Xiao Yue Lao Zu, after examining the Enlightenment Spring, picked up the jade slip to read.
Upon finishing, he understood everything and his face lit up with surprise. He immediately put away the two items.
His gaze towards Xiao Lan and the other became much friendlier.
"You two, follow me."
Xiao Yue Lao Zu led them to a room within his cave dwelling and settled them in.
"Wait here for a moment, I shall return shortly."
With that instruction, Xiao Yue Lao Zu flew out and vanished instantly.
The giant had exerted all its strength to break free from the Spirit Locking Heaven Array and was now extremely weak, in urgent need of sustenance.
The Southern Barren Continent had been unfortunate in recent years. Not long after being ravaged by one giant, another had appeared.
As everyone fled towards the long-distance teleportation array, this giant was naturally drawn to them.
Thousands of cultivators had gathered near the teleportation array, including many powerful individuals. However, they were no match for the giant.
In the eyes of the hungry giant, these people were merely a feast.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
With each step, the earth shook. Several cultivators who couldn't escape in time were crushed into a bloody pulp beneath its feet.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
"Splat, splat, splat..."
The giant used its hands and feet to pound the ground.
Cultivators, attempting to flee, were battered into bloody messes.
The giant then sat down, picked up the flattened "meat patties," and devoured them one by one.
When Xiao Yue Lao Zu arrived, the giant was sitting in an open space, holding a foot and licking the bits of flesh stuck to it.
"Beast! Die!"
Xiao Yue Lao Zu roared, and a canine tooth flew out. It rapidly enlarged in mid-air, instantly becoming several zhang long, and shot towards the giant's head.
The giant, having just eaten and regained some strength, grabbed a massive wolf-tooth club and swung it towards the flying canine tooth.
"Clang, clang! Clang, clang..."
The two weapons collided dozens of times in the air.
The previous giant, having been tricked by Xiao Fei's "Vermilion Bone," was weakened and appeared frail before Xiao Yue Lao Zu.
However, this one, having just eaten and recovered some stamina, was close to its full power. For a time, it fought Xiao Yue Lao Zu to a standstill.
The battle of a Body Integration stage expert was immensely destructive, affecting a vast area.
Xiao Lan and Xing Wu Ming, hiding in Xiao Yue Lao Zu's cave dwelling, could feel the distant battle as if the sky was falling, mountains were collapsing, and the earth was splitting.
The ground trembled, and the tea set on the table vibrated incessantly...
The two stared blankly at the giant corpse, taller than a mountain, outside the window.
The very giant that had once chased them relentlessly was now slain by Xiao Yue Lao Zu and displayed as a specimen at his doorstep.
"I think I hear giant footsteps approaching us!"
Xiao Lan suddenly said. Having escaped from giants twice before, they were familiar with the sound of their footsteps.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
Listening closely, they indeed heard footsteps, seemingly heading their way.
Meanwhile, Xiao Yue Lao Zu's battle in the distance had not yet ended, with rumbling sounds continuously echoing.
The two quickly realized something and their faces filled with horror!
"Could there be two giants!"
Xing Wu Ming, once favored by his clan, knew many secret pieces of information.
Throughout the entire Southern Barren Continent, Xiao Yue Lao Zu was the only Void Refinement stage expert.
If two giants appeared simultaneously, even if Xiao Yue Lao Zu could defeat them, it would be difficult to contain both at once.
In that case, those with insufficient cultivation, like themselves, would be in grave danger, struggling to escape the giants' grasp.
What to do?
The two exchanged glances and looked out the window, spotting a colossal figure striding directly towards them in the distance.
"Roar! Roar roar!"
Before the giant even arrived, it let out a furious roar, picked up a house-sized boulder, and hurled it towards Xiao Yue Lao Zu's cave dwelling from afar.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
The giant boulder struck, but fortunately, it was blocked by the cave dwelling's defensive array, emitting a loud bang.
Then came the second, third, and fourth... an endless barrage of boulders rained down, causing the cave dwelling to shake violently.
Two cultivators with wolf heads and human bodies, startled, rushed out of the cave dwelling, attempting to escape.
However, the moment they exited the cave dwelling's perimeter, a giant hand seized them and fed them into the giant's mouth, crunching loudly.
"This giant was likely attracted by the giant corpse standing at the entrance of the cave dwelling."
The two now roughly guessed that the other might have been drawn by the corpse of its own kind.
Killing their kin and displaying them as decorations at their doorstep was likely unbearable for most.
Their minds raced, unsure of their next course of action.
If they fled, given the previous precedent, as long as they were targeted by a giant, their strength would be insufficient to escape.
They wondered about the level of the defensive array of Xiao Yue Lao Zu's cave dwelling and whether it could withstand the giant's attacks.
Seeing the defensive array swaying precariously, on the verge of collapse, they could do nothing effective.
If Xiao Fei hadn't sacrificed himself to block them last time, even with their abilities, they wouldn't have been able to escape.
Xiao Lan's gaze fell upon the giant corpse at the entrance, and a daring idea bloomed in her mind.
"Wait for me here!"
As she spoke, Xiao Lan's body suddenly disintegrated, transforming into a sky full of black mist and countless blood threads, surging towards the giant corpse at the entrance.
Giants differed greatly from humans. They cultivated the Hegemony Body, with all their strength residing in their physical bodies.
Although this giant corpse had been dead for many years, it still contained immense vital blood power.
As countless blood threads burrowed into the corpse, it began to slowly shrivel.
Xiao Lan's growth method was primarily based on consumption, devouring the souls of other beings or other ghost cultivators.
Her blood threads could also absorb the vital blood of other beings to grow.
However, this act was considered against the natural order, and excessive absorption could invite heavenly retribution, so she usually exercised restraint.
As Xiao Lan absorbed the vital blood from the giant corpse, cracks began to appear on the cave dwelling's defensive array.
The moment these cracks appeared, they were immediately repaired by the array.
Seeing hope, the giant grabbed a hammer the size of a mountain peak and smashed it towards the cave dwelling.
"Boom!"
The protective array above the cave dwelling vibrated violently, and cracks several feet wide appeared on it.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
After several more blows, the protective array finally succumbed to the immense pressure and collapsed completely!
A giant hand descended from the sky, smashing a grand hall with a single slap.
Then, it continued to slap several times, and the houses of Xiao Yue Lao Zu's cave dwelling were shattered as if made of paper.
The giant struck again, this time directly at the house where Xing Wu Ming was located.
Before the massive palm could land, he was already pinned down by the laws, utterly unable to escape.
At this very moment, the giant corpse at the entrance of the cave dwelling collapsed with a roar, and countless blood threads and black mist surged out from within.
The blood threads coalesced into a large mass of flesh, shielding the house.
The giant's palm descended as expected, hitting the blood threads and black mist, causing them to scatter outwards, but it successfully blocked the blow.
The black mist and blood threads converged towards the center again, and Xiao Lan's voice echoed from within.
"You run first, I'll hold him off!"
Then, Xing Wu Ming felt himself enveloped by a black mist. A talisman lit up before his eyes, and when he could see his surroundings clearly again, he was already hundreds of miles away.