Chapter 817: We Struck It Rich!

"Yeah, this is unusual!"

"Not a single demonic creature can be seen in the black mist. This has never happened before."

The elders exchanged glances, all feeling equally incredulous.

In their hearts, a faint sense of unease began to stir.

Often, it’s the unknown that strikes the deepest fear.

"So, what do we do next?" one elder couldn’t help but ask.

"Let’s keep moving forward," the elder from the Tianbi Sect said with a serious expression. "We need to figure out what’s going on."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The spirit vessel maintained a steady speed as it continued to advance into the black mist.

However, after traveling a considerable distance, they still hadn’t encountered a single demonic creature.

This completely unsettled everyone.

If it were just a small area devoid of demonic creatures, it might have been a coincidence. But for such a vast area to be completely empty clearly indicated that something unusual had occurred.

"Look over there!" one elder suddenly exclaimed, his eyes widening as if he’d seen something utterly unbelievable.

Hearing this, everyone turned their gaze in the direction he was pointing.

What they saw left everyone on the spirit vessel utterly stunned.

Ahead, there was a small hill. And that hill was entirely made up of piled-up corpses of demons.

"Quick, move closer!" one elder shouted.

The spirit vessel slowly approached the hill, and this time, they could see it more clearly. It was indeed a hill of demon corpses.

"How many bodies are here?" one elder asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

No one could answer him.

"Why did so many of them die here?" another elder questioned.

"Look at the wounds on the demon corpses. Many of them are split in half. Doesn’t it look like they were killed by a single sword strike?" another elder pointed out.

Everyone on the spirit vessel looked down from above.

"While the wounds do look like they were caused by a sword strike, this is just too fantastical to believe!" someone retorted.

"Exactly, who could possibly enter the black mist and kill so many demons? That’s absolutely impossible!"

"Right, it’s impossible!"

Hearing this, everyone agreed. They themselves had only dared to enter the black mist because they were protected by the spirit vessel’s arrays. They wouldn’t even dare to step outside the vessel, let alone believe that someone could enter the mist and slaughter so many demons.

"Instead of speculating how these demons died, why don’t we focus on collecting the demon cores?" one elder said with a smile. "With this many demon cores, even if we split them among our sects, it would be a massive fortune!"

At this, everyone’s faces lit up with smiles.

The moment they saw the mountain of demon corpses, they had all silently started calculating their gains.

"Netherfire, go!" The leading elder from the Tianbi Sect activated the spirit vessel’s array. In the next moment, a lotus-shaped flame descended from the vessel onto the hill of demon corpses.

"Boom!"

Almost instantly, the fire spread, and the entire hill began to burn fiercely.

As the demonic flesh was burned away, only the demon cores remained.

The power of the Netherfire was terrifying. The hill of demon corpses began to visibly shrink at an astonishing rate.

When the flames had burned the corpses down to ground level, everyone thought the burning was complete. However, the flames didn’t extinguish but continued to burn with the same intensity.

The pile of corpses continued to sink.

"My heavens, this wasn’t a hill. It’s a valley filled with demon corpses!" one elder exclaimed in shock.

"Yes, we’ve grossly underestimated the number of demon corpses here."

"Looking at it now, the number of demon corpses is at least half more than we initially thought!"

The group was both awestruck and exhilarated.

They were amazed that something had caused this valley to be filled with demon corpses, and they were equally thrilled by the vast number of demon cores that would sustain their sects for a long, long time.

Finally, after half a day, the flames began to die down.

The valley filled with floating corpses reappeared, though it was far shallower than before. Inside, it was now densely packed with demon cores.

"We’ve struck it rich!" Everyone’s eyes were filled with greed. Even with their elder-level composure, they couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of excitement.