Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Xu Lingguang opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He looked at the dirty Amei and thought that Lanjian would probably find it too dirty with mud all over its body, so he took the initiative to pick Amei up.

Amei seemed to want to struggle, but its round, limbless body made it difficult for it to move. In the end, it could only wriggle weakly in Xu Lingguang's arms a few times before giving up.

Muyun peeked out from Xu Lingguang's clothes, rubbed against its unicorn horn, and mumbled, "Amei doesn't want to be here."

Lan Jian glanced at Amei, then looked towards the night sky in the distance: "Is Liu Zhu nearby?"

Amei moved slightly, then, in a self-deceptive act, hid the unicorn in Xu Lingguang's arms.

Xu Lingguang stroked his fur, thinking that the soul of a Qilin was hidden in this dirty mop-cloth, and couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for Si Yuan: "He doesn't seem to want to see Liuzhu."

Lan Jian frowned and glanced at Amei, her voice indifferent: "Only by finding Liu Zhu can we break the deadlock in Fengling City. We'll have to meet him sooner or later, so what's the point of running away?"

His last words seemed to be directed at Amei. Xu Lingguang felt the mop-like ball of fur in his arms move slightly, its frizzy fur flattening down, and its mood clearly becoming much lower.

Lan Jian ignored him, having already determined the direction, and gestured for Xu Lingguang to follow.

Xu Lingguang patted Amei on the shoulder and quickly followed.

The two walked through the intricate vines and branches. Xu Lingguang held Amei in one arm and skillfully grabbed Lan Jian's sleeve with the other, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt as if the vines and branches were slowly wriggling, and he could faintly smell a very faint medicinal fragrance.

Xu Lingguang paused, then hesitated before speaking, "These vines seem to be moving, and there's a medicinal scent."

Lan Jian was surprised by his keen observation, and narrowed her eyes slightly: "The scent of medicine proves that Liu Zhu is indeed nearby."

"And the vines are moving... which means that the Qilin may also be nearby."

The Qilin he was referring to was not the dirty mop-like bundle that Xu Lingguang was holding, but rather the Qilin body that had summoned these flower vines and lost its soul.

Xu Lingguang subconsciously looked down at Amei in his arms. Amei did become a little anxious after hearing this, but its body was too immobile to move around, so no matter how much emotion it expressed, it could only roll around in Xu Lingguang's arms a couple of times.

Xu Lingguang gently stroked it, trying to soothe its emotions.

Unexpectedly, Amei sprang up and rolled to the ground with unprecedented agility, then rolled forward quickly.

Mu Yun, who had been rubbing against it, was also thrown to the ground. After getting up in a daze, it saw A Mei rolling away quickly. Mu Yun panicked and chased after it, calling "A Mei" as it tried to bring it back.

All of this happened in an instant. Xu Lingguang was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and immediately went to stop Mu Yun.

But just then, the quiet vines around them suddenly began to twist, and a thick branch lashed out at Xu Lingguang. Xu Lingguang reacted quickly, rolling away to dodge. He then heard Lan Jian shout sharply behind him, "Xu Lingguang! Come back!"

Xu Lingguang had just grabbed Mu Yun when he heard the sound and turned around. He saw Lan Jian's figure, which was clearly not far away, suddenly become distorted and blurry. Then, countless branches surged and chased after him like wild snakes.

He immediately realized that he had probably accidentally stepped into a teleportation array and was no longer in the same place as Chongxue.

Ignoring the pain of losing his thigh, Xu Lingguang tucked Mu Yun into his arms and began to run away as fast as he could.

The wildly waving branches behind him were like a swarm of snakes, relentlessly pursuing him, making a piercing cracking sound as they rubbed against each other. Xu Lingguang glanced back as he ran, only to find that the area behind him was completely blocked by the vines, and Chong Xue was nowhere to be seen.

Xu Lingguang's heart died instantly, turning completely cold.

"We can't count on Chongxue anymore; we'll have to fend for ourselves," Xu Lingguang murmured.

Mu Yun peeked out and then shrank back into his arms, rummaging through his Qiankun bag, trying to comfort Xu Lingguang: "Don't be afraid, Grandpa and Uncle gave me a life-saving magic artifact."

But the Qiankun bag was filled with too many random things, and after rummaging through it for a long time, he still couldn't figure out which one was the life-saving magic artifact. He was so anxious that his tail curled up: "It's not this one, and it's not this one either..."

Xu Lingguang, however, had no time to listen to his babbling. He quickly picked up the Cloud Piercing Crossbow, grabbed a handful of Fire-Splitting Pills from his storage bag, condensed them into arrows with his spiritual power, and while dodging the lashing branches, he used the Fire-Splitting Pills to shoot at the vines with the arrows.

The Fire-Splitting Pill exploded under the impact of the arrow, and the bursting flames instantly ignited the vines, which began to spread to adjacent branches.

The burning branches flinched, their pursuit noticeably slowing. They twisted and rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames, giving the fleeing Xu Lingguang a brief respite.

"it works!"

Seeing this, Xu Lingguang gained a little more confidence and took out the remaining Fire-Splitting Pills in one go. Taking advantage of its weakness, he shot them all at the exposed roots of the Flower-Turning Vine.

A raging fire broke out, forcing the branches chasing Xu Lingguang to retreat and extinguish the flames at the roots. Seeing this, Xu Lingguang boldly chose a gap in the vines that wasn't properly sealed and squeezed out.

He didn't understand formations and, clinging to a sliver of hope, thought he might be able to return to where he started.

But the pitch-black cave before him made him realize reality—he had escaped, but this unfamiliar cave didn't seem very safe.

Xu Lingguang took a deep breath, then looked down and touched Muyun, gripping the Cloud Piercing Crossbow tightly as he muttered to himself, "It's okay, we'll just play it safe."

As he spoke, he held his breath and carefully moved forward slowly along the right side of the cave.

The cave was deep and narrow, with no light source, obstructing Xu Lingguang's vision, and he walked cautiously with every step. Whether it was good or bad luck, although the journey was difficult, he did not encounter any sudden dangers along the way.

But the further they went into the cave, the colder it became.

Xu Lingguang observed for a moment and found that the acupoint wall that his palm touched was even covered with white frost.

Amidst the chilling frost and snow, there was also a faint, subtle medicinal fragrance.

Xu Lingguang sniffed carefully, confirming that it wasn't his imagination: "There really is a medicinal scent?"

He carefully discerned the medicinal fragrance: "It contains lotus root, baijiu, and willow buds..."

“It doesn’t seem to be an ordinary medicinal scent…” Xu Lingguang frowned in thought, then suddenly realized: “It’s not the scent of medicine, it’s the scent of elixirs.”

This strange fragrance is not the scent of a single elixir or pill, but rather the result of a mixture of the scents of countless pills.

Combining this with what Chongxue had said earlier, Xu Lingguang immediately confirmed: "It's Liuzhu!"