Rumble rumble rumble ….

　　Dark clouds knitted over the skies above the basin amidst the low rumble of thunder. After the sounds of thunder, numerous snakelike bolts of lightning coiled through the skies to converge to a single point before turning into nine thick bolts of purple lightning that struck down towards the basin’s center.

　　The force was extremely potent and seemed to cause even the earth to tremble, and the Spirit Stage cultivators at the edge of the basin couldn’t maintain their balance as they felt a surge of dizziness and a ringing in their ears. All of their Qi had been forced to flow in reverse, and none of them dared to continue watching until after fearfully running some hundred or so feet away. All their faces were dark and they didn’t dare to get so close to the basin’s edge any longer.

　　The nine purple lightning bolts cracked the earth at the center of the basin, and a countless number of ruptures began to appear. As the earth began to split, the spirit clouds in the air above began to rumble and flow violently towards the cracks below until they were completely enveloped by the soil and the sky was filled with bright light….

　　As the changes continued, the blue-clothed bandit stood up and spoke in a solemn and serious tone, “The earthen veins have activated and Qi has started to circulate; the opportunity is about to appear….”

　　Before the blue-clothed bandit had finished speaking completely, a spirit spring suddenly began flowing out from the ground at the center of the basin. The spring water was incredibly mysterious with extremely powerful divine properties, and everywhere it flowed was soon filled with spirit fruits and herbs growing from the ground. Jade fences began to form at the edge of the basin as well as small bridges and garrets, and in mere moments the empty basin had formed into the likes of an immortal’s garden that filled up the entire area. The sweet smells of the herbs were like well-aged wine, creating an almost dreamline impression.

　　Chu Ci’s gaze was soft and completely immersed in such a fairytale-like scene. “So beautiful. Is that an actual immortal’s garden?”

　　At the moment, even Fang Xing was at a loss—this immortal’s garden was so realistic it was terrifying. “Is this a replica of an immortal’s garden? Or maybe such a garden actually exists and was just moved here completely?”

　　The blue-clothed bandit raised his head, his gaze filled with confusion. “Oh mysterious coffin, how many more secrets do you hold?”

　　“The opportunity has appeared; hurry and enter!” someone suddenly yelled out, causing all the Spirit Stage disciples to start rushing towards the immortal’s garden in a frenzy. With such a mysterious secret garden in front of them, no one could suppress their excitement any longer.

　　“Disciples of the northern mountains, hurry and fight for the fortunes inside the immortal’s garden. Remember, thirty percent of your gains belong to us sisters…” the three fairies on the northern side commanded. Three large butterflies flew up from behind them and began to grow larger until they were around ten feet in size. When the butterflies fluttered their wings, a crazy gust of wind kicked up which actually helped increase the speed of the northern mountain disciples in front of them. The earlier they sent their own cultivators inside the immortal’s garden, the better their chances, and the disciples ended up practically flying forward with the opportunity right before their eyes.

　　“Disciples of the Serene Cold Valley, go! Go and take your opportunities!” Hahn Longzi from the western deserts also stood up and struck forward with his sword. The illusion of a small mountain-sized ice dragon appeared around him that quickly flourished its head and tail before lifting up all his Spirit Stage disciples nearby to hastily fly them towards the immortal’s garden.

　　As for Li Ying of the Ghost Kingdom, he showed an eerie smile before an unpleasant ghost Qi began to cover the sky. Every cultivator who’d been contaminated by the Curse of the Blood Baby suddenly had an illusory pair of bloody wings form on their back before they flew into the immortal’s garden as well. Their postures were all rather unpleasant, however; rather than flying over using their newly-grown wings, it was more accurate to say they were forcibly dragged over instead.

　　While this was going on, the lone son of the Han clan didn’t speak and reined his horse to turn back. He didn’t have any Spirit Stage disciples under him, so this opportunity had nothing to do with him.

　　Seeing all the Foundation Stages showing their various methods of sending Spirit Stage disciples into the garden, Fang Xing stood up and laughed loudly as well. “It’s finally time for me to show you how I do things….” With this, he waved his hand in front of him, and a black smoke suddenly flew out from the Flag of Ten Thousand Spirits into the air. The smoke covered the area like a vast black ocean and directly enveloped the Spirit Stage disciples under his protection before a countless number of giant beasts appeared within. Each beast carried a single person apiece as they rushed towards the immortal’s garden at the speed of lightning to bring them inside.

　　Rumble ….

　　Under the cover of this black smoke, these beast spirit bodies were just as fast and powerful as the real thing. Any spell the black smoke touched would either lose its direction or be pushed away by the force of the beast spirits, losing its effect completely. The ice dragon under the control of Hahn Longzi’s spell, for example, was hit by a reckless rhino beast spirit inside the black smoke and was soon trampled underfoot by several others until it shattered into pieces….

　　“Hahahaha….” Fang Xing laughed while pointing towards the ice dragon and silently praising the Peng King, “Nice work!”

　　“I didn’t do it on purpose!” the Peng King replied back.

　　With this, all the Foundation Stage cultivators had showed off their abilities and sent those under their protection inside the immortal’s garden. This wasn’t only to show off, but also a chance to intimidate all the other cultivators as well, and so Fang Xing flaunted his abilities to steal the limelight once more. The flag with black smoke billowing out of it had been placed atop the horse carriage, and although it was controlled by the Peng King, others weren’t aware of this and believed it had been some kind of apex skill.

　　The army of beast spirits rumbled their way towards the immortal’s garden and ended up being the first to arrive. Once there, the Spirit Stage disciples all hopped off the beast spirits’ backs to fly or leap into the garden, and the smoke-covered beast spirits that seemed so real turned into smoke and completely disappeared. When the remaining Foundation Stage disciples still outside saw such a mystifying thing, the gazes they sent towards Fang Xing were filled with a renewed sense of terror.

　　This Snowy Mountain disciple’s name had been rather well known before. Single-handedly ending four clans at the small stone bridge had made his name infamous, but the bounty placed on his head by the Huangfu clan had caused the other cultivators to look at him as though he was already a corpse. They hadn’t paid him too much mind before, yet today he’d laughed and flirted with the three fairies from the northern mountains, whacked the western deserts’ Hahn Longzi into silence, and battled it out with Li Ying—the Ghost Kingdom’s prince—without being disadvantaged. Once the immortal’s garden was revealed, he also demonstrated the extraordinary ability to materialize numerous beast spirits using simple movements to easily send his people into the garden. It seemed as though his might was without limit, and it could easily be said he’d gone further than what anyone here had imagined he could do.

　　There was no question at all after today’s performance. Even if he hadn’t ended the four clans at the bridge, the name Fang Xiaojiu was destined for fame.

　　When the ice dragon was trampled into shards by the pack of beast spirits, Hahn Longzi thought it had been intentional and angrily yelled out, “You’re pushing it, Snowy Mountain disciple!”

　　Fang Xing looked towards Hahn Longzi with a cold gaze and a smile full of provocation while sitting atop the horse carriage’s roof. “So what if I’m pushing it with you? If you’re not satisfied, why don’t you come fight a few rounds with me?”

　　Although a glint of fierceness flashed in Hahn Longzi’s eyes, he didn’t truly come forward. In his eyes, he’d lost the earlier battle wholly because of Fang Xing’s underhanded tactics, and although he’d been disadvantaged thanks to the young dragons attacking him from behind, he felt he wouldn’t necessarily lose if the two of them were to fight head-on. After seeing the battle between Fang Xing and Li Ying, however, Hahn Longzi’s thoughts began to shift, and he could feel somewhat that this Snowy Mountain disciple’s battle prowess was so great as to be immeasurable. It was possible he truly wasn’t strong enough to be this Snowy Mountain disciple’s opponent, and although it annoyed him, the only thing he could do was quietly note this down before turning towards the immortal’s garden.

　　The Spirit Stage cultivators who’d entered the garden had already started fighting. The immortal’s garden was overflowing with spirit flowers, fruits, and herbs; who wouldn’t be moved by all of this? Although these spirit plants were rather abundant, however, they were actually rather scarce considering the large number of Spirit Stage cultivators who’d entered inside, and those who’d gotten inside faster managed to get their hands on some while those who arrived late did not. With so much greed and envy circulating around, combat was unavoidable

　　The opportunities were mostly spoken alongside words such as “fight over”, after all, and even the outer area of the immortal’s garden was filled with murderous intent and people openly killing each other. That there would be murder inside the garden had been tacitly understood from the beginning so it was only natural no one tried to stop it, and since the Foundation Stages were unable to enter, the outcome was dependent wholly on the Spirit Stage cultivators themselves.

　　Of course, some people were still left dissatisfied. A Foundation Stage cultivator near Fang Xing noticed one of his shidis had just gotten his hands on a spirit herb, yet just as the shidi was about to put the grass into a storage sack, someone thrust their sword over from the side and grabbed the herb for himself. The Foundation Stage cultivator grew angry and yelled towards another Foundation Stage cultivator nearby, “Your people are quite daring, huh, Mu Lingzi?”

　　Although Mu Lingzi’s cultivation level wasn’t as great as the other cultivator, he was calm and looked towards them with a cold expression. “That shidi of mine actually has the protection of fellow Daoist Fang, and forty percent of what he takes will be given to him. If you have the ability, you should go speak to him instead!”

　　“You….” The angry cultivator was left speechless at this. He secretly glanced towards Fang Xing before forcibly swallowing his anger and pride.

　　Fang Xing’s spirit sense was powerful and this conversation didn’t go unnoticed by him. He smirked but didn’t pay it any more interest and instead focused his attention towards the immortal’s garden, where the ashes and smoke of battle had already formed.