Yuan Ming turned around and left the sky pit with the other eleven people, everyone tacitly scattering and departing separately.

Yuan Ming stood still, watching the departing figures, a tinge of sentiment arising in his heart.

Perhaps this was the way of the Scatter Alliance missions, without the shelter of a sect, devoid of any allegiance to sect positions, the relationship between the hired and the Scatter Alliance was solely based on remuneration.

Today they delved deep into dangerous dens, battled strange beasts, and after achieving their mission, they withdrew safely, to one day gallop through fields of flowers, observe the scenery of foreign lands, and wander the ends of the earth.

A mutual selection, to stay or to go as one desires.

It even aroused a touch of yearning from his fragmented childhood memories, the desire for the life of a martial arts wanderer, with a sword in hand and a jug of wine.

Back then, he didn't know much about the martial arts world but liked to listen to stories about it.

Now that he had personally experienced and seen a lot, he realized that what he saw was far less wonderful than what he had heard.

On this trip to the Snake King Valley, there were people who just silently fell, unable to even claim their hard-earned ten spirit stones as reward, and perhaps no one would remember them.

After completely escaping the other's lines of sight, a black light flashed across Yuan Ming's brow, and two silent soul crows flew out, one towards the sky pit, the other in a different direction.

In the field of view of the second soul crow, a figure soon appeared, it was Bai Rong.

This woman was suspected to be a disciple of the Black Fire Sect, and had been leaving certain marks along the way, with unknown intentions, which piqued Yuan Ming's curiosity.

Yuan Ming did not go far, but found a hidden cliff and stopped, took out his Cold Star Sword, and quickly carved out a cave in the cliff.

He then released a soul crow to keep watch outside, and then took out the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talismans, sticking them around the cave and opened a Concealment Barrier, before sitting down cross-legged, focusing on controlling the soul crows heading towards the Snake King Cave and tracking Bai Rong.

The soul crow headed for the Snake King Cave had already flown inside, and soon sounds of a struggle were heard.

Yuan Ming controlled the soul crow to carefully approach and saw Bai Ye and the others battling a group of Golden Flower Poison Pythons.

These Golden Flower Poison Pythons were noticeably larger than those encountered in the valley before, with greater strength, moving like the wind, and even able to spew Poison Liquid, making the temporary members struggle to cope.

However, the White Night Alliance then showed their true strength, aside from Bai Ye and Huan Shi, the other ten each brought out a large white flag Magic Artifact embroidered with a purple flame pattern, appearing to be a set of Magic Artifacts.

All ten simultaneously activated the artifacts, and bunches of fist-sized purple flames were shot from the tips of the white flags, striking the attacking Golden Flower Poison Pythons.

The purple flames were powerful, easily burning through the sturdy scales of the Golden Flower Poison Pythons and reducing them to ashes.

No matter how many Golden Flower Poison Pythons attacked, they all perished under the onslaught of the purple flame rain. Even the few that managed to slip through were taken care of by the Loose Cultivators that followed inside, and Bai Ye and Huan Shi didn't even need to lift a finger.

"So the White Night Alliance has such techniques, no wonder they dare to enter the snake den to hunt the Snake King, but the Golden Flower Snake King is probably in an even deeper location…" Yuan Ming thought to himself upon seeing this.

He shifted his thoughts and looked towards Bai Rong.

Bai Rong was currently moving forward at a breathtaking speed, even faster than Yuan Ming when he used the Wind Swift Skill, by two to three times. Although the soul crow tried its best to catch up, it was still left far behind.

Fortunately, like before, Bai Rong left marks after advancing a certain distance, and by following these signs, the soul crow barely managed to track her.

Moments later, the soul crow arrived at a dark forest. On a large tree outside the forest was a freshly carved sign pointing inward.

"I hope Bai Rong doesn't continue pressing forward," Yuan Ming silently hoped while controlling the soul crow to fly into the forest.

The range of the soul crow's Far Travel was initially only ten miles. After his Moonlight Technique broke through to the second layer, the range doubled, but it was still only twenty miles. Now, reaching its limit, if Bai Rong continued on, he wouldn't be able to follow.

The soul crow flew past large trees, and suddenly, the view opened up, revealing an ancient, dilapidated castle ahead.

"Could it be that people once lived in this Snake King Valley!" Yuan Ming was quite surprised upon seeing this.

On a large tree in front of the ancient castle was a subtle mark. After summarizing and speculating on the various marks along the way, the meaning of this mark was not difficult to understand – it should be pointing inside the castle.

The soul crow flapped its wings and flew inside, searching through the areas of the castle, and soon saw Bai Rong's figure outside a great hall.

Bai Rong was looking excitedly into the hall but didn't enter.

The entire hall was enveloped in a layer of pitch-black light, seemingly a kind of forbidden barrier, preventing one from seeing inside.

Bai Rong pondered for a moment, took out a fiery red Round Mirror from her hand, and pointed it at the black barrier, murmuring words.

The surface of the Round Mirror glowed with a layer of red, then emitted a beam of red light that struck at the black barrier.

But the black barrier only rippled slightly before quickly returning to its original state.

"The Red Seal Mirror is also completely ineffective. It seems to be a rather high-level Forbidden barrier; I can't break it by myself," Bai Rong murmured to herself, her eyes flickering.

As she finished speaking, she took out a purple talisman from her hand, whispered a few words to it, and then crushed it...

At that moment, the soul crow outside suddenly shrieked a warning, and Yuan Ming's face changed abruptly as he slapped the ground with his palm, propelling his seated body backward with the force.

Two yellowish large hands emerged lightning-fast from the ground, fiercely grabbing at the spot where he had just been seated.

"Bang!" A loud crash shattered the rocks on the ground and scattered debris everywhere.

Yuan Ming's Divine Sense spread out, probing into the ground.

A figure was lurking underground, completely enveloped in a layer of yellow light; the two large yellow hands it had summoned, were some type of Divine Skill unknown to him.

Yuan Ming reached out with an empty hand, and the Cold Star Sword appeared in his grip. A flash of white Sword Qi swept past, easily severing the two large yellow hands, and the ground nearby was coated with a layer of white frost.

He then stabbed the sword single-handedly into the ground, the blade sinking nearly halfway.

A burst of Extreme Cold Sword Qi erupted violently, heading straight for the person beneath the surface.

The figure underground sensed the incoming Sword Qi and hurriedly dodged to the side, the yellow light around its body allowing it to move freely underground and avoid the icy attack.

Yuan Ming's mouth curved into a smile as he formed a spell with his fingers, lightly touched the Cold Star Sword, activating the Extreme Cold Rune within, and shouted lowly, "Explode!"

The Extreme Cold Sword Qi exploded abruptly, instantly flooding the surrounding ten feet with piercing cold.

The soil underground froze, hardening like rock, and the figure below was also affected by the surge of cold air, shivering uncontrollably.

The person's mana circulation was impacted, causing the yellow glow around its body to die down considerably, with half of its body trapped in the soil, immovable.

"Damn Guo Ge, you said this guy was just an ordinary Qi Refining Ninth Level cultivator? You didn't even find out that he had such a powerful Magic Artifact!" the figure underground cursed vehemently, desperately urging the Earth Travel Talisman on their body in an attempt to revive the extinguished yellow light.

However, with the area around the person saturated with the Extreme Cold of the Cold Star Sword, the yellow spirit light recovered very slowly.

"If I let you escape easily, my Cold Star Sword would have been refined in vain!" Yuan Ming sneered slightly, performed another spell, and another burst of Extreme Cold Sword Qi shot out, hitting the figure underground directly.

A muffled scream rose from the depths, then fell silent.

A large hole had been pierced through the person's chest and abdomen; they no longer breathed.

Yuan Ming slapped the Spiritual Beast Bag at his waist, and the Black Toad leaped out, shooting out a Purple-Black Demon Vine from its back.

He took off the Storage Ring and had the Purple-Black Demon Vine wrap around, pulling the corpse from underground with the method once used to steal Li Sha's treasured items, quickly bringing up the person's body.

This individual had yellow hair, appeared to be in their twenties or thirties, and was now frozen solid as an icicle, their face frozen in terror and their features twisted—still recognizable as one of the members of the other team that had decided to leave earlier.

Yuan Ming showed no emotion, not bothering to find out why the person tried to ambush him. He never held back against his enemies.

He took the yellow-haired young man's Storage Bag, then reached into his bosom, and from his frozen clothes, he extracted a palm-sized yellow talisman.

Judging from the yellow-haired youth's earlier use, this must be a talisman with earth-tunneling effects.

Such talismans were extremely rare, and Yuan Ming had wanted to buy one during his visit to Black Rock City but was unable to acquire it.

Although the Yellow Talisman was used, it still emitted quite strong mana fluctuations.

"It seems this talisman can be used multiple times, just like the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talisman," Yuan Ming muttered to himself, then tucked the talisman away.

He took the yellow-haired young man's Storage Bag and suddenly raised his eyebrows, looking outside.

In the dense poison miasma outside the cave, three figures were slowly approaching, one of them being a burly man, a red-clothed woman, and a cold-eyed young man—the other three members of the yellow-haired young man's team.

As they neared the cave, the three hid behind a large rock, seemingly waiting for something.

Unbeknownst to them, not far from their hiding spot on a rock, a black crow sat silently perched.

"It's them…" Yuan Ming murmured, roughly guessing the trio's intentions.

However, he did not go out and continued to inspect the contents of the yellow-haired young man's Storage Bag.

It must be said, the yellow-haired young man was rather shabby; the Spirit Stones in his Storage Bag totaled only twenty or thirty pieces, the rest were common materials, and a low-grade long knife Magic Artifact.

After sorting and stowing these items into the Storage Bag, Yuan Ming stood and moved to the outside of the cave.

The Black Toad took a step forward and darted out, vanishing into the dense poison miasma.

The three people behind the large rock were growing impatient when Yuan Ming suddenly appeared, they all were startled and quickly contained their breaths.

"Since you've come, why hide in secrecy?" Yuan Ming called out loudly.

Sensing they'd been discovered, the three emerged from behind the large rock.

"How did you find us?" the burly man asked.

All three had cast Concealment spells, and with the cave ten feet away and the miasma in between, even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator might not have detected them.

"How I discovered you is not important, what's important is, what brings the three of you here?" Yuan Ming asked, countering the question.

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