Due to the presence of three non-flying baggage—Chris, John, and Alba—it wasn't until dusk that Su Chan and Zhou Qin finally reached Mount Huang. Although Chris, John, and Alba couldn't fly, with the assistance of Su Chan and Zhou Qin, they managed to slip into the already closed Mount Huang scenic area quite smoothly.

For Chris, John, and Alba, this was their first sight of Mount Huang, heralded as the foremost mountain under heaven. Even though it was evening, bathed in the blood-red sunset, the magnificent and spectacular Huangshan seemed draped in a crimson veil, still radiating a unique charm and grandeur.

Chris and the others were utterly mesmerized, almost forgetting their original purpose along the way. They widened their eyes, constantly snapping photos with the cameras in their hands.

Zhou Qin and Su Chan, however, were not in the mood for sightseeing. Su Chan glanced around and asked Zhou Qin, "Sister Zhou Qin, where exactly is Songgu Nunnery?" Zhou Qin looked up.

Seeing a map signpost not far away, she hurried over, took a quick look, and said, "We are currently in the Yuping Scenic Area. Songgu Nunnery is in the Songgu Scenic Area, quite a distance from here.

Let's hurry before it gets completely dark; traveling will be much harder then." Su Chan nodded. "You're right, let's get going!" Zhou Qin turned to Chris and said, "We need to make it to Songgu Nunnery.

You'll all need to quicken your pace and keep up. Can you manage that?" Before Chris could reply, John heartily slapped his chest with a resounding thud: "No problem, we can definitely keep up!" Zhou Qin gave a dismissive smile.

"We'll see about that," she said. With that, she nodded to Su Chan, and the two girls instantly darted forward, vanishing several meters away in the blink of an eye.

John, Alba, and Chris were dumbstruck. Alba gaped, exclaiming, "Good God, are they spirit monkeys?" John’s eyes also widened.

"No, they're Superwomen!" Chris, after her initial surprise, suddenly felt an intense surge of excitement. A sharp glint flashed in her eyes as she declared, "They're challenging us!

Come on, let's follow, we can't lose!" John immediately cheered, rolling up his fists, and charged ahead, with Chris and Alba following closely behind. Zhou Qin and Su Chan moved with astonishing speed.

Zhou Qin mostly ran, sprinting wildly up the stone-stepped mountain path like a leopard, while Su Chan was graceful, frequently leaping and climbing, preferring the shortest path between two points—truly resembling a nimble fox. At first, Chris and the others could barely keep up, but soon, they could only gaze longingly at the receding figures of Su Chan and Zhou Qin.

Alba, in particular, though a cheerleader from Pennsylvania, was a delicate girl. After running a few miles, she felt like her lungs were about to explode, panting heavily and completely unable to match their pace.

Alba gasped for breath, moaning in pain, "God, they aren't human! How can anyone keep up?" Chris was also struggling for breath, but she still turned back to encourage Alba.

"Alba, come on, just a little longer, we’re almost there!" Alba said with a pained expression, "I can't run anymore, I really can't!" Seeing Alba on the verge of collapsing to her knees, Chris had no choice but to turn toward Zhou Qin in the distance and shout loudly, "Zhou Qin, wait up!" Chris's voice was clear, carrying far in the quiet mountain valley at dusk, sounding jarringly loud. Zhou Qin stopped instantly, then quickly ran back.

Despite her intense exertion, her face remained unchanged, her breathing steady, her expression normal. She asked, "What's wrong?" Chris said with a bitter smile, "Alba can't run anymore.

Can you all slow down?" Zhou Qin adopted a serious expression. "If you truly want to learn cultivation, you must remember one thing: cultivation is present in every moment of your life!

If you can't persist through something this minor, how can you cultivate? Ask her if she genuinely wants to cultivate.

If not, it’s not too late to turn back now. If she does, then she must keep following, overcoming every hardship and difficulty with grit!" Chris looked troubled.

"But..." Before she could finish, Zhou Qin turned without another word and continued running forward. Chris exchanged a look of helplessness with John.

John shrugged, helped Alba up, and said, "Never mind, I'll help her along. Let's hope they slow down so we can catch up." Chris sighed.

She glanced at Mount Huang, which was rapidly being swallowed by the approaching night, and suddenly felt as if she had entered a completely unfamiliar world. She murmured softly, "I hope I haven't made the wrong choice..." With that, she forced herself to rally her spirits and said, "Let's go, we can't let them look down on us!" Encouraged by John, Alba gritted her teeth and forced herself to follow.

Zhou Qin and Su Chan noticed that the other three were moving far too slowly, so they reluctantly moderated their pace. Yet, even so, John and Chris were driven to the brink of collapse by their speed, while Alba stumbled along, looking as if she might cry from the pain, eventually moving as slowly as a snail climbing.

The five walked on for a while longer, and soon the sky was completely dark. Alba finally couldn't take it anymore, slumping onto the cold stone steps and wailing, "Jesus Christ, someone save me!

I can’t walk another step! Just kill me!" John and Chris were drenched in sweat, looking as if they’d just been fished out of a boiling pot.

Even the strong John was gasping for air, wishing he could just collapse on the ground and never get up again. At that moment, Su Chan cast a minor fire spell and found a torch for light.

Zhou Qin walked up to them and asked the gasping Chris, "Can you still go on?" Chris couldn't pretend anymore. She waved her hand, intending to speak, but her mouth was too dry to form words.

Zhou Qin frowned slightly. "This isn't good enough?" John said, his face miserable, "Is this how you cultivate?

This—this is too painful!" Su Chan walked over with the torch. "You call this pain?

Do you know the hardships Sister Zhou Qin endured on her journey of cultivation? She nearly lost her life several times!

Yet, didn't she overcome it? Cultivation demands constantly challenging yourself to surpass your limits.

You can’t handle this little difficulty, and you still want to ask my Master Yundong to take you as a disciple? Dream on!" John and Chris exchanged a look.

John whispered, "Chris, can you still walk? I can pull you along?" Chris shook her head stubbornly.

"No, I'll walk myself. Help Alba." Alba cried out, "No, no!

Don't walk anymore, even if you kill me!" She promptly lay down on the cold ground, adopting a posture of absolute refusal. Seeing this, Su Chan whispered to Zhou Qin, "Sister Zhou Qin, this won't work.

How long will this take? If it were just the two of us, we'd already be there!

What if we reach Songgu Nunnery, and Yundong has already left!" Zhou Qin pondered for a moment. "How about we have them wait here?

We'll leave a marker and come back for them later?" Chris and John, overhearing their conversation, were greatly alarmed and quickly said, "No way! We came together, we go together!

It's so late, you can't leave us here alone! Aren't you worried something will happen?" Zhou Qin looked towards Alba.

"What about her? Isn't she the one refusing to move?" Chris offered a wry smile.

"I'll try persuading her again." She turned back to Alba and spoke quietly, but no matter what Chris said, Alba covered her ears, shook her head desperately, refusing to get up. Seeing this, Chris gritted her teeth and said to John, "John, let's go, forget about her." John was shocked.

"What? Leaving Alba here by herself?" Chris sneered.

"Who told her to come with us alone? This is her choice!

She shouldn't wander off. We'll come back for her later." John was furious and about to argue, but he noticed Chris give him a meaningful look.

A flicker of understanding crossed John's mind, and he bit back his words. He said to Alba, "Alba, wait for us here.

We’ll come back for you." He left some of his personal belongings and rations with Alba, then followed Zhou Qin, Su Chan, and Chris as they melted into the deepening night. At first, Alba didn't believe they dared to abandon her.

But after a while, she found herself surrounded by pitch-black darkness where she couldn't see her own hand. The sounds of birds and insects chirping from the jungle filled the air, and she felt as if some unseen beast was lurking in the shadows, scrutinizing her, sending chills down her spine.

Alba remembered the jokes John and Chris had made on the plane and thought with a start: Could they have actually left me? Humans are naturally social creatures, most fearing solitude, especially in the darkness of the night.

Alba held out for only a short while before nearly breaking down. She couldn't help but cry out, stumbling along, weeping as she followed them.

Not long after running, she saw Su Chan, Zhou Qin, Chris, and John waiting at a bend in the path, looking at her with half-smiles. Though Alba knew she had been tricked, she was still shaken.

Crying, she followed them onward, climbing over mountains and traversing ridges, no longer daring to complain about the hardship. The group walked on for another while, and as they neared the Songgu Scenic Area, the exhausted Chris, looking up and gasping heavily, suddenly spotted several streaks of blue light flashing across the horizon.

With a touch of grim humor, she pointed at the sky and said, "Look quickly, shooting stars!" John and Alba looked up breathlessly, but before they could smile, they heard Su Chan exclaim in surprise, "Cultivators are coming?" Zhou Qin’s expression also grew serious. "It seems so.

I wonder which sect they belong to." Chris and John exchanged puzzled glances, not understanding what the two were talking about, merely listening as the conversation continued between them. Su Chan sighed.

"How much farther is it to Songgu Nunnery? Why does it feel like we're running a horse to death just looking at the destination?" Zhou Qin also sighed softly.

"It should be close. But I think we should be more concerned about who those people were who just flew by." Su Chan thought for a moment.

"Could it be Sister Ziyuan?" Zhou Qin instinctively shook her head. "Probably not.

If it were her, she would have arrived long ago, or not at all. She wouldn't be arriving now." No sooner had she finished speaking than a cold snort echoed from the dark forest not far away.

Chris and John instantly turned anxiously toward the source of the sound and challenged hostilely, "Who's there?" Zhou Qin and Su Chan, however, were all too familiar with that sound. They simultaneously cried out in surprise, "Ziyuan?" Sure enough, a woman in a white dress slowly emerged from the night.

In the dim light, Ziyuan’s figure was slightly ethereal. The cold moonlight illuminated her cheeks, making her expression look quite stern, completely unlike her usual gentle demeanor.

Su Chan and Zhou Qin exchanged glances, looking like two children caught doing something wrong by a parent, and offered awkward smiles. Su Chan chuckled sheepishly.

"Sister Ziyuan, what are you doing here?" Ziyuan glared at her with obvious annoyance, then quickly glanced at Zhou Qin, before hissing sharply, "Why am I here? You two should be the ones answering that question!

Didn't Li Yundong tell you not to follow? Why didn't you listen?" Zhou Qin’s mind worked quickly, and she retorted playfully, "But you came too, didn't you?" Ziyuan bristled.

"I came to bring you back!" Zhou Qin resolutely said, "But the result is the same, isn't it? You're here anyway." Ziyuan was angry.

"You..." Seeing the situation escalating, Su Chan quickly intervened to smooth things over. "Sister Ziyuan, please don't be angry.

We know we were wrong, but since it's already happened, let's not talk about it anymore. Have you found Yundong?" Ziyuan snorted and turned her face away.

"No!" Seeing that Ziyuan had dropped the issue, Zhou Qin breathed a silent sigh of relief and seized the opportunity to ease out of the confrontation, saying, "Were those figures flying overhead just now cultivators?" Though displeased, Ziyuan did not wish to strain her relationship with Zhou Qin, so she said, "Probably. I saw them heading in the direction of Songgu Nunnery.

I visited Songgu Nunnery once before and found the abbot's disciple, Lin Xueqing, but she claimed that both Li Yundong and Wan Zhenyuan weren't there." "What?" Su Chan and Zhou Qin exclaimed in unison. Ziyuan frowned slightly.

"I found that very strange. I felt like they were lying, concealing something." Su Chan considered it.

"Should we go to Songgu Nunnery again? Perhaps the people we saw just now were Yundong and Sect Master Wan?" Ziyuan thought it over.

"That's fine. We'll do that.

It's not far from here anyway." She then looked at Chris and the others, a kind smile appearing on her face. "It wasn't easy for you to follow this far.

Can you manage a little more?" John, Chris, and Alba exchanged glances. Chris bit her lip and said, "No problem!" Ziyuan nodded and took the lead, continuing forward.

The group walked for about another half hour, finally arriving near Songgu Nunnery. Chris and the others felt so exhausted their bodies seemed ready to fall apart, collapsing onto the ground like piles of mud.

Just as Ziyuan, Su Chan, and Zhou Qin moved to help them up, they suddenly heard voices drifting from the direction of the nunnery. The three women exchanged sharp glances, and with a single bound, they swiftly moved beside Songgu Nunnery, using the dense jungle for cover and the cold moonlight to observe.

Inside the gate of Songgu Nunnery, Zhong Qingsong looked at Zheng Yuan, who had just returned, with surprise. "Immortal Zheng, why are you back here?" Zheng Yuan laughed heartily.

"Brother Zhong, you're being dishonest!" Zhong Qingsong asked curiously, "Immortal Zheng, what are you talking about? Why am I being dishonest?" Zheng Yuan stared at Zhong Qingsong with a half-smile.

"Sect Master Wan is refining pills here on Tiandu Peak. You didn't even tell me something so important.

Do you call that honesty?" Zhong Qingsong was utterly shocked. "Immortal Zheng, what do you mean by that?

How could Sect Master Wan possibly be here?" Zheng Yuan burst into laughter. "You're still stubbornly refusing to tell me?

Hmph, and I always considered you a friend!" With that, he suddenly pulled out a jade ruyi scepter from his sleeve and roared, "Zhong Qingsong!" As his voice faded, several ferocious specters flew out of the jade ruyi, roaring as they lunged at Zhong Qingsong! Zhong Qingsong’s face drained of color in horror.

Just as he was about to turn and flee, he saw Lin Xueqing behind him staring at him with utter terror. Zhong Qingsong only managed to shout one warning to Lin Xueqing—"Run!"—before his three souls and seven spirits were dragged from his body by Zheng Yuan's Netherworld Five-Zhang Soul-Hooking Jade.

In an instant, Zheng Yuan collected Zhong Qingsong's soul and turned with a sinister grin toward the terrified Lin Xueqing, about to utter the soul-summoning phrase again. But he suddenly noticed that Lin Xueqing's eyes held a look of wild ecstasy, as if finding a sliver of hope in absolute despair, as she gazed toward the area behind him.

Zheng Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He turned and saw three beautiful, frightened faces partially concealed in the shadows of the jungle: Ziyuan, Su Chan, and Zhou Qin.

Zheng Yuan’s heart jolted upon seeing the three. He knew these women were rarely separated from Li Yundong.

Since they were here, Li Yundong must be nearby! Among the three, Su Chan and Zhou Qin had the closest ties to Li Yundong; he could capture them to threaten him.

Ziyuan was the strongest, however; if he could crush Ziyuan in one decisive move, capturing the other two would be inevitable! With this thought, Zheng Yuan let out a sinister laugh, ignoring Lin Xueqing entirely.

He roared at Ziyuan, "Ziyuan!" As his command rang out, the spirits within the Netherworld Five-Zhang Soul-Hooking Jade rushed furiously toward Ziyuan!