One person: Starting with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, his grandmaster uncle emerges from seclusion.

"I know." Liu Tianxian pouted, but her voice softened.

"Knowing is useless."

Zhang Tianyi rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a small bead.

The bead is entirely purple-gold in color, and it seems as if countless lightning bolts are flowing inside.

This was a core he had painstakingly extracted from his vast innate thunder essence last night, and then refined with some of his own Daoist principles.

"Give me your hand," Zhang Tianyi said.

Liu Tianxian hesitated for a moment, then obediently extended her fair palm.

Zhang Tianyi placed the purple-gold bead in her palm.

The moment it touched her skin, the bead transformed into a purple light and disappeared directly into the lines on her palm.

Liu Tianxian felt a powerful warm current flow up her arm and straight to her heart, calming down the restless dragon energy within her body caused by her unstable cultivation level.

"Keeping this inside you will help you stay calm and also protect you from those unclean and evil influences."

Zhang Tianyi clapped his hands, his tone casual, as if he were offering a piece of candy:

Consider this the after-sales service I'm providing for you.

Feeling that familiar sense of security within her, Liu Tianxian clenched her fist.

She looked up, her eyes flashing with complex emotions.

She gritted her teeth and suddenly took a step forward.

Before Zhang Tianyi could react, her fingertip had already swiftly traced a line across his palm.

"Clap."

A palm-sized scale, perfectly crescent-shaped, landed in Zhang Tianyi's hand.

The scales were pure white, warm to the touch, yet their edges were so sharp they seemed capable of cutting through space, and ancient divine runes flowed across them.

"Even if you give me a broken bead, I won't take it for nothing."

Liu Tianxian raised her chin and gave a haughty snort, but a barely perceptible blush crept onto her ears:

"This is the first reverse scale I shed when I transformed into a dragon."

"If you ever encounter something you can't beat in the future... although I doubt it will. But if you get into trouble, crush it."

"No matter where you are, I'll cross mountains and rivers to help you beat him up!"

Zhang Tianyi looked down at the priceless dragon scale in his hand and couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, Xiaobai. This thing is tough enough."

He casually tucked the sharp edge into his inner pocket and even patted it deliberately.

"If I ever eat fish, this thing will definitely be useful for scaling it."

"you dare?!"

Liu Tianxian was so angry that she gritted her teeth and was about to kick him when Zhang Tianyi nimbly dodged.

"I'm leaving! See you later!"

Zhang Tianyi waved to her and turned to walk towards the convoy.

Watching the convoy slowly drive away and disappear into the white expanse of the snow-covered trail.

Liu Tianxian stood under the old plum tree and looked down at her palm.

The warm, pulsating energy of thunder was still throbbing.

"Scaling the fish..."

She murmured something softly, and a smile bloomed on her stunning face that eclipsed even the sunlight.

“Little Taoist priest, if you really dare to use it to scrape fish scales, I’ll pluck your eyebrows off.”

On the other side, inside the car.

Zhang Tianyi looked at the snow-white scale in his hand, a smug smile on his face:

"Dragon Knight! Dragon Knight..."

……

It was a little after 1 p.m.

Zhang Tianyi and his entourage rode in the car, leisurely returning to Xishan Manor in Beijing.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Zhang Tianyi stretched and stepped through the gate, pondering what to have the kitchen cook for dinner to nourish him.

As soon as I entered the courtyard, I saw a pink figure rushing over in a hurry.

"Second Master! Old Celestial Master! You've finally returned!"

Lu Linglong didn't even change out of her training clothes today. She ran until she was out of breath, and her little face was full of anxiety and helplessness.

"Hey, Linglong, what happened? Did a dog chase you?"

Zhang Tianyi raised an eyebrow and stopped walking.

"No...it's that..."

Lu Linglong pointed towards the backyard of the manor, stamping her feet anxiously, her voice even sounding a little tearful:

"Before you left, didn't you ask me to deliver meals to that guy surnamed Ma in the backyard every day and keep an eye on him?"

"I went to deliver his lunch today, and then..."

Lu Linglong swallowed hard and said with difficulty:

"And then, no one was inside! He... he's gone!"

"what?!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chulan, who was following behind, dropped the local specialties he was carrying to the ground.

"Old Ma ran away?! How is that possible!"

Zhang Chulan's expression was one of utter shock: "How could someone whose magical artifacts were destroyed and who was wearing a restraining collar possibly escape from here?!"

The old celestial master also frowned slightly and looked at Zhang Tianyi.

The languid look on Zhang Tianyi's face vanished instantly.

But he didn't show much panic; he just narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Gone?"

He walked quickly toward the backyard where Ma Xianhong was being held.

Zhang Chulan, Wang Ye, and the others quickly followed.

We arrived at the separate side room in the backyard.

Zhang Tianyi stopped in her tracks.

He didn't rush to push the door open, but stood outside, carefully examining the surroundings of the room.

Zhang Chulan came closer, looking anxious.

"Master, did Old Ma sneak out by picking the lock? Or is someone trying to break him out of prison?"

"Pick the lock? Break out of prison?"

Zhang Tianyi turned her head and glanced at him:

"Do you think that lightning array I casually set up before I left was just for show?"

Zhang Tianyi raised his hand and gently tapped the air.

hum!

It was accompanied by a low rumble of thunder.

Suddenly, a dense, purple-gold lightning net appeared all around the room!

The lightning net completely enveloped the room, even covering the ground beneath it.

"If anyone tries to break my formation, even if it's just a fly flying by, I can sense it from the northeast."

Zhang Tianyi looked at the intact lightning net without a trace of fluctuation, his tone revealing a hint of strangeness.

"But now, the formation is intact, without even a trace of being touched by external force."

"The core of the formation is intact, and the nodes are not disordered."

"But the person is gone!"

Wang Ye stepped forward, carefully examined the lightning net, and then looked at the lock on the door.

"The lock isn't broken, the array isn't damaged, could it be a spatial spell?"

Wang Ye gasped in shock: "Did this living person just vanish into thin air?"

"Let's go inside and take a look."

Zhang Tianyi snapped his fingers, dispelling the formation, and pushed open the door.

The room was very tidy.

The bed was made neatly, and the food on the table didn't even show any signs of being touched.

There were no signs of fighting or struggle.

But on the round table in the very center of the room.

But two things were quietly placed there.

Zhang Tianyi stepped forward.

Those were two knives.

Two watermelon knives!

These two knives are no longer the cheap stuff you buy at a street stall.

The blade is dark silver in color and is covered with intricate Divine Refinement Array patterns.