Chapter 276: Obtained

His anger, however, was hard to quell. The so-called rules enforced by the ten elders turned out to be as loose as a belt. Those who were supposed to uphold the law openly broke it.

The problem was that with their intervention, Chun was in danger. He didn't know if Chun had managed to finish what he was doing, or how long it would take.

Furthermore, the trick they were playing here had been exposed, which was too damaging.

Jin Guiqi, after staring at him, showed no sign of guilt. Instead, he pressed, "Wu Jinliang, did I say anything that violated the rules?"

It was Jin Guiqi whose eyes truly revealed a murderous intent—a blatant, undisguised one.

Wu Jinliang was stunned. "Violation? What violation? This junior does not understand."

Jin Guiqi withdrew his murderous gaze, a faint smile appearing on his face. He looked left and right and asked, "Gentlemen, do you see? The person involved doesn't even think I've violated any rules. Certain individuals shouldn't try to smear me or make baseless accusations."

Tang Weizong, an elder from Yanbao Sect, scowled. He pointed at Tong Mingshan. "Hey, what are you still doing carrying that brazier? Trying to fool someone?"

Tong Mingshan was embarrassed and, though angry, dared not speak. Seeing Wu Jinliang wave his hand as a signal, he immediately deactivated the divine fire display mode.

The ten elders had varying expressions. As expected, this young man had indeed absorbed the divine fire. He had only just entered, yet he had already found it.

Finding the conversation pointless, Wu Jinliang did not linger. He maintained his polite and reasonable demeanor. After respectfully saluting, he was about to take Tong Mingshan to where Lao Changtai was.

Jin Guiqi suddenly called out to him again. He pointed to the hillside of the mountain yonder and asked, "What do you mean by constantly jumping over there? What are those people doing?"

The other elders were also curious upon hearing this. They also wanted to know, as they had noticed it a while ago.

Wu Jinliang now wanted to mess with him, so it was impossible to tell him the truth. He quickly improvised, saying, "Ah, the entrance we came through encountered divine fire. A few of us were accidentally burned by it, making movement difficult, so we can only stay here and wait for the exit to open. They are foolish; they didn't even come to pay respects under the watchful eyes of you seniors. I'll have them come over to apologize now."

Who needed their respects? Without waiting for the seniors to respond, Wu Jinliang quickly darted away, and Tong Mingshan quickly followed suit.

As soon as the two landed on that hillside, Lao Changtai immediately asked, "What's the situation?"

"I'll tell you later," Wu Jinliang said. He first pointed to two disciples from the Four Cauldron Sect. "You two come with me to pay your respects to those ten old fogies."

One disciple from the Four Cauldron Sect, puzzled, asked, "Why do we need to pay respects?"

"It's for your own good," Wu Jinliang replied. "Those old rogues are getting suspicious. We need to deal with them. If you handle it well, you'll be safer staying here. Otherwise, who knows what despicable things they might do later. We must guard against these old rogues. No, you're too energetic. You need to fake it a bit, pretend to be badly injured. Yes, be a little weaker, to the point where you can't even speak properly..."

After his coaching, the two Four Cauldron Sect disciples indeed looked half-dead. Wu Jinliang then took one in each hand and bounded back with them. They feigned weakness and barely managed to salute.

The ten elders on the mountain top were all experts in handling fire. One look at the two injured individuals' wounds, and they knew it wasn't fake. They had indeed been burned by fire, and large areas of their skin and flesh were horribly scorched and blurred. It seemed they were seriously injured, so no wonder they had to stay here.

The ten elders' suspicions vanished. They had nothing more to say and waved their hands, so Wu Jinliang, with the two disciples, flew back.

Meanwhile, with Lao Changtai and Shen Moming, Tong Mingshan had already explained the general situation. Both were secretly alarmed that the old fellows on the mountain top had actually committed such a blatant violation.

Wu Jinliang, eager to leave, asked an extra question, "Old Shen, why did you come back?"

Shen Moming replied, "I certainly came to report something to the Chief. Now that something like this has happened, what should we do?"

"What else can we do?" Wu Jinliang said. "To be safe, we must obviously go for reinforcements. I need to find Xu Anchun and the others; you come with me."

"Alright," Shen Moming agreed.

Deciding to leave immediately and taking Tong Mingshan with them, the three quickly rode away on the Wind Scales.

Lao Changtai and the other two watched them leave with a sigh. Whether from Ming Shan Sect or Four Cauldron Sect, all three felt it was safest to stay put. Others might end up clashing with those from Shudao Mountain, and that was a force of hundreds riding Wind Scales!

Iron Forest was relatively close to the exit area. Before long, Wu Jinliang arrived with Tong and Shen.

For this leg of the journey, Tong Mingshan rode the Wind Scale. This was to allow Wu Jinliang and Shen Moming to recover, as both had previously ridden Wind Scales for a while and had consumed a lot of their magical energy.

Upon arrival, seeing that people from Four Cauldron Sect were still in the air, Wu Jinliang was too lazy to search for them individually. As soon as he landed, he drew his great saber and loudly banged the back of the blade against the iron mountain.

Soon, Xu Anchun and his group were drawn over.

Xu Anchun was somewhat annoyed. He wanted to ask if this big fellow was an idiot. "If you keep banging on the mountain like this, how can you ever find the divine fire? Is there anyone else in the world who searches for divine fire like you do?"

Suppressing his anger, he asked what was happening.

"What else could be happening?" Wu Jinliang explained the situation. He told everyone to stop searching for the divine fire, grab their weapons, and head to the ice plain, so they could lend a hand if any accidents occurred.

Others present were furious. They cursed the old fellows from the Ten Great Sects for not following the rules.

But Xu Anchun remained silent after hearing this.

Wu Jinliang glanced at him and sensed something was off. He immediately asked, "Brother Xu, what are you hesitating about? What's your meaning? This matter can't be delayed. Even a moment's delay means a moment's danger."

Xu Anchun said earnestly, "I have no other meaning; I'm just being realistic. I told Brother Chun before not to provoke Shudao Mountain. Their power is too great; we can't afford to offend them. But he wouldn't listen and insisted on taking the risk. And now, unfortunately, my words have come true.

"Brother Wu, it's not that I don't want to provide assistance. I still say, Shudao Mountain is powerful, and our few people going there would be useless. Frankly, if Brother Chun doesn't encounter Shudao Mountain's retaliatory force, he'll be fine. But if he does, whether we go or not, the outcome won't be any different. Forcing it makes no sense. Brother Wu, you know we have more important matters."

The scene suddenly fell silent. Tong Mingshan, Shen Moming, and Hao Ji, who were present, either exchanged glances or frowned in silence.

Wu Jinliang stared intently at Xu Anchun, one eyebrow nearly shooting up to the sky. He suddenly grinned and chuckled, "Since that's the case, we won't force you. I, Wu, am an unyielding man, standing tall and never begging for help.

"However, I must remind Brother Xu of something. I know Chun very well. If he truly falls into the hands of Shudao Mountain, he'll say anything to survive, I guarantee it. You know the reputation of those from the Land of Exile, and you also know the consequences. I suspect that your 'more important matters' are less important than keeping him silent."

After saying this, he waved to his own people and called out, "Those from Ming Shan Sect, follow me!"

It was unclear what Tong Mingshan and the others were thinking, but they all noisily rose into the air and followed him.

Xu Anchun's face twitched, and he gritted his teeth. He suspected the big fellow was bluffing him, but what the other party said wasn't without reason. People from the Land of Exile indeed had no reputation for morals or backbone, and he truly couldn't afford to take that gamble.

He wondered, "Even the Celestial Court wouldn't easily accept people from the Land of Exile. How dare the higher-ups associate with such people? Aren't they afraid of being betrayed?"

You Mu asked from the side, "What should we do?"

"Brother Wu, wait a moment! We'll go together!" Xu Anchun suddenly cast a spell and shouted loudly, calling his comrades from the Four Cauldron Sect to follow him.

He didn't have many people left there now; all together, there were only five. Even the one responsible for connecting with the Red Cloud Fortress undercover agent was taken along.

On the vast, boundless ice plain, only a thin ray of sunlight could be seen.

A group of people swiftly flew over. The hundred or so people from Shudao Mountain had finally rushed back. They did not immediately land, but first surveyed the area from above.

Soon, they discovered abnormalities. Collapsed ice valleys, blasted deep pits, and numerous spiderweb-like cracks shattered across the icy ground all proved that someone had caused a significant disturbance here after they left.

They then found spiderweb-like cracks extending far into the distance. They flew to a towering ridge, where they saw massive amounts of crystal-clear ice blocks, enough to fill valleys, and also saw collapsed ice mountains.

They landed on the ridge to observe.

"We searched everywhere here before, and these collapsed ice mountains weren't here then," Yuan Yao said to Gu Lianni.

Pang Hou pointed to the ice plain beyond the mountain. "Look, the impact cracks go all the way. Are they chasing the divine fire?"

Gu Lianni said, "How would they know where the divine fire is escaping under the ice? Therefore, we still need to be careful of tricks. Shi Chun is too cunning; this might be another trap to lure us away. Leave some people here. Don't rush off to catch the thief en masse like before, just because you hear the divine fire is gone or has been taken. He exploits our psychology, which is why he successfully pulled off this trick. Perhaps the divine fire is still here.

"Pang Hou, take a portion of the people and stay here. Everyone who participated in setting up the array should remain. Carefully check if all the related magical artifacts for the array are intact. Carefully check if there's still any divine fire aura here. There must be no oversight or error."

Pang Hou agreed, "Understood."

Gu Lianni continued, "As for the rest of you, come with me to follow the traces. The remainder should scatter across the ice plain and search everywhere. Don't miss anything suspicious!"

"Yes," the leading disciples replied in turn, accepting their orders.

Nearly twenty people rose into the air and followed Gu Lianni, continuing the pursuit...

Shi Chun was also relentlessly pursuing the divine fire across the ice plain. The undulating mountains had disappeared from view, and the landscape gradually transformed into a boundless plain of ice and snow. Ahead, it was gloomy, with no starlight visible, as if shrouded by thick dark clouds, while the sky behind him glowed a dark red.

Sparse snowflakes were still falling from the sky. These were large crystals, as big as the cross-section of an egg; as they drifted past, their symmetrical crystal structure was beautiful.

This terrain made Shi Chun feel uneasy. As long as the divine fire kept escaping, it would be difficult for him, with his cultivation, to force it out from underground. Thus, he could only periodically chase it and stomp heavily on the ground.

In fact, the divine fire's escape speed wasn't particularly fast now. The problem was that it kept escaping, making it hard to extract.

Especially with its iron resolve, no matter how he attacked or intimidated it, it stubbornly continued in one direction. It seemed to have been terrified by Shi Chun's Demon Dispelling Hand. He had no idea what was ahead that kept it relentlessly moving in that direction.

Behind him, Chu Jingtan and An Wuzhi were also constantly flying, following closely.

Chu Jingtan wanted to rest, but seeing An Wuzhi's reckless pursuit, he couldn't just stay behind alone. Besides, the surroundings were too empty, so empty it made one uneasy.

Just as Shi Chun wondered when this pursuit would end, a giant ice pillar suddenly appeared in his view ahead, over a hundred feet high and about fifty to sixty feet wide.

At first glance, there was nothing unusual. But the divine fire continued to rush towards it. After quickly approaching, it actually shot out from under the ice. Then it stopped fleeing and hovered up and down in front of the pillar, as if dancing, or perhaps recounting something, appearing highly agitated.

Having finally emerged, how could Shi Chun miss this chance? He lunged forward mid-air and encased it with a single palm strike. The misty green aura immediately trapped it within.

The divine fire thrashed frantically inside, unable to escape.

Shi Chun, having succeeded with one move, used the ice pillar to stop his momentum. He gracefully landed on the ground and finally let out a sigh of relief.