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Cultivators who hadn't reached the Immortal Realm were still mere mortals. Mere mortals, when facing divine beasts, couldn't match the innate dignity of such creatures.

At that moment, Wen Qiao rose on her flying sword, her height now even with the kirin statue’s head. Their gazes met, hers with the stone statue’s lifeless eyes.

Wen Qiao tilted her head, gazing at the statue’s lifeless eyes.

Perplexed, Shi Wuming and the others looked at her and asked hurriedly, “Little sister Qiao, what are you looking at?”

Wen Qiao ignored them and stretched out her hand. Her fingers, as white and slender as tender green onions, reached toward the kirin’s head, lightly touching the stone.

After feeling it, Wen Qiao remarked, “Not bad texture.”

The others were left speechless.

When she landed back on the ground, Shi Wuming and the others looked at her with mixed feelings.

“Little sister Qiao, why did you touch it suddenly? Aren’t you afraid it will attack you?” Shi Wuming said with concern.

Wen Qiao replied matter-of-factly, “I praised its appearance. I didn’t provoke it, so why would it attack me?”

But would something like that accept a compliment so easily?

Shi Wuming refused to believe it. He imitated Wen Qiao, flying over and touching the statue a couple of times. Suddenly, the large disc moved unexpectedly, and the kirin statue turned its body, its rear crashing into him, sending him flying.

Shi Wuming cried out as he hit the ground, feeling both pain and indignation. “Why can Wen Qiao touch it, but I can’t? That’s so unfair!”

However, no one answered him. The large disc turned back, and the kirin statue resumed its majestic posture.

Seeing this, Pei Qiyu and Su Molan had already formed a guess in their minds. Looking at Shi Wuming’s unfortunate state, they were actually quite grateful that he had taken the initiative to test their theory, revealing the hidden dangers of this place.

In light of Shi Wuming’s willingness to risk himself, the others’ attitudes toward him improved considerably.

Wen Qiao gave him a Spirit Restoring Pill and said, “Stop yelling. Let’s enter the maze. Maybe there’s something good waiting for us at the end.”

Only then did Shi Wuming perk up, popping the pill into his mouth, feeling touched as he said, “It’s still little sister Qiao who’s the most lovable. Even this thing doesn’t attack you.”

Wen Qiao glanced at him, suddenly adopting a confident expression. “Of course. Who made me so likable?”

Even with his thick skin, Shi Wuming couldn’t handle that comment.

It was the truth, but hearing her say it out loud—why did it feel so unbalancing?

Chapter 328

After passing the large disc, the group arrived at an intersection.

At the side of the intersection crouched a kirin statue half the height of a person. The statue looked up slightly, as if it were closely watching everyone who entered the maze.

Even the usually reckless Shi Wuming didn’t dare to touch it this time, quickly keeping a safe distance in case the kirin statue decided to attack again.

Each path in the maze was perfectly square, three zhang high and three zhang wide. For cultivators, this space was quite spacious, but for the kirin statues, it seemed rather tight.

Shi Wuming secretly breathed a sigh of relief. They probably wouldn’t be able to fit in this passage if there were kirin statues like the one on the disc.

As for the smaller kirin statues, their combat strength shouldn’t be as strong as the larger ones, right?

Just as he thought this, he suddenly noticed that there were also kirin reliefs on the walls on both sides of the maze.

There was a kirin relief every few steps. Although they weren’t densely packed, they gave off the illusion that everyone was being watched.

"There’s too much of this stuff..." Shi Wuming said softly.

"If you know, why say it?" Pei Qiyu gave him a look that signaled him to shut up.

Shi Wuming shut his mouth, worried that he might say something wrong and attract the attention of something within the underground palace. What if it only attacks me again?

After walking through the maze for a while, Ning Yuzhou suddenly came to a halt.

Wen Qiao turned to look at him, puzzled. "What's the matter, husband?"

The others also turned to look, growing alert, thinking Ning Yuzhou had seen something unusual.

Ning Yuzhou said, "The underground palace’s formation has been activated, and those above ground will soon notice."

"What?" Shi Wuming was startled. "How did it get activated? It wasn't activated before, right?" Otherwise, many cultivators wouldn’t have been unaware of the secrets hidden in the Red Sun Villa.

Ning Yuzhou remained composed. "It should have remained inactive, but after we entered, we triggered the underground palace’s formation, which also awakened its master, causing the main formation to activate. Naturally, this also affects the outside."

Everyone looked startled.

Pei Qiyu suddenly thought of something and asked, "When you said the timing wasn’t right earlier, did you mean..."

Ning Yuzhou no longer kept it from them. "When we were at Red Sun Villa, I observed that although there was a formation meant to restore it, no traces of the formation could be found. At that time, I knew some force was concealing the formation. I couldn’t confirm there was an underground palace inside Red Sun Villa at that time. I only thought it would manifest at a specific moment."

That specific moment was not inside the Red Sun Villa but in its lake.

When they pushed open the heavy underwater stone door, they disturbed something in the underground palace, triggering the formation covering the Red Sun Villa.

Although he hadn’t seen what was happening outside, he deduced that the villa must have shown signs of the formation, attracting many cultivators.

After hearing Ning Yuzhou’s analysis, everyone understood that the disturbance at the Red Sun Villa would draw the attention of cultivators in the secret realm, especially the two from Zuo Yizhai who were lying in wait.

It was likely that the moment those two discovered the hidden formation at the Red Sun Villa, they entered the underground palace.

Shi Wuming felt disgruntled, thinking that after all their hard work to get here, they were just making it easier for others to uncover the secrets of the Red Sun Villa.

Wen Qiao comforted him, "Don’t worry, we entered before them. Since we’ve come this far, what’s meant for us won’t be any less. Right?"