Mortal: Starting by joining the Falling Cloud Sect

Dark as ink.

Mulan's spy raced through the dense forest, glancing back every now and then. Only when no pursuers appeared did he slow down and catch his breath.

He moved nimbly through the dense forest, like an owl in flight, and his movements were almost inaudible.

One can imagine how agile and swift this person's movements are!

Soon, Mulan's spy passed through the dense forest and arrived at a narrow intersection.

Upon seeing this scene, Mu Lan frowned deeply. Both sides of this path were steep and dangerous peaks. Even with his agility, he could not cross this place by climbing the dangerous peaks. He could only take this path.

As for letting him fly directly overhead on his magical artifact, that's out of the question; it's practically suicidal.

There are many Tiannan camps nearby. Once the spiritual light is discovered and his escape route is blocked, he will surely die.

With this thought in mind, Mu Lan hesitated for a long time at the intersection before finally mustering up her courage and walking over.

As he walked into the intersection with a tense expression, he looked around and, finding no Tiannan cultivators present, breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as he was secretly rejoicing that he could escape, his vision suddenly blurred and the scenery around him changed drastically!

This was no longer a canyon; it was surrounded by endless bamboo forests on all sides.

"An array!" Mu Lan's expression changed drastically, and he became panicked. He had no idea why an array would suddenly appear here.

He quickly summoned his magical artifact, an earth-yellow spirit pearl, which emitted a yellow spiritual light to protect himself, preparing to face a sudden attack from the shadows.

After waiting for a while, he still didn't see anyone launch an attack. His mind raced, and he suddenly realized that this might be a trap set by some cultivator from Tiannan.

Just like the mortals in their tribe who used traps to catch wild rabbits and pheasants, he was also captured by the Tiannan cultivators as prey.

Thinking of this, Mu Lan, the spy, was filled with rage and activated the earth-yellow spirit pearl to release several wind blades that slashed at the bamboo forest in all directions.

Wherever the wind blades passed, the green bamboo was cut in half, falling in large pieces with a rustling sound.

However, to Mu Lan's surprise, these green bamboos could actually revive. They had just been cut down, but they grew back in front of him.

The spy Mulan could not believe it. She activated the spirit pearl with all her might, and two fan-shaped wind blades shot out from the left and right, sweeping towards the bamboo forest.

The green bamboo snapped in response, sweeping away a large area and revealing clean cuts. But just a few breaths later, the bamboo sprang up again, and the bamboo forest returned to its original state.

Leaving aside how Mu Lan's spy struggled while trapped in the formation, Zhou Qing found the Huangsha Sect cultivator surnamed Tie on a hillside.

On the earthen slope, after confirming that Huang Shamen Iron Cultivator was not in mortal danger, Zhou Qing and the others once again flew up on their magical artifacts.

A cultivator frowned, gazing into the dark distance, and asked in a low voice, "What do we do now? Continue chasing?"

"Chase? How can we chase them? We can't even see a shadow of them, how can we chase them?" The cultivator from the Hidden Moon Sect looked rather unpleasant. He already disliked the Iron Cultivator from the Yellow Sand Sect, and now that the Mulan people had escaped, his anger surged, and his tone was full of suppressed irritation.

He could let go of the fact that he had lost his merit, but he was determined to get revenge. He thought that as long as he reported this matter to Fairy Hongfu, this Huangsha Sect cultivator would be in big trouble.

"Take him back, report the situation to Elder Hongfu, and let the elder handle it. We can't afford to take responsibility for letting Mulan's spy escape." The cultivator from the Yanyue Sect looked at the Huangshamen cultivator sitting cross-legged on the earthen slope, his eyes filled with disgust and hatred.

Upon hearing this, the two fellow cultivators and Lu Gongshu descended the earthen slope together, helped Huang Shamen cultivator up, placed him on the magic artifact, and the three of them returned to the abandoned mine.

"Alas, I didn't expect those three from Huangshamen and Beiyezong to be so reckless. They let a Mulan spy escape, which has cost Junior Brother Zhou a lot of credit." The Hu cultivator from Yanyuezong flew to Zhou Qing's side and said with a regretful expression.

Zhou Qing shrugged and said calmly, "Losing the credit is a small matter; letting the Mulan people escape is a serious offense. And if the elders of Tiantai Valley investigate our failure to report things immediately, I really don't know what to do!"

The cultivator surnamed Hu was taken aback upon hearing this. He had only lamented the loss of the merit he was about to achieve and hadn't thought deeply about assigning blame. His heart sank immediately: "Our plan was originally foolproof, but now that something unexpected has happened, the fault lies entirely with those three people. They will definitely try to shift the blame onto them. I think Junior Brother Zhou and Junior Brother Lu probably think the same way."

Zhou Qing neither confirmed nor denied this. Of course, he was also very angry. He could accept losing most of the credit, but he absolutely did not want to take responsibility for concealing the truth.

"Elder Hongfu will have her own judgment on who is right and who is wrong. There's no point in saying more now. Let's hurry back to the mine and report what happened later."

The cultivator surnamed Hu nodded. He had originally intended to take this opportunity to bring Zhou Qing and Lu Gongshu to their side, but seeing that Zhou Qing was clearly unwilling to agree, he was somewhat displeased and immediately flew away on his magic artifact.

Zhou Qing remained where he was, gazing towards the canyon. Only after seeing the cultivator surnamed Hu fly away and disappear into the night did he set off towards the canyon.

Upon seeing the spiritual light emanating from the great formation in the distance, Zhou Qing was secretly pleased. He hadn't expected that his casually arranged backup plan would actually come in handy.

He flew to the top of the great formation and found that the first layer of the formation—the Bamboo Forest Illusion Formation—had been broken. However, he was not in a hurry and stood in the shadows outside the formation to observe the Mulan spy.

This formation has four layers of restrictions, each more powerful than the last. Zhou Qing knew very well that even with Mu Lan's mid-Foundation Establishment strength, he wouldn't be able to break through even if he had three more days.

The Mulan spy was tall and thin, dressed in coarse black cloth. He was activating a yellowish-brown spirit bead the size of a goose egg, releasing wind blades half a meter long, which struck the array wall one after another.

At the same time, Zhou Qing also noticed that the Mulan spy was holding a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand.

The Mulan people are resource-poor, and they value spirit stones far more than the Tiannan cultivators. Now they are forced to use mid-grade spirit stones to replenish their mana, which shows that the Mulan spies are now desperate and want to break out of the formation as soon as possible.

However, this dashed Zhou Qing's hopes. He had initially planned to wait until the Mulan spy had exhausted most of her spiritual energy before making his move, but now it seemed that wouldn't be possible.

With a loud "bang!", the second layer of the illusion array's restrictions was shattered by the continuous wind blades from Mulan's spies.

Now, Mulan's spy was freed from the illusion and could see what was happening outside the great formation.

A moment later, Mu Lan's spy suddenly stopped and turned to look at where Zhou Qing was hiding.

Seeing that he had been discovered, Zhou Qing stopped hiding and calmly stepped out from the shadows, looking calmly at the Mulan spy inside the formation.

With the large formation in place, the Mulan spy was merely a sitting duck, so he had nothing to worry about and appeared unusually relaxed.