Seeing the other person remaining cautious, Shi Chun glared and said, "Why do you always have such a bias against me? How could I deceive you? We're exchanging Divine Fire, one bloom each. Once the real Divine Fire is absorbed into your body, can I even dig it out?"

Gu Lianni thought about it and indeed, that made sense. Alright, she agreed.

So, the two of them prepared pen, ink, paper, and inkstone on the spot and each wrote a letter.

Shi Chun finished writing first. He made a simple stone lock, which was just hollowing out a palm-sized stone, stuffing the letter in through a small hole, then sealing the hole, and marking it in a way that only he and Wu Jinliang would understand. Then he called over Chu Jingtang and Chen Wuji.

After handing the letter to Chu Jingtang, he instructed the two, "Go to the exit, try to avoid the sight of the ten elders stationed there, and hand the letter to Wu Jinliang. After the letter is given to Wu Jinliang, you can look at it if you want, but you must not unseal it or peek at it on the way. There is a mark on it."

Sending a letter with two people was also just in case—should anything change, at least one might escape to bring back news. If not, they would be in the dark if something happened. Of course, when there were enough people, it was natural to seek stability.

Otherwise, why bring so many people—just to eat for free?

"Okay," Chu and Chen replied, and before leaving, they gave a glance to Gu Lianni not far away who was pondering with a pen, seemingly racking her brains.

Soon after the two left, a relieved Gu Lianni also put down her pen, handed her letter to Shi Chun to look at, and asked, "Hey, is this okay?"

"It's not that it isn't okay..." Shi Chun muttered as he read the letter. How to put it—it was a bit stuttered or overly cautious. It didn't seem like she was discussing such an important matter, so he looked up and asked, "Is this how you usually write letters to your elders?"

Gu Lianni said helplessly, "Why bother writing letters to the elders? I've never written a letter to an elder."

Alright. Shi Chun crumpled the letter into dust, went back to the writing tools, and as he rewrote the letter, said, "Just be simple and straight to the point. The important thing is to make the matter clear. Elders are elders, and matters are matters. There's no need to be so hesitant and full of explanations. You don't need to worry about whether or not. Your elders are smart people; once things are clear, they'll know what to do."

He quickly finished writing and handed the letter to Gu Lianni.

After reading it, Gu Lianni had to admit that it was indeed simpler, more direct, and much clearer, but she still scornfully said, "The handwriting is really poor. You really are from the Land of Exile..."

While she criticized with her mouth, her hands still took out a jade slip, copied the contents of the letter, and infused it into the slip.

There was no helping it. Unlike with Wu Jinliang's side, among a group of elders, it was not convenient for Elder Jin to take out the letter to read. Paper was not easy to secretly read using magic.

Then she made an effort to search around the mountainsides for a better-looking gift for Elder Jin of her sect.

After watching for a while, Shi Chun couldn't help scratching his head and thought, Young lady, we've got serious business to do.

Later, unable to bear it any longer, he leaped out and started to help, hurriedly picking a medium-sized red stone and shouted, "Here, found something."

Gu Lianni flew over upon hearing this and asked with curiosity, "Let me see, what is it?"

Shi Chun offered it with both hands, "Take a look, it's pretty good."

Gu Lianni took one look and was stunned; she looked down at her feet where there were ordinary stones all around, and twitched the corners of her mouth, "Aren't you fooling people with this? Seems like you didn't even bother picking it out, just picked up any random stone, didn't you? The elders from various sects are watching. How can you give this as a gift? Do you take the elders from each sect for fools?"

Shi Chun countered, "Aren't you worrying too much? It's not as if it's a real gift for your elders. And so what if the other sects' elders see it? They'll just have to accept whatever you say your elder likes; there's no way to verify it. If the elder's stomach is full of tricks and they know you're up to something, what can they do? Are you afraid they'll go and verify it later?

Listen to me, young lady—just give a simple and random gift. Say that the elder likes this and don't say anything else. Your elder will immediately know there's something special about this gift. Also, aren't you worried they'll get the Divine Fire while you drag this out? Just get a base ready and hide the jade slip inside, and that's it."

Her arguments did seem reasonable, and Gu Lianni started but stopped, still feeling that the gift seemed a bit too rough.

Shi Chun, not wanting to argue further, went ahead and did the job himself, squatting on the ground. He placed a stone down and pulled out a dagger, chipping away rapidly and fashioned a base out of another stone. He carefully fitted and smoothed the two pieces together. After stashing the dagger, he picked up the completed stone object and stuffed it into Gu Lianni's arms.

He also indicated toward the groove in the base by lifting the stone, "There, just put the jade slip in, and you're all set."

Gu Lianni sighed, but in the end, she still took out the jade slip and placed it inside, and Shi Chun immediately put the stone on top to secure it.

That settled it. They then called their people to get ready. Gu Lianni still had to prepare, at least to inform Yuan Yao and the others about the situation once more.

On Shi Chun's side, there wasn't much to prepare for. Four Cauldron Sect headed back to Iron Forest to securely search for Divine Fire; he would use it if he wanted to, or discard it if not. Although the Mingshan Sect had a Sect Master, in reality, the Sect Master also had to watch his expression to act, so essentially, whatever he said went.

To some extent, he had already unified the forces under his command.

Both parties' members were soon set off together...

At the exit area, Chu and Chen found the hiding spot of Wu Jinliang and the others.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.