Tan Eyu suddenly rose to the ninth level after receiving three drops of blood essence. Cheng Qi, who had a contract with her, also showed signs of advancement. At this time, he needed to find a place with sufficient spiritual energy to retreat. Li Tianyan also wanted to go back to discuss matters with Tian Min. Their plan to practice had to end early, and they returned to the sect on the bull beast.

After leaving in the March and returning, the sect hadn’t changed much. The outer gate was an endless green spiritual field, with busy figures of wood cultivators in the field. When entering the inner gate, one could see mountains connected one after another. The mountains were dotted with large and small palaces, and many disciples wearing sect uniform could be seen walking among them.

“What kind of spiritual beast is this? It looks so majestic,” a young disciple asked his fellow seniors with surprise on his face when he saw the huge beast flying overhead.

“In my opinion, it looks a bit like a bull beast, but the bull beast is not a spiritual beast, and it isn’t that big, and it can’t have wings,” one of them observed carefully and shook his head, realizing he didn’t recognize this spiritual beast.

“I remember it was recorded in the ancient spirit beast scriptures there was a flying bull mythical beast ten thousand years ago. It had a bull’s head and a horse’s body with wings on its back. It looked quite similar to this spirit beast.”

“I have also seen it. It is said although the flying bull mythical beast is bulky, it can travel thousands of miles in one breath and is very brave due to its thick skin and flesh. Unfortunately, it has been extinct for thousands of years.”

“Who raised this spiritual beast? It couldn’t be the flying bull mythical beast that disappeared.”

“Keep dreaming. How could a spiritual beast that only existed in ancient times appear here? But even if this beast isn’t a flying bull, it is still stronger than ordinary spiritual beasts. Having such a spiritual beast would make traveling much more convenient.”

Cheng Qi heard the conversation of several disciples below, blinked his big eyes, and glanced at the bull beast under him, but after thinking about it, he felt there was no such a coincidence.

When the two returned to the sect, they went straight to the Qingdan Palace. Elder Tian Min seemed to have noticed their return and was already waiting for them outside the hall.

In the past, Tian Min liked to travel around the world, and every time he returned to the sect, he wouldn’t stay for too long except for retreat. However, since he had taken on two more disciples and the Five Regions Competition was about to begin, Elder Tian Min hadn’t left the sect during this time.

“Master.” Li Tianyan and Cheng Qi jumped off the back of the ox-collar beast together and walked to Elder Tian Min.

“You are back,” Tian Min’s eyes turned back and forth on them a few times, making sure they were both intact, and then nodded with relief. “You two didn’t encounter any danger this time.”

“No, what happened? Your expression seems different,” Li Tianyan asked.

“Chi Zhuo’s soul lamp has been extinguished. I wonder if there are people from the devil’s way sneaking into the Southern Territory,” Elder Tian Min said to the two of them with a serious face. Each elder left a soul lamp in the sect, and when a person died, the light went out.

Chi Zhuo was a peak foundation-establishment cultivator. Apart from a few core formation masters from the sect, he had no rival in the Southern Territory. His sudden death made Tian Min feel uneasy, especially since Li Tianyan and Cheng Qi were still away, which gave him sleepless nights. Fortunately, the two of them came back today.

Upon hearing what Elder Tian Min said, Cheng Qi’s eyes moved slightly, but he quickly calmed down.

Li Tianyan was not surprised when he heard about the soul lamp. Cultivators in seclusion or going out for training often disappeared for months or even years. Generally, those who held important positions in large forces would leave a soul lamp. If they died, the sect would immediately learn of it.

“We did encounter something during this trip. Let’s talk about it after we go in,” Li Tianyan said to Elder Tian Min.

Judging from Chi Zhuo’s memory, the relationship between him and Tian Min was not good, and the two even often had disputes due to differing ideas. Li Tianyan could also see that Tian Min didn’t feel much sadness about Chi Zhuo’s death, but was simply worried about the situation in the southern region, which made Li Tianyan feel more at ease to explain the reason to him.

Seeing that Li Tianyan seemed to have something important to say, Elder Tian Min immediately brought the two of them to the stone room where he was in retreat. “Even the Core Formation cultivators can’t eavesdrop here, so you can speak freely.”

Li Tianyan pondered for a while and then said, “In fact, we met Chi Zhuo and several of his disciples in Youlian Forest the night before.”

“What?” Elder Tian Min was shocked. Chi Zhuo’s soul lamp had been extinguished at dawn yesterday morning. That meant Chi Zhuo met Li Tianyan shortly before his death, causing Tian Min’s mind to race with countless speculations.

Although Li Tianyan trusted Tian Min as a person, it was impossible for him to tell him the whole truth. He only said carefully, “Chi Zhuo has never given up on the treasure of the Yunpeng Secret Realm. This time, he even tried to take it while we were out training. When we confronted Chi Zhuo and his group, they thought we were bound to die, so they blurted out that they were spies of the Shura Sect.”

Elder Tian Min’s pupils suddenly widened in shock. “A spy of the Shura Sect? Are you serious?”

Chi Zhuo had joined the sect at the age of ten and had been in Tianfan Immortal Sect for more than a hundred years. With this, if he was a spy of the Shura Sect then…

When a peak foundation-establishment cultivator suddenly fell, Tian Min always felt that something was amiss, but he never expected it to be this severe.

“Of course, I wouldn’t joke about this with you, Master. I also heard from them that Chi Zhuo has done a lot of harmful things. Even the most qualified disciples who have been admitted to Qingyun Palace in the past few years have not died in normal circumstances but in Chi Zhuo’s hands,” Li Tianyan said, mixing truth with falsehood, but his words shocked Tian Min.

Many elders in the sect felt they had never forgotten the lesson they learned, so they devoted their attention to their disciples, not only to cultivate talents for the sect but also to pass on what they had learned.

If he thought about it, Qingyun Palace had indeed accepted many disciples in the past few decades, and many of them had perished. However, due to the large number of Chi Zhuo’s disciples, it never attracted much attention. Now it seemed Qingyun Palace had actually lost a lot of talented disciples.