Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

When it comes to evading searches, Yun Zhongce is better than anyone else.

Early the next morning, he led Jiang Yining and Xie Wuwang through the three secret passages beneath Tianyan City, and pressed the mark of the Myriad Manifestations Treasure Bone on the rock wall at the end of the fourth hidden vein.

With a muffled boom, the rock wall split open in the middle, revealing a long stone staircase.

At the end of the stone steps lies a natural cave.

The dome was adorned with scattered luminous pearls, their soft light illuminating a pool of azure spiritual spring in the center. The spring gushed forth from the ground, its surface dotted with tiny specks of spiritual energy. The entire cave was enveloped by an ancient spirit-gathering array, its patterns etched into the rocks of the four walls, so ancient that some of the runes had become blurred.

"This ancient grotto-heaven has been sealed off and unused since it was bought by the merchant guild." Yun Zhongce laid out a soft cushion on the stone platform by the spring, turned to look at Jiang Yining, and said, "The water of the spiritual spring is extremely pure, suitable for cultivation. Although the formation is old, its effect of isolating aura is better than that of a new formation. The Soul-Illuminating Mirror of the Divine Palace cannot penetrate it."

Xie Wuwang took a stroll around the cave. The poisonous markings on his left hand had been suppressed considerably by Jiang Yining over the past two days, allowing him to move much more freely.

He squatted down by the spring to test the water temperature, and glanced at Yun Zhongce as he stood up.

"Why didn't you move in with us?"

"I have to go back to the city to keep an eye on the intelligence network, and report any suspicious activity immediately."

"oh."

Xie Wuwang's lips curled into a smile, a rare hint of satisfaction on his face.

"Then you'd better leave quickly."

Yun Zhongce's lips twitched, and his gaze passed over Xie Wuwang's shoulder and landed on Jiang Yining.

Jiang Yining was squatting in front of the array patterns, examining the arrangement of the spirit-gathering array.

Her fingers traced the runes on the rock wall and stopped at the third row of array eyes.

"This spirit-gathering array is an ancient design, and its base uses a star-patterned circuit, which is the same system as the Returning Origin Circuit of the Nine Heavens Star Array of the Tianyan Chamber of Commerce."

"so?"

"So while I cultivate here, I can deduce the repair plan for the Return to Origin Circuit, saving me the trouble of running back and forth."

Yun Zhongce turned the folding fan around and gave her a meaningful look.

"So you agreed to move in not just to avoid the search."

"Why not take advantage of a training ground that's been offered to me? I learned it from you."

Yun Zhongce chuckled, but unusually didn't reply.

He left a communication talisman on the stone platform, gave a few instructions about supplies, and then turned and walked out of the cave.

The stone wall closed up behind them again.

Xie Wuwang turned around, looked at the empty cave, and then looked at Jiang Yining.

"Gone?"

"I'm gone."

"Great, this place is finally quiet."

He carried the empty wine jug to a flat stone by the spring, plopped down on it with an air of nonchalance, stretched out his long legs, and leaned back lazily.

"You go ahead and cultivate, I'll guard the gate."

Jiang Yining sat cross-legged on the platform to the east of the Spirit Spring. The origin of the Myriad Spirit Divine Tree unfolded from her dantian, and the purple-gold branches and leaves spread along her meridians to her limbs.

The spiritual energy in the spring is extremely pure. After flowing into the body, it is filtered by the divine tree's essence and transformed into gentle nutrients that nourish the meridians.

The dormant fetal energy in the lower abdomen quietly turned over under the nourishment of spiritual energy, like a well-fed little beast curling up and lying dormant among the branches and leaves of the divine tree.

The cultivation practice is progressing smoothly.

Until the third hour.

The ancient array patterns at the bottom of the spiritual spring suddenly twitched.

A faint pink aura rose from the depths of the spring with the flowing water; it was colorless and odorless, almost indistinguishable from the spiritual energy.

This wisp of energy penetrated the surface of the spiritual spring and spread through the air.

Jiang Yining inhaled it into her meridians with each breath.

As usual, the Divine Tree of All Spirits activated its filtration system. However, the moment its branches and leaves touched that wisp of pink fragrance, they did not shut it out. Instead, as if they had met a long-lost friend, they took the initiative to greet it.

The pink aura traveled down the branches and leaves of the sacred tree, and when it touched the extinguished fetal energy in her lower abdomen, the two forces intertwined and exploded into a scorching heat within her body.

Jiang Yining's expression changed.

She abruptly pulled her fingers away from the array patterns, placed them on her knees, and bent over.

It felt as if a fire had been lit inside my body, burning from my dantian to my limbs, and all the spiritual energy in my meridians began to stir restlessly.

The most fatal thing is that the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree not only does not resist, but also fuels the fire, sending that pink substance to every meridian in the body.

She gritted her teeth and forced her divine sense to try to analyze the origin of this aura.

A thousand threads intertwined.

The love poison secreted by the spores of a kind of spiritual plant that occasionally remains in the ancient cave heaven does not travel through the spiritual veins but through the blood vessels, and is specifically targeted at the constitution of plant-based spiritual roots.

Ordinary cultivators would find it insignificant, but she possessed the essence of the Myriad Spirits Divine Wood, giving her an extremely high affinity for all wood-type spiritual objects.

For her, Qian Si Rao was like a master key that could be used to open an unlocked door.

Her legs gave way, and she fell off the platform into the spiritual spring.

The icy spring water hitting her burning skin did not cool her down; instead, it sent a shiver through her body and made her even more disoriented.

boom.

A crack appeared in the stone wall behind us.

Yun Zhongce's figure appeared at the cave entrance.

He was panting heavily, his black battle robe was covered in mud and dust, and the communication talisman in his hand was broken.

"The communication talisman is sending back abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations. I sensed it in the secret passage. What's going on?"

He rushed to the spring in three strides, and upon seeing the situation in the water, his peach blossom eyes suddenly narrowed.

Jiang Yining was half-submerged in the spiritual spring, her entire body radiating an abnormal crimson spiritual light, her clothes soaked through and clinging to her body.

She looked up at him with unfocused eyes, her pupils reflecting a pink mist.

Yun Zhongce jumped into the spiritual spring without even taking off his robes and pulled her out.

The spring water reached his waist, and the soaked white robe with gold thread became semi-transparent, clinging tightly to his muscular body.

He supported her back with one hand and held her wrist with the other to check her pulse.

The pulse was throbbing at the slightest touch, and the spiritual energy within the meridians was like boiling water, churning endlessly.

"A thousand threads intertwined." His voice tightened a bit. "Beneath the spring in this broken cave, there are spore roots intertwined with a thousand threads."

Jiang Yining's hand climbed up his neck.

Her fingertips were burning hot, and when they touched his cold skin, they both shivered at the same time.

Those eyes, which were usually so clear they could see through everything, were now covered with a layer of mist, as if they had been submerged by something.

Her lips pressed against his chin.

The scalding temperature burned its way through the skin.

Yun Zhongce froze.

His fingers dug into the flesh of his palm, making a cracking sound from his knuckles.

"Ah Ning." His voice was so hoarse it was almost cracking, his Adam's apple bobbing twice. "Look carefully at who I am. I don't want to take advantage of someone in distress."

Jiang Yining's fingers slid from his neck to his chest, and she ripped open his soaked clothes.

Yun Zhongce's breathing became completely disordered at this moment.

She looked up at him with her dreamy eyes, her voice as soft as honey, yet each word was enunciated clearly.

"Stop talking nonsense, detoxify."

The surface of the spring water rippled violently.

The light of the luminous pearl was shrouded in a blurry halo by the rising water vapor. The golden-threaded white robe and the purple-gold garments floated on the water's surface, pushed by the current to the stone platform by the spring, and then swept away by the surging waves.

The spirit-gathering array patterns on the four walls of the cave flickered on and off, and the fluctuations of spiritual energy were sometimes strong and sometimes weak, as if something was desperately trying to push the array to its limit.

The water surface went from churning to calm, and then from calm to churning again, repeating this countless times.

Two of the luminous pearls on the dome went out, and then one lit up again.

A long, long time later, the sound of water stopped.

The spring returned to its calm state.

Yun Zhongce leaned against the stone wall by the spring, his long, wet hair clinging to his cheeks, his shirt completely open at the chest, revealing a patch of red marks of varying shades below his collarbone.

He looked up at the cave ceiling, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly.

He still had his arm around Jiang Yining, and didn't let go.

"You just said this is called detoxification."

He lowered his head to look at the head resting against his chest.

Her eyes were closed, her breathing had calmed down, the blush on her cheeks had not completely faded, and her long, curled eyelashes cast a small fan-shaped shadow.

The sash had come undone at some point, and when he tied it back for her, his fingers touched a very thin layer of purplish-gold spiritual light on her lower abdomen.

His movements paused for a fleeting moment.

The Myriad Treasures Bone trembled slightly in his palm.

He could sense the frequency of that aura.

It is the Divine Tree of Ten Thousand Spirits protecting something.

Yun Zhongce's gaze moved from her abdomen to her face, then back again, and then back again.

Those peach blossom eyes held a multitude of emotions: shrewdness, astonishment, heartache, and an indescribable bitterness.

After a while, he lowered his head and rested his forehead on the top of her hair.

Her lips moved slightly, the sound so soft that only she could hear it.

"I see."

He fastened the sash for her, making sure it was perfectly in place, before slowly withdrawing his hand.

Footsteps echoed from the stone entrance to the cave.

As it approached from afar, it carried a palpable sense of oppressive, murderous annihilation from the laws of nature.

Xie Wuwang's voice boomed outside the stone wall.

"Jiang Yining! Why is the door closed! What happened to you in there?!"

Yun Zhongce closed his eyes briefly.

He looked down at the sleeping person in his arms, reached out and brushed away a strand of wet hair that was stuck to her face, his fingertip pausing for a moment between her eyebrows.

He then placed her on the stone platform, covered her with his outer robe, and got up to walk towards the entrance.

The moment the stone wall opened, Xie Wuwang's fist stopped an inch in front of his nose.

Yun Zhongce was soaking wet, his clothes were half open, and his face had an extremely rare calm.

"She was poisoned by the Thousand Threads Poison, but the cure has been given, and she is sleeping inside."

Xie Wuwang did not retract his fist.

His gaze swept from Yun Zhongce's soaked hair to his open chest, lingering for a moment on the varying shades of red marks.

His dark purple pupils seemed to be ignited by something, and the law of annihilation silently spread from his body, causing the stone steps beneath his feet to crack.

"You touched her."

It's not a question.

It is a verdict.

Yun Zhongce neither retreated nor blocked.

He simply looked at Xie Wuwang with those peach blossom eyes that had been cleansed of all scheming.

"She told me to cure the poison."

Xie Wuwang's fists were trembling.

Five breaths later, he lowered his hand and rushed straight past Yun Zhongce into the cave.

Yun Zhongce leaned against the stone wall, looking up at the dark rocks at the top of the secret passage.

His shoulders slowly slid down, and he squatted on the ground.

He took out the bamboo folding fan from his pocket. The fan surface was wrinkled from being soaked in spring water, and the crooked tree painted on it had become a blotchy mess of ink.

He stared at the blob of ink for a long time.

"Buying on credit..."

He placed the folding fan on his lap and covered his face.

The sound leaked out from between her fingers, making it impossible to tell whether she was crying or laughing.

"It turns out you owe far more debts than I thought."