Protecting Yao bravely overcomes countless trials; Shen Yi's heroic spirit shakes the Immortal Assembly.

Clang, clang, clang! Three crisp rings sounded as three Dragon-Binding Spikes were flicked away by a hoe blade, showering stardust across the sky as they embedded themselves into the cloud platform's pillars.

"Elder, wait!" He deliberately let the hoe slip from his grip, causing it to crash heavily against the dark iron chains. Amidst the bursting sparks hid half a grain of the Heavenly Secrets Seed. "This junior found something interesting in the spiritual fields." With a flip of his palm, a shattered piece of colored glaze stained with Ouyang Yu's demonic blood hovered in the air, refracting the un-dried bloody patterns on the hair-pin.

The surrounding elders suddenly stirred in commotion, and the silver bell hanging at Lingxuan’s temple chimed without any wind.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Shen Yi shifted to Gao Yao’s side, his boot heel stealthily kicking half a green bamboo sword into his storage pouch—the silver tassel pattern wound around the sword hilt was unmistakably of the same origin as the transforming Mandarin Duck Pendant currently residing in his system inventory.

"Audacious!" Elder Xuanfeng’s oppressive aura crashed down like a collapsing mountain, instantly bringing a taste of blood to the back of Shen Yi’s throat.

Feigning a stagger, he steadied himself against the execution pillar. The beads of blood seeping from between his fingers soaked into the carved patterns on the pillar, causing the red light of the Evil-Slaying Array to bizarrely morph into a cyan-gray hue.

A system prompt exploded in his sea of consciousness: [Heavenly Secrets Seed resonance triggered!] Taking advantage of the motion of bending down to cough, Shen Yi slipped a jade slip concealing a Soul-Devouring Vine seed into Gao Yao’s blood-stained sleeve.

The young girl’s fingertips trembled imperceptibly, and her remaining spiritual power traced half a dark lotus flower in his palm.

"When evidence is conclusive, how can you rely on clever words!" Ouyang Yu’s cold sneer came from the other side of the cloud platform. The black jade pendant at his waist suddenly shot out a thread of blood. "Everyone, please look—"

The blood thread condensed into a curtain of light in mid-air, displaying an image where "Gao Yao" was planting a Heart-Devouring Gu into the glabella of an unconscious cultivator.

Shen Yi’s pupils constricted sharply; the broken jade hairpin was clearly still hidden in his own sleeve, yet the counterfeit in the light screen matched even the way the green bamboo sword tassel was tied down to the smallest detail.

Lingxuan’s silver bell suddenly rang out with a clear, resonant tone, and the colored glaze fragments inside Shen Yi’s sleeve shattered in response.

Countless points of light gathered into a water mirror, projecting the lingering shadow of Ouyang Yu sneaking into the Gu chamber last night.

Elder Xuanfeng’s horsetail whisk froze mid-air, and within the cyan-gray glow of the Evil-Slaying Array, the illusory shadow of the Mandarin Duck Pendant emerged.

"Have you all forgotten?" Shen Yi wiped away the blood from the corner of his mouth, the Heavenly Secrets Seed having already taken root and sprouted within the Evil-Slaying Array patterns without anyone noticing. "The heart's blood of a Heart-Devouring Gu host can shatter all illusions." He abruptly ripped open his collar, revealing a Mandarin Duck Pendant-shaped brand on his chest that was oozing a cyan-gold liquid.

Gao Yao suddenly began to cough violently, the fragments of her broken sword hovering around her to form a stellar array.

Taking the opportunity, Shen Yi crushed the final half-piece of colored glaze. The moment the sealing array patterns sank into the ground, a large mass of dark ink lotuses suddenly bloomed in the center of the Evil-Slaying Array—each petal shimmering with the faint glow of the Heavenly Secrets Seed.

"Absurd!" Elder Xuanfeng’s roar shook the cloud platform violently, yet he was forced to withdraw the Dragon-Binding Spikes. "At the immortal sect plenary trial three days hence, if you cannot produce solid proof..."

As Shen Yi bent down to support Gao Yao, the bronze hoe slipping from his sleeve quietly hooked onto Ouyang Yu’s hem.

With a clatter, a jade pendant stained with demonic blood dropped to the ground. As everyone present looked at the exact same Heart-Devouring Gu markings on it as those in the light curtain, gasps of astonishment rose one after another.

"This junior happened to cultivate some Trace-Retracing Grass in the spiritual fields." Shen Yi twirled a delicate seed radiating moonlight between his fingertips—a mutated spiritual plant he had forcefully matured during transit using the Heavenly Secrets Seed. "I wonder which senior would be willing to help verify the true records of last night?"

The night wind whipped up his tattered hem, while nearly a hundred rare spiritual plant seeds in his storage pouch resonated and glowed.

***

A prompt flashed across the system interface: [Heavenly Secrets Seed cultivation progress at 15%], while the liquid oozing from the cracks of the Mandarin Duck Pendant had quietly congealed into the outline of Gao Yao’s natal magical treasure.

The Trace-Retracing Grass seed pinched between Shen Yi’s fingers emitted a clear, moonlight-like radiance, causing the breathing of the surrounding elders to grow lighter.

The silver bell at Lingxuan’s temple suddenly jingled, and she flicked a wisp of spiritual power to wrap around the seed. Instantly, a fine, shattered light screen bloomed in the air—depicting with absolute clarity the scene from the previous night of Ouyang Yu, his sleeves stained with demonic blood, setting up formations in the Gu chamber.

"As you all can see, the one truly raising the Heart-Devouring Gu..." Before Shen Yi could finish speaking, his storage pouch suddenly popped open automatically, and nearly a hundred seeds glowing with multicolored spiritual light poured out like cascading stars.

Heaven-cyan Azure Mist Lotus seeds rolled across the cloud platform with crisp sounds, while Nine-Turn Ganoderma seeds wrapped in golden patterns caused the dark iron chains to hum in resonance.

Ouyang Yu abruptly crushed the black jade at his waist, shouting harshly, "Who knows if these are demonic domain evils!" The black Qi bursting from his fingertips lunged straight toward the spiritual plant seeds, only to be swallowed by a cyan radiance the moment it touched the Azure Mist Lotus.

The Soul-Devouring Vine beneath Shen Yi’s boots burst through the soil, wrapping around that wisp of black Qi and transforming it into a sky full of fluorescent light.

"Well said." Shen Yi suddenly smiled with curved eyes, casually grabbing a handful of Crimson Parasol Tree seeds and tossing them into the air.

The seeds ignited upon meeting the wind, but the flames they produced were gold-red fires capable of purifying demonic Qi. "Why not ask the Myriad Mechanism Cauldron of the Medicine King Valley to test them? I hear that this cauldron has refined three thousand demonic cultivators without picking up even a wisp of evil aura."

Gasps of disbelief echoed from the elder seats.

Lingxuan’s silver bell chimed unprompted, and a bronze medicine cauldron slowly rose on the eastern side of the cloud platform. The Taotie patterns on its body were greedily devouring the parasol tree flames.

When the seventh seed sank into the cauldron’s mouth, its handles suddenly burst forth with a seven-colored rainbow—an auspicious sign that only appeared when encountering top-tier spiritual plants.

Elder Xuanfeng’s horsetail whisk tassels trembled violently, and Shen Yi seized the moment to flick three Ice-Soul Snow Ginseng seeds into his sleeve. "This junior is willing to trade these seeds for three days of peace. I heard your sect's herbal garden suffered from a cold poison last year?" The elder’s oppressive aura visibly weakened—the frost crystals condensing on the surface of the snow ginseng seeds were supreme treasures for subduing cold poison.

"No!" Ouyang Yu’s treasured sword leaped from its scabbard, yet the blade stopped mid-air—Gao Yao had somehow already risen with the support of her broken sword, holding a jade pendant engraved with merit seals hovering in her palm.

That was the token proving she had ventured alone into the Myriad Demo Cave last year to rescue twelve disciples, and unpurified demonic bones were still embedded within the cracks of the jade.

Lingxuan’s silver bell suddenly turned into a streak of flowing light, sucking both the jade pendant and the seeds into the Myriad Mechanism Cauldron simultaneously.

When the snowy mist symbolizing purity rose from the cauldron, she turned and smiled lightly at Elder Xuanfeng. "Azure Mist Lotuses are a once-in-a-century find; they are just right to resolve the crisis of our sect's waning mountain-guarding array." Her words caused several neutral elders to nod repeatedly, and the Evil-Slaying Array patterns surrounding the cloud platform naturally and voluntarily dissipated.

Shen Yi smoothly scattered a handful of seeds into the surrounding crowd.

A certain elder’s spiritual pet mistakenly swallowed a Jade Vine seed, shedding its old scales and growing five-colored wings in the blink of an eye.

Amidst the sounds of amazement, someone shouted, "Shennong reborn!" and the entire cloud platform was instantly filled with the refreshing fragrance of spiritual plants.

***

"Three days it is, then." Elder Xuanfeng flicked his sleeve to scoop up eighteen seeds, and as he turned away, his dark Daoist robe quietly brushed against the seal on Gao Yao’s wrist. "If after three days you cannot produce the true culprit behind the Heart-Devouring Gu..."

"This junior will naturally bind himself and present himself at your door." Though Shen Yi spoke with outward respect, the hand hidden behind his back gestured a digging motion to Gao Yao.

A smile suddenly bloomed on the young girl's pale face, and the green bamboo sword, broken into three pieces, suddenly resonated within her storage pouch.

As the crowd dispersed, Gao Yao staggered and fell into Shen Yi’s arms.

The Mandarin Duck Pendant brand on his chest suddenly grew hot, and the young girl’s blood-stained fingertips brushed across those cyan-gold patterns. "You're carelessly using your heart's blood again..."

"A farmer's blood nourishes all things, after all." Shen Yi deliberately let his hoe slip to smash against his own foot, his wincing and grinning expression coaxing a burst of laughter through Gao Yao's tears.

Secretly, he used the Soul-Devouring Vine to wrap around her meridians, slowly channeling the spiritual power transformed by the Heavenly Secrets Seed into her body—those majestic spiritual plants from earlier had consumed fully thirty percent of his cultivation base.

In the distance, a bell toll suddenly rang out, signaling the activation of the barriers for the second stage of the Immortal Gathering.

Shen Yi settled Gao Yao within the healing array at the edge of the cloud platform, casually burying a Dragon-Blood Bodhi seed at the array's core.

As he turned to leave, his sleeve was suddenly tugged. The young girl’s blood-stained fingertips traced a dark lotus flower in his palm.

"Beware of Ouyang Yu's..." Gao Yao’s telepathic transmission was cut short by abruptly bursting fireworks.

Shen Yi blinked, instead stuffing half a peach blossom pastry into her mouth. "Taste this newly improved spiritual snack; it has dumb-spring grass added that can mute informants."

The main hall of the Immortal Gathering was now resplendent with flowing light, and Shen Yi swept across thousands of stalls, treading upon a rainbow bridge paved with Soul-Devouring Vines.

As he passed through a certain dim alleyway, he suddenly pressed down on his wildly throbbing storage pouch—the dark iron chains he had swiped from the Evil-Slaying Array were stored inside, and right now, they were resonating with fluctuations coming from a nearby exhibition booth.

"Fellow Daoist, would you care to try solving the Nine-Turn Exquisite Box?" An old vendor held up a bronze box riddled with holes. "Inside are the spores of the ancient spiritual plant 'Illusion Moon Orchid.' For a hundred years, no one has been able to..."

Shen Yi’s hoe suddenly leaped forth of its own accord, its sharp blade precisely piercing the seventh hole.

When fluorescent blue motes drifted from the box, the system prompt and the surrounding cries of astonishment exploded simultaneously.

Feigning interest in the spores, he cast a peripheral glance toward a mist-shrouded chaotic region behind the exhibition booth—there, fluctuations of the exact same origin as the Mandarin Duck Pendant vaguely pulsed.