Looking into Li Chengfeng's profound eyes, Chu Zheng felt a hint of inexplicable reassurance despite her doubts. She knew that although Li Chengfeng's methods were ruthless, they were not without purpose.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, people gathered in the valley.
The disciples of the five major sects sized each other up, all eager to demonstrate their strength in the upcoming task.
With a command from Xue Ming, Li Chengfeng and Chu Zheng stepped onto their flying swords and headed towards the territory of the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon.
Li Chengfeng's speed was extremely fast, and Chu Zheng followed closely behind him.
As they approached the Black Bear Demon's lair, Li Chengfeng suddenly let out a deafening roar.
The little Black Bear Demons, who were sound asleep, were awakened and rushed out of their nests.
Li Chengfeng immediately manipulated the Blood Demon Great Art, sucking away the essence blood of some of the little Black Bear Demons.
Chu Zheng also refused to be outdone, releasing her Blood Shadow and engaging in a fierce battle with the Black Bear Demons.
However, in the midst of the battle, Li Chengfeng quietly left the battlefield. He遁入了 (Dun Ru Le-遁入 is a Chinese Daoist term which means to enter or escape into) his own Hell Space, releasing a Substitute Death Puppet to fight in his place.
This way, even if the battle became more intense, his true body would remain safe and sound.
The reason Li Chengfeng did this was because he had discovered a greater danger.
Besides the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon, there were also twelve more terrifyingly powerful demon beasts hidden.
He worried that if these demon beasts were to attack, he would also be affected.
Therefore, he decided to hide his true body first, just in case, so that even if his identity was revealed, he could escape unscathed.
Li Chengfeng's Substitute Death Puppet continued to fight the Black Bear and Little Black Bear Demons in the guise of Qin Hua. Chu Zheng did not realize that Li Chengfeng had quietly entered the Hell Space and was controlling everything.
She focused on the battle, feeling the pressure brought by Li Chengfeng's puppet. Although she was puzzled, she gradually felt relieved.
In the lulls between battles, Li Chengfeng began to refine pills and cultivate using the resources he had obtained.
He knew that in the secret realm, having the assistance of a Substitute Death Puppet would allow him to focus more on improving his own strength.
He used the resources from the storage bags of the demon cultivators he had killed as materials to refine various pills and magical artifacts.
Although these treasures could not be directly sold for spirit stones, they could provide great help to her in battle.
The battle outside had become increasingly fierce.
Li Chengfeng's Substitute Death Puppet engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon's subordinates. Finally, the battle alarmed the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon.
It let out a earth-shattering roar, and the entire cave seemed to collapse.
As the cave burst open, a giant black bear over ten zhang tall walked out.
It held a huge iron rod in its hand, and every step it took caused the earth to tremble, as if the entire mountain range was shaking beneath its feet.
At this moment, Li Chengfeng suddenly attacked Chu Zheng, kicking her towards the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon.
Caught off guard, Chu Zheng's body flew towards the black bear.
The Black Bear Demon did not dodge or evade, and with a swing of its rod, Chu Zheng was smashed into a pulp with a bang.
Taking this opportunity, Li Chengfeng's Substitute Death Puppet quickly fled the battlefield.
Only then did everyone realize that the reason Qin Hua had Chu Zheng follow him was not to protect her, but to use her as bait to hold off the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon for a while, so that he could escape.
Although this move was ruthless, it bought Li Chengfeng's Substitute Death Puppet a valuable chance to survive.
And although Chu Zheng was used, her sacrifice bought everyone more time to fight.
In the eyes of everyone, Qin Hua's behavior was shocking.
They accused Qin Hua of being ruthless, sacrificing such a beautiful Chu Zheng for his own self-preservation.
But Xue Ming praised Qin Hua, believing that he was indeed a ruthless person who could sacrifice even a beauty like Chu Zheng without hesitation.
As for Qin Hua's true intentions, they speculated that it might have been to win the beauty's heart, but if there was no chance, he would choose to die with Chu Zheng.
However, they did not know that all of this was Li Chengfeng's plan.
He used the Substitute Death Puppet and Chu Zheng as bait, successfully attracting the attention of the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon, buying himself time to escape.
Li Chengfeng did this not only to silence them, but also to get rid of Chu Zheng, who had been constantly ruining his plans.
Lou Lan, who was in Li Chengfeng's mind, felt a wave of sadness when he saw this scene.
He realized that his wisp of remnant soul would probably never be able to escape Li Chengfeng's control.
He marveled at Li Chengfeng's clever methods, using the Substitute Death Puppet to escape many dead ends, which were much more clever than his own methods back then.
At this time, the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon outside was chewing on Chu Zheng's corpse in its mouth, letting out a satisfied roar.
It tasted the long-lost deliciousness of human flesh and became interested in Li Chengfeng's Substitute Death Puppet, so it chased after it.
Li Chengfeng controlled the Substitute Death Puppet to escape towards the formation, successfully leading the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon into the formation.
After entering the formation, Li Chengfeng quickly escaped from the formation eye.
He knew that the death of the Substitute Death Puppet was inevitable, but if the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon died in the formation, it might trigger some changes and expose his whereabouts.
Therefore, he planned to let the Substitute Death Puppet hide him for a while longer.
Xue Ming patted Li Chengfeng on the shoulder, praising him for doing a good job.
They immediately increased their mana and activated the entire formation. Under the siege of the formation.
Zhan Wusi's nine chains suddenly flew out, entangling the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon.
The power of these chains was even greater than that of the Nine-Eyed Toad. The Black Bear Demon trembled all over, and the chains instantly tightened, making a "crackling" sound.
If they were not top-grade magical artifacts, these chains would probably have shattered into pieces long ago.
In this way, the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon was successfully trapped.
Li Chengfeng breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he had escaped another disaster.
He knew that survival in the secret realm was not easy, and he had to be vigilant and cautious at all times.
At the same time, he also realized that his Substitute Death Puppet could play a huge role at critical moments, buying him more opportunities to survive.
In the formation, the Iron-Backed Black Bear Demon was firmly entangled by the chains, unable to move, and could only let out angry roars.
As the formation was activated, the spiritual ball in the air completed its final condensation and suddenly exploded, turning into a sharp lightning arrow that slashed off the Black Bear Demon's huge head with a "whoosh" sound.
Its demon blood spurted out and was quickly absorbed by Zhan Wusi, who was nearby, and its demon core was also taken away by him.
Li Chengfeng witnessed all of this. He did not immediately step forward, but released a Substitute Death Puppet to come to the nearby fruit tree.
He shook it gently, and instead of taking extreme measures as before, he took most of the fruit.
These fruits contained rich spiritual power, which could enhance his strength. For him, they were good treasures.
He took one-tenth of the fruit, and then used the "Drawing from the Source Beneath the Cauldron" technique to extract one-tenth of the spiritual source of the entire fruit tree.
Feeling the rise of his power, Li Chengfeng's defense and physical strength greatly increased. Although there was no explosive growth, it already made him feel comfortable all over.
He looked not far away, where Liu Ruyan of the Joyful Union Sect was cleaning up the Earth Armor Beasts.
Liu Ruyan's method was very simple. She led a dozen female disciples to the entrance of the Earth Armor Beast's cave and gently played the pipa and zither.
As the music sounded, the Earth Armor Beast did not run away, but crawled out of the cave. When it saw Liu Ruyan, it seemed to be bewitched by her beauty, as if it had been hit by an illusion, staggering like it was drunk.
