Su Xianrou saw the crawler crawling towards Leng Xingzhi and guessed Leng Xingzhi's intention, mentally exclaiming, "Not good."
"Come back, now," Su Xianrou threw a Spiritual Blast Talisman at the crawler.
A sixth-grade Spiritual Blast Talisman could pulverize a cultivator in the Spiritual Wheel stage.
However, she underestimated the crawler's resilience and its hunger for food.
As the Spiritual Blast Talisman reached the crawler, the ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herb entered the crawler's mouth simultaneously. The explosion of the talisman sounded, and the sect elders immediately cast a barrier for their disciples to avoid being harmed.
Chu Lingwei watched her senior disciple's ten-thousand-year-old spiritual grass being eaten by the crawler, feeling a pang of regret and then touched. Her senior disciple was proving his words to everyone. "Senior disciple."
"Peak Master Su, are you trying to destroy evidence?"
Leng Xingzhi gave Chu Lingwei a reassuring look. He watched as the crawler, after devouring the ten-thousand-year-old spiritual grass, continuously grew larger, its spiritual energy surging. Surrounding trees withered, the sky and earth changed color, and a chilling wind blew.
Everyone's hearts leaped in alarm.
Although this was not a secret realm, the spiritual energy was abundant, spiritual beasts often appeared, and spiritual grasses grew here.
Now, it was being destroyed by this crawler at a visible speed – how terrifying.
Wufa, the elder of the Myriad Buddha Sect, sent out his prayer beads, enveloping the struggling crawler on the ground and controlling the spiritual energy continuously emanating from it.
"The spiritual energy it emits is poisonous."
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately held their breath. Those cultivators in the Spiritual Movement and Spiritual Wheel stages quickly took out detoxification pills from their storage bags and consumed them.
Chu Xiyin went limp and collapsed onto the ground.
Her divine beast was a man-eating monstrosity. She was finished, and would be hunted by the entire Xuantian Continent for the rest of her life.
Su Xianrou and Chu Xu's hearts tightened. They knew this divine beast would make their Xuanxin Sect an enemy of the entire Xuantian Continent.
The two summoned their magical artifacts, preparing for an immediate battle.
"Su Xianrou, it must be your divine beast that stole all the disciples' spiritual grasses and destroyed the Hengtian Secret Realm!" Lei Hongyang said with a cold face, glancing at his disciples who had lost half their numbers. Those sent into the secret realm by the sect were all elite disciples.
The fallen disciples represented a significant loss for their Shenyin Sect.
And all of this was likely related to the divine beast contracted by the Xuanxin Sect. Lei Hongyang's heart was already burning with rage. He thought to himself that upon returning to his sect, he would recount the Xuanxin Sect's misdeeds to his sect and seek justice for their deceased disciples.
"Amitabha." Wufa watched as his prayer beads could no longer withstand the impact of the crawler's spiritual energy, and he clasped his hands together in resignation.
"What do we do now?" Meng Yu stared at the crawler. Its body was continuously growing, and the spiritual energy around it had turned dark, a symbol of poison.
This poison was hidden in the air; who knew if it would harm innocent junior disciples like them.
"This crawler has absolutely nothing to do with our Xuanxin Sect."
Su Xianrou gritted her teeth, no longer acknowledging any connection with the crawler, nor holding any illusions. This was clearly not a divine beast.
"Su Xianrou, your words wouldn't even fool a three-year-old child."
Chu Lingwei, hearing Su Xianrou's blatant contradiction, directly scoffed.
Su Xianrou glared in Chu Lingwei's direction, looking at her ordinary face and confirming she didn't recognize her. She couldn't understand why this person was constantly opposing their Xuanxin Sect.
"Peak Master Su, your divine beast has become like this, shouldn't you stop it?" Leng Xingzhi sent a burst of spiritual energy towards Su Xianrou. Chu Xu, standing behind Su Xianrou, used his spiritual energy to block it. "It seems the elders of the Xuanxin Sect are skilled at bullying the weak and engaging in despicable acts."
"You..." Su Xianrou, attacked by a junior, had her anger at its peak. "Leng Xingzhi, is this how your Cultivation Academy respects its elders?"
Leng Xingzhi let out a cold snort, and the spiritual energy around him erupted, forcibly suppressing the imminent surge of spiritual energy from the crawler.
"What elder or respect are you talking about? You're just a beast that harms its own family." Chu Lingwei walked two steps forward to Leng Xingzhi, pointing at Su Xianrou.
Su Xianrou and Chu Xu's expressions tightened, and they felt a sense of doubt towards Chu Lingwei. Who exactly was she?
"Su Xianrou, they are not wrong. Your divine beast has almost ruined this place, and you still have the leisure to bicker with a junior? I suspect the Hengtian Secret Realm might have been deliberately destroyed by you."
Lei Hongyang was determined to pin the destruction of the Hengtian Secret Realm and their sect's losses onto the Xuanxin Sect.
Many shared his thinking.
"Su Xianrou, it's your daughter's divine beast, quickly make her stop it. Do you intend to have all our disciples perish here?" Meng Yu of the Joyful Union Sect spoke with displeasure. She could lead her sect's disciples away, but she had no confidence in dispelling the crawler's poison.
Su Xianrou's words caught in her throat. Her focus shifted from Chu Lingwei to the crawler on the ground. She looked at it with disgust. She had wanted to get rid of it earlier, but even a sixth-grade Spiritual Blast Talisman had no effect.
"Yin'er, quickly stop it."
At this point, the best approach was not to resort to force.
Chu Xiyin looked at her mother with teary eyes and said pitifully, "Mother, I can't. It doesn't listen to me."
"How can that be?" Su Xianrou became anxious. They had a contract, a soul pact. Although it was a soul pact, it inherently favored the human cultivator, giving them some control over the spiritual beast.
"It's true. I was trying to stop it just now, but all it thinks about is eating; it doesn't listen to me." Chu Xiyin started to cry. The last thing she did was enter the secret realm to contract a divine beast.
Seeing that Chu Xiyin's words didn't seem fake, the elders' mouths twitched. Had she contracted this thing, or had this thing contracted her?
Su Xianrou gritted her teeth, conjured her natal magical artifact, and attacked the crawler.
Their Xuanxin Sect was in the wrong. If they didn't quickly resolve this crawler, they would never be able to leave here.
Seeing Su Xianrou attack, Wufa recalled his prayer beads. The crawler's spiritual energy surged violently, and the various sects quickly used their magical artifacts to protect their disciples.
Such potent poison.
Su Xianrou launched spiritual energy attacks one after another at the crawler, causing it to thrash violently.
"Master, Master..."
The crawler had no offensive capabilities, only surging spiritual energy and poison. When attacked, it instinctively cried out for its closest kin.
"Mother, save me! It's rushing towards me."
Seeing it about to rush towards her, she shouted.
Su Xianrou was panicked, her spiritual energy attacks on the crawler intensified, yet she still watched helplessly as the crawler lunged at Chu Xiyin.
"Yin'er!"
Su Xianrou cried out in agony.
"Ah!" Chu Xiyin looked at the disgusting bean-like head appearing before her, and felt a sticky substance drip onto her face. The threat of death made her throw all her magical artifacts and talismans at the crawler.