Mysterious mirror hanging high

"Fellow Daoist Yue, your words are far too alarmist!"

One of the prodigies said, "If anyone is afraid that murder and the theft of the pills will happen..."

"I propose that all fellow cultivators who intend to explore separately swear an oath of inner demons in public, agreeing that within the Ruins of Return, they must never attack their fellow cultivators, let alone kill or steal their cores! If they break this oath, their inner demons will retaliate, and their path to cultivation will be severed!"

Upon hearing this, some cultivators at the early stage of the Cave Heaven Realm with weaker combat power and lower cultivation levels readily agreed, while the prodigies at the later stage of the Cave Heaven Realm remained silent, clearly unwilling to make a vow against their inner demons.

Fu Changting scoffed, "What are you? Do you even deserve to make the Taiyin Demon Prince swear an oath of inner demons? Besides, if we really find a way out of the Ruins of Return in the future, and that way requires us to kill each other, wouldn't swearing an oath be like tying our own hands?"

"However, I do think we can't continue like this. Exploring separately is definitely a good idea."

Seeing that most of the prodigies' gazes were focused on him, Jian Yunyuan, this disciple of the Sword Court, could only sigh deeply:

"Then let's split up and explore..."

"But there's no need to go to such an extreme as going it alone. After all, if you're alone, there's a real possibility that someone with ill intentions could take advantage of you."

"You may each find your own good friends to travel with, and forming several dozen teams will be enough."

"Then we will refine another batch of communication talismans using the same method, which can be used to send messages to each other... If any team makes any discovery, they can send a message to the other teams."

"Okay, let's do it that way." Yue Xingzhou nodded.

Yuan Jiqing scratched the back of his head: "You stinky dragon, shall we team up?"

Bai Zhaoyue glanced at the silver ape and said indifferently, "Aren't you the one who gets along the most with the dragon clan? Why did you suddenly decide to team up with me?"

"If this were the mortal world, I wouldn't even glance at you, but in this Void Realm, human hearts are unpredictable. It's safer for the demon race to stick together." Yuan Jiqing deliberately raised his voice, his tone somewhat sarcastic.

“Big silly tree, come with me,” Jing Yu said bluntly.

Luo Zixuan, who was standing nearby, also came over and asked, "Fellow Daoist Xuanjing, could you please take my little sister with you?"

“It’s not that it’s impossible… Why?” Jing Yu raised an eyebrow: “Actually, exploring together doesn’t necessarily require relying on a powerful ally. The most sensible decision is to find one or more like-minded companions with similar combat strength.”

"Didn't you see that among all these Golden Immortal disciples, no one is vying to be on the same team as a Dao Lord disciple?"

"Even the one with the best reputation and the best name, the [Eight Swords of Yunyuan], is now ignored."

“I don’t understand all these complicated details. A diviner like me only believes in his own divination.”

Luo Zixuan shook her head: "My little sister just did a divination, and staying by your side is the most likely way to survive."

Jing Yu said in surprise, "Your divination skills are so unpredictable, yet you actually guessed right this time."

Jian Yunyuan looked around and found that all the other geniuses had formed teams in twos and threes, while no one on his side stepped forward. He couldn't help but smile bitterly.

He knew that in the Ruins of Return, strength itself was a threat. Even if he himself did not have such thoughts, just being alone with him was enough to make those "weak" geniuses restless.

"Let's go, Fellow Daoist Luo, you big silly tree."

Jing Yu took a deep look at the geniuses present and thought to himself, "One hundred and thirty-one cultivators. I hope that more than half of them will remain when we gather again next time."

whoosh-

whoosh-

whoosh-

A total of 131 prodigies formed more than 40 teams, each flying in a different direction, radiating outwards from the burial site of Zhao Lang.

To conserve Guo Tingshu and Luo Zixuan's true essence, Jing Yu simply wrapped them up with the Bitter Crossing Profound Light and escaped into the dust. As he escaped, he swept a large amount of dust into the cave, accumulating body-refining essence and tempering his physique.

"Fellow Daoist Xuanjing, why is your true essence so abundant? Since entering the Ruins of Return, I have hardly seen you take any pills in the past hundred years..." Luo Zixuan asked curiously, enveloped in the Bitter Crossing Profound Light.

"This is just a body-refining technique," Jing Yu said casually.

"Body-refining techniques also consume blood and energy..." Luo Zixuan muttered.

Just then, Jing Yu suddenly turned around and changed direction, urging the Bitter Crossing Mysterious Light to return along the same route.

"Brother Jing, why did you suddenly turn back?" Guo Tingshu asked, puzzled. "Shouldn't we have continued exploring?"

"Not urgent."

Jing Yu led Guo Tingshu and the other two back to Zhao Lang's burial place. They emerged from the ground and created an illusion. Then, Jing Yu used the Bitter Transmission of Profound Light to completely conceal the aura of the three of them. Jing Yu was confident that with this concealment technique, almost no cultivator of the same level could see through it.

With a calm expression, he explained to the two of them, "Let's do the final [observation of fate]."

"Observe fate? What fate?" Luo Zixuan was a little confused.

"Zhao Lang's life!"

"Isn't Zhao Lang already dead?" The two were both taken aback.

“The death of a person does not necessarily mean the end of their life.” Jing Yu said calmly, “Although Zhao Lang has fallen, his life still has a tail. You can just wait and see.”

They waited there for three whole days, during which time the three of them even fought off the Void Demon once.

Finally, on the fourth day, two streaks of light flew stealthily from the edge of the gray sky. They were not fast and their trajectories were erratic, clearly trying to hide their whereabouts and constantly scanning their surroundings with their divine sense.

The light descended, then dimmed, revealing two human cultivators dressed in ordinary robes, their appearances roughly disguised.

But Jing Yu and his two companions had such keen eyesight that they immediately recognized that these two were the two true disciples of the Golden Immortal lineage who had strongly advocated splitting up to explore when resources were running low!

One of them was named Chen Jing, from the Zixia Sect, and the other was named Sun Hao, from Qingyang Mountain. Both of them were at the early stage of the Cave Heaven realm. Among this group of geniuses, they were at the lower level in terms of foundation, comprehension, and supernatural combat power.

After landing, the two did not act immediately. Instead, they each summoned a detection-type spiritual artifact and repeatedly scanned every inch of land and every stone within a radius of dozens of miles with their divine senses.

After confirming at least three times that there was no sign of any living creature or even a trace of residual magical energy in the area besides the two of them, their tense expressions finally relaxed slightly.

"It seems there's really no one left," Chen Jing said in a low voice, his voice tinged with tension. "They've all left."

"Better safe than sorry." Sun Hao remained vigilant, and after probing for a while with a compass-shaped treasure, he nodded: "Hmm, there's not even a trace of the monitoring array. They're really gone. Let's make our move quickly, lest something goes wrong."