Chapter 527: Got Two Trees

In this environment where not even a shred of light was offered, "chatting" was the Golden-furred Rat clan's only entertainment.

This spirit of finding joy amidst suffering was also the secret to their endurance through countless years of hardship.

Of course, during their chats, someone would always take turns by the entrance to prevent any inappropriate gossip from being overheard by outsiders.

Recently, a group of larger rats particularly enjoyed gathering around Huang Yingying to hear him talk about the outside world. Huang Yingying did not disappoint them, appearing very knowledgeable, and his vivid descriptions of romantic scenes greatly broadened their horizons.

Moreover, Huang Yingying constantly spoke of someone coming to rescue him, and that he would ask that person to rescue the entire clan as well. This made the group of larger rats very hopeful, and they increasingly enjoyed listening to his empty promises.

After all, there was nothing cheerful here, and no other rat's promises were as enticing as Huang Yingying's.

The cave's prison gate was not locked, yet not a single Golden-furred Rat dared to escape.

They knew they couldn't escape; even if they got past the cliff, they couldn't get past the grand formation set up by their ancestors. And if even one Golden-furred Rat was found missing, all the clan members imprisoned there would suffer severe collective punishment, which was brutal.

After accompanying Qiu Ben back to the Extreme Fire Sect's lodging, Poyuan went to the main peak again. On a hillock secondary to the main peak, he saw Feng Jue, the Regional Commander of the Central District, clad in golden armor and practicing with a spear.

Catching sight of Poyuan, Feng Jue gracefully concluded his spear practice, his movements like a dancing dragon and phoenix. He planted his spear on the ground and asked, "What is it?"

Poyuan approached, cupped his hands in greeting, and then reminded him, "My Lord, Granny Qi and her group have no restrictions on the mountain; they can wander anywhere. The Extreme Fire Sect group can also roam freely. Is this appropriate? I always feel something is amiss."

Feng Jue said dismissively, "What could possibly happen? You're worrying too much and bringing trouble upon yourself. Go back and rest early."

Poyuan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately said nothing more. He cupped his hands and took his leave.

In fact, he knew this would be the outcome. This commander, who prided himself on being of divine descent, was too arrogant. All Poyuan wanted to do was prove his foresight should anything unforeseen occur.

He wished to express this foresight even more before the Divine Maiden, but he couldn't find a suitable opportunity to speak.

In the Northern District's central hub, Jiang You'er entered and went upstairs. She knelt beside Huang Ye, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, and reported, "My Lord, after Qiu Ben of the Extreme Fire Sect visited the service office, he arranged for several people to lie in ambush around it."

Huang Ye slightly opened his eyes and snorted, "It seems he truly believed Poyuan's nonsense and set his sights on Huang Yingying. Shi Chun and his group are outside, not on the mountain, so they are probably not the target at the moment. It appears they've also taken an interest in Granny Qi and her group, and are waiting to see what happens."

Jiang You'er nodded in agreement.

In a secluded corner of the mountain, Wu Jinliang was guarding a pile of A Xun's belongings. He picked up each item, trying all sorts of ways to gesture with them into the void. An uninformed observer would surely think him insane, but Wu Jinliang himself remained tirelessly engrossed.

Shi Chun, occasionally glancing at him, paid him no mind and continued to keep watch, observing his surroundings. Suddenly, he fixed his gaze on the distant night sky and slowly stood up.

As soon as midnight arrived, the scene he wanted to verify unfolded as expected.

In the distant sky, a golden flying rainbow, illuminating the hazy world, appeared. It flew all the way, heading directly towards the angle he had chosen.

The flying rainbow, like an ancient golden dragon, was soon obstructed in the sky above. The close-range shockwave scene was breathtaking, like a silent, eternal hymn.

An invisible arc-shaped surface abruptly blocked the golden rainbow. The agitated golden rainbow, like a surging, epoch-making wave, streaked across the curved surface with dazzling light and majestically continued its journey into the depths of the endlessly mysterious void.

Occasionally, some golden light, like stray fragments, pierced through the invisible arc-shaped surface. These truly resembled a sparse meteor shower as they streamed towards the mountain range where they were located.

When the golden meteors impacted the mountain, there was no sound. Instead, they passed through as if nothing was there, instantly penetrating the mountain. They only stopped when they hit the shadows of trees on the other side of the mountain – specifically, the Soul-Reversal Trees.

Some Soul-Reversal Trees on this side of the mountain were also struck. The impacted Soul-Reversal Trees vibrated violently. The golden light that struck the trees seemed to instantly present its most brilliant moment, rapidly merging its life light into the Soul-Reversal Tree. In an instant, it burned itself out and vanished without a trace.

These scenes made Shi Chun turn his head left and right, unable to take it all in. Suddenly, he widened his eyes as he saw a golden streak of light heading straight for him.

It was so fast that by the time he noticed it, it was too late to dodge. He instinctively cast a spell to defend himself, but the golden light effortlessly passed through his Devil-Bathing Cultivation's protection and smoothly penetrated his physical body. Yet, his body felt nothing.

He sharply turned his head, only to see the golden light strike the Soul-Reversal Tree behind him. The tree vibrated, and the golden light merged into it and disappeared.

But a fragrance suddenly intensified, spreading and blossoming, refreshing the mind and spirit.

This scene made Shi Chun, who took a deep breath, realize that he had indeed guessed correctly: the intensified fragrance on the divine mountain at midnight was indeed related to this golden meteor shower.

Wu Jinliang didn't know what had happened, busy pondering how to use A Xun's belongings. At this moment, he couldn't help but twitch his nostrils. He looked around, saw Shi Chun's reaction, and couldn't help but ask softly, "Did that thing come?"

Shi Chun nodded slightly. "That's right, it's related to that."

Wu Jinliang looked around. Well, he couldn't see anything. He had already heard Shi Chun describe the general scene anyway, so out of sight, out of mind, he went back to his own tasks.

As Shi Chun gradually recovered from the shocking spectacle of the cosmic phenomenon, he instinctively pondered a question based on what he had seen: Did these golden meteors affect the growth of Soul-Reversal Trees? If there was a positive impact, was the increasing scarcity of Soul-Reversal Trees truly only due to logging? Or could it be related to the obstruction caused by the 'Big Dipper Spirit-Repelling Formation'?

Regarding this, he could only speculate. It was not an answer he could ascertain through brief observation.

Just as the aerial phenomenon disappeared into the distance, Wu Jinliang, who was nearby, suddenly let out an exclamation of surprise.

Hearing the sound, Shi Chun turned to look. He saw Wu Jinliang holding an egg-sized small jar in one hand and a dagger in the other. The dagger was stuck into a rock.

Wait, how could a rock be floating in the void?

Shi Chun, who hadn't seen clearly in the dark, widened his eyes to scrutinize, only to realize it was stuck into a piece of floating bark. Combining this with the image from his right eye's ability, he realized—good heavens—Wu Jinliang's dagger was stuck in a Soul-Reversal Tree.

"Chuntian, Chuntian, quick, quick, quick, look!" Wu Jinliang yelped softly, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Any fool would know his attempt must have succeeded.

He didn't need to shout; Shi Chun had already seen it, realizing that the visible area of the Soul-Reversal Tree was rapidly expanding.

It wasn't exactly fast, more like burnt food bubbling in a pot.

After watching for a moment, Shi Chun moved closer to Wu Jinliang and asked, "What's going on?"

Wu Jinliang pulled out the dagger and showed him the small jar in his hand. "I just scraped a bit of stuff out of here to try, and then this happened."

Shi Chun took the small jar. He squinted at it under the starlight, unable to see clearly and not daring to create any light. By feel, it seemed to be some kind of pale yellow paste. He sniffed it, but there was no smell, so he couldn't tell what it was.

He then looked at the dagger in Wu Jinliang's hand and asked, "It's not because of the dagger?"

Wu Jinliang assured him, "Absolutely not. I've used the dagger countless times, and there was never any reaction. This change only happened after I applied this stuff."

Shi Chun immediately pulled out his own dagger. He first jabbed it into another Soul-Reversal Tree to confirm it had no effect. Then he dipped his blade into the small jar and scraped out some paste, and then stabbed it into that Soul-Reversal Tree.

Soon, the dagger felt a tangible resistance from the void. A moment later, a physical object appeared in the void, and a piece of tree bark materialized out of thin air.

The two brothers exchanged glances, both showing joy, knowing they had succeeded.

Wu Jinliang quietly flattered him, "The Boss is truly brilliant. You could even figure this out. If not for the Boss's foresight, we might never have found this method."

Shi Chun replied, "You put effort into it too."

Wu Jinliang chuckled repeatedly and gestured with his chin towards the small jar. "What is this stuff?"

Shi Chun replied, "I don't know. Zhu Xiangxin comes from the Myriad Herb Hall and knows a lot about various pharmacology. We'll take it to her to examine later."

Wu Jinliang's dagger tip reached into the jar again. "Get more on the blade, and jab it a few more times so these two trees will materialize quickly and we can dig them out, otherwise they might be discovered."

Shi Chun, however, pushed his dagger away. "We don't know what this stuff is right now, nor if we can get more later. Use it sparingly. No one should be coming this way anytime soon."

With that, he carefully put the small jar away.

Alright, Wu Jinliang had no choice but to sheath his dagger and collect A Xun's belongings from the ground.

Then the two brothers waited beneath the gradually materializing Soul-Reversal Trees.

Fortunately, the materialized Soul-Reversal Trees showed no other abnormalities, but this did not prevent Shi Chun from becoming even more vigilant of his surroundings.

After waiting for a while, once both trees had fully materialized, Shi Chun said, "Pull it out, be careful, and go slow."

His gesture of looking around clearly indicated he would continue to keep watch.

Wu Jinliang chuckled and waved his hand. "No need to pull them out, Chuntian, just support them."

With that, he squatted on the ground, placing one hand on the soil, and directly cast an Earth Evasion Technique. The soil on the ground quickly melted and spread outwards.

Shi Chun immediately understood what he meant and quickly wrapped his arms around the tree.

Soon, the Soul-Reversal Tree, with its roots completely intact, was lifted by Shi Chun. He suddenly freed one hand, revealed the Qiankun bracelet on his wrist, and instantly stored the entire tree inside.

The second tree was handled in the same way.

After they finished, Wu Jinliang asked, "Since we managed to get in, should we take a few more trees out?"

Shi Chun lightly cursed, "Are you crazy? We don't even know how to use them yet; let's figure that out first. Restore the ground."

After Wu Jinliang filled the hole in the ground and swept some weeds and leaves over it for concealment, the two quickly descended the mountain.

Since they were already here, and the place where Huang Yingying was confined was right at the foot of this main mountain range, the two directly crept towards the service office.

After much effort, they reached the vicinity of the service office cliff. Shi Chun suddenly grabbed Wu Jinliang's arm and pulled him down into a crouch.

"What's wrong?" Wu Jinliang asked.

Shi Chun whispered, "There are people in ambush around the cliff; I'm not sure if they are guards or something else. Their vantage points seem carefully chosen; it would be easy to be discovered if we approached."

Wu Jinliang asked, surprised and doubtful, "What should we do then? The terrain here is all rock, so my Earth Evasion Technique is useless!"

Shi Chun observed his surroundings, looked at the sky, and after carefully studying the environment, he muttered, "It's late at night; it shouldn't be a big problem."

As he spoke, he actually pulled out a mirror. It was none other than the 'Three Corpses Mirror'.

Wu Jinliang chuckled, instantly understanding what he meant.

Shi Chun pulled up the face covering from his neck, concealing his face.

Wu Jinliang followed suit, then crouched low and stealthily followed Shi Chun's movements.

After carefully selecting and approaching one of the hidden observers, and repeatedly checking the angles of the other hidden observers, Shi Chun made a gesture to Wu Jinliang. The 'Three Corpses Mirror' in his hand swiftly shot out a black light, enveloping the nearest hidden observer.

The two brothers also darted out quickly.

As they darted out, Shi Chun continuously adjusted the mirror's illumination angle.

They flashed past and descended along the cliff face into the gorge. When the mirror's angle could no longer illuminate, he quickly withdrew the black light.

The hidden observer above instinctively looked around. He had suddenly felt the world darken, and all insect sounds had abruptly ceased, then instantly returned to normal. He instinctively dismissed it as a momentary illusion.

The light at the bottom of the cliff grew increasingly dim. After they proceeded some distance in the dark, Shi Chun stopped, pulled Wu Jinliang, and whispered, "There's a large rat keeping watch at the cave entrance; its cultivation should not be high. Try not to make any noise. I'll go subdue it first and ask about the situation."

Wu Jinliang softly hummed in agreement.

Shi Chun swiftly crept over. It was as easy as catching something within reach; with a single immobilization spell, he seized the guard rat and brought it back to Wu Jinliang for interrogation.

Wu Jinliang, however, felt that this large rat was dishonest. In the dim light, why were its shifty eyes constantly sizing him up?

After giving the large rat a warning, Shi Chun then released the rat's restrictions, preparing to question it.

To their surprise, the large rat first politely looked at Wu Jinliang and said, "Excuse me, are you Gao and Grandpa Gao?"

"What the hell?" The two brothers were startled. This was utterly illogical.

Wu Jinliang instinctively kept touching his face. It hadn't fallen off; the face covering was still perfectly in place.