While Lei Yun and the 10 avatars were guided by the green-haired Mu Luyin, Aotian could feel the gazes of the crowd that had witnessed the girl's confrontation with the 12 clans falling upon her, filled with hope and pleading.

Unfortunately for them, Mu Luyin already knew her limit was only to get Brother Yun and his friends out of there, and she could not change the reality of those people.

Aotian also said nothing. He disliked what was happening, but he had no means of dealing with it right now.

Reaching a corner separated from the others, they waited for the red gate to open while the rest of the crowd received the seal.

Lei Yun looked at the girl with a complicated expression.

"You didn't need to do this. You saved me that time, and I healed your mother, you owe me nothing." He sighed and shook his head helplessly.

Mu Luyin shook her head and smiled at him.

"Don't you remember? I promised I would owe you my life if you saved her," she spoke softly, but with firmness in her gaze.

Lei Yun was helpless before her.

He only wanted to rebuild his cultivation, reach the immortality he had once failed to obtain, and then return to his former world for a reckoning. But he never expected to one day find himself entangled with a girl thousands of years younger than him, who, on top of that, harbored romantic feelings for him.

And the worst part… was that he truly didn't dislike her.

He just wanted to shout: "Women? They will only slow down my sword-drawing speed!"

But he couldn't bring himself to say those words when looking into her beautiful green eyes, and that was why he felt so helpless facing her, even more so when he was once again saved by her.

Aotian, seeing the two feeding him dog food, rolled his eyes in his main body, hugged Rihai who was by his side, and inhaled her fragrance, catching her by surprise and leaving her confused by his sudden actions.

Thus, they waited until some time later, the enslavement seals were finally placed on the rest of the crowd.

At this point, the red gate of the mountain began to vibrate lightly with energy, indicating it was about to open.

Looking at the crowd of nearly a million depressed people, and at the young masters who watched with contempt or indifference, Aotian carved that scene into his heart.

If it weren't for the luck of meeting Lei Yun, his 10 avatars too would be carrying a bomb in their Dantians, ready to detonate at any moment, and would be targets of the same contempt from those young masters. Naturally, he recorded that grudge.

While Aotian was jotting down another entry in his little revenge notebook, Mu Luyin spoke to Lei Yun in a serious tone via sound transmission.

['Brother Yun, the mountain will open, and when we enter the gate, we will be teleported to random places. If we want to stay together, we must maintain physical contact with each other. But this time, we will likely be targeted by those 12 powers, and the situation could be complicated. Do you really trust these 10 men with you? Because if they stab us in the back at a delicate moment, the problem won't be small.']

She asked seriously, while discreetly casting glances at the men who stood calmly nearby.

Lei Yun reflected, and indeed the situation could be dangerous.

He considered himself a good judge of character, and didn't believe those men had deceived him, but he was not infallible. The proof was his downfall in his past life, caused precisely by so-called trustworthy allies.

Moreover, those men were extremely mysterious, and he knew that getting involved with them could bring great trouble.

He then nodded to her and turned toward the 10 men.

"When we pass through the mountains, we'll be teleported randomly if we are not in physical contact with each other. I will enter with Mu Luyin. If we're lucky, we'll meet again inside," he spoke seriously, making his intentions clear.

Gu Jian smiled calmly, showing no sign of caring much.

"Good. Since you've already decided, follow your plan. If you run into trouble inside, you can look for us. Perhaps we can help." With a friendly tone and stroking his beard, as if he had already expected that decision, he nodded.

And indeed, Aotian had expected this. They had only just met, and it was natural for the young man to be cautious of him.

It wasn't as if Aotian had done anything in return to deserve loyalty. On the contrary, he had only promised and never given any proof of fulfilling his word, while, in reverse, the boy, with the help of his little girlfriend, allowed his avatars to escape the slave seal.

From the beginning, the alliance between them was based on trying to extract something from each other, and even if it broke now, there would be no resentment.

Lei Yun was a bit surprised at the man's calmness, and was about to speak when a sudden change occurred.

RUMBLE…

A sudden tremor shook everyone as a violent gust of wind vibrated through the air.

The enormous red gate began to open through a crack in the center, releasing the ancient air inside as if exhaling.

The crowd's clothes whipped violently, and the feet of some weaker cultivators were even dragged across the ground by the wind's pressure.

Aotian found that powerful air current interesting and, through his avatars, tried to peek inside.

But there was a transparent barrier blocking the inside of the gate. Beyond it, a dark space was barely visible. Still, it wasn’t a perfect seal like the dome outside—it didn’t isolate everything completely, which explained why the air could still escape.

'No energy is escaping along with the air. Interesting, it seems that— Huh?! What the hell was that?!'

Aotian, who had been observing calmly, suddenly saw something resembling a black mist collide with the energy barrier inside the gate, causing it to vibrate. After apparently corroding part of the energy, the mist weakened and dissipated into the air.

Ordinary cultivators might not notice or simply ignore what that was, but Aotian, who had already dealt with it in great amounts, was almost certain.

'That was… a cluster of impurities?!' He was shocked at the thought.

And then, looking at the black dome that covered the mountain's surroundings, a terrible thought arose in his mind.

'This… isn't an environment filled with impurities, is it?!' he thought, stunned.

He had never heard anything specific about what it was like inside, and even the prince's memory he had read only carried superficial information. After all, as crown prince, the man wouldn't risk himself in such a dangerous place.

His research had also focused more on what to do and what to avoid, the dangers present, and how certain things functioned. But he was sure that nothing mentioned an environment filled with impurities, which was extremely strange.

Although he wanted to think more about it, he saw that the gate was now completely open, and it was time to enter.

Taking a deep breath, everyone rushed forward to cross the gate.

Even though suspicious, Aotian's avatars also rushed inside.

The gate would only remain open for the time it takes an incense stick to burn (about 15 minutes).

If they didn't enter now, they could only try again in 10 years.

As they ran, the gate began sucking in air with even more force than it had released before, accelerating everyone's entrance, pulling them in with the violent wind current.

The last thing Aotian saw before being sucked in was the dark energy covering the dome clearing up as the air was pulled away. Shortly after, a massive mountain range, shrouded in white misty spiritual energy, appeared. However, within moments, everything became completely blurred under the effect of some kind of illusion matrix, concealing the mountain.

…

The 10 avatars suddenly appeared in a remote corner, amidst a green, cozy pasture.

Doubts arose in their eyes as they observed the dense forest and the extremely powerful spiritual energy bathing their bodies.

'Those impurities… what happened to them?' Aotian wondered if what he had seen before was only an illusion, or if what he saw now was the true illusion.

With more doubts than answers, he controlled his avatars to begin walking in search of treasures. After all, they could only remain in that mountain for 15 days.

Back at the sect, Aotian asked if Rihai knew anything about the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain, but she only shook her head, saying she didn’t recall ever seeing, hearing, or reading anything about it during her childhood.

He wasn't too disappointed to hear that. As much of a nerd as Rihai had been in her youth, she couldn’t have studied everything in the world. Besides, she was from the central continent, not the mid-continents, which made it even less likely that she would know anything about that mountain.

Meanwhile, Bao Wuji didn't stop for even a second as he ran toward the place, tearing open rifts in space.

Aotian was going to send him anyway, both to bring the avatars back once they returned and to use the treasure radar to assist in the search. He had only delayed his departure because the sect's Feng Shui was about to be updated, and he wanted Bao Wuji there to supervise the changes and prevent problems. But who would have thought that a few hours of delay would put the avatars in so much danger?

Fortunately, things didn't turn out in the worst possible way and had gone back on track.

Now, the real treasure hunt was about to begin.

…

In another part of the Shadowfallen Burial Mountain, the young masters appeared together, their hands resting on each other's shoulders.

Among them, Feng Tianfei, the girl with red dress and hair, pulled her hand off Fang Shaotian's shoulder, drew a white handkerchief from her ring, and wiped her hand with disgust before tossing it aside with contempt.

Fang Shaotian, the young master in white with the folding fan in hand, had his face darken upon seeing her actions.

The girl, finishing the gesture, stepped forward and placed herself at the front as the leader. No one complained; after all, they had known and fought against each other for a long time. They knew that, aside from Mu Luyin, she was the strongest among the new generation of the Beiyan continent.

Only Mu Luyin could defeat her, and that was why Feng Tianfei hated the green-haired girl so much—she had stolen her throne as the strongest.

"Everyone, the ancestors gave us orders. We must do everything we can to find a Silent Cadaver Orchid, and we must not trust that enslaved trash. Even if they are many, they are still trash. Finding this spiritual herb is directly tied to the rise of our 12 clans and our contact with powerful clans from the Zhongyuan (Central Plateau) continent, and there can be no mistakes."

Her red eyes swept across the crowd with seriousness, filled with deadly threat toward anyone who didn't give their all, and then she gave a final incentive.

"I don't even need to say how important contact with a Zhongyuan continent clan is, do I? The Mu family has always been the strongest, stepping on our heads with ease…"

"... Wasn't it all thanks to their connection with the powerful Liu family?"