Seeing that the look on the middle-aged man's face had started to turn ugly, a furious expression appeared on Zhao Lan's face as he then asked

''Don't tell me that he got captured by one of those idiots who surrounded the inn! Who was it?''

Feeling the berserk aura around Zhao Lan growing stronger, the middle-aged man's face paled, before he hurriedly shook his head and responded with an awkward tone

''Lord Zhao, you are mistaken. That kid wasn't captured!

It is just that... he seemed to have disappeared!''

Zhao Lan was dumbfounded when he heard the middle-aged man's answer, while the berserk aura around him immediately dispersed.

''Disappeared?''

When he had heard about what happened in Shun Long's courtyard from the middle-aged man, Zhao Lan had expected for Shun Long to come to the 'Alchemists' Guild' begging for help.

Perhaps, if Zhao Lan was lucky, he could have convinced Shun Long to accept being groomed by the 'Alchemists' Guild' as well.

But he somehow seems to have disappeared?

''How?''

Zhao Lan asked the middle-aged man, in a voice that didn't hide his confusion.

Shaking his head the middle-aged man responded seriously

''Lord Zhao, nobody knows what happened, but old man Yuhan from the 'Golden Exchange firm' and Huang Bao from the 'Mercenaries' Association', only found an empty courtyard when they arrived at the inn.

Even the rank 6 magic beast seemed to have disappeared into thin air!''

This time, Zhao Lan's confusion turned into visible shock.

How could an early rank 6 magic beast disappear under the soul sensing of 2 middle-stage Dao Kings?

At the same time that Zhao Lan was interrogating the middle-aged man in front of him, an hour had already passed since Shun Long and Liu Mei had entered the Netherspirit forest.

Liu Mei had already summoned her skeletons, which seemed to have formed a defensive line around her and Shun Long, while they fought off the creatures that attacked them from time to time.

These creatures were called Netherspirit corpses, and had bony limbs with little to no flesh on them, and would come in various shapes and sizes.

Some of them seemed humanoid and were at most 1.9m(6.2ft) tall, while others had the shape of different magic beasts, and their height was more than 4m(13ft) tall.

The Netherspirit corpses were the corpses of cultivators or magic beasts that had died inside the Netherspirit forest.

So far, the strongest Netherspirit corpse that had attacked Shun Long and Liu Mei was only at the rank 5 of Heaven grade.

As for Liu Mei's jade-white skeletons, since Liu Mei had broken through to the peak of rank 1 in the Spirit realm, their strength had also advanced to the middle of rank 1 in the Spirit realm as well.

Forget about a rank 5 Heaven grade Netherspirit corpse, even a middle rank 2 Spirit realm cultivator would be doomed, facing off against 100 middle rank 1 Spirit realm opponents.

As they headed deeper inside the forest however, the strength of the Netherspirit corpses continued to rise.

2 hours later, the average strength of the corpses had already reached the late-stages of the Heaven grade, and even peak rank 9 Heaven grade corpses weren't uncommon.

One more hour soon passed, when Spirit realm corpses had finally started to appear.

Shun Long's and Liu Mei's speed had started to slow down as they advanced further inside, but Shun Long didn't move to help the skeletons.

Instead, Liu Mei's 6 undead knights whose strength was also at the peak rank 1 of the Spirit realm, started to fight against the Netherspirit corpses as well.

Half an hour later, Liu Mei no longer held back, as she summoned 100 more of her jade-white skeletons, along with 6 more undead knights.

This was the current limit of the undead creatures that Liu Mei could summon, and although she didn't need to actively use spiritual strength in order to control them, keeping so many creatures active at the same time, drained both her spiritual strength as well as her qi.

After all, for each skeleton and undead knight that she had summoned, Liu Mei had to expend a small portion of her spiritual strength and qi in order for them to fight.

Shun Long's and Liu Mei's speed once again increased with the added manpower of the new skeletons and the undead knights.

Even the rank 2 Spirit realm Netherspirit corpses were taken care of extremely quickly, under Liu Mei's undead creatures' combined strength.

Half an hour later however, the first rank 3 Spirit realm Netherspirit corpse had appeared.

Seeing that Liu Mei's skeletons couldn't hold up any longer, and were getting destroyed under the early rank 3 Spirit realm corpse's attacks, Shun Long pointed at the Netherspirit corpse with his left hand and activated the 'Thunderbolt finger'.

The humanoid Netherspirit corpse screamed once it felt the power of the lightning hitting its body, before it turned into a wisp of black smoke that dispersed in the air.

1 more hour passed, and Shun Long and Liu Mei had already traveled halfway through the forest, when suddenly, a huge roar was heard from the distance ahead of them.

Roarr

Trees were mowed down one after the other while even the earth below Shun Long's feet had started to shake, as the Netherspirit corpse of a magic beast that was almost 5m(16ft) tall appeared in front of him and Liu Mei.

The magic beast looked like a giant two-headed dog, with rotting flesh on both of its heads, while even the bones on its 2 front legs were a black color.

Liu Mei's body instinctively tensed up when she sensed the powerful death aura coming from the two-headed dog's body.

The look in Shun Long's eyes had also turned serious as he looked at the Netherspirit corpse in front of him, before he turned his head to look at Liu Mei and said

''Mei'er, step back. You can't help here!''

Indeed, Liu Mei knew that her skeletons and even the undead knights would be useless here.

After all, the death qi coming from the two-headed dog had already reached the peak of rank 5 in the Spirit realm!