Fengqishi fell into silence.
Shi Jia looked at Fengqishi, who had suddenly fallen silent, then at the people who were also expecting Fengqishi to reply, and said, "Why aren't you speaking? Am I not understanding it correctly?"
Hearing this, Fengqishi cleared his throat and said, "Trying... is also useless."
"Didn't you say that even without talent, as long as you are willing to work hard, you can achieve it? Why... why have you changed your words now?" Shi Jia frowned.
"I was just giving an example, it has nothing to do with you."
"How can it have nothing to do with us?" said the first young man. "You mean... as long as our efforts exceed those with immortal destinies, we can also become immortals."
"I'm talking about talented people, not people with immortal destinies," Fengqishi began to save himself.
The first young man: "But you said immortal destiny is like talent. Now you say it's not. What exactly do you want to express?"
"I want to..." Fengqishi stopped speaking, smiled helplessly, and continued, "What do I want to express? I don't know either, but you people should stop thinking about it. Becoming an immortal is not something that can be achieved by effort alone. If you ask me, instead of thinking about becoming an immortal, you should live in the present."
"This is our dream," said the third young woman excitedly.
"Dream..." Fengqishi shifted his gaze to the third young woman's face. "To say something I shouldn't, there are many, many things in the human world that can be your goals, and even more your dreams. I'm just curious, why do you all insist on choosing that unrealistic path?"
"I..."
"Don't speak yet," Fengqishi interrupted the third young woman and said, "Do you know how many people have wasted their lives on this path? Sometimes, if a path doesn't work, change to another one. Perhaps the other path is the one suitable for you."
"Can you say... that people staying in those immortal cultivation sects all have immortal destinies?" the fourth young man retorted.
Fengqishi had thought that after saying these words, he could end this boring topic.
It seemed he was naive.
"This has nothing to do with me," he said.
"Yes, but you can't discourage us," said the fourth young man, self-righteously.
From the beginning, when Shi Jia pestered Fengqishi, Fengqishi's sole intention was to refuse Shi Jia's idea of establishing a sect with various reasons. Conversely, these people never mentioned this issue.
Therefore, hearing the fourth young man say this, he suddenly realized... the idea of a sect seemed to be just Shi Jia's thought, and these people were just a group of mortals who thought they could become immortals.
Why was he bothering to say so much to them now? Moreover, his primary purpose in testing their immortal destinies was just to make them see reality.
Since it had come to this, if they couldn't see it, what else could he say?
Then, he was too lazy to waste any more time with them. "Alright, I was wrong, I was wrong. It's nothing then, I'll leave first." As he said this, he gave Yuan Yan a look.
When Yuan Yan saw this and was about to speak, Shi Jia said, "He is an immortal. He is the only one we can rely on now."
"..." Fengqishi froze.
Immediately, the fourth young man shifted his gaze to Shi Jia and said bluntly, "You're lying."
The first young man: "She's not lying. If he wasn't an immortal, he wouldn't be able to accurately measure our immortal destinies. Besides, I heard that only immortals can accurately measure these things." He then turned his gaze back to Fengqishi's face.
Thus, Fengqishi was once again caught in a troublesome situation.
Following this, Shi Jia told everyone her thoughts. To his surprise, those people did not scold Shi Jia as they had before. Instead, they found Shi Jia's idea to be very good and began to persuade Fengqishi along with Shi Jia.
Fengqishi leaned against a pillar, looking helplessly at the more than twenty people who had surrounded him, and picked at his ear. "..."
Mu Miyan and Shujia stood on the spot, speechless.
Yuan Yan, to avoid being implicated, intentionally moved to Mu Miyan and Shujia's side.
At the same time, Shujia turned his head to look at Yuan Yan and said expressionlessly, "A fish that slipped through the net."
"..." Yuan Yan was startled by Shujia's gaze and intentionally moved two steps to the side, saying, "I am Mu Anxiao's subordinate."
Hearing this, Shujia was slightly embarrassed. "I didn't say I was going to arrest you, why are you so nervous?" He then turned back to watch the spectacle.
Yuan Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
Mu Miyan cautiously glanced at Yuan Yan, not daring to speak.
Forbidden Forest.
After fighting with the vine spirit for such a long time, Mu Anxiao was at a complete disadvantage. At this moment, she was covered in wounds, her right half of her face was covered in blood, and her sleeves were all in tatters.
Even so, she still stood her ground defiantly, her eyes fixed on the vine spirit that showed no mercy towards her, and said, "I will not let you succeed."
"Silver Rope," said the vine spirit, looking down at the half-broken silver rope in Mu Anxiao's hand and laughing. "It's already broken. If I'm not mistaken, it's useless, and your spiritual energy is also insufficient."
"That's none of your business," Mu Anxiao said, looking down at the silver rope, then back at the vine spirit. "I'm telling you, my spiritual energy is already..." She coughed halfway through her sentence.
The vine spirit calmly watched Mu Anxiao, who was being tortured beyond recognition, and sneered, "Don't force yourself. The moment you used the healing technique to heal yourself, your spiritual energy was already greatly depleted. Accept reality, either cripple your spiritual energy yourself, or..." he said, "continue." He conjured more vines.
"If I die, you... will only suffer more."
"I didn't say I wanted you to die. I just want to see you become useless," said the vine spirit, narrowing his eyes. He swiftly grabbed the vines and began to whip Mu Anxiao again.
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao quickly focused her attention, discarded the silver rope, conjured her soul sword, and said, "I will not lose." As she said this, she forced herself to lift the soul sword, fearlessly charging forward and slashing directly at the vines.
The vine spirit's lips curled, controlling the vines to dart about in mid-air.
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao stopped, her gaze following the scattered vines. Based on the experience of being beaten, she clearly knew that there were a total of three main vines, and the others were just illusions of vines. (Those illusions could still hurt her.) Now... she just needed to find the three main ones to break the vine spirit's sorcery.
On the opposite side, the vine spirit did not notice anything. He continued to manipulate the vines while watching Mu Anxiao, who had become serious, and said, "You can't do it. Crippling your spiritual energy now will only bring you benefits, not harm."
"That's the one," Mu Anxiao muttered, ignoring the vine spirit, and stared at the vine swaying back and forth in the center. She narrowed her eyes and dashed into the mass of vines, raising her soul sword and slashing at that vine.
At the same time, the other illusory vines instantly surrounded her, whipping her severely. Mu Anxiao endured the piercing pain, gritted her teeth, and chopped off the vine. Her head remained still, and she used her peripheral vision to search for the other two.
Seeing this, the vine spirit let out a cold snort. "Since you've chopped off my favorite one, Mu Anxiao, you really don't want to live." As he said this, just as he was about to unleash his full power to confront Mu Anxiao, Ouyang Ye appeared behind him. He then temporarily withdrew his intention to confront Mu Anxiao and turned to look at Ouyang Ye. "Why are you here? Have the matters over there been resolved?"
"...." Ouyang Ye ignored the vine spirit and walked forward, looking at Mu Anxiao, who was surrounded by vines, with a slight smile. Then he reached out and grabbed the vine in the vine spirit's hand.
The vine spirit's body stiffened. He turned to look at Ouyang Ye and exclaimed in shock, "What are you doing?" As he said this, he looked down at the vine tightly held by Ouyang Ye, his eyes widening.
The vines were filled with the vine spirit's demonic energy. Normally, when he used his vines, monsters, demons, and even great immortals could not touch them.
Yet, now, Ouyang Ye had grabbed the vines without any apparent feeling.
This greatly surprised the vine spirit.
Conversely, Ouyang Ye continued to stare intently at the vines tightly surrounding Mu Anxiao and said, "Use your full strength, but do not kill her." As he said this, he let go.
The vine spirit was about to defy Ouyang Ye's order and seize the opportunity to kill Mu Anxiao stealthily.
Unexpectedly, Ouyang Ye was such a formidable and ruthless character. It seemed his idea was just an idea.
Helplessly, he could only continue to cooperate with Ouyang Ye.
"Understood," he replied, and then became curious about the situation over there. "Um... can I ask you a question?" He turned to look at Ouyang Ye.
Ouyang Ye: "Speak." He didn't even glance at the vine spirit.
"How is the situation on your side?" the vine spirit asked cautiously.
"You really are easily distracted," Ouyang Ye finally glanced at the vine spirit.
The vine spirit understood from Ouyang Ye's words that he should not meddle in other people's business!
Thus, he dared not speak further and patiently dealt with Mu Anxiao.
On the other side of the Forbidden Forest, Jiongye and Zhao Meier were captured by Xier and tied to a tree. As for Hai and the others, they had not yet become food for the evil spirits, and they were also tied to trees.
Conversely, Yin Ye took advantage of the fight between the evil spirits and those people and escaped leisurely. The two of them had now fled to the entrance of the Forbidden Forest.
Yin Ye was a demon soul, and she didn't feel the slightest fatigue. In contrast, Youxian was exhausted after running wildly all the way.
"I can't anymore," she said breathlessly, walking forward, leaning halfway against a tree, tilting her head back, and panting continuously.
Seeing this, Yin Ye walked opposite Youxian, peeked in the direction they had run from, and said, "How long do you want to rest?"
"..." Youxian shook her head, rubbed against the tree, and slowly slid down, slumping onto the ground. Shaking her head, she said, "I can't run anymore. Why don't you just leave me alone?" As she said this, she rested her head against the tree.
Yin Ye: "I've brought you this far. You want me to leave you alone? Why didn't you say so earlier?" After speaking, she crouched down in front of Youxian.
Youxian closed her eyes. "Death sooner or later is still death. I can't run anymore," she gagged slightly and continued, "If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn't have let you bring me. I'm really sorry for implicating you now."
"You've already implicated me. If you give up now, won't everything I've done be in vain?" Yin Ye said excitedly.
"How about..." Youxian said, opening her eyes, and looking blurry-eyed at Yin Ye opposite her, "you go and check on Mu Anxiao."
"Mu Anxiao..." Yin Ye repeated, then remembered Mu Anxiao, who had escaped. She then looked back in the direction they had come from, thought for a moment, and said, "She is an immortal. She should be fine."
"Really?" Youxian became inexplicably worried about Mu Anxiao's safety.
Yin Ye: "It's definitely true. She has the ability to turn danger into safety." As she said this, she glanced at her hand. "You rest a little longer, and we'll continue."
"I..."
"Don't talk nonsense, just rest," Yin Ye interrupted, stood up, and observed the surrounding situation.
Deep within the Forbidden Forest.
Mu Anxiao paid no attention to the external situation, continuing to endure the various whip-like attacks of the vines, and found the second vine that was emitting a red glow. She muttered, "That's the one." As she said this, she trembled and raised her soul sword, forcefully slashing at the second vine.
Immediately, the soul sword got stuck in the vine.
Ouyang Ye stood outside, clearly watching Mu Anxiao's actions as she used her full strength to 'save' her soul sword. He smiled slightly without saying anything.
The vine spirit cast spells and said, "Do you want to destroy the soul sword in her hand?" He glanced at Ouyang Ye.
Ouyang Ye: "If it's to be ruined, let it be ruined completely. I see her spiritual energy is also insufficient." As he said this, he took half a step back.
The vine spirit focused intently, fulfilling Ouyang Ye's request.
Then, Ouyang Ye looked up at the demonic barrier above and thought, Mu Anxiao, no one can save you now.
At this moment, Mu Anxiao deeply felt that her spiritual energy was insufficient.
Consequently, she concentrated her spirit and used her last bit of spiritual energy to pull out the soul sword with all her might. Suddenly, the soul sword let out a "crack" sound. Just as she was surprised by this, several vines instantly whipped her back. Her legs went weak, and she fell heavily to the ground. At that moment, the soul sword also broke with a "bang," turning into blue light and disappearing.
Seeing this, Mu Anxiao's heart sank. Then she looked up and saw that the vine she had almost cut off had actually regenerated.
"How can this be?" she said despairingly. While contemplating her situation, tears mixed with blood slid down her face. "My spiritual energy is exhausted, my silver rope is destroyed, my soul sword has disappeared. I... am now... a complete cripple." After speaking, she slowly lowered her head, pressing the right half of her face tightly against the ground.
Outside.
Ouyang Ye looked calmly at Mu Anxiao, who was in despair inside, and sneered, "Stop."
Hearing this, the vine spirit retracted the vines and looked at Ouyang Ye, saying, "It seems she is already useless."
"Vine spirit, your contribution is great. What reward do you want, just say it," Ouyang Ye glanced at the vine spirit.
The vine spirit smiled and said, "Let me think."
"Take your time," Ouyang Ye replied and walked towards Mu Anxiao.