Just then, with a flash of light, the cauldron held in the left hand of the Shennong statue suddenly shot into the sky, turning into a shooting star and flying towards the horizon.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Jiang Zhi's expression changed, and he transformed into a rainbow, chasing after the direction in which the cauldron had disappeared.

The "Compendium of Materia Medica" had just mysteriously disappeared, and Jiang Zhi obviously couldn't just stand by and watch the Shennong Cauldron disappear before his eyes as well.

As Shen Qian watched Jiang Zhi's figure disappear, he couldn't help but glance down. In his palm, a small yet exquisite miniature cauldron was spinning continuously—the Shennong Cauldron that had just vanished into the sky.

Shen Qian didn't know what kind of illusion Emperor Yan Shennong had used, but he knew that the other party was helping him.

He quickly put the Shennong Cauldron into his storage ring, and just as he was hesitating whether to take this opportunity to slip away, a shout came from below.

"Sink forward!"

Shen Qian looked down and saw a figure dressed in green robes rising up and arriving in front of him in the blink of an eye. The figure frowned and looked Shen Qian up and down. "What are you doing here?"

Seeing Gao Zhe appear before him, Shen Qian was puzzled as to why the other party would appear at this time, but he finally relaxed a little and said with a forced smile, "Well... it's a long story."

Gao Zhe glanced at the Shennong statue beside him, which seemed to have lost its brilliance, and then at the dark sky. After a moment of contemplation, he did not press Shen Qian further, but simply shook his head and said, "Let's go back to the post station first."

Shen Qian naturally couldn't have been happier to leave with Gao Zhe. Even if Jiang Zhi realized what was happening afterward, at least he would have an extra layer of protection.

With Gao Zhe leading the way, the two quickly passed through the invisible barrier and returned to Yan City, which was still bustling under the night sky.

Once they were back in the guest room where Shen had stayed, Gao Zhe finally asked, "Did the leader take you there?"

"Yes." Shen Qian wasn't sure if he could trust Gao Zhe, so he just gave a conservative reply.

Gao Zhe seemed to sense Shen Qian's wariness. After a brief silence, he walked to the window, put his hands behind his back, and gazed at the hazy night: "Do you know the name of my Gao family?"

"I've heard from others that the Gao family considers themselves a lineage of protectors?" Shen Qian replied casually.

"Then do you know what path my Gao family protects?" Gao Zhe asked Shen Qian with his back to him.

He shook his head before sinking in.

So Gao Zhe slowly turned around, his eyes fixed on Shen Qian with a complex expression, and said, word by word, "In the name of balance, to quell the calamity of time and space... This is the ancestral precept of my Gao family, which has been passed down for eight thousand years."