"Of course the Fire Spirit is trapped."

Xiao Shui mumbled to himself. The northern courtyard of the Xiao Mansion, once the residence of the Patriarch, was now heavily guarded by cultivators.

He walked all the way to the former council hall, and upon pushing the door open, he was met with a vast and dim space.

Once intricately carved and painted, everything had been replaced with cold stone pillars, of which there were many.

At the center lay an altar, something Han Yu was undoubtedly very familiar with.

Wasn’t it exactly the same as the kind in the Earth Palace!

On the altar, there stood a Great Cauldron, around which the Dragon Capturing Pillars extended chains to enclose it.

Inside the cauldron, the flames flickered constantly, from a distance appearing like fire, but up close, they kept changing form.

As Xiao Shui entered, the flames surged upward, seemingly attempting to break free, but the moment they touched the chains, they could only wail and fall back down.

After struggling in vain several times, the flames finally retracted, revealing a fire-red... duck!

Even after seeing it multiple times, every time Xiao Shui saw this duck, he found it somewhat irritating to the eyes.

"As a Fire Spirit, don’t you find becoming a duck quite illogical?"

Ducks and fire really don’t go together, do they?

Except for roast duck.

The Fire Spirit quacked angrily twice, still unsatisfied, it poked its head out of the cauldron, constantly calling out to Xiao Shui. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Quack quack quack..."

"Are you sure you won’t help me?"

Xiao Shui glanced at the duck’s head and continued to ask.

"Quack quack quack..."

"This won’t end well for you."

"Quack quack quack..."

At this point, Xiao Shui found it hard to continue the conversation; his head was now filled with the quacking sounds of the duck.

The Fire Spirit also seemed to notice this; its duck neck stiffened, and then a wisp of flame shot out from its duck bill.

Xiao Shui caught it with his hand, and the flame swiftly entered his body, to his delight.

"You’re willing to help me?"

"No, the old duck just thought you didn’t understand, cursing wasn’t satisfying."

At this moment, the sound coming from the Fire Spirit finally ceased to be the sound of a duck.

But it would have been better if it had stayed as a duck; once the Fire Spirit confirmed that Xiao Shui understood, it started cursing non-stop like a barrage of fire.

"Bastard..."

"Damn you..."

"Son of a bitch..."

All sorts of profanities continuously spewed from the opposite duck bill.

Only after a quarter of an hour did the Fire Spirit finally stop in satisfaction.

Seeing that it had vented, Xiao Shui finally spoke with a calm face, "What would it take for you to be willing to help me break through to the Fourth Tier?"

"Tsk tsk!"

The Fire Spirit shook its duck head, clicking its tongue in mocking, "The great old duck is never coerced. The old duck will never help you, give up!"

Xiao Shui was not surprised by its answer; this dialogue was not new to him.

"I’ve said many times, this won’t do you any good."

"If you want to break through, release the old duck and then we’ll talk."

The Fire Spirit said so.

"That’s impossible, you know I can’t let you go, at most I can let you suffer a little less."

Xiao Shui shook his head, directly refusing.

"Then there’s nothing to talk about, and don’t dream about finding the old duck’s main body to threaten it."

The Fire Spirit angrily retracted its head, losing interest in further nonsense, this foolish human thinking they could benefit from it was simply wishful thinking.

"No, your main body has already been dug up."

Xiao Shui’s sudden remark startled the Fire Spirit, causing it to jump in fright before a mysterious force pressed it back down.

After a moment, the duck head emerged again, with eyes as small as mung beans staring straight at Xiao Shui, speaking venomously.

"Which heartless bastard dug out the old duck..."

...

Achoo!

As the night wind blew, Han Yu suddenly sneezed, and not just him, a group of elders from the Nine Sects sneezed one after another.

"This isn’t a good omen!"

The Great Elder of the Qinglan Sect rubbed his nose, "Even I, a Realm of Transcendence cultivator, started sneezing; I feel I won’t live long. Maybe you guys should give me the pills first to hold on."

"I’m not trying to snatch them from you; I just fear that in a few years you’ll be sweeping my grave, I wouldn’t want to lie in the grave watching you mourn."

"I don’t believe you for a moment. With that logic, that guy from Piaomiao City should go before you, he has even fewer years left than you."

Elder Luo also rubbed his nose as he spoke.

The wronged Great Elder of Piaomiao City could only respond with a dark face and a cold snort.

"At times like this, that guy becomes much more lovable, quieter than you lot."

He looked meaningfully in the direction of Ou Mingdong, where the Great Elder of the Unparalleled Tower lay like a corpse once again.

"What are you going to do, old monk?"

The Great Elder of Piaomiao City had just started to speak when he saw the old monk walking over, sitting cross-legged amidst the shocked gazes of the crowd.

The chanting sound of sutras gradually floated out, and after a moment, the monk stood up, satisfied.

"I just realized I’ve never chanted a single rebirth mantra despite my old friend dying so many times, what a sin."

The whole group exclaimed in astonishment.

If the Great Elder of the Unparalleled Tower were to revive, he would certainly fight you the first chance he got. Chanting the Rebirth Mantra over someone’s ’corpse’, who are you cursing?

These were all troublemakers; the saying that the older you get, the more childish you become was vividly manifested in this group; Han Yu’s mouth twitched, feeling the several elders were like children.

"Forget it, there’s no need to wait anymore, all of you seniors should go rest!"

At this time, it seemed that the Artifact Spirit’s worries had come true.

Since the Fire Spirit hadn’t come by now, it wouldn’t be coming.

As for the pills, Han Yu estimated the time, there were about five more days before they arrived.

If within those five days, they still couldn’t find the Fire Spirit’s spirit body, the pills should be disposed of quickly.

The side effects were something the elders weren’t afraid of, but he was.

They all had disciples and descendants waiting on them, enduring for years until they ’grew up’, then playing another seven or eight years of ’mature’, finally gaining twenty more years of life.

He, however, was different; a solitary soul, if his mind had to start over, playing with mud and wetting the bed was one thing, but wasting ten years inside, now that was another.

The crowd quickly dispersed; since Han Yu was certain the Fire Spirit wouldn’t come, who would want to stay with a piece of broken stone?

Once everyone left, the entire tent became extremely quiet.

The moonlight gradually grew hazy, as a cloud passed by, casting a long shadow underneath.

The shadow continuously extended, crawling along its way.

When it reached the outside of the tent, it hopped across different shadows, under their cover.

The entire process was without a single sound.

Yet the shadow did not choose to enter, instead, it paused for a moment and then immediately retreated.

Though it appeared completely hidden and undetected, it managed to alert someone.

Han Yu squinted his eyes at the shadow; the method seemed familiar, Ghost Series cultivation technique?

Bai Bufen!

Indeed, it was exactly like Bai Bufen’s Ghost Shadow Body Technique, no, even superior.

To be able to approach so stealthily and leave with such subtlety, there’s no way it could be a simple person.

"Why didn’t you follow?"

The Artifact Spirit asked Han Yu, puzzled. No matter how concealed the opponent’s body technique was, if Han Yu was determined to pursue, the opponent would have no escape.

"It’s unnecessary."

Chasing was to find out who the other party was and their purpose.

But the wave emanating from this guy was like fluorescence in the darkness, no guessing needed to know who it was.

"In Minzhou City’s Fire Series Divine Power Users, only two exist, one is me and the other is him."

The shadow was indeed undetected, and without any sound, even those few Realm of Transcendence elders might not notice.

Moreover, this guy kept using the shadows cast by the moonlit clouds for cover throughout, showing just how much more clever his methods were than Bai Bufen of those days.

The only fatal point being that he happened to possess Innate Divine Techniques, and Han Yu’s Sea of Consciousness happened to contain an Artifact Spirit that could sniff out these techniques.

"So since we know it’s our old friend Young Master Xiao Shui, is there any point in following?"