Surrounded by conspiracies, love grows ever deeper; the detached one breaks the deadlock, and affection deepens all the more.

The gunpowder smoke from the trial grounds had not yet dissipated. Shen Yi leaned against the bluestone railing, casually biting into a spiritual fruit. The juice splashing from the crushed pulp under the teeth gleamed with a pale golden hue in the sunlight.

He lifted his chin toward Elder Xuanfeng, who was walking over in a hurry. "Elder, did you catch the scent of sulfur mixed with the saliva of the three-leafed serpent?" The Soul-Devouring Orchid on his shoulder stretched its stems and leaves, the edges of its snow-white petals shimmering with an eerie indigo.

Leng Shuang's silver hairpin trembled slightly in the third row of the spectator stands.

She stared at the newly replaced ice-silk sash around Gao Yao's waist—woven from the silk spun by the Heavenly Frost Silkworm King, a spiritual treasure that only Shen Yi's spiritual fields could cultivate.

"The draw bamboo tubes for the cooperative trial need new talismans." She stroked the jade plaque at her waist, the ice crystal held between her fingers quietly melting at the bottom of the tube.

When Shen Yi drew the "Nine Nether Ravine," suppressed snickers rippled among Jian Chen's followers, the laughter boring into Gao Yao's ears like a venomous snake.

Haoyu hefted his heavy sword, preparing to follow, but was violently yanked back by Lingyun. "Can't you smell the dragon-blood vine on his cuffs? That stuff corrodes the meridians upon contact with a wound!" The physician's silver needle spun rapidly between her fingers as she stared at Shen Yi's seemingly lazy back. His right hand, hanging by his side, was forming some ancient rejuvenation incantation.

The mist of the Nine Nether Ravine was steeped in the smell of rust. The moment Shen Yi's boot sole touched the slippery moss, the system prompt exploded in his sea of consciousness: [Warning! Miasma concentration exceeds standard by 300%.] He flicked the base of the Soul-Devouring Orchid with his finger, and the blue flower instantly bloomed to the size of an umbrella, emitting a sound like a gluttonous feast as it swallowed the oncoming toxic fog.

"Come out." Shen Yi suddenly chuckled at the empty rock wall, a sickle formed of spiritual energy in his palm cleaving open the protruding rock three zhang away.

The surveillance puppet disguised as a rock exploded shatteringly. Among the splashing crystal fragments were traces of the ice-soul aura characteristic of Leng Shuang.

As he turned around, the entire mountain ravine suddenly came alive.

Dark green vines crushed the bluestone he had just been standing on. The instant the Bone-Corroding Crocodile Dragon leaped from the bottom of the pool, Shen Yi smelled the scent of his own blood—the backlash from forcefully driving the Soul-Devouring Orchid's mimicry function had caused his spiritual power to stagnate for half a breath.

When the beast's sharp fangs were only three inches from his throat, Shen Yi suddenly smiled.

The seeds flying from his sleeves grew wildly inside the crocodile dragon's mouth, and the dazzling crimson flowers burst open the giant, barbs-covered jaws.

When the system prompted [Obtained Millennium Crocodile Dragon Tear x 1], he staggered to support himself against the rock wall, the腥 taste of blood rising in his throat staining the corners of his mouth.

"Underestimating a farmer?" he chuckled, wiping away the bloodstains, his fingertips brushing against an inconspicuous gray grass in a rock crevice.

The grass leaves suddenly unfolded into the shape of a compass, pointing toward a cave in the southeast obscured by poisonous vines.

The system light screen flickered at this moment, and Shen Yi's pupils constricted—the spiritual energy ripples drifting from the depths of that cave perfectly coincided with the fluctuations of the mutated Seven-Star Begonia in his spiritual field.

A crisp snap of breaking chains suddenly echoed from the depths of the miasma, and some ancient pressure awakened the system slumbering deep within Shen Yi's spiritual platform.

The Soul-Devouring Orchid trembled violently on his shoulder, dark golden ancient totems surfacing on its snow-white petals.

The gray grass at Shen Yi's fingertips suddenly burst into starlight, and the moment its roots pierced into the rock wall, they produced a sound like striking gold and jade.

The system light screen unfolded a three-dimensional map before his eyes. Those beast lavens marked with scarlet skulls lit up one by one as the roots of the gray grass spread.

"Nine-leaf rot-bone vine, heart-devouring datura..." He flicked three seeds, wrapping them in spiritual power and embedding them into the rock crevices. "Shall we add some honey-mallow flower pollen that red-flame ants love so much?" The Soul-Devouring Orchid vibrated excitedly on his shoulder, the indigo-blue patterns on the edges of its petals wriggling as if alive, condensing the miasma within a radius of ten zhang into pale purple dew.

When the first red-flame ant bumped into the flower bud of the heart-devouring datura following the sweet scent, the entire mountain ravine suddenly played a movement of slaughter.

Just as the gorgeous vines entangled the front hooves of the iron-armored rhinoceros, the seemingly harmless gray grass suddenly soared into a towering giant tree, its drooping branches accurately piercing into the spiritual core of every beast.

Shen Yi leaned against the trunk, munching on a newly plucked vermilion fruit, watching the system prompts flash across his screen [Obtained Xuan Iron Rhinoceros Horn x 3] [Harvested Millennium Spiritual Core x 1].

Before the water mirror in the spectator stands, Leng Shuang shattered her teacup.

Ice crystal fragments cut into her palm, and the bloody trail mixed with tea liquid crawled in distorted patterns across the stone table. "How is this possible..." She stared at Shen Yi's figure in the water mirror, tossing and catching a spiritual core casually. The trial token that should have belonged to Jian Chen was being skipped across the water like a pebble by her opponent.

"Brother Shen's trick of 'inviting the turtle into the jar' is truly marvelous!" Haoyu's loud voice caused ripples to spread across the water mirror. He deliberately shook his wine gourd in Jian Chen's direction. "Some people probably can't even tell the difference between honey-mallow pollen and bone-corroding powder, eh?"

Lingyun grabbed the back of his collar and shoved him back into his seat, though her silver-needle-wielding fingertips quietly carved a crooked word meaning "satisfying" into the stone stool.

A fishy wind suddenly whipped up in the depths of the Nine Nether Ravine, and Gao Yao's ice-silk sash fluttered without wind.

When she saw the dark red bloodstains on Shen Yi's white robe, ripples stirred in her usually aloof eyes.

The ringing sound of the Frost Moon Sword leaving its scabbard startled the flocking birds. The moment the sword Qi slashed open the poisonous miasma, Shen Yi's waist was being entangled by the suddenly berserk bone-corroding vines.

"Don't come over!" Shen Yi's warning was mixed with the scent of blood, but the sudden burst of blue light from the Soul-Devouring Orchid made Gao Yao's vision go black.

When her vision cleared, she found herself enveloped in a familiar pine-wood scent—Shen Yi had broken free from the bindings at some point and turned to shield her in his arms, his back slamming heavily against the rock wall.

"Injured and still trying to act tough..." Gao Yao's fingertips brushed over the bloodstain at the corner of his mouth, and the meridian damage detected by her spiritual power made her pupils shrink drastically.

Before the healing pills in her arms could be taken out, Shen Yi let out a muffled groan and collapsed into her arms, his hot breath brushing against the side of her neck. "Yao'er's snow-pine fragrance... works better than any spiritual medicine..."

"Smooth-tongued!" Gao Yao's ear tips turned red, and just as she was about to push him away, she sensed the pure spiritual power quietly channeled from Shen Yi's palm—this bastard had actually converted the energy of the beast core into healing power!

She bit her lower lip in annoyance, but the moment she raised her eyes, she crashed into those smiling starlit eyes.

The berserk vines all around suddenly bloomed with ice crystal flowers. Amidst the roars of the beasts, Shen Yi's blood-stained lips pressed down upon hers.

The petals of the Soul-Devouring Orchid folded up one by one, enveloping the two of them in a deep blue cocoon of light.

Gao Yao's grip on Shen Yi's lapel gradually loosened, her fingertips tracing the outline of the new scar on the back of his neck.

When Shen Yi's blood-scented tongue pried open her teeth, a certain sweet, herbal fragrance suddenly burst between her lips and teeth—it was the taste of Seven-Star Begonia nectar mixed with dragon-blood vine juice.

"Violation! This is a serious violation!" Leng Shuang's scream pierced through the water mirror, the veins on the back of her hand gripping the image-recording stone bulging. "During the trial, disciples are not allowed to..." Before she could finish, she was interrupted by Haoyu's sneer. "Why did the image-recording stone only record blue light? Could it be that someone's spiritual power was inadequate... Ouch!" Lingyun's silver needle finally hit his mute acupoint.

When Elder Xuanfeng arrived, the Soul-Devouring Orchid had just retracted its last petal.

Shen Yi was using the pad of his thumb to wipe the flower nectar from Gao Yao's lips. Beneath his blood-stained sleeve, the Seven-Star Begonia seeds that had quietly slipped down had already formed a miniature array on the ground. "Elder, please examine this," he said, turning around while still hooking Gao Yao's sash with his fingertip. "Just now, it was simply the Soul-Devouring Orchid helping Senior Sister Gao heal her wounds."

Leng Shuang's ice-soul sword suddenly emitted a mournful cry, and only then did everyone notice that the sword body was crawling with dark golden patterns—identical to the totem on the petals of the Soul-Devouring Orchid.

Elder Xuanfeng gazed at the dirt staining the hem of Shen Yi's robe; those seemingly ordinary specks of mud were shimmering with a five-colored glow that only ancient spiritual soil possessed.