After considering several options, Qi Zhiheng decided to wait for the fire to arrive in the same spot.

Yang Yao set up an array on the spot. The array she set up was called the Ten Directions Encirclement Array. It would transmit the spiritual power of living things from ten directions to trap the fire.

She carried a lot of array materials with her, and found quite a few more in this secret realm, which was more than enough to set up an array.

After Yang Yao set up the formation, she had the ten people stand in the ten positions of the formation. Qi Zhiheng did not enter the formation; he was responsible for introducing the fire into the formation.

Time passed in a slightly tense atmosphere.

The Fire Seed quickly caught up with Qi Zhiheng's trail. However, because the Fire Seed's aura had been quite dispersed, it took quite some time for it to catch up.

It was clearly excited when it saw Qi Zhiheng.

Qi Zhiheng became much more composed after seeing the fire. Compared to the anxiety of waiting, he was no longer nervous after seeing the enemy.

The flame is now about half a meter in diameter, like a large fireball. The color of the fireball is as dazzling as the midday sun, which shows how high its temperature is now.

As the fire drew nearer, the surrounding plants began to wilt. Qi Zhiheng inevitably broke into a sweat as well.

Gu Qinglin was the one who adapted the best among them, after all, he also had a kind of fire seed of the same origin, which gave him a certain resistance to such scorching temperature.

Qi Zhiheng stood at the very front and felt a gaze fixed on him—it was that spark of fire.

Although the fire seed developed sentience, it did not speak human language. However, through the transmission of soul power, Qi Zhiheng could still sense the anger within it.

It makes sense. It worked so hard to eat so many people and grow stronger, only to have Qi Zhiheng take advantage of it! He even ruined its plans many times, making it miss out on many meals. How could the Fire Seed not be angry?

Qi Zhiheng still had to keep a smile on his face: "Brother Huozhong, let's make a deal. If you let us go, we won't hold it against you for attacking us first, how about that?"

What does it mean to be the one who files a false accusation first? It's probably someone like Qi Zhiheng.

However, Qi Zhiheng would not admit that his actions were at most a matter of helping those in need! Of course, he also made a profit along the way.

The fire seed wants to kill, so there's nothing wrong with him fighting against it. However, according to the laws of the cultivation world, the strong prey on the weak, and the mighty are respected. The fire seed has the ability, so it eats humans, just as humans have the ability to eat demonic beasts. The fault doesn't lie with them; it's simply a matter of opposing races.

Humans even forcibly merged with the fire seed. How many people considered the fire seed's wishes during the fusion? They only thought of the fire seed as a spirit without the ability to think.

Although the fire seed couldn't communicate with humans, it understood Qi Zhiheng's words. It was utterly disgusted by this guy who had stolen its power and yet shamelessly asked to let it go! These words only fueled its anger further! The flames on its body instantly intensified!

Without a second thought, it charged toward Qi Zhiheng, determined to burn this human to ashes.

Qi Zhiheng, however, was still arguing: "Hey! Why did you suddenly start attacking? If you keep doing this, I'm going to get angry." He ran towards the magic circle as he spoke.

He used words to draw Huozi's attention away from the rest of the Qi family.

Although the Fire Seed had awakened its intelligence, its thinking ability was not as flexible as that of humans. Its attributes destined it to be relatively irritable. At this moment, it only had Qi Zhiheng in its eyes and followed Qi Zhiheng into the spirit array without regard for anything else!

Upon seeing that Huozi had also entered the formation, Qi Zhiheng immediately shouted, "Activate the formation!"

The Qi family members channeled their spiritual energy from ten directions, and a red light shone forth, enveloping everything within a hundred meters.

Qi Zhiheng seized the opportunity to jump out of the formation. This formation was used to trap the fire seed and was much less effective against humans. Qi Zhiheng quickly escaped.

At this moment, the fire seed in the formation was unaware of what was wrong with the seagull. Seeing Qi Zhiheng run away, it chased after him! However, it hadn't run far before it crashed solidly into an invisible force!

It clearly realized its current situation; it had been deceived by these cunning humans! Unconvinced, it changed directions and rammed into the ground a few more times, only to find that this place truly trapped it.

Its anger is self-evident!

Yang Yao presided over the formation, reducing the encirclement range to less than ten meters of space, which was now at its limit.

Qi Zhiheng didn't give it any more chances and said to everyone, "Start the incantation!"

The Qi family members, along with Qi Zhiheng, formed a magic seal and pushed their power into the formation.

The fire was struck by the power of the crowd, and the power that had been rising due to anger was severely weakened at this moment. With the combined power of the crowd, at least half of the fire's power was suppressed.

Qi Zhiheng pressed on and struck the fire seed with the talisman again!

The original fire seed must have had some resistance to the power of the array. Now that its power has been weakened, its ability to resist the array has also been reduced!

After the first layer of formation was completed, the others immediately added the second and third layers, blocking any possible chances for the fire to escape.

Yang Yao deactivated the great formation! Qi Zhiheng immediately stepped forward and stored the fire seed in his own space.

Qi Zhiheng is the master of space. Space is under his control and has a certain suppressive effect on the fire seed. At present, his control over space is not 100%. After space is upgraded and his cultivation is improved, he will be able to completely control that part of space. At that time, even if the fire seed breaks free from its restraints, it will not be able to cause trouble in space.

"Finally solved!" Qi Zhiheng breathed a sigh of relief and reported to everyone that he was safe.

Still covered in sweat, everyone quickly used cleansing spells to tidy themselves up. After taking some medicine and resting, the Qi family prepared to continue their search for treasures within the secret realm!

Speaking of treasures, everyone shook their heads as they looked at the charred remains of the fire seed along the way. They wondered how many good things the fire seed had ruined along the way!

Qi Zhiheng said, "Let's go inside the inner perimeter and take a look." That was where the Fire Seed originally stayed. That place was originally the center, and should have been the place with the most treasures. However, the Fire Seed incident caused a great commotion, and the spiritual cultivators hadn't had time to search it thoroughly before being frightened by the Fire Seed's actions and running towards the outer perimeter. Now that the biggest threat to the inner perimeter was gone, they could go in and investigate.

"Now is the perfect time to go in. All those people have run away, so there definitely won't be many people coming to take it from us!" Yang Yitian also thought this was a good idea.

With less and less time left to leave the secret realm, those who have left are very likely not to return, thus reducing the danger considerably.

So, the Qi family began to explore the inner perimeter.

There were indeed many things in the inner area. Although some of them were damaged by the fire, the fire later reduced the scope of the damage, so there were still a lot of spiritual herbs and other items that were well preserved.

Qi Zhiheng used his soul power to search for things around him, and found quite a few things along the way.

There aren't many people in their field, so they basically monopolize it all. There are quite a few spiritual practitioners in other fields, but the competition is fierce, and you have to fight for the good stuff.

After searching for a while, Qi Zhiheng planted many new varieties of spiritual herbs in his space.

At this point, there's no need to go to the outer perimeter at all; just wait for the time to arrive and then teleport them all out.

When Qi Zhiheng saw the key flashing, he had all his family members who had entered through his space come inside. After all, it was uncertain whether those without the key would be teleported out.

Only the five members of the Qi family remained outside. When the time was up, the token teleported all five of them away.

At this point, they were no longer transported to the Qi family's location. Instead, they were transported to a place unfamiliar to Qi Zhiheng, resembling a grassland.

Seeing the unfamiliar surroundings, Qi Zhiheng was somewhat puzzled, not understanding what was going on.

Fortunately, there were still people being teleported out one after another, which put Qi Zhiheng at ease.

He led the Qi family to a place, released the rest of the family members, and then returned to the crowd.

He hadn't yet found out where he was, so naturally he had to ask others first.

Before Qi Zhiheng could inquire about the situation, someone came up to greet him.

Qi Zhiheng didn't quite remember this group of people. Seeing the confusion on his face, the other party introduced himself. It turned out that this was one of the people that Qi Zhiheng had saved with the talisman before.

Well, they were burned to a crisp back then, it would be a miracle if Qi Zhiheng could recognize them now.

Qi Zhiheng felt a little embarrassed, and then casually asked him about the current situation.

This man's surname is Li, and his given name is Li Youli.

Li Youli explained that the entrance to the secret realm is not fixed, but the exit will be here. This is the Qingyuan Grassland outside Qingyuan City. You just need to find the location and go back on your own.

Qi Zhiheng was relieved after finding out the news. As long as it was outside the secret realm and he could go back, he didn't have any special requirements.

The Qi family members found a place to rest for a while.

Then they heard whispers from the surroundings.

"Ah, is that Qi Zhiheng?"

"Yes, didn't you hear their conversation just now? He's Qi Zhiheng, the one who was running for his life but still managed to earn spirit stones. He even admitted it himself."

"I heard he's obsessed with money, even when he was being chased by Ma Xiehuo, he was still obsessed with money."

"Haha, what does it matter? He saved a lot of people after all! My uncle was saved by him. Not only did he not die, but he also fused with a spark of fire. This time it was a good deal."

"Your uncle really hit the jackpot this time."

"You bet! I'm so envious."

Qi Zhiheng: "..." When did he become synonymous with being greedy for money?

However, Qi Zhiheng did save quite a few people this time.