As they stepped into the cave, they saw quite a few things inside.
The things that they saw the most were…blood and flesh.
These were the corpses of what seemed to be different spirit beasts that were scattered all over the floor of the cave. It seemed that they had been here for some time since there were flies that were just flying around the blood and flesh on the ground. As well as parts of the flesh that seemed to have changed colour because it was rotting.
It was unknown how long these corpses had been here, but it was clear they had been abandoned.
The bite marks on them showed that someone or something had feasted on them at one time, but now they were done with these corpses and left them here to rot.
As such, there was also a foul odor that filled the air.
If they didn’t have the strong mental fortitude of cultivators, they might have puked here.
But even though they had the strong mental fortitude of cultivators, it was hard for them not to be disgusted by these corpses that were left here.
Still, they had no choice but to look at these rotting corpses.
That was because they were making sure that there weren’t any human corpses among these rotting beast corpses.
After looking around for a bit, Lin Fan and the elders let out sighs of relief.
It seemed like there weren’t any human corpses here, so the elders and disciples that had been captured should still be alive. If they had to guess, they would most likely be further in the cave with the Control Toad.
As for what the Control Toad was doing to them, they had no idea.
They just hoped that it wasn’t anything too terrible…
After making sure that there were no human corpses here, Lin Fan’s group moved further into the cave.
As they moved, they huddled together to take up as little space as possible. At the same time, they moved as silently as possible so that they didn’t make any sound.
Though they still had the illusion array up around them, it was still better to be as safe as possible.
A few minutes in, they suddenly paused when they heard a sound from in front of them.
This part of the cave had become quite narrow, so they had no choice but to split up into two different groups and line the walls of the cave around them. They left the center part empty so that whatever was coming would be able to pass them.
After a few seconds, there was a group of wolves that came from the inside of the cave.
Instead of following a lead wolf like a normal wolf pack, they just walked in a line.
It was clear that these wolves were being controlled by something.
But since they were walking in a line, this was a good thing for them. As long as they remained in a line, they wouldn’t bump into them in this narrow space.
Lin Fan’s group just remained still and waited for the wolves to pass.
It was just too bad that things wouldn’t be as simple as he thought.
When the wolves reached where they were, they suddenly stopped moving. It was almost as if they had suddenly discovered something.
When Lin Fan’s group saw this, all of them tensed as they were worried that they had been discovered.
But what the wolves did next showed that this wasn’t the case.
The wolves just stood there in place for a bit before they started sniffing around the area. It was as if they were trying to find something with their sense of smell.
Even though the illusion array covered them up, it was unknown if that also covered up their smell. With the sharp nose of the wolves, they should be able to find their scent if it wasn’t covered up.
Like this, it would only be a matter of time before they found them…
The elders naturally understood this as well and there were a few that seemed like they were getting ready to fight.
But before that could happen, Lin Fan used one of the tricks that he had prepared before.
“Clack.”
There was the sound of a stone falling to the ground that came from behind them, coming from where they had come from.
The wolves immediately stopped sniffing when they heard this and after a second of hesitation, they ran off in the direction of that sound.
Seeing them run off, the elders all let out a sigh of relief.
The only one that wasn’t relieved at this miracle was Lin Fan because this was what he had set up.
The sound of the stone falling was something that one of Greeny’s puppets had made.
Lin Fan had left a rat, which was one of Greeny’s puppets further out in the cave and had Greeny make the rat drop that stone prepared when the wolves were here. That was what had made the sound.
He knew that it was impossible to rely just on the illusion array alone to get to the Control Toad, so he had set up quite a few of these to distract the Control Toad’s puppets if need be.
He just never thought that he would need to use it so soon.
But this did give him a useful piece of information about the puppets of the Control Toad.
When the wolves stopped, they used their nose to sniff them out. Normal puppets shouldn’t have been able to do this.
So the only explanation was that the Control Toad was able to use the abilities of the ones that it turned into a puppet. That meant that all of the puppets would be able to use different abilities from before they had been turned into puppets.
The Control Toad hadn’t done that with the disciple…but then again, the disciple had been weak.
Lin Fan realized his mistake at this moment.
If he had used his Appraisal Eyes on the spirit beasts that ambushed them…if he had noticed that they were controlled, then he would have been able to figure this out sooner.
After all, these spirit beasts had fought with all of their normal abilities, so that would have made it clear.
It seemed like he was still too wet behind the ears…
Still, it was better finding this out now than later. Since he knew about this now, he would be able to figure out how to counter it in the future.
After the wolves were gone, they didn’t waste any time heading further in.
At the very least, they couldn’t stay here since it would be too dangerous for them to stay here. It was too narrow for them to hide anywhere, so it would be too easy for the enemy to find them if they passed by here.
They should get out of here before more enemies come.
As they went deeper into the cave, the smell of blood in the air became stronger.
At the same time, they could see that there were more and more corpses that were lying all around them.
Seeing all of this just made them knit their brows even more.
After all, a bunch of corpses and the smell of blood in the air was never a good sign.
The one comforting thing was that there were still no human corpses that were found here.
At the very least, they knew that their comrades who had been captured were still at least safe.
But the strange thing was the condition of these corpses.
Unlike the corpses at the entrance of the cave, these corpses didn’t seem like they had been bitten. It didn’t seem like anything had tried to eat these corpses when they had still been alive.
There were what seemed to be holes made in these corpses that seemed like something had burst from inside of them. At the same time, there was what seemed to be black liquid dripping out of those holes…
The same black liquid that the black worms released when they died…
It was clear that something had happened to these spirit beasts before they died and it wasn’t hard to imagine what.
So they couldn’t help moving a bit faster.
After walking for a bit, they once again heard a noise coming from in front of them. However, this time it was different from just the noise of a single spirit beast.
There were many different spirit beast sounds that were coming from in front of them, as if there were many different spirit beasts that were gathered.
If that was the case, then in front of them should be where the Control Toad and the spirit beasts that it controlled were.
They all slowed down and carefully searched the area that they were standing in first to make sure that there weren’t any traps here.
Then they gathered around to discuss what they should do next.
Lin Fan started by saying, “Let me go in alone first.”
All of the elders were shocked by this and it seemed like they wanted to say something, but Lin Fan just cut them all off by saying, “There’s something that I want to test and you’ll get in my way if you come with me.”
All of the elders revealed ugly expressions when they heard this, but they couldn’t refute him.
During this entire time, they hadn’t been able to do a single thing for Lin Fan.
They had to rely on Lin Fan the entire time to do everything to clear the trials…
So they really had no face to say that they would be able to do anything.
So in the end, they could only agree to let Lin Fan head in alone first.