Either because Mao Xun had gotten completely frozen after using the inner view to check on the poison, or because Zhen Zexi's ink beast had a command to attack any new arrivals as well, but the bird decided to go after Bai Qi now.

*Swoosh*

But Bai Qi was no Mao Xun or one of the other inexperienced participants.

*Slash*

Allowing the bird to pass just a few inches from him, Bai Qi covered his left arm in black flames and chopped.

Although ink beasts tended to have a frightening capacity at attacking, their defensive qualities always depended on the quality of the ink used for their creation. Mao Xun had attempted to use physical attacks against it, but they were far lower than his usual level of strength, thus not able to inflict harm on the 3rd or even 4th level Sage equivalent beast. But Bai Qi directly used his strongest method, the 'Ghostflame'. A Spiritual Flame wasn't just a physical attack, but one that affected both qi and aura.

A single palm cut was all that it took to cut the bird in two, and as soon as it fell on the ground, Bai Qi muttered "Flaming Claw"

The flames that covered his arm turned into the image of a gauntlet-like claw. And on his command, a torrent of black flames emerged from the palm, burning the bird.

As soon as he confirmed the disappearance of the summon, Bai Qi turned towards Mao Xun.

Unmoving and with his eyes showing no emotion, Mao Xun did not react in any way.

"Damn idiot!" Seeing this, Bai Qi instantly moved towards Mao Xun's side, with a qi-infused palm landing on the latter's dantian area right away.

___________________________________________________________________

When a cultivator was poisoned there was only a single way to act. First, one would use consciousness to enter the inner view, examining one's body and locating the poison itself. Identifying the poison would follow, and even if a cultivator lacked the knowledge to do it correctly, he would be able to sense its danger level, as well as determine some of the effects. Part of which would be the poison effects on qi.

Poisons that could kill a cultivator were rare, and all of them came from spirit beasts or herbs. Thus, they either could be blocked by qi or would use it as a method to corrupt the entire body, or in the worst case, infiltrate the dantian.

And so by simple testing, a cultivator would be able to at least slow the poison effect. Either by stopping using qi or on the contrary, by trying to encircle the poison.

Bai Qi had judged the poison to be one capable of being blocked by qi, at least judging from the fact that Mao Xun had not noticed any effects until he was told about it.

But either because of panic, lack of experience, or some other factor, Mao Xun acted in the worst possible manner. As soon as he found that Bai Qi's words about the poison were true, he simply froze. Not doing anything, not even infusing qi, allowed the poison from the ink to enter his pathways, and practically reach the dantian.

By the moment that Bai Qi destroyed the bird and moved near to help him, Mao Xun had already lost consciousness from a mix of pain, fear, and the effect of the poison itself.

___________________________________________________________________

Bai Qi used his qi to send part of his consciousness inside Mao Xun. As the latter was unconscious and did not resist, the entire process went smoothly.

The amount of poison wasn't enough to kill Mao Xun, but the lack of any action against it had indeed allowed it to spread all over the body. Its main effects were to block the meridians and then use the pathways to reach the dantian to make a cultivator unable to use, store, or even generate qi.

After localizing the poison, but being unable to identify it, Bai Qi tested it with qi. He also had a couple of antidote pills, which he made the still standing, but unconscious Mao Xun swallow. Then carefully helped him to absorb them with the qi he was transferring.

"The common grade antidote seems to be working, so it's nothing truly dangerous. Most probably some kind of sealing drug" Bai Qi concluded while making his consciousness and qi retreat.

*Thump*

As he retracted his palm, Mao Xun fell on his back, but Bai Qi simply shrugged to it.

He had done enough for him, and when the poison was entirely neutralized, Mao Xun would regain consciousness by himself. Probably not even feeling anything except some pain from the corroded pathways.

***

Considering that his appearance and help were enough for explaining his appearance, Bai Qi proceeded to create a gathering array. Accumulating enough of Zhen Zexi's aura remains, he then expanded his senses to the maximum.

Regretfully she had moved farther than his current envelope. And a tracking array would not help him if the target wasn't actively using aura.

Bai Qi then proceeded to try an array with the ink from the summons, both the remaining one from the wolves and the poisonous one of the bird. But seemingly she had taken measures to prevent being tracked, or the concealment method she had used was simply too good.

"Then let's see what else she left" Bai Qi muttered while walking towards the void stone puppet. After a brief examination, he confirmed his suspicions about a tracking formation being placed on it. This made her last words understandable. If Zhen Zexi was not lying about coming back for it, then she had the means to do it indeed.

*Sweep*

With a wave of his hand, Bai Qi stored the puppet into his Void Ring.

"She walked straight to the south from here, and the communications with what I assume to be a summon also came from that direction" He murmurred before concluding in the same manner "She can be either targetting someone else down there, or she was waiting for something to happen. If I am right, then sooner or later she will have to reveal herself"

Thinking like that, Bai Qi decided to try to get closer, as to be able to react quickly. So after scanning Mao Xun's condition, he prepared and placed two talismans on the ground before leaving the area, following Zhen Zexi's direction.

___________________________________________________________________

"What?!" Mao Xun jumped on his feet right as he regained consciousness. He did not know how much time did pass, or what happened. But what he did know was that he felt nothing of the poison that had been the reason for his blackout.

After calming himself, he slowly examined his body. He found traces of foreign qi, as well some remnant herbal essences. The sources of the latter could not be mistaken for anything except pills.

"Did he heal me? But why and where to did he leave?" Mao Xun shook his head to get rid of the remaining dizziness while voicing the questions that surfaced in his mind in a low voice.

"And by the way, who was him?" As the question popped up, Mao Xun recalled that he had never asked the name of the 4th level Sage. Neither he had seen him before, although... "Wait, I saw him with the Tang clan's successor before we entered. Can it be that Chen Guang that Guanyu and Xuefeng told me about?"

Looking around the area, Mao Xun found no traces of anything except two talismans near where he was standing. Picking them up, he discovered that both were message talismans. And while one was attuned to someone's aura, probably Chen Guang's, the other was to his own.

"You were poisoned with some kind of paralysis drug. I did not discover its name, but it was neutralized with two common antidote pills. The summoned bird had some traces of aura, so I am going after the one who sent it before something else happens. I left you a talisman to contact me, do so if you need to share something with me. Don't bother searching for me or the stone sculpture, the latter a payment for my assistance" As the contents of the message entered Mao Xun's mind, his eyes darted towards the place that the combat puppet was before.

"Don't bother to look for me?! A payment?! Demons, what if Zhen Zexi tries to retrieve it?!" Mao Xun snapped while preparing to send a message using the other talisman.

But he stopped himself at the last moment. If this Chen Guang, as most of the others were known to Mao Xun, was able to deal with the summon easily and then even heal someone, he was definitively not a pushover. If Zhen Zexi did try to attack him, he would probably give her a fight in turn.

"I do not have any reasons to worry about him anyway, with his help being paid for" Albeit Mao Xun did say these words, at least inwardly, he knew that he was just angry at the guy for leaving him here. His life had been saved by the guy, and he even went to try and stop Zhen Zexi without knowing anything about her.

Mao Xun was also aware that he was not of help right now, being able to only fight with the prowess of a 3rd level Sage at most. Thus, the best thing he could do was to regroup with his Household members, try to get at least some metal element qi, and start searching on his end.

If he could find Zhen Zexi, a clue to her location, or gather a few Sages for help, then it would be the time to contact Chen Guang.

With a determined nod, Mao Xun oriented himself before moving out, and his mind made him recall another two details that would require to be investigated.

First, If someone else had gotten any untraceable messages that helped them. He had not forgotten that strange voice that had helped him prevail against the combat puppet. And if he had a chance, he wanted to at least thank the person for it.

And second, Zhen Zexi had mentioned something about an item that one of his fellow Household cultivators had obtained. She even warned about coming for it later. Thus, he had to find what it was and if it was possible to use the item to attack her.

___________________________________________________________________

Since the zone opened, Tang Lei had only challenged and completed three challenge slates. The first one was the one that allowed him to even enter the 'Underground Forest', as for the other two, he had done them on the 9th day to help his cultivation stabilize.

Since his bloodline awoke when he was eight years old, Tang Lei had been considered a living treasure of the Tang clan. The best resources, cultivation methods, and whatever else could help his Wooden Elemental Bloodline, also called Divine Body of Wood, progress was gathered and made available to him.

And when he, being just 10 years old became a Soul realm cultivator, the youngest known in Shuomen, he was elevated to an even higher place. Especially as his bloodline blossomed again as he awoke his soul.

Regretfully that last blessing, one of an absolute pure elemental bloodline, extremely rare and practically a heavenly gift, was also a curse on its own. He would not meet any bottlenecks, and his combat prowess with his element was easily half a realm ahead, but...

"But the amount of qi and even natural energies that I require to make even a single breakthrough is just insane" He wryly smirked as he examined his filled-up dantian. Only to discover that he was required to infuse his bloodline with at least a hundred times that qi quantity for his next breakthrough.

His Clan, even though his father was its leader, was simply too small, and too poor to gather such an amount of Wood element essence, natural energies, or other treasures as to make that possible.

And while a big and established power would have no trouble providing him with the resources necessary, they would not do it just like that.

Not a single cultivator except the ones from his close family would even think of helping him grow without making sure of his fealty or at least lack of danger towards them. Neither of which could be guaranteed without formally joining their respective powers.

Still, the Tangs had been assisting the Sheng clan and the City for a very long time and always did it with full commitment. Thus even if Lord Sheng would not spend his own money to help Tang Lei progress, he still did it in other ways. For example, revealing usually restricted information. Like the information that allowed one of the Tang clan cultivators to map several extremely pure Wood element spots inside the 'Underground Forest'.

Or a more direct help, like guaranteeing a spot from the Sheng clan's own for the zone even before the incident of last time happened.

Thanks to this map, Tang Lei had, at last, made his first breakthrough in over a year. He had now become a Sage realm cultivator. Considering that he was only 14 years old and did not have any big backing, he was definitively in the realm of geniuses.

Not that Tang Lei intended to stop now, having a few remaining days, he had moved to another spot and now was attempting to reach the 2nd level of the Sage realm. Even if he could not, he had the chance to get to the peak of his current level, making the breakthrough outside even with the low amount of resources he could get.

***

Unbeknownst to him, this time his movement had been noticed. And the presence that he assumed to be a passing participant had not been one. Even more, the presence wasn't even of a cultivator, but a strange, big, completely black wolf...