Beloved captured in dire straits, yet steadfast in spirit through the trial.

The lightning-struck wood trembled with increasing urgency. Shen Yi crushed the realgar-soaked gravel between his fingertips, letting the pungent, spicy scent seep into the soil.

The spiritual energy surging from the southeast carried the faint fragrance of wisteria. He gritted his teeth until they ached—the foolish girl had followed him after all.

"Shen, you blockhead!" Gao Yao dived down on her Azure Phoenix sword, her apricot-colored dress shredded by the encroaching baleful energy.

She flung out three anti-evil talismans to force back the corpse-eating vines, the spiritual fire sparked by her sword tip shielding Shen Yi behind her. "I told you not to provoke the people from the Nether Abyssal Ravine! How did you manage to drag out a Dark Yin Flood Dragon?"

Shen Yi seized the ribbon at her waist to pull himself up, his fingertip swiftly tracing a water ripple pattern on her palm. "The third branch of the old locust tree in the east of the village," he shouted, deliberately raising his voice. "If I can grow ancient spirit beasts while farming, it just goes to show my unparalleled talent, understand?"

Gao Yao flicked her wrist, unleashing twelve ice-soul needles that wove into a starry formation amidst the baleful mist.

The moment their backs pressed together, she tapped his earlobe with a bent finger. "There is a crack in the ley line at the southeast Xun position. Did you leave that there on purpose to bait Night Shadow?"

"Only you know me, Yao." Shen Yi chuckled, tossing out a jade cabbage; as its emerald leaves unfurled, they sprayed a thick, verdant poison mist.

A system prompt exploded in his consciousness: [Five-Poison Spirit Mustard successfully planted, 30% spiritual energy consumed.]

He stumbled and leaned against Gao Yao’s shoulder. "Ouch, this backlash is coming on fast..."

"Stop acting!" Gao Yao blushed as she channeled her spiritual energy into him, failing to notice that the hand Shen Yi kept hidden in his sleeve was flicking a lightning-struck wood seed into her hair bun.

In the distance, Night Shadow’s raspy laughter echoed. The black dragon’s phantom suddenly transformed into a thousand chains, entangling the ancient well at the village entrance.

Lie Feng rushed over, carrying a bronze tripod and breaking through the fog. "Brother Shen! The ley line formation eye is about to give way!" The boiling medicinal broth from the tripod poured onto the corpse-eating vines, hissing as it sent up plumes of green smoke.

The village chief and the villagers struck their peach-wood clappers, the sound clashing with the wailing of bone flutes to create a piercing screech.

Night Shadow’s figure flickered in the baleful air. "Young Master Shen is truly blessed." His fingertips toyed with a scrap of fabric torn from Gao Yao’s hem; he licked the spirit-infused blood from the cloth with a scarlet tongue. "Such a fresh, Pure Yin body... if refined into a furnace, it would surely..."

"Shut up!" Gao Yao’s sword erupted with ten feet of ice shards, but they only struck a black mist puppet that had suddenly solidified.

Shen Yi’s pupils contracted. The Golden Crow sunflower seeds in his system inventory trembled violently—those puppets were all seeded with Soul-Devouring Gu!

"Yao, get back!" Shen Yi flicked a vine whip, wrapping it around Gao Yao’s ankle, just as dozens of skeletal arms erupted from the poison mist.

He watched helplessly as a bronze bell flew from Night Shadow’s sleeve, its barbed tongue piercing with lethal precision into Gao Yao’s vital acupoint at the nape of her neck.

The world seemed to lose all sound.

Gao Yao’s falling silhouette left a searing mark on Shen Yi’s retina. The last ice-soul bead she flung out exploded in the air into the seal-script characters for: *Run.*

Night Shadow clutched her neck and chuckled. "Does Young Master Shen know what a Pure Yin body is best used for?"

***

Shen Yi bit his tongue, forcing himself to stay calm. The lightning-struck wood mark on his palm grew searingly hot.

He noticed the tender sprout emerging from Gao Yao’s hair—it was the substitute grass he had secretly planted!

The system’s light screen flickered in the blood-mist: [Divine Concealment Vine maturity: 87%...]

"Isn't it the fragments of the Shennong Tripod that you want, Lord Night?" Shen Yi wiped the blood from his lips and suddenly kicked over the medicine tripod in Lie Feng’s hands.

The boiling liquid splashed onto the base of the lightning-struck wood, and complex formation patterns lit up across the entire field. "Why don't we play a bigger gamble?"

Night Shadow dragged a line of blood across Gao Yao’s neck, his gaze fixed on the bronze fragments rising from the earth.

Shen Yi poured his last ounce of spiritual energy into his dantian. A system alarm blared in his ears: [Spiritual energy overdraft will trigger the Heart Demon Tribulation.]

He smiled and crushed the acacia bean hidden between his teeth; the sprout in Gao Yao’s hair suddenly burst into a bewitching red flower.

The metallic tang of blood filled Shen Yi’s mouth. The black mist surging from Night Shadow’s sleeves was already crawling up Gao Yao’s collarbone.

His right hand, hanging at his side, trembled slightly. The lightning-struck wood mark on his palm felt like it was burning through his bones—the Divine Concealment Vine was only thirteen moments away from maturity.

"Young Master Shen’s devotion reminds me of a snow ferret I once kept." Night Shadow hooked his pale finger into the ice-soul bead at Gao Yao’s throat, dark red curses crawling from the silver chain onto her earlobe. "Both had this same stubborn nature, willing to destroy their own spiritual pulses just to protect their master."

Gao Yao blinked her left eye three times, and her fingers, bound behind her back, tapped a rhythmic code against the chains.

Shen Yi’s pupils constricted. This was clearly the secret signal they had used when stealing fairy herbs in the spirit beast garden during their first meeting—three short and two long, indicating the position of the "Ley Line."

"Lord Night’s metaphor is quite novel." Shen Yi grinned and kicked aside a corpse-eating vine, the jade cabbage hidden in his sleeve suddenly exploding its third leaf.

As the thick, green poison mist obscured his face, he signaled a "seven" to Lie Feng. "But comparing a young lady to a spirit pet? No wonder you’re still cultivating alone at three hundred years old."

The moment Night Shadow’s eyelid twitched, the red flower in Gao Yao’s hair erupted with fine golden powder.

As the powder touched the black mist, it corroded the Immortal-Binding Rope, creating a hole the size of a fingernail.

Shen Yi saw it clearly—it was the "Truth-Piercing Gold Scale Powder" he had been rewarded by the system earlier. He hadn't expected it to mutate after being absorbed by the substitute grass.

"My patience is limited." Night Shadow suddenly crushed the ice-soul bead in his palm, and the splashing ice shards left bloody gashes on Shen Yi’s neck.

The bronze bell emitted a teeth-grinding vibration, and the ancient well at the village entrance suddenly erupted with a fountain of foul-smelling, dark red blood. "Hand over the Shennong Tripod fragments, or watch this Pure Yin body become the tinder for a furnace!"

Shen Yi’s molars clicked together. The system screen flashed frantically: [Divine Concealment Vine maturity: 91%... Spiritual energy reserves: 9%... Heart Demon Tribulation trigger probability: 67%...]

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the village chief and the villagers dipping their peach-wood clappers into the medicine tripod, while Lie Feng’s hands, hidden behind his back, were already forming the Three Mountains Seal.

"The fragments are in..." Shen Yi deliberately stumbled forward, the lightning-struck wood shavings hidden in his soles falling into the blood fountain.

***

Suddenly, a sound like a baby crying wailed from the well. In the moment Night Shadow was distracted, Gao Yao threw her head back and slammed it into his jaw.

"Catch!" The ice crystal spat from Gao Yao’s lips landed precisely in Shen Yi’s palm—it was a sound-transmission jade slip coated in spirit blood.

Just as Night Shadow’s furious black mist tightened, the red flower in her hair burst into blood-colored vines, forcing the bronze barb out of her vital acupoint by three inches.

Shen Yi seized the chance to slam the jade slip into the ground. Instantly, seven-colored rainbow light rose from the entire medicine field.

As the system prompt exploded, he feigned exhaustion and fell to one knee. "Stop! The fragments are yours!"

Night Shadow narrowed his eyes in suspicion, the black mist around Gao Yao splitting into three strands to wrap around Shen Yi’s ankles.

Shen Yi could clearly feel the mist probing his consciousness. He deliberately opened his mind, exposing the mountain of poisonous mushroom seeds in his system inventory.

"The Shennong Tripod fragments are buried thirty feet beneath the lightning-struck wood." Shen Yi gasped for air, pulling open his collar to reveal the pale gold Shennong mark on his chest. "It requires my spirit blood as a guide, or it will burn anything it touches."

Gao Yao struggled violently, muffled whimpers escaping her throat, which was sealed by a silence spell.

Night Shadow laughed. Nine bone lamps flew from his sleeves, encircling them. "Does Young Master Shen take me for a fool?" The ghostly blue flames of the lamp wicks licked at Gao Yao’s hem. "Why don’t you show your sincerity by taking out half a fragment first?"

Shen Yi’s hand, hidden behind his back, clenched tightly. The realgar wine in Lie Feng’s tripod boiled over, flooding the peach-wood clappers.

The wood blocks, soaked in medicinal spirits, ignited upon contact with the wine, the exploding sparks forming the phantom of a Vermillion Bird in the air.

As Night Shadow looked up, Shen Yi bit his tongue and flicked a bead of blood toward the southeast Xun position.

A thunderous rumble erupted from beneath the earth. Thousands of silver-white roots burst through the soil, which had been soaked by the fountain of blood.

Night Shadow’s expression shifted violently. "You dare use Shennong blood to awaken the Dragon Breath of the ley line!"

"Didn't you want the fragments, Lord?" Shen Yi laughed defiantly, blood seeping from his earlobes due to the spiritual overdraft.

The moment the roots entangled the bone lamps, the Divine Concealment Vine in Gao Yao’s hair finally reached full maturity. The emerald vines wrapped around her like a silkworm cocoon and dragged her into a crack in the earth.

Night Shadow’s roar shook the entire novice village. Eighteen bone swords flew from his sleeves toward the fissure, but he saw only Shen Yi stumbling toward the burning peach-wood clappers.

No one noticed that his blood-stained fingers were drawing half of a broken tripod emblem on the back of the clapper.