Seeing Qiu Jiu hesitate and finally stop, Bai Liyuan still had an overwhelming aura as he continued to pursue Gan Shi.

After traveling over four hundred li at full speed, Gan Shi saw Mei Caichu and his group after half an incense stick's worth of time. As Gan Shi approached, several other divine senses also swept over the six people standing motionless.

But they also sensed Gan Shi's divine sense. After an initial hesitation, they seemed to have the subtle intention of getting closer to Mei Caichu and his group. But then, Bai Liyuan's powerful divine sense arrived.

Immediately, the teams that wanted to get closer stopped their movements, because Gan Shi and Bai Liyuan's divine senses had simultaneously sent a message.

"No matter who gets close to these six, the Wraith Sect will pursue them to the end!"

The approach of two Foundation Establishment experts immediately made the teams with ill intentions abandon their thoughts. They didn't know that Gan Shi only retained a powerful divine sense and that his fighting power had not yet recovered.

With two Foundation Establishment experts present, they might not be able to get the better of a fight with them and might end up letting others take advantage of them.

Gan Shi shot over like a meteor. He had long since left the others far behind. He wasn't worried, as he hadn't encountered any obstacles on his way, and Bai Liyuan was covering the rear. The others should be fine in the middle.

From a distance, he saw the six people standing still and couldn't help but nod. Even though he had instructed them to wait in place, Mei Caichu and the others were still standing back to back in a horn formation.

At the same time, a faint circle of yellow mist surrounded them, blurring their figures. It was clearly a highly poisonous substance.

Even after Gan Shi landed, none of them walked out of the protective yellow mist, despite their excited expressions. They only vigilantly stared at the yellow-haired man who was over a zhang tall.

"Alright, you little brat Mei Caichu, don't stare at me like that. I'm not a hallucination. Disperse the poisonous mist. You don't want to accidentally hurt me. Where is your Martial Aunt Gong?"

After Gan Shi landed, he glanced at the yellow mist and then, with a flick of his hand, a black token shot towards Mei Caichu. He could tell that Mei Caichu was the leader of the group and didn't make things difficult for them.

When Mei Caichu saw the object flying towards him, he looked at it with a serious expression. After seeing what it was, he grabbed the black token and carefully examined it. After a few breaths, his expression finally relaxed, and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"Martial Uncle Gan, the illusions here are too terrifying. My cultivation is too low, and I was afraid I won't be able to distinguish it in time, so…"

Without waiting for him to finish, Gan Shi had already arrived outside the yellow mist and waved his large hand.

"Alright, stop being long-winded. Hurry and disperse the yellow mist. Do you really want me to do it myself?"

After hearing this, Mei Caichu and the other five, including Cheng Jingnian, put on respectful expressions and quickly dispersed, reaching out to point at the yellow mist in front of them.

This yellow mist was a mixture of the strongest poisons from each of them. Its toxicity was even a bit troublesome for Gan Shi. After they collected the condensed yellow mist, they carefully put it away and then walked out one by one.

Mei Caichu took a step forward and respectfully handed the token back to Gan Shi with both hands. Looking at Gan Shi's impatient expression, he knew what his Martial Uncle was anxious about.

As he handed over the token, he quickly told him about their encounter with Wang Lang and how Gong Chenying had stayed behind to cover their retreat. He also mentioned that Gong Chenying was seriously injured.

Gan Shi nodded when he saw how sensible Mei Caichu was, but after listening to his subsequent narration, he couldn't help but frown.

As Mei Caichu continued to narrate, Gan Shi would ask a follow-up question from time to time. Whenever Gan Shi asked, besides Mei Caichu's narration, the others would occasionally add a few sentences.

However, their expressions were also a little nervous, because they could see that the Martial Uncle in front of them was clearly not as powerful as they had thought. They could detect a weak aura on him. And why had this Martial Uncle come alone?

But no one dared to ask. They just respectfully answered Gan Shi's questions. Gan Shi, on the other hand, was quickly processing the information given by Mei Caichu and the others in his mind.

"I have to go back the way Mei Caichu and the others came as soon as possible. Otherwise, Junior Sister Gong is truly in a bad situation."

Just as they were talking, several people flew rapidly towards them along the ground from a distance. Mei Caichu and the others also immediately saw people coming their way.

However, at this point, they were no longer on high alert. Even if their Martial Uncle Gan was weak, he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Moreover, they saw that their Martial Uncle Gan had a calm expression and didn't seem to care about the people coming from behind.

He obviously didn't take them seriously, so they were slightly relieved.

The people came very quickly and were close in a few breaths. When they entered the range of Mei Caichu's divine sense, his expression relaxed. Those people were all disciples of the Wraith Sect. They were even quite familiar with some of them. Du Sanjiang, Lu Qiutong, and Rui Feikai were among them.

These people were assigned to Gan Shi by Bai Liyuan. They were currently the strongest fighters among the Qi Condensation disciples. If they encountered an enemy, they were meant to assist Gan Shi from the side.

When Mei Caichu and his group saw Du Sanjiang appear, they were filled with doubt. If they remembered correctly, Du Sanjiang, Lu Qiutong, and the two other cultivators behind them should have been following Martial Uncle Bai. But then, their eyes lit up, and they all thought of one possibility.

The group flew over quickly. When they arrived behind Gan Shi, they all stood still and didn't say anything, just cupped their hands in greeting to Mei Caichu and his group. Mei Caichu and the others returned the gesture and also kept quiet. Gan Shi lowered his eyes, lost in thought.

A moment later, Gan Shi frowned and said.

"Why isn't Bai here yet?"

At the same time, he swept his divine sense to the back. These words seemed to be a question to Du Sanjiang and the others, yet they also sounded like he was talking to himself.

Du Sanjiang and the others had bitter smiles on their faces. They had been ordered to follow this Martial Uncle, but seeing him advance at such a high speed, they didn't know what was happening and could only desperately keep up.

They figured that if this Martial Uncle hadn't been worried about them getting lost, they wouldn't even be able to see his shadow by now. In their divine senses, they had already lost track of Martial Uncle Bai.

Hearing Gan Shi's words, which sounded like he was talking to himself, Mei Caichu and his group's eyes lit up with excitement. It was just as they had guessed. Both Martial Uncles had joined up, which meant Martial Aunt Gong was saved.

Gan Shi spread out his divine sense and confirmed that Bai Liyuan was less than a hundred and fifty li away from him and would arrive soon. The young girl from the Grand Profound Sect had already left with her people.

He didn't waste any time and continued to question Mei Caichu.

"Tell me the direction you came from again, and did your Martial Aunt Gong say how many others were with Wang Lang?"

"Reporting to Martial Uncle, Martial Aunt Gong didn't say how many people there were, but there was definitely only one Foundation Establishment cultivator, Wang Lang. We wanted to stay and fight the enemy together, but Martial Aunt Gong strictly ordered us to leave."

At this moment, Cheng Jingnian spoke in a small, quiet voice.

"It would have been useless for you to stay! There was only one Foundation Establishment cultivator… Hmm, that makes sense. Otherwise, with her serious injuries, the most she could do was hold back one Foundation Establishment cultivator.

If there were other Foundation Establishment cultivators, they could have just split up and chased you, and you would have had no chance of escaping. Once your Martial Uncle Bai arrives, we will immediately go and search for her."

Gan Shi nodded, then stood there motionless, lost in thought again.

At this time, Du Sanjiang and the others moved to a corner with Mei Caichu and his group and began whispering to each other.

A short time later, Bai Liyuan and his group arrived. After Qiu Jiu left, they had also rushed here. As soon as they arrived, Gan Shi pointed in the direction where Mei Caichu and his group had come from.

"Junior Sister Gong disappeared over there!"

Bai Liyuan had already communicated with Gan Shi through divine sense on the way here and was aware of Gong Chenying's situation. He didn't say anything more. He and Gan Shi took the lead, with Mei Caichu in the middle, and had him constantly point the way as they flew toward Gong Chenying's original location.

The dozens of disciples behind them divided Cheng Jingnian's group of five into different small circles and were privately asking them for details through divine sense. They knew nothing about what had happened to Mei Caichu's group. They saw that their two Martial Uncles were not speaking, and with the fat man, Mei, in the middle, they were rushing forward with their heads down. They could only get information from these few people.

Under the leadership of the two Foundation Establishment experts, their direction was heading towards the edge of the region. At this point, there were basically no other people here.

To their disappointment, they only found partial traces of fighting along the way and nothing else. The gigantic black shadow in the sky was already no more than fifty to sixty zhang away from them. The traces of fighting further away, and everything that had once been there, had been silently swallowed by the black shadow in the sky.

Both of them had serious expressions. They split into two groups along the edge of the gigantic black shadow in the sky and flew for several hundred li in both directions, but still found nothing. The two of them had to turn back and regroup.

After a brief discussion, they could only fly towards the center. But on their way, they were still constantly using their divine sense to search for Gong Chenying. What made their hearts sink was that Gong Chenying had completely disappeared.

Even the Junior Brother Li who had come to report the message was nowhere to be found. They didn't know how big this area was, and now they could only hope that Li Yan was in another direction.

As for Gong Chenying's matter, since they still hadn't found Wang Lang, the two of them still held a glimmer of hope.

...

Wang Lang's face was extremely grim at this moment. After recovering for a little less than half an hour, he hadn't recovered much. The flying sword in his Niwan Palace could no longer be used. He could only cast some low-power immortal arts or use a regular flying sword from his storage bag.

He followed the direction Li Yan had fled. At this point, Wang Lang had no thoughts of winning a prize in the competition. In his heart, there was only endless frustration and anger.

The sect had spent so many resources and decades of effort. In the previous stages, not only had he not encountered the Wraith Sect once, but he had also completely wiped out the Grand Profound Sect cultivators who had successfully joined him, and he himself was seriously injured.

The only three remaining Ten-Step Court disciples he had painstakingly brought with him were poisoned to death by the Wraith Sect cultivators. This created a huge gap with the high ambitions he had when he first entered, and the anger in his chest was burning fiercely.

No matter what, he had to make the Wraith Sect pay a price, even if it meant losing his place in the competition and the generous rewards. Otherwise, this inner demon would surely haunt him for the rest of his life.

But after searching for a while, Wang Lang still came up empty-handed. For a moment, he had no idea where the Wraith Sect's Qi Condensation cultivator had hidden with the seriously injured Gong Chenying.

In less than half an hour, a Qi Condensation cultivator who could not fly should not have a range of movement of more than a hundred li, unless he had a high-grade flying tool.

After searching for a while longer, a look of surprise appeared on Wang Lang's face. In the sky about three hundred li to his right, a small white jade boat was flying forward along the black shadow in the sky.

"It's indeed Gong Chenying and that young Qi Condensation brat."

But what surprised Wang Lang was that although Gong Chenying's aura was weak, she did not look seriously injured. This greatly surprised him.

This made Wang Lang hesitate for a moment. His current state was very bad. He had thought that when he found the other party, it would be an unconscious Gong Chenying and that Qi Condensation brat. But the situation was not what he had imagined.

And just as Wang Lang discovered Li Yan and his group, Gong Chenying, who was meditating cross-legged, suddenly opened her beautiful eyes. Just now, she had felt a divine sense sweep over her from above. This divine sense was somewhat familiar; she had fought with it before.

So, Gong Chenying immediately swept her divine sense towards the other party as well!

...