As expected, how could someone who becomes the protagonist truly be as weak as he had thought?

The others were probably the same, all hiding their real abilities.

He really had been too naive.

Just as Xiao Shou finished speaking and Xiao Ran was about to respond, the Gou brothers on the other side simultaneously put away their formation disks.

With joy, they said, "The result is out. It is a path of survival and there are signs of a great treasure appearing."

"There is also a water omen. Those who enter should all gain some benefit... but at the end, the hexagram seems to show great fortune turning into misfortune, life containing death. Xiao Ran, you must be careful."

Gou Yutong hesitated slightly.

Due to sect rules, he could not reveal everything and interfere with the destiny of the chosen one, so he spoke vaguely. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"In short, everything depends on a single thought."

"A single thought?"

The brothers’ words filled Xiao Ran with doubt and a faint sense of unease.

This unfamiliar feeling made her temporarily suppress the killing intent she felt toward Xiao Shou.

She loosened her grip on his wrist.

Xiao Shou quickly stepped back and putting distance between them.

Only after doing so did he realize that his reaction was just as Aizen had once described, like instinctively distancing oneself out of fear of a powerful enemy.

Realizing this, his brows furrowed slightly and he felt a bit frustrated inside.

Yu Lin glanced meaningfully at Xiao Shou’s complicated expression and let out a soft laugh.

"Since the result is out, let’s go in together. Seventh Junior Sister, once inside, every action you take should be carefully considered. Don’t..."

"There’s no need for unnecessary worry. Nothing will go wrong on my side," Xiao Ran said meaningfully. "On the contrary, Xiao Shou, you should stop being so reckless. No matter how precious something is, it only matters if you stay alive to enjoy it."

"Thank you for your concern, Sister Xiao Ran. I will be more careful in the future."

He was never good at dealing with such veiled sarcastic remarks.

After replying, Xiao Shou simply pretended to be eager and rushed straight into the cave.

Seeing this, the others quickly followed.

His reaction only made Xiao Ran’s expression turn even darker.

Not noticing her expression, Xiao Shou stepped into the cave entrance and found the darkness inside even deeper.

Even his enhanced vision began to fail.

He guessed that the others probably could not see anything at all right now.

To deal with this, he immediately activated part of the Void-Time Calyx’s defense and creating a controlled space of about two meters around himself.

Perhaps because the Void-Time Calyx’s defense function worked by severing space, in that instant he felt nothing as he passed through the dark curtain and entered a new area.

The moment he arrived, he was stunned.

Before him appeared an enormous blood red world filled with countless identical thick pillars.

The ground was blood red.

The sky above was blood red.

The countless stone pillars were also blood red.

Around them drifted a thick crimson mist.

He tried releasing his divine sense, but it felt sticky and heavy as if sinking into a swamp.

It became unbearably sluggish and weighed down as if by ten thousand tons, unable to move.

Uncomfortable, Xiao Shou quickly withdrew it.

This blood colored world looked sinister no matter how one viewed it.

Could this be a domain specifically suited for demonic cultivators?

Seeing that the others had not yet passed through the dark curtain, Xiao Shou decided to test it.

He activated his Evil Breaking Eye and fired an evil breaking arrow toward the ground.

He thought that if this place was truly evil, the area struck by evil breaking arrow would be purified.

But to his surprise, the moment the arrow hit its target nothing changed at all.

The arrow simply vanished.

In other words, although this place looked sinister, it actually contained no evil aura.

Just as he reached this conclusion, the surrounding mist seemed to detect something unusual.

Large amounts of it rapidly gathered together, forming countless humanoid figures made of blood colored mist.

Without making a sound, they silently rushed toward him.

As they advanced, strands of red mist condensed in their hands, forming all kinds of weapons.

Seeing this, Xiao Shou instinctively felt that he must not let them strike him.

With a reflexive swing of the Dark Night Spirit Sword, he unleashed a sword net covering an eight-meter radius around him, shredding all the red figures into pieces.

Yet the red figures seemed endless.

They continuously rushed into the sword net.

Given the peculiar nature of this blood colored space, he could not freely extend his divine sense to observe his surroundings.

He could only keep maintaining the sword net and grinding down the red figures as they came.

As he continued fighting, he suddenly noticed something strange.

At some unknown point, the sword net formed by his dark sword energy had begun to take on a faint trace of red.

The change was subtle, but it was undeniably there.

Moreover, his cultivation level was increasing even though he was not actively cultivating.

These abnormalities finally drew his full attention.

While continuing to attack, he endured the discomfort and extended his divine sense to observe the surroundings.

Only then did he realize that every red figure struck by his sword energy immediately turned into a mass of red mist and surged toward him.

And without him noticing, it was being absorbed into his body.

This discovery alarmed him greatly.

He had unknowingly absorbed this unknown substance that looked extremely sinister without understanding anything about it.

The fear of the unknown made his expression darken.

After realizing the truth, he immediately divided his attention and carefully examined the condition of his body.

Bloodline, muscles, meridians, bones, internal organs, brain, eyes, ears, nose.

Every inch, every cell was thoroughly inspected.

To his surprise, he found that this red mist not only caused no harm to his body, but was actually enhancing it in every aspect, causing his entire physique to gradually evolve.