Fourteen official members of the White Night Scatter Alliance dispersed, with each pair joining a temporary small team.

The white-robed youth, Tuozhe, joined Yuan Ming's team, and gave him a meaningful smile, while Vice Alliance Hierarch Huan Shi just happened to be in their team as well.

Soon after, the seven teams officially set off, entering the depths of Ghost Cry Gorge.

The narrow Ghost Cry Gorge stretched for a hundred yards, with nothing out of the ordinary on the outermost section. But halfway in, a white mist had already started to spread throughout the gorge, becoming thicker the deeper one went.

"Everyone, no need to be nervous. We have already investigated this area, and it's just ordinary fog. The Poison Miasma is yellowish in color, and you'll see it once we really enter Snake King Valley," Huan Shi reminded them timely, dispelling everyone's doubts.

At this point, members of the different teams began to whisper among themselves, quietly conversing.

"Fellow Daoists, please introduce yourselves. It will be good to have names to call each other by once we're inside. I am from the White Night Scatter Alliance, Tuozhe," said the white-robed youth in Yuan Ming's team of six, taking the initiative to speak.

"Hagon," Yuan Ming responded first.

"I am Mang Tung," boomed the tower-like giant.

"My name is Bai Rong," whispered the black-gauzed woman, her voice quite pleasing to the ear.

The young man dressed in a black short coat was the last to speak, his voice as hoarse as that of a seventy-year-old man.

"Kun Sha," he said succinctly, voicing just two words.

With that, everyone became acquainted.

The hundred yards of distance wasn't far, and they quickly reached the end of the gorge.

Yuan Ming looked around and saw not a narrow and constrained valley, but a vast Ancient Mountain Forest.

The trees in the forest towered high, each at least a hundred yards tall. Curiously, their canopies were extremely lofty, almost all concentrated at the top of the trees. From a distance, they resembled towering umbrellas.

Under the trees, about several dozen yards high, was a dense, white mist swirling around.

Close to the side of the gorge was still white, but going further inward, the mist had turned into an opaque milky white that seemed inextricably thick.

Without waiting for Huan Shi's command, Yuan Ming took the lead, charging headlong into the thick fog.

The enveloping mist instantly hid his figure from view.

"Come back! Do not act recklessly," Huan Shi ordered loudly upon seeing this.

Tuozhe's expression also changed, clearly not expecting Yuan Ming to be so reckless, and he couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Idiot."

The official members of the other White Night Scatter Alliance teams frowned one by one, while the temporary members had smirks on their faces, as if enjoying the spectacle.

Fortunately, Yuan Ming retreated back soon after Huan Shi raised his voice.

"What's wrong with you all? Aren't you going in?" He looked confused, as if unaware that he had done anything wrong.

"The Poison Miasma is dangerous; do not act on your own," Huan Shi, feeling that the gazes from other teams were aggregating upon them, a bit embarrassed, yet still managed to suppress his anger and cautioned them.

"Didn't you say the white mist is not poisonous?" Yuan Ming blinked, puzzled.

"Just because it's not poisonous doesn't mean you can run around blindly," someone said, looking at him as if he were a fool.

"Follow the commands for all actions. If you run around blindly again and end up in danger, no one will save you," Huan Shi warned, frowning.

Yuan Ming didn't argue and immediately returned to the team.

His gaze subconsciously glanced upward, and he saw a black raven, with barely a circle in flight, stealthily flapping its wings and flying into the thick fog.

His seemingly impulsive act was actually a silent way to release a soul crow to help scout ahead. The fog served as a natural barrier, or else he couldn't have done it without attracting any attention.

With his current level of cultivation and Soul Power, maintaining a soul crow for a long time was no longer difficult.

After this interlude, Huan Shi began to assign different sectors to each small team to explore.

Different teams, in different directions, were responsible for the search and exploration of a sector-shaped area.

Yuan Ming's team was tasked to head toward the left side of the valley, find the left valley wall, and then start spreading their search toward the adjacent team's direction within the boundaries of the left side of the valley.

"All teams, maintain a hundred yards distance. Move out," commanded Huan Shi.

All the teams began to move successively, heading off to their designated areas.

Yuan Ming's team did not rush to explore inside the valley but first followed along the border area between the white and yellow Poison Miasma, moving towards the left until they found the edge of the valley, then started to explore inward.

After a while walking, Yuan Ming realized that Snake King Valley was much larger than he had imagined. With a total of forty-two people spread out, it was like forty-two stones tossed into a vast lake.

No wonder the White Night Scatter Alliance resorted to deceptive methods to recruit so many temporary members.

"Gentlemen, spread out and search individually. If you encounter any danger, do not forget to shout loudly, to alert and assist each other," Huan Shi instructed.

After acknowledging, everyone distanced themselves a little and then walked deeper into the valley.

Yuan Ming intentionally chose a side close to the valley cliffs to easily differentiate his location.

Carefully, he channeled his Mana into the anti-plague pearl.

The next instant, the anti-plague pearl emitted a halo of glaze-colored light, spreading outwards.

Under the reflection of the glaze light, the surrounding mist remained pervasive, but the thick and sticky sensation seemed to have lessened somewhat.

As they entered the fog, there was nothing unusual, except that their vision was obstructed.

Although they were cultivators, they still couldn't see through the mist.

Yuan Ming's eyesight was slightly stronger than the others; he could only see things within a distance of thirty feet, beyond which everything became indistinct, and his Divine Sense was even less effective than his eyesight. Considering the soul crows were scouting around, he decided not to use it.

Although the group spread out, they could no longer see each other, but they could still see the blurry light from the anti-plague pearl.

After walking in the fog for a long time, Yuan Ming finally saw the Poison Miasma that Huan Shi had mentioned.

The color was a smoky yellow, incompatible with the white mist, with a clear separation between them as if there was an invisible wall.

"We are about to enter the Poison Miasma area. Everyone, be on your guard and watch out for stealth attacks by poisonous insects and fierce beasts," Huan Shi's warning voice came from a distance.

Hearing his reminder, everyone became fully alert.

Kun Sha, a young man in black, took a black porcelain bottle from his waist and uncorked it.

From the mouth of the bottle, a bright red ant the size of a rice grain slowly crawled out, jumped to the ground, and made its way into the poisonous fog.

Yuan Ming looked up to the sky to see a black raven gliding through the air, entering the Poison Miasma ahead of the group.

Inside, the fog was even thicker, and the visibility was further reduced.

However, the raven was not attacked, and only then did Yuan Ming follow and enter.

Once he stepped into the yellow miasma, he immediately felt a tingling pain on his exposed skin, as if being pricked by needles, and after only a few steps, he felt a burning sensation in his nostrils.

Yuan Ming checked his condition and, reassuring himself that it was only a mild reaction and not poisoning, he breathed a sigh of relief.

In the thickening fog, they could vaguely hear the coughing of others, suggesting that their throats were also suffering.

At that moment, Yuan Ming suddenly received a visual from the soul crow in his Sea of Consciousness: a mass of dark dots in the dense fog was pressing towards them.

Simultaneously, Kun Sha's shout came from a distance:

"Toxic creatures are approaching."

Not long after his words fell, a dense fluttering sound emanated from the fog, and a swarm of black dots broke through the miasma, thousands of them heading straight for the group.

Yuan Ming focused his attention and realized they were palm-sized poisonous bees, with black and yellow striped fuzz covering their bodies and sharp stingers at their tails.

"Tiger-tailed wasps, highly toxic," he recognized immediately.

The books had mentioned that such bees could be found in many parts of the Southern Border, but their size differed greatly from what was written—they were much larger.

Yuan Ming's expression hardened, and he drew the Cold Star Sword without using much mana, relying on the sword's inherent frigid aura to shoot down the flying poisonous bees around him.

Where the Sword Qi passed, even if the bees weren't directly hit, those that came too close were affected by the cold and froze, plummeting to the ground.

Yuan Ming stepped on them, crushing them with loud "crack" noises.

In the mist, everyone else also reacted.

Huan Shi lifted his hand and a red glow emerged from his palm. A burst of fire roared out, instantly engulfing half of the bees charging towards him.

Bai Rong wore black gloves, seemingly made of metal, which emitted a faint black fog. Every flick of her wrists enveloped the approaching bees in smoke.

In moments, the tiger-tailed wasps ceased flying and dropped to the ground.

Kun Sha opened another red porcelain bottle, from which a swarm of white insects emerged. One poisonous breed fought another, and there were casualties on both sides.

At his feet, the red ant was furiously feasting, voraciously consuming the bodies of fallen tiger-tailed wasps.

The muscular man was more direct, wielding a mace with vigorous swings, constantly hitting the attacking bees.

Among the sounds of "bang bang", each bee burst open, splattering clouds of Blood Mist.

These creatures, which were not even considered Level 1 Lower Stage Fierce Beasts, did little more than slow their progress; they could not pose any significant danger to them.

After putting in a bit of effort, everyone eliminated the attacking bees one after another.

While they had managed relatively well, other teams experienced similar events, though some were not so fortunate.

One team proceeded unharmed without any attack from insects or beasts.

At first, they thought themselves lucky, but as they continued, some team members noticed something wrong: their necks inexplicably began to swell.

By the time they realized the anomaly, it was too late.

Out of the six-person team, except for two formal members and one temporary member of the White Night Alliance, the other temporary members died because they mistakenly believed they were poisoned and tried to expel the toxins from their necks with mana.

In reality, they had wandered into a breeding ground of Gray Mist Poison Mushrooms and were parasitized by the spores.

When they tried to force out the toxins with mana, they actually fed the parasitic spores in their necks, allowing them to grow rapidly until maturity and explosion, severing the necks along with the mushrooms.

Another team ventured into an area where Demon Vines grew.

The green vines full of poisonous thorns were extremely sensitive to living creatures; the moment the team entered, the vines sprang up as if possessed by spiritual intelligence.

The overwhelming Demon Vines swooped in and swiftly strangled two temporary members to death.

The others, after recovering from their initial panic, fought back and finally managed to escape.

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