Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Putting away the plaque that only recorded two pieces of Thunder Sandalwood, compared to Ye Xuan's composure, the other disciples around him could only silently hand over their wood and receive the points that had been deducted, and no one dared to raise any further objections.

Even if someone tried to be clever and secretly hide the cut timber, Tang Zhao would discover it.

At that time, I'll inevitably receive a kind lecture from my senior brother who has reached the Foundation Establishment stage...

He stepped away from the inspection point, but instead of returning directly to the cave, he walked deeper into the forest along the path.

The further in you go, the dimmer the light becomes.

Those wandering fragments of souls began to appear at dusk, initially as thin white mist, but as the sky darkened, they slowly coalesced into blurry human-shaped outlines.

They were unconscious, simply wandering mechanically among the rosewood trees, occasionally passing through the trunks and leaving behind a faint hum of electricity.

Ye Xuan stopped in front of an exceptionally thick sandalwood tree and reached out to touch the trunk.

This tree, which is at least as thick as two people can hug, contains purer spiritual energy and lightning power, but it is also more violent.

By channeling his perception into the tree trunk, the bluish-purple wood grain unfolded in Ye Xuan's consciousness. He followed the grain, searching for nodes where spiritual energy flowed.

The reason why sandalwood requires precise sawing is simply because its grain structure is extremely complex. If it is cut carelessly, the spiritual energy within it will pour out and instantly dissipate into the world.

The three diagonal lines drawn by Tang Zhao precisely avoided the main spiritual vein nodes of each tree, allowing the wood to be removed intact with minimal loss.

Ye Xuan withdrew his senses and his gaze finally settled on a certain spot on the tree trunk.

There, three spiritual veins converge, forming a natural valve. If you cut the tree trunk from there, you can ensure that you don't touch other support points and cause the spiritual energy to leak out.

He didn't doubt his own senses, didn't try too many things, and turned to walk into the deeper forest.

Ye Xuan's target was not the Thunder Sandalwood, but those wandering souls.

"The Holy Sect currently has over four hundred registered disciples. How many people must be stranded here each month?"

I slowly stopped and looked at the increasingly dim surroundings. Only a sliver of twilight light shone through the gaps in the branches, making the figures of those ghosts more and more obvious.

Ye Xuan noticed a relatively solid soul, the outline of a young man, with a faint tear-like gap visible on the soul's chest.

He reached out and pointed, and a wisp of extremely fine bluish-white energy seeped from his fingertip, probing towards the soul.

The instant the energy thread touched the soul, a shattered image flashed through Ye Xuan's consciousness—

In the dim forest, the young disciple retreated in panic, the talisman in his hand yet to be activated, before his chest was pierced by the sharp claws of a dark shadow...

Ye Xuan withdrew his qi, and the soul seemed to be startled. He looked around and was surprised to find that there were beasts in this godforsaken place.

Continuing onward, Ye Xuan constantly touched the souls he encountered along the way with his cyan-white energy threads. Most of the souls' memories were already fragmented, leaving only the moment of their death.

For example, some people try to escape from the dense forest in the dead of night, only to be dragged deep into the forest by a suddenly appearing shadow; others get lost in the forest and, in their struggle, are pushed into a depression overgrown with sandalwood trees, just in time to be struck by lightning...

All the fragments of memory seem to point to a common dark figure, neither human nor non-human, which Ye Xuan does not yet know.

We came to a relatively open clearing in the woods. There were no sandalwood trees growing here, and the ground was covered with a layer of grayish-white fine sand that shimmered faintly in the twilight.

In the center of the open space, seven or eight spirits were forming a strange circle, slowly rotating.

Their souls were more solid than those on the outside, and they all had similar lacerations on their chests.

Ye Xuan squatted down, his fingers lightly touching the fine sand on the ground. At the same time, his senses penetrated into the sand layer and he immediately felt a long, continuous suction force.

Until his senses penetrated through a barrier resembling an array, and in the instant they were withdrawn, he saw something similar to the bronze cauldron he had seen in the Short Life Realm.

"The outer sect uses the menstrual blood of short-lived species, so the inner sect disciples must be using the same."

Ye Xuan had a guess in his mind, and couldn't help but look towards the southeast where the Holy Sect's mountain gate was located. That was the location of Dongting Lake where Zhao Wu and Qian San refined the Blood Pill, according to their memories.

Just as he was pondering, a faint noise suddenly came from the woods in the distance.

Ye Xuan began to conceal his aura, his figure disappearing behind a thick sandalwood tree. Two figures then emerged from the depths of the dense forest, both dressed as formal outer disciples, their tokens gleaming with starlight.

"How was the harvest this month?"

"Seventeen complete ones, and more than thirty broken ones."

The two walked towards the center of the open space. One of them carried a black cloth bag with intricate runes drawn in cinnabar on the opening.

"The steward said that the inner sect needs it urgently recently, so we need to step up our efforts."

"What's the use of being in a hurry? There are only so many registered disciples, and they can't keep up with the demand."

"It's easy for those people to talk when they're not the ones suffering. Why don't they jump into the furnace themselves? That would save them a lot of trouble."

Another person immediately complained, "If you ask me, missions below level C should be canceled."

"Let those useless people come to the back mountain sooner, since most of them are just wasting their time anyway."

Upon hearing this, his colleague immediately gave him a thumbs up and said:

"Even the most exploitative sects can't compare to your ruthlessness!"

The two walked to the center of the open space. One of them took out a palm-sized bronze mirror from his pocket, while the other opened the cloth bag in his hand.

In an instant, dozens of illusory figures flew out of the bag, but no matter how fast they were, they could not escape the bronze mirror that had been waiting at the bag's opening and were sucked in.

After the bronze mirror had absorbed all the souls, the man turned it around and pointed the mirror at the center point of the open space, sending all the souls underground.

"That's about it."

After doing all this, the two quickly put away their magical artifacts and then scanned their surroundings in a rather tacit manner.

"Every time I finish doing this, I feel a chill down my spine."

"Of course! Besides us, who else is alive in this godforsaken place?"

"Don't talk nonsense, there are no ghosts. These are all my fellow disciples."

……

Ye Xuan watched them leave quietly until their presence completely disappeared from his perception range before stepping out from behind the Thunder Sandalwood.

He bent down, picked up a grain of sand, and crushed it between his fingers. "So that's how it is."

As expected of the renowned Holy Sect, the path they cultivate is smooth and unobstructed!

He was quite interested in the cultivation path of the inner disciples of the Holy Sect, lamenting that his own cultivation was still insufficient and that his knowledge was ultimately lacking...

As night deepened, the spirits in the forest began to stir. They were no longer just illusory souls; they seemed to have substance and even possessed some means of attack.

After taking one last look at this clearing for nurturing the soul, Ye Xuan turned and walked out of the forest until he returned to his cave.

Pushing open the door, Ye Xuan sat down at the stone table and opened Zhao Wu's miscellaneous notes.

He picked up his pen and slowly wrote down the date—

"On the seventh day of the fourth month, I went to the back mountain to cut wood and earned some merit points in half a day."

At night, deep within the dense forest, disciples secretly collect soul power to supply the inner sect's needs.

He paused for a moment, then added another line:

"This Holy Sect is a good place. Everyone strives for self-improvement, and the atmosphere for cultivation is quite good."