“Oh no,” Zi Shang mumbled. He grabbed Yun Jiuge and dashed out of the mountain.

They moved as fast as lightning and managed to leave the Empress Mountain within a short time.

Yun Jiuge turned her head back to look. The Empress Mountain was still quiet and motionless. There was no change at all.

“There was something in the Divine Temple spying on us. I had no way of getting close to her,” Zi Shang said, looking solemn. If they had not run fast just now, there was bound to be a big showdown with that thing.

“Could it be the Nascent Soul Cultivator?” asked Yun Jiuge, feeling discomfort at the thought of that indistinct woman.

“I'm not sure,” replied Zi Shang. He did not want to inadvertently alert an enemy before he could figure out the relations.h.i.+p between the Divine Temple and the Five Poison Sect.

“Why don't we catch a person to inquire? But from my observation just now, these ordinary Miao folks live in the stilted buildings and they look dim-witted. They don't look like they understand the situation,” Yun Jiuge said, thinking of their dull expressions.

If not for the intense Life Energy emanating from them, they would be no different from Yin Corpses.

“Leave the Empress Mountain aside first. Let's go to the Five Poison Sect to take a look. Yin s.h.i.+li's Cultivation is higher than Qiu Sen's and if he was caught, he should have left some useful clues,” said Zi Shang, having quickly made a decision.

“How do you know where the Five Poison Sect is located?” Yun Jiuge asked.

“I don't know, but this should know,” Zi Shang said, turning his palm over. Chun Sanniang's ball of white string appeared in his hand.

“When did you get this?” Yun Jiuge asked in surprise. Wasn't this Chun Sanniang's Pathfinder Ball?

“She had two, and offered one to me,” Zi Shang replied as he tossed the ball of white string onto the ground and ordered, “Go find your master.”

The ball of white string spun and rolled forward.

Zi Shang grabbed Yun Jiuge's hand and followed the ball of white string in the winding path to finally arrive at a magnificent tall building.

Its gray gate was flanked on both sides by five stone statues. They were namely a scorpion, centipede, viper, toad, and spider —the five kinds of poison.

“Stay close to me and don't touch their Spell Formation,” Zi Shang said softly.

Yun Jiuge opened her Spiritual Eye and found that the Five Poison Sect's Defensive Barrier was multi-colored, spreading across the entire mountain range.

This Spell Formation was more powerful than the Empress Mountain's.

Zi Shang shot out a purple Demonic Qi in front to open up a path. Yun Jiuge followed closely behind him and glanced right and left from time to time.

On their entire way there, they did not find any traces of even a single disciple. The whole Five Poison Sect was like a graveyard.

“This is too odd!” Yun Jiuge exclaimed to Zi Shang, leaning closer. She felt an inexplicable panic.

“It's good that it's odd. Take a look at the surroundings — there are still traces of people left behind, indicating that they were here just now and then suddenly disappeared,” said Zi Shang as he raised his hand to shoot out a purple fog. What was originally a smooth and flat ground started to show traces of people's footsteps.

“Where did they go then? Could this be a message from the Empress Mountain to catch us? Have we walked right into a trap?” Yun Jiu surmised, wanting to retreat.

“What's there to be afraid of? I'm thinking of capturing the person who set the trap,” answered Zi Shang. He was not so much afraid of walking into a trap as he was of not having any clues.

It felt odd everywhere the moment they entered the Miao territory. He dared not bring Yun Jiuge into the Secret Realm without ascertaining the situation.

“Very well!” Yun Jiuge said. At the thought of the missing Qiu Sen and Jun Yichen's Legendary Venomous Insects, she decided to give it a shot.

The dark and long hallway inside the Five Poison Sect was filled with sculptures of all kinds of poisons and Miao folks, each staring wide-eyed at the two invaders, Yun Jiuge and Zi Shang.

Yun Jiuge found that they had rambled along the long hallway for a few rounds but still made no headway. But she could not see any traces of a Spell when she opened her Spiritual Eye.

Zi Shang briefly muttered to himself and then took out Chun Sanniang's Pathfinder Ball.

The ball of white string landed on the ground and rolled outwards but bounced back against a wall. It persisted and stubbornly spun toward there.

Zi Shang took back the ball of white string and then imbued it with Demonic Qi.

The ball of string rumbled and combusted with a purple flame. A pair of tiny spider eyes, thin and long, emerged within the flame. There were countless appendages growing underneath.

“Go!” Zi Shang exclaimed as he threw the little Fire Spider out.

The little spider landed and hit the wall ferociously.

With a loud bang, the wall collapsed into countless fragments.

Behind the wall was a wide and imposing hall. On the left and right sides were rows of simple and stylish gray stone chairs. A large throne sat at the topmost, engraved with carvings of poisonous substances. This was the Five Poison Sect's great hall where they entertained guests.

The Fire Spider jumped onto the second stone chair on the left side and then transformed back into the ball of white string. It seemed that Chun Sanniang had indeed been here.

Yun Jiuge opened her Spiritual Eye and looked the place over. The great hall was filled with all kinds of statues of glowering Miao people with Legendary Venomous Insects in their hands. It was inexplicably strange.

Zi Shang walked to the front of the throne and reached over to brush the surface of the chair, but there was no trace.

“Have you seen anything?” Yun Jiuge asked as she walked over to Zi Shang's side.

“No,” answered Zi Shang as he turned around and glanced everywhere for a while. Suddenly his eyebrows throbbed.

Yun Jiuge followed his gaze and looked over. She saw him looking at a stone statue in a corner. Due to the lack of light, its appearance was indistinct.

Yun Jiuge opened her Spiritual Eye to have a closer look and realized that it was a statue of a black spider.

It was larger than the other statues. Furthermore, the spider had a human face engraved on its back, with a scary head on top.

Because the expression on it was too exaggerated and distorted, Yun Jiuge could not tell who it was. She could only vaguely identify it as a woman.

Zi Shang slightly curved his hand and the ball of white string jumped onto his hand.

“Do you recognize who this is?” Zi Shang said and put the ball of white string in front of the spider stone statue.

The ball of white string swayed from side to side, and then tentatively reached out with a white string to stick onto the face of the spider stone statue.

Squeak! Like fur spiking up, the ball of white string shot out countless white filaments which trickled down like a woman's tears.

“This stone statue is Chun Sanniang,” Zi Shang said. He quickly scanned through the hall, and then pointed to the tallest stone statue in the middle and said, “That's the Five Poison Sect's Religious Leader.”

Yun Jiuge lifted her eyes and looked over. It was a stone statue of a tall and powerful middle-aged man.

A spider was on top of his head. He held a viper in his left hand and a toad in his right. He stepped on a scorpion and a centipede individually on each foot. He appeared imposing and valiant.

“Are they dead?” Yun Jiuge asked as she reached out, wanting to touch the stone statues. But she was pulled back by Zi Shang who warned, “Till we find out what exactly happened, you'd better not randomly touch them.”

“So, what happens now?” Yun Jiuge thought. They had found who they wanted to, but these people were now stone statues that could not speak. They could not ask them anything!

“I don't see Yin s.h.i.+li. He most likely escaped. Let's get out of here first and see how it goes,” Zi Shang instructed as he beckoned the ball of white string to return to him.

The ball of white string left its master unwillingly, and then slowly retracted the filaments that were stuck to the stone statue.

Yun Jiuge's sharp eyes discovered a flash of gray color at the ends of the filaments and immediately reached out to thwack the ball of white string.