Xu Jin's form went outside, and he looked at the man surrounded by wild men.
Chu Xingchen's face was full of smiles. From his spatial ring, he took out food and began distributing it to the surrounding wild men, deliberately giving one of them a double portion.
Seeing more and more wild men gather around, Chu Xingchen finished distributing what was in his hands, and waved:
"Make some room. I still have to find someone. You all go divide things up yourselves."
The wild men quickly scattered, opening a path. With the supplies in their hands, they dispersed.
Chu Xingchen lightly clapped his hands, lifted his gaze, and with a smile on his face looked at the disbelieving Xu Jin.
"Long time no see. With you hiding away here, you really were hard to find."
"Good thing I met these locals. They said there was a strange-looking fool, and I knew at once it was you."
Xu Jin's gaze probed twice, and found that it seemed Chu Xingchen had come alone. But what puzzled him most was:
"You can communicate with them?"
"You can't? It hasn't been that long since we last met. To think that the current disciple of the Xuanqing Heavenly Sect has slipped this far."
"But aren't they repelled by spiritual energy? Could it be that you can understand their language?"
Chu Xingchen tilted his head slightly. Wan Ban You, in its embroidery-needle state, faintly glowed with purple light. A profound Dao rhyme circulated, and he chuckled:
"Just use the advanced version of illusion. They have no cultivation at all. Forget communication — even without speaking, I could make them do somersaults."
Xu Jin was momentarily speechless. Was divine-ability-level illusion also called "the advanced version"?
This level of skill was truly not something anyone could achieve.
"My skills are naturally not as great as yours." Xu Jin did not dwell on this further, but quickly pointed to the wild man at his side.
"Hurry over and communicate. This man seems to know the reason the demon beasts have gone mad."
Hearing this, Chu Xingchen was somewhat puzzled. But seeing Xu Jin's anxious expression, he still stepped forward.
The purple light of Wan Ban at his side slowly enveloped the middle-aged wild man.
The wild man's expression was at first slightly terrified, then grew curious, and finally his face cleared in sudden understanding as he began speaking in his local tongue:
"Gu-la-hong, du-ji-zuai..."
Chu Xingchen nodded as he listened.
Xu Jin looked suspiciously at Chu Xingchen, who was communicating without a hitch. Was this the look of someone who did not understand?
The middle-aged wild man grew more and more passionate as he spoke, gesturing wildly, mixing drawings and movements to express himself.
Chu Xingchen quickly raised his hand to signal him to be quiet.
"What did he say?" Xu Jin asked.
Chu Xingchen looked at Xu Jin with a strange expression:
"He says this is an ancient trial. When the trial passes, he will gain the acknowledgment of his ancestors, and will become immensely strong."
Xu Jin was stunned. He then used spiritual energy to bring out the moon ritual array diagram he had drawn:
"Then what about this? Is it not a ritual array?"
Chu Xingchen motioned for the middle-aged wild man to look.
Seeing that drawing, the wild man once again put on a knowing expression, speaking and gesturing at length. In the end, he extended his fingers and counted for Xu Jin once more.
Chu Xingchen gave a light nod and translated: "By his description, it does indeed resemble a ritual array."
Hearing this, Xu Jin let out a breath of relief. He had not waited here for over ten days in vain. He hurriedly asked:
"Is it not so that it will open in some twenty-odd days?"
Chu Xingchen's gaze went to the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man once again extended his fingers and began gesturing.
"Close enough." Chu Xingchen gave a light nod.
"Change the unit from days to years, and it's about right."
"Twenty-odd years?" Xu Jin's eyes went wide as he looked at the middle-aged wild man, whose expression was one of pride.
His voice was shocked:
"He stopped me for over twenty years? And he gestured so quickly for twenty-odd years?"
"He thinks you are someone who once passed the ancient trial... that you have come to save the tribe and take them along to become strong. Also, he wants you to honestly eat their delicious food."
The more Chu Xingchen spoke, the deeper his brow furrowed. In the end, he looked at Xu Jin with a face full of disgust:
"Don't tell me you ate that live roast rat?"
Xu Jin immediately refuted this. To be saddled with a reputation for liking to eat rats would be even harder to accept than waiting twenty-odd years for nothing.
"I am a Body Integration cultivator. I have long since forgone food. Even if I were to eat, why would I eat a rat whose hair hasn't even been removed?"
Hearing this, Chu Xingchen shrugged with a knowing expression, his look somewhat thoughtful.
"I really didn't eat it!"
"Oh..."
"Chu Xingchen, you don't believe me, do you?"
"I believe you. Believe me."
"I don't believe you!"
"Believe what you like." A smile rose on Chu Xingchen's face.
"Alright, no more wasting time. Yanyun and Yuyang Dao Son don't have twenty-odd years to waste with us."
Xu Jin hurriedly asked: "They've come too?"
"Your grand elder has come too. He's probably still at Pu Du River blocking people. When I came, I heard Yuyang Dao Son had smashed the Righteous Sound Dharma Temple through and through."
Chu Xingchen looked toward the Endless Sea:
"According to that local, when the night moon casts its reflection upon the full moon over the sea, that is when the hidden place opens."
"These twenty years spoken of by the locals are likely the time this ritual array needs to absorb the power of moonlight. After all, the spiritual energy here is so scarce that it is truly hard to believe."
Hearing this, Xu Jin naturally understood just how great this operation was, and did not dare waste any time:
"Then how do we charge this ritual array?"
Chu Xingchen rubbed his chin, his gaze going to Xu Jin:
"You don't have food on you, but you should at least have spirit stones and moonlight crystals, right?"
Hearing this, Xu Jin could only silently extend a spatial ring toward Chu Xingchen.
"Many thanks to Boss Xu Jin for his great contribution toward saving all living beings. In the future, the masses will surely hang a banner in your honor."
Chu Xingchen took it and began rummaging through the spirit stones. "Don't worry, whatever's left I'll return to you."
Xu Jin simply pretended not to have heard this.
The banknotes from last time had been promised with the same words, and afterward not even a shadow had been seen again.
Chu Xingchen held the spirit stones in his hand, his gaze going to the middle-aged local. After waiting a moment and confirming the position, he led Xu Jin toward the Endless Sea.
Aside from constructing the visual field Chu Xingchen wished to construct, illusion could also cause the recipient to automatically recall scenes from their memory. As long as the recipient's cultivation was low enough, these could be observed by the caster.
This was the Baiqing Method — Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
Above the Endless Sea.
Chu Xingchen looked out at the vast ocean, his divine sense reaching outward. At the same time, he controlled the spirit stones and moonlight crystals, releasing his own spiritual power and moonlight to scatter in all directions.
Since it was absorption, by following the absorption trail, they could also capture the precise location of this ritual array.
The light of the spirit stones drifted down like shimmering mist. Moonlight poured down even in broad day.
Faint points of light flickered softly above the Endless Sea.
Xu Jin stood at Chu Xingchen's side. His divine sense also reached outward, but he detected no movement at all.
As if sensing something, Chu Xingchen reached out and grabbed Xu Jin's arm. Multicolored light swirled.
Blood from Xu Jin's wrist drifted down, falling toward the Endless Sea.
"What are you doing?" Xu Jin did not understand.
Chu Xingchen replied with a face full of earnestness:
"There's a folk remedy called 'sacrifice a teammate to heaven, and your magic power shall be boundless.' I want to try it."
Xu Jin: "..."
He was just about to open his mouth to refute this, and at the same time prepare to give Chu Xingchen a punch, when he suddenly detected the fluctuation of moonlight.
Chu Xingchen watched the moonlight rapidly sinking, accompanied by Xu Jin's blood dissolving into the Endless Sea. He softly sighed:
"The folk remedy really does work best."
Xu Jin: "..."
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