Chapter 407: Separate Ways
"Understood." Everyone said and immediately began to attack.
Yang Xu and Bing Lan used their lotus flames, Jiang Yue used his yin-yang flame while Yu Nianzhen and Song Ming used flame talismans.
After a barrage of attacks, the vine was destroyed and quickly dissipated to demonic qi.
However, before the five could relax, seven more vines appeared.
Each vine had a diameter of about half a metre and its length extended to the underground, making it difficult for the five to guess.
"Attack." Yang Xu said and the others didn’t hesitate.
They unleashed another barrage of fire attacks and a cup of tea later; the seven vines were defeated.
Unfortunately, none of the five were in good condition.
Although the isolation talismans prevented them from being poisoned, it was not easy to defeat the seven vines.
Among the five people, only Yang Xu and Song Ming were in a relatively better condition.
"Take a qi replenishing pill." Yu Nianzhen reminded his husband and then put two pills in his mouth.
"More vines are coming up." Yang Xu said and his face turned ugly.
Hearing that, the others were also discouraged and they couldn’t help but worry.
"How many vines are there?" Song Ming asked and Yang Xu shook his head before he spoke.
"I can’t tell."
"When the vines are destroyed, they turn into demonic qi. The most indispensable thing in this place is demonic qi..." Jiang Yue said and the others immediately understood.
If something was spawning vines using demonic qi; theoretically, they could continue doing so forever.
When that happened, Jiang Yue and the others would definitely lose because their qi was not endless.
While the others were talking, Yang Xu’s divine sense was exploring the underground.
At first, everything was going fine and he could see the underground situation clearly.
However, when his divine sense extended to one kilometre underground, it was blocked by something and he couldn’t continue to investigate.
"Whatever is spawning the vines is about one kilometre below ground." He said.
"One kilometre..." Jiang Yue muttered and looked at his husband.
[Maybe the treasure and the vines are related.] Yu Nianzhen nodded and transmitted.
[Azhen, will it be too dangerous to try and find the treasure?] Jiang Yue worried.
Other than that, he was also worried about how he and Yu Nianzhen would get underground without attracting everyone’s notice.
If the treasure was above ground, they could find a chance to take it without anyone noticing.
However, below ground was a different matter.
[We can leave it for the time being. It won’t be too late to come back when our strength improves.] Yu Nianzhen answered.
"Why can demonic qi appear in a place protected by demon-repelling flowers?" Bing Lan suddenly asked and everyone froze in place.
From what they knew, demon-repelling flowers could perfectly keep out demonic qi.
This knowledge gave them confidence and the sudden loophole made everyone extremely worried.
"There is another possibility." Yu Nianzhen said after thinking about it for a moment.
"What have you thought about?" Yang Xu questioned.
"When the vines were destroyed, the ensuing demonic qi was immediately dispelled. Could it be that the vines themselves are not made of demonic qi as we previously thought?"
"I think it’s possible." Song Ming agreed.
"Senior Niu didn’t mention any exceptions when about the demon-repelling flower. I think Azhen’s theory is right."
"Let’s talk about it later, thirteen vines are about to break ground." Yang Xu said and everyone felt a little urgent.
They did their best to destroy seven vines.
When they heard that thirteen more were about to appear, they couldn’t help but feel a little despair.
"If we can’t handle it, there is no need to insist. We will immediately escape and go to other places to explore." Yang Xu said and the others reluctantly agreed.
Although they were greedy for the demon-repelling flowers in the backyard, life was more important.
If they really couldn’t handle it, it was best to retreat and come back when their strength improved.
After that, the five fought desperately.
An hour later, they managed to destroy the vines but they were all in a sorry state.
"Let’s grab the demon-repelling flowers before more vines appear." Yang Xu dragged his wife to the backyard.
The others quickly followed and the five were not polite.
They hurriedly pulled out the demon-repelling flowers and when Yang Xu felt the vines approaching, they escaped without hesitation.
"It’s too bad we didn’t get all the flowers." Song Ming lamented.
Initially, they thought there were at most forty flowers in the backyard.
However, what they found was a field of more than two hundred flowers.
Due to their lack of qi and time, they only managed to pull out less than fifty which Song Ming felt was a pity.
"It’s also good to leave some for others." Yang Xu said with some schadenfreude in his voice.
Although it was a pity not to get all the flowers, he wasn’t too entangled.
After all, there were thousands of buildings in the first layer of the sealed battlefield.
Even if they failed to clear one, they had an advantage over others.
"We worked hard this time." Bing Lan suddenly said.
"How about each of us take three flowers and leave the rest to the sect?" Elder Song asked.
"I agree." Several voices answered.
If they each took three, thirty-five flowers would be left for the sect.
Combined with what they had saved over the last month, they could distribute fifty flowers to the sect.
"Let’s find a place to recover and then ask the others to come out." Yang Xu said and everyone agreed.
Because the formation was filled with demonic qi, they couldn’t replenish qi from the surroundings and had to rely on spirit stones.
After a day of replenishing, they returned to their peak state and finally felt a little at ease.
"I will go in to take everyone out." Yang Xu said and handed his ancient palace to his wife.
For convenience, everyone entered Yang Xu’s ancient palace at the beginning.
At this time, Yang Xu only needed to enter the palace, deliver the demon-repelling flowers and then take out all the members of the Sea Cloud sect.
Barely a cup of tea after he entered, thirty people came out.
Each of the thirty was equipped with a demon-repelling flower and all looked around curiously as soon as they came out.
"What a gloomy place." Someone said with displeasure on their face.
"I didn’t expect it to be like this." Another said.
"There is nothing except buildings."
"There are many buildings in this first layer and many opportunities can be found." Yang Xu started, attracting everyone’s attention.
"However, everyone must remember to be careful." He warned.
"Are there any dangers?" Someone asked.
"In that house..." Song Ming spoke and pointed at the big house they escaped from.
"There are almost two hundred demon-repelling flowers in the backyard. However, there is some kind of vine monster which is very powerful and can’t be easily killed. We don’t know if there are other monsters like that so everyone has to be careful when looking for opportunities."
"Thank you for the advice, seniors." Several people shouted and bowed.
"Some places also have formations. Although the formations have weakened and are not difficult to deal with, you still have to be careful." Jiang Yue reminded.
"Thank you, fellow Daoist Jiang."
"You are welcome." Jiang Yue smiled.
"Everyone has their own fate and opportunities. We will separate here and each will follow their own paths." Yang Xu said and took his wife’s hand.
After glancing at his disciple and Jiang Yue, the two flew away and soon disappeared from everyone’s sight.
"Apprentice, Junior Yu, please take of yourselves." Chen Qing said and also flew away.
"Well then." Song Ming also left.
Seeing that the elders had already left, the other sect members also began to scatter, leaving Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen standing in the same place.
"Let’s go too." Jiang Yue smiled at his husband and said.
"Good."
After that, the two flew further from their starting point.
.....
While Jiang Yue, Yu Nianzhen and the others were searching for treasures, the outside was not calm.
Initially, no one expected the Sea Cloud sect to succeed so everyone was caught by surprise.
After that, several people reflexively attacked the formation, wanting to prevent the Sea Cloud sect from taking the lead.
However, that plan failed and they watched as the Sea Cloud sect navigated their way into the depths.
Seeing that their plan had failed, everyone felt a little urgent.
They were eager to enter the formation and suddenly, formation masters were under a lot of pressure.
Day and night, the formation masters worked hard to find a way but everything was in vain.
When everyone was in despair, an ancestor of the Great Zhu empire came forward and offered a solution.
The solution was the empire’s ancient weapon called the formation-breaking drum.
