Chapter 73 To Take Medicine or Not to Take Medicine? Let's Try It

The branches and leaves of the bushes overhead swayed violently, the gaps between them appearing edged in black, and no matter how much they shook, not a single ray of light could penetrate...

Ji Mingran and Guan Wangzhen exchanged a glance, and without thinking, the two of them leaped down from the tree.

Guan Wangzhen shouted hoarsely, "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"

Without needing his reminder, Ji Mingran abruptly drew his cane from his waist and swung it into the air. The cane quickly enlarged, stopped abruptly just before touching the ground, and then flipped and turned, steadily catching Ji Mingran as he jumped down from the treetop.

Ji Mingran charged forward with his staff, and Guan Wangzhen, who was waiting on the ground, jumped up with lightning speed, grabbed the other end of the staff with both hands, and was swept away in a flash.

Two shadows, cast onto the jungle grass, flew by at breakneck speed, but the shadow behind them relentlessly pursued them, relentlessly chasing after the two shadows in front.

Gradually, the large shadow and the figure flying ahead drew closer, closing in and engulfing each other...

"Grandma, speed it up, speed it up, speed it up!" Guan Wangzhen shouted anxiously.

Unable to use the Vajra Formation to protect herself, at full speed, the thorns scraped open one hideous wound after another on her skin. Fortunately, she was now at the Foundation Establishment stage, with thick skin and flesh, and could still withstand it.

Having just advanced, in order to resist the heavenly lightning, almost all the spiritual power stored in his sea of ​​consciousness was exhausted. Now he only has a little spiritual power left, which will not last long.

But the swarm of bats continued to surge wildly.

Black bats swarmed overhead, their wings flapping, crowding and covering the vast forest. Each bat had several thin silver lines on its abdomen, tightly connected to each other, like a dense silver net, completely covering the earth.

There seems to be something inside the thin thread.

Ji Mingran's gaze involuntarily sharpened, and an intense sense of crisis surged into his heart.

She couldn't look! Realizing the danger, she tried to turn her gaze away, but her brain's commands couldn't reach her body. Her head and eyes wouldn't obey her commands, and her limbs were difficult to move.

The cane suddenly dropped, and the feeling of weightlessness instantly cleared his mind. His numb and stiff limbs regained sensation, and Ji Mingran immediately looked away and lowered his head to look at the other end of the cane.

Guan Wangzhen had half his body on his cane and was observing her with a serious look: "Grandma, what's wrong with you?" Not only did he slow down, but he was also almost scared out of his wits by the ten-eyed bat.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and applied force to the cane, causing it to fall and triggering the spiritual consciousness that was guiding it, allowing her to escape the control of the swarm of bats.

"I don't have much spiritual power left," Ji Mingran quickly informed him. "It's your turn."

After saying that, his mind went blank, his vision blurred, the taste of rust and blood rushed to his throat, and he lost control of his cane, which carried the two people on it straight to the ground.

With his consciousness hazy, Ji Mingran felt a sudden, forceful slap on his forehead, which cleared up the fog and restored his vision.

A yellow talisman was stuck tightly to her forehead and slapped wildly against her face. In her peripheral vision, large patches of branches, leaves, and soil rushed past at double speed as she was being carried on someone's shoulder and sprinted at full speed.

On the grass, the human figure that had been swallowed by the shadows of the bat swarm gradually reappeared, increasing the distance between himself and the shadows of the bat swarm.

After running for a long time, Guan Wangzhen finally left the swarm of bats far behind. He ripped off the speed-boosting talisman stuck to his body, put the person on his shoulder down on the ground, and bent over, panting heavily.

With the boost from the speed-enhancing spell, Guan Wangzhen broke through his limit and ran at an astonishing speed far exceeding his body's capacity. Even at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage, he needed to slow down.

Ji Mingran fell backward to the ground, and saw Wang Zhen's face, bleeding from his seven orifices, looking terrifying.

"What's wrong with you?" She had been lying with her head down the whole way and hadn't noticed anything unusual about Guan Wangzhen. As she spoke, her nose and ears started to itch, and when Ji Mingran raised her hand to wipe them, her hand was covered in bright red blood.

Startled, she asked, "What's wrong with me now?"

Guan Wangzhen spoke rapidly and fiercely, but she couldn't hear a single word he said.

Guan Wangzhen reached out and removed the talisman from her forehead: "The swarm of ten-eyed bats can not only intimidate people's souls, but also emit silent sound waves. We were both attacked, so this is what happened. You are in more serious condition, losing consciousness. Fortunately, I still have the last of the Absolute Sound Talisman, otherwise it would have been difficult to handle."

Blood was still flowing from his nostrils and ears. Ji Mingran felt dizzy and could only sigh, "This time I'm a bit unlucky."

Guan Wangzhen cursed, "It's obvious that the people from Liuhuan Valley are really useless. It took them so long to hold off the Ten-Eyed Bat. I think they'll be locked in a stalemate for a while. Let's take a break and go over later."

Having overheard Liu Huan Gu's speech, the two reached a tacit agreement without further ado: if Liu Huan Gu's method for breaking through the barrier was true, they would seize the opportunity while Liu Huan Gu was lying in ambush with the Ten-Eyed Bats, and infiltrate the battle to kill a wave of bats that had been drugged by Liu Huan Gu.

Unexpectedly, they were hiding in the path that the bat swarm mentioned by Liuhuan Valley must take. The bat swarm that had been driven away by the disciples of Liuhuan Valley suddenly appeared, so Ji Mingran had no choice but to fly away on his sword with Guan Wangzhen.

Her sword-riding speed was no less than Shen Qingluo's, making it the best option for escaping the scene. Although her spiritual power was insufficient, she thought that Liuhuan Valley had already laid an ambush, and the swarm of bats would definitely be hindered. She just needed to hold out for a while.

However, to their surprise, the ambush in Liuhuan Valley did not appear even after Ji Mingran exhausted his spiritual power. Ji Mingran's speed slowed down slightly, and he fell into the range of the bat swarm's sonic waves, was attacked, and fell to the ground.

Fortunately, Ji Mingran informed them in time before he collapsed, and Guan Wangzhen seamlessly took over, picking up Ji Mingran and running. After running for a full quarter of an hour, the speed of the bat swarm behind them gradually slowed down, which must have meant that the bewitching pill from Liuhuan Valley finally took effect.

Guan Wangzhen angrily counted the pitifully few talismans in his hand: "We used up all our offensive talismans in the last level, and now you've used up the only Absolute Sound Talisman. We've also used up the last Speed-Up Talisman, so all we have left are these not-so-useful talismans."

With their spells blocked, talismans exhausted, and faces covered in blood, the people before them looked pitiful. The purification technique didn't consume much spiritual power, so Ji Mingran raised his hand and made a hand seal to remove the bloodstains from his and Guan Wangzhen's faces and bodies.

Guan Wangzhen waved his hand: "No need to bother."

Ji Mingran frowned and noticed that blood was seeping from his seven orifices again.

Guan Wangzhen applied the Absolute Sound Talisman to her, so the sonic attack she received did not last long and the amount of bleeding was not large. However, Guan Wangzhen managed to run out of the bat swarm's attack range before she was no longer affected by the sonic attack.

It has probably damaged the internal organs.

Ji Mingran said softly, "Indeed, we can only rest for now."

Her spiritual power was running low, and Guan Wangzhen's health was also running low. The two of them were no longer able to carry out the original plan and participate in the battle between Liuhuan Valley and the bat swarm.

She needs to recover her spiritual power as soon as possible, then she can go and kill the bats.

Normally, it wouldn't matter if I didn't beat this level. Based on my experience from the previous level, as long as I wasn't eliminated on the spot, losing the level would only mean regressing a number of moves.

However, if the formation remains sealed, she will be unable to use the Spirit Healing Formation to heal Guan Wangzhen's injuries.

We still need to find a way to obtain level rewards and break the ban.

"Cough!" Guan Wangzhen couldn't control himself and coughed up a mouthful of blood. His face was pale. "Grandma, if I'm eliminated, you must avenge me. Don't let those people from Liuhuan Valley get away with it. If they hadn't inexplicably chased away the bats and been so slow, we..."

"Um, that..." A timid voice sounded from behind.

Ji Mingran sprang up from the ground in an instant, warily blocking Guan Wangzhen's path.

A delicate, slender face peeked out from the bushes: "I am Qin Danniang, a pill refiner from Liuhuan Valley. Are you injured?"

Ji Mingran recognized the face; she was the female cultivator who had just been scorned by the disciples of Liuhuan Valley and then hid at their senior brother's request.

So, Guan Wangzhen stumbled upon her hiding place by accident?

Ji Mingran carefully observed the surroundings and, after confirming that she was alone, asked, "What do you want?"

Qin Danniang stammered, "I...I am a pill cultivator, and I have healing pills that I can give to you."

“You would be so kind?” Guan Wangzhen reacted strongly upon hearing the words “Liuhuan Valley”. “There must be some conspiracy involved. Maybe they want to give us poison pills.”

Qin Danniang was taken aback upon hearing this, and said, "But saving lives is a doctor's duty. Your injuries are so severe that you need treatment."

Guan Wangzhen didn't believe it: "This is a competition, we are all competitors, who are you trying to fool?" The poisons of Liuhuan Valley are famous, they must be trying to poison him!

Qin Danniang comforted her as if she were a child, saying, "It's alright, this level isn't a competitive one, we're not rivals." She took out a small box from her storage pouch at her waist: "Here, you can check it out."

"Don't take it." Guan Wangzhen hurriedly said to Ji Mingran, "It might be some kind of illusion poison pill or explosive pill."

Upon hearing this, Qin Danniang took out two other small boxes: "These two are the real ones, but I can't give them to you."

Ji Mingran glanced at the three small boxes in her hand and asked, "Do you have any pills to restore spiritual power?"

"I also have some Spirit Storage Pills." When asked this, Qin Danniang's eyes lit up. As if she had played a role, she happily took out another small box from the storage bag at her waist and handed it to Ji Mingran, "This is it."

She told Guan Wangzhen, "There was no explosion, so it can be confirmed that it is not an explosive pill. As for its effects..." Ji Mingran looked at it carefully again, "It is exactly the same as the healing pill I have seen before."

She had only seen the Healing Pill once before, the one that Boss Jiang gave her in the small world, the one she fed to Yu Tianxing.

Guan Wangzhen expressed his doubt: "How do you know? You're not a pill cultivator. Maybe you just look the same, but you have a poison pill inside."

"Whether it's real or fake, we'll find out by trying." Ji Mingran handed the medicine to Guan Wangzhen expressionlessly. "Take your medicine."

"I just saved you," Guan Wangzhen said, heartbroken. "And you actually used me to test your pills."

“If it’s poison, you’ll be eliminated directly, and Donglu can save you from the sidelines. If you don’t take it, you’ll still be eliminated due to serious injuries, and Donglu will still save you from the sidelines.” Ji Mingran analyzed the pros and cons. “If it’s a real elixir, you can recover from your injuries, and I can recover my spiritual power. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Guan Wangzhen remained defiant to the death, stubbornly declaring, "I will never accept the pills from Liuhuan Valley."

"Oh, really?" Before Guan Wangzhen could speak, Ji Mingran grabbed his chin, shoved the pill into his mouth, and punched him in the stomach. Guan Wangzhen winced in pain and swallowed the pill.

The movements were fluid and graceful, leaving Qin Danniang speechless.

Ji Mingran: "Stop talking nonsense, eat!"