As he moved, Qin Sang pretended to study the protective spiritual array with complete concentration. Guiding himself by the Fire Jade Centipede's perception of the scarlet celestial pendant, he locked onto the Daoist nun's position.
He drew steadily closer until he reached the point of nearest approach, only to find his path blocked by the spiritual array guarding the medicine garden.
Without batting an eye, Qin Sang swept past that spot and continued searching for flaws in the spiritual array as before, taking care not to alert the enemy.
His target was indeed within the medicine garden, standing motionless somewhere inside.
And yet...
In the Fire Jade Centipede's senses, the Daoist nun did not seem to be truly inside the garden itself, but rather suspended above it—high in the sky!
Qin Sang was astonished, doubts crowding his mind. He cast what appeared to be an idle glance upward, but saw only churning fiend-winds, his view entirely obscured by layers of restrictive formations.
He recalled the sensation when he had first arrived: a boundary barrier seemed to encompass the summit of Dishou Mountain, joined with the Five Elements Divine Restriction to seal off this small pocket of heaven and earth.
At the time, he had not bothered to verify it. Even if confirmed, knowing would have made little difference. With his strength alone, breaking the barrier was impossible; rash action would only provoke a backlash and invite unnecessary danger.
Looking back now, Qin Sang caught a glimmer of understanding.
The difference between the Daoist nun's capabilities on the mountain and within the Five Elements Divine Restriction was vast. Inside the divine restriction, she came and went without a trace, her movements so elusive and unpredictable that Qin Sang had abandoned any thought of hunting her down.
Yet upon entering the mountain, her behavior had changed completely. Her movements were now clearly tracked by the Fire Jade Centipede. Unless she was putting on an act, she was clearly constrained.
Since the Fire Jade Centipede had never exposed itself, she had no reason to feign weakness.
A bold guess seemed warranted: perhaps the barrier incorporated the power of the Five Elements Divine Restriction, or perhaps the restriction served as its foundation, yet the overall barrier was not composed entirely of it. As a result, she could only borrow a portion of its might.
Though she hid within the barrier and remained concealed, stirring up trouble from the shadows, she was no longer moving with such effortless freedom.
New discoveries aligned with the details he had noticed earlier. Drawing upon his understanding of restrictions and formations, Qin Sang reached what seemed the most plausible conclusion.
If this was true, something could be done!
The crucial question was how to plot her downfall and capture her.
Qin Sang considered his own arsenal. His Daoist arts and treasures were mostly straightforward, head-on attacks, but his incarnation could deploy the Ice Soul Divine Light and the Great Profound Sky Qi Capturing Hands, after which his sword array could finish the job.
What rare herb was the woman using as bait, and who was her intended quarry?
As he pondered, a sudden gleam flashed in Qin Sang's eyes. Alarm spiked through him: the Daoist nun darted forward like a startled hare, exploding with absolute speed, hurtling straight toward the entrance of the medicine garden!
*She's making her move!*
Qin Sang was taken aback.
For her to spring the trap so quickly was unexpected. None of them had even stepped inside the garden yet, and the prey had not fully gathered!
At that very moment, Qin Sang felt rhythmic tremors pulsing through the garden's protective array, whipping the fiend-winds into a frenzy. Mo Xingdao and the others had begun attacking the formation.
Simultaneously, the peculiar fragrance grew abruptly intense.
With no time to deliberate, Qin Sang rushed back toward the entrance.
Yet the turn of events at the entrance unfolded far faster than anyone could have anticipated.
When Mo Xingdao had arrived, wary of the two masters' prowess, he had halted in the distance. Seeing that neither Daoist made a move, he had refrained from advancing rashly, though he had no intention of retreating either.
From where he stood, he could see the purple glint deep in Daoist Zilei's pupils, and the faint twitch of the Daoist's nostrils as if tracing the source of the exotic scent.
Mo Xingdao had already tried himself; the fragrance was faint and elusive, impossible to pin down, though he could tell it drifted from the garden.
Curious as to what methods Daoist Zilei would employ, he had lingered and watched.
At that point, Daoist Hegao, unable to find Qin Sang, had turned to cup his hands toward Mo Xingdao. "Fellow Daoist Mo has parted ways with Su Zinan?"
During the battle at the teleportation array, Mo Xingdao had aided Zhu Wudao's escape, sparking bad blood between them. Though irritated, Hegao had hidden it well, speaking in a pleasant tone.
"Fellow Daoist Su had other pressing matters," Mo Xingdao replied flatly, his responses as curt as ever.
Daoist Hegao frowned. "Fellow Daoist, you serve no prominent sect, yet you have achieved such cultivation and lived a free and uninhibited life—something Pindao has long admired. Since you are not a demonic cultivator, why do you continually throw in your lot with those demons?"
He hoped to seize the chance to persuade Mo Xingdao.
Though Mo Xingdao had wandered the Northern Barrens' demonic lands without staying entirely pristine, his savage methods were mostly directed at personal enemies, and he bore no great notoriety.
"I..."
Mo Xingdao suddenly fell silent.
Noticing the strange look in Mo Xingdao's eyes, Hegao turned and saw that his senior brother had already retracted his divine art. Daoist Zilei looked away, no longer paying attention to the medicine garden.
"Are there no heavenly treasures inside?" Hegao asked via voice transmission, noticing that his senior brother appeared entirely uninterested and seemed prepared to depart.
Daoist Zilei nodded slightly and said, "The aroma appears to be a blend of several fragrant herbs, such as Myriad Li Fragrance and Dewdrop Bright Epiphyllum. That is why the scent travels so far."
Hearing Daoist Zilei name those herbs, Hegao immediately recalled their properties. They were indeed rare spirit herbs, and their age was bound to be immense, capable of yielding pills of supreme efficacy.
In the outside world, these herbs would certainly be worth fighting over.
Yet how could they compare to the foremost spirit treasure of Zhongzhou?
Naturally, the garden might harbor treasures of greater worth, but it was undoubtedly riddled with restrictions. Searching it would be an immense hassle. If they delayed their bid for the spirit treasure because of it, the loss would far outweigh the gain.
Glancing at Mo Xingdao from the corner of his eye, Hegao felt a pang of reluctance at handing over such a massive treasure trove to someone else.
Mo Xingdao's instincts flared, and he quietly raised his guard.
Understanding well when to choose and when to let go, Daoist Zilei did not cast a second glance at Mo Xingdao and made as if to leave.
At that exact moment, perhaps due to the relentless accumulation of fiend-winds violently battering against it, combined with the fact that no one had maintained it for millennia, the protective spiritual array abruptly shuddered.
Daoist Zilei's brow twitched, and he whipped around.
Mo Xingdao and Daoist Hegao also sensed the disturbance and looked toward the entrance in unison.
*Boom!*
The stone cottage at the entrance swayed violently, threatening to collapse. Yet none of the three looked at the cottage; their eyes were fixed on the rock face above.
Over the knoll, a layer of transparent light materialized out of thin air. As the light wall became visible, an azure silhouette abruptly emerged, pressed tightly against its surface.
It was an azure vine, its base as thick as a sapling, requiring no support to stand upright.
The vine brimmed with boundless vitality, its foliage lush and emerald green. Beneath the dense leaves hung what seemed to be fruit; two clusters of milky-white radiance seeped through the gaps between the leaves.
The glow was gentle yet exerted an uncanny allure, making one's heart itch with the burning desire to discover what sort of fruit lay hidden within.
The leaves pressed hard against the barrier, their stems writhing like tentacles as though seeking to burrow through the light.
"Eh?"
Daoist Zilei froze slightly, finding the azure vine somewhat familiar, though he could not place it right away.
*Sizzle!*
The barrier of light suddenly unleashed crackling lightning, striking the azure vine squarely.
As if experiencing agony like a living creature, the vine recoiled violently. It slumped to the ground, shriveled inward, and vanished in an instant.
"A transformed spirit herb?" Hegao gasped, before immediately correcting himself. "No, not a full transformation, but it has birthed spirituality and can move freely. There must be an unbroken sealing restriction inside—it was trying to break out..."
Halfway through his words, Hegao noticed that both his senior brother and Mo Xingdao wore entirely different expressions. Mo Xingdao in particular was beaming with unmasked joy, naked greed surfacing in his gaze.
Hegao was startled, and his mind immediately flashed back to that fleeting glimpse when the vine had curled back.
The vine's fruit had been round and lustrous like a delicate full moon. Its spiritual radiance conjured illusions of celestial cassia trees and the Lunar Palace, where celestial maidens danced gracefully around the heavenly fruit...
Hegao's mouth fell slightly agape, his voice trembling.
"Could that be..."
"The Lingxi Celestial Fruit!" Daoist Zilei's voice rang out.
A single spark of affinity, answering the celestial mechanisms!
Rumor held that even in ancient times, this herb had been an exceptionally rare heavenly treasure—a supreme medicine used for Deity Transformation.
Ever since entering the Wuxiang Immortal Sect, Daoist Zilei's composure had remained unshaken, but now, ripples of emotion disturbed his expression. He stood merely half a step away from Deity Transformation, yet that step was like an impassable chasm, demanding an external catalyst to bridge the gap.
The Sword Tomb was undoubtedly the optimal choice.
While the Lingxi Celestial Fruit could not compare to the Sword Tomb, it was still a medicine almost unheard of in this mortal realm, something not even Bajing Abbey possessed.
Who would have guessed the Wuxiang Immortal Sect harbored such a treasure!
If he obtained the Lingxi Celestial Fruit, his hopes of attaining Deity Transformation would soar, allowing him to return to his original plan. Once he achieved Deity Transformation, every difficulty would unravel effortlessly—why would he need to exhaust mind and soul contesting over a spirit treasure?
*Boom!*
A muffled crack split the air.
A streak of purple lightning tore through the fiend-winds, and in the blink of an eye, Daoist Zilei appeared right at the medicine garden's entrance.
Hegao shared a tacit understanding with his senior brother and knew precisely how crucial this fruit was. His immediate instinct was to bar outsiders from interfering. He promptly summoned the Jade Smoke Flying Stream, intending to block Mo Xingdao, when he suddenly sensed wave after wave of fluctuations rippling through the fiend-winds behind Mo Xingdao.
Someone else had arrived!
Furthermore, Qin Sang, who had vanished earlier, was surely watching from the dark. Seeing them break the spiritual array, he would inevitably be drawn in.
In that case, they would face at least three great cultivators as competitors.
Even with Hegao's profound cultivation, he felt a surge of pressure.
That momentary hesitation gave Mo Xingdao ample time to react. He spat out a mouthful of profound qi and directed it from afar toward Daoist Hegao—not to clash with him directly, but to strike the area beside the entrance.
Pounded by the fiend-winds, the protective array had been shuddering incessantly.
During their brief standoff, they had all analyzed the formation in secret, having long since deduced its weakest points, which were not limited to the entrance itself.
In a flash of insight, Hegao decided against making things difficult for Mo Xingdao. If Mo Xingdao joined the fray, the array would crumble faster; capturing the Lingxi Vine before the other rivals arrived would ultimately work to their advantage.
Noticing Mo Xingdao's unruffled expression, Hegao gave him a deep, assessing look, secretly admiring his nerve. With a swift shift of his body, Hegao dashed to Daoist Zilei's side, and the two fellow disciples combined their strength to bombard the spiritual array.
In an instant, deafening roars erupted from the entrance.
A lightning seal emerged on Daoist Zilei's brow, and bolts of violent purple thunder struck relentlessly against the mist formed by the array.
Hegao pushed his Jade Smoke Flying Stream to its absolute limit, surging alongside the purple lightning like two mighty rivers, their boundless True Essence churning like torrential rapids.
At the same time, his other hand held high the Azure Silk Treasure Umbrella, fending off the backlash ripples of the array.
With both Daoist masters displaying their divine might, Mo Xingdao refused to fall behind. His burst of profound qi morphed and swelled to the size of a millstone, crashing heavily into the formation and sending violent tremors through it with every strike.
*Bang!*
Three great cultivators attacked with all their might.
The fierce shockwaves penetrated inside, causing the stone cottage to crumble first.
The light wall atop the rock face was also shaking, yet it remained remarkably sturdy. During this time, the azure vine tried to ram through once more, only to be driven back by the restrictions on the wall.
Its instincts seemed to sense the encroaching peril, driving it to struggle with desperate fervor.
Next, the three deployed specialized treasures designed to break restrictions. After a violent shudder, the thin mist at the entrance was finally blasted open with a tear by the two Daoists. The breach would only last a brief moment, but for Daoist Zilei, that was more than enough.
The purple glow on his forehead flared brightly as the lightning seal detached and shot into the fissure. At the same time, Hegao hurled his Azure Silk Treasure Umbrella inside, and Mo Xingdao's millstone of profound qi smashed through the parting clouds.
*Rumble!*
The entrance could finally endure no more. The clouds shattered with a roar, and staggering shockwaves swept outward.
In the space of a breath, two blurred figures materialized atop the stone wall, arriving right before the light wall. Yet the azure vine was nowhere to be seen.
Mo Xingdao had failed to evade the array's shockwaves entirely. Somewhat disheveled and a step behind, he charged into the garden just in time to see Daoist Zilei thrust his palm forward, pressing into the barrier with infinite purple lightning.
There was no world-shaking blast of thunder; his palm simply pierced through the light wall, shattering it into fragments.
Without an ounce of hesitation, the two Daoists stepped through the barrier and unleashed their divine senses, sweeping outward in the most domineering fashion.
The two worked in seamless coordination, each scanning half of the grounds. Though the knoll was larger than expected, searching it took the combined efforts of the two Daoists merely a split second.
Mo Xingdao's expression shifted slightly. He hurried up the hill, and though he deliberately gave them a wide berth, he still felt himself pinned by their senses, the pressure mounting steeply.
Yet the moment he reached the crest of the knoll, both Daoists suddenly fixed their gazes upon him. The shards of the light wall drifting before him were bathed in an azure glow.
"The vine!"
Mo Xingdao's eyes narrowed. Before he could see clearly, he instinctively channeled True Essence into his palm and grabbed forward.
*Whoosh!*
Mo Xingdao froze on the spot. His grasp had caught only empty air; the azure vine dissolved, proving to be nothing more than an illusion.
Yet the attacks of the two Daoists did not pause for his realization.
Thunder boomed in his ears, accompanied by the crashing roar of sea waves—undoubtedly the Jade Smoke Flying Stream.
At the same time, a voice rang out from behind: "Does Fellow Daoist intend to monopolize the celestial fruit for yourself?"
It was the Poison King, who had just arrived and caught sight of the Lingxi Celestial Fruit.
Caught in a three-sided pincer attack, thunderous True Essence roared deafeningly, completely engulfing Mo Xingdao's figure. Qin Sang, hurrying in from the distance, witnessed this very scene, though his attention was focused elsewhere.
At that moment, another figure appeared behind the Poison King: Su Zinan had arrived last.
He had originally entered alongside Qin Sang, lagging only slightly behind on the Heavenly Ladder. However, knowing that he and Mo Xingdao were associates, the Daoist nun had feared he might raise an alarm and had specifically deployed measures to hinder him, causing him to fall behind even the Poison King.
Qin Sang was being hunted by them and was hardly about to warn Mo Xingdao, so the nun had not singled him out for such treatment.
In truth, her worries had been entirely unnecessary; Su Zinan was not that kind-hearted.
As Su Zinan swept onto the scene, his eyes narrowed at the sight of Mo Xingdao being besieged.
This sight was all too familiar!
The trio's objective was the celestial fruit. As long as Mo Xingdao yielded, their strikes would probably not be fatal. But what about the Daoist nun lurking in the dark?
"Fellow Daoist Mo, watch out!" Su Zinan shouted.
His demonic banner made its first public appearance, but the two demonic souls did not move to shield Mo Xingdao; instead, they struck straight for him.
The opportunity was fleeting, and he acted like a hunter swooping in to snatch the prey.
*Clang!*
A sound like clashing metal rang out.
To everyone's astonishment, the figure standing where Mo Xingdao had been transformed into a dark-skinned, bizarre man.
Su Zinan's face turned dark as coal, and he ground out four words between his teeth: "Late Nascent Soul puppet!"
Chapter 1665