When system cheat becomes rampant!

At that time, many cultivators from the Yi Tribe who had narrowly escaped death from the Giant Spirit Village fled the area, blocked by the river waters and worried that the Giant Spirits would pursue them, so they kept their distance from that region. But so far, the Giant Spirits seemed to have only chased people within the village, driving them out of the settlement and then leaving them alone, which had relieved all the cultivators.

Groups of them gathered together in threes and fives, starting to discuss the situation amongst themselves.

Most races suffered extremely heavy casualties, especially those with lower strength in the God Refining stage. They had been brought here to try their luck at a fortunate encounter, but encountering the Giant Spirits had been beyond their expectations. Many cultivators in the God Refining stage had perished at the hands of the Giant Spirits.

Although many had escaped from the Giant Spirit Village, the river before them now posed another barrier that prevented everyone from advancing. This river held a terrifying power, making it difficult even for those in the Heavenly Connection stage to cross it.

A member of the Yi Tribe sank slowly to the water's surface while holding a rock, but the moment the rock touched the river water, the dark waters corroded and decomposed it instantly. Their Spiritual Power, when it came into contact with the river, also disappeared without a trace, much like a stone sinking into the sea.

"What kind of river water is this, with such strong corrosive properties?"

"My Mysterious Iron Jade Spear even shattered, and this is a Divine Artifact that even Heavenly Connection stage experts cannot destroy." A Heavenly Connection stage expert from the Feather Race was beating his chest in regret, as his prized weapon had been destroyed by the river waters.

Everyone was trying to figure out a way to cross the river, but all attempts failed without exception.

"Hey, Xiao Bei..."

"Don't call me Xiao Bei."

"Alright, Xiao Bei, do you remember anything about this river?" Li Qianluo asked doubtfully.

Xiang Beifei curled his lip and said, "You're asking me? I thought you knew everything."

"Knowing everything only covers everything, but there are millions of things in this world beyond my power." Li Qianluo spread his hands.

Xiang Beifei was tossing pebbles into the river and musing at the same time. The pebbles he threw didn't travel more than five meters, all of them flying halfway before falling straight down.

Xiang Beifei ceased throwing pebbles and pondered for a moment before saying, "This is somewhat like Ruishui River."

"Ruishui River?"

"To the North of Kunlun is a water, its force unable to surpass mustard seed, thus called Ruishui."

What Xiang Beifei could think of was only this substance existing in mythology. Ruishui, an extremely formidable entity, history records say: Eight hundred realms of quicksand, three thousand depths of Ruishui, where goose feathers cannot float, and reed flowers surely sink.

In Ruishui, not even goose feathers could float across, and if a cultivator fell in, they'd be directly corroded completely, with no chance to fight it with Spiritual Power.

"Is there a way to cross the Ruishui?" Li Qianluo asked.

"Hard to say, I'm not very clear either."

In fact, Xiang Beifei was pondering over his own breath soil, because breath soil is also a very special existence in mythology, said to be a magical artifact used by Yu the Great for controlling waters, capable of infinite growth. Up to now, Xiang Beifei had not encountered anything that could destroy breath soil.

However, he had quietly tried it just now; a small clump of breath soil dust fell into the river, and indeed, it was not corroded by the dark waters here. But the problem was, there was a strong sinking force at the river bottom dragging the breath soil down, and even he could not resist it. If not because he had only tried it a bit on the riverside, he might not have been able to retrieve it.

The farther from the river bank, the stronger the swallowing force and dragging force. Cultivators might manage to fly out a meter or two without issues, but if they flew further, they would drop straight down, not even following a parabolic path, but plummeting straight down.

Of course, Xiang Beifei had thought about other ways, like filling up the Ruishui River with breath soil!

He had been nurturing his breath soil daily, and he now had enough to form a mountain thousands of meters high. But this idea was impractical; not to mention he didn't know the depth of Ruishui River, even if filled, retrieving it would also be a problem.

Many people from the Yi Tribe began to walk around the river, trying to see if they could find a bridge or something similar. Xiang Beifei also moved along with the main group.

As Xiang Beifei walked, he kept looking around the crowd, torn but also very eager.

Li Qianluo noticed Xiang Beifei's preoccupied appearance and called out, "Hey, Xiao Bei, who are you looking for? Why do you look so troubled?"

"Nothing."

"I get it! You're looking for your companions from Congji Abyss, aren't you? Wanting to know if they made it here? Afraid of being captured and scolded?" Li Qianluo asked teasingly.

Xiang Beifei was noncommittal.

In fact, he was looking for those two people.

Those two utterly irresponsible individuals who had said they were going to find some answers and then never returned.

As the seal of Bone Mountain Desert Stone Cave was opening exactly during this period, this might be the closest Xiang Beifei had ever been to those two.

He now also needed answers—why had his grandfather, whose cultivation was at least in the Immortal Realm, suddenly lost his memory? Why had he said they were out of hope? His grandfather had led the Hanxia people south to establish Jiuzhou, but what exactly had caused him to suddenly feel despair and even lose his memory?

Did it have anything to do with the Bone Mountain Desert Stone Cave?

"Are the answers here?"

Xiang Beifei searched tirelessly for any Yi Trib people within sight. In his eyes, no matter how these Yi Trib people disguised themselves, Xiang Beifei could clearly see the Heavenly Dao Laws they communicated with, and everything about their divine presence was evident at a glance.

However, he didn't find those two people.

——

The Weak Water River was very long. They had flown for seven to eight hours before finally circling back to their starting point.

It's worth noting that everyone here was a powerful cultivator. Most of the teams were led by experts at the Heavenly Connection realm. Considering the flying speed of such a realm, it indicated just how vast the area between Bone Mountain and Desert Stone Cave really was.

With no success in crossing the river, everyone had no choice but to stop and discuss strategies on the riverbank. Xiang Beifei and Li Qianluo found a secluded small valley away from the Yi Trib people to rest and recuperate, taking advantage of the good geographical position and relatively open view.

The Tianmu Race's Fu Qiuzi also took his people to rest nearby. They had been following behind Xiang Beifei, clearly trusting that following such a formidable expert after the incident at Giant Spirit Village was the correct decision. Xiang Beifei didn't stop them.

"Strange," Li Qianluo, sitting on a large rock, couldn't help but express her doubt, "according to previous records, there shouldn't have been any mention of this black water river."

"Didn't you say that there wasn't a Giant Spirit Race here before either?" Xiang Beifei asked.

"Right, so I think something must have happened to Bone Mountain and Desert Stone Cave in recent years, no wonder they suddenly take it so seriously..." Li Qianluo muttered.

"Who are 'they'?" Xiang Beifei asked.

Li Qianluo came to her senses and said with a grin, "No one. 'They' of course refers to the cultivators present here."

Xiang Beifei's gaze flickered slightly.

He knew Li Qianluo wasn't telling the truth because the cultivators present also hadn't anticipated these changes. This "they" definitely referred to people Li Qianluo knew.

This girl had many secrets, quite unlike the Yi Trib people. What was most bizarre was that Li Qianluo herself was a Heavenly Connection realm expert, yet Xiang Beifei couldn't see which Heavenly Dao Laws she communicated with.

However, Xiang Beifei didn't inquire further. Everyone had their own secrets; it wasn't necessary to disclose them all, including himself who wasn't from the Congji Abyss and had many secrets too.

The black water of Ruishui River blocked the path of all cultivators, leaving many Yi Trib people waiting, some even began to entertain the idea of leaving but were reluctant to do so and thus stayed. After all, there was still a month left, which wasn't so bad.

But just at that moment, a powerful aura suddenly charged towards the small valley where Xiang Beifei and the others were, ferocious and swift, its presence felt before the figure appeared!

"Damn you people from the Congji Abyss, meet your doom swiftly!"

The voice was extremely angry, the sound rolling in waves, without any politeness, as a terrifying aura blasted towards Xiang Beifei!

Xiang Beifei slightly frowned and, with a casual wave of his hand, dispersed his powerful Spiritual Power in front of him. As the raging aura approached, a swirl of black and white energy instantly invaded and disintegrated the turbulent breath.

By the time that breath reached Xiang Beifei, it had reduced to merely a breeze.

Whoosh!

Three Heavenly Connection realm experts appeared before them.

On closer inspection, it was those three from the Panjiao Race!

"It's you guys again."

Xiang Beifei was somewhat impatient. Just now, during the Giant Spirit attack, he and Li Qianluo didn't bother dealing with the Panjiao people and just left, but these three guys seemed to be lucky enough to have made it here as well.

"You two from the Congji Abyss really deserve to die, daring to trick us earlier by claiming to be from the Transforming Clan! And because of you, we lost so many of our people," Jiao Yingguang said to Xiang Beifei and Li Qianluo with a resentful face.

"Are you crazy? Your people were smashed to death by the Giant Spirit, what does that have to do with us?" Li Qianluo retorted.

"Enough talk, all of you from the Congji Abyss deserve to die!" Jiao Yingguang shouted angrily.

"How do you know we are cultivators from the Congji Abyss? I don't recall telling anyone," Xiang Beifei asked.

Fu Qiuzi, not far away, sensed something amiss and immediately spoke up, "Daoist Xiang, it definitely wasn't us who revealed this; we always dislike gossiping."

However, Jiao Yingguang spoke up, "What? Even now, you want to conceal your identities? Just now, other race cultivators indeed heard your conversation! You meddlers from the Congji Abyss deserve to die!"

"So that's how it is."

Xiang Beifei nodded slightly, recalling how there had been many people by the shore and though Fu Qiuzi spoke softly when they conversed, the high-level cultivators present likely overheard due to their acute hearing.

"However, that's still no reason for you to trouble us."

Xiang Beifei looked calmly at Jiao Yingguang, whose horn had been broken off by the Giant Spirit but was obviously capable of regrowth as it was now intact.

If this guy continued to make unreasonable trouble, Xiang Beifei wouldn't mind breaking it off again.