Chapter 448: Brewing Storm

"Why are you running all of a sudden?" Qu Ling chuckled as she casually flicked a finger through the air, releasing a streak of silver light that shot forth like lightning before vanishing into thin air.

In the next instant, it reappeared directly above the three nascent souls, revealing itself to be a small silver vial.

A burst of silver light surged out of the opening of the vial, instantly enveloping the three nascent souls, and the nearby space instantly became extremely heavy.

It was as if the three nascent souls had flown into a swamp, and they were barely able to move at all.

A vicious look appeared on the face of Xu Yangzi's nascent soul as it opened its mouth to release a tiny crimson dagger, which came slashing down upon its own head like lightning.

The nascent soul was instantly sliced into two, and one half of it was instantly set alight, transforming into a tiny fiery figure with countless crimson runes dancing within it.

The fiery figure reached out with both hands to grab onto the surrounding silver light, then brought its hands apart violently, tearing a gash into the silver light.

The other half of Xu Yangzi's nascent soul immediately flew out through the opening, following which the tiny red blade shattered, disintegrating into a ball of crimson light that enveloped this half of its nascent.

As a result, the nascent soul's speed was instantly increased by severalfold, and it vanished into the distant sky in the blink of an eye.

A hint of surprise flashed through Qu Ling's eyes upon seeing this, and it was already too late for her to try and intervene.

However, she paid no heed to this as she pointed a finger at the small silver vial, and it instantly sucked in the other two nascent souls.

Meanwhile, the mountain of ice shattered, and the giant white python carried the storage tools of all of the True Flame Sect cultivators to Qu Ling on its head.

Qu Ling inspected the contents of the storage tools briefly with his spiritual sense, then gave a pleased nod before stowing them away, following which she patted the giant python on the head as she praised, "Well done today."

A fawning look instantly appeared in the giant python's eyes as it bobbed its head at Qu Ling, then transformed into a streak of white light that flew into a small white pouch strapped to her waist.

The huge azure silkworm also flew over to her before vanishing into another pouch that she was carrying as a streak of azure light.

In the next instant, Qu Ling flew onto the back of the golden beetle, and it asked her in a rather tender voice, "Should we keep going?"

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"You are the fastest of the three, yet both of the other two intervened to intercept the escaping nascent souls, so why didn't you do anything?" Qu Ling asked as a cold look flashed through her eyes.

"With your powers, if you really wanted to intercept those nascent souls, you could've done so with ease without my help," the golden beetle scoffed in response.

"Don't think that you can just keep getting away with blatant disobedience like this! I'm only pampering you because you have decent potential, but don't mistake my kindness for weakness!" Qu Ling scolded in a cold voice.

The golden beetle merely buzzed in response, paying no heed to her thinly veiled threat.

A hint of anger flashed through Qu Ling's eyes, but she was unexpectedly tolerant of the golden beetle, and she quickly suppressed her anger as she instructed, "Keep going."

The golden beetle didn't say anything else, either, and it continued onward as a streak of golden light.

Qu Ling sat down onto its back, then cast her gaze toward the green gourd in her hand.

A burst of azure light flashed from the opening of the gourd at her behest, and the eight crimson flags flew out before landing in her grasp, upon which a hint of excitement appeared on her face.

"What's the big deal? It's just some crappy gourd," the golden beetle scoffed.

"This is no ordinary gourd! All Profound Heavenly Treasures are born from heaven and earth and contain unmatched power. They are true Essential Immortal Treasures, and this gourd has already been growing here for countless years. The law powers nurtured within it are the most fundamental secret of this realm, and it's certainly going to be even more formidable than the average Profound Heavenly Treasure!

“I still haven't even refined it yet, and it's already displaying such immense power. Once I have a chance to refine and examine it further, it'll be sure to serve me even better."

Qu Ling's voice sounded quite calm and collected, but there was definitely an underlying hint of excitement.

"I didn't know this gourd was that impressive. How remarkable!" the golden beetle chuckled.

"In any case, I really made the right decision to come here. With this Profound Heavenly Treasure in my possession, the High Zenith Pill will surely be mine! Once I reach the High Zenith Stage and master this treasure, there's a chance I could even ascend to the Great Encompassment Stage in the future! As long as you pledge your absolute loyalty to me, I'll be sure to treat you well," Qu Ling said in an excited voice.

"I'll be thanking you in advance then," the golden beetle replied in an indifferent manner, seemingly unimpressed.

Qu Ling's brows furrowed slightly with displeasure, and she harrumphed coldly, "What an ungrateful little rascal you are!"

She then paid no further heed to the golden beetle as she continued to examine the green gourd in her hand.

All of a sudden, her expression changed slightly as her gaze fell upon the opening of the gourd.

The gourd was entirely green in color as if it had been carved out of a chunk of jade, but the coloration around the gourd's opening was clearly a little light, indicating that it hadn't completely matured yet.

Looks like I harvested it too early, and it's still quite some years away from reaching full maturity. In any case, once I leave this place, I can find some suitable spirit soil and spirit liquid to nurture it, and a million years should be enough for it to mature.

She had found this green gourd in a medicine garden, and she had been ecstatic to stumble upon it. She knew that it hadn't completely matured, but after some consideration, she still decided to harvest it right away.

She knew that harvesting the gourd prior to full maturity was definitely going to have some type of negative impact upon it, but she certainly wasn't going to wait for the next emergence of the immortal manor. Who knew if the gourd would still be there waiting for her next time?

......

In the sky above a crimson mountain, the Vast Flow Palace cultivators were flying through the air.

They were arranged in a line, collectively forming a long streak of blue light that resembled a giant dragon as they raced through the air.

The crimson mountain down below was filled with lush vegetation, among which there was no lack of spirit plants that were giving immense spiritual power fluctuations.

Some of the True Immortal cultivators of the Vast Flow Palace were clearly tempted to make a detour to scoop up some of the spirit plants below, but Luo Qinghai showed no intention of stopping as he continued onward without pause.

As a result, no one else could stop to search for treasures, and the fair-skinned scholar beside Luo Qinghai said, "I don't think we need to be in such a hurry, Palace Master. Some of the spirit plants down below are quite useful, even to the likes of ourselves."

"Trust me, Junior Martial Brother, I have my reasons for doing this," Luo Qinghai replied.

The fair-skinned scholar faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response before falling silent.

......

Meanwhile, the cultivators of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace were currently standing in front of a blue palace.

The palace was shimmering with spiritual light, and there were clearly many precious treasures inside.

All of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace cultivators were looking at the palace with intense longing in their eyes, while Xiao Jinhan had his hands clasped behind his back as he declared in an indifferent voice, "You can go in, but you only have 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes are up, we set off right away."

All of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace cultivators immediately gave affirmative responses before flying inside, while Xiao Jinhan remained at the entrance of the palace, looking into the distance with a contemplative look in his eyes.

......

Within a gray cloud, a gray flying boat was racing through the air.

Bursts of black light were flashing within the gray cloud like arcs of black lightning, but all of it was kept at bay by a light barrier around the flying boat.

The Dawn Fall Sect cultivators were seated in the cabin of the boat, with Feng Tiandu situated at the center, while everyone else was arranged around him in a circular formation.

Hints of gray light were emanating from their bodies, and it seemed that they were using some type of secret technique.

A long while later, Feng Tiandu's eyes suddenly sprang open, while his brows furrowed tightly.

"How could this be? I can't detect the auras of those two Origin Separation Law Chains at all now... Where could he have gone?" he murmured to himself with a contemplative look on his face.

......

Elsewhere in the immortal manor, a ball of crimson light was flying through a vast sea of clouds in the sky at an extraordinary speed.

The ball of light contained none other than Daoist Hu Yan and Yun Ni, and both of them wore serious expressions as they flew along in silence.

......

In the sky above a swamp, the group of Southern Dawn beings had been surrounded by a flock of strange yellow birds.

These birds were around 40 to 50 feet in length with green fleshy lumps on their heads and extremely sharp beaks and talons.

Individually, they weren't particularly powerful, but there were hundreds of them, and they were as fast as lightning.

The Southern Dawn beings were far more powerful than these birds, but they were still trapped here, unable to make any progress.

......

At this point, everyone had already been in the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor for quite some time, and many people had already reaped significant rewards or fallen to their demise.

In the Boundless Sand Sea, the azure flying boat continued to race through the air, while Han Li stood at the bow of the boat, scouring his surroundings with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.

Lu Yuqing was standing beside him, holding the jade slip that contained the map of the area.

Their unhealthy red complexions had already faded, and it was clear that they had already found a water spirit area that had allowed them to alleviate their fire poisoning.

Even though they would be slowly poisoned again after leaving the water spirit area, as long as they planned out a good route that would allow them to make regular stops at water spirit areas along the way, there shouldn't be any problems.

Hence, the fire poison that the Boundless Sand Sea was extremely notorious for didn't actually pose much of a threat to them.

At this point, the two of them had already ventured quite deep into the Boundless Sand Sea, and they weren't far away from the pathway leading to the other region.

All of a sudden, Han Li's attention was drawn to his right, where there seemed to be another oasis on the distant horizon.