Please be my partner.

Actually, it was because Mellen's cultivation level was insufficient at the time; otherwise, those so-called waste materials could have been refined into pure spiritual energy.

Relying on this drug-fueled approach, in just one day, Mellen overcame the first hurdle for cultivators in the Azure Moon Realm... Foundation Establishment!

Furthermore, because Mellen broke through under a sky full of stars, his physical body and magical power were simultaneously baptized by the power of the stars. This was equivalent to a combination of Foundation Establishment physical cultivation and Foundation Establishment magical cultivation. His physical body was strong enough to withstand high-grade magic weapons, while his magical power was more than a hundred times that of other Foundation Establishment cultivators of the same level.

Mellen felt the surging yet gentle power within his body and nodded slightly. Based on the current progress and the remaining resources, he would reach the Core Formation Realm in at most ten days.

Ten days is enough time for Mellen to complete those tasks.

Since resources are not scarce for the time being, Mellen does not plan to use the power of the Blood Sea. Firstly, his current absorption efficiency is already saturated, and even if he uses the power of the Blood Sea, it will not increase his progress much. Secondly, limited by his current strength, he cannot perfectly digest the power of the Blood Sea, which will definitely make him blaze with blood and exude a sinister aura. If others see him in this state, it will inevitably cause trouble.

After sprinkling on various spices and enjoying a decent roasted meat, Mellen launched a water balloon to extinguish the campfire, then stood up and looked into the distance, where there was a peaceful little mountain village.

This was one of the tasks that Mellen saw.

The moon was high in the sky, and it was also the time when Mellen was at the height of his power.

[Nine Revolutions of the Star River] After all, it can draw on the power of the stars in the heavens. Although day and night are the same after reaching a higher level, for Mellen now, the night under the illumination of countless stars still significantly enhances his strength.

Although the tasks Mellen saw were all aimed at inner disciples in the Qi Refining stage and shouldn't be too difficult, the opponent was, after all, a demon. It's better to be cautious than to make a big mistake. Mellen didn't want to be kicked out because of carelessness.

A short while later, Mellen arrived at the small mountain village. Strangely, such small mountain villages usually arrange for local militia to keep watch at night to prevent possible night attacks by wild animals or villains.

But the small mountain village in front of us was eerily quiet, with no lights, no livestock barking, and not even the most common sounds of insects chirping, making it seem particularly strange.

According to the mission description, the village called Ningjia Village was reported to the government because of a series of strange events, which eventually reached the Yuqing Sect.

The strange incident began when someone in Ningjia Village discovered that their chicken had died, and the manner of death was extremely bizarre—its entire body had been drained of blood.

What terrified Ningjia Village even more was that the dead chicken had no wounds whatsoever, and there was no trace of blood flowing from its eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. It was as if the blood in its body had vanished into thin air.

At first, the government did not take it seriously, but due to the villagers' pleas, they sent constables to investigate. The result was that the livestock continued to die, and even larger cattle were dying, all from the same cause of death: blood being drained.

This is like stirring up a hornet's nest. If it were just chickens that died, it wouldn't be so bad. It would just mean a few less eggs for the family or a little less subsidy. But for Ningjia Village, cattle are their lifeblood.

To put it bluntly, when faced with a truly dire situation, some people would rather sell their children than their family's cattle.

Coupled with this bizarre manner of death, the authorities realized that the matter was beyond their control, so they quickly reported it to higher authorities, which led to the task assigned to Mellen.

All things considered, about six or seven days have passed, so Mellen has no idea what Ningjia Village is like now. After all, he didn't follow the proper mission procedures, and it was even more difficult for him to contact the government to obtain the latest information. He had to rely on himself for everything.

After observing for a moment, Mellen stepped into Ningjia Village.

Suddenly, Mellen felt as if he had passed through a thin layer of mist. The environment in front of him was still Ningjia Village, but it seemed to have undergone a slight change.

It seemed even more sinister. In the inconspicuous corners of the streets, houses, trees, etc., there seemed to be some kind of shadow constantly wriggling, but if you looked closely, you could not see any special changes.

Murron looked up and saw that the bright stars in the sky had disappeared, replaced by a thin, ethereal mist. However, Murron could still sense the power of the stars.

After a moment's thought, Mellen went to the nearest house and placed his hand on the door, but he did not knock or force the door open, because he had a feeling that something bad would happen if he forced the door open.

Listening carefully, Mellen could hear people in the house deliberately holding their breath and faintly emanating a sense of fear.

Mellen realized that the 'bad' thing that happened after the door was opened was probably directed at the person inside.

Logically speaking, the houses in Ningjia Village are all made of earth and wood and do not have good sealing properties. If the danger were the mist floating in the air, it should have already entered the houses. Whether the doors are closed or not is actually not very effective.

However, the reality is that the people in the houses are safe. In other words, these dangers contain certain patterns, and they can only harm people if these patterns are met.

Mellen immediately thought of the strange things he had encountered before, and they seemed to be somewhat similar.

After thinking for a moment, Mellen said, "Hello, I am a disciple of the Jade Purity Sect, here specifically to resolve the strange events in Ningjia Village. I know you cannot open the door right now, but I would like to ask if you have any information you can provide me?"

There was no response from inside the house; they had only been holding their breath until Mellen said those words, at which point the people inside stopped breathing in terror.

After waiting a while, Mellen gave a wry smile and hurriedly left, afraid that if he left too slowly, the people in the house would suffocate.

As Mellen walked, he observed his surroundings and discovered that not every household in Ningjia Village was occupied; three or four tenths of the houses were empty.

Every time he passed a house that was inhabited, Mellen would repeat what he had said before. After all, he was going to search on his own anyway, and if the people of Ningjia Village could provide some clues, it would save him a lot of trouble.

Unfortunately, most people seemed to be terrified and dared not respond at all.

Until, as Mellen was nearing the center of the village, he finally encountered something different…

Before Mellen was a more elaborate house, with animal hides hanging outside, suggesting that the owner was most likely a hunter.

As usual, Mellen repeated himself, waited a few seconds, and was about to turn and leave when a childish female voice, sounding only twelve or thirteen years old, came from inside the house: "You...you're an immortal? You're an immortal who's come to save us?!"

Mellen stopped and said in as gentle a tone as possible, "I am a cultivator, and I am here to resolve the strange events in Ningjia Village. Little girl, please tell me everything you know, okay?"

The little girl made a "woo-woo" sound, as if she was trying to cover her mouth to stop herself from crying.

After a moment, the little girl choked out, "They're dead! Daddy's dead! Uncle Yong's dead! Grandpa Village Chief's dead too! Waaah!! They're all dead!!"

Mellen opened his mouth, but knew that any further words of comfort would be futile, so he could only helplessly shut his mouth.

Fortunately, the little girl was quite strong and quickly adjusted her mindset, saying, "That monster, it's a terrifying monster. Anyone who gets touched by the mist might encounter it! It will drain the blood of anyone who sees it—no, not drain it, but make their blood disappear into thin air..."

"Don't look at it! Don't look at it! Don't look at it!!"

"And make sure it never sees you!!"

Although the little girl's words were somewhat incoherent, Mellen had roughly pieced together some information. It seemed that the strange monster was relying on Sagiri to continuously kill people.

Mellen calmed the little girl down a bit, then asked, "Since that monster is killing people in the village, haven't you thought about leaving?"

The little girl sobbed, speaking haltingly, "At first we reported it to the authorities, but at that time it was just livestock dying mysteriously. By the time we realized something was wrong, that monster had sealed off the entire village. Grandpa, the village chief, organized a group of people to try to break out and seek help, but... but..."

The result is self-evident.

Mellen sighed inwardly and said gently, "You stay at home. Don't worry, I'll take care of that monster soon and restore Ningjia Village to its original state."

After saying that, Mellen continued toward the center of the village, where he sensed that the yin energy, foul energy, and evil energy were most concentrated.

As Mellen expected, after walking a few steps, he heard a rustling sound. Looking in the direction from which the sound came, he saw that there was nothing there.

But in those few glances, a small shadow vaguely appeared in the mist.

As Mellen observed, the shadow became clearer and clearer; it was a figure kneeling on the ground, seemingly gnawing on something.

When Mellen thought of 'devouring', a large number of severed limbs appeared beneath the figure, and a severed arm appeared in the figure's hand, along with dried blood and bits of flesh on its body.

Suddenly, the figure stopped eating. His body didn't move at all, but his head slowly turned towards Mellen at a strange angle.

Having already obtained some information about the monster from the little girl, Mellen naturally wouldn't let her play tricks on him. He followed the angle at which the monster's head was turning and took a few steps in the opposite direction.

Thus, Mellen was now standing directly behind the monster's head.

The monster paused for a moment, then continued turning its head.

Mellen blinked and took a few more steps, keeping himself out of the monster's sight.

Seeing the monster's head spin two or three times in succession, forming a comical shape, it suddenly stopped moving, and then its head began to spin in the opposite direction, several times faster than before.

Seeing this, Mellen understood that although this monster had to follow certain rules, it also had a mechanism to prevent it from getting stuck. It was impossible to deal with it by relying on those simple rules.

That being the case...

Starlight rose, and the divine light of Jade Purity swept across in an instant.

Chapter 726 The Power of the Otherworldly Demons

The bright white Jade Purity Divine Light swept across, and the monster's head vanished instantly, leaving only an empty body.

However, the monster did not fall, nor did it drop the severed arm it was holding.

Mellen could clearly feel the headless monster's gaze still shifting, about to fixate on him.

Mellen frowned slightly. He had originally intended to keep some of the monster's remains for research, but he hadn't expected the monster to be so troublesome. Under these circumstances, he certainly wouldn't underestimate the monster's visual attacks.

One after another, beams of pure divine light shone forth, but this time it wasn't an attack; instead, it protected Mellen.

When the headless monster's 'gaze' fell on Melon, he could feel the Jade Purity Divine Light being distorted by an invisible force. This distortion was not at the spatial level, but rather originated from the physical level, and the force it exerted was similar to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After understanding the monster's attack strength, Mellen was relieved. This twisted power, let alone the Jade Purity Divine Light, could not harm him in the slightest, even if Mellen did not take any precautions.

With his own worries resolved, Mellen began to study the monster, disassembling it bit by bit and analyzing its power composition.

An hour later, Mellen stopped looking at the writhing pieces of flesh on the ground and instead looked at the wisp of grayish-black air floating in his hand. Without this air, the monster's flesh lost its vitality and quickly dried and turned to ash.

Gradually, the mist that had enveloped the entire Ningjia Village slowly dissipated, revealing the twinkling stars in the sky.

Mellen glanced in the direction of the girl who had given him the information, but had no intention of going over to say goodbye. After all, he might already be wanted by the police, so it was best to minimize contact with others as much as possible.

Mellen wasn't worried about his own safety, but rather about the people he was in contact with.

After leaving Ningjia Village and traveling some distance, Mellen took out the gray-black airflow and began to study it.

Melen didn't know much about the Azure Moon Realm, but he knew it was a relatively traditional world of cultivation, without many extraneous factors, let alone anything strange. So the gray-black aura in front of him was most likely the work of the Demon King.

By carefully sensing the gray-black airflow and drawing on the data obtained from dissecting the monster in Ningjia Village, Mellen quickly pieced together some preliminary information...

This gray-black airflow seems to have the effect of weakening the rules of reality and constantly filling in the distorted rules.

In reality, the gray-black airflow can continuously weaken the impact on reality through certain behaviors, such as affecting living beings, influencing thoughts, and sealing off space. Then, it fills the missing rules of reality with some strange rules, ultimately forming the eerie situation like Ningjia Village.

If this trend continues, the influence and penetration of the gray-black airflow on reality will become increasingly profound, gradually expanding its area and becoming more powerful and sophisticated.

In other words, the gray-black energy in Mellen's hands is far from reaching its final form.

That's all the information we have so far. As for why the gray-black airflow exhibits the eerie form of Ningjia Village, and how far it can ultimately grow, these are currently unknown and require more samples for comparative research.

Mellen tightly sealed the gray-black energy flow and applied several layers of seals before carefully putting it away. Next, there were the other tasks.

Half a day later, Mellen arrived at a small town called 'Yu'an', where strange events had occurred at the home of the wealthy Guo family. It was said that several immortal masters had been consulted but were unable to resolve the situation, so Mellen eventually went to the Yuqing Sect.

After a brief investigation, Mellen determined that the strange events at the Guo family's house were unrelated to any evil spirits; the source was a female ghost who had died unjustly and was causing trouble in a well in a side room of the Guo family's mansion.

Because of its design, the well itself had a certain effect of gathering yin energy. In addition, the female ghost was tortured and killed and her body was dumped before her death, which caused her resentment to linger and gradually become powerful.

Mellen came to find traces of the Otherworldly demons, not to investigate a case, nor did she intend to seek justice for the female ghost.

Moreover, since this mission has already reached the Jade Purity Sect, it won't be long before inner disciples come to investigate, so Mellen doesn't need to worry too much.

Another day passed, and Mellen arrived at the third mission location, a ranch outside the city. Here, in addition to common livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, there was also a rather special animal, which was... a snake.

Of course, the snakes on the ranch are kept separate from other livestock and managed by specialized snake breeders.

According to the mission description, the initial anomaly at the ranch was that the snakes being kept there became restless and showed a fear of rats.

It is important to know that snakes are the natural enemies of rats, and in ranches, rats that have undergone preliminary processing are also one of the snakes' regular food sources. It is the meat of these dead and chopped rats that actually caused the snakes to feel fear.

Afterwards, there were even incidents of rats biting other livestock and attacking people near the ranch, and there were even small-scale rat swarms.

At first, the government thought that a rat demon had been born here, but subsequent discoveries made everyone realize how strange things were.

Among the rampant rats, there appeared monsters with snake heads and rat bodies, chicken heads and rat bodies, sheep heads and rat bodies, etc. It is said that some people even saw traces of rats with human faces.

Even if biodiversity exists in the Azure Moon Realm, the bizarre monster that can move freely by randomly mixing two completely unrelated species is still beyond our comprehension.

Perhaps to those cultivators, this might be caused by some evil magic, or even a conspiracy by the demon race, but Mellen sensed something was wrong.

Because of the previous delay, by the time Mellen arrived at the ranch, Yuqing Sect had already been there, or rather, they had already failed.

The pasture was in ruins, littered with the corpses of humans, livestock, and rats. On these corpses, countless fist-sized rats could be seen wriggling, gnawing and dismembering the bodies and carrying them back to their burrows.

The human corpses were divided into two types: those dressed in coarse linen clothes were probably the original servants of the ranch, and there were also many dressed in constable's clothes, who were probably disciples of the Yuqing Sect who sought help from the government because they felt there were too many rats.

I just don't know if those Yuqing Sect disciples who came to do the mission are alive or dead.

Regardless of the circumstances, the dire situation will surely attract the attention of the government and the Yuqing Sect. At that time, it won't just be some Qi Refining stage disciples coming. Therefore, time is running out for Mellen.

Mellen concealed himself, took to the air, and followed the mice, quickly finding the entrance to their nest.

However, the entrances to these dens varied in size and were intricately connected, resembling a maze that stretched dozens of meters below the entire ranch. It was clearly impossible for Mellen to continue to venture deeper silently.

However, it doesn't matter.

The magical power within him surged forth and, under Melen's control, shaped into a giant drill, which plunged directly into the ground, pulverizing all the rats that tried to block its path into mincemeat.

This commotion naturally alerted the entire rat swarm. Almost instantly, a large number of rats surged in from all directions, the majority of which were small rats the size of a fist, mixed with many large rats the size of cats and dogs, as well as alien rats with the heads of other animals attached to them.

In any case, even those strange alien rats are just ordinary creatures, so they are naturally not a problem for Mellen.

Mellen extended a finger and used a low-level spell... Fireball.

A wisp of fire rose from Melon's fingertip. This low-level spell usually had limited offensive capabilities, and Melon typically only used it to light campfires.

At that moment, as Mellen gently blew a breath, the flame at his fingertip expanded instantly, transforming into a raging sea of ​​fire that enveloped Mellen in concentric circles, covering an area of ​​several hundred meters in radius.

All the rats that entered the circle of fire were set ablaze. Moreover, it wasn't just their flesh that burned; their blood also evaporated rapidly under the scorching flames, becoming fuel for the fire.

Just as Mellen was carefully observing the rat swarm, suddenly, a wind blade shot towards Mellen, but it was swallowed up by a rising tongue of fire halfway there.

Looking in the direction from which the wind blades came, Mellen saw an extremely bizarre scene: a giant rat with a shoulder height of one meter, and on the rat's head was a human face.