Chapter 535: Chapter 535: The Return Journey

Bai Mo guessed that the relief carving, the Child Fanning Fire Painting, concealed a Pill Formula within.

However, its spiritual nature was currently dormant, preventing Bai Mo from discerning its mysteries.

After searching all around, Bai Mo found thirty-six such relief murals.

Some were massive and imposing, exuding a grand aura, while others were tucked away in corners, barely visible, each with its own unique character.

’If I’m not mistaken, there are thirty-six Pill Formulas here, and their grades aren’t low. They must be at least at the proficient level...’

After all, they had appeared during a deification ceremony. No matter what, they couldn’t be ordinary items.

’Just these alone are enough to make this trip worthwhile.’

Starting to look forward to the day of the Grand Rite, Bai Mo shared his thoughts with Ah Er.

Ah Er was even more excited than him. With a POP, it tightly plugged the mouth of its plump Qi Storage Gourd and took out a shriveled one.

"Argh!"

It cried out, hugging the gourd and shaking it vigorously, trying to make it absorb the five qi faster.

A Pill is a self-contained entity, its internal elements harmoniously balanced and its medicinal power locked within. Only a powerful external force can affect it.

If some Pills are stored improperly in a malevolent environment, their medicinal power will leak away, and they will turn into useless dregs in less than a year.

Having been here once before, Bai Mo knew this place was not enough to affect the Pills. He thus paced about with his mind at ease, contemplating the thirty-six Alchemy Diagrams.

Although he couldn’t grasp the entirety of it, he could still deduce many things from details like the structure of the Pill Furnaces, the postures of the figures depicted, and their backgrounds.

Zhu Tong, however, was sweating profusely, growing more anxious the more he looked.

When he met Bai Mo again, he said, looking ashamed:

"When the time comes, the reliefs will come alive and transform instantly. If my Array Map can’t keep up, it will obstruct the Grand Rite."

"My previous design needs a major overhaul!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Bai Mo saw many other disciples who had come with them in a similar state to Zhu Tong.

They were doing everything in their power to deconstruct the transformations of the relief murals and commit them to memory.

Two days later, the group, their mental energy nearly depleted, was led out of the tomb and back into the light of day.

Ah Er took some Spirit Stones and found some local Cultivators who were wandering about, purchasing a good number of medicinal herbs from them.

Usually, spiritual materials from Five Elements Ridge would occasionally appear on the market. They were all rare treasures, often with a price but no sellers, and never in large quantities.

Since they had made the trip, they naturally couldn’t pass up such an opportunity.

When Ah Er returned, it handed the remaining Spirit Stones and the purchased medicinal herbs to Bai Mo.

One of the local Cultivators who saw them off said:

"In the past, we were afraid of being too high-profile and attracting unnecessary trouble, so we restricted our output and didn’t have much contact with the outside world."

"If our Ancestral Master can become a Divine Being, things will be different. We’ll have more exchanges with the outside world in the future, and our trade in medicinal herbs will grow..."

That was good news.

Bai Mo nodded, and together with the others, he boarded the same Flying Ship they had arrived on and began the journey home.

...

Aboard the ship, aside from a few disciples, the rest no longer had the relaxed mood they’d had on the way here.

Someone said resentfully:

"When the grand tomb was built, it must have drawn upon the five-element qi of a hundred-acre mountain. Otherwise, it would never have reached this state."

Another person peered over the side, looking down from the Flying Ship.

"Heh, our group is at its most exhausted right now."

"If I were one of those Divine Beings, I’d gather my forces and attack at this very moment."

BOOM!

The moment his voice fell, the Flying Ship came to a screeching halt, crashing into an invisible wall of wind.

The abrupt change from extreme speed to absolute stillness nearly threw the disciples off the ship.

With quick eyes and fast hands, Bai Mo grabbed the ship’s railing to steady himself.

Ah Er, however, didn’t react in time. It lunged forward and slammed into the railing, ending up with a bruised nose and a swollen face, rubbing its nose and brow in pain.

"Haha!!"

"Sect Disciples, get off the ship and die! We’ve been waiting for you for a long time!"

A Divine Being with rhinoceros horns flickered, its body expanding to an infinite size as it reached for the Flying Ship with both hands.

This dharma body was very illusory, and no one paid it any mind. Instead, they first looked toward the source of the voice.

They saw more than ten Divine Beings gathered there, laughing wildly among themselves.

One among them shone with an especially intense divine light, like a miniature sun, making it almost impossible to look at directly. This was likely the one the other Divine Beings were relying on.

KRA-KOW!

Without any warning, a silver light erupted from the Flying Ship. A bolt of lightning as thick as a man’s waist fell from directly above, striking the head of the intensely glowing Divine Being.

The Divine Being let out a muffled grunt and burst into pieces, shattering into a hundred-odd fragments.

The fragments scattered in all directions, burrowing into the ground or sliding into the water, rapidly fleeing the scene.

The other Divine Beings were stunned. The one with the crocodile head cried out in shock:

"It’s an ambush!!"

It hurriedly dropped to the river’s surface, whipped the water with a long lash in its hand, and fled in a panic amidst the roaring, surging waves.

The remaining Divine Beings snapped to their senses, scattered in all directions, and fled without a second glance.

Only the rhinoceros-horned Divine Being, whose body had expanded to an infinite size, remained in place, seeming at a loss.

BOOM!

The Flying Ship started up again. Its powerful propulsion sent it crashing straight through the Divine Being’s body, punching a clear hole from front to back.

The rhinoceros-horned Divine Being’s body shattered and dissolved into divine light, which struggled to coalesce before hastily diving into the mountain forest below to escape.

"You guys have no loyalty!"

The disciples on the Flying Ship came back to their senses.

Bai Mo took out an ointment and applied it to Ah Er. The little guy was in so much pain that tears were streaming down its face.

Zhu Tong, on the other hand, looked up, wondering where that lightning bolt had come from.

He said, "That lightning... it must be the Gang Origin Divine Thunder nurtured by the sect. A single strike can even kill a Nascent Soul. The Divine Being that was struck... its source was shaken, but it didn’t seem to have suffered much damage. That shows how powerful it was. A Divine Being like that usually has a rich background and possessions. Even if not, its body alone is worth a great deal. If any Divine Dao Mountain disciples were here, they’d probably gather people to hunt it down and capture it."

The other disciples on the ship burst into discussion.

"Those fools! They actually dared to show up!"

"To have the sect protect us with the Gang Origin Divine Thunder... we’ve really made it, huh?"

"We’re lucky, though. I’ve seen Divine Beings with world-shattering abilities. If they’d summoned one of those, none of us would have escaped."

The Red-Eyed Steward from the Foreign Affairs Hall had a cold expression. He looked around and summoned a few of his subordinates.

"Does anyone recognize the Divine Beings that just attacked?"

One of the disciples brought out a brush and ink and, with a few quick strokes, sketched the faces and figures of the dozen or so Divine Beings from before.

The vivid images leaped from the paper.

The drawings were passed around, but none of the Foreign Affairs Hall disciples recognized them.

The Red-Eyed Steward snorted coldly.

"Ambitious wolves. They must be troublemakers under normal circumstances, yet for some reason, there’s no record of them in the Hall."

"Send word back. Mobilize the War Hall’s power. We must find this group of Divine Beings, capture them, and escort them back to the sect!"

The Foreign Affairs Hall Cultivators all answered in affirmation.

Tian Ru was not far away and overheard their conversation.

He walked over to Bai Mo and Zhu Tong.

"The Foreign Affairs Hall people... they’ve been capturing quite a few Divine Beings lately, haven’t they? They must have a lot of secrets."

"But why be so insistent on capturing a bunch of riffraff like the ones we just saw?"

Bai Mo, who rarely ventured out, naturally turned his gaze to Zhu Tong.

Zhu Tong pondered for a moment before saying hesitantly:

"They must have other uses for them. They once gathered people to specifically design a grand array for trapping and locking down Divine Beings."

"I heard that the Hall has already suppressed dozens of Divine Beings, both large and small..."

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