Chapter 1717

Seeing Xiao Yufan said, "We understand, but we no longer have a better choice."

Bai Ruxue said, "Fine then, when do you plan to go?"

Seeing Xiao Yufan said, "The sooner the better. We want to set out within three days."

Bai Ruxue said, "Alright, I'll prepare some necessary items for the road. When you leave, I'll have my grandfather see you off part of the way."

After everyone agreed on the plan, they left the village where Bai Ruxue was.

Lin Chen and Ling Fei returned to the Dark Demon Forest, while Seeing Xiao Yufan headed to a nearby town to purchase medicinal herbs.

A little over a month passed quickly. During this time, Seeing Xiao Yufan traveled back and forth between the Dark Demon Forest and the nearby town many times, and finally gathered all the medicinal herbs.

Following the prescription provided by Bai Tiancheng, they spent over two weeks and finally refined the spiritual pill.

Seeing Xiao Yufan looked at the spiritual pill in his hand, which gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance, and could not help feeling a surge of joy.

He returned to the village where Bai Ruxue was together with Lin Chen and Ling Fei, and handed the spiritual pill to Bai Ruxue.

Bai Ruxue was overjoyed and thanked them repeatedly.

Afterwards, Bai Ruxue prepared some necessary items for each of them for the road, and led them to a nearby town.

In the town, they changed into a set of clean clothes, prepared some dry rations and water, and hurried off on their journey.

They traveled south along the official road and soon arrived within the borders of the Holy Wu Dynasty.

To avoid being discovered, they deliberately chose remote, lesser-known paths.

Half a month later, they finally arrived at the capital of the Holy Wu Dynasty—Holy Jingcheng.

Seeing Xiao Yufan took them straight to the imperial palace and sold the spiritual pill to the Emperor of the Holy Wu Dynasty.

Upon learning that they possessed such a miraculous medicinal pill, the Emperor gladly purchased it and offered a high price.

Seeing Xiao Yufan was overjoyed and divided the money among Lin Chen, Ling Fei, and Bai Ruxue.

Afterwards, they left Holy Jingcheng and set out on the road back to the Dark Demon Forest.

On the way, they suddenly recalled a terrible matter: because they had stayed in the Holy Wu Dynasty for over ten days, they had already far exceeded the time agreed upon with Bai Tiancheng.

Everyone felt a little worried. Everyone hurriedly rose to return the courtesy, their hearts filled with deep emotion.

Long Batian continued, "Now that you have returned, I would like to ask all of you to stay a few more days in our Benmen Sect, so that we may have a chance to repay your kindness."

Seeing Xiao Yufan said, "Gate Master Long, thank you for your kind intentions, but we still have a very heavy item to attend to, so we must leave here."

Long Batian asked, "What matter?"

Seeing Xiao Yufan explained the matter of the spiritual pill.

Long Batian was startled and said, "You want to sell this spiritual pill to the Emperor of the Holy Wu Dynasty?"

Seeing Xiao Yufan said, "Yes, so we want to sell it to the Emperor of the Holy Wu Dynasty."

Long Batian pondered for a moment and said, "What you're doing is very dangerous. If the Holy Wu Dynasty finds out, you'll be in serious trouble."

Seeing Xiao Yufan said, "We understand, but we no longer have a better choice."

Long Batian said, "Alright, since you've already decided, I won't say any more. I only hope that before you leave, you can do our Tianyang Sect a favor."

Seeing Xiao Yufan asked, "Gate Master Long, please speak."

Long Batian said, "Our Tianyang Sect has discovered a treasure in the nearby mountains, but it's full of danger inside. We need your help to get in."

Seeing Xiao Yufan and the others did not want to cause trouble, but they also understood the principle of repaying kindness.

Lin Chen said, "Gate Master Long, rest assured, we will Huijinli Gang you."

Long Batian was overjoyed and said, "Many thanks, heroic gentlemen and women! I'll send someone to take you to that treasure right away!"

After everyone agreed on the plan, they left the Tianyang Sect the next day and headed for that mysterious treasure.

They traveled along the winding mountain path and arrived at a desolate mountain valley.

At the entrance of the valley stood a massive stone gate, with an ancient totem carved upon it.

After observing it carefully, they discovered a mechanism hidden beneath the totem.

Night Owl patted the mechanism, and with a thunderous boom, the stone gate slowly opened.

Everyone carefully walked in and discovered a huge Li Shishi inside.

In the middle of the Li Shishi stood a stone platform, upon which rested an ancient book.

They stepped closer and saw four large characters—"Tianyang Secret Manual"—written on the cover of the ancient book.

Everyone opened the ancient book and found that it recorded the Tianyang Sect's peerless martial arts and cultivation insights.

They were overjoyed, never expecting to find such a precious manual here.

Just then, they suddenly felt a jolt of dread, as if something terrible was about to happen. They looked up and saw a large hole had broken open in the ceiling of the Li Shishi, and a group of giant black snakes crawled in through the opening.

Everyone panicked and retreated one after another.

The leading giant snake spoke in human tongue: "You've already fallen into my poisonous scheme. None of you will leave here alive!"

Everyone suddenly realized that all of this had been a trap.

Bai Ruxue angrily rebuked, "You ungrateful beast! We kindly helped you obtain the spiritual pill, yet you poisoned us in return!"

The giant snake said, "Hahaha, don't think I don't know what you've been doing in secret! You gave the spiritual pill to the Emperor of the Holy Wu Dynasty, thinking you could sell it for a good price, but you didn't know this spiritual pill is the Holy Wu Dynasty's treasure that safeguards the nation! By doing this, you'll not only kill yourselves, but you'll also doom the entire Tianyang Sect!"

Hearing this, everyone was greatly alarmed.

They never imagined that a single good deed of theirs would bring such a catastrophic disaster upon the sect.

They were filled with remorse, wishing they could slap themselves a few times.

The giant snake continued, "You've been poisoned by my snake venom. None of you will survive! I will keep you here forever, to avenge my people!"

Having said this, it opened its bloody maw and lunged at the group.

Everyone worked together, preparing to fight a life-and-death battle.

Unexpectedly, just at that moment, a middle-aged man in a black robe descended from the sky and landed before them.

The black-robed man wore a black mask, making his features impossible to discern.

With a casual wave of his hand, a black Qi wall shielded everyone within it.

The giant serpent struck several times, unable to break through this Qi wall.

The black-robed man unhurriedly pulled out a delicate little bottle and scattered its contents toward the giant serpent.

A strange fragrance spread through the air, and the giant serpent was instantly immobilized.

The black-robed man said coldly, "I never expected that the spirit pill I had worked so hard to find would be wasted by you ignorant brats."

Then, the black-robed man shot toward the giant serpent like a bolt of lightning, rapidly slapped its body several times, and then extracted a golden orb from within the serpent's body.

"Kill them all," the black-robed man said.

The giant serpent's body suddenly exploded, transforming into a wisp of green smoke that was drawn into the golden orb. Then, a group of people dressed in black crawled out from the cave and charged toward the crowd.

Lin Chen, Ye Xiao, Ling Fei, and Bai Ruxue fought with all their might, engaging in a thrilling battle. Working in perfect tacit coordination, they defeated these black-clad men at top speed.

The black-robed man, however, had been watching the battle from the side the whole time, not intervening at all. This left everyone feeling very puzzled.

After the battle ended, the black-robed man said, "You all seem to still not understand one thing—these black-clad men are actually all puppets controlled by me."

Everyone was astonished.

The black-robed man continued, "And that giant serpent you just faced was actually refined by me using several kinds of heaven and earth spirit medicines."

Everyone grew even more astonished in their hearts.

The black-robed man said mysteriously, "Now you should understand who I am, right?"

Everyone began guessing.

The black-robed man revealed his mysterious veil—Bai Tiancheng! Everyone was stunned; they had never expected that this mysterious black-robed man was actually Bai Tiancheng.

Lin Chen said, "Bai Tiancheng, who exactly are you? Why are you doing this?"

Bai Tiancheng said coldly, "I am a person of the Holy Wu Dynasty; my purpose is to obtain that spirit pill and wipe you all out!"

Ye Xiao said, "Why are you doing this?"

Bai Tiancheng said, "This is a secret of the Holy Wu Dynasty; you don't need to know."

Ling Fei said, "Now that we know your purpose, do you think you can still succeed?"

Bai Tiancheng sneered, "Do you think you can escape from the palm of my hand?"

With a wave of his hand, he took a remote control from the wall and pressed a button.

The stone chamber suddenly began to shake, and large amounts of flames burst out from the surrounding walls.

The flames burned fiercely, engulfing everyone's bodies.

They were terrified, attacking with all their might, trying to break through the encirclement of flames.

But it was all in vain; the flames were too powerful.

They gradually felt despair, their hearts filled with regret.

Bai Ruxue asked unwillingly, "What exactly do you want to do?"