"Go!" Ye Xiu was the first to set foot in the territory of the Ten Thousand Sword Stone Piles. The moment his foot landed, the stone pile above him crashed down with a bang. He used the Soul of a Hundred Insects to sprint rapidly, hoping to gain a time advantage over the falling spire. Who knew that those spires seemed to have eyes; instead of falling straight down, they tracked Ye Xiu's trajectory and stuck to his back. "Hey, are these things alive?"

At the same moment, Old Liu's entry also stirred dozens of stone piles to fall. These spires rushed forward like longswords controlled by someone, without the slightest hesitation: "Damn it, this is clearly a formation!"

"What formation or whatnot, hurry up and think of a way." Ye Xiu spun and leaped towards the stone wall above. This movement precisely disturbed the stone piles currently hanging above, causing them to fall and create a pincer attack from two sides. His movements were light and his figure agile, allowing him to shift his body precisely in the instant the two sides of spires closed in, dodging the strike.

"Clang!" Dozens of stone piles intersected and stood firm, slamming hard against each other. The noise startled things on the surrounding upper stone walls, making them shake precariously.

"Fly with the sword!" Old Liu couldn't outrun the stone piles, so he took to the air with his sword. Ghost Execution Sword was faster than the Demon Breaking Sword in terms of sheer speed, but as this speed increased, countless pursuing stone piles gathered behind him. Old Liu had no choice but to ask Ye Xiu for help: "I'll lead them; you better figure out a way to solve these things."

"Where's your ice? Slow them down!" Ye Xiu sprinted behind a long string of stone piles. Seeing Old Liu's desperate state, he unleashed both his swords again. "Try the Divine Sense of Tianmiao with both hands!"

"Profound Ice Curse!" Old Liu continued to glide and dropped an ice crystal. The crystal scattered in the air, forming the shape of an ice wall. But no one expected that the stone piles wouldn't crash into the ice wall; instead, they passed right over it to continue pursuing Old Liu. "Holy cow, how high is the IQ of this stuff?"

"Whoosh..." Ye Xiu's dual swords were about to press close to the cluster of stone piles, but before the sword light even landed, the cluster united, forming the shape of a giant sword that fiercely resisted Ye Xiu's dual swords. They were uncontrolled, yet they understood how to overpower their opponent in strength.

"This... this thing..." Ye Xiu never expected his Tianmiao Divine Sense sword technique to be suppressed by a group of unremarkable stone piles. Not only that, but as he confronted the stone pile sword formation, his entire body was being forced down to the point of kneeling on the ground.

"Aiya!" Old Liu saw the pressure ease behind him, spun his body around, and launched a sword strike, charging toward the stone pile sword formation. The formation seemed to sense the danger, flying up into the sky and redistributing itself among the mountain walls.

Ye Xiu breathed a slight sigh of relief, using a single sword pressed into the ground to support his body. He stared fiercely at the top; the stone piles swayed left and right, looking like a group of smug children. "Those things are definitely not ordinary stone piles; they are alive. They must also be considered Divine Beasts within the Demon Extinguishing Pavilion."

"Damn it, are we two going to be played to death by this stuff?" Old Liu rubbed his mouth, annoyance evident in his tone. "No matter what they are, we need to find a way to deal with them. I don't believe we can't handle this."

"How to deal with them? Look at how they are—a stance of 'if the enemy doesn't move, I don't move.'" Ye Xiu carefully scrutinized the stone wall. The tips of the stone piles gently swayed, and the frequency and direction of the swaying seemed connected to the weapon in his hand. "Those guys don't seem to be chasing the two of us."

Old Liu calmly landed and thrust the Ghost Execution Sword into the ground beside him. The stone piles, which had been tracking Tianmiao and Tianzhi Que, instantly turned their heads towards Ghost Execution. "Are you saying their target is the weapons in our hands?"

Ye Xiu nodded and fiercely hurled Tianzhi Que in his hand towards the stone wall ahead. This simple action was enough; the group of stone piles acted as if they had discovered fleeing prey, surging towards Tianzhi Que. They entangled with each other, quickly catching up to Tianzhi Que's speed. When Tianzhi Que firmly embedded itself in the stone wall, motionless, they returned to the rock face. "It seems that's the principle. Let me try again."

"Be careful, these guys are cunning. Without your weapons, how will you dodge their attacks?" Old Liu said this, but he was already prepared to support Ye Xiu. He knew this road ahead was long, and if they didn't figure out a method, they might never get through.

Ye Xiu dropped the Tianmiao Sword and tiptoed cautiously toward Tianzhi Que embedded in the wall, moving by himself. As he stepped, he watched the movement of the stone piles. Those guys, tired from the chase, were resting like children on the top of the wall. Before long, he approached Tianzhi Que: "See? Their target really isn't us."

"Since that's the case, let them chase the Thin Face Saber!" Old Liu had found the solution. At this moment, he exerted force with one hand and struck the Thin Face Saber towards the deep passage at the fastest speed. As soon as the Thin Face Saber flew out, it triggered the pursuit of the stone piles. He let out an excited cry and simultaneously cast the Ghost Execution Sword along with the Thin Face Saber. "Let's run while we can!"

"Go!" Ye Xiu didn't dare hold his weapons for too long. At this moment, he spun his body and sent Tianzhi Que and Tianmiao Sword flying out with one kick and one palm strike respectively. Thus, a scene formed where a group of stone piles, two people, and three swords chased after a tiny Thin Face Saber.

Old Liu ran ahead, surrounded by lively stone piles. He looked closely and realized these stone piles had noses and eyes—they weren't stone piles at all, but slender monsters shaped like them. "The Divine Beasts of the Demon Extinguishing Pavilion truly live up to their reputation."

"Let's go, we're almost at the exit." Ye Xiu pursued the Thin Face Saber, and a stone pile monster zipped past him. That guy had extremely small eyes but a wide, smiling mouth, not looking that terrifying. "Facing something like this, wouldn't not bringing weapons down here solve everything?"

"Exit!" Old Liu pushed forward with both feet and stepped out of the space enveloped by the stone pile sword formation. He rapidly retracted the Thin Face Saber and flipped his body to enter a completely different area.

When Ye Xiu landed behind him, those adorable little stone pile monsters inexplicably lost their target and obediently returned to the mountain wall behind them. It turned out their range of movement was strictly limited to that single passage. "Those things went back; another stage passed."

"Hey, don't be so optimistic. Haven't you looked ahead?" Old Liu's face was turning slightly green because this area was another vast cavern. The cave walls jutted out sharply, and the floor seemed coated with a layer of ice, reflecting the scene from the ceiling above.

Ye Xiu, exhausted from the previous encounters, coldly looked toward the center of the massive cave where a giant stone sculpture stood. The sculpture's material was reflective, resembling a curled-up beetle. "There's no way forward; it looks like we have to take down this big fellow."

"It's not moving, how do we fight it?" Old Liu was the first to step onto the icy floor, slowly sneaking towards the giant beetle. It had a huge pincer-like object on its head and a plump body behind it. Its grayish wings hung limply on its back, showing no vitality at all. "What a massive creature. Was this Divine Beast sealed here by generations of people from Wandao Mountain?"

Ye Xiu followed him over. A Daoist sect unexpectedly harbored so many Divine Beast monsters. Perhaps Wandao Mountain had some connection to the creation of the Soul Weapon Talisman. At that moment, a rustling sound enveloped them from all sides. Ye Xiu looked around and asked, "Hey Old Liu, did you hear something? It sounds like insects chirping."

Old Liu nodded and looked towards the source of the sound. It turned out there were some small caves in the four corners of the cavern. A small beetle had crawled out of one of the holes. This beetle looked similar to the large one in the center, just vastly different in size. "Look, that bug is coming out. I wonder if there are any more behind it."

The small bug poked its head out, swaying left and right. After sensing a certain scent, it actually charged straight towards the giant beetle in the middle. The closer it got to the large bug's body, the more illusory it became. By the time its entire body was close to the large bug, it completely merged into the large bug's body. The large bug, which was originally just gray, now emitted a faint cyan halo beneath its skin after successfully absorbing a small bug—how novel.

"More small bugs are coming out over here, look what they're doing?" Ye Xiu had a bad premonition. He turned his head to look at another corner. Another small bug was charging towards the giant beetle. Coincidentally, their approach seemed to be injecting vitality into the large beetle. "Something's not right, Old Liu. Every time those small bugs merge into the large beetle, it seems to twitch slightly. They look like they are charging it up. If we wait any longer, this large beetle shell will revive."

"Hurry up and go!" Seeing this, Old Liu also felt that the situation was bad. He flew out and headed towards a small bug that had just emerged. He sent his Thin Face Saber flying, striking the small bug's body. The small bug was startled and fled in panic but still tried to re-enter the large beetle's body.

"Black Flame Nine Dragons!" Ye Xiu followed, flames of black flame filling the air. Under the bombardment of the black flames, the small bug was instantly roasted. However, at this moment, rustling insect noises echoed from all around again. He glanced over and saw that at this time, all the surrounding caves were crawling with identical small bugs. "Old Liu, two each, don't lose!"

"Lose? How is that possible!" Old Liu stood in the center, flicking the Thin Face Saber with one hand and flicking the Ghost Execution Sword with the other. Both weapons shot up towards the caves, directly eliminating the small bugs that had just appeared. "Don't hold me back."

Ye Xiu wielded his dual swords and used the Tianmiao Divine Sense sword technique, weaving left and right. Those two small bugs couldn't withstand his sword strikes and instantly turned to dust. "We can deal with the small bugs. I think if we want to enter the next layer of the Demon Extinguishing Pavilion, we must defeat this giant beetle."

Old Liu leaped up and landed steadily on the giant beetle's back. He picked up Ghost Execution and fiercely stabbed the giant beetle, but its body was too hard. No matter how mystical the Ghost Execution Sword was, it couldn't pierce this thing. "Shoot! We must not let this thing fully awaken. I'm wondering how we can possibly defeat something like this."

"Tianmiao Falling Shadow!" Ye Xiu crouched low, dual swords in hand, drawing them wide on both sides. As he uttered the move, endless afterimages scattered throughout the cavern. He flashed past, his figure now positioned on the other side of the giant beetle. A violent explosion erupted, stirring up dust throughout the entire cave. But when he looked back, the giant beetle stood firmly in the center, completely unharmed. "It's... it's completely unharmed."

"Damn it, the small bugs are coming again, dammit!" Old Liu sighed heavily. This time, the number of small bugs emerging far exceeded the last batch. In an instant, they flooded out like a tide; it looked difficult to stop the revival of this giant beetle.