Seeing the giant bird, Lin Yun felt his head begin to throb. He had known all along that this place would have some formidable monsters, and now, it seemed his fears were realized. Who would have thought that an ancient hall within a tomb would be connected to the Ancient Forbidden Land? And those monsters outside had most likely entered the Hidden Dragon Continent through this very place.
"It doesn't matter what that thing is, it's coming for us now! We have to run!" Zhou Damao shouted, immediately summoning a gigantic lion.
The group scrambled onto the creature's back and fled. They didn't care about the direction; they just picked the easiest path and tried their best to evade the great red bird.
The massive bird behind them seemed to sense its prey's intention to escape. It threw its head back and let out a long, piercing cry. The roar transformed into waves of sound that blasted towards them. The shriek was deafening; Lin Yun nearly passed out on the spot. They hurriedly stuffed some cotton into their ears and dove into the forest.
The red bird was fast and its power was immense, but in the dense forest, it was helpless. However, the creature was incredibly persistent. Even though it couldn't reach them in the forest, it continued to circle above their heads, seemingly unwilling to give up so easily.
Lin Yun felt a sense of utter helplessness. After an unknown amount of time, they finally heard the sound of the great monster bird departing. Only then did Lin Yun let out a long sigh of relief.
"That thing was really planning to devour us all here," he remarked with a shudder. The others, still crouched on the ground, were also filled with a lingering sense of awe and fear.
"What in the world is this place? There are things here I've never even seen before," Zhou Damao wondered aloud. As a powerful beast tamer, he could recognize a great many strange and unusual monsters. But this time, he was truly stumped. He was completely unfamiliar with these creatures and had no idea how he should go about dealing with them.
It was Lin Yun who spoke up. "When I entered the sect's Ancient Forbidden Land before, I knew that what I saw wasn't its complete form. Looking at it now, this place should also be a part of that forbidden land. But no matter what, a place like this is bound to be filled with both danger and opportunity. We should all be careful and not touch any mechanisms, lest we find ourselves with no path of escape."
After speaking, Lin Yun cautiously took the lead. The great bird continued to circle above them. But after about a quarter of an hour, it likely realized it had no way of catching them and reluctantly flew away.
Only after the bird was gone did the group finally relax. But in such an unknown, dense forest, they still couldn't let their guard down completely. Thinking back to the red bird, none of them knew what else they might encounter in this vast wilderness.
Lin Yun took the opportunity to leap onto a tree trunk and observe his surroundings. Although the forest was quiet, seemingly peaceful, he knew that when real trouble came, it wouldn't give you a chance to react. With his rich combat experience, Lin Yun naturally had an absolute advantage in a place like this. He had expended a great deal of time and energy just to make it out of the Ancient Forbidden Land alive before. Now, his strength was even greater, and dealing with the troubles here shouldn't be a problem—as long as he didn't run into that strange great bird again, they might still have a glimmer of hope.
The group walked for half a day but still hadn't crossed the forest. Along the way, however, Lin Yun came across the corpses of several Crimson Ghost Sect disciples who had died tragic deaths.
"Just how many people did the Crimson Ghost Sect send this time? We've seen quite a few bodies along this path."
Although he knew the Crimson Ghost Sect was a massive power with many believers and disciples throughout the Daye Dynasty, even so, to suffer losses on this scale seemed excessive. For the sake of this one forbidden land, an unknown number of disciples had already died, not to mention that they would later have to face the provocations of Lin Yun and the others.
It now seemed that whatever was inside this Ancient Forbidden Land was likely of extreme importance. Otherwise, the renowned Crimson Ghost Sect would not have taken such a great risk, dispatching so many disciples just to obtain something here.
Even Zhou Damao, standing beside Lin Yun, shook his head. "The Crimson Ghost Sect has always kept its tail between its legs, rarely making a real move. But this time, they've truly spared no expense, sending so many disciples here. They probably never imagined so many would die."
This was indeed the largest-scale operation by the Crimson Ghost Sect to date. Even during the incident at the Chen Family Fort, they had only deployed a small portion of their forces, with their higher-ups focused on keeping the Flowing Cloud Sect in check.
Lin Yun was silent. He couldn't imagine what the Crimson Ghost Sect was planning, but he felt that whatever they were doing would ultimately be detrimental to the world. No matter how he looked at it, he had to stop them.
Time passed, bit by bit. Lin Yun almost lost track of its existence. Finally, he heard the sound of an argument up ahead.
"I told you long ago, this place isn't as simple as you and I thought! If we keep going like this, we'll die here soon!"
Another voice retorted, "Huang Zelin! Do you think stopping now will solve anything? I'll tell you what, now that we know this place is extremely dangerous, we should be pushing forward! Stopping will only make us die faster!"
The three of them crept closer and finally saw the source of the voices. It was indeed Huang Zelin. The one arguing with him was a young disciple. Judging by their attire, it was a Crimson Ghost Sect elder and his followers.
However, the young disciple, who should have been Huang Zelin's junior, was for some reason daring to talk back to him directly. What Lin Yun found strangest of all was that Huang Zelin, faced with this young man, didn't dare to resist at all.
"How strange," Lin Yun murmured. "A dignified elder of the Crimson Ghost Sect, how could he be so subservient to a mere disciple? He's being so easily contradicted and doesn't even dare to say anything more. There's something sinister about this."
Although on the surface it might not look like much, Lin Yun quickly realized that the current problem was far more complicated than he had previously thought. There was definitely some unknown secret within the Crimson Ghost Sect.
The argument continued. "If we keep moving forward, even more people will die! Who knows where those things are hiding? They pose a fatal danger to us!"