After the main character who took the blame retired, the female lead quit.

Xiao Yu couldn't use it, so instead of leaving it in the system's inventory as a decoration, it was better to take it out and give it to Li Yunshang. After all, even if it recognized Li Yunshang as its master, it wouldn't matter, as Li Yunshang might not be able to control it anyway.

The main problem was that Li Yunshang's injuries were far more serious than Xiao Yu had imagined. She was almost on the verge of death. Her newly formed golden core was severely damaged and shattered, and its quality had deteriorated from a mid-grade golden core to an inferior one.

Extensive burns to the body, internal bleeding accompanied by high-temperature inflammation.

In addition, there were some hidden injuries. Judging from the severity of the injuries, they were probably caused by the backlash from forcibly condensing the Golden Core in order to improve her realm. Li Yunshang was too eager to break through to the Golden Core realm. After the Golden Core was condensed, she did not stabilize it, but continued to rush to the next realm, which resulted in the Golden Core being dull in color and cracked.

Having suffered such severe injuries again, even if he were to be rescued and his body recovered, given his current Golden Core state, it would be absolutely impossible for him to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. Even the term "fantasy" would be an exaggeration.

Looking at the unconscious Li Yunshang, Xiao Yu sighed. In any case, the method of using the Gu worm Yin Hongniang's own activity to stabilize Li Yunshang's injuries was successful.

Next, all you need to do is find a quiet place and wait to recover.

Peng!

As the loud noise subsided, the Daoist nun named Linglong and Elder Wulala of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect were engaged in a fierce battle. The aftershocks and the resulting loud noise drew Xiao Yu's attention to the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect disciples who were slowly approaching him.

"Who are you? Which sect do you belong to? How dare you interfere in the private affairs of my Ten Thousand Beasts Sect? A mere Core Formation Realm cultivator trying to play the hero and save the beauty... Aren't you afraid of implicating your sect after you leave?"

The leader of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect disciples, who had been grinning and shouting that Li Yunshang would pay the price, led four or five other disciples to Xiao Yu and sternly demanded an explanation.

Seeing that Xiao Yu was only wearing casual clothes, not the uniform attire of a sect disciple, he roughly understood what was going on.

They deduced that the person in front of them was just someone from some third-rate, shady sect, or perhaps a rogue cultivator recruited by some sect under the guise of power.

Looking at Xiao Yu's cultivation level, which wasn't high—only at the Core Formation stage—it's unlikely he'd be recruited by any major sect.

The disciples of the Myriad Beasts Sect, backed by their own sect, which was a second-to-upper-tier sect, felt a little more confident.

This demonstrates the importance of sect attire.

A sect's uniform attire is like the school uniform Xiao Yu wore in his previous life, symbolizing status. It has both advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of other effects, it is very useful to some opportunistic individuals.

To some extent, only with sect attire can a sect be considered a sect. Even if a sect is just a shell company trying to swindle money and charge exorbitant entry fees, it will still put together a set of sect attire that looks legitimate.

Those sects that don't even have a unified uniform are mostly considered amateur sects, not even worthy of being ranked as the lowest third-rate sects.

Therefore, it is understandable that the disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, who had been stripped naked by Xiao Yu to escape in the chaos, might have misjudged the situation.

Xiao Yu stood up silently, carefully holding the unconscious Li Yunshang in his arms. The apricot-yellow gourd at his waist swayed, and an imperceptible silver light, following the light of the two moons in the sky, floated around the disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.

Seeing him stand up, the disciples of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect tensed up, ready to fight, fearing that he would pick up Li Yunshang and run away.

Faced with the stern expressions of the others, Xiao Yu simply held Li Yunshang in his arms with one hand, and then slowly reached into his pocket with his other free hand.

Under the watchful eyes of the others, Xiao Yu's gentle brown eyes looked at the leader of the group, landing on the dejected-looking disciple of the Myriad Beasts Sect, and then a smile appeared on his face:

"I am Ye Ba of the Moon Shadow Sect. Brother, I'm sorry, but I owe this young lady a favor. I'll take her with me now, and I'll repay the favor after she recovers. How about that? I'm friends with the sect leader of the Azure Cloud Floating Sect, and we have a close relationship. For my sake, since we have no grudges against each other, it wouldn't be good to start a fight and damage our relationship, right?"

Moon Shadow Sect?

Never heard of it, probably some minor sect.

The disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect breathed a sigh of relief. Coupled with Xiao Yu's seemingly submissive tone, he felt he had gained the upper hand, and his tone became arrogant. He looked at Xiao Yu with an expression as if he were looking at a fool and shouted:

"Did you get your head caught in a door when you were a kid? According to your logic, if I'm not in good condition today, the secret realm can only reopen when I'm in better condition. What a pipe dream."

"Only out of respect for you, a friend of the Qingyun Fu Sect Master. Would the Master of a sect call a Core Formation cultivator like you a friend? Even if you said you were the Qingyun Fu Sect Master's kept man, that would be more like it. Haha, friend, trying to intimidate others in the secret realm, I won't fall for that."

"Then I'll say, Li Yunshang's lover ripped off my clothes and stole my spirit stones. For my sake, how about you return all the spirit stones I lost?"

As expected, seeing that Xiao Yu didn't have much strength or background, the disciples of the Myriad Beasts Sect didn't take it seriously and burst into laughter.

Seven or eight Core Formation Realm cultivators could easily defeat a Core Formation Realm cultivator who was still holding a wounded soldier and cowering in fear.

"Ugh, what a hassle... I knew it, the female lead is the one who attracts all sorts of events..."

Seeing them laughing so hard they were doubled over, Xiao Yu patted his pocket. If it weren't for the fact that he had given the jade pendant that Long Wanyan had given him to the little glutinous rice ball outside the secret realm just in case, he would have kept it safe.

He pulled the thing out and slammed it hard in their faces.

Sure enough, in the outside world, looks and influence matter.

At the same time, Xiao Yu also recognized the Wan Shou Sect disciple who looked miserable; no wonder he looked familiar.

When Xiao Yu infiltrated to rescue Li Yunshang after she was captured, he was penniless. Fortunately, he found a large amount of spirit stones in the inner pocket of the clothes he had taken.

Only then were they able to take Li Yunshang along, enjoying good food and drink, and find the secret place that contained the power to liberate Li Yunshang's physique.

Otherwise, given the salaries of Xiao Yuxuanling Sect's inner disciples at the time, they really couldn't afford to support the picky Li Yunshang. They might have run out of spirit stones halfway through their journey and had to sleep on the streets.

In a way, this guy actually did Xiao Yu a big favor.

After carefully observing the positions of these disciples from the Myriad Beasts Sect, Xiao Yu spoke:

"Then how many spirit stones does she owe you? I'll pay her back."

"..."

"you sure?"

Upon hearing this, the Wan Shou Sect disciple, who had been looking dejected, quickly stopped laughing and looked at Xiao Yu with a puzzled expression.

"Of course, the spirit stones in this bag are more than enough to repay the spirit stones you found in your clothes back then. Here, take this!"

As he spoke, Xiao Yu took out a bag of spirit stones from his pocket and threw it to the other side.

"How do you know how many spirits were in my clothes back then...?"

The disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect suddenly stopped talking. He looked up and saw the bag containing spirit stones being thrown very high.

Perhaps because the bag Xiao Yu threw out wasn't tied properly, a smooth, shiny spirit stone fell out of his mouth when it was halfway through the air.

Under the bright light, the exposed spirit stone was clear and translucent, like a flawless crystal.

"Top-grade spirit stones!!!"

In an instant, the disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect nearly popped his eyes out, his mind completely drawn in.

You should know that since he lost all his wealth, he really doesn't have a single spirit stone left.

In order to survive in the sect, he had to borrow some money. In addition, he failed to properly supervise Li Yunshang, so his position in the sect was also suppressed.

He participated in the Phoenix Hill Secret Realm largely for the spirit stones. If he could find a drop of phoenix blood in the secret realm, it would be a feather, and he would be rich after he left.

To this end, he didn't hesitate to hand over all the spirit stones he had recently accumulated, which earned him a spot to participate in the secret realm.

He hasn't paid back the high-interest loans he took out in the cultivation world. Although the interest is terrifyingly high, as long as he gambles correctly, he can win back his losses. You could say that spirit stones are his life now.

At this moment, how could he not be excited to see spirit stones rushing towards him? If they were low-grade or mid-grade spirit stones, he might not care, but...

"Spirit stones? And high-grade spirit stones at that..."

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who saw the high-grade spirit stone; the other disciples behind him also saw it, and a lively commotion ensued.

No one would complain about having too many spirit stones; it's free, so some people immediately got restless and moved forward a bit.

The wretched disciples of the Myriad Beasts Sect, who were well aware of this principle, immediately shouted anxiously:

"Get out! This is mine..."

As he shouted, he jumped up and reached for the shimmering spirit stone.

As soon as he caught her, a look of joy appeared on his face. But when he looked down, he noticed a strange expression on the face of the man holding Li Yunshang.

"In this way... we're even, and the cause and effect are over."

call out!

The moon-white flying sword glided past, drawing a circle with the Beast Sect disciple who touched the spirit stone as the center. Those Beast Sect disciples who saw the spirit stone and subconsciously approached it out of greed happened to be within the circle.

Peng!

Large snowflakes burst open, like a collapsing avalanche, burying everything within the circle. Everything within the sight of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect disciples was a vast expanse of white snow.

Everything was pure white, flawless, so white it was breathtaking.

As Xiao Yu's flying sword returned to the gourd, snowflakes scattered on the ground not far away, revealing a large, uniquely shaped ice sculpture.

Xiao Yu stepped forward and gently tapped the door, producing a crisp sound.

The ice sculptures were sturdy but not fatal, though they wouldn't be able to get out anytime soon. Xiao Yu didn't want to kill them; the sect had special methods to mark these disciples, and it wasn't worth incurring the wrath of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect for doing so.

At this point, the entire disciples of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect were wiped out.

Beneath the crystal-clear ice, the Wan Shou Sect disciple, still looking dejected, blinked, his mouth agape, clearly wanting to say something.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make a sound because his body was frozen, but Xiao Yu could tell from his shocked and constricted pupils that he probably recognized him.

There's no way around it; your natal flying sword is unique. You can change its name and appearance, but you can't change the flying sword itself.

Fortunately, the solid ice sculpture trapped him inside, preventing him from making a sound. Xiao Yu's status as a perverted streaker had not yet been exposed.

Before his shocked eyes, only a vast expanse of cold air rose from the surface of the ice sculpture, a response to his astonishment.

Chapter Thirteen, Spark and Firewood

A white, shimmering light emanated from the sparse, cool air that floated up into the air, condensed into water droplets, and fell down. Under the light of the two moons in the sky, it looked as if all the stars in the night sky had fallen.

The female cultivator subconsciously reached out her hand, and the cold air turned into water droplets that fell onto the back of her hand.

The back of my fair hand trembled involuntarily. Although it was emitting white steam just like the flames, the steam that dripped onto my hand was so cold.

A warm tear rolled down her cheek. The female cultivator stood there, dazed, but only for a moment. She quickly regained her composure and turned to look at the group of people behind her.

"This is it. The tree you've been looking for, the ancient tree that leads to the outer heavens, the Wutong, created by the great demon Bai Feng a thousand years ago with the full power of his entire clan to rebel against the human race."

The female cultivator's tone was different from before; it was less respectful and more tinged with nostalgia.

As the female cultivator's voice faded, a massive, brown, ancient tree with a huge trunk was revealed behind her to everyone.

Hearing the female cultivator's blunt words, the dark figure behind him frowned, but Liu Tongxiu didn't care. The ancient phoenix tree had a fatal attraction to all phoenixes in the world, and this was also true for the female cultivator who had phoenix blood in her body.

Having found the ancient parasol tree, his mission to recruit female cultivators was complete. As for what she wanted to do, he naturally wouldn't interfere.

What puzzled him was that this legendary tree species recorded in ancient books, although its trunk was indeed tall and imposing, made people standing in front of it seem like a group of ants looking up at a god.

But... though the tree was tall, it lacked vitality. Its numerous branches resembled a broom handle without bristles, and it was clearly old. The lower part of its roots was encased in solid ice, with transparent frost spreading upwards from the roots, covering the entire ancient tree.