With the gate to the next area open, the group could now freely move on.

"Let's see what stands in our way next.

" Ziran said as he sent in the Glass Eye first.

~roll~

The glass eye swiftly traversed the floor and passed through the gate, arriving in the next area.

At the same time, Lin Mu had his own Spatial Perception active, trying to find anything suspicious.

"There's… a lot of Qi.

" Lin Mu discovered.

~shua~

The Glass eye transmitted the scene to the formation screen on Ziran's wrist, allowing others to see it too.

In the next area there was a dense amount of Qi in the air, which was unlike all other areas they had seen before. After all, the lack of Immortal Qi made the trial harder, as the participant could not recover their Qi stores this way.

They were forced to rely on the materials they might have brought with them or use whatever else they had available in the trial.

"Is there anything else?

" Lady Kang asked, as she too peered at the screen.

"Nothing solid… The Qi sense of the Glass eye only says that there's a lot of Qi but nothing like an actual physical trap there.

" Ziran furrowed his brows as he assessed what might lay ahead.

"Perhaps the Qi is obscuring whatever's behind it.

" He added.

"There's a way to check.

" Elder Hu said as he walked forward and stood in the gateway.

"If the Qi is obscuring something, we just need to blow it away!

" he said before punching with great force.

~WHOOSH~

An illusory gauntlet shot forward from his fist and entered the next area. There all the Qi that came into contact with it was blow away, while the gauntlet kept on flying uninterrupted.

This entire scene was visible on the formation screen, thus the group got to see just what was hiding behind the Qi.

A large statue of some kind stood tall in the next hall.

It had eight arms and four legs, with a faceless head. There were tens of eyes placed all over its body, looking rather eerie.

"That doesn't look good.

" Lin Mu muttered.

His spatial perception couldn't sense any immortal in the statue, but he had an irksome feeling that it was not just a normal statue.

~tremble~

This soon became a fact, when the illusory gauntlet was about to collide with the statue. It's arms moved like a blur before slamming into the illusory gauntlet!

~BOOM~

The illusory gauntlet which had been unstoppable so far shattered into fragments and quickly dissipated.

"WOOONG~!

" The statue then let out a strange booming sound before it started to move.

Even though it had no mouth, sound was still coming from its body.

"Another Gnomish Design?

" Lin Mu asked.

"I don't sense any immortal Qi controlling that thing.

" He added.

"Now that's not Gnomish.

" Ziran replied a frown on his face.

"That's of demonic make!

" He revealed.

"What!?

" Lin Mu and the others were shocked.

"What is it?

" Lady Kang questioned, while Elder Hu rushed ahead to block the incoming statue.

It had spotted them and was clearly coming to attack.

~DENG~DENG~DENG~

A fight soon broke out between Elder Hu and the eerie statue. The eight arms of the statue were rather slender, as if they were mere sticks, but they still had considerable mass to them.

As when the fists of Elder Hu struck them, a resounding collision was heard.

The eight arms moved fast, but Elder Hu was able to match them. The statue's eyes gazed at Elder Hu, watching his every move as if trying to find an opening.

And just a couple of seconds later, the statue did exactly that.

~THUD~

One of the arms bent at a strange angle and snaked its way to Elder Hu's back.

"Ugh!

" This caused the elder to be pushed forward towards the statue, where five fists rushed at him.

"HAAA!

" Of course the man was not going to be swayed by just this and unleashed a flurry of blows.

His fists glowed in a grey and blue light as large illusory gauntlets formed over them. But that wasn't all as the same thing happened to his legs, which became covered in illusory spikes boots.

~DENG~DENG~DENG~

Elder Hu moved with the agility of a leopard, using both his fists and legs to strike. His kicks were like that of an Axe chopping a tree, while his fists were like hammers crushing rocks in a mine.

His form was impeccable and no opening could be perceived from it.

"Elder Hu you need to put distance between you and the statue! It's a Demonic Sentinel!

" Ziran shouted.

Hearing that the Elder seemed to be a bit surprised, but decided to oblige.

But before he could do so, the statue seemed to faster.

~HONG~HONG~HONG~

All the eyes on the body of the eerie statue lit up before a red beam was shot out of all of them!

When Lin Mu saw the red beams, he could feel the power contained within them. They weren't just any normal kind of energy.

"Demonic Dao Traces!?

" Lin Mu was astonished.

Even if he had never seen Demonic Dao Traces outside, he could still innately recognizing them. After all, with the Burning heart Sutra, he had come close to the demonic path.

To him, this felt rather familiar and the danger contained within them was also prominent.

~BOOM~

Elder Hu couldn't dodge all of the beams coming at him, and was struck by several of them all at once.

"AAAGH!

" The elder cried in pain, as he was pushed back.

The red beams seemed to pass through his armor as if it were non existent and directly attack his body.

A searing pain filled his body, as if someone was poking him with burning hot rods. Ever spot that he was stuck with the red beams felt like they had been stabbed by red hot pokers.

Not to mention, this attack was not made with normal immortal Qi but rather Demonic Dao Traces!

As such it may as well be a Dao Skill!

The effect of it was apparent, as not only was Elder Hu's concentration broken, but his flow of immortal Qi was affected to!

He found himself unable to move, even if he wished to.

~SHUA~

The Demonic Sentinel Statue was not going to let go of a helpless prey and rushed to eliminate it.

"No you won't!

" Before before it could do so, a furious shout was heard.

"Star Break Lance!

"

Lady Kang thrust forward with her hand, causing a large lance made out of stars to condense. The stars glowed with pure stellar Qi as they surged towards the statue.

~BOOM~

The statue was struck by the large lance, and was thrown back to the other end of the hall.

"SPLIT!

" But Lady Kang was not done just yet, as she twisted her hand causing the lance to divide.

It split into ten longitudinal sections that stabbed into the statue. Eight of them stabbed through the arms, while two stabbed through the torso, trying to hold it in place.

Taking the chance that the statue was held back, Lin Mu made his move.

~SHUA~

He appeared next to Elder Hu with Blink and picked him up before retreating to safety.

"Take care of him.

" He said to Min Ju before joining the fray.

He had not read much about Demonic Sentinels and only knew a couple of things about them.

The first thing was that these statues were used to guard the most important places of the Demons and the second was that they were very strong.

The second fact was demonstrated by the statue just now, while the first fact seemed to be implied considering it was guarding the hall.

But a question still stood.

"Why's there a Demonic Sentinel here?

" Lin Mu wondered.

Ziran had the same doubt in his mind, as he couldn't figure it out. The Demonic Sentinel being here meant that there was the involved of demons no doubt. But since this was a Celestial's inheritance ground, it also didn't make sense that they would use a demonic weapon.

They had already established the fact that this was not the inheritance ground of an unorthodox expert, thus they hadn't thought of something like a Demonic Sentinel to be present here.

'Even if it's here, it would still need a power source. It cannot run on Immortal Qi, so where is it?' Ziran wondered as he looked around.

Having lived in a demonic world for thousands of years, he knew very well how these things worked. He had close experience with the, as his wife's tribe had several of these too.

The Demonic Sentinels needed several things to work, the first of which was a power source which would supply it with Demonic Qi. The next was a vessel that would contain Dao Traces. This was what made it so deadly and needed to be powered by a Demon personally to work.