Chen Ping had not expected to find his target within half a day of entering the realm.

He crushed the impulse to rush forward. Instead, he deployed his Divine Sense, sweeping the swamp and its perimeter with paranoid precision.

The swamp was still. Dead leaves drifted on the stagnant water. Fist-sized water lice scuttled along the mud banks. The forest was silent, save for the whisper of wind through the canopy.

Chen Ping remained frozen. He was hunting for the guardian beast.

Three Amethyst Flowers did not grow unguarded.

If he couldn’t locate the predator, he would not move.

However…

After dozens of scans, the result remained the same: nothing. No spiritual fluctuations, no hidden Qi signatures.

It seemed truly unguarded.

Chen Ping hesitated no longer. His muscles coiled, ready to launch toward the prize.

Just as his weight shifted to the balls of his feet—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three blue blurs erupted from a dense thicket of vines thirty meters opposite him.

They had been lying in ambush, their target identical to his.

Chen Ping’s pupils constricted to pinpricks. He violently arrested his momentum, snapping back behind the trunk of his hiding tree like a released bowstring.

He held his breath, engaging his Breath Concealment Technique to its absolute limit. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.

The newcomers wore deep blue Daoist robes, cuffs embroidered with silver lightning.

Shenxiao Sect.

Their auras were heavy and robust—all three were at the Ninth Layer of Qi Condensation.

They hadn’t seen him. Their eyes were locked on the flowers, faces twisted in greedy ecstasy. They, too, had scanned the area repeatedly before committing.

“Haha! Luck is with us! Three Amethyst Flowers, and no guardian beast in sight!” the leader laughed, reaching for the nearest stalk.

“Careful! Don’t damage the petals!” another warned, his hands moving just as fast.

The third followed close behind.

Their fingertips were inches from the crystal petals.

BOOM!

The center of the swamp detonated.

Foul mud erupted like a geyser, blotting out the sun. A stench of rotting meat and ancient decay rolled over the clearing.

From the chaos, a maw emerged.

It was a nightmare of slime and flesh, over ten feet wide, lined with pulsating tumors. It moved with a speed that defied its bulk, leaving only a blurred afterimage.

The target: the three unprepared disciples.

The leader, closest to the flowers, took the brunt of the assault.

His reaction was admirable. The moment the maw breached, blue light exploded from his body. A diamond-shaped spiritual shield materialized before him as he kicked backward, desperately seeking distance.

But the maw was faster.

Crunch.

A wet, sickening sound.

The blue shield shattered like glass. The disciple’s hastily raised sword snapped.

With a short, truncated scream, his upper body vanished into the abyss of the creature’s throat.

His legs, severed at the waist, flopped uselessly into the mud and were swallowed by the muck.

“Second Senior Brother!”

The surviving two screamed, their eyes bulging in horror.

“Poison Swamp Giant Frog! Tier 2 Low-grade! Run! RUN!”

The older disciple shrieked, his voice cracking. He crushed a yellow talisman without hesitation. Earth Qi enveloped him, blasting him backward like a cannonball, away from the kill zone.

The other disciple panicked. He channeled his Qi into a lightning-wreathed flying fork, driving it toward the massive head rising from the sludge, hoping to buy time.

“GUA—!”

The croak was a physical blow, a thunderclap that ruptured eardrums.

The monster revealed itself. It was a mountain of ugly, wart-covered flesh, its skin a dark, mottled green dripping with toxic slime. Its eyes were cold, yellow orbs the size of shields, locked onto the fleeing prey.

The lightning fork struck.

Sizzle.

The lightning arced across the slime-coated hide, its power neutralized instantly. The steel prongs barely scratched the skin before bouncing off with a dull clang.

Then, a red blur.

The frog’s tongue, covered in barbs and thick as a man’s arm, lashed out faster than the eye could follow.

The disciple with the fork didn’t stand a chance.

Snap!

The tongue wrapped around his waist. The crushing force shattered his protective Qi instantly.

He didn’t even scream. He was yanked back, limbs flailing, and vanished into the reopened maw.

Gone.

“NO!”

The older disciple, propelled by the Earth Escape Talisman, watched his brothers die in seconds. His courage evaporated. He turned and fled, burning his blood essence to boost his speed, vanishing into the dense forest like a desperate ghost.

The giant frog’s yellow eyes tracked the fleeing blue light for a moment. It did not pursue.

It sank slowly back into the mire, leaving only swirling mud and a expanding pool of blood.

Silence returned to the forest.

Only floating scraps of blue cloth marked the grave of two Ninth Layer cultivators.

On the bank, two Amethyst Flowers remained, glittering innocently. The third was gone, taken by the fleeing disciple.

Behind his tree, Chen Ping was soaked in cold sweat.

He forced his breathing to slow, clamping down on his racing heart. His eyes, however, turned cold and sharp.

Tier 2 Low-grade Demonic Beast.

Equivalent to an early Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Its power was absolute. Three Ninth Layer cultivators were nothing but snacks to it.

But the survivor…

He had fled in a panic, his Qi chaotic and unstable. The terror and the explosive use of the talisman had drained him. He was wounded, terrified, and alone.

Chen Ping’s gaze shifted from the two guarded flowers to the direction the disciple had fled.

A cold calculation formed in his mind.

That man had escaped with one Amethyst Flower.

So…

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Or perhaps… The snipe and the clam grapple, and the fisherman profits.

It didn’t matter.

Killing intent flared in Chen Ping’s eyes.

Someone is going to die today.