Fang Xing and the golden crow had inadvertently heard something incredibly exciting. The Fiery Cloud, Shaken Cloud, and Black Swamp Tribes weren’t idiots, and the group of cultivators attacking the Sword Mound was so large they knew they wouldn’t be able to fend them off. Rather than fighting to the death, the three leaders left behind some disciples to repair the formation to stall for time while they broke off from the conflict to go inside and become the Sword Containers for the Sword Embryos. With this, they’d be able to take the Sword Embryos away from the Sword Mound and bring them to the young master of the Huangfu clan in the depths of the Mysterious Domain.

　　Such an action would require a great sacrifice, however. The leaders would need to draw the Sword Embryos into their bodies and forcibly split them away at a later date, causing their own foundations to break and their cultivation levels to fall considerably, potentially leaving them even weaker than ordinary Spirit Stage. They’d be effectively crippled, but the three of them had no other choice in the matter; if they were to lose all five Sword Embryos, their situation would become even more dire. They would be able to transfer three Sword Embryos at most with their abilities, but since the five were a set, this much was more than enough for the Huangfu clan’s young master to find the whereabouts of the remaining two in the future and he wouldn’t have to worry about never seeing them again.

　　The three young leaders’ actions were rather swift, but not careless. As soon as they saw the other cultivators gaining the upper hand, they’d immediately given up on defense and made the quick decision to flee with the Sword Embryos. Never would they imagine everything they’d just said and done would be seen and heard by Fang Xing.

　　Fang Xing didn’t stop the three of them, either, and simply exchanged glances with the golden crow. Both of them instantly knew what the other was thinking: only idiots would stop these young leaders rather than waiting for the moment they were at their weakest! With such unspoken mutual understanding, the man and bird took extra care not to make any noise from inside the crack, and Fang Xing released only a tiny amount of spirit sense to observe what was going on without alerting them.

　　There were three large monsters surrounding the three altars, each clearly belonging to the beast tribes. One of them was in third-tier Foundation Stage with an incredibly tall and wide physique, a flaming red cape at his back, and a similarly flame-red armor and lava-stoned boots on his body. Although his body was human, his head was that of a beast and incredibly ferocious—from this appearance, it was clear he was the young leader of the Fiery Cloud Tribe.

　　The second one in second-tier Foundation Stage had a thin and tall body adorned with a grey robe. Closer inspection would reveal the grey robe was knitted with multi-colored feathers, as well as the fact he had an eagle head atop a human body, demonstrating he was the young leader of the Shaken Cloud Tribe.

　　As for the third person, his appearance was the most abnormal. His torso was that of a human, but the lower part of his body was coiled up like a snake and had a strong resemblance to some kind of worm. Even the humanlike upper torso wasn’t normal, with a long, thin neck that led to a bizarrely shriveled head. It looked as though a few vine-like appendages were coiled around his neck, but a closer look would show that the five lengths were actually heads as well, giving him an extremely revolting appearance. It went without saying this was assuredly the young leader of the Black Swamp Tribe that had the bloodline of the Nine-Headed Worm.

　　When the three young leaders began to read the secret spell to guide the Sword Embryos into their bodies, Fang Xing began to quietly prepare. The Fiery Cloud leader chose the red-colored Sword Embryo, the Shaken Cloud leader chose the gold, and the Black Swamp leader chose the purple. All three of them consumed a bright red Blood Crystal Pellet in unison before beginning the process of guiding their spirit sense into the altars.

　　The altars began to shake, and the auras of the three chosen Sword Embryos shot up into the sky, showing they’d been successfully tamed. It was at this point Fang Xing understood the young master of the Huangfu clan intended to have all five Sword Embryos but wanted to study them a bit more, hence why he hadn’t taken them at the onset. As the young master of the Huangfu clan, it was guaranteed he had very talented and unique cultivators around him to thoroughly instruct him in formations, weapons, skills, and much more—the knowledge the young master had in regards to these five altars was something Fang Xing couldn’t match at all.

　　The ease with which the three leaders tamed the Sword Embryos showed just how thoroughly the Huangfu clan had investigated these Sword Embryos. And yet, why would this young master of the Huangfu clan so bizarrely leave these five Sword Embryos behind and choose to head towards the core of the Mysterious Domain as fast as possible instead?

　　It was likely another opportunity Fang Xing didn’t know about.

　　All told, information was extremely crucial in order to seize the opportunities within the Mysterious Domain, and such information had primarily come from the continent of Videha. After a few hundred years of time, the stories and tales had spread, been collected by some cultivators from Jambu, and then regaled to the younger generations. All these stories and rumors were different, but one thing was certain: the information the Huangfu clan had at their disposal was far greater than any other clan in Jambu.

　　After the fusion was completed, the three young leaders all wore ugly and pale expressions as they tried to suppress the Sword Embryos. The three leaders prepared to flee after the embryos calmed down, but this was the moment Fang Xing felt the time was right and jumped out of the crack while yelling, “Let’s do it!” Fang Xing didn’t waste any time after revealing himself and directly activated his most powerful attack, the Yin Yang Sanding Disc; one hand formed Yin and the other formed Yang as he attacked towards the Fiery Cloud Tribe’s young leader.

　　Fang Xing had been fighting battle after battle, and although he did have the golden pellets to use as replenishment, the burden on his body was still great; it seemed as though he could move as usual, but his body was actually extremely weak. This was one of the reasons Fang Xing had chosen to sneak attack these three, because if he truly faced off against these bastards at their peak, he knew his odds of victory weren’t high and he might even lose.

　　Fang Xing had to end this fight quickly, so he used all of his remaining Qi to perform his most powerful skill. At the same time, the golden crow became a golden light as he flew out and directly attacked the leader of the Black Swamp Tribe. As the two had discussed, Fang Xing would take two and the golden crow would take one, and their cooperation was seamless.

　　When they saw someone suddenly leap out from the crack to attack them, all three leaders jumped and yelled in surprise, “The little thief is here!” Fang Xing had simply come too quickly, however, and their spells only barely activated by the time the Yin Yang Sanding Disc had formed its shape. Although this was likely the weakest Yin Yang Sanding Disc Fang Xing had ever performed, its properties were still present and its power was still mysterious and profound—the three young leaders lost control over their spells as they were sucked in by the formless great grindstone of Fang Xing’s apex skill. Fang Xing’s attack rotated half a cycle then reversed, causing a great eye-blinding light to shine out and shoot towards the three of them. The three young leaders had no other choice but to loudly roar and try to resist it with their robust bodies.

　　Boom boom boom ….

　　The three young leaders were all sent flying and smashed against the great hall’s wall at the same time, followed by the golden crow swooping forward to use his beast body like a weapon and bash these young leaders into the air once more. Even while in the air, the young leaders spat out large mouthfuls of blood amidst intermittent curses and profanities.

　　Fang Xing rushed after them with three Sense Suspension Talismans—an advanced talisman that would temporarily block spirit sense—held in his hands. He stuck them all to the young leaders’ foreheads, and although the time it took for the talismans to take effect varied by the cultivation level of the target, the treasures Fang Xing had were all extraordinary; these talismans were all of superior quality and their effects took hold almost immediately.

　　The angry expressions were frozen on the young leaders’ faces as their bodies were bound and they were prevented from moving, but some blood began to seep out from the corner of Fang Xing’s mouth. He’d replenished his Qi with the golden pellets in the earlier battles, but his internals were filled with hidden wounds all over the place and he wasn’t in a condition to squander himself anymore.

　　Fang Xing wasn’t at all concerned about his wounds; he simply wiped the blood away and excitedly yelled, “Haha, this cooperation! I’m really liking you more and more, Goldy.”

　　“Tch! Although I do like humans, I like the female ones with big boobs and long legs. Don’t get too attached to me….”

　　This man and crow were very excited after their attack and began to circle around the three leaders. They’d been uncertain of what to do with these Sword Embryos, but who would have expected heaven would send these three to their doorstep to serve as perfect Sword Containers for their purposes?

　　The golden crow hated the beasts in the Eight Bewitched Followers and directly suggested killing them off, but Fang Xing replied, “We weren’t able to take these five Sword Embryos away on our own, so doesn’t that make these three the most suitable like this? We will take them with us too, and then we’ll think of a way to extract it from them!” He then forcibly fed them Hibernation Pellets before putting them into his storage sack like genuine containers.

　　Just as the pair became busy, they heard a sigh-filled voice. “See? I told you he would definitely be here….” Both Fang Xing and the crow quickly turned their heads in surprise, only to find the blue-clothed bandit smirking at them from the entrance of the hall while the helpless Xu Linyun remained beside him. The blue-clothed bandit’s unknown powers had allowed them to get here without a sound, so traceless even Fang Xing and the golden crow hadn’t sensed their arrival in advance.

　　It was certainly a bit embarrassing to Fang Xing for someone to walk in on him committing a misdeed. “Why’d you come here as well?”

　　The blue-clothed bandit shook his head and replied, “What, were we supposed to attack the Sword Mound with all those other people? I saw the black smoke but didn’t see you make an appearance at all, so I was suspicious. After carefully thinking about your personality, I pretty much guessed you’d likely schemed something else, so I entered through the formation from the northwest and caught you red-handed!”

　　“You can break formations too?” Fang Xing looked at the blue-clothed bandit with suspicion at this unexpected reveal. The formations placed by the Huangfu clan weren’t so simple to deal with; even now, those cultivators attacking the Sword Mound were unable to break through because someone was working against them by repairing the formation. This was enough to demonstrate just how complex the Huangfu clan’s formations were.

　　Even Fang Xing himself had required the Book of Revelation and the golden crow’s calculations to break inside so easily, yet this blue-clothed bandit was able to break through the northwestern formation by himself. It was incredibly astonishing, and when the blue-clothed bandit saw the surprised look on Fang Xing’s face, he showed some pride and satisfaction of his own. “It’s about time I have you admiring my talent, you little bandit. Let me tell you, this little mis… mister studies all three disciplines of formations, smithing, and alchemy and is a genius in all three!”

　　Studies all three disciples at once? Fang Xing was completely surprised to hear this. When he fought with the blue-clothed bandit earlier, it was difficult to tell who was better without using apex skills, which meant the blue-clothed bandit had a rather deep understanding when it came to combat spells. And yet, according to the bandit’s words, battle spells weren’t what he was best at—formations, smithing, and alchemy were supposedly where his real talents lied. This was something extremely extraordinary! Any one of these three disciplines would require a lot of time and energy to study! Even Fang Xing only had enough time to spend on battle prowess at the exclusion of everything else.

　　Simply put, this blue-clothed bandit was truly a genius of geniuses.

　　Despite these thoughts, Fang Xing would never offer admiration for others and simply rolled his eyes. “What about it? I can get inside too!”

　　The blue-clothed bandit could tell Fang Xing was intentionally trying to put on a show of contempt and simply smiled without arguing.

　　Fang Xing didn’t bother dwelling on it any further and smiled. “Shijie Linyun, you’ve come here at the right moment. Why don’t you pick one of these five immortal’s Sword Embryos and take it for yourself!”

　　“Me?” Xu Linyun was dumbstruck. “Pick an immortal’s Sword Embryo?”