Exhausted and in pain, Li Ze trudged through the mountains and forests. After walking for two hours, he finally exhausted his last bit of strength and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Looking at the dense grass around him, Li Ze decided not to get up. "Forget it, I'll just rest here for a while."

After saying that, he enveloped his body with his murderous aura, rolled his eyes, and fainted.

Meanwhile, Lin Jingyuan and his two companions searched the vicinity but found nothing.

"Perhaps they've already left," Lin Jingyuan sighed.

"We're not going to search anymore, there's no time left," Gu Junyu said in a deep voice. "The fruit of the Flame Sand Tang will ripen in a few hours, we have to go and guard it."

Liang Chen didn't speak. There was a fourth-tier demonic beast at the Flame Sand Sand Tree. Even if they went there, it would be difficult to get close to the tree trunk, let alone pick the fruit.

But that was the Flame Sand Tang, a sixth-tier spiritual fruit, and they couldn't bring themselves to give it up.

Since that's the case, let's give it a shot.

Li Ze was fast asleep, unaware that his body was absorbing the Yin energy from the mountains and forests on its own. Within a five-meter radius of him, the temperature dropped sharply, and the originally green grass and trees seemed to be affected by the Yin energy, their green color gradually deepening, turning into dark green, and then from dark green to blackish green.

The deep, dark green stood out starkly against the backdrop of verdant green, arousing curiosity and a desire to explore further. Strangely, however, all the animals avoided the area, as if something terrifying was hidden there.

Li Ze's injuries are slowly healing, his dried-up demon core is gradually becoming fuller, and the pain in his consciousness is slowly subsiding.

But he still didn't wake up. It wasn't until the noise grew louder and louder, trees fell, sand and stones flew, and the whole mountain forest shook, that Li Ze groggily opened his eyes.

"Junior brother, why are you running this way?"

"Let's take a gamble. Maybe we'll meet that fellow Daoist who's either at the Foundation Establishment stage or the Golden Core stage."

"Focus, the monsters are catching up!"

roar--

The angry roar almost pierced people's eardrums.

Li Ze covered his ears, his delicate brows furrowing. He could feel the beast's fury even from that distance, wondering what those three people had done to it.

Li Ze stood up, concealing his aura, with no intention of intervening. There was a small hill in front of him, and he decided that once the three rushed down the hill, he would leave.

As it turned out, the three men didn't rush over; they went around them.

The three people and the demonic beast quickly disappeared into the distance, and only when he could no longer hear them did Li Ze sit down cross-legged. He didn't know where the three people and the demonic beast had gone, but surely they wouldn't be coming back. Rather than leaving here and possibly running into them halfway and getting caught in the crossfire, it was better to stay where he was and leave after some time. By then, everything would have settled down, and he wouldn't have to worry about being implicated.

Li Ze's idea was not wrong, but Lin Jingyuan was unwilling to give up and kept running around the area, trying to find the master who might not have gone far.

So, more than an hour later, Lin Jingyuan and his two companions, along with a demonic beast, returned.

“We’ve been here before.” Liang Chen’s tone carried a hint of despair; that person was indeed gone. Of course, it had been two days; they should have left long ago.

"Senior brother, save me!" Lin Jingyuan cried out in terror.

Liang Chen turned around and saw that Lin Jingyuan had been bitten on the shoulder by a fourth-level demonic beast. The beast's sharp teeth pierced his shoulder blade, and blood was gushing out.

Without saying a word, Liang Chen immediately turned around, gripped his longsword tightly with both hands, and turned back.

On the other side, Gu Junyu, disregarding his severe injuries, charged forward. However, he was already at his limit; his stance looked fierce, but in reality, it was powerless and full of flaws. The fourth-tier demonic beast glanced at him contemptuously, and with a flick of its long tail, sent him flying. The force of the tail was so great that Gu Junyu crashed into three trees before coming to a stop.

Gu Junyu's bones kept cracking, and blood kept gushing from his mouth, quickly turning him into a blood-soaked mess.

Liang Chen's eyes darkened, knowing that the three of them were likely in grave danger today. What was hateful was that they were only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and couldn't even self-destruct to take the other party down with them.

Gu Junyu's fate was unknown, Liang Chen's abdomen was slashed by sharp claws, his intestines were about to spill out, and Lin Jingyuan was being bitten on the shoulder by a demonic beast, seemingly about to be swallowed whole...

Originally intending to stand by and watch, Li Ze observed this scene and then checked the state of his mind. He concluded that if he attacked with all his might, he might be able to kill the injured fourth-tier demon beast, but he would also suffer another severe injury as a result.

At the critical moment, Li Ze still made his move. His divine sense transformed into sharp spikes and went first, while his body lagged slightly behind. He leaped out from behind the bushes, his longsword aimed precisely at the enormous vertical pupil of the fourth-tier demon beast.

Lin Jingyuan felt a powerful pressure coming down, which brought him back to his senses, even though he was about to faint.

Then, he felt a gust of wind, followed by the sound of something being punctured, and he felt liquid flowing down his head.

Is it blood? Or rainwater?

Before Lin Jingyuan could see clearly, he was thrown away. In mid-air, he recognized the person fighting the fourth-tier demonic beast—was that... He Yu?

With a thud, Lin Jingyuan crashed to the ground. Ignoring the pain, he stared intently at the boy, who was gripping a longsword with both hands. One end of the sword was pierced into the eye of a fourth-tier demon beast.

The veins on the boy's forehead and the back of his hands bulged, indicating that he had exerted tremendous force.

"ah--"

Li Ze roared and used all his strength to push the longsword into the eye of the fourth-tier demon beast until only the hilt remained outside.

Aww!

The fourth-tier demonic beast let out a miserable howl and stretched out its sharp claws to grab Li Ze, but it lost its balance and its huge body crashed heavily to the ground.

Li Ze himself collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up and save your two senior brothers," Li Ze said to Lin Jingyuan.

"Oh, oh, oh," Lin Jingyuan struggled to get up, went to Liang Chen who was closest to him, took out a few jade bottles from his storage bag, poured out a handful of pills and poured them into Liang Chen's mouth.

Fortunately, Liang Chen could still swallow, otherwise he might have choked to death.

Then he went to check on Gu Junyu and found that the other party still had a breath, but it was very weak. Lin Jingyuan breathed a sigh of relief and stuffed the pills into the other party's mouth one handful after another as if they were free.

The effects of feeding him so many pills were obvious; in just a few breaths, Gu Junyu's aura became much stronger.

After confirming that his two senior brothers would not die for the time being, Lin Jingyuan came to Li Ze's side and stuffed several jade bottles into Li Ze's hands, saying, "Eat quickly."

Li Ze did not refuse and ate a few pills. He felt the cool and soothing medicinal power flowing through his body, and the pain in his wounds was instantly relieved. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "As expected of a product from the Crimson Pill Sect, the effect is indeed good."