Chapter 538: Such Deep Schemes (33 Today 1w)

In the end, all twenty-seven hunters in this place made their choices.

Nine of them were willing to enter the depths again; they were unwilling to accept the status quo, and even if Ren Yidao had not mentioned it, they would have ventured deeper once they had obtained supplies.

As for the remaining eighteen, they all chose to exchange the magic treasures on their persons for resources; although magic treasures are precious, they are certainly not as precious as one's life.

To each their own; Ren Yidao did not criticize their choices, and after everyone got what they needed, he prepared to set off and leave.

Yet just as he was about to depart, the couple Dong Rong and Qiu Yuyao stopped him after struggling with the decision for a long time.

"Senior, w-we couple have no wealth on hand right now, nor do we have friends waiting for us outside. Could you be accommodating and let us... buy on credit?"

The two of them were rogue cultivators and had no one else waiting outside this time; although they could take back the magic treasures on their persons, those were tied to their lives, and giving them up at this moment was no different from courting death.

"Sure."

Ren Yidao's casual voice made the man heave a sigh of relief; he had truly made a great determination, and if the other party had refused, he really would not have known what to do.

However, Ren Yidao's next words made his face fall: "But it won't be free, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't need you to give me more; I'll just collect a small service fee. Nine out, thirteen back will do."

Dong Rong: Ah???

The youth's smile was brilliant and his expression so sincere that it left him feeling dazed for a moment.

Were we scammed by him?

Or were we saved by him?

This, it's not easy to say.

This, this, this...

"What are you thinking about! Senior is just joking with you."

But Qiu Yuyao realized this was merely a joke; she nudged her husband's flank with her elbow and was the first to bow and thank Ren Yidao, "Many thanks, Senior."

"It's fine. You were going to enter the depths again anyway, weren't you? Just keep an eye out for traces of Zhang Mang for me," Ren Yidao smiled, finding the combination of this couple quite interesting.

It seemed like the husband handled external affairs and the wife internal ones, but in reality, Qiu Yuyao was the one in charge; she was more like a person of the pugilistic world than Dong Rong, acting more decisively and striking more ruthlessly.

As expected, Miss Qiu is super fierce.

Women like her are not rare in the cultivation world; they are all heroes capable of holding up half the sky.

Even in my own home... well, Huhu is still the one who calls the shots.

Whether they listen or not is another matter, but my rules are rules!

After Ren Yidao distributed enough resources to Dong Rong and his wife, Qiu Yuyao took a Jade Pendant from her bosom and handed it over, saying, "By the way, Senior Ren, this is a map our couple recorded previously. I hope it can be of some help to you."

Ren Yidao glanced at it briefly and hadn't paid much attention at first, but suddenly he narrowed his eyes and frowned, "You have been to these places? And didn't encounter danger?"

The moment he saw this map, Ren Yidao matched it with the simple map he had sketched out in his mind from the ancient dream.

Although it was only half, it was real.

It was precisely because this half of the map was real that he was even more surprised.

Because, within this very map, Ren Yidao saw several locations that could be called forbidden grounds.

Pan Tao Yuan, Dragon Transformation Pool, Feng Huang Chao, Dian Jiang Tai, Lian Dan Ge, Xian Fa Lin, Zhai Xing Lou... listen to these yourselves; are these places the two of you can go to?

Also, how do you know the accurate names of these locations?

Qiu Yuyao understood Ren Yidao's suspicion and took the initiative to explain, "I won't hide it from you, Senior. Although our couple are rogue cultivators, we once obtained an ancient inheritance in a Cave Abode which included this map. We always thought it was fake, until we entered this place and it was proven to be real."

After finishing her explanation, Qiu Yuyao stopped hiding things and laid her cards on the table, "Senior, we want to go with you."

"The other half of this map is with me. If Senior Ren is willing to take us two along, I am willing to offer it up."

Qiu Yuyao and her husband saw it clearly: in the current situation, all other options were not as safe as staying by Ren Yidao's side.

"You are very clever." Ren Yidao looked deeply at Qiu Yuyao, feeling a bit of emotion in his heart.

First ensure the resources are obtained, then bring out half of the bargaining chip to lure him after the items are in hand, and finally lay everything on the table after piquing his interest.

However, she still miscalculated one thing: if he wanted to rob them by force, they would have no way to stop him... No, wait, could it be that she even calculated this? That she was certain I wouldn't double-cross them?

"Senior comes from a great sect and would not deign to oppress us rogue cultivators," Qiu Yuyao bowed respectfully at this moment and said earnestly, "And also because Senior has noble character and would not commit such base acts."

Fine.

You really are a good judge of character.

"Heh." Ren Yidao shook his head, finding it funny for a moment.

Tsk, these little combos, one after another.

Huhu has been played by a bad woman!

But, it's not bad.

As expected, Huhu likes communicating with smart people.

Ren Yidao shook his head, though he did not refuse, and signaled for them to sit on the back of the Dao God, "Get on and sit tight, don't move around."

There was no reason to refuse; with this map, it could indeed save him quite a bit of trouble.

The couple let out a long sigh of relief and hurriedly leaped onto the back of the Dao God; only at this moment did they discover that this Spirit Pet was actually Ren Yidao's Dao God.

Is he an old monster from the Divine Path Sect!?

Suppressing the shock in her heart, Qiu Yuyao did not drag things out; the safety of her and her husband from here on out was entrusted to him, so she directly handed the remaining half of the ancient map along with the latest markings to Ren Yidao.

"S-Senior!"

Dong Rong, who hadn't been able to get a word in for a long time, finally found an opportunity to speak and asked, "Where are we going next?"

Ren Yidao narrowed his eyes and pondered for a while, then said, "Let's head east first. Although the Heaven's secrets are chaotic, my disciple should be in that direction... let's go take a look at Xian Fa Lin first."

If the map markings were accurate, that place was close to the center of the entire Zhongzhou and could be considered a transit area; he could cast a divination then, and it wouldn't be too late to change locations.

The white fox beneath him leaped lightly, and under the nervous gazes of Dong Rong and his wife, it plunged toward the east.

Boom!

The white fox moved with a light gait, yet every step could span a distance of several hundred zhang, and it could perfectly avoid the arrays hidden on the ground.

Qiu Yuyao and her companion exchanged a glance, both seeing the bitterness in each other's eyes; they had been cautious and careful, yet in half a month, they had only safely traveled a few hundred li, and they had even been smug about it, feeling it was already quite good.

But judging by the current pace, these few hundred li were not even worth Ren Yidao's notice, and he would arrive in just another moment.

Comparing people to people, it really is incomparable!

Ren Yidao did not know the thoughts in these two people's hearts; at this moment, his Heavenly Eye between his brows was wide open, and his Dao God was also probing from the perspective of a deity, so with such a combination, almost all arrays had nowhere to hide before his eyes.

Coupled with the fact that he had walked this path before and generally remembered some of the routes, Ren Yidao could truly be described as walking on flat ground, relaxed and at ease.

While driving the fox eastward, he kept calculating with his hands, forcibly resisting the chaotic Heavenly Secrets to calculate the positions of the three people.

"Zhang Xiaoer, don't be rash, Master is coming~"

……

……

"Senior, where have we arrived?"

Zhang Mang's somewhat weak voice rang out, causing Hu Yiyi's brows to twitch, "Hm? Why do you suddenly ask that?"

Hu Yiyi looked at him somewhat strangely, feeling that this kid was becoming increasingly weak.

Zhang Mang was already lying completely flat on the tiger's back, his hands hanging powerlessly over the Yellow Sand Tiger's neck, his complexion an unnaturally ghastly white.

His spiritual power was almost exhausted.

This condition had appeared yesterday at noon, and it had become increasingly severe as time passed.

There had not been much Spirit Qi in Zhang Mang's body originally, and the Zhongzhou Heaven and Earth seemed not to care for him, not absorbing it from him.

But as Zhang Mang used his innate abilities more and explored more, his strength gradually improved, and he slowly began to be noticed by Heaven and Earth.

And then, the nightmare began; he was almost drained dry directly by Heaven and Earth.

If it weren't for the fact that replenishing with Spirit Stones could alleviate this symptom, Hu Yiyi really would have had no way to deal with this situation.

If Hu Yiyi were Zhang Mang's teacher, the most correct course of action now would be to take him and evacuate quickly, leaving this man-eating hellhole.

But he was not.

Not only was he not, he was a black-hearted old man who exploited child labor.

Hu Yiyi's approach was simply to distribute the majority of the Spirit Stones on his person to him, letting him keep them in his hand to absorb, so as not to affect the progress that followed.

Seeing that Zhang Mang seemed to have no intention of answering due to weakness, he frowned and asked, "I am asking you a question, what did you mean by what you said earlier?"

Zhang Mang opened his eyes with effort, gasped for a while, and then said with difficulty, "I can only see endless death... why is there not a single path of life ahead?"

Clutching a fist-sized Top-grade Spirit Stone, he propped himself up with effort, looked around, and whispered, "Where have we arrived?"

"You don't need to know." Hu Yiyi was not in the mood to explain to him, his brows locked tight, "Is there really no path of life? Look again carefully!"

Zhang Mang's words made his heart sink; he had already gone through thousands of hardships and finally made it here, only for it to be a dead end?

He was not reconciled!

"There's no way, the Spirit Stones are already used up, this is the last one." As Zhang Mang was speaking, cracks appeared on the Spirit Stone in his hand, as if it were about to shatter.

Are you a Spirit Stone eater!?

"Tsk!" Hu Yiyi threw the remaining Spirit Stones to Zhang Mang, his tone stern: "Use all of these, I warn you, don't try to play any tricks!"

"I... dare not." Zhang Mang was so weak that his response slowed down; he packed those Spirit Stones away and even put a small piece into his mouth.

A moment later, he seemed to perk up, and with wide eyes, he said to Hu Yiyi, "Senior, a path of life! Three steps forward, then seven steps to the right!"

Hu Yiyi was overjoyed; he originally wanted to step forward directly, but he suddenly hesitated, withdrew his foot, and said indifferently, "You go first."

Having reached the final moment, he did not want to be sabotaged by this kid.

"... Fine." Zhang Mang hesitated just as he had expected, and only after a while did he drive the Yellow Sand Tiger forward, his movements much slower than before.

"Hmph, there really is a ghost... What!? Come back here!" Just as Hu Yiyi was feeling proud of his own wit, that person and tiger, who had been walking with difficulty, suddenly accelerated and began to run wildly!

He dares to play me!?

The furious Hu Yiyi was about to pursue along the route they had taken when his heart suddenly jumped, and he pulled back sharply, but it was already too late; his left palm had been silently severed!

"What!?"

On the other side, Zhang Mang and the Yellow Sand Tiger had already entered before the palace; he swept away his previous fatigue, looked back at the furious old fox, smiled, and waved his hand.

"Senior, don't try it, that path of life is changing; if you aren't afraid of death, then follow."

"Goodbye!"

After saying this, Zhang Mang, not wanting to talk to him further, did not give Hu Yiyi a chance to reply and guided the Yellow Sand Tiger directly into the palace.

Stepping inside, all sounds from the outside world vanished, and Hu Yiyi could no longer perceive anything.

Zhang Mang, who had been triumphant a second ago, lost power the next moment and fell limply from the Yellow Sand Tiger, which hurriedly turned back to grab him and throw him back onto its back.

"Ha... cough, ha!" Zhang Mang coughed with effort, stuffed another Spirit Stone into his mouth, and laughed, "We succeeded, we succeeded!"

After enduring for so long, he had finally found an opportunity and successfully shaken off that old monster.

"Tiger, although we got in, what should we do now?"

However, Zhang Mang understood that although he had shaken off Hu Yiyi, he had not completely escaped danger.

"Tiger, there seems to be something in front, but I can't see it; what is that?"

In his eyes, that place was pitch black, as if a piece had been hollowed out.

The Yellow Sand Tiger shivered, lying on the spot and not daring to move.

Zhang Mang could not see it, but it could see it clearly.

Right in front of them, in the direction the child's finger was pointing... a figure stood with hands behind his back, looking up at the plaque above.

And on that plaque were written three large characters.

Dragon Transformation Pool.