Chen Guan's first reaction was to step back, even though there was still a distance in between, it didn't give him any sense of security.

A few people retreated to the mountain crevice and stopped to look at those stone lingzhi in the valley.

Zhu Hongzhi hurriedly spoke, "The scouts we sent earlier to explore picked some stone lingzhi inside, and this situation never occurred."

Bai Yueguang directly summoned a Huangquan Yin soldier to go toward another millennium stone lingzhi, intending to prove by action that they had no intention of harming Chen Guan.

The Huangquan Yin soldier grabbed the millennium stone lingzhi and pulled it out. As soon as the stone lingzhi left the ground, the Huangquan Yin soldier fell straight to the ground, just like the wild ghost of Chen Guan, with no response no matter how summoned.

Bai Yueguang immediately frowned and ordered the soldier beside him, "Call the scout team exploring the Valley of Hundred Beasts over."

Zhu Hongzhi also called over the scout team from the Black Qilin Camp, and both began questioning the scout team about the situation.

Both sides' scouts were a bit dumbfounded, with the same reaction; when they had entered the Valley of Hundred Beasts before to pick lingzhi, they hadn't encountered this situation.

The picked lingzhi samples are still in the camp and there's nothing wrong with them.

Bai Yueguang had a scout member try to pick the lingzhi again in their manner. The scout summoned a spirit sparrow first, letting it fly a few circles around a white lingzhi to confirm no issue, then land to peck off the root and bring it back.

Who would have thought that as soon as the root of the white lingzhi was pecked off, the spirit sparrow tilted its neck and fell to the ground, stiff and lifeless.

The scout quickly turned around to plead, "Commander, when we came in earlier, we indeed picked the lingzhi this way, and there was truly no issue at that time."

The situation was the same on Zhu Hongzhi's side; their scouts couldn't pick the lingzhi anymore either.

"Both Commanders, perhaps you should go back first to see if there's any issue with those lingzhi samples," Chen Guan suggested that they first send people back to check the picked lingzhi.

Bai Yueguang and Zhu Hongzhi personally led their men back for inspection; they were also afraid something might happen.

Chen Guan, Duan Shulin, and Jiang Tianqing temporarily withdrew from the Valley of Hundred Beasts. Jiang Tianqing ordered his men to seal off the mountain crevice entering the valley.

"Chen Guan, have you noticed that after we entered the Valley of Hundred Beasts, we haven't seen the so-called beast spirits mentioned by the scouts?" Jiang Tianqing spoke.

Chen Guan nodded, having noticed this situation as well.

The valley is named the Valley of Hundred Beasts because those entering discovered many varieties of beast spirits.

It's said there are beast spirits of wolves, tigers, leopards, horses, cattle, deer, sheep, and more, too many for the scouts to fully recognize, so they temporarily named the valley the Valley of Hundred Beasts.

The Secret Spirits near the entrance have been cleared out once, yet more than a day has passed; wouldn't one of the spirits from inside the valley have run to the entrance by now?

They had stayed in the valley for quite a while earlier, and indeed, no spirits were seen, which seemed very odd.

For now, relying on this information alone, nothing can be inferred. After Bai Yueguang and Zhu Hongzhi returned, they used a special box to bring the stone lingzhi taken out by scouts.

These stone lingzhi had no issues; approaching them didn't cause any problems either.

They had already been taken out for instrument detection, and everything was normal, even eating them posed no problem.

"Thus, the issue doesn't lie with these lingzhi, so why do pets enter a false-death state after picking them?" Chen Guan frowned in thought.

The state is called false-death because the pet's information, still lying there, indicates the pet isn't dead yet.

In this condition, unable to be manipulated nor taken back into the body, lying rigidly there motionless can only be considered a false death.

After half a day of research, nothing conclusive was discovered.

Bai Yueguang spoke, "No matter the cause leading to this situation, it only means the pets are under some sort of power, which is either from the lingzhi themselves or from elsewhere nearby. I have an Unparalleled Pet called the Ancient Undying Turtle, with immunity to Hundred Poisons and many forbidden Secret Skill resistances, and it naturally possesses a very high defense; it can go and try first."

Chen Guan and the others nodded in approval, first being able to determine if there's some kind of toxin or other power inside would be beneficial.

Again, they entered the valley through the crevice, not daring to go too far, and stopped beside the crevice. Each wore a gas mask, and their armor was properly donned.

Bai Yueguang summoned a gray and white old turtle, about the size of a square table, its body gray-white like stone.

When still, it looked like a vivid stone statue.

Bai Yueguang controlled the Ancient Undying Turtle to crawl to the closest stone lingzhi.

The old turtle moved slowly, encountering no problems on the way. Once beside the stone lingzhi, it stretched its head, bit down on the white lingzhi, and snapped it off with one bite.

All of Chen Guan's group stared at the old turtle, as Chen Guan thought, "A Level 30 World-Defying Secret Spirit with Immunity to Hundred Poisons and resistance to Forbidden Secret Skills shouldn't be so easily knocked down."

As he was thinking, they heard a thud, and the white stone lingzhi in the old turtle's mouth fell to the ground; the turtle's body tilted, flipped over onto its back with its belly up, motionless, and its four paws pointed skyward.

Bai Yueguang was distressed, immediately attempting various methods to awaken or retrieve the old turtle, but to no avail.

"Deputy Commander Bai, there's no need to worry too much yet. Let's release a few pets to pull them out," Chen Guan said, releasing two Yin soldiers to try and pull out his own wild ghost pet.

As it turned out, so long as they didn't touch the lingzhi, there was no issue, and soon the pets frozen and unable to move were all pulled out.

Professionals were called to study them, but no issues were found briefly.

Pet blood was already drawn, and stone lingzhi samples taken outside the Secret Realm for instrument analysis.

Due to differing environments, many instruments behave strangely inside the Secret Realm. Hence, most equipment is inaccurate within, regularly exhibiting issues, requiring tests outside.

Zhu Hongzhi observed for a while, finding an opportunity to speak quietly to Chen Guan, "Deputy Commander Chen, previously, when I was in the Black Tiger Corps, I visited a place where a similar situation occurred. Though the places differ slightly, I'm not confident they share the same situation, so I'm merely mentioning it for reference; take it as nothing too factual."

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