Do you really think you can get me with just a banana?

The sun slowly sank into the horizon, leaving only a faint afterglow. Su Yi was about to take out a tinder from his sleeve to light it, but Qing Fan gently held his hand, signaling him to pause. Su Yi looked at Qing Fan with a puzzled look, only to see Qing Fan shook his head, signaling him to listen quietly.

Yu Kunliang pursed his lips tightly, facing the scrutiny of the crowd, tilted his head slightly, and said in a hoarse voice, "What did I say?"

No one said anything, just looked at him, as if waiting for him to admit something.

Yan Ruchen remained nonchalant, his eyes wandering as if he were lost in thought. Guan Shanyu, head bowed, carefully helped Yan Ruchen secure the bandage on his shoulder. Once everything was in place, he stood up, dusted himself off, and, breaking the eerie atmosphere, said, "Brother Kunliang, I believe you're innocent. We're not blaming you. But if we're going to get out of here, there are some things we need to be honest about so we can plan our escape."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ruchen raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at Guan Shanyu, then quickly averted his gaze and returned to silence. After Guan Shanyu finished speaking, he also sat back in his original seat and looked aside. The atmosphere gradually relaxed.

Su Yi looked at everyone with a bewildered expression, then turned to Qing Fan beside her and whispered, "What are they talking about? What do you mean by being open and honest?"

Qing Fan tutted, looking at him with a hint of disappointment, but didn't answer. Su Benzhi excitedly gestured to Su Yi, as if trying to hint at something, but Su Yi couldn't understand what he meant by the airborne gestures. Su Benzhi was so anxious that he almost spoke with a hoarse throat. Jin Yu then answered, "That's the man in the black robe. He's Yun Jichan's man. He has the Yun Jichan symbol on his wrist."

"what?!"

Su Yi screamed, and Qing Fan immediately covered her mouth, signaling her to be quiet. Su Yi nodded hurriedly, and waited for Qing Fan to take his hand away before whispering, "How could it be? Yun Jichan? Don't talk nonsense!"

Yu Kunliang turned his head to the side, looking at the dead body floating on the lake, without saying a word.

Yan Ruchen put Qingmeng aside and reminded her, "The sun has set now. We don't know what will happen tonight, so everyone should keep their voices down." After a pause, he looked at Yu Kunliang and said, "Brother Kunliang must have just come to his senses and is having a hard time accepting this. We just escaped death, so we need to think about this matter carefully. The most important thing right now is how to get out of Wangshuiling."

Hearing him say this, everyone stopped pressing him and sighed, lowering their heads, thinking about how to get out. Guan Shanyu drew circles on the ground for a while, then quietly raised his head to glance at Yu Kunliang, and then "hissed" a breath of cold air.

Seeing his unusual reaction, Yan Ruchen followed his gaze. In the afterglow of the setting sun, the lake surface shimmered with tiny rays of light, just illuminating Yu Kunliang's face, where two tear marks were clearly visible.

Everyone noticed that something was wrong with him and looked over at him. After seeing the scene clearly, they all fell silent.

Yu Kunliang stared at the lake, seemingly mumbling to himself, and whispered, "That corpse in the lake, near the reed marsh, is my junior fellow apprentice. His family was extremely poor, with only a pot and a bed. He came to Yunjichan to become a disciple, and it took him three months to walk from their village. He had been a disciple for only a year when he heard that the sect was in trouble, so he volunteered to check it out. Unexpectedly, he met with misfortune the next day. The path of cultivation is full of thorns, and life and death are unpredictable. But after he died, he turned into that ghost thing again, so just now, I killed him again with my own hands."

He slowly turned around, his eyes sweeping over the crowd, his eyes filled with desolation. "You ask me, how would I know? Among these corpses are not only my fellow disciples, but also fellow practitioners from Zixiao and Yuchen Palaces. I also thought that all this was done by the demons, but how could I have imagined that I would suddenly see the mark of Yun Jichan on that black-robed man? Do you know what that means? It's also the seal of the elders. So when you ask me, I don't know either. I don't know why this happened, why things turned out like this..."

Everyone looked up at Yu Kunliang, only to see that he had buried his head deeply in his arms, sobbing intermittently and repeatedly muttering "Why is this happening?"

Jin Yu, who spoke first, said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blame you, please don't feel bad."

There was silence all around. Everyone had not yet breathed a sigh of relief from the relief of escaping death, but now they had to face a cruel reality.

The culprit behind the disappearance of the inner disciples is related to Yun Jichan.

Regardless of whether it is a frame-up or not, knowing this conclusion is already very distressing.

Time seemed to freeze until Yu Kunliang's sobs gradually subsided. Yan Ruchen then spoke slowly, "This isn't your fault. Don't be too sad. The most urgent thing is to discuss how to get out of Wangshuiling."

When Guan Shanyu heard the first half of the sentence, his heart tightened. He secretly looked up and glanced at Yan Ruchen. Seeing that he didn't notice him, he quickly lowered his head again.

Jin Yu asked cautiously, "Besides returning the same way, is there any other way?"

Su Yi took over the conversation: "Yes, if... if the demons hadn't planned all this, if they found out that we were not dead, wouldn't they have ambushed us halfway..."

Before he could finish his words, Qing Fan immediately pushed his arm. Yu Kunliang, standing by, looked even uglier.

Yan Ruchen pulled a brown paper map from his sleeve. Despite the waterlogging, the markings were still clearly legible. He pointed at the map and said, "Everyone, take a look. This is the path we came in by, located in the north. If we try to leave from the west or south, we will eventually have to return to the main road in the north, which could be more dangerous, especially if there is an ambush along the way."

Everyone gathered around, and Su Yi spoke first: "Then, in order to avoid the original route, we can only choose the east as the exit."

Yan Ruchen nodded in agreement: "Yes, but going east means we have to take a long detour, first crossing Wangshuiling for two days, and then returning by water."

Everyone pondered for a moment, weighed the pros and cons, and unanimously decided: "Then let's go east."

Yan Ruchen nodded and said, "Tonight, we will rest at the bottom of the valley and recuperate. Considering that the murderer may learn that the spirit turtle failed to kill us, he may set an ambush at the bottom of the valley. We need to hide in the reeds first, and no fire or conversation at night. We must ensure safety and set off immediately tomorrow morning. What do you think?"

Everyone murmured in agreement: "Okay."

After confirming the plan, everyone took immediate action without hesitation. Although Yu Kunliang was upset after learning that the murderer was related to his sect, he wiped his tears, got up from the ground, and helped Jin Yu carry Guyu.

Guan Shanyu followed behind Yan Ruchen. Seeing his orderly command, he turned around to look at the corpse of the spirit turtle and felt a little relieved.

In the original novel, Yan Ruchen spent five days maneuvering before he was able to knock the spirit turtle down once, and then the demon recognized his demon bloodline and taught him peerless martial arts.

And now, with their combined efforts, they can actually kill the spirit turtle directly.

Guan Shanyu touched his chest and thought, maybe it was because the secret technique could restrain the demons, so the spirit turtle was restrained by me and its power was weakened. But what about Yan Ruchen? If I get close to him, won’t his strength be weakened as well?

Guan Shanyu secretly glanced at Yan Ruchen and suddenly had an idea. When Yan Ruchen continued to fight, he should actually stay away from him, otherwise the battle might end faster.

So, even if you want to curry favor with someone, you should still keep your distance.

Guan Shanyu thought about it and fell into a deep sleep leaning against the stone. Yan Ruchen made sure everyone was hidden and leaned against the stone to take a nap, but just as he turned around, he suddenly couldn't move.

He looked back and saw that the corner of his robe was pressed by Guan Shanyu. He pulled twice, but the clothes did not come out. Instead, Guan Shanyu turned over uncomfortably, which made his clothes pressed even harder.

Yan Ruchen: “…”

The next morning, before the sun even showed its face, Yan Ruchen quietly woke up the disciples who were still asleep one by one. Guan Shanyu opened his eyes drowsily, feeling limp, but seeing that everyone else had stood up, he struggled to stand up as well.

Everyone quietly came out from the reeds, but saw that the position of the spirit turtle's body was somewhat different from yesterday. They reacted in fear.

It's very likely that someone really came to "clean up" last night.

Yan Ruchen reacted quickly, signaling everyone to quietly enter the lake, intending to swim to the cliffs on the opposite side of the valley and then quietly climb up from there. Although this route was similar to the original one, there was a dense patch of bushes on the other side. Climbing up and skirting the cliff halfway, they could then proceed eastward as planned.

When Yan Ruchen passed by the spirit turtle, he drew out his sword and cut off one of its claws neatly. He put it into the bag he carried with him and tied it around his waist. Then he also went into the water and walked at the end to cover everyone else.

Because Guyu was unconscious, someone had to carry her along. Considering the gender difference, Jinyu had to carry her on her back. However, she was a woman after all, and after swimming to the edge of the cliff with Guyu on her back, she had no strength left, but she refused to let go of Guyu.

Guan Shanyu watched her grind her teeth to the point of breaking, yet she was still struggling to climb the cliff carrying Guyu on her back, and he secretly praised her. However, he was also very dizzy. Seeing that they had already climbed most of the way, he had only climbed less than five meters with gritted teeth. In a trance, he suddenly slipped.

Guan Shanyu's heart tightened, and he instinctively wanted to grab something to steady himself, but sliding on a cliff was no joke. As soon as his feet lost support, his body immediately lost its balance and sank down.

Just as Guan Shanyu was about to hold his breath and prepare to fall into the lake, suddenly a pair of steady and powerful hands supported his buttocks.

Ok?

Guan Shanyu suddenly opened his eyes and looked down.

Under him was Yan Ruchen, who caught him with a serious look on his face. When Guan Shanyu slid just now, some small gravel and dust fell on Yan Ruchen's face. Yan Ruchen just shook his head lightly to shake off the things and whispered to Guan Shanyu: "Be careful."

Guan Shanyu woke up instantly, his face changed with fear, and then he turned around and climbed up the cliff desperately.

After landing, everyone did not rush to move on. Instead, they first observed the surroundings and made sure that there was no one around before quietly moving eastward.

To the east of Wangshuiling lay a vast plain, with almost no vegetation to be seen, and the few trees that did exist looked listless. There was no bird song, no sign of wild animals, and the entire plain was bare, making us stand out.

But if they bypassed the plain and walked along the woods, it would take at least another day. After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to go directly through the plain, but they had to disguise themselves first.

So everyone found a muddy ground and rolled around until their bodies were covered with yellow soil and blended into the surrounding environment. Then they quickly got up and continued on their way.

Having not eaten or drunk anything for the entire day, they barely had the energy to speak. Fortunately, they had all practiced mental cultivation, so even if they hadn't had a drop of water for ten days, they wouldn't immediately collapse and die. Now, they only needed to conserve their energy, hurry on their journey, and deal with any danger that might come at any time.

Yan Ruchen walked briskly ahead, mentally calculating that he had to cross this plain and then the forest on the opposite side before dark. Everyone was actually moving much faster than he'd anticipated. As long as they passed the forest, they could reach the river on the opposite side at night, follow the current, and then skirt a plain, leaving Wangshuiling.

He put away the map in his hand, his brows turned serious. He looked back to see if anyone had fallen behind, but when he turned back to count the heads, he found that one person was missing.

Yan Ruchen suddenly stopped, and Su Yi and the others caught up with him, panting. Seeing him stop, they also stopped and asked, "Ruchen, what's wrong?"

Yan Ruchen frowned, glanced around the team, and asked, "Where's Guan Shanyu? Why is he gone?"