Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Xu Lingguang and he shared the same view.

So the three of them divided the work and began making preliminary preparations.

Xu Lingguang was naturally in charge of refining pills. He took out the pill furnace he carried with him and began to recall suitable poison pills.

"Although the black vines are strange, they are still plants after all, and should theoretically be afraid of fire."

Dongyang Li scratched his chin: "It's easy to set the vines on fire. Chai Feng and I can work together to create a spirit fire array. The phoenix fire we obtained some time ago has already merged with our natal spirit fire, so now is the perfect time to test its power."

"I know of a Fire-Splitting Pill that contains abundant fire power. Once activated by the fire power, it will explode instantly and burst into flames. Although it is only a second-grade pill, if there are enough of them, and they are combined with a spirit fire array, their power should not be small."

Xu Lingguang recalled Yuan Jiu's notes and said, "Besides fire, we could also try using poison to cut off the source of the problem."

All plants need to absorb water. Vines are rooted in the ground. If the venom can be soaked into the soil where the vines are rooted, the toxicity will corrode the roots of the vines, and the effect may be faster.

Xu Lingguang shared his thoughts: "However, the area is too large, and how to accurately deliver the venom to the soil where the vines are rooted is a problem."

Upon hearing this, Dongyang Li clapped his hands and said, "If we mix the poison into the rainwater, wouldn't we be able to thoroughly drench the vines?"

Chai Feng instantly understood his plan: "You want to use the rain-summoning formation?"

Rain-summoning formations are typically used by cities that experience little rainfall to pray for rain. Once activated, the formation can summon heavy rain in an instant. As for how to infuse the highly poisonous substance into the harmless rainwater, that was just a matter of some effort for Dongyang Li and Chai Feng.

Xu Lingguang thought this was a good idea, but it was not as easy to implement as he had imagined: "There are still many civilians and cultivators in the city. If we use rain, the affected area will be too wide and it will be easy to accidentally injure them."

Dongyang Li hadn't thought of this problem for a moment. He frowned and said, "Then we need to find a way to get the people inside out first."

But now those people have lost their minds and are completely unable to communicate, so evacuating them will be a huge problem.

After much discussion, the three decided that using fire was easier to implement and less likely to cause accidental injuries.

However, to be on the safe side, when Xu Lingguang was refining pills, in addition to refining the Fire-Splitting Pill, he also used the blood of the spiky-tailed crocodile, which had been useless in the previous Hundred Refinement Competition, to refine the Bone-Piercing Pill. The Bone-Piercing Pill is extremely poisonous. It is colorless and invisible after dissolving in water, but once it comes into contact with a person, they will rot instantly and eventually turn into a pool of putrid water.

This was Xu Lingguang's first time refining such a potent poison, so he was extremely cautious.

Even when refining the Bone-Strengthening Pill, Mu Yun was not allowed to stay by his side. He was sent to keep an eye on Qin Long, for fear that something might happen to him.

While he was refining pills, Dongyang Li and Chai Feng worked together to inscribe a spirit fire array.

After a busy day and night, Xu Lingguang refined fifty-four Fire-Splitting Pills, forty-three Bone-Strengthening Pills, and twenty-three Paralysis Pills.

This paralysis pill is a prank pill created by Yuan Jiu. After taking it, the whole body will be paralyzed, and the limbs will be stiff and unable to move like a dead person. However, the effect is limited and can only last for three days.

Such pills are usually rather useless, only good for playing pranks.

However, it's actually quite suitable for dealing with the cultivators and civilians in the city who have lost their minds. In the end, these people are just corrupted by the turbid energy and have temporarily lost their minds. Once they encounter each other fighting, it's no different from killing each other.

However, it would be much simpler to knock them out with poison, and we wouldn't have to waste too much time getting entangled with them.

Their top priority is to find the source of the problem as soon as possible.

After Xu Lingguang finished counting and putting away the pills, he stood up and stretched his stiff limbs, then asked the two people who were still engrossed in inscribing the array, "How much longer do you have?"

Dongyang Li was engrossed in staring at the formation, his spiritual energy blade steadily carving smooth and complex lines on the fist-sized formation plate. He had no energy to spare for answering Xu Lingguang's question.

Chai Feng said again, "The last one, right away."

As he spoke, Dongyang Li finished carving the last stroke. He abruptly withdrew his spiritual power, leaned back, and said listlessly, "Finally finished. I never want to carve a magic array again in my life."

One branch of the Nine Turns Manor is array plate carving, and Dongyang Li and Chai Feng also studied this course. However, Dongyang Li is lively and active, while array carving is a very delicate and patient task, and he used to only work on it sporadically.

If it weren't for the circumstances, he would have preferred to confront the Qilin head-on, even if it meant being slapped to death by the Qilin, it would have been easier and simpler than carving this ghostly magic array.

The two of them worked together to carve a total of ten spirit fire array plates.

Bury the array plate under the main root of the vine, and then activate it together with the Fire-Splitting Pill. While it may not completely eradicate these strange vines, it can at least severely damage them.

If we can successfully find the Qilin, we can try to lure it into the formation and then activate it.

Dongyang lay on the ground for a while, then sat up again, eager to try, and said, "Let's go."

Chai Feng, however, still remembered the unconscious child and asked Xu Lingguang, "Qin Long hasn't woken up yet?"

Xu Lingguang said, "No, I was afraid he would wake up halfway and we wouldn't be able to take care of him, so I tied him up and asked Muyun to help keep an eye on him."

Just then, Mu Yun shouted, "He's awake!"

The three hurriedly went to look at Qin Long, only to see him looking blankly at the tight ropes binding him, then at Xu Lingguang and the other two: "What happened? Why did you tie me up?"

Seeing that he was conscious and showed no signs of going crazy, Xu Lingguang checked the extent of the erosion on his back by the turbid energy—it was the same as before, and had not spread.

So he said to Muyun, "Take the rope away."

The spirit-binding rope that bound Qin Long was taken out of Mu Yun's pocket.

Mu Yun waved its claws arrogantly, retracted the Spirit Binding Rope, and climbed up Xu Lingguang's clothes, squatting down on his shoulder.

Chai Feng then told Qin Long what had happened after he fell into a coma.

Qin Long was stunned, his mouth agape. Only when he heard Chai Feng mention that the Myriad Beast Manor had also been invaded by those strange vines did he truly become anxious: "What about my Spirit Pet Garden?"

Dongyang Li scratched his head and said, "We didn't have time to go in and check, and you didn't lock up those spirit pets, so they should have escaped by now."

If he hadn't escaped, he might have ended up like those deranged monks.

Qin Long became anxious upon hearing this. He got up and said, "No, I have to go back and check."

Chai Feng tried to persuade him, but Qin Long wouldn't listen to anything: "I won't feel at ease if I don't go back and see him. If you have something to do, you can go first. I'll go take a look and then come back to meet up with you."

Dongyang Li felt that he was being somewhat short-sighted. Fengling City was in grave danger, yet Qin Long was only thinking about his spirit pet. He frowned and reached out to put his hand on Qin Long's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

To his surprise, his outstretched hand missed its target. Qin Long nimbly dodged, paused for a moment at the look of astonishment on his face, then gave an apologetic look and left without looking back.

Dongyang Li frowned as she watched his retreating figure disappear quickly, then asked Chai Feng and Xu Lingguang hesitantly, "Don't you guys think..."

The words weren't fully spoken, but both of them understood each other perfectly.

Chai Feng frowned and remained silent.

Xu Lingguang nodded: "I think so too."

He sensed a subtle change in Qin Long after he woke up compared to before.

However, they were not particularly familiar with Qin Long, so it was hard to say whether it was his true nature or whether he had been influenced by the corrupting influence of the negative energy.