My heart calmed down. I held the Holy Mother Scepter tightly and made my way towards the Corpse Tree. Unexpectedly, I didn’t have to bear the tree’s attack. I shortly reached Chuyi.

Chuyi’s wounds had opened again, and his blood had dyed his white shirt red. His face was now chalk-white. I felt a twinge in my heart.

“Damn you!” I couldn’t help but curse. Ever since I had known him, I had never seen him in such a life-threatening situation.

I calmed the flame of anger in my heart. I raised my hand to untie him. However, even though I had worked on it for a long time, I still couldn’t untie the rope. I cursed under my breath, feeling helpless.

“Jiulin…”

While I didn’t know what to do, Chuyi suddenly called me. I turned to see him. He was awake!

Tears fell from my eyes. I carefully asked, “Chuyi, how do you feel now?”

At this moment, Chuyi was like a cotton doll. He weakly gasped for his breath. “I’m okay. This Corpse Tree has extremely thick Yin energy, so give the rope two drops of your blood. After that, wait for the dark smoke to vanish. You can untie me then.”

I took a closer look. Indeed, wisps of dark smoke were crawling on the rope. It seemed that dark smoke had affected my mind. Otherwise, even a three-year-old kid could have untied such a knot.

I bit my index finger to drop some blood on the rope. However, I captured a glimpse of Chuyi through the corner of my eye while doing so. Shockingly, he was looking at me with bright, high-spirited eyes!

No! He’s not Chuyi!

I panicked and smeared blood over my eyes before looking at him again. He was breathing weakly, but it didn’t look like he was awake!

“Screw you!” I couldn’t help but curse. It made no sense for Chuyi to have recovered that quickly. I was tricked by an illusion again!

Chuyi’s Yang energy was diminishing. Two of the three Yang flames in his body had extinguished. The last one was flickering.

I dropped my blood into his mouth. After his Yang flame burned normally again, I freed him from the rope and carried him on my back before leaving the tree.

After walking for around ten minutes, I felt that something was wrong. Although the deadly Corpse Tree was massive, it would take five minutes at most to get out of its canopy range.

I used the Invisible Needle to find my way. However, the needle flew disorderly around me and landed back on my palm. I could only put it away. I closed my eyes and didn’t think. I just kept walking forward. After a while, I felt something in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw a collapsed wall.

A wave of cold air swarmed toward me. My heart sank. It wasn’t a wall, but materialized Yin energy!

“Young Benefactor, are you there?” Zen Master Baimei’s voice arose from the other side of the ‘wall.’

I screamed happily, “Zen Master, it’s me. I’ve got Chuyi. Help me out!”

Zen Master Baimei didn’t answer. With Chuyi on my back, I paced back and forth. I could have just stormed through the wall, which would have cost some of my Yang energy. However, Chuyi’s Yang energy was insufficient at the moment. If I did that, I could smash his soul.

“Young Benefactor, listen to me carefully. Don’t talk, just listen.” Zen Master Baimei’s voice arose in my head. I shivered and paid attention to his words.

“The Chuyi you have rescued is an imposter. Chuyi has just woken up. He called me. He’s in the hotel. We’ve stepped in their trap.”

Perhaps it was some sort of mental effect, but my back felt so cold after listening to Zen Master Baimei.

The people from the Longquan Villa were so cunning. They had used Li Mazi to trick me, and now they were using another old trick, which had worked on me well!

I gritted my teeth to calm down. I knew I couldn’t let him know that I had found out the truth. As I was afraid that he would find out, I pretended to be worried and nervous. I paced back and forth to find the way out.

Zen Master Baimei was still speaking in my head. “The person you have rescued has to be Yin-Yang Tiger. He’s got the Taiyi Traceless Sword. Don’t quarrel with him!”

I knew that already. If I fought against him now, it would be the same as asking for death. I let him down and pretended to drop more blood into his mouth to enhance his Yang flame.

A few drops of blood couldn’t boost the Yang flame that much. Yin-Yang Tiger had weakened his Yang flames on purpose to deceive me, which was a big mistake as it would go well with my new plan.

I gently said, “Chuyi, I will take you out of here. You must be patient. Put up with it for a while more.”

I put him back on my back and headed towards the Yin energy wall. When the Yin energy covered us entirely, I heard him scream. Since he had weakened his Yang flame, he couldn’t endure this thick mass of Yin energy.

I pretended not to hear anything and kept running around the mass of Yin energy.

Soon, the Yin energy found its way to my body. I felt the blood in my body freezing.

I guessed I had tortured Yin-Yang Tiger enough. I pulled myself together and barged directly into the wall.

At the moment I reappeared, Zen Master Baimei screamed, “Watch out!”

I suddenly hurled Yin-Yang Tiger aside and ran toward Zen Master Baimei. Yin-Yang Tiger now knew that he was busted. With a dark face, he wielded the Taiyi Traceless Sword and attacked. His sword energy aimed at Zen Master Baimei; he stabbed furiously. Zen Master Baimei rose his mala beads to parry against him.

Although I had played with Yin-Yang Tiger for a while to drain him, his reflexes were still good. Zen Master Baimei’s attacks were dealt with easily. After a few strikes, Yin-Yang Tiger grimaced while Zen Master Baimei had already vomited blood.

I knew that if I didn’t do anything, it would be too late. I hurriedly controlled the Invisible Needle to stab Yin-Yang Tiger. Even if his reflexes were good, they wouldn’t be faster than my thoughts. His moves slowed down after the Invisible Needle had pricked him a few times.

Zen Master Baimei seized the chance to wield his mala beads and hit Yin-Yang Tiger’s forehead. The man was shaken, but then, he decided not to defend and recklessly attacked Zen Master Baimei with his sword energy.

I felt happy as I controlled the Invisible Needle to stab the spine of his neck. He suddenly laughed crazily and shouted, “A life for a life. It’s worth it!”

“No!” Zen Master Baimei screamed. He tried his best to smash the sword energy from the other party. Then, he quickly turned around to run away.

A bad premonition arose in my head. I cruelly stabbed Yin-Yang Tiger’s neck with the Invisible Needle. However, I couldn’t concentrate well and missed the target by a little bit. Yin-Yang Tiger spurted blood.

Zen Master Baimei turned to me and screamed, “Don’t touch him. Chuyi’s in danger!”

I immediately retrieved the Invisible Needle and followed him back to the village. When we arrived at the inn, Zen Master Baimei directly kicked the door open. He returned shortly after. “Chuyi isn’t in the room.”

I was scared and rushed into our room to check. The bedsheet was damp with blood. Chuyi’s Prince Ma’s Whip and the eight-faceted Han sword were nowhere to be seen.

It made sense now. Earlier, Zen Master Baimei and I had almost killed Yin-Yang Tiger, but One-Armed Dragon hadn’t shown up to help. He had gone to the inn to trouble Chuyi!

With a murderous look on my face, I wanted to go out. However, Zen Master Baimei stopped me. His voice was heavy. “I’ll find Chuyi. You should look for some herbs that can strengthen his foundation. Hurry! We’ll meet up in a while!”

I was surprised and looked at Zen Master Baimei. He looked worried as he hastily left. He didn’t even have time to explain the situation to me.

Foundation-strengthening herbs were what we used when we wanted to gather the pieces of a soul. I felt a heart-wrenching pain. Did Zen Master Baimei know that Chuyi was dying?

I went downstairs to find a pharmacy. However, after spending a great deal of time talking to the shopkeeper, I realized that he couldn’t see me! As it was an emergency, I had to leave a note at his counter. I picked up the herbs and ran toward the entrance of the village.

When I got there, the chain of mala beads I was wearing slowly floated up and pointed in a direction. It seemed Zen Master Baimei was there. I ran faster. However, it took me quite a long time before I could hear the fight.

I became anxious. When I got there, Yin-Yang Tiger and One-Armed Dragon were forcing Zen Master Baimei into a corner. Yin-Yang Tiger screamed as he wielded his sword. He was attempting to slash Zen Master.

I threw the Emei Piercer and read the Big Dipper Sirius Spell. At the same time, I controlled the Invisible Needle to stab Yin-Yang Tiger.

Although I wasn’t competent enough, I needed to bet on my strength!