"What the hell is this?" Lu Yu felt like he had bumped into something while floating and stopped moving.

He reached out to grab the thing he couldn't pass through, enveloping it in the glow of his earth escape technique.

From the feel of it, Lu Yu preliminarily judged that what he caught should be a long stick, with a very rough surface, uneven and a bit uncomfortable to hold, like a severely oxidized and corroded metal.

In the soil, he couldn't clearly see what he had picked up, and he felt his Spiritual Power was about to run out, making him dizzy. So he threw it aside and continued to float upwards.

Later, he continuously bumped into more sticks, iron pieces, iron barrels, and the like–metallic items, making his journey stop-and-go, significantly increasing the consumption of his Spiritual Power.

Finally, just before his Spiritual Power was about to deplete, Lu Yu crashed through an impassable area and rose to the ground.

After leaving the underground, Lu Yu immediately disconnected his connection with the Spirit Pearl, and the glow on his body quickly disappeared, revealing the surrounding scene to the two of them.

This was an ancient battlefield, everywhere were traces of the great battles left behind, deep pits were not uncommon, and the battlefield was littered with broken weapons, armor, war flags... and warriors long dead but still lingering on the battlefield, shrouded in black mist.

Seeing the surrounding scene, Lu Yu realized what he had touched underground: the stick was a broken spear shaft, the iron pieces were fragments of swords and knives, the iron barrels were pieces of shattered armor...

"Where is this?" Yu Xiaoman asked in bewilderment while looking at the surrounding scene, which didn't resemble the outskirts of Kugu Ridge at all.

Noticing the skeletons shrouded in black mist walking toward them, Yu Xiaoman nervously hid behind Lu Yu, only to find monsters approaching from all directions.

Lu Yu pulled a long spear from the ground. The spear shaft, after enduring countless years, had been corroded to the point of being pockmarked, its most damaged parts almost half-decayed, and the spearhead had long since broken off.

Holding it, Lu Yu could still feel its sturdiness, a testament to the high-quality materials used in crafting it.

Watching the skeletons shrouded in black mist limping over, Lu Yu swept out with a single stroke, smashing a large number of skeletons with ease, scattering broken bones and fragments of armor all around.

Seeing that these skeletons were easy to kill, Lu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Using earth escape to flee from the Skeleton Cave, his Spiritual Power was severely depleted, leaving his strength far from complete. Even though his body still brimmed with Ice Spiritual Qi, it was difficult to harness due to the severe depletion of his Spiritual Power.

After smashing all the skeletons near him, Lu Yu purchased a Spirit-Containing Pill for 200,000 Points from the game mall and consumed it to restore his severely depleted Spiritual Power.

Seeing the approaching skeletons being effortlessly killed by Lu Yu, Yu Xiaoman was relieved, only to suddenly feel that her ankle was grabbed by something.

"Ah!" she instinctively kicked hard at the thing grabbing her ankle.

With a thump, a tattered helmet was kicked off by Yu Xiaoman, smashed by her strength, and the skeleton head inside was also crushed.

After the helmet hit the ground, black mist rose into the air, soon no longer emanating any black mist.

Yu Xiaoman received a system notification and said in surprise, "I got 36 experience points."

Lu Yu casually pulled out a broken spear stuck in the ground and handed it to her, "Kill the skeletons crawling over, you know how to farm monsters and level up, right?"

Yu Xiaoman took the broken spear, eager to try, suddenly realizing that these skeletons weren't that terrifying after all, being quite easy to kill, and not very scary, clean and white, without rotting flesh or a strange smell.

To kill a skeleton, she had to smash the part where the black mist emanated. Earlier, without realizing it, she had smashed the only part on that skeleton where the black mist emerged—its head.

After Lu Yu smashed a large swath of skeletons, he found out that to kill a skeleton he needed to crush the part where the black mist emanated from; once that part was smashed, the black mist quickly vanished, as it was the force keeping the skeletons moving.

He wanted to remind Yu Xiaoman that attacking the black mist emitting part would kill the skeletons, but he saw her randomly poking and managing to break the bone parts from which black mist streamed.

These black mist skeletons roaming the ancient battlefield were quite weak, even a normal person with no cultivation could smash their bones.

However, the black mist on them was a huge bother, a type of mysterious and terrifying black tree that Lu Yu had seen on the outskirts of Kugu Ridge, capable of affecting the spirits of living beings.

After killing a large number of skeletons, a fierce light flashed in Lu Yu's eyes, and a longing for slaughter filled his heart, prompting him to desire killing more skeletons.

With this thought arising, Lu Yu actively charged into the crowd of skeletons, continually swinging the broken spear in his hand, sweeping through the surrounding skeletons and smashing their bodies.

After the skeletons broke, the emerging black mist dispersed in the air, and Lu Yu's eyes gradually turned red, becoming bloodthirsty and excited.

After sweeping through a large number of skeletons, there were no more standing ones nearby, and Lu Yu turned his gaze towards the only remaining standing figure, Yu Xiaoman, his heart filled with a desire for slaughter, wanting to kill every living thing in sight.

Approaching Yu Xiaoman, walking slower and slower, the spear shaft in his hand raised, but no matter what, he couldn't throw it, a feeling of impending doom reminiscent of when he first wanted to take the Spirit Pearl arose in his mind.

His survival instincts made Lu Yu stop in his tracks, putting down the raised broken spear, standing still, eyes revealing a struggle. As his internal struggle persisted, the redness in Lu Yu's eyes faded, and faint black mist began to emerge from his body.

"Hoo~ ha~" Lu Yu took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his gaze returning to clarity.

Thinking about his earlier actions, Lu Yu was still shaken. He hadn't expected the black fog to affect the mind.

Looking at the skeletons that had fallen around, he felt it was still somewhat unsafe, so he went to the system shop and purchased a third-grade Spirit Pill Heart Cleansing Pill for one million Points.

After taking the Heart Cleansing Pill, Lu Yu felt a cool sensation lingering in his brain, like his brain had eaten mint, very refreshing. The fatigue from over-exerting his Spiritual Power also vanished completely.

Watching Yu Xiaoman still fighting the monsters, he noticed she wasn't affected by the black fog. As he approached, Lu Yu discovered that the small arrow she had always hung at her waist emitted a strange power, isolating the black fog from Yu Xiaoman's body.

The mottled small arrow seemed ordinary and unremarkable, yet it contained a strange power that could block the erosion of Demonic Qi and also isolate the unknown black fog, very mysterious.

Lu Yu did not covet Yu Xiaoman's small arrow; he wasn't a bandit trying to claim everything he saw.

However, he dared not continue killing skeletons, fearing his mind would be affected by the black fog again. Watching from afar as Yu Xiaoman destroyed all the skeletons nearby, he waited until the black fog dispersed before suggesting they leave.

He had Yu Xiaoman lead the way through the ancient battlefield, avoiding skeletons as much as possible, cautiously dodging a group of skeletons wandering on the battlefield until humans appeared in Lu Yu's vision.

The Beifeng Academy trainees were shocked to see two people emerging from deep within the battlefield. This group of trainees was clearing skeletons and demonized monsters on the battlefield's edge.

A mentor appeared before them, his expression grave, saying, "Be careful, the things inside the ancient battlefield are very dangerous; they may no longer be human."

Noticing the trainees killing skeletons without being affected by the black fog, Lu Yu was slightly stunned, then saw that each trainee had a charm wrapped around their arm.

The charm was silently burning, and every time a skeleton was slain and black fog dispersed, the charm on their arms would burn faster. When the charm on their arm was about to burn out, someone would wrap a new charm around it.

Lu Yu guessed that their immunity to the black fog's mental erosion was likely due to the charm's effect.

After breaking a skeleton that emitted black Qi in five locations, with a strength comparable to someone newly entering the Qi Cultivation realm, without killing it, Lu Yu stepped over its scattered bones and headed towards the Beifeng Academy group.

The skeletons gathered at the battlefield edge were stronger, with more locations emitting black Qi—few had three or four, many had more than ten. They were powerful, and killing them was far more difficult.

Not only were there black fog skeletons here, but also many demonized monsters with red eyes, insane and attacking all killable creatures in their sight, they were rampaging like demons without reason.

"Stop!" The Beifeng Academy mentor yelled to stop the two from getting closer.

"Teacher, I'm Yu Xiaoman from Beifeng Academy, Ling Yuyan is my mentor." Following Lu Yu's signal, Yu Xiaoman stepped forward to speak.

Even at a distance, the mentor saw her school uniform but didn't dare let Yu Xiaoman approach. He recognized Lu Yu's clothes, which is why he hadn't attacked immediately upon seeing the two.

"Check yourselves, and come over if there's no problem." He tossed an exorcism charm towards Yu Xiaoman, who caught it, and it showed no reaction.

"Alright, give the exorcism charm to him, you can come over now." The mentor nodded gently when he saw the charm didn't burn and told Yu Xiaoman.

Though he didn't know how this student ended up deep in the Skeleton Cave's inner battlefield, as long as the exorcism charm didn't act up, generally there was no issue.

Moreover, Yu Xiaoman claiming Ling Yuyan as her mentor caught his interest, opportunities to connect with someone like Ling Yuyan were rare, especially for someone like him with moderate capabilities within the academy.

Lu Yu received the exorcism charm from Yu Xiaoman, and even before he touched it, the charm began to burn fiercely, the mentor's pupils shrank, he reached for his spiritual weapon, ready to fight.

As the charm burned past halfway, the burning pace slowed, the mentor breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, indicating that Lu Yu wasn't a demon, just that he'd killed too many skeletons, absorbing too much black fog.

When finally burned down, only a fingernail-sized piece of the charm remained, showing that Lu Yu had no lingering demonic aura on him.

Glancing at the fingernail-sized charm in Lu Yu's hand, the mentor said, "Come over."

"Without an exorcism charm, you won't be able to resist demonic aura; don't wander around ancient battlefields, leave quickly. Walk that way, and you can exit the Skeleton Cave's inner area; your seniors will be along the way, no need to worry about safety."

The mentor pointed out a route for them to exit the Skeleton Cave's inner area, not having extra exorcism charms to spare them, the best option was for Lu Yu and Yu Xiaoman to leave.

"Thank you, mentor." Yu Xiaoman thanked him.

The two left in the direction indicated by the mentor, Lu Yu searched for exorcism charms in the shop along the way and soon found them.

Exorcism Charm, second-grade spiritual charm, costs 10,000 Points each.

No wonder the mentor was unwilling to give out more exorcism charms, Lu Yu thought.

An exorcism charm is worth 1000 gold, of course, the mentor didn't want to give it to strangers, especially since in the Skeleton Cave's inner region, an exorcism charm was as valuable as life.

Lacking an exorcism charm to fend off demonic aura's erosion would result in the mentor's death within the Skeleton Cave's inner area. If the academy hadn't distributed exorcism charms to each mentor and some trainees, he might not have willingly offered one to verify their identities.

Perhaps for Ling Yuyan's sake, he might provide one to verify Yu Xiaoman's identity, but it's hard to say for Lu Yu.

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