On the stretch of their journey that came after that, besides being able to still see the countless number of blood sucking glowing bugs, they did not encounter anything else that was all that strange.

But that temporary spell of tranquility did not cause Qing Yu to let down her guard in the slightest. For they had merely covered less than ten percent of the tens of thousand steps of stairs, and who knew what kind of other dangers lay hidden behind them?

On the other side, things were not so good for the men. Almost a good half of them were showing wounds and bruises on their bodies, dismayed faces covered in dust, looking highly wretched.

But a certain someone stood out as the lone exception. Not only was his body clean and unspoiled as before, he looked every bit as suave as he did when they had just come in, without a single hair out of place, causing many people to be unable to help themselves but grit their teeth to see.

Only the Heavens knew what kind of an assault they had come under earlier.

The ground beneath their feet suddenly started to shake, and countless rock golems suddenly broke out from underground, striking them before they could even react.

There was limited space on those steps and they were not able to execute much of their moves. Moreover, Ji Yan Long had already said that no spirit powers were to be used, or they would be thrown right off by the barrier array on top at the Fleeting Cloud Fortress, their bodies impossible to find. So there was nothing they could do but only to defend themselves, and it could well be imagined just how exasperating it was for them.

There were ferocious beasts and human shaped golems transformed out of rock, all of them extremely strong and powerful, and they were relentless with their pursuit, impossible to shake off like they had no weaknesses at all.

Su Li Mo, Xi Zhan Chen and the others were able to handle things themselves easily but the others were not so fortunate where even Xuanyuan Che who was the seventh ranked inner circle disciple was a little dishevelled and covered in a bit of dust.

But there was still one single person who stood as the lone exception.

Maybe other people had not noticed it, but Qing Bei was able to see it clearly.

Lou Jun Yao. The deep and mysteriously unfathomable man had not even moved a finger all the way from the very beginning.

None of those golems even came close to the man. Maybe it was because of fear, but wherever he was as he made his way forward, all those monsters would clear a path for the man without needing any urging, surging around to attack the people behind him.

Qing Bei was most fortunate. Not even a single hair on him was hurt with the man protecting him the entire way.

He looked at the bunch of men with swollen noses and bruised faces behind him, their clothes tattered and torn, and he could not help but felt his mouth twitch, suddenly feeling that he had latched himself onto the great thigh of a godly entity, his entire path completely clear of obstacles.

Without needing to turn his head back to look, he was able to feel the eyes filled with such strong jealousy and envious hatred they were almost boring holes into his back.

“Erm..... Why are all these creatures not attacking you?” After having hesitated for like half the day, Qing Bei finally could no longer hold back but to ask the question that had been nagging him.