The Demon King is back, leading adorable kids on an adventure around the world!

Niannian covered the loose soil back on the stone slab, stood up, dusted off her hands, and turned to walk back.

She had only taken two steps when she felt a slight vibration under her feet.

It wasn't coming from the ground, but from under the stone slab she had just stepped on, as if something had turned over underneath.

She stopped and looked down at the ground beneath her feet. There were no obvious cracks or bulges, but the tremors were still there.

She looked up at Xiaoxiao, and Xiaoxiao sensed it too. They looked at each other without saying a word.

At that moment, more than a dozen figures stood up simultaneously from behind several rocks at the edge of the gravel field in the distance.

They remained lying there, hidden by the undulations of the ground and the shadows of the rocks. The terrain was good enough to conceal them, and when they squatted motionless, they were almost indistinguishable from the stones.

Niannian glanced at them and saw that there were about seventeen or eighteen of them, standing far apart, already forming a semi-circle around her. Their pace was neither fast nor slow, as if they weren't afraid of her running away.

The person walking at the very front, Nian Nian had seen before.

Yesterday outside the secret realm, there was an older man holding an old animal skin.

He was still wearing that drab gray robe, with a few strands of white hair mixed in, and his hands hanging at his sides.

After approaching, they stopped about five steps in front of Niannian, and the people behind them also stopped at the same time, as if they had agreed on the location in advance.

"That picture is on you, isn't it?" The old man's gaze remained fixed on Nian Nian without any further movement. "Give it to me, and you can leave."

Niannian stood still, while Xiaojin behind her took half a step forward.

But Niannian raised her hand to stop him, not too hard, just enough to stop his hand at his waist.

She glanced at the gaps in the encirclement that were slowly closing in on both sides. Someone had already circled around to the position between her and the Fang family's direction, as if preventing her from running in that direction.

She glanced at the old man again. He was very relaxed, as if he didn't think she would choose to fight given the disparity in numbers.

Niannian felt around in her pocket, touched the edges of the two rolls of animal hide, and then put them back.

Which picture are you referring to?

The old man didn't answer, probably because he didn't want to beat around the bush with her.

He took a step forward, and Niannian also took a step forward. It was a short step, but it covered half of the five-step distance between them.

She turned her body slightly to the side, as if looking at where the old man was going to stand, without turning her head completely.

But my line of sight had already swept to the second button of the other person's shirt, which was right at the vertical line of their vital point.

The old man did not retreat, nor did the people behind him move.

The wind swept across the gravelly ground, carrying grains of sand that pattered against the hem of my robe.

Niannian moved first. Instead of retreating, she moved directly towards the old man and slashed his wrist upwards with her hand.

The angle is tricky, the speed is fast, and the cut is short and sharp, like a line that suddenly springs up.

The old man dodged to the side and then pushed out with a backhand palm strike.

As he pushed his palm, Niannian crouched down, passing under his arm and pressing on the outside of his knee.

The force wasn't great, but the old man's knee bent to the side, shifting his center of gravity by half a beat. He had to take a half-step to the side to regain his balance, having already lost his original rhythm.

Niannian didn't chase after him. Instead, she turned around, took a big step, passed the old man's side, and rushed straight towards the people in the front row.

The group of people were surrounding her, their positions scattered but still maintaining their formation.

She moved so fast that they didn't even have time to adjust their orientation.

She had already cut into the defensive line, as if cutting through a crack, passing through the gap, and landing firmly on the open ground to the side where the defenses had already begun to retreat.

The notch retained its original shape the instant it was cut through, as if the blades on both sides had retreated half a step after being sliced ​​open, while the blade itself had already passed through.

Xiao Xiao stood still, but the green light on her fingertips had already lit up.

The green light spread rapidly among the pebbles beneath the ground, like dandelion seeds scattered by the wind.

There was a layer of ground undulations forming between her and Niannian.

Several ankles that were going around from the side were tripped by something invisible. Someone looked down at the top of their foot, and then the gravel under their feet returned to its flat state, as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Jin didn't make a move, but judging from his position, he had unknowingly moved to a position about half a step behind Luo Nannan.

This angle is perfect for blocking the line of sight of the people coming from the northeast, without obstructing her view of the overall situation.

Qiqi squatted on the ground, her hands pressed against the ground, as if she would prop up a wall at any moment to block the gap.

Qianqian stood still, but her position was exactly in the blind spot between the two attack routes of the opponent, so she could block the passage without moving.

The old man had regained his balance.

He stood there looking at Niannian, then at the others, as if reassessing the threat level of these children.

He didn't order any further pursuit, nor did he command anyone to press on; he simply stood there for a while, then said:

"You won't get very far. All the secret realms in this area are being watched by someone."

What you've taken, you'll have to give back sooner or later.

After he finished speaking, he turned and left, with the dozen or so men he brought following behind him, gradually retreating into the shadows of the rocks in the distance of the gravel ground.

The figures receded into the distance, eventually merging with the rough rocks.

The rock surface, which had been repeatedly polished by coarse sand, was slowly becoming damp, leaving dark wet streaks that quickly dried and faded, disappearing completely into the outline of the stones.

Niannian stood there for a while, making sure those people wouldn't come back.

He took the animal hide out of his pocket again to check it, then put it back:

"We can't stay here any longer, let's go back and talk about it later."

She didn't say anything more, and turned to leave.

The others followed her across the gravel path without stopping or looking back into the distance.

The footprints were being slowly smoothed out by the wind behind them, and the soil particles at the edges rolled downhill.

Layer upon layer, it will soon be completely filled in, as if no one had ever walked on it.