Caught by the Dao!

"Hurry up and refine it. I treasure my life dearly!"

Duobao smiled faintly at this, then closed his eyes and began refining it.

Bai Ze did not disturb him. He took out the formation disk and began checking the Observation Stones.

It would have been better not to look. The moment he did, he discovered that Jieyin Daoist's figure had vanished from the Observation Stones.

What made him even more suspicious was that, after all this time, not a single Observation Stone had been damaged.

Bai Ze stared at the formation disk with deeply furrowed brows. Suddenly, the Fate Compass in his Inner Landscape began to tremble without cease, warning him.

He instantly realized something was wrong. He hurriedly hoisted Duobao onto his back and ran outside!

Boom—

The instant they broke through the water's surface, the place they had been in exploded into fragments, and the endless river evaporated completely.

Bai Ze looked up and saw Jieyin appear in midair at some unknown time, smiling as he watched the two of them. With a casual toss of his hand, he said,

"Little friend, you truly made this poor Daoist search hard!"

Bai Ze looked at the Observation Stone beneath his feet, wrapped in a mass of gas, his gaze turning icy.

No wonder he could not find Jieyin Daoist's figure on the formation disk no matter how he searched!

He had not expected Jieyin to use a divine ability to wrap up the Observation Stone and quietly approach him.

After calculating a thousand times and ten thousand times, he had still underestimated Jieyin Daoist's spiritual awareness.

From the time he entered the cave abode to the time he was discovered, not even two hours had passed!

Bai Ze raised his head and looked at Jieyin in the air, constantly calculating the odds of his escape.

Yet no matter how he deduced it, the final result was always zero!

"Senior, you went to such great lengths to find us. Is there something you wish to command?"

Bai Ze let out a soft breath, put on a fawning smile, and cupped his hands as he asked.

Yet in secret, he opened the Ring Space, ready to bring out the Fishing Drum at any moment.

Jieyin Daoist looked at Bai Ze's fawning face and replied with a smile that did not reach his eyes,

"Why this poor Daoist is pursuing you—could it be that you truly do not know?"

Bai Ze's eyes flickered as he gave an embarrassed laugh. "Could it be that Senior is after the treasure in the Bone-Eroding Pool?

"If so, Senior has pursued the wrong people. That treasure was taken by the Six-Winged Golden Cicada and is not on us.

"However, the Six-Winged Golden Cicada was severely injured by my senior brother. If Senior goes after it now, you may still catch up."

Jieyin Daoist looked silently at Bai Ze and sneered.

"Do you truly think this poor Daoist cannot tell that Duobao already swallowed the Dream Orchid?"

Bai Ze frowned at those words, silently cursing his own oversight!

He had thought Duobao would finish refining it before Jieyin caught up.

Never had he expected Jieyin to catch up so swiftly.

But at this point, he naturally could not admit it. He repeatedly cupped his hands and cried injustice.

"Senior, you misunderstand. The situation was perilous then. Both sides fought over it, but in the end, we fell victim to the Six-Winged Golden Cicada's scheme.

"My elder brother suffered serious injuries protecting me. Seeing this, my senior brother exhausted all his strength to seize it, then plucked off a petal to treat my elder brother's wounds.

"But that Six-Winged Golden Cicada, who knew what divine ability it used, was actually able to shed its shell and escape. We were caught off guard and fell into its trap.

"In the end, that bastard snatched it away."

Bai Ze spoke with utter sincerity. His expression, tone, and even his movements were flawless.

Yet Jieyin Daoist remained indifferent, not the slightest ripple stirring in his eyes as he quietly watched Bai Ze.

At that moment, even the air seemed to freeze.

Though Jieyin Daoist had not released any pressure, Bai Ze felt an oppressive weight in his chest.

He struggled to raise his head and look at Jieyin Daoist's utterly unreadable face.

Panic rose in his heart. I fucking believed my own story. Why is this old bastard completely unmoved?

"Senior, you..."

"Hmph!" Jieyin Daoist snorted coldly. Lowering his eyes to stare at Bai Ze, he formed a flower-plucking hand seal and said icily,

"Little thing, you know nothing of the methods of a Tracing Origin Realm mighty expert!"

As he spoke, a halo emerged beneath Jieyin Daoist's feet.

Now that the suppression of the rules was gone, the halo instantly spread for thousands of yards.

The next moment, the surrounding scene changed. Time flowed backward, and everything reappeared.

In the blink of an eye, it reflected everything that had happened between Bai Ze and Duobao.

Among it was the scene of Bai Ze feeding the Dream Orchid to Duobao!

Even their conversation and schemes echoed with perfect clarity through the empty forest.

Bitterness filled Bai Ze's mouth, and his heart sank deeper and deeper. At last, he understood why Duobao had said that.

Before such a mighty expert, every calculation and scheme was futile!

He had still taken things too lightly. Whether now or in later generations, Jieyin Daoist's reputation might have been poor, but no one had ever doubted his strength!

He was not Guang Chengzi, after all. Guang Chengzi feared no Jieyin, but he could not do the same. Even the calculations he prided himself on were like fireflies before such a great divine ability—one touch, and they scattered!

How laughable that he had previously wanted to attack Jieyin Daoist. It was nothing more than a mayfly shaking a tree, digging his own grave!

Bai Ze's spirits gradually sank, until despair took hold. In the end, he even entertained the thought of giving up resistance.

Rather than resist, I might as well surrender. Perhaps there will still be a sliver of hope?

Bai Ze thought this, but the moment the notion arose, it grew madly beyond control, as though countless people were telling him that bowing his head and admitting defeat was the best path.

Bai Ze looked toward Jieyin, and a dead gray slowly clouded his blue pupils.

Just as he was about to speak, suddenly—

Buzz—

Within his Inner Landscape, a vast Dao sound suddenly rang out, shaking his Primordial Spirit.

The gray in Bai Ze's eyes as he looked at Jieyin Daoist was swiftly covered by a pattern of intertwined gold and silver, gradually transforming into an incomparably profound compass.

The deathly stillness around him vanished without a trace the instant the compass fully appeared!

The haze and despair in his pupils were gradually replaced by clarity and indifference!

He looked up at Jieyin Daoist, a trace of nearly imperceptible apprehension flashing through his eyes.

That was close!

If not for the special nature of his innate Lingbao, he might truly have fallen for it, bowing obediently before Jieyin Daoist and plunging into the abyss of despair!

After all, how could someone who treasured his life as dearly as he did possibly give up so easily?

With his rationality, he would never believe such bullshit as Jieyin sparing him just because he stopped struggling!

"Senior, what impressive methods. You actually made this junior fall for them without even realizing it!

"Still, secretly resorting to such tricks is a little too shameless, isn't it?"

Bai Ze looked at Jieyin Daoist's flower-plucking hand seal as rings of six-colored radiance continuously spread outward.

Those six colors represented the six desires. It was precisely this strange divine ability that had affected Bai Ze's emotions!

"Interesting. This divine ability of mine has never failed against low-realm creatures.

"Yet you are only at the early True Form Realm, and you actually awakened from the six desires. It seems the Three Pure Ones think highly of you. They even left a method on your body!"

Jieyin Daoist was not angered by Bai Ze's words. Instead, he watched with interest as the profound compass gradually faded from Bai Ze's eyes.

Bai Ze's heart tightened after hearing this, but when he heard Jieyin mistake the Fate Compass for a safeguard left behind by the Three Pure Ones, he relaxed slightly.

As the saying went, the clever often stumbled through their own cleverness,