What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

At this moment, Shi Jing no longer possessed the composed and aloof demeanor he had before, the one that commanded everything.

His once ordinary coarse cloth clothes were now tattered and covered in dust and dark red bloodstains.

What's even more surprising is that the magical gauntlets he was wearing on his hands are now completely shattered.

Those metal fragments, made of some unknown precious material, were now deeply embedded in the muscles of his bleeding hand.

And right in the center of his chest was a horrifying knife wound that was more than ten centimeters long.

The wound was very strange; the flesh at the edges had a necrotic gray-black color.

A faint, visible aura of malevolence clung to the wound, relentlessly eroding his life force.

No matter how much his massive and scorching fire-attribute internal energy washed over him, it was impossible to completely dispel these malevolent energies in a short period of time.

Shi Jing looked down at the wound on his chest, and the muscles on his wrinkled old face twitched uncontrollably a few times.

His eyes held a mixture of surprise, fear, and a frenzied killing intent born from utter rage.

If he had retreated even half a second slower, if he hadn't poured all his inner energy into those magical gauntlets at the last moment to block the blade...

He's probably not suffering from such a minor injury now.

Just as Shi Jing crawled out of the ruins and stood there forcibly suppressing the evil energy in his chest with his internal energy.

A muffled knocking sound and the sound of rocks cracking suddenly came from a relatively intact rock face not far away.

"Bang! Bang!"

After a few muffled thuds, the hard rock wall was forcibly broken from the inside by some enormous force, creating an irregular gap.

Immediately afterwards, three figures, covered in dust and bearing varying degrees of abrasions, struggled to emerge from the gap.

These three were the other guardians of the cauldron who had been hiding in the shadows and were responsible for controlling the fiery array.

As soon as they emerged, they saw Shi Jing standing in the center of the ruins, radiating a terrifying aura.

The three men immediately stepped forward, not even bothering to brush the dust off their clothes, and bowed in unison, clasping their hands in a fist salute. Their voices were filled with deep reverence as they shouted in unison:

"Master of the Cauldron".

Upon hearing this title, Shi Jing's expression remained unchanged, neither confirming nor denying it.

He glanced coldly at the three of them, then frowned slightly and asked in a hoarse voice:

"And one more?"

There should have been four people in charge of controlling the formation.

One of the older-looking subordinates stepped forward, head bowed, and reported to the leader with some trepidation:

"Reporting to the cauldron master, the location of the array eye that he was in charge of... has completely collapsed during the massive collapse just now."

The rock strata above were fractured so thoroughly that his subordinates wanted to rescue them, but... they were powerless to do so.

Upon hearing this answer, a cold glint flashed in Shi Jing's eyes, but he did not vent his anger on the three people in front of him.

After taking a deep breath, his face regained its calm expression.

"Notify the people responsible for guarding the area at the foot of the mountain and the surrounding area."

Shi Jing's voice echoed through the empty ruins.

Everyone else, go up the mountain!

He raised his still-bleeding right hand, pointed towards the mine exit, and said, word by word:

"Immediately lock down this area, within a radius of thirty miles!"

Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground and turn this mountain upside down, we will definitely find that kid out!

He was seriously injured and couldn't run far.

"yes!"

The three of them quickly responded loudly.

After issuing a series of orders, Shi Jing turned his head, glanced at the location of the collapse reported by his subordinate, and coldly added:

"You all go and carry out the search operation immediately. The one buried underneath remains..."

I'll go get him myself later.

"Your subordinate obeys!"

The three clasped their hands in a fist salute again, then quickly turned around and sped off towards the outer edge of the mine in a few leaps.

……

At this moment, I was gritting my teeth and continuing to run forward in the dense, almost sunless primeval forest behind Qingshi Town.

After hanging up Lei Zhenshan's call, I forced myself to run for another ten minutes or so.

This ten-minute journey felt like an eternity to me.

I felt like the air in my lungs was burning with flames, and every breath was filled with the strong smell of blood and a tearing pain.

At this point, my physical strength had truly reached its limit.

The muscles in my legs were spasming uncontrollably, and every step I took required immense willpower.

I knew that if I didn't stop to catch my breath, even if Shi Jing didn't send anyone to hunt me down, I would die suddenly in this deep mountain forest from exhaustion and blood loss.

I need to stop and take a short break, even if it's just for a few minutes.

With my vision blurring, I quickly scanned the dense vegetation around me.

Finally, they settled on a slightly secluded spot.

Those were two enormous ancient trees, which had fallen together for some reason.

Its thick trunk intersects with the surrounding protruding rocks, forming a natural triangular crevice covered by thick moss and vines.

I took a deep breath and, using both hands and feet, painstakingly pushed aside the thorny vines.

Despite the excruciating pain from the burns on my back, I squeezed myself little by little into the narrow crevice.

The space in the crevice was very small, just enough for me to sit cross-legged. The air was filled with the damp smell of decaying leaves and soil.

But I couldn't care less about any of that.

As soon as I sat down, I immediately closed my eyes, preparing to regulate my breathing and recover some of my killing intent.

However, I hadn't had a chance to fully enter a meditative state and regulate my breathing.

The faint sensory network that I had been forcibly maintaining within a 30-meter radius suddenly received a clear jolt.

Two undisguised auras suddenly entered my perception range.

I suddenly opened my eyes, my brows furrowed.

According to the feedback from the sensor network, the two auras were not far apart, maintaining a tactical distance of about fifteen meters.

This distance ensures both the coverage of the search and the ability to quickly form an encirclement and provide mutual support in case of emergencies.

But the worst part is that their route, unfortunately, happened to be right in the middle of the natural crevice where I was.

Moreover, they are steadily advancing in my direction at a seemingly unhurried but actually very efficient pace.

It seems my earlier prediction was entirely correct.

Despite that seemingly devastating blow, the old monster Shi Jing did not die.