Extracting all things: My attributes grow infinitely.

"Everyone, move closer to me immediately!"

The flower snake suddenly shouted.

Upon hearing this, the others hurriedly gathered in her direction.

However, the fog was so thick that even people standing close by became blurry.

Cui Chenghua only felt a blur before his eyes, and the figure of the flower snake disappeared into the rolling white mist, leaving only a hazy gray area around him, where he could not even tell which way to go.

His heart pounded wildly, and he instinctively tried to use magic to dispel the fog, but the true energy within his body was extremely sluggish, its circulation slowed by more than a hundred times.

What kind of formation is this?!

Before Cui Chenghua could react, a detached voice suddenly came from the depths of the mist.

"I didn't expect there would be more people this time than last time."

The owner of the voice seemed to chuckle, though no emotion could be discerned, yet everyone present simultaneously felt a chill run from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.

The snake's expression changed completely.

She raised her hand and cast a talisman, which transformed into a pale golden light shield that enveloped her entire body. At the same time, she drew a long, dark green, snake-shaped sword with a faint green halo emanating from its blade, clearly a high-grade spiritual treasure.

"Who goes there! Show yourself!"

The flower snake shouted sharply, its voice echoing through the valley, but there was no response.

The mist continued to churn silently, and the owner of the voice seemed quite interested in her reaction, his tone tinged with amusement: "Second stage of Qi Refining, your foundation is fairly solid, but unfortunately... you're lacking something."

The voice just fell.

A figure slowly emerged from the mist.

The man was tall and slender, dressed in a plain white Taoist robe. He looked to be no more than thirty years old, but his brows exuded a strong sense of sinister intent, and his eyes were long and cold.

He held a folding fan in his hand, the fan ribs made of some kind of dark and crystalline spiritual material, and a landscape painting on the fan surface, with several distorted human figures vaguely visible amidst the swirling clouds and mist.

He raised the folding fan in his hand and waved it gently, forcing a blurry figure to reveal itself.

It was Ma Yuankui.

"The Concealing Breath and Transforming Shadow Technique?"

The man said with great interest, "I have also practiced this technique before. You have practiced it quite well, but unfortunately the technique itself is of too low a grade and is ultimately not worthy of serious consideration."

Ma Yuankui's expression tightened, and he quickly cupped his hands, saying, "This junior's meager skills are naturally not something I would dare to display in front of a senior. I hope you will enlighten me!"

"hehe."

The man chuckled lightly, but didn't respond. His attitude was clear: Ma Yuankui was not yet qualified to be taught by him.

He casually tapped the fan in his palm, then shifted his gaze from Ma Yuankui to Hua She.

The snake felt a chill run down its spine from his gaze, but a picture instantly became clear in its mind.

"You...you are Bai Qiuhan!"

She blurted it out almost without thinking, her voice filled with disbelief and horror.

Bai Qiuhan.

The news that a disciple of the Immortal Alliance, a powerful cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining, had gone into seclusion to attempt Foundation Establishment ten years ago caused quite a stir within the Immortal Alliance.

But now it seems...

This is a complete scam from beginning to end!

He didn't actually go into any kind of seclusion.

He deliberately leaked this information, just waiting for those greedy fools to come to him!

The snake felt its blood run cold.

Qi Refining Stage 9.

Killing her, a mere Qi Refining Stage 2 cultivator, would be a piece of cake!

But after all, Hua She had been mingling in the outer sect for so many years. Her rise from a rogue cultivator to the position of vice president of the Heyin Association was not solely due to her ruthless methods.

She knew better than anyone that in the world of cultivation, strength was certainly important.

But sometimes.

Connections are more useful than ability!

After a brief moment of shock, she took a deep breath, clasped her hands together, and bowed deeply to Bai Qiuhan: "So it is Senior Brother Bai in person. This disciple, Hua She, was unaware that Senior Brother was cultivating here. I have offended you greatly, and I hope Senior Brother will forgive me."

Bai Qiuhan didn't react much, only tilting her head slightly and looking at her with a half-smile.

Flower Snake gritted his teeth and continued, "Senior Brother may not know, but I was recently chosen by Elder Xu of the Inner Sect. Elder Xu said that my foundation is decent, and as long as I raise my Origin Qi by half a grade, he can take me under his wing and teach me personally. Today, I trespassed on Senior Brother's precious land, which was indeed reckless of me. But I beg Senior Brother to spare my life for the sake of Elder Xu."

After she finished speaking, she bent down deeply, adopting an extremely humble posture.

But with her head down, her eyes revealed a confident and assured air.

She dared to say that, so of course she wasn't making it up out of thin air.

Elder Xu did send someone to contact her, although the other party only mentioned it briefly and nothing was confirmed yet.

But these kinds of things are inherently a mix of truth and fiction.

Nobody can say for sure.

Bai Qiuhan is indeed an inner disciple, but that status is not enough in front of the elders.

Foundation Establishment True Person.

That's another level of existence.

Even someone like Bai Qiuhan, who is at the ninth level of Qi Refining, has to obediently bow his head in front of an inner sect elder.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Bai Qiuhan's narrow eyes narrowed slightly, and he tapped his fingers lightly on the ribs of the folding fan, as if weighing something.

Before he could say anything, another voice trembled and rang out.

"I...I'm still here!"

Cui Chenghua practically scrambled out, then knelt on the ground with a thud, his voice urgent and rapid: "Senior Brother Bai, my elder brother Jiang Haoyue is also a disciple chosen by the inner sect elders! My brother and I are like brothers, please, Senior Brother Bai, spare my life for my brother's sake! I will forever remember this kindness!"

He was genuinely terrified, even resorting to the ridiculous notion of being as close as brothers.

Jiang Haoyue did take care of him to some extent, but to say that they were like brothers would be pure self-aggrandizement.

However, saving my life is the priority now, what's the point of having my face?

Bai Qiuhan frowned slightly, his gaze darting back and forth between Hua She and Cui Chenghua. His expression remained unchanged, but he stopped tapping his fan.

Having been in the inner sect for so many years, how could he not know the tricks of the inner sect elders?

The so-called "accepting apprentices".

to be honest.

It means casting a wide net to catch more fish.

Those Foundation Establishment level veterans, having nothing better to do, would occasionally pick a few outer disciples with decent aptitude, casually praise them, and make an empty promise, driving those outer disciples to desperately climb the ranks.

As for those who are eventually accepted as disciples, it's unlikely that only one in a hundred will actually be accepted.

It was just a bone he casually tossed aside when he didn't like those wretched ants climbing up the ladder of life.

But the problem is.

Who can say for sure about these things?

Those Foundation Establishment level monsters are all old foxes who have lived for countless years. They are strategists who can plan and strategize for thousands of miles. A pawn they casually move today may be a key piece in a big game tomorrow.

What if one of these two people was secretly noted down by that elder?

If he were to slap the other person to death, that elder would lose face and come after him, which would be no small matter.

It would be far too easy for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to cause trouble for a mere Qi Refining disciple.

Bai Qiuhan frowned even more deeply at this thought.

It's not that I'm afraid.

I just feel that it's not worth getting involved in this inexplicable cause and effect for the sake of two worthless ants.

He pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Hua She and Cui Chenghua, before suddenly speaking: "Besides the two of you, what do you have to do with the rest of the people?"

The shrewd Flower Snake immediately recognized Bai Qiuhan's intention to let them go upon hearing this, and promptly replied decisively, "No! They are merely rogue cultivators I temporarily recruited to scout ahead; they have nothing to do with me! Senior Brother, whether you use them for alchemy or cultivation, it's entirely up to you!"

The three were initially relieved that Flower Snake had brought out her backer, hoping that they could all benefit from it and escape disaster.

But to everyone's surprise, the snake changed its mind faster than turning the pages of a book, and sold them out completely with just one sentence.

"Senior Sister Flower Snake! You..."

One of the men widened his eyes, about to unleash a torrent of curses, but before he could utter a word, Bai Qiuhan gently waved the folding fan in her hand.

Three thin, almost imperceptible beams of black light shot out from the fan and precisely pierced the foreheads of the three men.

The expressions on the faces of the three people froze simultaneously.

next moment.

An eerie grayish-white layer rose to the surface of their bodies, and their skin became dry and wrinkled in just a few breaths, as if all the moisture had been drained away.

The flesh, blood, true essence, and even the soul within his body all transformed into wisps of dark red smoke, which were swept back by the three beams of black light.

It disappeared into the folding fan in Bai Qiuhan's hand.

In just three breaths.

Three living cultivators at the Qi Condensation Realm were reduced to three withered shells.

The wind blows.

The body then turned into ashes and scattered cleanly.

On Bai Qiuhan's folding fan, the outlines of several human figures in the landscape painting seemed to become even clearer.

Hua She and Cui Chenghua felt their scalps tingle and dared not even breathe.

Bai Qiuhan put away her folding fan and turned her gaze back to Ma Yuankui.

From the very beginning, he sensed something amiss about this young cultivator at the Qi Condensation Realm.

He extended his divine sense and examined it carefully, then raised an eyebrow slightly.

"The Qi of the mortal world?"

Bai Qiuhan's expression turned strange, as if she had seen something extremely disgusting.

No wonder I felt something was off about this person's aura earlier; it turns out he had ingested this infamous ninth-grade innate spiritual energy.

The illusions of the mortal world.

Such a miraculous reputation in the cultivation world is worse than the stench of a stone in a latrine.

Not only can it erode a cultivator's flawless Dharma body, but more importantly, it also pollutes spiritual energy.

If you accidentally get it on your skin, it's extremely difficult to clean.

Even in alchemy, it would be a first-rate waste material.

Bai Qiuhan's expression changed several times before she finally waved her hand dismissively.

"You can get out too."

In his view, killing Ma Yuankui would be too dirty for his hands.

Ma Yuankui didn't even dare to breathe loudly. He quickly bowed and then turned and fled into the mist as if he were escaping.

Hua She and Cui Chenghua felt as if they had been granted a pardon, and dared not linger. They quickly bowed and followed closely behind as they retreated outside.