Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Until midnight the next day, Ye Xuan stayed in his residence to cultivate, ignoring everything else.

Now that the time was almost up, he arrived at the familiar Thunder Sandalwood Forest, the border between the outer and inner gates, as agreed.

The old man in the gray robe was already waiting at the entrance. When he saw Ye Xuan arrive, he tossed over a bronze mirror that was neither too big nor too small.

"This is the Soul-Capturing Mirror. By injecting spiritual power, it can detect the fluctuations of remnant souls within a radius of ten miles."

The old man pointed deeper into the forest, saying, "You need to catch sixty fish every month. If you catch one less, you'll lose fifty merit points. If you catch more, you'll get thirty points for each fish caught."

"Do you understand, Michiko?"

Ye Xuan was stunned for a moment, then took the token. It was cold to the touch and its surface was engraved with intricate runes.

"Are there differences in the strength of remnant souls?"

"nature."

The old man flipped his hand and took out two cloth bags, which were different in size and material.

"The smaller ones contain ordinary remnant souls, mostly transformed from Foundation Establishment stage cultivators, while the larger ones contain remnant souls of Golden Core stage cultivators."

"Hmm? There are still remnant souls of Golden Core disciples in this place?"

The old man chuckled familiarly and said, "Of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a disciple of the Holy Sect."

Ye Xuan didn't ask any more questions and put the two cloth bags into his storage bag. At this moment, the old man handed him a yellowed leather scroll.

"This is a rough topographical map of the forest, marking several gathering places of remnant souls."

But Daozi must remember that the Thunder Sandalwood Forest changes every night; this map is only for reference. To truly understand each route, you must rely on yourself.

Ye Xuan's heart stirred slightly. No wonder he always felt like he had never been there before when he explored deeper into the area. He hadn't thought much about it then, but now he knew the reason...

Having said that, the old man turned to leave, but then remembered something and turned back to add:

"By the way, the last message sent back by those two outer disciples who died tragically a few days ago was unclear, but it still mentioned some information."

It is said that the person possesses a strange skill, which appears as a tiny white ray.

"If Daozi encounters anything strange, preserving his life is the priority. After all, he only gets two thousand merit points a month; there's no need to risk his life."

Ye Xuan nodded in agreement, remembering the old man's last words.

The old man waved his hand, his figure gradually fading away, leaving only his voice drifting on.

"You must leave the forest before dawn the next day; otherwise, you will not be waited for..."

After watching the old man disappear, Ye Xuan unfolded the leather-bound map.

Although he had previously explored most of it with his senses, the Thunder Sandalwood Forest was extremely vast. Even with his current cultivation at the seventh level of the Golden Core stage, without the aid of external forces such as travel talismans, it would take him nearly half an hour to traverse it at full speed.

"It's better to proceed slowly."

Looking down, one can see seven red dots marked on the map, all of which are places where remnant souls have frequently appeared over the years. Three of these places are also marked with the word "danger".

"Let's go check out the nearest one first."

Ye Xuan put away the map and stepped into the forest.

As soon as we ventured deeper into the forest, the surrounding light suddenly dimmed to the point where we couldn't see our own hands in front of our faces, and that familiar feeling returned.

After walking less than a hundred steps, the Soul-Capturing Token at his waist suddenly trembled slightly. Ye Xuan infused it with spiritual power, and the token's surface emitted a faint light, pointing to a spot thirty feet to the left.

He approached quietly, parted a clump of ferns about waist-high, and saw a pale gray shadow drifting aimlessly beneath a withered sandalwood tree.

The illusory figure was blurry, but it could be vaguely identified as a disciple of the Holy Sect. Its aura was weak, only about the strength of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

This should naturally belong to an ordinary, broken soul.

Ye Xuan took out a slightly smaller cloth bag, held the bronze mirror in his left hand, and used his right fingertips to open the bag. Without needing to follow the incantation taught by the old man, the spiritual power in his palm spread to the bronze mirror, and he skillfully condensed a guiding spiritual power, gently reflecting it towards the remnant soul.

The remnant soul seemed to sense something, turned its head blankly, but did not resist, allowing itself to be enveloped by spiritual power, and finally turned into a wisp of gray smoke and disappeared into the bag.

The bag trembled slightly, and a fine line appeared on its surface, which then quickly disappeared.

"The first course."

Ye Xuan put away the cloth bag and continued deeper into the area.

In the next half hour, he captured four more remnant souls, but they were all contained in small cloth bags, and were just ordinary remnant souls, with no trace of high-level ones.

As they ventured deeper into the forest, the atmosphere grew increasingly eerie.

Strange patterns began to appear on the bark of the sandalwood tree, resembling distorted human faces. Occasionally, a cold wind would blow through the forest, carrying a series of whistling sounds, like both crying and laughing.

He stopped at a three-way intersection, referring to the map in his hand, "The second gathering place should be ahead."

Having extended his perception in advance, Ye Xuan slowly stepped forward, also putting away the cloth bag and bronze mirror hanging at his waist.

After turning past a giant tree that requires three people to encircle, a small clearing in the forest suddenly appeared before us.

In the center of the open space, four remnant souls formed a circle and floated silently.

Unlike what we've seen before, these four remnant souls are significantly more solidified, with three of them even faintly exuding the aura of a Golden Core cultivator.

They must have been formal disciples of the outer sect, but it's unclear why they died in this desolate wilderness.

Of course, Ye Xuan didn't care about this. Facing the four remnant souls that had taken root in front of him, he only showed joy in his eyes.

He paused, then quietly retreated behind a tree, his palms surging with a mixture of blue and white energy.

Only when four immortal seeds had just gathered at his fingertips did he walk up to the four remnant souls. Just as he was about to make his move, the remnant souls reacted.

Upon seeing a living person approaching, the four remnant souls trembled and began to merge with each other.

The lake shore was suddenly filled with swirling gray mist, and the energy within surged. In just a few breaths, the four remnant souls merged into one, their solidity comparable to that of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.

"wrong."

Realizing that the increase in power after their fusion was unusually large, Ye Xuan had no choice but to merge the four white rays floating at his fingertips into one.

"Hmm, that's fair now."

As a living person, he naturally had to uphold some martial ethics, so after both sides gathered their strength, they clashed without much hesitation.

As expected, those remnant souls, though powerful, were useless against the immortal seed techniques.

The combined remnant souls only persisted for a moment in the white light before their initial violent struggle ceased, and their power gradually dissolved into the turbid light mist.

"One is equivalent to three, which saves trouble."

After retrieving and absorbing all the immortal seeds, Ye Xuan decided to continue exploring deeper.

There is still plenty of time until the next day at dawn. Since the targets for the past five days have been met, why not seek some more benefits?

He remembered the old man's words: "You only get two thousand merit points a month, there's no need to put in your best effort..."

Following the map markings, Ye Xuan headed towards the third "dangerous" red dot.

The further you go, the denser the sandalwood trees become, and the more clearly the distorted human faces on the trunks become; some even begin to wriggle slightly, as if they were alive.

A faint smell of blood began to fill the air, and he stopped in front of a low-lying area.

The depression was bowl-shaped, about ten feet in diameter, with a layer of dark red, viscous liquid at the bottom, the source of which was unknown—whether it was blood or something else.

At this point, dozens of skeletons could be seen scattered along the edge of the depression, some human-shaped and some animal-shaped, most of them incomplete.