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Gu Ningyun picked up her identity token, and as soon as her divine sense entered it, she was overwhelmed by a flood of messages.

They were all from people whose bodies had been invaded by evil qi, asking if she could treat them.

Some disciples even sent their locations directly and transferred twenty sect points to her in advance.

Si Puyu had also sent her a message, which was consistent with what Fu Mingzhi had said.

She checked the messages from other disciples asking for help and saw that their locations were the same as Si Puyu's.

She immediately withdrew her divine sense. "Evil qi infection is extremely harmful to the body. I'm heading over first."

Fu Mingzhi replied, "Once the other disciples have finished recovering their spirit energy, we'll hurry over to support you."

"I'll go with you." Mu Chenze had practiced movement techniques and was the only one there who could keep up with her speed, so she didn't refuse.

"Ningyun, be careful."

It was Jun Luo's voice.

Gu Ningyun looked back at him, nodded, and then she and Mu Chenze slapped on Swift-Walk Talismans and departed.

...

At the junction of the North and West sections of the forest, more than seventy beasts surrounded a sphere of light.

If one looked closer, they could see that the sphere was actually a yellow-rank top-grade defense array.

Currently, seven or eight disciples lay inside the array, all with their eyes tightly shut, having fallen unconscious.

The disciples with lighter injuries were bandaging the wounds of the unconscious ones, but even after bandaging, blood continued to soak through the cloth.

In that dark blood, a faint black mist could be seen emanating from the wounds, radiating a chilling malice.

Si Puyu's team and a few other disciples who hadn't lost their combat effectiveness were fighting the beasts right at the edge of the defense array.

But there were too few of them. The number of beasts was a full ten times their own, and their cultivation levels were far higher.

The white light of the defense array grew increasingly dim under the beasts' continuous attacks, and a few spots had even been breached.

Si Puyu was forced to lead the group back to guard those breaches.

Holding his sword to block the impact of two beasts, Si Puyu's expression was grave.

While these few people seemed to still have combat effectiveness, they were actually all heavily injured and at the end of their rope.

After his team separated from Ling Hanbai, they had crossed through the West and were preparing to head North.

Along the way, they had killed some stray beasts and even snatched a few sets of wooden tokens.

Who would have thought that just as they reached the junction of the North and West, Si Puyu's divine sense would discover thirty or so beasts chasing six disciples.

Looking at the light on those disciples, it was clearly the effect of yellow-rank high-grade Swift-Walk Talismans.

However, the light was nearly dissipated, and those disciples hadn't brought out a second talisman to replace it.

Si Puyu immediately realized that these disciples had been chased for too long and had run out of the Swift-Walk Talismans they had exchanged for at Talisman Peak.

After weighing the strength of those beasts, Si Puyu immediately chose the former between saving them and running or staying to fight.

Those beasts clearly looked wrong. Although his team was the strongest group aside from Ruiyu Pavilion, with so few people, they couldn't just brute-force their way through so many higher-level beasts.

So, he immediately led his team to stall the beasts behind them for a moment and gave those six disciples new Swift-Walk Talismans to replace their spent ones.

Those six disciples were injured, and pills were useless against their wounds.

Although Si Puyu still felt a bit awkward about Gu Ningyun, he was never one to hesitate when it came to important matters.

He immediately sent a message to Gu Ningyun while fleeing, requesting support and treatment.

Just as he finished sending the message and was waiting for a response, a familiar vibration came from the front right, merging with the sound of the beasts' footsteps behind them.

Si Puyu checked with his divine sense, and with that one look, even someone as mild-mannered as him was wide-eyed with horror.

The cause was none other than the source of that vibration—another forty or so beasts.

The ten or so disciples being chased also looked terrified when they saw the beasts behind Si Puyu.

They had originally split up to run and seek support, hoping to break the beast pack into smaller groups.

Unfortunately, their strength was insufficient, and being chased by the beasts had caused them to lose their direction and composure, leading them to unknowingly collide with another team.

With pursuers in front and behind, and the beasts closing in fast, turning to run left or right would surely result in being caught.

Combined, there were only about twenty of them, including the wounded.

If they were caught by these eighty-plus beasts, they would likely face nothing but death.

Si Puyu immediately brought out his final trump card, a yellow-rank top-grade defense array, to shield everyone inside.

The moment the array was deployed, it was hit by a pincer attack from the beasts in front and behind. It vibrated violently, and the protective shield's light diminished at a visible rate.

Everyone's faces turned pale. If the defense array shattered, their identity tokens would be their final line of defense.

But Perfected Person Ye had said that the shields from their identity jade tokens could only last for fifteen minutes. In such a short time, how could they possibly shake off this pack of frenzied beasts?

To hold out longer, they were forced to attack through the defense array.

However, the speed at which they killed the beasts was far slower than the rate at which the defense array was being damaged, not to mention they had wounded to care for!

By the time they had killed about ten beasts, leaving seventy remaining, the first eight injured disciples had fallen unconscious, their lips pale from excessive blood loss.

Si Puyu immediately changed tactics, having a few Qi Refining level three disciples bandage their wounds while he led the other level four disciples to continue the defense.

It was also at this time that those level three disciples finally had a chance to collectively send Gu Ningyun messages requesting treatment, even transferring their points to her.

When they didn't get an immediate reply from Gu Ningyun, they also sent messages to Fu Mingzhi, Jun Luo, Ling Hanbai, and others. It was only then that Gu Ningyun learned of the situation through Fu Mingzhi.

As for why they didn't send a message to Zhu Zijin, who was also a sword cultivator...

According to the two disciples who were first being chased, they were members of Zhu Zijin's team. Aside from them, Zhu Zijin had also led a pack of beasts away and was likely struggling to save himself at this moment.

As the damage to the defense array increased, Si Puyu and the other level four disciples also began to sustain injuries.

Finally, the first breach was torn in the defense array.

Hearing the cries of the disciples behind him, Si Puyu looked back and saw a red-eyed brute bull charging through the hole toward an unconscious disciple.

He didn't have time to think and instinctively struck out with his sword. A red fire-attribute sword qi cut halfway through the beast's neck, stalling it for a moment.

He turned and struck again. With the sound of searing flesh, he finally severed the beast's head from its body.

The beasts' attacks were too fierce to allow for repairing the array, so Si Puyu had to bring another person over to guard the breach together.

With the first breach came a second and a third. Gradually, every hole was guarded by two or three disciples.

Just as every disciple capable of movement was stationed at a breach, a sudden cracking sound came from Si Puyu's left rear.

The disciple beside Si Puyu spotted the anomaly immediately and shouted a warning, "Senior Brother Si, watch out behind you!"

At that moment, Si Puyu's sword was stuck in the neck of a rank one peak wild boar. Sensing the movement beside him, he glanced over out of the corner of his eye.

A mountain goat taller than a person had broken through the protective shield, its blood-red, sharp horns aimed straight for his eyes.

Gu Ningyun arrived at that exact moment.