Chapter 755: There's a Problem

"Xiling wood, Qiyou flower, Soul-Sealing Stone! No wonder there are so many Qiyou flowers here—they are using the power of Qiyou flowers to seal divine souls! It seems this ancient cave dwelling is indeed a trap set up over countless years!" Ye Yuan said, his expression changing slightly.

Qiyou flowers can cause martial artists to lose their primal power, but they have another function!

Combined with Xiling wood and Soul-Sealing Stone, they can minimize the consumption of divine souls.

Ye Yuan saw at a glance that the altar was entirely built from Soul-Sealing Stone, and the coffin was made from Xiling wood.

Combining these items with secret techniques can seal divine souls, keeping them from perishing!

This method was quite obscure; Ye Yuan had only seen it in an ancient text.

Seeing this altar and coffin now, he immediately made the connection.

"Hmph! It seems this Xie Lingzi dares to defy the Heavenly Dao, seeking a chance at rebirth through such means! It's no coincidence that Qin Meixuan and the others were refined into puppets and placed in the square. This method requires a large number of martial artists' divine souls as nourishment, and our entry into the ancient cave dwelling provides him with just such an opportunity! Heh, what a sinister scheme!" Ye Yuan sneered.

This method was extremely vicious, requiring a large number of living souls as sacrifices, so Ye Yuan detested it.

But detest it as he might, even knowing that Xie Lingzi had used such means, Ye Yuan lacked the power to disrupt it.

According to Ye Yuan's estimation, Xie Lingzi's strength should be at the peak of the Dao Profound Realm, and he had considerable attainments in formations and alchemy.

How could the contingency left by such a person be destroyed by a mere kid in the Divine Travel Realm?

However, one thing Ye Yuan could be sure of was that being able to come here meant he had chosen the correct teleportation array!

If he had taken the other two teleportation arrays, it would surely have been more dangerous.

The most urgent task now is to cure those people; otherwise, once their souls are devoured by the evil spirits, the consequences would be unimaginable.

When it came to finding antidotes, Ye Yuan was still quite adept.

Since there was such a large patch of Strange Nether Flowers, there must be an antidote nearby. Since these Strange Nether Flowers posed no harm to Ye Yuan, he searched for it without restraint.

For a highly toxic substance like the Strange Nether Flower, an antidote could generally be found nearby.

It was just that those unfamiliar with pharmacology would not recognize the antidote even if it was placed right before their eyes.

After about half an hour, Ye Yuan finally found the antidote—Luan Star Grass—beneath a clump of Strange Nether Flowers.

This process lasted nearly two hours, and Ye Yuan found a total of eight Luan Star Grasses, which should be more than enough to cure the Strange Nether Flower poison in so many people.

With the antidote in hand, Ye Yuan was about to leave when he heard a moan!

"Help... help..."

Faintly, Ye Yuan heard someone calling for help.

But here, aside from the martial artists traveling with him, who else would call for help?

And this voice was clearly coming from the direction of the coffin. That direction was completely opposite to where he had come from, so it could not possibly be one of his fellow travelers.

Ye Yuan frowned, but ultimately decided to leave!

This place was too dangerous; who knew if the cry for help was a trap.

But just as he was about to step away, the voice came again: "Help... help... I... I am... from the Crimson Cloud Holy Land... Xu Yan!"

Hearing this name, Ye Yuan finally couldn't help but stop in his tracks.

The name Xu Yan was not unfamiliar to him—wasn't he Ying Tianya's junior brother?

Ying Tianya had said his junior brother was afflicted with a strange poison, which was why he had called Ye Yuan and He Shuming here. In this situation, could it be that Xu Yan was poisoned by this very Qiyou Flower?

With a few leaps, Ye Yuan arrived near the altar and indeed saw a young man in blue robes lying at the edge of the altar, barely breathing, looking utterly miserable.

"Are you Xu Yan?" Ye Yuan asked with a frown.

Xu Yan, appearing weak, nodded and said, "I... I am indeed! Little... little brother, you actually know me! Could it be... you were invited by my senior brother? You're here, but where... where is my senior brother?"

Ye Yuan frowned slightly, scanning Xu Yan, and found that he was indeed deeply poisoned.

Whether someone was poisoned or not could not be hidden from Ye Yuan.

However, Ye Yuan did not let down his guard; he kept observing Xu Yan's expression. Every slightest movement could not escape Ye Yuan's eyes.

But throughout this process, there was nothing amiss in Xu Yan's expression; it was exactly the look of a desperate person seeing hope.

"Your senior brother is also poisoned, over there. I came to find the antidote for him," Ye Yuan said.

Hearing this, Xu Yan was overjoyed and said, "Re... really? That's... that's great! Little brother, can you... take me to see my senior brother?"

Ye Yuan said, "How can you go in this state? Let me detoxify you first."

With that, Ye Yuan summoned the Four-Square Cauldron, refined the Luanxing Grass into juice, placed it in a vessel, and gave a portion to Xu Yan.

"This... will this work?" Xu Yan asked skeptically.

"Of course it will," Ye Yuan said calmly.

Xu Yan drank the Luanxing Grass juice with some doubt, and indeed felt his inner energy gradually recovering.

In no time, Xu Yan stood up as if nothing had happened.

"Haha, little brother is truly extraordinary! No words can express my gratitude; Xu Yan will surely repay you handsomely!" Xu Yan said with a cupped-fist salute.

But Ye Yuan said calmly, "No need to be polite. I am merely entrusted by someone to fulfill a task."

"How can that be! My senior brother is my senior brother, and I am I! By the way, take me to find my senior brother quickly; I am very worried about him too," Xu Yan said.

Ye Yuan nodded and led Xu Yan toward the place where the others were resting.

"Young master, this man is problematic. You must be careful!" As Ye Yuan walked, Qin Meixuan, who was in the spatial artifact, sent him a telepathic message.

"Mm, I know." Ye Yuan's reaction showed little surprise.

Instead, Qin Meixuan was astonished to see Ye Yuan looking so confident.

"You know?" Qin Meixuan's cherry-like mouth formed an O.

She had thought from Ye Yuan's actions that he had been fooled by Xu Yan, so she had spoken up to warn him. Who knew he had already seen through it?

Ye Yuan said, "Mm, this body is undoubtedly Xu Yan's, but his soul is probably no longer his own. He thought he was hiding it well, but when I probed the Qiyou Flower poison in him earlier, I already noticed something was off."

Qin Meixuan was utterly shocked. At first, she didn't believe it, but hearing Ye Yuan speak so confidently, she knew he wasn't boasting—he had truly seen through it.

But she could hardly believe that Ye Yuan, merely by observing the injury, had discerned that this Xu Yan had been possessed.

"Young master, since you saw something was wrong, why did you still help him detoxify?" Qin Meixuan asked in confusion.