After resting in the valley overnight, various teams left the valley the next day, heading into more distant mountains and forests for exploration.

  Leo and his group now found themselves in a weed-covered hilly area. While vigilantly scanning their surroundings, they also searched for any potential spiritual materials.

  A month wasn't particularly short, nor was it especially long. It passed swiftly amidst the team's various searches. Along the way, the team directly killed any spirit insects or beasts they encountered, dividing the valuable parts. Everyone gained some spiritual herbs and beast hides, though demon cores were relatively rare. However, they also encountered several large hordes of demon beasts during this time, narrowly avoiding them.

  Living rough day and night, everyone in the team had lost some weight. Morana's delicate face looked even more sharply defined.

  Iris fanned herself with a banana leaf the size of a palm-leaf fan. With her other hand, she occasionally tugged at her collar, whether intentionally or not, revealing glimpses of captivating, snowy-white skin and a deep cleavage.

  "That seductress."

  Whenever this happened, Morana's youthful face would flush red, while Iris would respond with an unconcerned, tinkling laugh.

  Kai stood atop a hillock, horsetail whisk in hand, gazing in all directions. After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, he still found nothing. After another long moment, Kai descended from the hillock with an expressionless face.

  Leo fiddled with a small black-green fruit called Smoke Mist Fruit. It was a low-grade spiritual material that matured once every ten years, with no offensive power. However, when infused with spiritual energy, it could release a cloud of black smoke, concealing the caster and hindering enemy attacks. Over the past month, leveraging his advantage as an alchemist, he had refined quite a few pills along the way, and together with the herbs he found himself, his harvest was substantial. Over a dozen types were herbs required by Verdant Pill Palace and the Palace of the Heavenly Apex, though he was still far from completing either sect's task.

  Seeing Kai's dark, gloomy face, Leo smiled inwardly. It was no wonder he was losing patience, having failed to find any trace of the Silver-winged Centipede for several days.

  A few days later, Kai leaped down from the crown of a tall tree, his face ecstatic.

  "Finally found the damned creature! Let's go!"

  Soon, the team crossed a mountain stream and found a person-sized cave at the base of an isolated, inconspicuous small hill.

  The hill looked no different from other mounds, except for the surrounding area, which was withered and barren, devoid of any vegetation. There were some fine centipede footprints in front of the cave entrance.

  "What potent venom!" Leo was shocked. This venom couldn't even be neutralized by a Blood-Cleansing Pill.

  "Heh heh, a single spray of venom from a Silver-winged Centipede can easily poison a Great Perfection Qi Refining expert to death in less than an hour. But I came prepared. These are special antidote pills for the Silver-winged Centipede. Take one before we attack, and you'll be safe."

  Having found the centipede's lair, Kai was in high spirits and distributed one antidote pill to everyone.

  "Even an ordinary Silver-winged Centipede is a peak second-grade demon beast. Those with a demon core are even rarer, their explosive power no different from a third-grade beast. Coupled with its potent venom, how do we plan to ambush this Silver-winged Centipede?"

  Leo asked solemnly. Frankly, he hadn't been eager to find this centipede. Although materials from such a powerful beast were valuable, they weren't directly related to his sect tasks. Through alchemy, he could also earn plenty of spirit stones.

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  If Kai couldn't produce an effective plan, he wouldn't risk his life. Having stayed in Moonwatch Immortal City for so long, he was no longer ignorant about these low-grade demon beasts.

  "The Silver-winged Centipede is a fire-attribute demon beast, immensely strong, capable of short-distance flight, and harder to deal with than ordinary third-grade beasts. Even a late-stage Qi Refining expert can't handle it alone. Once it retreats to its cave, where we can't surround it, we'd have no chance of winning. So, we must intercept and kill it before it returns to the cave."

  Kai had clearly planned this long ago and proceeded to give everyone detailed instructions.

  Zen and Iris would be responsible for slowing its movement. Then, he personally would attack its wings to disable its short flight capability. Afterwards, the other team members lying in wait near the cave would swarm forward all at once.

  "Remember, once I and the others manage to pin down the Silver-winged Centipede, immediately use your strongest attacks on its joints and vital spots. Otherwise, if this creature goes berserk, even I won't be able to control it. If the ambush fails, given its cunning, it probably won't leave the cave for a long time, or might even burrow elsewhere to escape. Aside from the demon core, its venom sac, carapace, and sharp teeth are also worth one to two hundred spirit stones. I won't take a single share; they'll all go to you. If there are centipede eggs inside the cave, that's another windfall."

  After assigning tasks, Kai, still uneasy, alternated between warnings and enticements.

  Around two hundred spirit stones divided among the remaining eight meant over twenty each. Moreover, Kai was leading the main assault; Since they weren't tasked with leading the attack, the risks they faced were comparatively smaller. Hearing Kai's description, everyone's eyes lit up.

  "Daoist Kai, rest assured. We're all in this together, like locusts tied to the same string. Do you think we'd hold back?" Skyler licked his lips excitedly.

  Since Kai, leading the main attack, bore the greatest risk, the team members naturally had no further objections to his arrangements. They dispersed, taking positions nearby, patiently waiting.

  About an hour later, a foul, fishy odor assaulted their nostrils. In the nearby hills, weeds as deep as a person parted, revealing a centipede with jet-black limbs, a silver-gray back, and a pair of silvery fleshy wings. Just its raised head was as thick as a bucket, its moving, sharp mandibles tightly gripping a bloodied wild ox.

  Leo sucked in a cold breath. What a massive demon centipede! No wonder even late-stage Qi Refining cultivators dared not target it. If this group hadn't meticulously prepared and planned an ambush, encountering this creature in the wild unprepared, without the special antidotes, they'd likely only be able to flee in panic.

  The Silver-winged Centipede seemed to sense something amiss in the surroundings. The intuition of demon beasts was often sharper than that of ordinary cultivators. Pausing, the centipede released the wild ox from its jaws and expelled a cloud of black mist. The foul stench spread outwards. The surrounding weeds withered at a visible speed.

  Leo's eyelid twitched. The direction of the spreading black mist was precisely where Kai was hiding. This Daoist was indeed capable; even with the antidote taken beforehand, that stench must have been unbearable.

  After the poisonous mist spread and nothing unusual happened, the Silver-winged Centipede bit down on the wild ox again. Its head raised triumphantly as it crawled towards its cave. In its experience, no creature had remained unharmed under its poisonous mist, including those two-legged, upright-walking anomalies it had encountered several times recently. It had even eaten a few, and they tasted good.

  As the weeds fell to the sides, Leo finally saw the centipede's full form.

  It had at least nearly a hundred pairs of long legs lining its two rows. Its torso, thick as a bucket, was over six meters long. It was hard to imagine how deep the cave was to accommodate such a behemoth.

  "Attack!" At that moment, Kai leaped up from the flattened weeds. With a swing of his horsetail whisk, the usually soft strands became as hard as steel needles, shooting towards and coiling around the Silver-winged Centipede's head. They suddenly extended several meters, tightly binding the head.

  Suddenly ambushed, the centipede became ferociously enraged. It violently shook its head while its sharp mandibles furiously bit and tore. The flexible whisk strands were soon snapped and bitten through by dozens. Puffs of black mist emerged. The silvery whisk strands visibly darkened and corroded.

  "This brute has tremendous strength!" Kai's face changed. Seeing the centipede about to break free...

  At that moment, two figures, one gray and one purple, flashed by—Zen and Iris.

  Zen threw out over a dozen vine seeds. Under the infusion of spiritual power, the vines grew wildly in the wind, extending over thirty meters, firmly entangling the Silver-winged Centipede.

  Crack!

  The centipede rolled its body. Its sharp, slender legs, keen as spirit blades, slashed through the vines binding it.

  "Quicksand Technique!"

  "Sinkhole Technique!"

  The centipede, almost free again, found its movements impeded as if stuck in an attractive mire.

  Leo, Sasha, and the others rushed from their hiding places, casting spells to besiege the centipede.

  "Frostbite Technique!" "Fire Arrow Technique!" "Golden Spear Technique!" "Earthen Spike Technique!" "Fireball Technique!" "Wooden Stake Technique!" "Earthen Hammer Technique!"

  The Silver-winged Centipede's physical strength was astounding. Its two rows of long, sharp legs were no less than low-grade spirit artifacts. No one dared get too close, attacking from a distance with a barrage of spells. In the blink of an eye, over a dozen low-grade spells struck the centipede.

  Screeeech-------

  Despite its astonishing defense, the sudden concentrated barrage left the centipede dazed and reeling. Injured and in pain, it shrieked several times. Flapping its wings, it tried to fly out of the cultivators' encirclement.

  "I've meticulously prepared for this ambush for half a year. I won't let you escape, you damned beast! Hah, take this!"

  Kai discarded the completely ruined whisk. From his storage pouch, he took out a black iron bow and a quiver with over a dozen silver-white long arrows. Immediately, Kai nocked three arrows at once. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The arrows flew in a triangular formation, striking the centipede's fleshy wings directly.

  Thump! With its wings injured by the arrows, the Silver-winged Centipede, having risen only a couple of feet, crashed its over-six-meter-long body to the ground, raising clouds of dust and grass debris.

  What formidable arrows! They must be high-grade spirit artifacts. Leo felt a chill from the astonishing aura when Kai fired. As expected of a loose cultivator frequently active in the Moonwatch Mountain Range—his methods were truly varied and seemingly endless.