Alright, Xu Anzhang was convinced after some deliberation.

That is to say, he wasn't fully convinced, but decided to give Shi Chun's idea a try. They would first see how it works out: if useful, they would keep it; otherwise, they would discard it. At that point, Shi Chun wouldn't likely have much to say, and they would have something to report when answering to their superiors.

So the matter was tentatively settled, and the two hurried back to make arrangements with their own people.

Besides Tong Mingshan, who was in seclusion, Shi Chun gathered his people to the side and laid out the situation. "I just heard from the Four Cauldron Sect that they have planted an undercover agent in each of the other five sects. Xu Anzhang's side is sending five people, and we need to send five as well, forming five teams to make contact with and track the five sects' operatives.

The goal is to ensure that if any of the five sects discovers the whereabouts of the Divine Fire, they must send the information back to us promptly.

The undercover agents from the five sects will leave marks along the way. We only need to follow these marks, maintaining a safe distance. Therefore, as long as we are careful, there shouldn't be much danger. I wonder who among you is willing to take on this task?"

They still needed to find the Divine Fire, and bearing in mind the example set by Tong Mingshan, An Wuzhi and Zhu Xiangxin almost simultaneously volunteered.

"I."

"I'll go."

After exchanging glances, the others, though not entirely willing, also expressed their readiness to contribute. After all, finding the Divine Fire didn't particularly benefit them.

Of course, the gains harvested by Tong Mingshan had some impact on them.

Besides, having already come this far and benefited greatly from the Master previously, it wouldn't make sense for them not to make any effort.

Moreover, as it sounded relatively safe, they were willing to proceed.

Wu Jinliang, aside from chuckling, did not express anything else. He knew clearly that he didn't need to make any formal commitment; if Chun Tian needed him to do something, he would directly tell him because the two were tight-knit and wouldn't stand on ceremony with each other.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Shi Chun nodded in approval and scanned the faces of the ten individuals before him, finally instructing, "Wu Hong, Fang Zicheng, Hao Ji, Shen Moming, Xiao Sheng, I'm afraid we'll have to trouble you five for this task."

The five named individuals were inwardly speechless. Not being named would have been preferable, but since they were chosen, they could only nod in acceptance.

An Wuzhi said, "Let me go instead, my cultivation in the Fire Attribute Skill makes me more adept in this area."

Zhu Xiangxin also added, "That's right, Master, it's more suitable for the two of us."

Given the environment and circumstances they had witnessed, including their experience capturing the fire crocodile, they knew too well the difficulties of fulfilling their dream on their own and recognized their original Sect's ignorance in this matter.

The gains from Tong Mingshan and the concessions from the Four Cauldron Sect, although they didn't know how the Master achieved this, made them realize that only by showing proactive involvement would they have a chance of realizing their dream.

Reality taught them that aside from Shi Chun, throwing in their lot with anyone else would be of no avail. No sect that located the Divine Fire would share it with outsiders; no matter how loyal they appeared, none would agree, and only from the Master could they possibly get a chance.

However, Shi Chun simply waved his hand to interrupt them, "Enough, let the five of them do it. I will keep your offer in mind."

Merely this sentence alone struck right at their hearts, stirring up a bit of excitement within them. The Master saying he would keep it in mind—wasn't the implication clear?

They instantly behaved obediently at the side, no longer making any fuss.

Just a light sentence won their utmost respect; now, they would unquestioningly do whatever was requested of them.

Observing from the side, Wu Jinliang chuckled, recognizing that the Master was still the same influential figure from East Nine Plain, and indeed had his own ways, starting from when he first asked who was willing to help him kill Feng Yaoyang.

"You go ahead first; I need to speak with these five privately."

After Shi Chun gave his orders, an, and Zhu instantly cooperated, and Chu Jingtang and others left, except for Wu Jinliang.

Once they had departed, Shi Chun told the designated five, "Initially, the contact and surveillance could have been managed by the five people from the Four Cauldron Sect alone, but I insisted that the Mingshan Sect also must exert some effort. Essentially, I pushed hard to include these five. Does anyone understand my intention?"

After saying this, he observed the five men's reactions, deciding that if he was to use these men, he had to start assessing their capabilities.

The five exchanged glances, then all seemed contemplative.

After a moment, Wu Hong hesitantly said, "To learn which five sects the Four Cauldron Sect has sent undercovers to, and who those undercovers are."

Shen Moming added, "And about the markings and signals too."

Shi Chun smiled, "Exactly, aside from the main tasks, keep an eye on these aspects, just to be on the safe side. With your abilities, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Understood." Some verbally responded, and others nodded.

Later, Shi Chun led them to meet with Xu Anzhang's group, and after discussions, which involved strong suggestions and persistence from Shi Chun, each of the five groups was given a Wind Scale.

Not everyone from Four Cauldron Sect had a Wind Scale. They only had five Wind Scales in total. Therefore, Shi Chun voluntarily offered one from his own two as a gesture of sincerity, allowing the Four Cauldron Sect to keep one and thus smoothly passing the proposal.

After establishing a method for message transmission, the five groups then departed.

With these arrangements in place, the rest of the people no longer needed to hurry and scatter in search of their destinations.

After setting the next steps, Shi Chun finally had the leisure to observe Tong Mingshan, who was in secluded cultivation inside the cave.

Under the vision of his superpower in his right eye, he could not really make out anything significant, only seeing tiny particles continuously drifting from a red mass into the silhouette of a person.

Meanwhile, the ten elders sitting in meditation under the large mallet atop the mountain had also noticed the people in the distance.

One elder asked, "Is it Shi Chun and his group?"

Another elder replied, "It seems so."

An elder questioned, "What are they staying there for?"

No one knew, and they couldn't leave this place to investigate.

However, they soon noticed that the five groups of people who had dispersed were running around the foot of the mountain searching for something, and then gradually scattered far away...

As it turned out, sometimes it was correct to strip the main force of its advantages and bestow those advantages onto smaller sub-branches.

As proved, Shi Chun's decision to entrust most of the Wind Scales to those five groups was correct. Merely half a day later, one of the tracking groups returned to report back, and it was Hao Ji who came back.

Dispensing with the formalities as soon as they met, Hao Ji immediately reported, "The people from Red Cloud Castle that we tracked discovered traces of Divine Fire in an iron tree forest, saw a flash of firelight, but the Divine Fire being sentient, hid itself; currently, the people from Red Cloud Castle are still searching there."

"What is an iron tree forest?"

"As the name suggests, it's a forest made of iron trees; it's natural, not man-made."

After asking for more details, Shi Chun felt energized, glad that the Divine Fire had hidden itself, as his right eye's superpower was most suitable for an encounter. He quickly said, "Good, Brother Xu, we should set off now."

Xu Anzhang felt a heavy weight in his heart; going directly there, where Red Cloud Castle had barely found traces of Divine Fire, was inviting trouble from outsiders, and if the other party realized they were weaker, a direct conflict was very likely. But since the decision was made, he couldn't back out, still opting to first see the situation.

Of course, what puzzled him more was how this situation arose, asking Hao Ji, "Why has it fallen to you to come back and report?"

Since the other side had his Wind Scales, Xu An had previously told his brothers that some people under Shi Chun were not from their Demon Path; they should be cautious when collaborating, and the Wind Scales weren't cheap to just hand over to outsiders.

Hao Ji immediately explained, "I'm not familiar with Red Cloud Castle's undercover agent; he stayed there to facilitate communication in case anything happens, so he continued to monitor while I returned to report."

Upon hearing this, Shi Chun immediately praised him in his heart. Well done!

Clearly, this was the reason Hao Ji gave to persuade the ally from Four Cauldron Sect.

These matters of relaying information were indeed more reliable when handled by one of their own, showing that Hao Ji indeed had a good grasp of the situation.

Xu Anzhang asked Shi Chun, "We don't know when Tong Mingshan will finish here, should we leave someone as a protector?"

Shi Chun agreed, "That would be proper. With the ten elders around, there shouldn't be any problems. If anything goes wrong, we'll just head towards them."

Of course, precautions still needed to be taken. For safety's sake, Shi Chun left Wu Jinliang behind to take charge, along with laborer Chang Tai.

In other words, although the Four Cauldron Sect was strong, Shi Chun trusted Wu Jinliang's capabilities even more.

Only now did he truly understand why the Demon Path was insistent on having him, Shi Chun, join them; under restrictive conditions, the abilities of the people that the Demon Path could urgently bring in really left no room for choice.

Xu Anzhang also left behind two who were severely injured by fire, who could heal while they worked. For those who dealt with fire, burn ointments were indeed very effective.

Once everything was explained and they were about to set off, someone suddenly arrived; it was Wu Hong from one of the five tracking groups.

The sudden return was obviously not for a trivial matter; Wu Hong reported, "My tracked route of the Golden Sea Pavilion hasn't discovered traces of the Divine Fire, but when they passed by an Ice Field, they found the second-largest Artifact Refining Sect, Shudao Mountain's people, searching in an ice valley. The Golden Sea Pavilion suspects that Shudao Mountain might have found traces of Divine Fire as they were driven away by them; recognizing their inferior strength, they did not engage and instead continued elsewhere after leaving the Ice Field."

Shi Chun immediately asked Xu Anzhang, "Brother Xu, which side shall we head to first?"

With Red Cloud Castle already wary of conflict, Xu Anzhang didn't dare provoke Shudao Mountain, promptly choosing the former, "You can't get fat with just one bite; let's head towards Red Cloud Castle for now, as firelight had been seen there, while nothing was confirmed at Shudao Mountain."

Shi Chun didn't object, immediately asking Wu Hong, "Do you know the approximate location of that Ice Field?"

Wu Hong: "I do, we have to pass it on the way there and back."

Shi Chun: "Mark the approximate direction for us."

Wu Hong immediately squatted and pointed it out on the ground.

Xu Anzhang looked at Shi Chun with some speechlessness in his eyes—what is this, intending to actually target Shudao Mountain?

In front of everyone, he couldn't say much, not wanting to show weakness publicly.

Once the approximate distance and direction were noted, including some landmarks, Shi Chun let Wu Hong return first, then continued with the original plan, setting off directly using the Wind Scales, no longer needing to look for markers as Hao Ji led the way.

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