Facing Ning Wuhui, Qin Sang felt a faint pressure unlike anything he had experienced before. It struck him as strange.

Unless he was facing a Spiritual Infant grandmaster directly, not even the Blood Bat or Daoist Master Xiaoyun had ever made him feel this way. Qin Sang had always been confident in his own strength.

He thought to himself. Perhaps Ning Wuhui has encountered some extraordinary opportunity within the trial realm, something heaven-defying enough to explain this sudden change.

That would make sense. No wonder Ning Wuhui hadn't fought over the Soul-Cleansing Liquid. Seems like the trial realm still has countless unknown secrets, treasures left behind by the human race’s ancestors.

"Daoist Ning, I’m glad you’re safe. I waited for a long time without seeing you return, and was worried you might have been trapped in the Thousand-Mountain Array or met with an accident. I didn’t know what to do." Qin Sang spoke with genuine relief.

Ning Wuhui hurried to explain, "I hadn’t expected my sect to insist that all disciples enter together. I didn’t have the chance to tell you earlier. My purpose in this trial was to obtain a certain spiritual herb that grows only within the realm. I didn’t expect the process to delay me this long..."

"Did you find it?" Qin Sang asked with concern.

Ning Wuhui nodded, his tone light. "There were many twists and turns, but in the end, I managed to gather the mature spiritual herb. Afterwards, I spent quite some time refining it before coming out."

From his tone, that herb seemed even more precious than the Soul-Cleansing Liquid. The change in Ning Wuhui’s aura was likely tied to it. Qin Sang grew curious, but seeing that Ning Wuhui was unwilling to elaborate, he didn’t press the matter.

"It’s getting late. Daoist Qin, if you have no other business, let’s set out," Ning Wuhui said, not asking whether Qin Sang had managed to seize the Soul-Cleansing Liquid. He turned toward the depths of the inner hall.

Qin Sang nodded. He cared only about meeting Senior Qingzhu and finding the ancient teleportation array. Nothing else mattered.

After a brief rest, the two of them descended the mountain and continued deeper into the inner hall.

Ning Wuhui led the way, while Qin Sang followed close behind, his expression gradually turning grim.

At first, it didn’t feel particularly strange, but as they delved deeper, the spatial stability of the inner hall worsened. Before long, they encountered a spatial rift.

According to Ning Wuhui, there were rifts within that could move and even turn invisible. The remnants of ancient celestial barriers appeared more and more frequently as well.

Many of them had never been explored, not for lack of desire, but for lack of power. Even from afar, Qin Sang could feel the deadly danger within those ancient barriers.

The predecessors had mapped out several relatively safe routes into the inner hall, but even those required utmost caution. Any lapse in focus could mean death. The unprepared were simply marching to their graves.

Each route led in a different direction. Ning Wuhui chose one that required a large detour. Though spatial rifts were rare in this area, they dared not fly in the air.

Chirp, chirp... A strange sound echoed from a nearby mountain.

Clatter... Suddenly, a vast shadow rose from the mountaintop. It was a flock of bizarre birds with twisted forms, taking flight and circling their territory while scanning for intruders.

Qin Sang and Ning Wuhui quickly hid behind a massive boulder, holding their breath and suppressing their aura.

Only after the flock passed overhead did they move again, continuing on their way. Such encounters were far from uncommon.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t handle the creatures, but fighting here risked alerting other ferocious beasts deeper within the hall, triggering a deadly chain reaction.

Even Spiritual Infant grandmasters would have avoided unnecessary combat in such a place.

Chirp! Qin Sang looked up to see a lone bird, separated from its flock and apparently hiding nearby, suddenly burst out, spotting them. Its alarm call sent the entire flock into chaos.

In an instant, Qin Sang felt countless hostile eyes lock onto him. His heart sank. Without hesitation, he summoned the ebony sword, light flashing behind him as he simultaneously activated the Heavenly Demon Transformation. Ning Wuhui’s reaction was equally swift.

Swish! Swish! A crimson-gold spiritual sword and the ebony sword thrust out together. The strange bird flapped its wings in panic but couldn’t escape. Qin Sang’s sword light cleaved it apart.

He channeled his true essence, flinging the corpse far away, then immediately activated his evasion light. Together, he and Ning Wuhui retreated swiftly.

The flock, unable to locate their target, screeched in rage before the scent of blood drew them to devour their fallen companion.

Once they had shaken off pursuit, Qin Sang and Ning Wuhui dispelled their evasion light and landed.

"Every single step within the inner hall is filled with danger." Qin Sang sighed.

They were still a long way from Ning Wuhui’s intended destination. Qin Sang decided to maintain his Heavenly Demon Transformation form continuously, keeping the phoenix wings unfurled in case of sudden attacks.

He glanced at Ning Wuhui beside him. Even with the transformation enhancing his speed far beyond that of ordinary cultivators, Ning Wuhui was keeping up effortlessly.

Ning Wuhui, in turn, was secretly observing Qin Sang’s wings. Their brilliant, ethereal beauty drew the eye, but upon close inspection, one could tell they weren’t solid, more illusion than substance.

"Daoist Qin, I didn’t expect you to not only have extraordinary sword mastery but also command such a profound evasion technique!" Ning Wuhui praised, assuming the wings were a manifestation of a top-tier evasion technique.

Qin Sang replied, "Daoist Ning, you're the truly unfathomable one, moving with such ease and composure."

Ning Wuhui smiled faintly. "Before today, I wouldn’t have dared say that."

Hearing this, Qin Sang’s eyes flickered with surprise. So Ning Wuhui did have a great fortune within the trial realm.

The two continued forward, their journey fraught with dangers. The terrain shifted constantly, not all was mountainous. At one point, they even came across a cluster of golden palaces, but each was sealed within immense arrays, impossible to enter.

"How have we walked this far without seeing any trace of a Spiritual Infant grandmaster?" Qin Sang asked curiously.

Those grandmasters had entered ahead of them, yet along the way, there wasn’t the slightest sign of their presence.

"Dark Valley is currently the deepest area that can be explored. There are many paths that lead there. The one I chose is the most winding, and most of the barriers along the way that could be broken have already been cleared. It’s practically a dead route. Spiritual Infant grandmasters don’t need to move as cautiously as we do, so few ever choose this path..."

Ning Wuhui paused for a moment, then added, "Forcing weaker cultivators to march ahead and die to test the power of ancient barriers is something that happens often in the immortal cultivation world. Especially those devilish sects' grandmasters, they wouldn’t mind having a few extra puppets around. To avoid encountering any Spiritual Infant cultivators, I carefully picked this path."

Their destination was precisely Dark Valley. As they spoke, the two suddenly stopped walking. The flat terrain ahead had disappeared, replaced by a vast forest shrouded in darkness.

The ancient trees towered thousands of zhang high, their crowns interwoven to blot out the sky and sun. Yet from within the forest, there was no trace of life.

The reason was simple: The forest had long since died. Every blade of grass and tree had hardened into stone. Preserved perfectly through countless ages, the dead forest now stood as a shadowy, petrified woodland.