I rely on learning to achieve immortality.

Upon hearing the words "Hu Anming," Xu Zhou was momentarily taken aback.

His momentary surprise was caught by Song Wubai, who mistook it for his own astonishment at having his identity revealed.

A glint of light flashed in Song Wubai's eyes: "So you really are Hu Anming!"

Xu Zhou's eyes flickered slightly, but he did not deny it, and the spiritual light of the array also softened a bit.

It seemed that after the other party had truly revealed his identity, he hesitated for a moment.

Song Wubai was overjoyed and immediately wanted to say something more.

But the next moment...

Whoosh!

Another beam of light struck, narrowly missing his shoulder and arm.

Upon seeing this, Song Wubai flew into a rage: "Hu Anming! Are you really going to fight to the death?"

Xu Zhou did not answer, but continued to operate the formation, and the spiritual light rained down even more densely than before.

Caught off guard, Song Wubai was grazed by a beam of spiritual light on his shoulder.

His robes ripped apart, and half of his shoulder was instantly covered in blood and flesh.

He felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder, and his face immediately darkened.

"Could it be that my previous words were too arrogant and angered this guy?"

Thinking of this, Song Wubai's gaze narrowed slightly.

"Who knows what hidden tricks a sect genius like Juanming might have up his sleeve?"

"If we really fight to the end, even if I manage to kill him, I'll most likely suffer significant injuries."

Although he wanted to escape, he knew he couldn't run away blindly.

The enemy's formation is filled with dense and continuous spiritual light. If I turn around and run away now, I will only become a target for the enemy. I will probably be hit before I can escape the range and be seriously injured.

He reached into his robes and took out the second-tier talisman he had treasured in his storage bag.

With his current level of Qi cultivation, activating a second-tier talisman would require a large amount of mana and a considerable amount of time to prepare, making it virtually impossible for him to do so.

But he didn't intend to fight Juan to the death.

The next moment, as if he had made up his mind, Song Wubai stopped dodging the array's spiritual light and instead flew forward, rapidly approaching Xu Zhou's direction.

"Juan, I'll haunt you even in death!"

He appeared fierce, and the talisman in his hand also emitted a strong aura.

He waited until the other party was affected by the pressure and showed some hesitation before he immediately fled far away.

By the time the other party realized what was happening, he had already run far away.

The pressure from the second-tier talisman was almost tangible, pressing down on Xu Zhou's head.

Xu Zhou's eyes were bloodshot, but his formation remained intact.

Instead of retreating, he took a step forward.

With a wave of his hand, several drops of spiritual liquid exploded in mid-air.

The spiritual liquid transformed into rich wood elemental energy, which was then poured into the five spiritual trees.

Click.

The outermost spirit tree instantly cracked open with large patches of bark, and its leaves rapidly withered and turned yellow at a visible speed.

But at the same time, the aura of the entire Five Fiends Formation suddenly surged!

Xu Zhou stared intently at Song Wubai.

The next moment, his divine sense pierced straight through like a spear, firmly locking onto Song Wubai in front of him.

The sudden mental lock made him realize that something was wrong.

"etc!"

"You're not destined for Juan!"

In that instant, he finally realized what was happening.

If the person in front of him were truly Juan Ming, there would be no way he would still be in a position of wanting to die together with him at this point.

The real Juan would never risk his life for a few outsiders!

Feeling the array in front of him constantly rotating, Song Wubai's scalp almost exploded, and a chill ran straight to the top of his head.

The other party is truly determined to keep him here regardless of the cost!

He immediately stopped, and tried to retreat, but it was too late.

At that moment, inspiration surged.

Boom! ...

The Five Fiends Formation erupted with a shocking burst of spiritual light once again, even more powerful than the previous one.

The spiritual light struck right before their eyes, hitting Song Wubai, who was only ten feet away from Xu Zhou.

The sand and gravel cracked, creating a huge crater in the ground.

Song Wubai met the attack head-on, and the defensive magic weapon he hastily released shattered instantly.

But at the last moment, he still managed to dodge slightly to the side.

A turquoise light pierced through.

A large patch of flesh on Song Wubai's waist vanished instantly, and his bones shattered.

Before the blood could even spurt out, it instantly turned into a blood mist within the emerald green light.

He was almost torn in half by that blow.

Despite the pain, Song Wubai did not faint. Instead, he desperately activated another talisman.

The next moment, he was enveloped in a bloody light and his body was violently retreated.

In just a few breaths, he had already escaped the range of the spiritual light's attack.

Xu Zhou's tense body finally relaxed only after Song Wubai completely disappeared from sight.

The next moment, everything went black before his eyes, and he almost fainted.

His hands, clenched in a fist, trembled uncontrollably, and his back was already soaked in cold sweat.

Just now, in order to unleash that wisp of emerald light, he had pushed the formation to its absolute limit.

After the spiritual light dissipated, the four spiritual trees that served as array points began to wither rapidly.

The spirit tree at the heart of the formation also withered, its branches and leaves turning yellow and falling off at a visible speed.

That attack just now completely drained the essence that the spirit wood had accumulated over many years. It's already lucky that the spirit wood at the core of the formation survived.

"That was close."

Xu Zhou was panting heavily, trying to suppress the weakness that was surging through his body.

He glanced at the rapidly withering spirit trees around him, a hint of heartache flashing in his eyes.

However, as long as we win, it will all be worth it.

He knew that Song Wubai's cultivation was higher than his own and that he had more experience in fighting. If he wanted to survive against him, he had to fight to the death.

Li Zelei once told him that Qi Refining cultivators are still mortals, and no matter how high their cultivation level is, as long as they find an opportunity, even a low-level cultivator can kill a high-level one.

Therefore, when faced with danger, one must never panic and run away; one must fight desperately for a chance of survival.

Xu Zhou had very few dangerous experiences, but he remembered this advice firmly.

Previously, when facing Song Wubai, he didn't know whether the other party wanted to fight or escape. He simply pushed his own formation to its limit and used all his strength to meet the opponent.

Although they failed to kill it, they managed to severely injure it.

Recalling the harrowing moment, Xu Zhou's fingers trembled slightly.

The physical bodies of Qi cultivators are still too fragile.

In ordinary sect sparring, the so-called difference in cultivation level becomes extremely blurred in the face of real life and death.

Once someone reveals a weakness, that person will face certain death.

He looked in the direction where Song Wubai had left, and a sense of lingering fear rose in his heart.

If the opponent doesn't run away in the end, but instead turns around and fights you to the death...

Then I would surely die!

Xu Zhou clenched his hands tightly in secret.

We must be even more careful from now on.

...

After a moment, Xu Zhou calmed down.

He had just used a communication talisman to notify his senior brother in the distance that the three who had left should be back soon.

He still had many things to do before that.

Xu Zhou first dripped a few drops of spiritual liquid onto the still surviving Spirit Wood to replenish its energy, and then put it back into the Spirit Warming Bag.

He then went to check on the condition of the other two senior brothers.

The white-bearded cultivator's skull was shattered; he was now beyond dead.

The green-robed cultivator was only poisoned, and a trace of life remained.

Xu Zhou used his medical skills to carefully diagnose the patient and found that although the toxins in his body were complex, they were not fatal. After feeding him several antidote pills, the toxicity was temporarily suppressed.

The green-robed cultivator should wake up on his own after a short period of sleep, and then it won't be too late to slowly detoxify him.

Afterwards, Xu Zhou cleaned up the battlefield, erasing any traces of his use of the formation.

When Xu Zhou arrived at the spot where Song Wubai had been hit, he glanced around and found several pieces of cloth and some broken debris in the pit.

Judging from the appearance, the spiritual light struck at the same time as the storage bag at his waist.

The storage bag ripped open under the bombardment, and the items inside were also affected, almost all of them were destroyed and rendered useless.

The only thing that was well preserved was a jade slip.

Upon seeing this, Xu Zhou had an idea.

He picked up the jade slip and carefully probed it with his divine sense. After a moment, a look of surprise flashed across his face.

"The Dream-Eating Heart Sutra? Could it be the cultivation manual of the Yin Soul Sect of Liang Kingdom?"

He didn't look at it carefully, but put it away first, intending to study it in detail later.

As for whether Song Wubai would come after him to ask for the jade slip back after it was stolen, he wasn't worried.

Having suffered such severe injuries, even if Song Wubai survived, he would be crippled.

...

With the help of the Blood Escape Talisman, Song Wubai fled dozens of miles before gradually slowing down.

He found a pit to hide in and then tried to treat his injuries.

The spiritual light struck his waist, tearing a piece off his abdomen—a fatal injury for an ordinary person. Even for a cultivator, it was a crippling injury.

It can be said that from then on, his body was crippled, and unless he found rare and precious materials to repair it, his cultivation would stagnate and he would find it difficult to establish a foundation.

Damn it.

During the treatment, Song Wubai discovered that his storage bag had fallen off, and his already ashen expression became even more distorted.

He secretly vowed that if he were to fail to reach the Foundation Establishment stage in the future, he would definitely seek revenge on that person!

Just as he was secretly plotting his revenge, he suddenly heard a soft hissing sound.

Song Wubai paused for a moment, then his face turned pale.

He looked up and saw a huge black python coiled in front of the cave entrance.

A pair of snake eyes were fixed on him, seemingly filled with greed and murderous intent.

"not good!"

Song Wubai thought to himself, "Oh no!"

Although the black python was his pet, such demonic beasts are naturally ferocious and difficult to tame.

Before he was injured, the black python was suppressed by his cultivation and could only obey his commands. But now that he was severely injured and bleeding, he feared he would be unable to suppress it.

The backup plan that had been prepared was also lost with the loss of the storage bag.

The black python stared at Song Wubai, flicking its tongue as it slowly approached.

Song Wubai was terrified and hurriedly crawled deeper into the cave.

"Don't come any closer, I am your master!"

But the black python didn't care.

Seeing him hide deeper into the cave, the black python immediately pounced into the cave and bit down on Song Wubai's legs.

A piercing scream immediately echoed through the pit.

A moment later, the screams stopped.

Only the hissing sound of the black python flicking its tongue echoed slowly.