Within the luminous gate, five-colored rays of light simultaneously shone upon the mother lizard. Her tough, scaly hide dissolved silently under the illumination.
"Ah! What is this?"
Terrified, the mother lizard quickly retreated from the luminous gate. By then, a layer of her skin had been stripped away, revealing a bloody mess beneath, a truly gruesome sight.
The golden-furred creature she held in her mouth, however, suffered little damage. It seized the opportunity of the mother lizard's panic to escape her jaws.
"You vile creature! How dare you attempt to murder your husband!"
The golden-furred creature, having escaped the lizard's maw, was furious!
"I treated you sincerely, even choosing names for our future offspring!"
The mother lizard, now wary, retreated to the dark edge outside the luminous gate.
"That's because you were too foolish. I am already married, and I came here on my husband's orders to lure you.
Wait for us; my husband is right behind, and he will be here soon."
As she spoke, the mother lizard vanished into the darkness, impossible for anyone to capture.
"Hahaha..."
At that moment, Xiao Fei suddenly burst into manic laughter.
The father and son with bean-like eyes looked at Xiao Fei in confusion. What was so funny at a time like this?
However, their confusion did not last long, as the mother lizard, hidden in the darkness, also began to laugh hysterically.
The area was supposed to be absolutely dark, blocking everything, including sound.
Yet, the mother lizard's laughter, imbued with the Law of Laughter, easily pierced the darkness, providing Xiao Fei and the others with an accurate location.
Green Bean Eyes, having lived a long life and possessing vast experience, immediately lunged into the darkness upon hearing the mother lizard's arrogant laughter.
After a moment, Green Bean Eyes emerged from the darkness dragging a half-dead mother lizard, which he unceremoniously threw to the ground.
"Speak! Who sent you?"
The mother lizard's gaze flickered around. She found no trace of sympathy on the faces of the three. Even the golden-furred rat, with whom she had had intimate contact, now turned its face away. She had no choice but to answer the questions honestly.
"You cannot kill me. I am the beloved concubine of the Fifth Elder of the Black Flood Dragon Clan. The Fifth Elder sent me to approach you.
The Fifth Elder placed a tracking restriction on me, allowing him to find my location at any time."
Xiao Fei, overhearing this, was astonished. This Fifth Elder of the Black Flood Dragon Clan was truly willing to invest heavily.
His own perspective was still too narrow; he could never emulate such magnanimity.
"How many people from the Black Flood Dragon Clan have come?"
"I don't know!"
Subsequently, Green Bean Eyes interrogated her further about information related to the Black Flood Dragon Clan, and the mother lizard answered truthfully.
"Golden Fur, get over here! Now's your chance to rectify your mistake!"
After obtaining all the intelligence, Green Bean Eyes thrust a long sword into the golden-furred rat's hand.
"Golden Fur, spare me! I didn't mean to deceive you; in truth, my heart belongs only to you!"
Xiao Fei watched with great interest, observing the love-hate entanglement between a rat and a mother lizard. It turned out that even between demons, there were so many melodramatic plotlines.
The golden-furred creature held the sharp blade, feeling a pang of reluctance, but gritted its teeth and quickly made up its mind.
"Then I shall dig out your heart and see if it truly belongs only to me."
"Pfft!"
Blood splattered. The golden-furred rat's heart ached. Tears streaming down its face, it dismembered the mother lizard.
"Alright! I request Daoist Xiao's assistance in opening the restriction at the entrance!"
Green Bean Eyes had suspected the mother lizard was problematic from the start, which was why he had never revealed specific information.
He had even deliberately misled the mother lizard just now, making her believe that reaching this point would allow her to pass through the luminous gate into the ruins, thus teaching the golden-furred rat a lesson.
"This place has a naturally formed grand formation. It operates continuously without any controller, completing a cycle every sixty years.
Within each sixty-year cycle, only for about a month does a weak point in the formation, like this luminous gate, appear.
Here, the five elements cycle and restrain each other. Any single element entering will be suppressed..."
Green Bean Eyes explained the principles of the grand formation and its破解 method to Xiao Fei.
The essence of it was that one needed to gather the five elemental energies of "wood, fire, earth, metal, and water" to pass through the luminous gate.
Xiao Fei's knowledge was far more extensive than Green Bean Eyes'. He crouched down and examined the area around the luminous gate, finding Green Bean Eyes' explanation credible.
"I will contribute fire, earth, and water elemental energies. You two use wood and metal elemental energies and cast them simultaneously!"
Xiao Fei was confident. If he unleashed his Hunyuan elemental energy, he could break through the five-element restriction on the luminous gate by himself, but he had no intention of showing off.
The three of them simultaneously unleashed five streams of elemental energy of different colors, which slowly seeped into the luminous gate.
The five-elemental energies gradually merged with the five-colored light within the gate. Slowly, the light dimmed, blending together in a state of perfect, chaotic fusion.
Xiao Fei gazed at the chaotic state of the luminous gate, feeling a sense of enlightenment. This state of five-elemental fusion was very similar to his own Hunyuan elemental energy.
However, this was a natural formation, and it differed in many ways from his Hunyuan elemental energy, making it quite valuable for him to learn from.
"It should be safe now!"
As Green Bean Eyes spoke, he was not entirely certain. He took out a small calico cat from his spirit beast pouch and urged it to enter the luminous gate.
"This... this is your spirit beast?"
Xiao Fei felt that Green Bean Eyes' taste in companions was rather peculiar.
Green Bean Eyes chuckled and tossed another small calico cat into the gate.
"They are just disposable items I raise casually. There's no rule saying rats must be eaten by cats; the strong dictate the rules."
As rats, they had suffered the innate suppression of cats when they were weak. Now that they had become powerful, their first target for revenge was naturally cats.
While they were talking, the two calico cats had safely passed through the luminous gate without any anomalies.
"Let's go! We're going in too!"
The man and two rats then entered the luminous gate.
Upon passing through the gate, their vision suddenly opened up. There was light within!
Although it appeared as faint, scattered specks, at least they were no longer like blind and deaf individuals.
Xiao Fei tested it; the suppression of his divine sense had also improved slightly. His divine sense could now extend about a zhang away from his body.
As long as he had divine sense, he could walk with his eyes closed even without light.
"Ah! My divine sense can extend six feet! It must be the formation within this ruin that can counteract some of the darkness suppression."
Green Bean Eyes sensed the range of his divine sense and said joyfully.
Xiao Fei smiled and nodded upon hearing this, not revealing his thoughts.
"Daoist Xiao, since we have entered the ruins, from now on, we shall rely on our own fortunes!"
Everyone was intelligent. There were bound to be many opportunities and treasures within these ruins. If they were to fight over them, it would only damage their camaraderie. It was better to part ways.
Green Bean Eyes cupped his hands to Xiao Fei and then left with the golden-furred rat.
Xiao Fei was left standing alone at the entrance. He glanced back; they had opened the entrance but found no way to close it.
Thinking that he shouldn't let it benefit others, he immediately took out dozens of prepared exploding spirit fruits and cleverly arranged them near the entrance.