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

As night falls, the lights of Hecheng spill out from both sides of the streets and alleys, illuminating the bluestone pavement with a play of light and shadow.

Niannian stood at the entrance of the courtyard and glanced one last time at the street corner.

A few lanterns swayed in the wind, and occasionally a figure would pass by, like an ordinary passerby, but none of them stopped to buy anything in front of the shop.

She withdrew her gaze, turned around, and went back into the courtyard.

"Is everything packed?"

Xiao Xiao had already put the map on the stone table into her storage ring, leaving only an oil lamp that hadn't gone out on the table.

Qiqi was squatting against the wall, stuffing spirit fruits into her pockets until they were bulging. She wanted to put in another piece of dry food, but Qianqian pressed her hand down.

That's enough.

Qiqi looked down at her bulging pockets, then looked up at Qianqian, and put the dry food back.

Xiao Jin was squatting in the shadow of the courtyard wall, tying the last knot in his shoelaces.

He adjusted his shoes, stood up, and walked to Niannian's side:

"I just went out for a walk and saw two more groups of people at the city gate."

One group dressed in black squatted against the wall, while another group, disguised as a caravan traveling at night, stopped at a tea stall outside the city gate.

The roof of the teahouse was piled with straw, but the edges of the straw were not compacted, as if it had just been piled up.

After listening, Niannian didn't ask any more questions. She walked to the edge of the paving stones in the corner of the yard, squatted down, and pressed her fingertips against a protrusion on the outside of the paving stones.

I ran my fingers along its texture and edge until I found a gap that hadn't yet been penetrated, and then pressed down hard.

The array nodes beneath the stone slab emitted a slight closing sound, and the light of the spirit-gathering array briefly converged between the stone patterns before extinguishing completely.

The atmosphere in the entire courtyard instantly subsided, like a light being turned off. She stood up:

"Walk."

I didn't climb over the wall or use the main entrance.

The bewitching array that Qianqian had prepared in advance had already been laid out along the base of the back wall.

Several fine streaks of light adhered to the wall surface, like a thin shell soaked in water.

Niannian squeezed through the gap between the corner of the wall and the back wall, and the others followed her, moving faster than a cat.

The group moved along the wall in a series of narrow spaces without making any unnecessary noise.

After turning through three alleys, they walked through the back door of a closed fabric shop to another street.

The street is narrower than the main street, and the streetlights are sparse, with only one light every so often.

Niannian walked in front without turning around to check the footsteps behind her.

Xiao Xiao followed closely behind her, her feet landing lighter than Niannian's, each step landing on the edge of the person in front of her.

When they reached the low wall on the west side of the city, the spiritual energy fluctuations on the wall were almost half as weak as during the day.

Niannian squatted down, picked up a small stone from the ground, and flicked it towards a spot on the edge of the wall.

The pebble struck the wall with a soft sound, and the aura patterns on the top of the wall flashed and then disappeared, revealing a gap about the size of a palm.

Without pausing, she squeezed through the gap along the wall.

When Qiqi followed and crawled out, she almost bumped into a piece of broken tile in the corner of the wall. Qianqian grabbed her by the back of her collar to steady her. She shrank her neck and continued to follow.

The wilderness outside the city was much darker than inside, with no lights. Only the lights from the distant city gate shrank into a small orange halo behind us.

Niannian followed the direction of the dried-up stream for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, then stopped at a bend in the stream.

He took out the pieced-together map from his pocket, unfolded it, and studied it for a while by the moonlight.

The entrance to the Wilderness Secret Realm is marked in the northwest on the map. Follow the stream to the end and then climb over two low slopes.

The line on the map was still clear under the moonlight, reflecting the light slightly. She looked at that direction again.

After confirming his orientation, he folded and put the map away and continued walking forward.

After walking about three miles, the lights in the direction of the city gate behind us had shrunk to a thin line.

Niannian glanced back to make sure there were no traces of pursuers before slowing her pace slightly, waiting for the people behind her to catch up.

Kiki was panting heavily for a while behind them, her mouth agape.

Her pace didn't slow down much, but the distance between her steps narrowed slightly.

It landed on the semi-dry soil, making a denser rustling sound than before, and I jogged to catch up.

Qianqian walked beside her, shielding her from the wind blowing in her face.

"They should have gotten rid of them."

Xiao Jin walked at the very back, glancing back every now and then before turning back again.

"Those two groups of people at the city gate don't even know when we left; they're still squatting there."

Without stopping, I continued walking forward.

The path underfoot changed from gravel in a dry creek to a surface of hard soil and short grass.

After walking a while, the slope turned into a shallow slope with fine sand mixed with gravel, and the grass on the slope made my feet itch.

She walked for about 15 minutes and then stopped at the top of a low hill.

The view ahead was open, and under the moonlight, a darker area could be seen in the distance, like a crack embedded in the ground.

The rock walls on both sides of the crevice are not high, but the edges are smooth, which does not seem to be naturally formed.

We've arrived.

She squatted down, opened the map again, and checked the location to confirm it was correct.

Then I put the map away and walked down the slope, my pace much faster than before.

The others followed her down the low slope, and when they landed at the bottom of the valley, the ground beneath their feet was firmer and cooler than the ground above, as if it had been pressed down for a long time without being disturbed.

The crack at the bottom of the valley appears deeper than it does from the top of the slope, with an entrance about ten feet wide and the rock walls on both sides covered with a fine layer of moss.

The edges of the moss shimmered with a faint silver light under the moonlight.

Niannian paused for a few moments at the entrance of the crack, and the aura she exuded when the wind blew was different from the surroundings.

The air in the crevice was dry, carrying a faint smell of dried wood and minerals.

It smells completely different from the smell of grass, wood, and sand outside.

She squeezed into the gap, and after taking a dozen steps, the space widened, and she could see a faint light overhead.

The passage wasn't long; after walking for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, a stone gate appeared ahead.

The door was not completely closed, leaving a crack about the width of a person, through which a faint blue light shone.

Kiki squatted down and listened to the ground for a while:

"There was a sound of water inside, very faint, and very far away."

She placed her small hand on the edge of the stone door and lingered for a few moments, confirming that the residual spiritual energy on the surface of the stone door came from a long time ago.

The edges are mostly worn down, as if it has been opened and closed many times.

She turned to look at Niannian, nodded, and Niannian squeezed through the crack in the door.

The space behind the stone door was much larger than the passage, and there was a thin crack overhead through which moonlight seeped in.

A thin, bright band formed on the ground directly below, illuminating the central area of ​​the entire space.

The ground is flat, as if it had been polished by hand, and there are carving marks on the surrounding stone walls with rough lines.

Niannian stood in the center of the space and looked around to make sure there was no immediate threat. Then she squatted down, reopened the map, and examined the patterns on the ground.

Xiao Xiao walked over to her, squatted down, and pointed to a mark on the edge of the map:

"We've reached the marked location, but the entrance to the secret realm isn't here; we need to go deeper."

Qiqi was squatting in front of the stone wall, gesturing at a blurry carving and trying to make out something.

Niannian walked over and took a look; it was a very simple scene.

A person stands in front of a line, one end of which is connected to a circle.

Niannian patted Qiqi on the shoulder:

"Let's go, let's go inside."

Qiqi stood up, dusted off her hands, and turned to catch up with the group.

The group passed through a passage at the other end of the stone chamber and continued deeper along a path that sloped downwards.

I don't know how long I walked, but the walls along the way changed from rough rock surfaces to smooth stone slabs with obvious polishing marks.

After walking a while longer, a low humming sound came from ahead, echoing continuously in the passage...