Meeting an Acquaintance

Zhang Yang suddenly remembered that this formation was set up six hundred years ago. Six hundred years ago, Li Fangzhou was merely Dao Tian in formations; even if his skill was high, how high could it be?

"I've also studied formations. Let's test the power of the Lost-Trace Forest Formation first before deciding whether to go through it."

Zhang Yang cautiously approached the woods, fearing that the formation was too strong and he might get trapped in the Lost-Trace Forest.

After all, the formation master Li Fangzhou is extremely famous.

At first, Zhang Yang did not sense any trace of an array.

He was worried that Li Fangzhou's array formation skills were too high and that he hadn't noticed it, so he turned around and retreated.

Only after confirming there were no formations did he begin to delve deeper.

Soon, he sensed the traces of the formation.

"It was just a very simple illusion array. It really startled me." Zhang Yang was speechless.

Perhaps there is a powerful formation deep within the Lost-Trace Forest.

However, they weren't going deep into the Lost-Trace Forest; they were simply trying to slip through its Lost-Trace Forest.

Returning to the edge of the Lost-Trace Forest, he addressed the waiting crowd outside, "Let's go. Crossing the Lost-Trace Forest is no problem. Follow my lead and don't wander off."

The two men and the tiger behind them finally caught up.

"Don't stray off course, or we'll end up deep inside the Myriad Spirits Sect's stronghold, which would be a laughing stock," Zhang Yang reminded the others, while also keeping an eye on the route he was taking.

However, even with his Zhang Yang, he couldn't be sure if he had gone astray.

Because we had entered the depths of the Lost-Trace Forest, the trees, some as thick as a person's embrace, blocked out the sky, making it impossible to see any direction.

At this point, one has no choice but to risk flying up to the treetop to secretly check if the direction is correct.

After being in the Lost-Trace Forest for quite some time, suddenly, the Tiger Demon stepped forward and gently nudged Zhang Yang with its paw, then pointed at a huge tree with its paw.

He smelled the scent of a living person coming from inside the tree.

Zhang Yang's expression hardened, and he raised his hand as if to shoot the big tree, but ultimately he didn't.

He found it strange; who exactly was hiding within the territory of the Myriad Spirits Sect, and what were they planning to do?

He gestured to Qingxu, Situ Mingyue, and the Tiger Demon, and the four of them surrounded the big tree. Then, Zhang Yang used his Spiritual Sense to probe inside the tree and found no one.

Could it be that the Tiger Demon sensed something wrong?

He said coldly, "Come out! If you don't come out, I'll burn the whole tree down!"

"Zhang Yang!"

The sound came from inside the tree, then the bark loosened and peeled away, and a person crawled out. It turned out that someone had hollowed out the tree trunk and hidden inside.

"Zi Yan!" Zhang Yang frowned and asked, "What are you doing here?"

He watched Zi Yan, not letting his guard down just because Zi Yan was an acquaintance.

"I'll leave with you!" Zi Yan didn't answer; instead, she seemed anxious.

Seeing that Zi Yan remained unmoved, Zhang Yang asked in return, "You still haven't told me why you're here."

Zi Yan was very anxious. "Let's leave here quickly first, and I'll tell you what happened later. The people from the Myriad Spirits Sect are looking for me now. If I didn't know some secret Secret Method, they would have already found me."

She was a little puzzled; she had hidden it so well, but Zhang Yang and his group had found it.

If Zhang Yang and the others could find him, then other members of the Myriad Spirits Sect should be able to find her as well.

Zhang Yang sneered, "Didn't you already pledge allegiance to the Myriad Spirits Sect?"

Zhang Yang felt a deep-seated disgust for the group of cultivators who left Azure Cloud Continent.

Even though Heavenly Profound Daoist had given Zhang Yang a heads-up, asking him to look after Zi Yan, Zhang Yang didn't take it seriously.

He was already being quite lenient by not killing him outright.

He didn't care about the entanglements between Zi Yan and the Myriad Spirits Sect, and had no intention of getting involved.

Zi Yan glanced at Zhang Yang, smiled wryly, and explained, "When my master and the others went to the Myriad Spirits Sect, I didn't want to go. However, the Myriad Spirits Sect promised that as long as I went, they would give me a spot to enter the Prodigy Battlefield."

That's why my master insisted that I go to the Myriad Spirits Sect.

Before I left, my master secretly instructed me that the Prodigy Battlefield was a very rare opportunity, and I must seize it.

It was my master's insistence that led me to the Myriad Spirits Continent.

Actually, the person who truly treated me well in the Heavenly Profound Sect was my grandmaster; he was grooming me to be the successor of the Heavenly Profound Sect."

Zhang Yang remained silent for a moment before asking, "Why are the people from the Myriad Spirits Sect looking for you now?"

His opinion of Zi Yan changed slightly, but he still didn't completely believe Zi Yan words.

In this Prodigy Battlefield, anything can happen in the pursuit of heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

"Shall we leave here first?" Zi Yan said with a wry smile. "If even you can find me, the people from the Myriad Spirits Sect will probably find me soon too."

"It wasn't us who found you, it was Prosperity who smelled your scent!" Zhang Yang said calmly. "Besides, if the Myriad Spirits Sect comes looking for us, we can just kill them."

Zi Yan stared speechlessly at Zhang Yang. That was a prodigy of the Myriad Spirits Sect. Who killed whom?

However, she now finally understood how she had been found. She had clearly used Secret Method to evade the detection of Spiritual Sense, but it turned out that her scent had leaked out.

Seeing that Zhang Yang insisted on getting to the bottom of things, Zi Yan had no choice but to say, "Have you ever heard of Zhou Qing from the Myriad Spirits Sect?"

Before Zhang Yang could answer, Qingxu nodded and said, "I've heard of him. He's supposedly a notorious lecher who preys on female cultivators!"

Zi Yan glanced at Qingxu, then looked at Zhang Yang, and said, "This Zhou Qing cultivates the Yin-Yang Harmony Art, a unique Cultivation Method of the Myriad Spirits Sect, which requires female cultivators to engage in dual cultivation."

Zhang Yang frowned but remained silent.

Qingxu added from the side, "I've also heard of the Yin-Yang Harmony Art. It's said that dual cultivation is also beneficial for the female cultivator, but I don't know if that's true."

Zi Yan couldn't help but ask, "Who is this fellow Daoist?"

"I am the guardian..."

Before Qingxu could finish speaking, Zhang Yang Qingxu, saying, "He's a mountain-guarding Daoist... so, Zhou Qing took a liking to you, and you ran away?"

Zhang Yang always felt that this matter seemed somewhat mysterious.

Zi Yan said fiercely, "This time when we went to the Myriad Spirits Continent with Master and the others, the Myriad Spirits Sect didn't pay any attention to us at all... On the contrary, my Master and the others were still trying to curry favor with the Myriad Spirits Sect. It was only after my Master heard about Zhou Qing's matter that he took the initiative to contact the Myriad Spirits Sect."

Zhou Qing had a plan from the moment he entered the Prodigy Battlefield.

I find the people of the Myriad Spirits Sect disgusting, and I plan to take advantage of this opportunity to leave the Myriad Spirits Continent.

So, after following the Myriad Spirits Sect for a few days, I found an opportunity to escape with one of their rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

Anyway, with my Secret Method, as long as I hide inside the trees, I can simply wait until the Prodigy Battlefield is over before going out."

She did not specify what the heavenly materials and earthly treasures were.

Zhang Yang gave Zi Yan a deep look, and he knew that things were not so simple.

"I can give you heavenly materials and earthly treasures, how about you take me away?" Zi Yan looked at Zhang Yang.

Situ Mingyue glanced warily at Zi Yan, then turned her gaze to Zhang Yang and said, "Eldest Senior Brother, it might be inappropriate for us to bring her along!"

Zhang Yang pondered for a moment before slowly asking, "You can follow us, but you'll have to do the work. However, we can't guarantee your life or death. Also, any fortuitous opportunity you encounter along the way will be irrelevant to you."

Seeing that Zi Yan was about to speak, his attitude turned cold. "From the moment you left Azure Cloud Continent, I stopped trusting you. However, I'll give your grandmaster face and try my best to get you out alive. Of course, if you don't know what's good for you, I don't care if you die. In fact, if you violate my principles, it's not impossible for me to kill you directly."

Zi Yan nodded slightly, which was taken as an agreement to Zhang Yang's conditions.

Situ Mingyue didn't say anything more.

The group ventured into the Lost-Trace Forest once more, but this time Zi Yan was among them.

Zhang Yang, from beginning to end, never asked Zi Yan what the heavenly materials and earthly treasures stole from the Myriad Spirits Sect were.