After the grand competition concluded and everyone dispersed, Lu Yu walked on the road with Kui Defa and Huang Ying. The people around shouted "Iron Armor Man" upon seeing Lu Yu.

Lu Yu's iron armor strategy allowed some disciples who originally had no chance of entering the top hundred to qualify for the secret realm, making a lasting impression on many as the first to use this strategy.

His reputation had spread thoroughly, though it was not necessarily a good one.

Others only knew him as the pioneer of the iron armor and talisman paper strategy, but they didn't understand his true strength. Most were unaware that he didn't wear iron armor in the last few battles.

While chatting with Kui Defa and Huang Ying, he suddenly received a message alert.

[Yu Xiaoman (Thousand-mile Sound Transmission): Master, do you have time now? Mentor Ling urgently needs to see you.]

Lu Yu was taken aback by the message. What urgent matter could Ling Yuyan have with him?

After returning from Kugu Ridge, Lu Yu had understood the full story of the demon migration event and learned that Yu Xiaoman's mentor, Ling Yuyan, was a member of the Ling family, the foremost family of Beifeng City.

Noticing the change in Lu Yu's demeanor, Kui Defa asked: "Is there something you need to do?"

"Yes, I need to go out for a bit."

"Go ahead, just be back before the opening of the Divine Weapon Pavilion Secret Realm. I'll give you the items then," Kui Defa said. "Remember, don't be late. Missing the time means missing entry, as it's not the Divine Weapon Pavilion's own secret realm."

"Understood, Senior Brother Kui, Fifth Senior Sister, I'll take my leave now."

"Go on, go on."

Lu Yu activated his Identity Token and teleported to Beifeng City.

Due to Yu Xiaoman urging him with multiple messages, Lu Yu didn't even have time to return to his bamboo forest cabin and teleported directly to Beifeng City from halfway.

As soon as he walked out the door, he saw Ling Yuyan and Yu Xiaoman entering his small courtyard. Lu Yu hadn't anticipated they'd come directly to his courtyard. Before teleporting, he had sent a message to Yu Xiaoman.

Ling Yuyan hurriedly approached him, quickly saying, "There's something I need your help with..."

Half an hour later, Lu Yu, Yu Xiaoman, and Ling Yuyan appeared at the original location of Skeleton Cave, which had now collapsed, the mountain transformed into a valley.

Ling Yuyan sought his help because Lu Yu had trained in earth diving and could enter the underground.

She wanted Lu Yu to go underground to find traces of demonic creatures. After several days of investigation, it was basically confirmed that the source of these creatures was the Tendu Centipede, with its lair underground.

Due to the Tendu Centipede's abilities, these creatures can move freely in the underground world, making it difficult for humans to find their true lair.

And the only person Ling Yuyan could find capable of earth diving was Lu Yu.

When she inquired how Yu Xiaoman escaped from the collapsed Skeleton Cave, she inadvertently learned that Lu Yu could perform earth diving.

"Start from here, find the exact location of the demonic creatures' lair," Ling Yuyan instructed Lu Yu.

"Okay, I'll do my best." Lu Yu took out a disguised Earth Spirit Pearl and began to execute earth diving. Gentle, earthy yellow light spread over Lu Yu's body as he grasped Yu Xiaoman, the light extending to envelop her as well.

Seeing them start to sink downward, Ling Yuyan suddenly said, "I'm going down too."

She grabbed Lu Yu's arm, and the light spread from Lu Yu to her, creating three yellow phantoms in the pitch-black underground world.

Seeing Ling Yuyan beside him, Lu Yu was helpless but had no choice but to bring her underground as well, at great expense to his Spiritual Power.

Previously, Ling Yuyan hadn't known that earth diving could bring others along, which is why she hadn't mentioned entering the depth.

Wearing transparent vision goggles, Lu Yu instructed Yu Xiaoman, "Guide me."

Yu Xiaoman randomly pointed in a direction.

Ling Yuyan looked puzzled by their actions, as she couldn't see while underground. Unlike Lu Yu, who removed his transparent vision goggles and became blind, she could still faintly sense surroundings through her outwards Spiritual Power.

Lu Yu told Ling Yuyan, "Hold onto my arm, if you suddenly fall out of the earth diving light, it won't be my fault."

Ling Yuyan tightened her grip on Lu Yu's arm. Lu Yu felt her palm soft yet firm, like iron wrapped in silicone.

He activated the Spiritual Power within the Earth Spirit Pearl, "Buoyancy" carried Lu Yu towards the direction Yu Xiaoman had indicated.

After floating for some distance, Lu Yu suddenly felt emptiness beneath him. The three fell out of the earth's surface into a cavern.

As they descended, Lu Yu felt something underfoot. Looking down, he found himself stepping on a black centipede clinging to the cavern ceiling. Centipedes covered all around the cavern.

Inside the cavern were demonized monsters and humans, their forms altered, turning grayish-black. Sharp bone spurs protruded from their bodies, and their limbs elongated grotesquely, the arms of the standing demon-men reaching the ground.

Three clusters of yellow light fell into the underground cavern, startling the demonic creatures inside as they converged on Lu Yu.

With one hand holding Yu Xiaoman and the other holding the Earth Spirit Pearl, Lu Yu had no hand free to tremble the centipede beneath him, the only action he could manage.

Before he could say anything, Ling Yuyan used her Spiritual Power to transform into crescent-shaped swallows, slicing through the demonic creatures converging on them.

These demonic creatures were very weak, yet their vitality was exceptionally resilient, refusing to die despite being sliced by the crescent swallows.

"Don't bother with them, finding the Tendu Centipede is the most important," Ling Yuyan spoke.

After the three landed on the ground, Lu Yu stomped hard, shaking off the corpses of the demons around them, and controlled the earth escape as they sank downward.

As the three left, the demons in the cave returned to tranquility. However, the ones that had been cut into pieces were devoured by other demons, becoming stronger, more hideous, and grotesque...

They sank to an unknown depth, passing through five or six caves, the number of demons seen along the way made Ling Yuyan's heart tremble.

Lu Yu didn't feel much because he had witnessed the Tower of Ascension in the Divine Weapon Pavilion Secret Realm, where the number of demons was indeed overwhelming.

In each level, Lu Yu could encounter hundreds. Keep in mind, the area of one level is enormous, with numerous disciples of the Divine Weapon Pavilion challenging it, each disciple encountering hundreds of demons; the number of demons on one level must be at least ten thousand, or even more.

"We can't go further down. My spiritual power is reaching its limit." Lu Yu said as he looked at the surrounding soil layer.

Ling Yuyan looked at the Earth Spirit Pearl in Lu Yu's hand, she had already discovered the source of Lu Yu's spiritual power consumption from his use of earth escape, which was the treasure in his right hand.

She spoke, "If you're lacking spiritual power, I can help you draw out the earth spiritual power from the treasure and input it into you. Can you continue using earth escape then?"

Lu Yu thought for a moment and said, "In theory, there's no problem; I've already formed the dharma seal for earth escape, consuming spiritual power is merely maintaining the consumption of spiritual power. If you can channel the spiritual power into my body, there should be no problem."

"Alright, that's settled then!" Ling Yuyan reached out with one hand towards the Earth Spirit Pearl to try to guide the earth spiritual power into Lu Yu's body.

The earth spiritual power entered Lu Yu's body, and he needed to consume very little spiritual power to input these into the dharma seal, dramatically reducing the spiritual power consumption.

After a period of integration, the earth spiritual power Ling Yuyan guided could steadily maintain the spiritual power consumption of earth escape, only now both her hands were on Lu Yu, which was inconvenient.

Ling Yuyan glanced at Lu Yu, then at Yu Xiaoman, and switched her hands to interlocking fingers with Lu Yu, wrapping her entire body around him.

Lu Yu could feel the warmth against his arm.

He felt something pressing against his arm and wanted to remind Ling Yuyan that her spiritual armor was digging into him, but turned to see a hint of blush on her face.

After thinking a while, Lu Yu still didn't say anything, speaking up would be awkward.

It was Ling Yuyan's first time being this close to a male.

With Ling Yuyan's assistance, Lu Yu was able to significantly extend the time of maintaining earth escape. Guided by Yu Xiaoman, they traveled underground for a long time, entering an underground river.

Yu Xiaoman changed direction several times, leaving Lu Yu unsure of where they were now.

The three floated above the soil layer over the underground river, Lu Yu looked below at the dark eerie river, searching for traces of the Heaven Poison Centipede.

Ever since accidentally falling into the first cave, he dared not leave the soil layer rashly, only doing so after carefully observing to confirm there was no danger inside the cave.

This dark underground river beneath his feet, Lu Yu hadn't determined whether it was dangerous, so the three temporarily floated within the soil layer.

"Why aren't we moving?" Ling Yuyan asked.

"There's water below. We won't be able to immediately enter the soil layer after heading down; if danger arises, it would be inconvenient to escape." Lu Yu explained.

"An underground river?" Ling Yuyan speculated.

"Mm."

Ling Yuyan's expression changed, "Not good! Quickly find out where this river leads to. If it flows into a large lake or river, we'll be in trouble!"

Flowing to where? How was he supposed to check that, Lu Yu stared blankly at the pitch-black river water below.

After watching for a while, Lu Yu suddenly sensed the water level rising, suspecting it was a hallucination. How could the underground river level mysteriously rise?

But soon, he saw a section of layering beneath the water surface.

Lu Yu quickly realized this was not the water level rising, but the Heaven Poison Centipede underwater floating up!

The Heaven Poison Centipede's body was large enough to fill the entire underground river, when its body floated upward, it created an illusion of a rising water level. Once its body was fully surfaced, the underground river level dropped more than a single layer, instantly turning a deep-water area into a shallow pool.

Ling Yuyan also sensed the commotion below and asked, "What's below?"

She knew Lu Yu could see beneath the ground.

"Heaven Poison Centipede!" Lu Yu's throat bobbed as he said, "The underground river is the Heaven Poison Centipede."

"No, it's lying in the underground river, filling the whole river," Lu Yu hastily corrected.

"Filling a whole river, that centipede is huge!" Yu Xiaoman exclaimed.

Lu Yu looked far ahead, seeing the Heaven Poison Centipede's body moving, he quickly controlled buoyancy to escape upward, rapidly saying, "It discovered us!"

Ling Yuyan said nothing, fully assisting Lu Yu in executing earth escape. She didn't want to face off against the Heaven Poison Centipede in their current position.

In the subterranean world, the Heaven Poison Centipede had an absolute advantage, and it was once the strongest being, with the most robust vitality, among the three kings of Kugu Ridge; even top experts in the sea of spirit realm couldn't kill it.

Now transformed into a demon, it would surely become even more formidable.

Rumble... The ground was shaking as the Heaven Poison Centipede turned to dig holes, attacking them.

Behind the Heaven Poison Centipede were hordes of aquatic monsters already corroded by demonic aura, controlling demonic power, enveloping river water, bringing along many creatures demonized in the underground river, surging through the channel carved by the Heaven Poison Centipede.

Lu Yu escaped straight upward, urgently fleeing the underground, while the Heaven Poison Centipede chased closely, sensing a familiar aura.

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