"Traitor? I see." Ye Lanshan's gaze flickered, showing some concern for the matter.
"Mm, young master, please be very careful. Also, I feel like I can't control myself—there might be something inside me that I don't know about. I wonder if you could help me remove it." Qingdai clutched her chest, where a wrenching pain threatened to make her faint.
"Don't worry. Everything those madmen left inside you will vanish without a trace."
Ye Lanshan chanted a spell rapidly. Qingdai could feel something squirming inside her, like worms, all gathering in her throat. With the sensation of wriggling, she retched violently and vomited.
On the ground lay a mass of pale, writhing creatures, wriggling like maggots. Qingdai couldn't help but vomit again, unable to believe such disgusting things had been living inside her. It was too revolting.
A flash of fire on the ground, and the mass of worms vanished into thin air, leaving not even a speck of ash.
"Relax. With me here, nothing will go wrong. I will definitely rescue Xiari and Huo Feiyan." Ye Lanshan placed a hand on Qingdai's shoulder.
Qingdai's lips moved as if to speak, but no words came out. A complex look flickered in her eyes, and she finally let out a quiet sigh, hoping the young master wouldn't be too heartbroken when she found out the truth.
"Clan leader, what exactly were you doing?" A nondescript man, short and stocky with little presence, spoke with a hint of accusation in his tone.
"Do I need to report everything I do to you?" Ye Lanshan exuded a heavy pressure, and the man's eyes shrank, clearly afraid to meet her gaze.
"What are you doing in here again?" Huntian lay lazily on the ground, his idle demeanor far less endearing than when he was a child.
Indeed, Huntian had now taken the form of a youth. His handsome features, though not fully matured, were already strikingly refined, and his physique was impeccable. But his lazy mannerisms increasingly resembled Ye Lanshan's, lacking the liveliness of his younger days.
"Training, of course. What else would I be doing in here?" Ye Lanshan stepped into the spirit spring, frantically absorbing its spiritual energy.
The water in the spring was rich with spiritual power, but under Ye Lanshan's relentless cultivation, it was steadily diminishing.
Time flew during training. Two days passed in a blink, and Ye Lanshan's eyes snapped open. She felt her spiritual energy surging, on the verge of breaking through to the Golden Core stage. She had thought she'd need pills, but now she could even skip them.
But when she looked down, a strange sound escaped her: "What's going on? I only trained for a little while—how is the spring water almost dry?"
Huntian rolled his eyes in exasperation. "It's all because of you. I've never seen you this reckless, absorbing spiritual energy like you're trying to die. I'm afraid you'll explode from the strain."
"Can the spring water recover?" Ye Lanshan asked worriedly. If it couldn't, where would she find such dense spiritual energy again?
"It can recover, but very slowly. If only we had a Spirit Twin Xuan Flower." Huntian shook his head with a sigh.
Ye Lanshan, feeling the surging spiritual energy within her, had no time to listen further. She quickly memorized the name "Spirit Twin Xuan Flower" and dashed out of the space into the Sunset Mountain Range.
Dark clouds gathered rapidly in the sky, thunder rumbling deafeningly. Ye Lanshan calmly stared upward, awaiting the descent of heavenly lightning.
The Golden Core was finally formed. She had entered the Golden Core stage.
With a serene smile, Ye Lanshan stepped onto the enlarged version of her Devourer, soaring freely. Though she had reached the Golden Core stage before—even achieving the Mahayana stage in her past life—none of it brought her as much joy as this.
"Clan leader, you're back." Ling Chunian had been eagerly awaiting Ye Lanshan's return, hoping she would lift their seals soon.
"This seal is quite difficult to break." Even just unlocking Ling Chunian's seal left Ye Lanshan drenched in sweat, her spiritual energy completely drained. It showed just how powerful the one who sealed them was.
"How did your mother pass away?" Ling Chunian was wiping Ye Lanshan's sweat with a handkerchief when the question made her hand pause.
"Is it inconvenient to say? If so, forget it." Ye Lanshan had only wanted to understand why, given her mother's strength, she had acted so timidly. But if Ling Chunian didn't want to talk, she'd drop it.
"She didn't die—she just disappeared. She said she was going to Cloud Island to find a way home. She claimed this wasn't our true home; our real home was in the Jade Soul Continent. She never came back after that." Ling Chunian's voice was flat, as if recounting something unrelated to her.
"Cloud Island? The Jade Soul Continent again? How deeply am I tied to that place?" Ye Lanshan murmured under her breath.
"Clan leader, what did you say?" Ling Chunian hadn't caught it.
"Oh, nothing. It's just that I can only unseal one person per day now." Ye Lanshan rubbed her tired brow, her face pale from the spiritual energy depletion.
"It's fine. As long as we know the seal can be broken, we don't mind waiting a little longer."
"..."
"Lanshan, Ye Yutian seems to be in trouble." Mu Xinlian was in the Sunset Mountain Range, watching Ye Yutian cough up blood, his face pale from severe injuries, with several disciples from the Holy Land chasing him.
"What happened?" There shouldn't have been any trouble. When the Holy Land sent people up, she had already sent Mu Xinlian to find Ye Yutian. How could there be problems?
"We were set up. Those madmen were waiting for us to walk into the trap. It seems they know all our plans. Now the Holy Land's attention is all on Ye Yutian."
"Lanshan, I suspect there's a mole. How else would they know our plans?" Mu Xinlian's long nails deflected an attack aimed at Ye Yutian.
"I understand. Hold on a bit longer." Ye Lanshan quickly began restoring her spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth swirled around her like a vortex, centering on her. Ling Chunian's eyes flashed with surprise. She had thought herself talented, but Ye Lanshan was simply a monster.
"Whoosh~"
Her spiritual energy had recovered somewhat. She couldn't afford to waste another second—every moment of delay put Ye Yutian in greater danger.
She didn't know why, but the moment she heard Ye Yutian was in danger, her heart raced with uncontrollable worry, and a strange emotion swelled in her chest.
"Ye Yutian, surrender. You can't escape." Yun Fengqing approached him with a gentle, refined smile.
"Escape? Did I ever say I was running?" Ye Yutian narrowed his eyes, a dense killing intent surging from him.