior Martial Brother Ye, the medicine you just gave me…"
Mo Tiange showed a bitter smile and said, "I prepared it especially for this trip, but with our current situation, I could only give Senior Martial Brother an easy advantage." She didn't dare to tell him that she still had a bottle of them. Although Senior Martial Brother Murong didn't seem to be that sort of person and was also Murong Yan's brother, there wasn't much friendship between them.
Murong Zi didn't doubt her words and looked visibly moved. He earnestly said, "Thank you, Junior Martial Brother Ye. If it wasn't for the medicine you gave me, I definitely wouldn't last to tomorrow with my injuries."
Mo Tiange just waved her hand. "If Senior Martial Brother Murong doesn't want to take advantage of me, you only need to return the medicine to me after we get out. Right now, you need to recuperate first. Otherwise, if we run into any others…" right after she reached this part, she suddenly furrowed her brows. Someone's coming!