"I find those two young fellows quite handsome; it would be a pity to kill them. This little sister's Heavenly Charm Soul-Shattering Art has only reached the fifth layer. If I could have the 'assistance' of those two, breaking through to the sixth layer would be just around the corner. It would be best to capture them alive; absolutely do not kill them." The enchanting woman in colorful attire let out a coquettish laugh, immediately radiating immense charm, imbued with an indescribable sense of overflowing spring vitality.

The Daoist with the long green beard felt his usually tranquil Dao Heart suddenly stir. He was secretly shocked; the fifth layer of the Heavenly Charm Demonic Arts was already hard to resist; breaking through to the sixth layer—that would be truly terrifying. He kept a cold face, forcefully suppressing the agitation caused by her seductive technique. However, the green-bearded Daoist didn't take her words too seriously. Ye Tai's squad of Golden Core cultivators from the Heavenly Dao Alliance only had three male cultivators; Jin Zhongshan was certainly not handsome. The handsome young fellows she referred to must be the two Golden Core cultivators, Ye Qin and Pan Lin. Killing these Golden Core cultivators from the Heavenly Dao Alliance was already an extremely difficult task. Capturing them alive? A joke.

The green-bearded Daoist dismissively pursed his lips and turned to look at the thin man with the curly beard, "Brother Bao, what do you think?" "Brother Bi, do as you please. Kill them or beat them; I, Bao, don't care about offending a few Golden Core cultivators from the Heavenly Dao Alliance. However, if those two women among them survive, they must be dealt with by me." The thin, curly-bearded man’s expression was stern, then he casually licked his lips and spoke.

The young attendant in pink nearby heard this, glanced with disgust at the curly-bearded man and the alluring woman, his eyes filled with indescribable disdain, then turned his gaze elsewhere. The Infant Immortal Art he cultivated strictly forbade matters of romance, and he utterly detested hearing others mention such things in his presence.

The green-bearded Daoist nodded reluctantly. Except for him, who advocated following behind to reap the benefits, the other three were leaning towards direct confrontation and killing. He couldn't stop them, so he could only agree.

"Very well then. We shall follow them first and strike when the time is right. A surprise attack would be best, if possible. After all, they are five cultivators at the first layer of the Golden Core realm; they might not be much weaker than us four cultivators at the second and third layers of the Golden Core realm. Their advantage of having one more Golden Core cultivator is enough to compensate for any shortcomings in cultivation level. Furthermore, their five-person squad has a record of defeating several Ghost Shrimp Demons; their divine abilities should not be underestimated. If we attack head-on, we might not be able to take all five of them down. Even if we win, it will likely be a pyrrhic victory, not worth the cost. What do you all think?" The green-bearded Daoist pondered carefully, not acting rashly, and laid out his strategy.

"Enough, let's just look for an opportunity to ambush them. Hurry up and follow, don't let them get too far ahead." The pink-clad attendant was impatient and stopped wasting words with the green-bearded Daoist, swiftly urging his artifact forward into the underwater desert ahead. The other three cultivators followed suit, rushing into the desert.

Ye Qin, Zhou Yao, and the rest of the five Heavenly Dao Alliance Golden Core cultivators were unaware that a squad from the Demonic Heaven Alliance was plotting against them. They had already traveled about one or two hundred li through the underwater desert. The journey had been calm so far, and they hadn't detected anything unusual. This puzzled Ye Qin somewhat. This desolate, silent underwater desert didn't seem as dangerous as imagined. Aside from endless quicksand and seawater, there wasn't even a shadow of a sea beast. However, come to think of it, this was ultimately a good thing. He even secretly hoped they could cross the desert like this without encountering any trouble.

Ye Qin mounted his sword and crossed a large dune. When he landed on the very peak of the dune, he suddenly froze. He saw dozens of large and small quicksand whirlpools scattered across the dune ahead. These sand vortices were shaped like funnels, dotted sparsely in a spread of about ten li of desert ahead. The smallest were several dozen zhang wide, and the largest covered an area of at least several hundred zhang. Ye Qin's heart tightened. Seeing these sand vortices gave him a strange feeling. The desert they had passed through earlier was silent, but everything felt normal. These abruptly appearing quicksand whirlpools gave him a very uneasy sensation.

Behind him, Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, Liao Xiaozhi, Pan Lin, and the other cultivators landed on the dune beside Ye Qin. These sand vortices also caused surprise among the four of them. "Why are there so many sand vortices here?" Zhou Yao asked, her eyes gleaming strangely. "These sand vortices are very conspicuous. Could they be markers left by previous cultivators who passed through here, so that those following don't get lost or take the wrong path?" Jin Zhongshan arrived on the dune, also startled, and immediately guessed. "This desert is huge; the cultivators from other squads who passed before might not have gone this way. Besides, everyone is busy chasing the Earth Clan strongmen; who has the leisure to create so many sand vortices of various sizes in this desert?" Zhou Yao retorted, rolling her eyes at Jin Zhongshan.

"Sister Zhou, look at these sand vortices. Could they be naturally formed by seawater vortices passing through here?" Liao Xiaozhi thought carefully and added, "Of course, they could also be created by sea beasts in the desert. These vortices might be their dwelling areas; approaching them could invite an attack from sea beasts. Should we try to avoid these vortices?"

"This desert is vast. Unless there is a special situation, it is best for us to maintain a straight course; otherwise, it is easy to deviate from the direction and miss other cultivators. Unless we encounter very powerful sea beasts, it is best not to take detours," Ye Qin said calmly and then fell silent. With Zhou Yao's intelligence, she immediately understood Ye Qin's meaning. These quicksand vortices were scattered across an area spanning over ten li; to go around them would likely require a considerable detour. This would naturally make it easy to lose direction in this vast, disorienting underwater desert. Ye Qin had his considerations. Since he was tacitly accepted as the team leader, his actions needed to be cautious, and he didn't want to easily change course. Otherwise, leading their small team astray in the deep-sea desert would be a huge joke. As for whether these vortices were made by sea beasts or if they were safe, they would know once they investigated. If they were relatively safe, crossing directly ahead would save them the trouble of detouring.

"Brother Jin, Brother Pan, which of you wants to go and investigate?" Zhou Yao thought for a moment, then turned to Jin Zhongshan and Pan Lin with a smile. "No, no, no." The fat man Jin immediately shook his head without thinking upon hearing he had to do a dirty job. He would be very happy to dig for rare treasures. This kind of adventure with no apparent benefit was only for fools. No one knew what kind of sea beast was inside these vortices; if they ran into a powerful one, they’d be doomed.

"Since Brother Jin is unwilling, then I shall go and investigate. I have been following everyone and only accepting benefits, without doing much for the team. No matter how dangerous this might be, I should do something for everyone," Pan Lin hesitated for a moment, clutching his Golden Flood Dragon Scissors, and volunteered to scout.

Ye Qin was quite surprised. The strength of Pan Lin, a Golden Core cultivator from the Ninghua Palace, was honestly not very high. In their five-person Heavenly Dao Alliance squad, his strength ranked second to last, only slightly stronger than Liao Xiaozhi. If Pan Lin went to investigate, he would be taking quite a risk. Moreover, his temperament was straightforward, lacking cunning. During this time, he had been diligently following behind Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, and Liao Xiaozhi, doing the tedious chores the other three refused to do. Ye Qin hadn't paid much attention to him. Pan Lin's selfless offer to take the risk and investigate earned his respect for his straightforwardness.

"Let my Skeleton Demon go and take a look first," Ye Qin thought for a moment, ultimately deciding not to let Pan Lin risk danger, but instead releasing the Golden Core Skeleton Demon from his spirit beast pouch to scout the path. Even if the Skeleton Demon's bones were chewed off by a sea beast, as long as its demonic core remained intact, it could recover. If Pan Lin were severely injured by a sea beast, he might never recover. Severe injury to any member of their squad would be highly detrimental to their team.

Seeing Ye Qin release the Golden Core Skeleton Demon, Pan Lin immediately stopped and stepped back. With the Golden Core Skeleton Demon scouting ahead, he naturally wouldn't pretend to be brave by rushing to explore those strange sand vortices.

Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, Liao Xiaozhi, and Pan Lin, the four cultivators, watched with envy as Ye Qin controlled the Golden Core Skeleton Demon to investigate the quicksand vortices. All five were cultivators at the first layer of the Golden Core realm, yet only Ye Qin possessed a spirit beast; the others did not. There was a reason for this. To avoid distraction and affecting their own cultivation, ordinary cultivators usually did not raise spirit beasts before reaching the Core Formation stage. Raising a spirit beast too early offered little benefit to a cultivator’s progress—unless they specialized in beast taming. Only after becoming Golden Core cultivators, possessing a much longer lifespan, would cultivators have enough leisure time to seek out eggs or young beasts of high-level spirit beasts for careful nurturing and training, to use as mounts or auxiliary combat partners. The growth of a spirit beast requires a very long time. Thus, cultivators often only managed to acquire their own Golden Core level spirit beasts in the mid or late Golden Core stages. Capturing a Golden Core level spirit beast directly in the wild was almost impossible. Wild Golden Core level spirit beasts were extremely powerful and would rather die than be captured; even if captured by luck, their wild nature was hard to tame.

Of course, there was an even simpler way to obtain a spirit beast: purchasing one at a market. Spirit beasts raised and tamed by Beast Taming cultivators were sometimes sold at the market. Cultivators could buy them to use as mounts or for combat assistance. However, the connection between a purchased spirit beast and the cultivator lacked sufficient intimacy, leading to a lack of mutual understanding and difficulty in unleashing full combat power. Furthermore, truly prime spirit beasts could never be bought at the market. Only a spirit beast personally selected and raised by the cultivator was the best; once mature, it was almost an extension of the cultivator, capable of exerting maximum fighting strength.

A cultivator like Ye Qin, who possessed a Golden Core level spirit beast while only at the first layer of the Golden Core realm, was exceedingly rare in the cultivation world. Especially since Ye Qin's spirit beast was a rare half-demon, half-ghost Corroding Bone Crocodile—a rarity among rarities, a supreme Skeleton Demon. Such a spirit beast could not be obtained just by wishing for it; it required immense fortune. This Golden Core Skeleton Demon alone increased Ye Qin's strength by nearly double. In a one-on-one fight, a Golden Core cultivator of the same rank would pose no trouble for Ye Qin. Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, and the others could only look on with envy.

Under Ye Qin's divine sense control, the Golden Core Skeleton Demon slowly crawled towards the nearest small sand vortex, which was several dozen zhang wide. It reached the edge of the vortex, sniffed, seemed to sense some life force, and looked up toward Ye Qin.