It was only now that Qing Qishu and the others understood the wisdom of the old priest.

Facing a “thinker” like Wu Quji, directly refusing to answer saved so much effort!

Qing Bazhi said to them, “Now you know why I had to shut his mouth, right?”

Beside the corpse of the forest bear, several Saint Clan warriors set up some simple traps, planning to transport the giant bear back to the Divine Shade Land when they returned.

The group of six regrouped and set off again towards the Serpent’s Lair.

During the journey, Jiang Wang found an opportunity to specifically remind Su Qi not to steal from the Saint Clan warriors anymore.

…And, by the way, he also collected the “shared” Divine Dragon Wood arrow shafts.

After leaving the Divine Shade Land, Su Qi seemed much more relaxed. Jiang Wang always felt that he wasn’t very concerned about Yan Xiao.

He kept looking around, observing very carefully, as if he were looking for something.

But when Jiang Wang asked him, he wouldn’t say.

Wu Quji’s golden needle bone-knitting had stabilized his injury, but his right arm still couldn’t bear any weight. Only his left hand could be used, so he was arranged in the middle of the formation.

There were three people walking in front of the team.

Jiang Wang, because he had a history of crossing the Serpent’s Lair alone, walked in front, testing the ground with his sword.

Su Qi’s movement skills were amazing, weaving through the sides on his own.

And Qing Qishu’s vitality was extremely tenacious, leaping through the trees with his shield.

“Here!” Su Qi suddenly shouted.

Everyone quickly scattered, forming a loose encirclement, slowly approaching Su Qi’s location.

When he got closer, Jiang Wang realized that Su Qi was standing still, his expression more grim than ever.

“What happened?”

Su Qi didn’t say anything.

On the ground in front of him, lay a set of ruqun (a traditional Chinese dress).

No damage, no wear, no blood… and no woman who should have been wearing this ruqun.

Only a few fallen leaves decorated it.

This clothing definitely didn’t belong to the Divine Shade Land, but like Wu Quji and Su Qi, it came from the State of Qi, a member of the Seven Stars Valley Secret Realm participants.

But the problem was… where was the person?

There were no signs of a fight at the scene, at least as far as Jiang Wang could see, there was no useful information.

It was as if a very ordinary gust of wind had blown, and the person was gone.

Only the ruqun remained.

In this perilous Forest of Origin, they were somewhat psychologically prepared for even the most ferocious scenes.

However, it was precisely this ordinary, undamaged ruqun that sent chills down their spines.

What exactly happened?

Qing Jiuye took a look and said, “She was invaded by the Night.”

This wasn’t the first time Jiang Wang had heard about the Night here invading people, but it was the first time he had personally witnessed the result of the “Night’s” invasion.

The Saint Clan people only dared to sleep in the fruit houses made of Divine Dragon Wood in the Divine Shade Land.

“So what happened to her? Is she dead?” Su Qi’s voice was a little strange.

“You could say she’s dead. But more accurately, she’s disappeared. Because people invaded by the Night have never reappeared. But no one has ever found a corpse either.” Qing Jiuye said rigorously, “Just like now, only clothes remain.”

Jiang Wang thought for a moment and asked, “Do only people disappear? What about their belongings? Do they disappear as well? Or do only clothes remain?”

Qing Jiuye said, “Only the person themselves disappears. Anything they’re carrying will remain. Even if something is missing, it’s usually taken away by some passing beast, and has nothing to do with the Night’s invasion.”

Su Qi squatted down, lightly pressed his finger on the ruqun, looked up at Jiang Wang, and said, “The box is gone.”

He was talking about a storage box.

Jiang Wang realized the difference in the problem.

There were no traces of any beasts passing by here, and it was impossible for a beast to take away the storage box without messing up the ruqun.

But in Qing Jiuye’s description of past experiences, the Night’s invasion only took people away, not objects.

In other words, something took the storage box.

Was the so-called “Night’s invasion” a sinister phenomenon, a force of nature, or was it created and controlled by some kind of will?

Was it the being that created the “Night’s invasion” who became curious about the “outside world” and took the storage box on the way?

Or was it another being who deliberately staged the scene as a “Night’s invasion”?

Su Qi must have known the missing woman. His emotions were terrible right now, even though he was trying his best to control them. But his sadness was revealed in his eyes, in his brow, in the trembling of his clothes.

Jiang Wang asked, “What exactly is the ‘Night’s invasion’? At least, in what form does it ‘invade’? What triggers it? You Saint Clan people have grown up here, don’t you have even the slightest understanding?”

At this time, Qing Qishu also walked over, while Qing Bazhi had disappeared again a few breaths ago.

“No one can say for sure.” Qing Qishu responded to his question, “We only know that if you fall asleep at night and are not in the fruit house, you will be invaded by the Night. Even in the Divine Shade Land.”

“If that’s the case, then just don’t sleep at night, can’t you reverse your day and night routine?” Jiang Wang asked.

“During the period when Divine Dragon Wood was scarce, that’s how we spent our time… but only in the Divine Shade Land.” Qing Qishu said, “You were in the Divine Shade Land last night, so you didn’t feel it. In the Forest of Origin, as soon as night falls, you will be very ‘sleepy’. An irresistible ‘sleepiness’, you must sleep. It is the Divine Shade Land that protects us.”

“Is this sleepiness absolutely irresistible?”

Qing Qishu was silent for a while, then said, “At least in the history of the Saint Clan, no one has ever resisted it successfully.”

The information contained in this sentence was extremely tragic.

The Saint Clan could not possibly not study such a deadly cause. But the fact was that they still knew nothing about it to this day.

Who knows how many people have disappeared into the “Night” in order to prove this sentence.

“Have you not observed it?” Wu Quji suddenly spoke, “For example, you can observe people falling asleep under the Divine Dragon Wood in the fruit house in the Divine Shade Land, observe… how they disappear.”

This was even more cruel.

It meant using the lives of their own people to try to understand the cause of the “Night’s invasion”.

Of course, for a medical sect like the Golden Needle Sect, such “observation” may be essential.

Qing Jiuye then added, “Sleepers will not be ‘invaded’ as long as they are watched. This is one of our ways to resist the Night. But only in the Divine Shade Land, no one can stay awake in the Night outside.”

From the Saint Clan’s traditions of “Mutual Hunting” and “Soul Nurturing”, it was not difficult to see that this was a clan that could make great sacrifices in order to continue their destiny.

The “observation” that Wu Quji envisioned, they had of course done, and from it, they had learned the method of watching the sleeper to avoid invasion.

“That thing, has a will, right?”

Su Qi, who was still squatting, suddenly opened his mouth.

He reached out and stroked the ruqun on the ground, his expression grotesque, “Deliberately took the box. That thing must be conscious, right? It’s not just a simple tragic phenomenon, right?”

“…Which means.” He clenched the ruqun tightly, finally let go, and stood up, “At least I have a target to take revenge on, right?”