Chapter 10: Headphones?

The Valley of Whispering Sounds is located on the planet Youyuan Star, in the same galaxy as Qianghu Star.
Youyuan Star has only one continent, whose terrain is extremely peculiar. Giant rocks can be seen everywhere on this continent; grass grows among the rocks, and there are even rock forests formed by these massive stones.
The Valley of Whispering Sounds is a thousand kilometers long, filled with tree-like giant rocks that create dark, secluded areas, making it difficult to navigate. Especially around these rock formations, there is always a disturbing sound—full of sorrow and grief—that unsettles anyone who hears it.
Dangerous places often hold surprises as well.
Although these whispering sounds are terrifying, overcoming them can lead to the realization of profound martial arts principles or speed techniques.
Thus, the Valley of Whispering Sounds has become a famous place on this planet. Many cultivators from the demon realm come here when they reach a bottleneck in their training, using the valley’s eerie sounds to advance their skills.
After the Renwixiao Bandits arrived at the Valley of Whispering Sounds, it attracted even more cultivators.
The True Hero Adventurers Group and the Tiger Might Adventurers Group, totaling twelve people, arrived near the valley. They sat around a rock shaped like a giant mushroom.
“Everyone, we’re already outside the Valley of Whispering Sounds. As you can see, many adventurers groups have arrived here—no less than a thousand groups, with tens of thousands of members in total. Everyone wants to attack the Renwixiao Bandits. With twelve of us mixed in this crowd, we’re completely unnoticed. But I’m sure that once we spot them, their fate will be sealed,” said Qu Yi with a smile.
Starting from the space teleportation array on Youyuan Star, Qu Yi and his group had already noticed many adventurers groups heading toward the valley, clearly intent on targeting the Renwixiao Bandits.
Upon hearing this, Long Huwei also smiled and said, “The Renwixiao Bandits usually travel by starships, flying through space. This time, by appearing in the Valley of Whispering Sounds, do they intend to use its eerie sounds to help their members advance their skills?”
Many adventurers shared this suspicion.
“Don’t worry about the Renwixiao Bandits. Since they’ve shown themselves this time, and with so many adventurers groups coming together, they’re doomed this time,” said Qu Yi confidently.
Long Huwei could only smile, though he still harbored doubts in his heart.

Xiang Qing, Xiang Xing, and Xiang Zhong never believed it, even though they knew Qu Yi must have secrets. But thinking that Ren Woxiao, the leader of the Thief Gang, was only at the level of a lower-tier Earth Soul Demon, filled their hearts with despair.

“Take a break. We’ll enter the Valley of Mysterious Sounds right away,” Qu Yi declared without trying to guess the others’ thoughts.

※※※

Near the Valley of Mysterious Sounds, in another area filled with piles of rocks, there was a spacious open space covered by three large stones. Twenty men in black were gathered there, discussing something.

“Sun Buhen, last time you failed to kill Long Huwei on Iron Wolf Star, it must have made him suspicious. This time, our entire team is here. We must kill Long Huwei in this Valley of Mysterious Sounds no matter what,” shouted a man with a fierce appearance and a harsh voice.

The man called Sun Buhen was the same one who had framed Huwei’s Adventuring Party on the Great Plains last time.

This team of twenty, dedicated to eliminating Long Huwei, had been searching for him throughout this galaxy. After failing to kill Long Huwei, Sun Buhen had continued to track Huwei’s Adventuring Party and report his whereabouts. Now, these twenty men had gathered in the Valley of Mysterious Sounds.

Sun Buhen had a gloomy appearance and was thin. Hearing the fierce man’s shout and seeing everyone staring at him, he angrily cried out, “Huang Tianzhen, we’re all part of the same team. Last time I failed because Long Huwei was lucky. This time, our entire team is here. If we can’t kill him, we’ll never be able to return to Earth Storm Star—we’ll have to wander around in this demon realm.”

These men came from the Tyrant Dragon Sect and were on a secret mission. If they failed, they wouldn’t be able to return to the sect for training resources and would have to live in hiding across the demon realm.

“Hmph!” Huang Tianzhen snarled in disdain.

All members of this team were at the level of higher-tier Human Soul Demons. The person who sent them to attack Long Huwei initially thought Long Huwei was only a mid-tier Human Soul Demon, so he believed these men would be enough to kill him. However, Long Huwei had not only reached the level of a higher-tier Human Soul Demon but also had the protection of Earth Soul Demons like Qu Yi, putting these twenty men in a difficult position.

Yet, since Long Huwei and his group were about to enter the Valley of Mysterious Sounds, hope arose in these twenty men’s hearts again.

“Guys, stop arguing. Right now, thousands of adventure groups are heading into the Valley of Whispering Sounds. The Tiger Might Adventure Group and the True Heroes Adventure Group will also go in, so we have a chance. Now, let’s each come up with strategies on how to frame Long Huwei.” At that moment, a tall man spoke calmly.

With so many people around, chaos would arise, and this group still had a chance to kill with others’ hands.

“Need I say more? In that Valley of Whispering Sounds, there are towering stone trees, with haunting sounds lingering everywhere, making it easy for people to lose their direction. It’s also likely to make some lose their true selves. We should incite some people to take care of Long Huwei.”

“We can spread rumors that Long Huwei possesses hundreds of billions of Origin Stones and even demonic weapons at the level of Earth Soul Demons. I’m sure the adventure groups here will be extremely interested in him.”

“It’s simple. We can pretend to be the Tiger Might Adventure Group, constantly launching ambushes in the Valley of Whispering Sounds, then claiming it was done by them.”

“All these adventure groups are here to find the Laughing Thieves Guild. We can also spread rumors that Long Huwei is the illegitimate son of Edgeless, and that he’s deliberately following these groups to secretly pass their locations to Edgeless.”

……

In just a short while, these twenty people came up with many plans to frame Long Huwei.

Then, this group decided on their action plan.

※※※

Qu Yi, Long Huwei, and the others had already arrived at the entrance of the Valley of Whispering Sounds.

There stood a massive stone mountain, tens of thousands of meters high, with tens of thousands of natural stone caves on it. Entering through these caves would lead to various parts of the valley.

The Valley of Whispering Sounds was completely covered by stone trees. Due to the twisted and sprawling branches, the forest formed multiple layers—near-ground areas, branch-level areas, and treetop areas.

Above the valley, there was a perpetual layer of pale green mist. If a cultivator fell into this mist, the green mist could seep into their body, causing their entire body to rot.

Therefore, all cultivators entered the valley through this mountain of caves.

Qu Yi saw many adventure groups already flying into the stone caves and entering the valley. Smiling, he said, “Everyone, many adventure groups have already entered the Valley of Whispering Sounds. There’s no need to delay—let’s go in right away.”

With that, Qu Yi took the lead and flew into a stone cave in the middle of the mountain.

Entering through this cave on the mountain side leads one into the branch-layer area of the Mysterious Sound Demon Valley. Soon, Qu Yi, Long Hu Wei, and twelve others entered this area. Here, stone branches stretched out, forming stone paths that allowed people to jump and walk on them. Naturally, movement was very slow, as one had to constantly sense the location of the next branch. But this wasn’t the hardest part—throughout the entire stone forest, a faint, ethereal sound began to appear. Some people suddenly started screaming or crying bitterly upon hearing it, while others became irritable and attacked others. The mysterious sound caused different reactions in people with different temperaments. As Qu Yi and the others walked on the stone branches, they heard a faint, buzzing sound. “Haha, if only I could find a primordial spirit vein! Then I’d have endless primordial stones.” “Team leader, let’s hurry back to the Tyrant Dragon Sect. The sect master must be very eager to see you.” “I want to kill that guy! He framed us and got us trapped by the demon wolves. I’ll kill him.” “Qu Yi, you must protect our team leader, Long Hu Wei.” Suddenly, the other four members of the Hu Wei Adventuring Party, being at only the level of lower-grade Soul Demons, were immediately affected by the mysterious sound and started talking nonsense. Qu Yi quickly flew over to them and knocked them out with a single palm strike each. As soon as he stopped, he heard a message from the Artifact God: “Qu Yi, the sound in this Mysterious Sound Demon Valley is produced by a strange beast. This beast is called the Mysterious Sound Stone Monster, which has a vocal organ called a sound chamber. I’ve sensed that the entire Mysterious Sound Demon Valley is just the head of this beast.” Hearing this, Qu Yi was shocked and immediately asked, “There are actually such huge beasts in the world? That’s terrifying. By the way, Artifact God, do you have any way to stop these sounds from causing harm?” The Artifact God replied right away, “If used properly, the sound emitted by the Mysterious Sound Stone Monster can stimulate a cultivator’s potential. Coincidentally, I’ve thought of a method that can help you use this sound to improve your cultivation.” As soon as he finished speaking, Qu Yi found new information in his soul—the Artifact God had given him a method for crafting an artifact. “Earbuds?” Qu Yi was surprised after reading the crafting method. The method taught by the Artifact God was for Qu Yi to collect stones in this stone forest and craft them into a magical “earbud.” By wearing them on both ears, he could use the mysterious sound to aid his cultivation.