15: Chapter 15 The Treasure-Hunting Rats Set Sail, Lin Tian's Opportunity is About to Arrive!

The first light of dawn broke through, pale cyan rays piercing the layers of mist surrounding Luoye Peak.

Inside the simple, crude servant's wooden hut, the air was permeated with the damp chill peculiar to early morning.

Lin Tian lay on the hard wooden plank bed, his heavy eyelids struggling for a moment before he slowly opened his bloodshot eyes.

The frustration from practicing his sword technique last night, the humiliation of being ignored by Gu Yi, coupled with a whole night of defenseless nightmares, made his body ache as if filled with lead.

He took a deep breath of the cold air, habitually raised his right hand, and the pad of his thumb gently caressed the mysterious black iron ring on his index finger.

"Senior, it is dawn."

Lin Tian called out softly in his heart, his tone carrying a touch of morning laziness and habitual reliance.

Silence.

There was no response in his mind—none of the usual lazy, playful, and inscrutable female voice.

Lin Tian was stunned for a moment, assuming he had woken up too early and that Senior was still in a deep sleep.

He mobilized the faint, newly recovered bit of Spiritual Qi in his Dantian, slowly guiding it along his Meridians into the mysterious black iron ring, attempting to knock on the door of that Divine Soul space.

The moment his Spiritual Qi touched the mysterious black iron ring, it was like a clay ox entering the sea; it didn't stir up a single ripple.

Not only that, Lin Tian discovered with horror that this mysterious ring, which originally contained a vast space and constantly emitted obscure fluctuations, had now turned into a piece of completely dead iron.

The subtle connection it had with his Divine Soul had been completely severed.

"Senior? Senior Ji!"

Lin Tian sat up abruptly from the wooden plank bed, all color draining from his face in an instant.

He didn't bother to dress properly, clutching the ring tightly with both hands, desperately pouring all the remaining Spiritual Qi in his body into it.

There was no response.

The cold iron bit painfully into his palm, yet it could not convey a shred of warmth.

A feeling called panic, like thorny vines, tightly coiled around Lin Tian's heart.

Could it be that Senior had left in a fit of anger because of his incompetent rage last night?

Or did that bastard Gu Yi do something behind his back?

No, impossible!

Lin Tian bit his lower lip hard; the pain helped him regain a shred of rationality from his panic.

Gu Yi had only passed by him last night without even sparing him a glance; how could he have tampered with this high-level Magic Treasure from a distance?

As for Senior leaving, that was even more absurd.

Senior had said it herself: she was now just a wisp of a remnant soul, and without his Spiritual Qi to nourish her, she would experience Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering within half a day of leaving the ring.

Throughout the entire Xuantian Sect, besides himself, who else could afford to nourish her?

She had absolutely no other choice!

"It must have been that I was too anxious last night when I forcibly operated my Cultivation Technique to draw in the star and moon Spiritual Qi, which caused an issue. Senior must have exhausted her last bit of Soul Power to protect my heart Meridians, falling into a deep slumber!"

Lin Tian frantically searched for a logical explanation for this turn of events in his heart, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt this must be the truth.

Senior was so weak, yet to protect him, an incompetent Junior, she had gone so far as to overdraw her Origin.

And he, just last night, had been complaining about her coldness.

A wave of intense guilt and self-reproach surged into his heart, followed immediately by a sense of desperate determination.

"Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire... Yes, Senior once said that a cluster of ownerless Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire is hidden in the Secret Realm behind the mountain!"

Lin Tian abruptly raised his head, his eyes burning with fanatical flames, "As long as I can find that cluster of Spiritual Fire, not only will my cultivation improve by leaps and bounds, but that massive, pure energy will definitely be able to reawaken Senior!"

He quickly rolled out of bed, swiftly put on his washed-out gray Outer Sect Disciple uniform, and grabbed the standard long sword from the head of his bed.

Pushing open the wooden door, Lin Tian faced the cold morning wind of Luoye Peak, took one last look in the direction of Guhan Cliff on the main peak, and a cruel, cold smile curled the corner of his lips.

Gu Yi, you can just keep blowing in your cold wind at Guhan Cliff.

Once I retrieve the Spiritual Fire from the Secret Realm behind the mountain, that will be the day you, my high and mighty Senior Brother, will be thoroughly trampled under my feet!

Without a moment's hesitation, Lin Tian leaped into the morning mist, galloping away without looking back towards the Forbidden Ground behind the mountain.

At the same time, Lanyue Peak, at the bottom of Guhan Cliff.

The warm scent of sulfur had completely dispelled the bitter cold inside the canyon.

Gu Yi stood quietly by the hot spring pool, his white robes fluttering gently in the breeze.

In the pool, Fei Yuechan was leaning against the edge of the warm jade stone, her breathing long and steady.

The process of completely eradicating the cold poison had obviously exhausted her greatly; this ice-cold Revered Master, who was usually high and mighty, was currently sleeping like a defenseless Mortal woman.

Amidst the swirling steam, that stunningly beautiful face had shed all its coldness and majesty, revealing a touch of endearing fragility.

Gu Yi did not disturb her.

He took a warm-radiating Flame Sun Jade from his storage ring and gently placed it at the Formation eye by the pool, ensuring the temperature in this small area would not drop due to the morning dew.

After doing all this, Gu Yi turned and walked out of the canyon.

Just as he stepped outside the edge of the Formation, a soft ripple spread through his Sea of Consciousness.

"Little lover, up so early? After such a toss last night, your physique is quite robust, isn't it."

Ji Meier's voice, filled with infinite charm amidst its laziness, sounded directly in his mind, carrying along the millennium soul-nurturing wood pressed against Gu Yi's chest.

Accompanying this voice, light and shadow flickered slightly before Gu Yi's retina.

An illusory, palm-sized figure draped in purple light gauze naturally condensed and took shape on Gu Yi's shoulder.

This was a mimetic phantom projected into Gu Yi's senses by Ji Meier using her Divine Sense and the top-grade soul-nurturing wood; apart from Gu Yi, no one else could perceive it.

At this moment, Ji Meier's eyes were brimming with spring, with no trace of the withered remnant soul left.

Those fox-like eyes, having been thoroughly nourished, were full of the amorousness of one who had tasted the fruit of love.

Gu Yi turned his head, looking at the enchanting beauty sitting on his shoulder, dangling her fair feet, and a meaningful arc curled his lips.

"Having received such a great gift from you, sister, I naturally have to get up early to check on the movements of our little wealth-delivering boy. If I went late and missed the good show, wouldn't I be wasting your hard work from last night, sister?"

Hearing this "sister," the phantom on Ji Meier's shoulder trembled slightly, and the smile in her eyes deepened.

She extended an illusory finger and gently tapped Gu Yi's cheek, her tone carrying a touch of coquettishness and the lightness of watching a show.

"That silly boy, discovering the ring has no response, must think the sky is falling right now, right? I just sensed him rushing towards the back mountain in a flurry; he's likely set his sights on that cluster of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire I mentioned in passing. After all, without me, his big sister, to rely on, he can only pin his hopes on such dead things."

Gu Yi chuckled, his eyes revealing a calmness that penetrated human hearts: "Don't underestimate him, sister. This kind of Trash who seems to have fallen to the bottom often has a very tough life, and they always have a kind of weird, good luck. Since that Secret Realm behind the mountain hides Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, the outer perimeter must be extremely dangerous. With him in front clearing the way and stepping on mines for us, we just need to follow behind and watch the show. Once he has gone through all the trouble to bring out the treasure, we can just conveniently take it over."

Hearing this, Ji Meier couldn't help but cover her mouth and let out a peal of silver-bell-like laughter.

"Little lover, your scheme is so well-calculated that I fear even the black-hearted merchants of the Central Plains would feel inferior. However..."

Her tone shifted, and a trace of reminiscence appeared in her eyes, "That cluster of earth heart green lotus fire is indeed a good thing. Back then, it took me quite some effort to Seal it there; I originally intended to keep it as a trump card for when I reshaped my Physical Body in the future."

She glared at Gu Yi and lightly scratched his neck with her fingertip, "Now it's good, you little thief has taken both the person and the treasure, clearing the whole pot."

"What's mine is yours, sister, why distinguish between us?" Gu Yi chuckled.

He followed the hidden path on the outskirts of the Sect, heading towards the back mountain at a leisurely pace.

Deep in his Sea of Consciousness, the miniature radar on the System panel was flashing red, precisely locking onto the rapidly moving, faint light point ahead.

Along the way, the morning mist gradually dissipated, and the sunlight pierced through the clouds, spilling over the undulating peaks of the Xuantian Sect.

Half an hour later. Gu Yi stopped.

Ahead was a primitive dense forest shrouded in year-round miasma; this was already the edge of the Forbidden Ground behind the Xuantian Sect, a place even the Elders of the Deacon Hall were unwilling to easily set foot in.

At the entrance of the dense forest, a string of slightly messy, unevenly deep footprints extended straight into the rolling thick fog.

Judging from the spacing of the footprints, the person who left them had walked very hurriedly, even with a touch of reckless madness.

"He went in." Gu Yi said softly in his heart, looking at the footprints on the ground.

Ji Meier, sitting on Gu Yi's shoulder, also put away her playful expression, her gaze sweeping over the miasma-filled dense forest that exuded a dangerous aura.

"Although the Eight Trigrams Lost Track Formation on the outer perimeter is naturally formed, after so many years of evolution, the Formation eye has long been integrated with the earth's veins. That boy only has the cultivation of the Qi Refinement Stage; if he wants to forcefully break in, he will lose at least a few layers of skin."

Gu Yi did not speak. He summoned the villain shop in his mind, his thoughts shifting slightly.

[Ding! Consumed 500 Villain Points, successfully redeemed "Portable Traceless Concealment Formation Plate".]

A palm-sized white jade disc, covered with complex Formation patterns, appeared in Gu Yi's palm. He forced a trace of True Essence from his fingertip and gently tapped it on the core of the Formation Plate.

A layer of faint water ripples spread out from Gu Yi as the center, perfectly erasing his figure, aura, and even the gravity of his footsteps on the ground.

His entire person seemed to have completely melted into the light, shadow, and breeze of this forest.

"Let's go, good sister." Gu Yi tucked the Formation Plate into his sleeve.

"The pathfinder has already entered the game; we spectators should also enter the arena."

After saying this, he stepped into the miasma-filled dense forest that could even swallow light, following the faint traces left by Lin Tian, and followed silently.