At this moment, the scene inside the Heaven-and-Earth Banner changed. The twenty-four people were locked inside twenty-four cages.
Inside each cage was a demonic beast or magical beast, their appearances were all strange, no one had ever seen them before, and there were no related records even in ancient texts.
Li Nanshi said, "These are probably formation beasts, pieced together from characteristics of various demonic and magical beasts, meant to test the disciples' powers of observation and adaptability."
Baili Muchen and the others also thought the same, their gazes all fell upon the disciples they were concerned about.
Although they were facing beasts they had never seen before, these elite disciples still performed commendably.
They remained relatively calm, focused mainly on defense, and began probing.
They were likely trying to find weaknesses before launching counterattacks.
However, both sides were evenly matched, and for the time being no victor could be determined.
Xing Wu yawned, feeling a bit bored.
Sigh!
The sixty-sixth hour of missing Little Junior Sister!
At this moment, the Feng Xi he was murmuring about had just finished cultivating.
This rascal had originally planned to cultivate for just one night, but after entering a state of selflessness, she cultivated until now.
She clearly felt that her cultivation was higher than before!
But because the five spiritual roots hadn't fully gathered yet, she had no way to measure what level her current cultivation was.
In addition, the four spiritual roots inside her dantian had grown much stronger than before, especially the metal spiritual root, which had almost caught up to the other three.
Sensing Feng Xi's "gaze", the four spiritual roots held hands and happily spun in circles.
Finally, they even formed hearts toward Feng Xi!
Feng Xi: "..."
A bunch of dogs!
As soon as Feng Xi withdrew her divine sense from her dantian, she saw the little fat bird and the little black ball, now several sizes fatter.
They had originally been sized M, now they're XXXL.
Only the Fire-Swallowing Qiu looked relatively normal, then this rascal let out a satisfied burp.
"Master, spiritual stones aren't tasty at all, they're far worse than magma!"
Feng Xi: "..."
In the next instant, she horrifically discovered that a large gap had appeared in the pile of spiritual stones.
She nearly fainted!
"You-did you eat all this?"
The Fire-Swallowing Qiu nodded, "Mm, I was too hungry!
Master, you were cultivating the whole time, so I didn't dare disturb you. I just made do and ate a little. Wasn't I very sensible?"
Feng Xi: Sensible my ass!
She wanted to strangle her former self to death!
Of all things to take in, she had to take in such a troublemaker!
Originally, she had planned to hide the depleted spiritual stones back in the pile. Their appearance wouldn't reveal anything, and she might get away with it.
But now this big genius Fire-Swallowing Qiu had made a huge gap, anyone with eyes could see that the spiritual stones were missing!
The little black ball offered a suggestion to Feng Xi....mix regular stones into the pile of spiritual stones.
Feng Xi refused.
Because she had once stuffed stones into Lu Xiuhan's storage ring before, it would be obvious that she was the one who did this!
After pondering for a while, a smile appeared on her face.
The moment the little black ball saw her sinister expression, it knew she's about to do something underhanded!
"The demon delegation should've arrived by now, right? How about letting them take the blame?
When we leave later, Bastard, release a faint trace of demonic qi onto the spiritual stone pile. It must be very faint, so faint that it can only be detected upon close inspection.
The Demon Clan didn't come with good intentions this time anyways, one more accusation won't matter!"
The Fire-Swallowing Qiu, feeling like it had caused trouble and wanting to make up for it, wore a foolish expression full of worship, "Master, you're so smart! Only you could come up with such an inhuman method!"
Feng Xi: "...Next time don't eat spiritual stones. I'll buy you some pig brains to nourish yourself!"
At this moment, the little black ball said, "Master, aren't you overlooking a very important problem? How are you going to leave the treasure vault without anyone noticing?
If you swagger out and ask someone to let you go, you won't even need to frame anyone, you'll just convict yourself."
Feng Xi: "..."
Right!
She wasn't a wandering ghost anymore, how would she get out?
She really miss those days of being a wandering ghost!
She could openly eavesdrop!
She could pass through anywhere unimpeded!
Go wherever she wants!
A thought suddenly popped up, how wonderful would it be if she could become a wandering ghost whenever she wanted, and become human whenever she wanted!
She wondered what method that old skeleton had used to turn her back into a human?
If she'd known, she could have captured a few Human-Eyed Azure Moths and stored them in her storage ring. Whenever she wanted to become a wandering ghost, she could just crush one, how delightful!
What a miscalculation!
She had gone to the deep ravine and actually brought nothing back!
Returned empty-handed!
Wait? Not entirely empty-handed, she had brought back a malevolent beast horn!
Feng Xi immediately took out the malevolent beast horn and examined it carefully.
Seeing the Fire-Swallowing Qiu nearby, she casually placed it on its head.
Not bad, it seemed to match quite well!
With the horn's addition, the Fire-Swallowing Qiu looked much more imposing!
Then, with a thud, the Fire-Swallowing Qiu fainted.
Feng Xi was startled. After checking repeatedly, she discovered that this rascal had simply… fallen asleep.
Sleeping after a full belly, truly heartless!
Then she belatedly noticed that although the Fire-Swallowing Qiu had collapsed onto the ground, the horn she had placed on its head hadn't fallen off.
She tried to pull it off but couldn't.
Instead, she tugged hard enough to make the Fire-Swallowing Qiu grunt in discomfort.
Feng Xi incredulously discovered that the horn had grown onto the Fire-Swallowing Qiu's head.
If someone didn't know any better, they might think it was the original equipment!
Just ridiculous!
Utterly ridiculous!
Forget it, she would wait until the Fire-Swallowing Qiu woke up and ask its opinion. If it wanted to keep it, it could keep it. If not, she would cut it off with a knife!
Feng Xi put the Fire-Swallowing Qiu into the spirit beast pouch and began wandering around the treasure vault, looking for a way out.
After one full look around, her eyes were nearly blinded by the brilliance, and she still hadn't thought of a solution.
The little fat bird propped its chin with its small wing and said, "Master, if only we had something like Shen Jipin's teleportation spiritual treasure!"
Feng Xi's heart stirred, the little fat bird's words reminded her of something.
Back in the underground palace of the Turtleback Mountain Secret Realm, Feng Xiaotian had taken out a Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman as a test question. She had glanced at it a few times and memorized the patterns.
Although she had never systematically studied talismans, the Transmission Hall of Xuantian Sect had briefly introduced them. She at least knew the basic operational procedures.
What if she tried drawing one?
Maybe it would succeed!
The little black ball: "..."
It really didn't know where its heartless master got such confidence!
You, a rookie who has never drawn a talisman before, forget a high-level talisman like the Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman, you couldn't even draw the most basic Fire Talisman successfully!
Besides, where are you going to get talisman paper and talisman ink?