Without anyone following him, Lin Fan was able to make his way unnoticed to the places that he had spotted earlier.

The items that were in these places were actually of better quality than the items that he had collected previously.

It seemed that this place was quite special compared to the other parts of these ruins. After all, it seemed that the spiritual energy concentrated here was much stronger than any of the other places that they had been in previously.

Though that was the main reason why there were these items here in the first place.

They only grew this much because of the high concentration of spiritual energy that was around this place.

But that wasn't the only thing that caught Lin Fan's attention.

There were also some spirit beasts that were wandering around this area.

The moment that he saw these spirit beasts, there was a faint smile that appeared on his lips.

Just a single look from his Appraisal Eyes was enough to tell him everything about these spirit beasts, including their level of cultivation. The weakest spirit beast that Lin Fan saw in this place was in the Qi Condensation Realm.

From time to time, he even saw a few Golden Core Realm Spirit Beasts wandering around.

If he were to provoke a spirit beast wave in this place, it wasn't hard to guess just what level of spirit beasts would be drawn out based on the cultivation levels of the spirit beasts that he had seen so far.

Being surrounded by a few Golden Core Realm Spirit Beasts, that was only a threat.

As Lin Fan thought this, he couldn't help admiring the amount of power that he had gained during this time. It was clear that he was much stronger than before that he was able to say something like this.

When he was pulled back from his thoughts, Lin Fan just said to himself, "There's no time to waste. Eventually they'll get impatient and will want to try something, so I'll need to start that spirit beast wave ahead of that."

With that, Lin Fan started gathering the resources.

As he did, there were spirit beasts that started to gather.

It was clear that they were gathering because of what he was doing, but he didn't stop even though he could see them like this.

…

"It's taking too long, why aren't they making a move?" He Cang said under his breath as he looked at the others that were also waiting.

A full half hour had passed since they had arrived in this place, but there wasn't a single person that had done anything during this time. All they did was stand there around the pond that held the Divine Stand Lotus, watching each other.

At this point, someone as impatient and as hot headed as He Cang just couldn't take it anymore.

With the way that he was acting, it was clear that he was about to blow his cap.

When his subordinates saw this, they quickly wanted to do something to stop He Cang from making the first move. Though they also had to be careful about how they stopped He Cang because of how volatile he was.

But in the end, they didn't get to do anything.

"What is that sound?"

It wasn't He Cang alone that wondered this as the other cloaked figures all looked around them for the source of that sound.

Eventually, that sound became loud enough that they were able to recognize it.

"Spirit beasts?"

All of them were confused when they recognized this sound since they didn't understand why there was the sound of spirit beasts charging ringing through the air like this. At the same time, they were confused because they could tell that these sounds were getting closer and closer.

When they turned to look in the direction of the sound, they found the spirit beasts breaking out from the bushes around them.

As soon as the spirit beasts came out, they didn't hesitate to attack the cloaked figures that were waiting around the pond.

When these people from the four righteous sects saw this, they had no choice but to fight back. But they also didn't use their full power as they were trying to figure out just what was happening.

They were completely confused by the fact that these spirit beasts charged forward out of nowhere. And at the same time, they were even more confused by the fact that these spirit beasts didn't show any fear as they charged at them.

After all, these were spirit beasts that were only in the Qi Condensation Realm while they were in the Peak Golden Core Realm. They were much stronger than these spirit beasts, so that should have been more than enough of a deterrence to stop them from charging at them like this.

But it didn't seem like the spirit beasts even cared.

"Is it the Divine Stand Lotus?" They couldn't help thinking to themselves when they saw the spirit beasts like this.

As such, they really couldn't back down and could only fight against the spirit beasts that were swarming them,

It was only those from the four righteous sects that were dealing with this.

Ye Qing Huan and Mu Bao Bao had long made themselves scarce when they received the message from Lin Fan. They already knew that this spirit beast stampede was coming, so they hid themselves from those from the righteous sects.

They didn't notice since their attention had been on the Divine Stand Lotus.

If the two of them made a move for the Divine Stand Lotus, then they would have been caught. But since they were moving away from it, they were completely ignored by them.

"It seems like quite the stampede. They're much stronger than the ones that attacked us previously." Ye Qing Huan said in an amused manner as she watched the people from the four righteous sects fight the spirit beasts.

But during this time, it didn't seem like Mu Bao Bao was interested in the spirit beasts at all.

She had been silent the entire time that she had been alone with Ye Qing Huan and the way that she looked at Ye Qing Huan wasn't normal. Only Ye Qing Huan didn't seem to address this as she was only focused on the people from the four righteous sects.

Now that they had a moment, Ye Qing Huan suddenly asked, "If you're done staring at me like that, do you want to tell me what you're thinking? There's no point in trying to hide it, I know that you've been looking at me this entire time."

"Why are you so interested in him?" Mu Bao Bao slowly asked, even though it should have been obvious why based on everything that she had heard from Lin Fan.

Ye Qing Huan didn't seem offended when she heard this, she even seemed amused as she asked, "Is there really a need to ask this question? Don't you already know the answer to that?"

Mu Bao Bao didn't say anything in response as if she was waiting for Ye Qing Huan to respond.

In the end, Ye Qing Huan just simply said, "It's because he's special. He's different from anyone that I've met before and that makes me want to be with him."

Once again, Mu Bao Bao didn't say anything.

But after a while, she gave a slow nod as if she understood what Ye Qing Huan meant by this.

With this, it seemed that there was a kind of breakthrough that happened between them.

Before this, Mu Bao Bao had always kept a wall between them even with the way that Ye Qing Huan added.

But now that she heard this answer…

They didn't get to say anything else as they heard something from in front of them.

It wasn't the sound of the spirit beasts fighting the ones from the righteous sects.

Rather, it was someone from the four righteous sects that called out to the others.

"At this rate, we'll lose the Divine Stand Lotus to these spirit beasts. I know that we're all strong, but we'll run out of energy if we don't work together." He Cang suddenly shouted out loud to the others.

The rest of the cloaked figures looked at him, but it didn't seem like they disagreed with what he was saying.

After all, they had all experienced the beast waves before and knew just how many beasts would be coming. If this beast wave was the same as those other beast waves that they encountered, they knew that they had no choice but to cooperate.

Even if there was the chance that the ones from the Heavenly Demon Sect could be among them, they had to take this chance.

So in the end, they suddenly all came closer to the Divine Stand Lotus.

Before this, they had kept their distance since they didn't want the others to misunderstand and attack them. But now, there was this tacit agreement between them that they allowed each other to move closer.

If they couldn't move closer, then they couldn't defend it.

Normally, it would be bad if these people suddenly decided to work together.

But this wasn't the case.

The moment that Ye Qing Huan saw them working together, there was a faint smile that appeared on her lips and she said, "Alright, it seems like this is our chance."

Mu Bao Bao nodded in agreement before jumping out of the tree with her.

When they landed, they found that Lin Fan had come back as well.