Moreover, these people are enough to pose a threat to me. If they were to kidnap someone by my side to coerce me, I wouldn’t have enough strength to contend with them.

That would be a real tragedy!

With a hint of regret, Xiao Tian turned around, his gaze gentle as he watched the two beauties, a genuine smile emerging at the corner of his lips. After walking over to them, he softly said, "I really owe you two for this time!"

The two blushed, both feeling a bit warm inside. To personally rescue the one they love and be acknowledged for it is a gratifying thing for anyone.

Seeing Lin Bingxuan and Melinda now reverted to their little girl postures, Celestial Punishment Daoist could no longer bear the contrast and collapsed to the ground, a trace of fear in his eyes.

From the moment they suddenly appeared, to Saintly Sea Daoist spitting blood and retreating, it all happened in a mere blink. Although there was an element of taking advantage here,

to be able to simultaneously sneak past so many people and silently approach Saintly Sea Daoist, merely in terms of this body technique, no one present could achieve it, even if Daoist Tianxing were there, chances of failure would still be high!

Celestial Punishment Daoist of course didn’t know that their ability to approach Saintly Sea Daoist undetected was entirely credited to the invisibility jade pendant.

Recalling the past unpleasantness between them, Celestial Punishment Daoist couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart. If the other party were to settle scores with him now, it would be effortless to kill him.

Fortunately, Lin Bingxuan and Melinda seemed to have no intention of causing him trouble, which made Celestial Punishment Daoist secretly breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, he noticed that the backbone of the four, Xiao Tian, had disappeared from the scene.

...

In a remote place, Xiao Tian was enduring immense pain. After his power had temporarily surged significantly, the side effects followed suit.

After notifying those involved initially, he immediately ran to a deserted place to endure alone the backlash of pain on his body after his true qi was exhausted.

Xiao Tian now felt as if thousands of silver needles were piercing his entire body constantly. The nerves in various parts, due to the intense stimulation, began to tremble spontaneously.

This was actually the body’s self-protection mechanism beginning to take effect, gradually resolving the pain bit by bit.

In fact, Xiao Tian could entirely use acupoint pressing to temporarily block the sensation of pain, or even simply allow himself to faint, but he didn’t do so.

It’s not that he is a masochist, rather because, on one hand, he doesn’t know if it will lead to other consequences.

And on the other, he wanted to use this pain to spur himself, striving for a day when he wouldn’t need this external boost to enhance his abilities!

The omnipresent intense pain made Xiao Tian have multiple thoughts of knocking himself out, but he forcibly restrained them all. This was also a form of tempering his willpower. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

...

Finally, when the backlash ceased, the place where Xiao Tian lay, due to the sweat that came out during this period, had already turned into a small puddle. He took deep breaths of the fresh yet cold air.

After struggling to down a bottle of potion to accelerate the recovery of true qi, he no longer even had the strength to move a finger.

The potion went straight to the dantian, which was like a dry well, injecting a stream of true qi energy into it, allowing it to slowly begin to restore itself, gradually starting to achieve self-circulation ability.

Soon, when the true qi spontaneously circulated three grand circulations along the Iron Chain Cross River heart method, Xiao Tian’s pale face gradually turned rosy, and he had the strength to stand up.

However, as he was now, Xiao Tian couldn’t possibly think of fighting again. Unless aided by Lin Bingxuan, he could only rely on his physical strength and skills to confront the enemy.

Although his physical strength alone could be considered formidable, using true qi and not using true qi are two completely opposite extremes, with a gap that is immediately distinguishable!

After all, just because you can’t use true qi, doesn’t mean others will come up to brawl with you, right?!

——

At a glance, Xiao Tian walked over, and Lin Bingxuan and Melinda quickly went to meet him. The former immediately sent an Endless Life into him to help him quickly calm the backlash.

"We, we..."

The fallen Celestial Punishment Daoist stammered and failed to speak before Xiao Tian coldly glanced at him and then shifted his gaze to the other three.

He looked as if he planned to continue on the road, seemingly completely ignoring the more than twenty people tied up there.

Seeing Xiao Tian really seemed uninterested in them, Lei Tong and his brother felt a bit anxious and both spoke up, "Wait!"

Xiao Tian’s steps halted, his eyes turning back full of coldness, as if saying, I have already given you a lot of face by not confronting you, is courting death really your style?!

Xiao Tian’s reaction immediately made the Lei Tong brothers realize the issue with their tone, and they quickly softened it before saying, "If you’re looking for the Five Elements Crystal, we can join you!"

Lei Tong’s words caused Xiao Tian a moment of surprise, but he quickly thought of the previous cooperation between the Kunlun Sect and Ghost Face, so it wasn’t surprising they know about the Five Elements Crystal, but...

"Can you speak one at a time?" Xiao Tian frowned and said. These two speaking simultaneously always gave him a very odd feeling, making him quite uncomfortable.

"Alright, alright!"

Xiao Tian’s display of willingness to talk made the two very excited, quickly agreeing, but then they immediately stopped speaking.

After a moment, the elder brother, Master Lei, stepped forward and said, "I am an elder of the Kunlun Sect; you can call me Lei. Behind me is my twin..."

"Stop!" Xiao Tian raised a hand to stop him and said, "I don’t have time to figure out who you are. Just get to the point."

Master Lei’s face showed an awkward expression, and he quickly said, "Earlier, there might have been some misunderstandings causing some unpleasant incidents between us. If possible, we’d like to continue our cooperation!"

"Ha, people with no basic sense of contract spirit, are they even fit to talk about cooperation?!" Xiao Tian said sarcastically, "What do you have that is worth my trust?!"

The Lei Tong brothers’ faces alternated between red and white, yet they couldn’t refute Xiao Tian’s words. In their hearts, they had already cursed Celestial Punishment Daoist and Yun You, a pair who were more trouble than help.

"We can share our sect’s secret techniques with you. Additionally, the previously agreed-upon research outcome sharing can be changed to a unilateral supply, and we will offer a reasonable price!"

Seeing Xiao Tian and the others looking ready to leave again, Master Lei hurriedly proposed a near-unequal treaty.

This way, should the other party nod and agree, it would mean they were essentially serving as free labor this trip, and any finished products Ghost Face would research in the future would also have to be bought, an offer so favorable it’s unbelievable!

Even so, Master Lei still felt uneasy. Now it wasn’t merely a matter of equal terms; even with favorable conditions, the other party might not necessarily agree!