My best friend asked me if I was still doing system tasks.

Seeing that the two men were injured, Widow Qiao guessed that they must have offended someone. Even the wine monk, who was in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, couldn't defeat them. As a shopkeeper who had just broken through to the Golden Core Realm, she didn't want to get involved in their troubles, so she wanted to refuse to serve the two customers.

But then Mu Qing said to quickly find someone to inform the city lord and the people in the city that Taibai Pavilion had set up an array in the city and was going to use them as sacrifices.

The incident at Taibai Pavilion was discovered by the Drunken Monk and Mu Qing. They even damaged a small part of the formation during the fight. To avoid the people of Qiuxi City being prepared, they didn't bother to check whether the formation was perfect and activated it directly.

As a result, everyone within the territory of Qiuxi City was trapped in an illusion. Due to the special nature of his cultivation technique, the Drunken Monk was the first to break through the illusion.

He woke up Mu Qing and Widow Qiao, and the three of them barely managed to save the old, weak, sick and disabled people in the cave from Taibai Pavilion. As for the rest, they were basically thrown into the alchemy cauldron.

Because they didn't know how to break the formation, most of the people were missing limbs in order to forcibly escape the formation.

Worried that passersby unaware of the calamity that had befallen Qiuxi City might perish, the two of them stood guard outside the city. One wanted to see if there was any chance to enter the city and rescue people, while the other wanted to save the passersby.

Five days ago, the disciples of Taibai Pavilion pretended to be innocent passersby and were rescued by the Drunken Monk. The Drunken Monk also led his men back to the cave. If it weren't for Widow Qiao and the Drunken Monk having some tricks up their sleeves, they would probably have been wiped out.

This is why Widow Qiao asked the monk if he had confirmed that Ruan Luo and the other person were alright.

Ruan Chayan couldn't understand why these people were still sitting here waiting to die after so much time had passed: "Such a thing happened in Qiuxi City, didn't you send anyone to ask the surrounding towns for help?"

Widow Qiao said helplessly, "Of course we'll ask someone for help, but our Qiuxi City isn't in a good geographical location. It's far from other towns, and our relationship with everyone is just so-so."

The Western Barbarian Continent is mostly populated by independent cultivators who are indifferent to our affairs and are also worried that sending people to rescue us would lead to the fall of their towns.

The disciples of Taibai Pavilion used elixirs to boost their cultivation to the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul Realm. Where could they find so many Great Perfection Nascent Soul Realm cultivators to fight them?

Luo Hanying realized, "No wonder there are so many high-level cultivators in Taibai Pavilion. They were all forcibly promoted."

"Aren't there any side effects? Won't their cultivation levels regress?"

Widow Qiao patiently explained, "Of course there are side effects. If you take too many pills, impurities will accumulate in your body and form pill poison. Forcibly increasing your cultivation level will also lead to instability in your realm, making it more difficult for them to cultivate in the future."

But we can't worry about the future right now. If someone dies, what future is there to talk about?

Ruan Chayan asked thoughtfully, "After saying so much, what are your plans next?"

"No, nobody wants to come to this godforsaken place to help us. The magic weapons that the bald monk, the blind man, and I used to save our lives have already been used last time."

Widow Qiao said dejectedly, "Taibai Pavilion didn't send anyone to wipe us out because they were afraid we had a backup plan. But in reality, we're all out of options. We're just putting on a show to make them wary."

Widow Qiao cursed the wailing child a couple of times, wishing him bad luck, but her eyes were full of worry. Seeing that Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying remained silent, she could guess that they did not want to get involved in this mess.

Widow Joe then said, “Now that you two know the situation here, if you want to leave, remember to keep your whereabouts hidden and don’t let the people of Qiuxi discover you.”

"If we get to other towns, we'll have to trouble you to ask for help. What if there's someone willing to help us?"

In fact, Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying were just discussing countermeasures. Ruan Chayan told Widow Qiao that she and her sister needed to think about it, and then pulled her aside to discuss it.

Luo Hanying pondered for a moment and said, "I wonder if the Shiren Sect has any friends in the Western Barbarian Continent. It would be great if someone nearby could come and help."

Luo Hanying's first thought was how to help these people, but Ruan Chayan subconsciously wanted to distance herself from them: "I don't know if what they said is true or false. Well, it seems to be true, but we can't help these people. Let's find a safe place to rest and then hurry to the Light Ruins Secret Realm."

"Minor Snow, it's better to avoid trouble."

Luo Hanying hesitated: "Isn't this a bad idea? After all, the Drunken Monk genuinely helped us once, are we just going to abandon them and leave like this?"

They were all old, weak, sick, or disabled; some were widows, others were monks who drank and ate meat, and there was even a blind man.

Ruan Chayan couldn't understand when Luo Hanying had started to like saving all living beings. She wondered, "Don't tell me you really want to stay and help them? We can barely protect ourselves, how can we save them?"

Widow Qiao already said there's a pill-making cauldron in Qiuxi City. What if we two not only fail to help but also get ourselves killed? Only divine artifacts can solve the problem with that cauldron. Who can we expect to save us then?

Luo Hanying was scolded by Ruan Chayan and realized that her ideas were too naive. However, she felt that she could not live with herself if she did nothing when she knew that these people were in trouble.

Luo Hanying shook Ruan Chayan's arm and said coquettishly, "Anyway, it's all the same whether we rest or not, so let's stay here for a day~"

I'll contact the sect to see if anyone nearby can come to Qiuxi City's aid.

Ruan Chayan softened at Luo Hanying's insistence and agreed to her request, so the two of them rested there for the time being.

Luo Hanying set up a silence array to contact the elders of the Shiren Sect and report what happened in Qiuxi City. The Discipline Hall and Hongyan Hall both said they could not help. The situation in Nanyue Divine Continent was also not optimistic. There were many pill cauldrons, but the number of divine artifacts was limited.

Sword Master Eyun was busy dealing with the pill-making process between Donglai Divine Continent and Nanyue Divine Continent, while Ji Daoyun was heading to the Guangxu Secret Realm from the Yue Shen Mountain Range, so he couldn't help.

At the request of Ruan Chayan and Ji Daoyun, Song Jinmi went to the northern part of the Western Barbarian Divine Continent to rescue Jin Si. The human cultivators only had these three divine artifacts at their disposal, and they were simply too busy to spare any more time.

Luo Hanying looked bewildered. She felt her own insignificance and the weakness of her abilities. There were people in need of rescue right in front of her, but no one could help them. Even she herself was starting to have second thoughts. What could she do?

Seeing Luo Hanying absentmindedly put away the array plate, Ruan Chayan knew things must have gone wrong, but she still asked, "How did it go?"

Luo Hanying slowly shook her head and remained silent.

After a while, Luo Hanying suddenly spoke in a low voice: "Chacha, what do you think is the purpose of our cultivation?"

Ruan Chayan: "? What kind of idiotic question are you asking? Of course, it's about survival."

They painstakingly studied magic and formations to survive, they desperately cultivated to survive, and they were forced to do missions involuntarily just to survive.