The skeletal dragon attacked alongside the humanoid skeleton, causing everyone to flee for their lives in all directions. The people present were all Sovereigns, but unfortunately, they couldn't display their actual strength. They were unable to do anything to the two skeletons, and two of them were immediately killed.

Xiang Shaoyun sighed inwardly, Sure enough, this is not a peaceful place.

"Go deal with them. I'll go get the herbs," said Xiang Shaoyun with a trace of excitement in his eyes.

Everyone was greedy, and Xiang Shaoyun wasn't immune to greed either. The herbs were all rare sovereign herbs. If he could bring them back to the Ziling Sect, it would increase the sect's wealth, which would benefit him.

"But I'm not their match!" complained the runic, who felt like crying.

"Don't worry. Afterward, you will owe me nothing," said Xiang Shaoyun before rushing off toward the herbs.

The runic felt extremely helpless. He gritted his teeth and charged forth.

Riding atop the skeletal dragon, the humanoid skeleton attacked Xiang Shaoyun.

"Since you refuse to leave, you can die," said the skeleton as he brandished his bone staff, sending two powerful energy attacks toward Xiang Shaoyun and the runic.

The runic hoisted his weapon and blocked the attack. The impact forced him to retreat in quick succession. As for Xiang Shaoyun, after somersaulting on the ground, he vanished into thin air. Nobody knew where he went. He had used his bloodline ability to turn invisible.

The skeleton and skeletal dragon couldn't sense him anymore, so they focused on the runic. The runic pissed himself from fear and started running away in panic. One ought to admit that runics possessed impressive speed. Using his bloodline power, the runic escaped at an astonishing speed, successfully throwing off the two skeletons.

Meanwhile, Xiang Shaoyun reached the slope and plucked all the herbs. There were lifebone flowers, coiling dragon grasses, jadecrystal seeds, and so on growing there. They were all extremely rare herbs. From the fact that they were all growing on this slope, one could only imagine the grotto's vast energy abundance.

Xiang Shaoyun thought to himself, If I have the time for it, I can consider digging around this place. I might be able to find an enormous crystal mine.

It was undeniable that Xiang Shaoyun was incredibly greedy. Even after obtaining the sovereign herbs, he had still set his eyes on what was underground.

"Who's there?" the skeleton roared after sensing that the herbs had been stolen. It swung its bone staff in Xiang Shaoyun's direction.

Xiang Shaoyun slipped away without any hesitation. He did not intend to get himself tangled with the skeleton. The two skeletons failed to find him, allowing him to escape easily.

When Xiang Shaoyun reached a different location, he found that there were quite a lot of skeletons living in the grotto.

They interacted with each other, they cultivated, and they lived with their own set of rules and habits like any other race. Seeing these skeletons going on with their daily lives here gave this paradise an eerie feeling.

Wherever the skeletons were found, Xiang Shaoyun could find many emperor and sovereign herbs. There were also some other low-level herbs, but he mostly ignored them.

With his invisibility, he was like a fish back in water, able to fish for benefits in peace. As for the others, they had to struggle a lot for a tiny benefit and might even lose their lives for it.

However, Xiang Shaoyun knew that the grotto's biggest secret was definitely not the herbs. There would definitely be more valuable treasures here.

Eventually, he discovered that a large number of skeletons would come from a certain direction. That was perhaps the place they were searching for. But before he could reach his destination, danger finally came for him. A headless stone lion appeared and charged toward him.

Xiang Shaoyun realized that the stone lion had probably sensed him with some unique senses it had. Otherwise, the lion shouldn't have noticed him when he was invisible.

The stone lion was massive. Its ash-gray body was filled with power that seemed extremely suited for tackling. Anyone it rammed would probably be crushed into mincemeat.

Xiang Shaoyun might have impressive physical strength, but not even he wanted to face this headless stone lion. Thus, he tried to flee but suddenly saw an odd object on the stone lion. Seeing that object caused him to halt his steps.

The headless stone lion charged him, and Xiang Shaoyun relied on his nimbleness to move out of the way. He jumped onto the lion, aiming to retrieve the object on the lion's body. When he approached the lion's body, stone spikes grew out as the lion attempted to impale him to death.

Xiang Shaoyun was caught by surprise. As the spikes pierced him, he was assaulted by intense pain. If it wasn't for his body's durability, he would have been killed. He bent his body and avoided the sharp spikes before reaching for the object on the lion's back. After grabbing the object, he found that he couldn't pull it off. Evidently, it had fused with the lion.

Just as he was about to try something else, the lion rolled and slammed its back against the ground, trying to crush him to death. Xiang Shaoyun reacted speedily and pushed at the lion before sliding away on the ground.

The headless stone lion thrashed about, creating numerous craters in the ground. It leaped up and stomped at Xiang Shaoyun. Xiang Shaoyun rolled on the ground repeatedly and managed to barely avoid the stomps.

However, he had now lost the initiative. It was only a matter of time before he was crushed under the lion. He rolled to a boulder and used the boulder to jump off the ground and slam his body into the stone lion.

As he rammed into the stone lion, he could feel that the lion was as strong as a peak Sovereign. He did not dare to underestimate the lion. He hurriedly moved away from the lion, searching for an opportunity to recover. The headless stone lion chased after him, moving at an even faster speed.

Xiang Shaoyun stabilized his footing and gathered all his strength into his fist before throwing a punch at the charging lion.

Dragonscale Arm—Total Annihilation!

His arm contained the might of a magnificent army, the swing of his arm causing the earth to quake and the mountains to shake. The stone lion's body was incomparably tough, but even such a tough body cracked from the punch. Ash gray blood started flowing out of the cracks. The attack was a success, but the impact also caused his arm to go numb. He had to take several steps back to neutralize the impact.

Just as Xiang Shaoyun was about to put more strength into the lion, he saw a one-legged ox charging at him from far away. It only had a single leg, so it was essentially hopping on the ground. However, it moved at an incredible speed.

The moment Xiang Shaoyun saw the ox, his pupils constricted. He exclaimed, "This is a kui ox from the legends!"