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All of this happened in an instant, catching everyone off guard, leaving no time to react. Of course, even if they could react, they didn’t really want to save someone who had brought this upon himself.

After Shi Wuming was swallowed, the wall did not return to its original state but remained caved in. There was a gap there, but upon closer inspection, it appeared to be seamlessly closed with no gaps at all. Shi Wuming was trapped inside that seam.

Pei Qiyu stepped forward and touched it, shouting, “Hey, are you still alive?”

“…Alive, hurry up and get me out of here!” Shi Wuming’s voice came from inside, but it was muffled, as if his mouth was blocked, and he could only barely make indistinct sounds.

Upon knowing he was still alive, the group didn’t rush to get him out but instead examined the wall.

After observing for a moment, they realized that the wall was indeed the body of some aquatic beast, and its massive body, nearly a hundred zhang long, was completely blocking their path forward.

The grass and wood aura that Wen Qiao sensed was behind the path blocked by this aquatic beast. To get past, they would need to make the beast move aside.

The group thought about it and tried attacking it.

Wen Qiao gathered her strength into a punch, with spiritual power enveloping her fist. She struck the beast, and the beast’s body quickly caved in, like a deflated ball. Before the cultivators could react, the caved-in area bounced back, and the spiritual power enveloping the fist was sent back like a counter-attack. If not for Wen Qiao’s quick reflexes, she might have been sent flying. The surrounding water churned for a long time before calming down.

The group gathered again and checked the spot Wen Qiao had attacked earlier. It was still smooth and intact, with no traces of the attack, which had clearly been completely rebounded and did not affect the beast at all.

Everyone knew how powerful Wen Qiao’s punches were, yet it had no effect on the beast, demonstrating just how strong its defenses were, and that it could even rebound attacks.

Afterward, Su Molan and Pei Qiyu also tried attacking.

Su Molan’s Explosive Spirit Sword Technique and Pei Qiyu’s illusion technique were both used.

The rebounded attack from the Explosive Spirit Sword Technique churned the surrounding water again, making it hard for anyone to stand steadily. Pei Qiyu’s illusion technique, which didn’t target the body, wasn’t rebounded, but it didn’t have any effect either, as if the beast had no spiritual consciousness and wasn’t affected by illusions.

After several attempts, the group finally understood that the beast couldn’t be attacked directly; all attacks would be rebounded.

“What kind of beast is this?” Su Molan said in disbelief.

In the vast world, there were countless species, and many unknown species had strange abilities. Now, encountering this beast, although they didn’t know what it was, they understood how troublesome it could be.

Because Shi Wuming was trapped inside the beast’s body, Su Xing also came out to check the situation without any care.

Seeing Shi Wuming’s predicament, Su Xing unscrupulously grinned and said, “Serves him right, always sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.”

If it weren’t for Shi Wuming, Su Xing wouldn’t have to hide all the time and could freely follow Wen Qiao around like it did in the Thirteen Palaces of Dry Bones. Su Xing was quite unhappy about this, but since it couldn’t fully trust Shi Wuming yet, it didn’t want to reveal its presence.

It ran over and touched the fleshy wall, saying to Wen Qiao and the others, “Wen Jiejie, although this beast is huge, it doesn’t seem to have much killing power. We can try to reason with it and make it move aside for us.”

“How do we reason with it?” Wen Qiao couldn’t even tell where its head was, and even Pei Qiyu’s illusion technique had no effect, leaving them at a loss.

Su Xing didn’t say anything at first but patted the fleshy wall and pointed to a spot, saying, “This seems to be its excretory part.”

When everyone saw the spot it was pointing to, their expressions turned strange. Wasn’t Shi Wuming trapped in the beast’s buttocks?

Pei Qiyu couldn’t help but burst out laughing, and Su Molan struggled hard to hold back her laughter. As for Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou, they weren’t the type to care about others’ feelings and laughed quite heartlessly.

The laughter reached Shi Wuming, and his muffled voice came through, “What are you all laughing at for no reason? Why aren’t you getting me out? I’m almost unable to breathe.”

The group didn’t believe him; a Yuanzong stage cultivator could hold their breath for days without any problem. How long had he really been trapped?

They decided to leave him there a bit longer.

After fumbling around for a while, the group finally figured out the structure of the beast.

The body of this aquatic beast was round and filled with gas. Poking it would produce a “squishy” sound. Because of its massive size, it was too lazy to move and often found some cave-like places to stay in, sometimes not moving for decades, making it easy for others to overlook its existence.

If anyone or any beast attacked, its body could automatically rebound the attack or trap any approaching obstacles, keeping them trapped for decades or even centuries before letting them out.

Shi Wuming had been treated as an obstacle trying to attack it and was swallowed.

Pei Qiyu explained their discovery to Shi Wuming, who then panicked a little and said, “Get me out of here quick! I don’t want to be trapped in this lump of flesh for decades.”

“But we don’t have a way to do it right now!” Pei Qiyu said mischievously, “Maybe you should just stay here while we take another path. We’ll come back to save you when we have time!”

Shi Wuming: “……”

Shi Wuming finally experienced the evil nature of demon cultivators. How outrageous!

Although Pei Qiyu said that, they weren’t actually going to take another path. Wen Qiao wasn’t going to give up on the pure grass and wood aura emanating from within.

Wen Qiao tried to communicate with the beast.

But no matter how she tried, there was no response, as if the beast was dead asleep.

Ning Yuzhou said, “It’s probably in a deep slumber, and even its spirit is asleep. At times like this, even attacks targeting spiritual consciousness and spirit are ineffective.”

That was why Pei Qiyu’s illusion technique had no effect on it.

Realizing they couldn’t communicate with the beast, Wen Qiao found the situation quite troublesome.