It turns out, they were the main characters.

Gongsun Xiong was unaware of the other party's identity. He only knew that after taking the Meridian Opening Pill given to him by Bai Yuanfeng, his cultivation level plummeted, and he thought his life was over.

At that moment, the mysterious cultivator suddenly approached.

He claimed to be a member of the Liangyi Sect and offered to help him advance to the Returning to the Void Realm.

As it turned out, the other party did indeed succeed. With the help of the refined pills, Gongsun Xiong successfully advanced to the Void Returning Realm and became the first terrestrial immortal in Tianxuan City.

"Senior, is there anything else you need to instruct me on?" Gongsun Xiong asked, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

"If nothing unexpected happens, Mu Zhian will soon come down the mountain. When he does, remember not to kill him," the middle-aged cultivator said.

Gongsun Xiong nodded slightly and said, "I know that."

Although he wasn't quite sure why the other party kept emphasizing not to harm Mu Zhian, Gongsun Xiong was very clear that the person in front of him was someone he absolutely could not afford to offend.

He paused slightly, then continued, "What about the rest of the Mu family...?"

As he finished speaking, Gongsun Xiong's eyes held a hint of probing.

"Whatever the rest of the Mu family does is up to you," the middle-aged cultivator said with a gentle smile.

"Remember, there's only one thing you need to do."

He gazed at Gongsun Xiong: "You just need to let Mu Zhian know that the person who gave you the pills and helped you advance is from the Liangyi Sect."

"That's enough."

……

"You want to go find Ying Guhuan?" Wei Mengrou saw through Mu Zhian's thoughts at a glance and couldn't help but ask.

“To be precise, Ying Guhuan is one of them,” Mu Zhian said.

“They probably won’t get involved in the conflicts between these forces,” Wei Mengrou said softly, her brows slightly furrowed.

“They naturally won’t get involved, because there are only two possibilities for the Chief to intervene.”

Mu Zhian turned his head to look at Wei Mengrou and smiled, "Either it's a demon cultivator, or my disciple was attacked for no reason."

"In short, the chief ministers need to have a legitimate reason to take action."

“Gongsun Xiong is a smart man, but he most likely couldn’t have known that the Meridian-Opening Pill that Bai Yuanfeng gave him was problematic.” Mu Zhian said this as he sat down in front of the courtyard, his mind racing.

After an unknown amount of time, his eyes suddenly opened, and he immediately got up and left Tianhe Garden, heading towards the direction of the library.

Before long, Mu Zhian arrived at Shaole Garden behind the library.

After reporting to the disciples outside Shaole Garden, he entered Shaole Garden.

Normally, it would be impossible for the chief to meet so casually, but several chiefs, including Yan Ruyu, had told the gatekeeper disciples that they should not stop Mu Zhian if he came to visit, so Mu Zhian was able to pass through without any hindrance.

After walking along the path in the courtyard for a while, Mu Zhian saw Yan Ruyu, a mature woman with an intellectual and elegant temperament, wearing a dark green robe, in the elegant garden.

She crossed her left leg over her right, and the loose robe could not hide her snow-white skin, highlighting her alluring figure.

"You seem even more beautiful than before..." Mu Zhian quickly glanced at Yan Ruyu, then respectfully clasped his hands and said, "Sect Master Yan."

Yan Ruyu looked at Mu Zhian with a slight smile and said with a smile, "You busy man, what brings you to my Shaole Garden today?"

His words carried a hint of teasing.

Mu Zhian shook his head helplessly and sighed, "Sect Master Yan is joking. I wanted to come and see you a few days ago, but Senior Linglong told me not to run around because of some matters related to fortune."

Well... whatever the problem is, just push it to Linglong.

"The matter of the inheritance of destiny?" Yan Ruyu looked thoughtful, then nodded slightly, not pressing the matter further, but changing the subject instead: "So, what brings you here today?"

She had not told Mu Zhi'an that she needed a natural furnace, so logically, Mu Zhi'an could not have come to her for that reason.

If it wasn't for the Heavenly Furnace, then what exactly brought Mu Zhi'an here?

This made Yan Ruyu a little concerned.

Despite her thoughts, Yan Ruyu still served tea to Mu Zhian and gestured for the rather handsome and well-behaved young cultivator to sit down beside her.

"What is it? Speak," Yan Ruyu said, gazing at Mu Zhian with a smile.

"As expected, nothing can be hidden from Pavilion Master Yan." Mu Zhian revealed a shy smile.

Then he asked, "Has the Pavilion Master ever heard of the Meridian Opening Pill?"

Yan Ruyu raised her eyebrows slightly and said, "Are you talking about a pill that can give a cultivator at the peak of the Spirit Refining stage a chance to break through to the Void Returning stage?"

Seeing Mu Zhian nod slightly, Yan Ruyu continued, "I have three or four of these pills on me. Do you need them?"

Three or four… Mu Zhian’s eyelids twitched slightly, and he couldn’t help but look at Yan Ruyu a few more times with a strange expression.

To refine a single Meridian Opening Pill, the Bai family expended a great deal of their wealth and went through countless hardships.

However, Yan Ruyu's tone was so nonchalant, as if she were just talking about something trivial.

As expected of the head of the library, he is indeed quite wealthy... Mu Zhian sighed inwardly, and his eyes filled with longing as he looked at Yan Ruyu.

This is the kind of rich, mature woman he's been pursuing...

Upon closer inspection, Yan Ruyu's attire was not particularly luxurious, yet beneath her dark green robe embroidered with exquisite patterns lay an alluring figure that was enough to inspire longing.

This is a quality that neither of her two younger sisters nor even Bai Ruoxi possesses; it is a gentle and intellectual temperament that can only be cultivated after experiencing certain things, just like a ripe peach, fragrant and irresistible, making one want to take a bite or two.

Yan Ruyu noticed Mu Zhian's gaze fixed on her, and then looked up at him.

When he caught a glimpse of the longing in Mu Zhi'an's eyes, he immediately understood the meaning behind them.

"What's wrong?" Yan Ruyu didn't expose her, but asked knowingly.

"Pavilion Master Yan is so beautiful," Mu Zhian praised sincerely.

Yan Ruyu glanced at Mu Zhian with a hint of instruction in her eyes and said, "You are, after all, an inner disciple of mine. Don't say such things in public."

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself..." Mu Zhian said with a look of shame.

Yan Ruyu smiled faintly and continued, "However, this is Shaole Garden. When the two of us are alone, we don't need to worry about such trivial matters."

Looking at Yan Ruyu's charming and intellectual face, Mu Zhian thought that if Yan Ruyu were in modern times, she would be an intellectual woman wearing an office lady uniform skirt that accentuated her shapely and slender white legs, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and holding a ruler.

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but feel a little tempted.

Seemingly noticing Mu Zhian's intense gaze, Yan Ruyu raised the corners of her lips and said with a faint smile, "You came to see me not just to ask a few questions, right?"

Mu Zhian composed himself slightly and nodded, saying, "Actually, there is still one thing I don't understand."

Under Yan Ruyu's gaze, Mu Zhian asked, "What if someone tampered with the Meridian Opening Pill, causing the user's spiritual energy to flow in reverse...?"

Yan Ruyu pondered for a moment and said, "If you're lucky, you'll be seriously injured and it will take ten or twenty years to recover. If you're unlucky, you may have to suppress the reversed spiritual energy for the rest of your life and won't have the energy to cultivate."

"Is it possible for a cultivator at the peak of the Spirit Refining stage to break through to the Void Returning stage after taking a Meridian Opening Pill that has been tampered with?" Mu Zhian asked.

Yan Ruyu shook her head, her tone resolute: "Absolutely impossible."

She was the head of the library and had read many books in the past, so she knew everything about elixirs.

If there's something wrong with the Meridian Opening Pill, it's absolutely impossible to advance to the Returning to Emptiness stage.

Let alone the Returning to the Void Realm, in order to suppress the reverse flow of spiritual energy, his realm might even drop to the Qi Refining Realm.

“That’s a bit strange…” Mu Zhian looked puzzled.

Under Yan Ruyu's gaze, Mu Zhian said, "Actually, the person who advanced to the Returning Void Realm in Tianxuan City this time is the patriarch of the Gongsun family."

"And the Meridian Opening Pill that Chief Gongsun obtained by chance was a tampered pill."

Yan Ruyu's eyes showed a thoughtful look as she said, "If one obtains the Meridian Opening Pill, no cultivator at the peak of the Spirit Refinement stage would remain unmoved..."

Mu Zhian nodded and said, "Once he takes the Meridian Opening Pill, his cultivation level will drop. How could he possibly advance to the Returning to Emptiness realm?"

After pondering for a moment, Yan Ruyu suddenly said, "There is an unwritten rule in my sect that we do not interfere in the conflicts between external forces."

Mu Zhian nodded and said, "I know that. I didn't intend to trouble the Pavilion Master with this matter."

At this point, he suddenly changed the subject: "However, I would like to ask Pavilion Master Yan to come back to Tianxuan City with me."

"What's the reason?" Yan Ruyu asked.

She knew that Mu Zhian was a very smart person and wouldn't invite her back to Tianxuan City for no reason.

There must be a reason for doing this.

Mu Zhian said, "Actually, when I entered the grotto of the Pilgrimage Hall that day, in addition to meeting Senior Qingdi, I also saw the ancient demon that she had sealed inside."

Yan Ruyu's eyes flickered slightly, but she didn't seem very surprised.

Senior Qingdi wouldn't have been seriously injured for no reason. At the time, she had guessed that there might be something hidden in that cave that forced Qingdi to take action to suppress it.

Little did I expect that what was inside were demons from ancient times...

"To be honest, after obtaining Senior Qingdi's permission, I went to the cave again and met that old demon," Mu Zhian said again.

He then explained in detail how he had agreed to reshape the body of the Azure Emperor, and how he had pretended to agree to reshape the body of the demon cultivator in order to fleece it.

"Soul Nourishing Pill?" Yan Ruyu's eyes flickered slightly, even the head of this library was somewhat surprised.

The old demon in this cave actually gave his disciple a Soul Nourishing Pill?

This Soul Nourishing Pill is already incredibly close to being a Heavenly Grade Pill.

Its effect is to nourish the spirit; even those who have perished can be brought back to life by taking the Soul Nourishing Pill.

In the entire Nine Provinces, it's probably impossible to find a second Soul Nourishing Pill.

That demon really went all out...

“That old demon doesn’t really trust me,” Mu Zhi’an said, looking at Yan Ruyu’s exquisite face. “I also learned by chance that there might be some of that demon’s subordinates within the sect.”

Yan Ruyu pondered for a moment and said, "There have always been demon cultivators in my sect... However, besides the people of the Demon Queen, are there other demon cultivators who are different from the forces of the Demon Realm also hiding in the sect?"

At this point, she continued, "So you mean that the Gongsun clan chief you mentioned might have been helped by someone?"

"But what are the demons doing with the Gongsun family?" Yan Ruyu asked Mu Zhian.

Mu Zhian pondered for a moment and said, "He probably wants to get something from his disciple."

He paused, then continued, "For example... if the old demon's subordinate is indeed a cultivator from the Liangyi Sect, that person only needs to use this to spread the word that the disciples know that it is the people of the Liangyi Sect who are supporting Clan Chief Gongsun behind the scenes, helping him advance to the Void Returning Realm."

"During this period, Clan Chief Gongsun also suppressed the Mu family and even harmed members of the Mu family..."

Mu Zhian put down his teacup: "At this moment, a seed of hatred takes root and sprouts in my heart."

Yan Ruyu narrowed her eyes slightly: "Then you will do everything in your power to work for the old demon and release it to destroy the sect?"