Beast roars rose and fell, filling everyone's ears.
Li Guanqi hurriedly raised a hand, signaling the group to halt.
By now, they had reached the forest's edge. Beyond the woods lay a lush, verdant grassland and towering mountains.
Before Li Guanqi's eyes appeared a nearly transparent curtain of light.
Around that massive volcano, disciples from the Ten Thousand Immortals Sword Sect and Zixiao Pavilion were fleeing in all directions.
Zhao Xuanzhu held a spiritual herb of peculiar shape in his hand.
The herb's leaves resembled horse hooves and its stem was pitch-black, shimmering with a faint pink glow.
Disciples of Zixiao Pavilion also held several stalks of spiritual herbs in their hands.
"Flower Rain Ghost Root, Purple Xuan Ganoderma!"
Li Guanqi was astonished by the appearance of these herbs—both were natural treasures at the peak of Tier Two.
Yet what drew his attention most were the two colossal spirit beasts.
One was a dark bat with a wingspan of a full six zhang, and the other was a scarlet-eyed demonic ape standing roughly a zhang tall!
Li Guanqi had no intention of clashing head-on with these two spirit beasts right now.
Judging by their size, they were at least spirit beasts at Foundation Establishment; he did not want any trouble with them.
Still, he was curious as to what kind of damned place this was.
The two beasts tore after the two groups, running so hard the earth trembled faintly beneath their stride.
Ye Feng nudged Li Guanqi and whispered, "What do we do now?"
Li Guanqi pondered for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, the sword spirit's voice echoed in his mind.
"There is good stuff in the cave a hundred zhang away."
Li Guanqi swallowed his words and asked inwardly, "What kind of stuff?"
"Taiyi Treasure Silver!"
Li Guanqi's eyes widened instantly. "Really?" he asked in a low voice.
"Believe it or not."
Looking at the massive cave a hundred zhang away, Li Guanqi hesitated.
He wasn't sure if he should drag everyone into taking the risk with him.
After a moment of silence, Li Guanqi spoke up. "I want to go check out that cave. Do you want to come along?"
Zhong Lin rubbed his hands in excitement and said, "Of course! They've already snagged spirit herbs. We have to walk away with some spoils of our own no matter what!"
Seeing that everyone was eager to try, Li Guanqi said in a heavy voice, "All right! While those two beasts haven't returned, let's hurry inside and take a look."
"If danger crops up, run immediately."
Suddenly, Li Guanqi turned his head and saw Ke Qin, her eyes red and swollen, standing expressionlessly behind the group.
"I'm going too."
Her voice carried neither joy nor sorrow, as though she were a completely different person.
Li Guanqi looked at Ke Qin and said softly, "Since you've decided to change, endure it in silence instead of pulling a long face."
"If you don't want to change, no one is forcing you to."
Ke Qin rubbed her cheeks, her expression softening considerably.
Seeing that she had calmed down a bit, Li Guanqi began assigning roles: "Ke Qin, stand guard at the cave entrance. If those two beasts head back, notify us immediately!"
"The rest of you, follow me inside."
With that, they prepared to step out of the forest.
Ye Feng suddenly turned back to Ke Qin and said, "Don't blame him. It's for your own good."
"Having you watch the entrance means he's placing our lives completely in your hands!"
"Don't let us down."
Li Guanqi barked, "Move out!"
Whoosh!
The five-man squad sprinted forward in a diamond formation.
They dashed at tremendous speed, crossing the hundred zhang in mere breaths.
By now, the two spirit beasts had chased their quarry several hundred zhang away, completely oblivious to what was happening behind them.
Ke Qin pulled a brown guqin from her storage bag and instantly concealed herself behind a protruding boulder at the edge of the cave mouth.
The others rushed deep into the cavern.
The cave was three zhang wide and three zhang high, the ground excessively damp, feeling like rotten mud underfoot.
The air reeked of a foul stench, like a fish that had been dead and rotting for days.
Frowning, Li Guanqi unleashed both his mind's eye and divine sense, laying bare everything inside the cave.
Yet they had already ventured more than a hundred zhang inside. The deeper they went, the wilder his heart pounded.
The deeper they went, the longer it would take to run back out!
Gradually, the surrounding temperature dropped lower and lower.
Finally, a faint glow appeared ahead, and the space opened up before them!
The cavernous chamber inside spanned a full ten zhang across, with two enormous nests of grass sitting before them.
Everyone scrambled to search for treasures.
Zhong Lin's delighted voice rang out:
"Holy crap! There's a huge patch of Bigu Grass here! These are top-grade materials for refining Foundation Establishment Pills!"
"At the very least, they're a century old!"
With that, he began harvesting frantically.
Meanwhile, Li Guanqi asked, "Where's the good stuff you mentioned?"
He asked because he knew that, with the sword spirit's pride, she would never spare a second glance for mere herbs like these.
The sword spirit said softly, "See that pool in the corner? It's down there."
Li Guanqi hurried to the corner and indeed found a pool three feet across.
Yet this was only the pool's opening; the space beneath was vastly larger.
Li Guanqi instructed, "Call me immediately if anything happens!"
Under their astonished gazes, he dove straight into the pool.
The weight of the sword casket dragged him down swiftly. In this place, his mind's eye could see nothing at all.
Though Li Guanqi's expression remained steady as he released his divine sense, he discovered that his divine sense drained at an extreme rate underwater, lasting for half an incense stick at most.
Guided by the sword spirit, he quickly reached a wall deep within the pool.
A broad expanse of the rock wall shimmered with a silver glow!
"What is this?"
The sword spirit said softly, "Taiyi Treasure Silver! A fundamental material used by Core Formation cultivators to forge dharma artifacts, and even some spirit tools make use of it."
Without another word, Li Guanqi drew his longsword and began hacking away!
Yet after striking for a good while, the material remained completely unbudged.
Li Guanqi was running out of breath. Deciding on the spot, he braced his stance at the bottom of the water, channeled his surging essence, and slashed out with his sword!
Bang!
The entire slab of Taiyi Treasure Silver was cleaved off in one piece by the strike.
With a flick of his divine sense, Li Guanqi hurriedly stowed the Taiyi Treasure Silver away.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard the sword spirit's surprised voice.
"Huh? Wait! There seems to be Profound Treasure Spirit Sand beneath this!"
Li Guanqi had just turned around when he heard shouts from the group above!
After a brief hesitation, he snapped his sword back in a swift reverse slash, the longsword groaning under the strain with creaks and cracks.
From deep within the rock wall, a golden stone the size of a human head broke loose and fell.
Having grabbed the prize, Li Guanqi surged toward the surface!
Immediately following that, Ke Qin's frantic cry came through the jade slip.
"Run! Those two beasts are on their way back—they're only a hundred zhang away!"
Li Guanqi's heart sank abruptly. Barely a few breaths had passed, yet the beasts were already a mere hundred zhang from returning!
With the power of those two beasts, unless he could break through to Foundation Establishment right now, everyone was going to die!
Yet... once he broke through, he would be instantly teleported out of the mystic realm, and those left behind would still face certain death.
At their current speed, even if they ran back right now, they would run smack into the two beasts!
"What do we do... What do we do?!"
Cold sweat broke out uncontrollably across Li Guanqi's forehead.
Chapter 45