Mortal: Starting with the Falling Cloud Sect, I proved my Dao through gacha pulls.

The latest chapter has ignited the plot! Stay tuned for more updates.

A moment later, Han Li's figure finally materialized on the teleportation array, and Ji Yin and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as Han Li landed, his gaze swept quickly around the field. After spotting Ji Yin and the others, he dared not be negligent in the slightest and immediately walked respectfully to stand beside them.

But when his gaze fell on Yuan Yao, who was standing quietly beside Su Mu, his expression suddenly froze, and a strange feeling arose in his heart.

"Could it be that Tang Laomo (a derogatory term for Tang the Demon) took a fancy to this woman's beauty and forcibly abducted her to his side?"

Thinking of Su Mu's unfathomable ruthlessness, Han Li's gaze towards Yuan Yao unconsciously carried a hint of pity, and a strange sense of shared misfortune arose in his heart.

Another hour passed, and suddenly the ground trembled violently. The huge stone door of the inner hall tower slowly rose up, revealing the deep blue stone passage behind it.

"Hahaha, those two guys from Xinggong haven't shown up yet. It seems they really won't be causing trouble in the inner palace."

Seeing that Jin Kui and his companion had vanished without a trace, the bearded man burst into laughter. Then, he clenched his fist and his sharp gaze fell directly on Wan Tianming.

"Wan Tianming! How about we have a contest here? The loser will voluntarily forfeit their right to enter the inner hall. What do you say?"

Upon hearing this, Wan Tianming merely shook his head and chuckled indifferently.

"Forget it, there's no point in fighting here. Let's save our strength for taking the cauldron. We can settle the score after we get it."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the room had a slight glint in their eyes. Clearly, no one wanted to engage in pointless fighting at this moment and give the Star Palace an opportunity to take advantage of them.

"Alright! Then we'll do as you say, and discuss everything after we retrieve the treasure!"

A few breaths later, the bearded man snorted coldly and said to Wan Tianming and the others in a cold voice.

Just then, his gaze swept over the only Core Formation cultivator in the arena without any backing, and a fierce glint flashed in his eyes.

The cultivator's face turned deathly pale the moment the bearded man locked onto him. He immediately activated his escape technique and frantically tried to rush into the inner hall first.

"Did I tell you to move?!"

With a flick of his wrist, the bearded man unleashed a golden light that struck the cultivator's escape light.

The unknown Core Formation cultivator only had time to let out a shrill scream before his body was slashed to the ground by the golden light and instantly turned into a cloud of dust.

Upon seeing this, Yuan Yao's heart tightened suddenly. She subconsciously looked at Su Mu beside her and couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. She knew that if it weren't for Su Mu's sake, she would probably have ended up like that cultivator.

Su Mu watched all this with cold eyes, his expression completely unmoved. The law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, is an age-old norm in the cultivation world, and is hardly worth mentioning.

However, at this moment, Ji Yin turned his gaze to Xuan Gu in the arena, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.

"There seems to be another outsider here. Why doesn't Brother Man eliminate him?"

Su Mu's heart stirred, and a wicked sense of amusement arose within him. He immediately took out a white bone demon banner, his eyes scanning Xuan Gu up and down, revealing undisguised greed and cruelty.

"My friend is right. I can tell this person's cultivation is not weak. It just so happens that my demon banners are still missing a few high-level Yin spirits. If Brother Man is unwilling to take action, why not hand this person over to me to make something of?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Mu suddenly activated the White Bone Demon Banner in his hand. Countless Yin spirits and fierce souls within the banner struggled and roared wildly. A chilling and malevolent aura instantly swept across the entire area, causing Han Li, who was standing to the side, to tremble and subconsciously shrink back.

Those righteous people who had not yet left sensed this eerie aura and frowned, turning to look at the white bone demon banner in Su Mu's hand, their eyes filled with deep apprehension.

"This demonic cultivator has concocted such an evil and sinister magical artifact; it truly violates the laws of nature!"

Wan Tianming snorted coldly, then withdrew his gaze and, together with the other two righteous Nascent Soul cultivators, stepped through the stone gate and entered the inner hall first.

Xuan Gu, whose gaze was fixed on Su Mu, felt his scalp tingle and an uncontrollable sense of horror well up in his heart after sensing the aura of the White Bone Demon Banner.

He never expected that the demonic artifact mentioned by the bearded man would be so terrifying. Just a glance from afar brought a strange suction force, as if it wanted to pull his soul into the banner.

"Damn it! This treasure has such a strong restraining effect on me, just who is this Tang Laomo?!"

Xuan Gu's face was extremely ugly, and he subconsciously turned his gaze to Man Hu Zi.

"This person has some connection with me; he is a descendant of a senior who has been kind to me. Fellow Daoist Tang, please give me some face and don't try anything with him." Man Huzi stepped forward, shielding Xuan Gu behind him, and said expressionlessly.

Everyone present looked surprised upon hearing this.

Su Mu chuckled lightly, flipped his hand to put away the White Bone Demon Banner, and the eerie ghostly aura surrounding him instantly dissipated, restoring his refined and amiable appearance, as if the ferocity he had just displayed was merely an illusion.

"Since he is someone related to Brother Man, I will naturally give him face. I was just joking earlier."

The bearded man nodded slightly and said no more. Xuan Gu breathed a sigh of relief, but the unease in his heart lingered.

Without making a sound, Han Li moved further away from Su Mu and stood directly behind Ji Yin. He sighed inwardly, thinking that these old monsters of the demonic path were indeed capricious and unpredictable, and could not be provoked in the slightest.

"Fellow Daoists, let's hurry into the inner hall. If we delay any longer, we'll be left behind by Wan Tianming and his group."

Qingyi Jushi frowned, and seeing the figures of the righteous people disappear at the end of the passage, he hurriedly urged them in a deep voice.

Without further hesitation, everyone stepped into the deep, dark stone passage.

.....

Once inside the inner hall, Su Mu and the others found themselves in a vast maze-like space.

Countless crisscrossing bluestone passages extend in all directions, with towering, thick walls on both sides. At each crossroads, a stone gate carved with strange runes appears.

These stone gates are all square, each over ten feet long and wide, facing different directions, with a faint white light flowing across their surfaces, and covered with mysterious restrictions.

Every few dozen feet, after passing a new fork in the road, a new stone gate will appear, and there are many of them.

Su Mu knew that behind these stone doors lay various treasures left behind by ancient cultivators. Each cultivator could open one door with the Void Heaven Remnant Map in their hand, but once inside, there was no way to leave. After successfully obtaining the treasure, they would be directly teleported out of the Void Heaven Palace.

He tried to use his divine sense to explore the scene behind the stone door, but found that the divine sense restriction on the stone door was extremely powerful. With his current divine sense strength, he could only detect a hazy shadow and could not see the reality at all, so he simply gave up exploring.

Before long, a series of muffled thuds, like heavy objects hitting the ground, came from the bluestone passage ahead. The sound grew louder as it approached the direction where they were.

Su Mu immediately stopped in his tracks, and saw several wolf-shaped puppets slowly emerging from the depths of the dark passage ahead.

These puppets have golden wolf heads, dark silver bodies, and thick, black, sharp blades growing from their claws, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.

Although the puppets on the first floor of this inner hall are among the weakest, they can still hold their own against Nascent Soul cultivators, and are extremely formidable enemies for Core Formation cultivators.

"Let's all work together; it'll save us some time."

Qing Yi glanced at the puppet, then unfolded the bamboo slip in his hand. Large swathes of blue light surged out, instantly slicing the wolf-shaped puppet into countless fragments.

Seeing that Manhuzi and Jiyin had also unleashed their supernatural powers, Su Mu protected Yuan Yao behind him, lightly waved the white bone demon banner in his hand, and summoned the soul of a demon beast with a strange human face, which was the remnant soul of the mountain demon that had been killed by the Heavenly Maiden Beast.

After the mandrill appeared, it let out a silent roar and pounced straight at the wolf-headed puppet. With a single swipe of its claw, it cleaved the puppet into several pieces.

In just a few breaths, the wolf-headed puppets were completely defeated by the combined efforts of the group.

Su Mu glanced at Han Li, who was bent over collecting the puppet's remains, and couldn't help but chuckle.

He truly lives up to his reputation as the king of junk and the king of bargain hunters in the Void Heaven Palace; he won't let go of even the slightest bit of benefit.