The resultant explosion from the Mortal Reminder Arrow was massive and it swept over an area of thirty kilometers rapidly.

Lin Mu and the group were already far from it of course, having traveled atop Little Shrubby's back and retreated before it ever became a concern.

"As good as ever.

" Daoist Chu commented, seeing the size of the explosion as well as the Death Qi clouds that were being rapidly dispersed.

The group waited till the explosion had settled down and a sea of Death Qi had been created in the place of the Chimera Plant. Most of the Chimeric beasts had been killed in the explosion, but those that were far apart were still alive and there were a decent number of them too.

"We'll go clear out the Chimeric Beasts. You can get the Chimera Plant's fragments.

" Crown Prince Feng Shun said, following their previous arrangement.

They had always done this as it would usually take Lin Mu some time to gather the Chimera Plant's fragments, since they wouldn't always appear right away.

"Sure.

" Lin Mu said and went to the Death Qi sea.

~SHUA~

His Spatial Perception activated, and he searched for any fragments in the Death Qi sea. This was not easy and even in the past times, Lin Mu hadn't been able to find many of them.

In fact, after the very first Chimera Plant he had destroyed with everyone, there had only been two or at most three Chimera Plant Fragments having been obtained from every subsequent Chimera Plant.

'This is the Seventh one now,' Lin Mu thought to himself, recounting all the Chimera Plants they had destroyed. 'Just how many more are there?' he wondered, if the ends f their trial would really be dependent on the elimination of them all.

His eyes scanned the Death Qi sea for any traces of the fragments, but it didn't seem to be easy this time.

'Did they get swept away far?' Lin Mu wondered.

Most of the time, the Chimera Plant Fragments would be around where the plant had exploded, but it seemed like it was somewhere else this time. As such, Lin Mu went flew along the sea while watching it closely.

The others were hunting the Chimeric beasts about fifty kilometers away and were clearing out several groups of them.

~SHICK~

"And that should be thirty thousand.

" Qiao De said, drawing back several javelins.

"That's more Chimeric Beasts in this hour than I hunted in the last week entirely.

"

"Their numbers are quite dependent on the Chimera Plant now, plus those Yin Nascent Soul Maggots aren't doing much to help that.

" Daoist Chu said, making three hand seals and causing a large fireball to burn another group of the Chimeric Beasts.

"At least the Yin Nascent Soul Maggots gather all the credits at once and reduce our effort of hunting them.

" Crown Princess Shang stated.

"But they're no easy thing to kill either.

" Daoist Chu replied, as he killed a few more Chimeric Beasts.

"Speaking of that… It's rather strange we haven't seen any of them this time.

" Crown Princess Shang said, furrowing her brows.

"Are we perhaps too far that the Yin Nascent Soul maggots haven't found the Chimera Plant? It did look like the Chimera plant had just risen from the ground not long ago.

" Qiao De guessed.

"Can also be that we've killed too many of them and they can't afford to send anymore.

" Crown Prince Feng Shun said, hearing their conversation.

"Could be,

" Daoist Chu muttered.

"We are quite far and in an unexplored area, so there is a chance they haven't seen or learned about it yet,

" Lady Kang spoke up.

"We should be careful, regardless.

" She added.

"Of course.

" The others nodded.

~tremble~

Unknown to them, there were subtle tremors going through the ground at this very moment. But the effect of the combat as well as the previous explosion earlier made that it was very easy to mistake it as after effects from that, thus they didn't notice it.

~RUMBLE~

But it finally reached a point where they heard it loud enough to be surprised.

"What was that?

" Daoist Chu asked before a faint wave of energy was heard.

~BOOM~

The ground behind him burst open as a large creature rose from it.

It was at least fifty meters long and had thousands of sharp teeth in its circular mouth, while tens of tentacles extended from its long body.

"It's the Yin Nascent Soul Maggot!

" Daoist Chu shouted.

~BOOM~BOOM~BOOM~

But that was merely the start as four more Yin Nascent Soul Maggots rose up from the ground, blocking Crown Princess Shang, Monk Hushu, Qiao De and Elder Hu.

"Theres more of them!

" Crown Prince Feng Shun said as lightning started to crawl on his skin.

~BZZT~

He immediately threw out several bolts of lightning towards the nearest Yin Nascent Soul Maggot and struck it with ease. ~SCREECH~

The maggot cried in pain and flailed around, its tentacles whipping the area while foul energy was being spread by it.

"Take the Bale Resistance pills.

" Ziran quickly shouted.

~gulp~

Everyone took out a pill each and swallowed it.

These were pills that they had bought from Offering hall and were especially meant to resist all kinds of Baleful Energies. While it didn't fully stop the Withering Dao energy, it did slow it down if they got attacked.

~SHING~SHING~SHING~

But the group didn't know that this was merely the start of it as the glint of tens of weapons was seen flying towards them next.

"It's an ambush!

" Lady Kang shouted, seeing the over hundred Black robed individuals appearing from the ground.

All their weapons were covered with the foul energy, and now the group had been surrounded in just a few seconds.

The group was were currently spread around, and had the Yin Nascent Soul Maggots in the middle, with the Black Fin Members on the outside, blocking their paths.

"We need to break out of the encirclement!

" Crown Prince Feng Shun ordered.

"Focus on a weak point and move out! We'll have to regroup and get Daoist Lin Mu.

" He stated.